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Blog Introduction: Growth Within and Without Mormonism

The Second Half of Life. We cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning, for what was great in the morning will be little at evening and what in the morning was true, at evening will have become a lie.C. G. Jung When I was younger, I had life all …

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“I’m The One That Writes My Own Story”

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sky_Meadows_Bald_eagle_soaring_%2826378727905%29.jpg So far the bulk of my blog has been sharing portions of my journey with the deconstruction and reconstruction of my childhood beliefs. This post and many future posts will be discussing some of the cherished values, lessons and beliefs that I learned in Mormonism as a child, and that I still carry with …

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Key Excerpts From The LDS Gospel Topics Essays

https://www.pickpik.com/forest-sunlight-trees-sun-piercing-photography-44115#google_vignette Introduction This post is primarily composed of excerpts from the LDS Gospel Topics Essays, approved for publication by the LDS First Presidency and LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles starting in 2013. These essays have helped bring to light to the general LDS membership many doctrinal, historical, racial and sexist issues that have plagued …

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My Feelings on Life After Death

https://picryl.com/media/dying-star-creates-fantasy-like-sculpture-of-gas-and-dust-fbc574 There was recently a discussion in a physician's FB group I'm part of about patients seeing loved ones shortly before they die and what to make of this. The poster was agnostic. Some weighed in with their religious beliefs. Others with non-religious explanations. Some shared near-death experiences from loved ones or patients. This was …

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Our Shadows and the Enneagram

http://www.moniquebreault.com/the-enneagram The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery A friend recently convinced me to read "The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery." At first, I really resisted. Like Myers-Briggs, another very popular personality typing system, it has not been scientifically validated to clearly represent reality. Some personality researchers regard …

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This Little Light of Mine

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunset_and_Rainbow_-_panoramio.jpg Healing From Narcissistic Abuse The past few years, one of the biggest keys I am learning to heal from narcissistic abuse is to recognize and embrace the light that resides within me. The unique self that I have. I believe this is true of each of us. The crux of narcissistic abuse is the …

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Harm and Abuse

https://publicdomainvectors.org/en/free-clipart/Tree-branches-and-root-vector-drawing/30741.html Abuse grows from attitudes and values, not feelings. The roots are ownership, the trunk is entitlement and the branches are control. Why Does He Do That? Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men, Lundy Bancroft Growing up in Mormon culture, there is an attitude that the most important quality one can have in …

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My Experiences In LDS (Mormon) Temples

Washington DC Temple, where Shandra and I were married in 1998 I was Taught about the Temple from Childhood As a boy, one of my favorite songs was "I love to see the Temple." I sang and hummed it regularly to help fall asleep, internalizing its soothing melody (and what I later recognized as an …

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Facing (And Embracing) Our Demons

https://publicdomainvectors.org/en/free-clipart/Ying-yang-dragon-sign-vector-image/9315.html A Life-Changing Dream Major transitional events started in my life in 2012 when I was deployed to Afghanistan as an active-duty military physician taking care of patients with brain injuries. Due to events put into motion by this experience, I realized I needed emotional healing, much of it from ways I had been wired …

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What Did Jesus REALLY Say and Do?

"Jim Caviezel, portraying Jesus, is shown nailed to the cross on the set of "The Passion of the Christ" in this publicity photo." https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4316694 Summary Below, I have listed everything the Jesus Seminar believes Jesus actually said (or close to it) and did with over a 75% degree of certainty... This is a very short read compared to the …

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A Healing Path Forward for Mormons?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_path_forward_(247975938).jpg Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) has proven efficacy in helping those with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) adopt healthier ways of viewing and coping with reality. Some hallmarks of BPD include black-and white thinking, all-or-nothing thinking, splitting (us-vs.-them thinking) and extreme forms of valuation and idealization as well as extreme forms of devaluation. Sometimes towards the …

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The Earliest Christians Viewed the Holy Spirit as Female!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/396668679663712299/ The Holy Spirit/Holy Ghost was viewed as Female by early Jewish-Christians. This is indisputable. We know this because 1. Several early Church Fathers quoted The Gospel of the Hebrews that says as much. 2. Gospels written in Old Syriac say as much. 3. The Acts of Thomas and the Gospel of Thomas say as …

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Sexism, Misogyny and Mormonism

https://freesvg.org/hungry-demon I've been meaning to write about the sexism and misogyny of Mormonism for a while. I've put it off due to shame and embarrassment thinking about this. Sexism and misogyny in my opinion is the most damaging aspect of Mormonism. Deep sexism and misogyny, explicit and implicit, permeate literally every aspect of LDS theology …

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Healthy Boundaries

https://pixabay.com/photos/field-farm-green-grass-agriculture-2572133/ UPDATE: I'm writing an update/summary to this original post from February 2022. In essence, having healthy boundaries is about controlling what is truly ours to control in a healthy manner, and not attempting to control that which is not truly ours to control. This gets into "ownership" as noted below. Below I mention Vicki …

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A Roadmap for Healing from Trauma

https://pixabay.com/photos/winding-road-sunset-mountains-1556177/ A Great Release Deep lunge, right foot forward and outside of my hands, hold it, embrace it, breathe, all in the breath. This was a couple weeks ago. My first time doing yoga for any prolonged length of time... because ya know... the whole "man-card" thing (eye roll emoji). It was just me and …

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Major Breakthrough!! My Anxious Attachment Style, Abandonment Fears and the “Gift of the Holy Ghost”

https://www.theodysseyonline.com I had a major breakthrough on my drive home today. I have been doing "Ego Work," "Internal Family Systems Therapy," and "Shadow Work" with my therapist exploring those parts of myself that have been shunned to my subconsious, etc, part of healing and becoming a more fully integrated person. I tend to be anxiously …

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The Hero’s Journey

https://conorneill.com/2020/03/03/how-to-find-purpose-and-self-belief-the-heros-journey/ Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey I've previously discussed "The Hero's Journey" briefly on this site HERE. In fact, this entire website is based on this concept, though I have never written extensively about the details of how Joseph Campbell describes this. I just encountered the cartoon diagram above and really like it. "The …

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Top Evidence Supporting and Challenging Literal LDS (Mormon) Truth Claims

Image labeled for resuse at flicker.com The Power of Specificity and Sensitivity The specificity and sensitivity of tests or evidence is the bedrock of ruling in and/or ruling out diagnoses or truth claims in the medical field. A highly specific positive test or evidence is required to rule in a diagnosis or a truth claim. …

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Squaring the Mormon Circle

https://pixabay.com/photos/walnut-nut-shell-nutshell-open-3072652/ On April 5, 2021, Dr. Julie Hanks, a Mormon mental health professional posted about President Russell M. Nelson's April 2021 conference address. Specifically she addressed this quote: Stop increasing your doubts by rehearsing them with other doubters.President Russell M. Nelson I commented on her post: Regardless of how one puts it, at the end …

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Dream of Compassion, 1 July 2020

Image from kingdomhigh.com, labeled for reuse. Just woke up from a dream of a man (me) tearfully trying to share his perspective to his siblings and parents (who weren’t really listening) about the Book of Abraham: How the facsimiles are mistranslated per LDS and non-LDS Egyptologists. How the Egyptian figures correlating with the text of …

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The Racism of the Mormon Church (God is Not a Racist)

Getty Images The Murder of George Floyd George Floyd, a Black man, was recently murdered by several policemen in Minneapolis. Floyd cried for over eight minutes for breath and wasn't given it, a knee smugly to his throat. Like many others, I was appalled and sickened to witness the video account(s) of this. Understandably, this …

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Black, White, Gray and Shades of Color

Photo by burak kostak on Pexels.com "Black and white" thinking or "all or nothing" thinking is a classic cognitive distortion of reality that can lead to poor mental health outcomes because most things in life are not black and white. This dichotomous pattern of thinking is a hallmark of some psychiatric disorders, in particular Borderline …

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The 200th Anniversary of Joseph Smith’s First Vision (That Never Happened)

Image from http://www.mormonthink.com/essays-first-vision.htm This year is the 200th year anniversary of Joseph Smith's First Vision. By the title of this post, it is clear where my opinion resides regarding this story. The story goes at the age of 14, in 1820, Joseph Smith was struggling to know which church was true. He went to a …

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To Mourn With Those That Mourn

Image by Mark Filter from Pixabay I have seen tremendous outpourings of love and compassion in predominantly post-Mormon groups supporting those going through a faith transition. True "mourning with those that mourn." In these same groups, I have also seen powerful expressions of love and understanding for those choosing to stay in or return to …

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Discovering and Embracing My Emotions: Healing From a Mormon Paradigm

Photo by Simon Matzinger on Pexels.com To be intimate with all that we are- including our every emotion- is to fully embody and awaken to who and what we truly are. Robert Augustus Masters, PhD, Emotional Intimacy: A Comprehensive Guide for Connecting with the Power of Your Emotions The Moment of Realization It was the …

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Compassionate Curiosity

Compassionate Curiosity encompasses and forms the foundation for healthy World-View Reconstruction. If I could only convey one concept I have learned in life, it would be this... Jason Harris lived as an orthodox Mormon for forty years. He writes about his experiences leaving the Mormon Church and reconstructing a new World-View. He believes all religions …

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Top 10 LDS Faith Transition Resources

An LDS Faith Transition Has Three Stages: An LDS Faith Transition has three stages, comparable to faith transitions from other faiths of the World: 1. Initial World-View Construction. 2. Subsequent World-View Deconstruction followed by 3. World-View Reconstruction. My Top 10 LDS Faith Transition Resources for each stage are listed below. Reconstruction stage resources listed may …

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President Nelson… I’m having a Trust Crisis

April 2019 General Conference was a turning point for our family. Shortly after President Nelson's "Sad Heaven" talk, my wife, Shandra published this response on Natasha Helfer Parker's site: Dear President Nelson, Allow me to introduce myself and my sweet family. My husband and I were married and sealed 20 years ago. We have taught …

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Minimization, Distortion, Deception and Spin in the LDS Church History Gospel Topics Essays

The LDS "Gospel Topics Essays." are official LDS responses approved by the First Presidency and LDS Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to many difficult and controversial historical, doctrinal and textual issues. Examples include troublesome issues regarding the LDS Book of Abraham, Native American DNA and the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith’s treasure seeking activities, and …

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Letter of Disbelief to Local Leadership

April 3, 2018 Dear Brothers in Christ of the XXXX Stake Presidency and XXXX Bishopric, As you know, I have not been attending church.  Given you are all in leadership positions, I feel it only fair to let you know somewhat specifically why.  First of all, I do not believe “the witness of the Spirit” as taught by …

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You Told Me You Were God

You told me you were God.  To trust you.  After all, you have God’s name.  You have the keys of my salvation.  Listen to you.  You will never lead me astray.  In loving company of friends and loved ones I covenanted with you.  Though only at that moment did I realize what would be required, I promised to give you everything, I guess as any good spouse would.  For years you assured me …

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