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 …
Continue reading Blog Introduction: Growth Within and Without Mormonism
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 …
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 …
Continue reading Key Excerpts From The LDS Gospel Topics Essays
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 …
Taken from the peak of Haleakala, Maui. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunrise_over_Haleakala.jpg There is no doubt about it, a faith transition can be a growing and learning experience. At least it has been for me. As well as my family. And everything is NOT roses. In the growth there is pain and suffering along with joy and beauty. It's …
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 …
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 …
From my earliest memories, I wanted to be a drummer. It was and is an intrinsic and fundamental expression of and part of me. I was so excited to get a drum set for Christmas when I was about 10 along with drum lessons from Lana Hawkari, the local band teacher’s spouse (and a phenomenal …
What are the destinations of my mind? Are they places of mindful and compassionate curiosity? Or are they places of absolute surety? Which is my initial default? Can both exist simultaneously? Especially regarding the same area of thought? Is my "knowingness" when present in fact backed by sufficient objective evidence? If so am I open …
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 …
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 …
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 …
"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 …
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 …
We don’t live in a material world. We live in a psychic world… And we’re only able to make indirect inferences about the nature of reality.Arthur Harros (Ethan Hawke), Moon Knight, S1E4 Reality Maps As far as we can tell, our awareness of everything around and within us is actually an awareness of the neurological …
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 …
Continue reading The Earliest Christians Viewed the Holy Spirit as Female!
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 …
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 …
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 …
Digital Projector source image The Majesty of Christmas Our family went to Six Flags Fiesta Texas a few nights ago. Every year they have a beautiful program we watch, "The Majesty of Christmas." It's full of beautiful songs about the birth of Jesus and a live nativity play with animals to include a donkey, sheep, …
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 …
My Tattoo I believe beauty often comes from ashes (or shadows). I paid for the rights to the picture of a post describing this, which was also the basis for a tattoo I received in June of 2021 on my left shoulder. It is a phoenix looking forward, emerging from flames. There is a yin/yang …
https://www.piqsels.com/en/public-domain-photo-odcbu It's been a few months since I wrote on this blog. Not from a lack of trying. I have several posts in a just-begun or semi-finished state that I haven't published. It's just that, I'm not sure I have much more to say right now that will be of any value or help. And …
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 …
The Phoenix The Phoenix is a mythical animal of rebirth present in many cultures. The myth may have first originated in ancient Egypt. According to some myths, it dies in a combustion of flames to then be reborn from its ashes. A cycle of eternal life or regeneration. Early Christians were just one of the …
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. …
Continue reading Top Evidence Supporting and Challenging Literal LDS (Mormon) Truth Claims
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 …
https://brilliant.org/wiki/tesseract/ The Tesseract I believe in God. I believe God is everywhere and in everything. In all and through all. I can't prove it, but if one defines God as the laws of physics and the universe at a minimum (some do) then this is self-evident. A Tesseract (shown above) is a spatial four dimensional …
Sun breaking through clouds. Labeled for reuse. It can be useful to think of truth as inhabiting portions of the following 4x4 grid. Where Mormonism Resides In Mormonism, the literal "truth" of the Church is usually dogmatically taught as inhabiting the top left grid box. Where truth and facts are the same. Similar to how …
Hourglass on Ocean Beach (image labeled for reuse) Noah Rasheta and the Secular Buddhism Podcast Noah Rasheta used to be Mormon. He runs the Secular Buddhism Podcast and is an example of someone who appears to have done a fantastic job reconstructing a healthy view and paradigm of life after the experience of Mormonism. His …
Colorado Night Sky The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds that go on apportioning themselves throughout all time. Our lives are not our own; from womb to tomb, we're bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness we birth our future.Sonmi-451, Cloud …
Droste Effect, image labeled for reuse, Wikipedia For the Lord God giveth light unto the understanding; for he speaketh unto men according to their language, unto their understanding.The Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 31:3 What is Consciousness? What is consciousness? How does it work? These are questions we still don't have a firm grasp of …
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 …
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 …
Continue reading The Racism of the Mormon Church (God is Not a Racist)
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 …
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 …
Continue reading The 200th Anniversary of Joseph Smith’s First Vision (That Never Happened)
Photo by Alex on Pexels.com My gay cousin recently died by suicide. It was at precisely the one year anniversary of another cousin (a professed atheist) who also died by suicide. Both grew up devout Mormons and lived in Utah. Emotionally processing this tragedy (as well as the prior tragedy) has been a mix of …
Photo by Zetong Li on Pexels.com I KNOW the Church is True! "I KNOW the Church is True" is an extremely familiar statement within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, AKA: The LDS or Mormon Church. Every first Sunday of the month Latter-day Saints around the world, or "Mormons" gather together in local …
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 …
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 …
Continue reading Discovering and Embracing My Emotions: Healing From a Mormon Paradigm
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 …
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 …
My Journey With the Book of Mormon. Part 2, World-view Deconstruction And I, Enos knew that God could not lie... Enos 1:6, Book of Mormon This Book of Mormon verse has had a profound impact on my life. In the dualistic black and white way of thinking I was brought up with as a Mormon, …
My Journey with The Book of Mormon. Part 1, World-view Construction. I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book. Joseph Smith, …
Our daughter Emma has always been a poet. She was previously pursuing a political science degree at BYU and is finishing her degree at Texas A&M. It was particularly difficult for her when she first learned of my faith transition. However, she is in a much healthier place now. She wrote these poems reflecting different …
The past few days have been eventful in our family, especially in the lives of my wife and children still in the LDS faith, whom I love very deeply. For those of you already in the LDS faith, you already know about the recent LDS revelation from God reversing the previous LDS revelation from God …
Continue reading Love Transcends All. FB post, April 11, 2019
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 …
Continue reading President Nelson… I’m having a Trust Crisis
In early March, 2019 my mother posted a Facebook announcement about the LDS Church being generous in donating $10 million to build a homeless shelter in Salt Lake City. I commented on her post, and in many ways wish I hadn’t: This is great news Mom! I have debated saying anything, but will anyway. I …
Jason N. Harris, DOB: XXXX, Record Number: XXXXX Address: XXXXX Date: XXXXX Member Records 50 E North Temple, Room 1372 Salt Lake City, UT 84150-5310 This notarized letter is my formal resignation from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is effective immediately. I hereby immediately withdraw my consent to being treated as …
I have been wondering when to share this and suppose now is as good a time as any now that my family and several close friends know. For the sake of my own integrity and so you all know fully where I am coming from, I wanted to share with you that I have left …
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 …
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 …
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 …
I just woke up from a very interesting dream. We are at the lake house in Deep Creek for a family reunion. Dreamed [our Bishop] told us "Jesus" was going to be moving into our ward. We asked for clarification and he said, no seriously, "Jesus." Sure enough, the next week he moved in. He …
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