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 …
Category: World-View Reconstruction
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 Army neurologist 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 …
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 …
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 …
Our Reality Maps
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Our Projections (of God), A Path to Peace
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, …
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 …
Shadow Work
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 …
Growing Pains
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 …
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 …
Beauty Out of Ashes
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 …
The Dimensions of God
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 …
Oh Say, What is Truth?
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. In reality, I believe the literalism of Mormonism mostly inhabits …
The Eternal Present
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 …
The Nature of Our Immortal Lives
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 …
Our Sacred Stories
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 …
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 …
My Views on LGBTQ Topics
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 …
The Truth of the Mormon Church
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 …
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 is a Neurologist/Neuro-Ophthalmologist, Dad and Husband who shares his experiences leaving the Mormon Church and reconstructing a new World-View. He believes all religions and scripture are …
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 …
Emma’s Poems
Our daughter Emma has always been a poet. She is currently pursuing a political science degree at BYU. 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 aspects of her experience from April, 2019 - …
Love Transcends All. FB post, April 11, 2019
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
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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God is to be Found “Below” not “Above”
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 …
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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