Why Do Mormons Believe? (Illusory Truth Effect + Reward Center of the Brain)
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
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Yes it’s repeat repeat and repeat , and if you still don’t believe , it must be your fault !
I never felt that I had a "testimony". And I was told it was my own fault. I just didn't read the scriptures enough, I wasn't good enough, I didn't pray hard enough, I didn't have enough faith. It's never the church's fault; it's always your fault. And they condition people to believe what the church says, so you accept that it's your own fault, making you feel inadequate and inferior and just not "good enough". It's enough to make people truly depressed and what the church does to members who are part of the LGBTQ+ community is absolutely heinous and incongruent with being a "church". Many Mormons who are part of the LGBTQ+ community end up committing suicide because of the church. How displeased and disgusted Jesus Christ must be with the church.
There are 2 rules in Mormonism...
1) Believe.
2) If you still don't believe, see rule #1.
✅ Exactly, and that is true for every religion. That is why the Figure heads and administrators all religions prefer dumbed down, gullible, and obediant sheeple. The sheeple with a high income are prefered.
Most of their tactics fall under hypnotic suggestion. Trusting someone, Repeat repeat repeat, plant the subliminal messages, involve all sensations sight, smell, sound. Answer "life questions" in a favorable manner & involve family loved ones
@@mylesmarkson1686Every cult uses that same formula..
My big "Aha!" moment came when (after having doubts about the church) I tried to apply Moroni's Promise to the Lord of the Rings: I watched the movies, pondered the messages and values that were portrayed, and then prayed about it. And lo and behold! I got a "spiritual feeling" about it being Capital-T "True" just like I did with the Book of Mormon! Huh, I guess that means that Tolkien is a prophet then, too, using Mormon logic?
When I tell people about my experience they don't have any real answers for me. One tried to say that LotR *contains* truth, and the spirit was confirming that to me. But if so, then how is the BoM any different? A fictional work that is inspiring (to some)? In the end I think we just believe what we want to believe, and then try to find community with others who share those same views. For myself, I've found a lot more happiness and fulfilment outside of the church living my own life than I ever did when I was "in". But if others are happy staying in the church? Yay for them I guess.
In the temple (through the magic curtain/veil) what is the first tolkien (magic hand shake)
This should be a billboard somewhere in Utah county..
@@sjenson6694 Fabulous idea! But in Utah they are 88% mormon or under the banner of heaven! LOL ol ol
Hearing about the illusory truth effect in terms of religious indoctrination, made me think of how a lot of naratives are pushed.
If you see it over and over again on social media... it must be true!!!!
OMG i repeated word for word in my head your testimony, rehearsed taught , drilled into our childrens brains starting at 18 months old when children/toddlers can attend nursery!! Like little bots 😳😢🙄🤔🤦🏻♀️
Great video. Thanks for the information about “the illusory truth effect”. Fascinating!
When I first started my nission at age 19, I had training compaion who insisted that we bear our testimonies to each other at the beginning of each day before we left our apartment in the morning, after about 2 weeks of this I really got sick of listening to his testimony and I got angry about being forced to bare my testimony. It almost made loose faith in the church. The mission felt very much like being trapped in a cult. I still stayed active in the church most of my life because it was so intertwined in my own view of reality. It took me till age 59 to break away from it.
You did the right thing to break away from the church. Very likely as a 19 year old elder missionary, you confronted a lot of hostilities from non LDS members when door knocking or approaching people in the streets.
I’m glad you broke away. ❤
Better late than….well, you know.
It would be interesting to know if that missionary companion of yours is still in the church. I guess you didnt feel comfortable at the time telling him, no, i dont want to bear my testimony every morning.
Congratulations for having the courage and strength to do so! I did it in steps finishing up at 55yrs old. My LD$ Auschwitz # removed too!
You just described my life perfectly. I am also from a multi-generational Mormon family & went through everything you just said. I started to question some things as a teen but was told I was wrong for questioning. I recently watched a couple of videos from Joel Kramer who has the Expedition Bible channel. He compares the archeological finds from the Bible to the claims of events recorded in the BofM. These 2 videos absolutely solidified my suspicions that the church was not true & gave me the courage to submit my letter of resignation to the church headquarters. Thank you so much for consistently revealing the truth so others can remove themselves from the lies & deceit being fed to its members.
Those testimony meetings are definitely a means to reinforce group think and struck me as very weird, as an outsider. I had very kind Mormon friends who invited us to read the Book of Mormon (so BORING) and attend their church. I did not drink that koolaid.
Multi level marketing to heaven the "Thrive" way
Why? Because they’re taught that it is since birth, and are punished for not affirming it. End of story.
She mentions she's a 7th generation mormon here. TRUE and when doing the math not hard to calculate that this cult is very young and we were all about 14 yrs old when the polygamists started. (maybe fitting in 10 generations now) Im out !
I was today years old when I learned about the illusory truth effect through your video right here. Having just heard of this phenomenon it makes so much freaking sense and now I'm going to go study it more deeply.
No. Study grammar more deeply. What does I was today years old mean?
@@jamesarnette1394It’s a common saying. You know what it means. 🙄
Don't Gaslight me. I've never heard this expression and it is inherently meaningless. Who do you know that talks like that?? It's not okay to just string random words together and then pretend that they make sense and tell other people who do have sense that they know what it means. No no one uses that expression and it has no meaning.
@@jamesarnette1394 I was today years old when I learned = this is the first time I heard of this. I’ve seen it all over the place
@@jamesarnette1394 I'm sure that the poster meant "twenty". Have you never made the same mistake when writing quickly?
Just realized that one could use the same tactics to create a "cult of the flat earth". Esp. that testimony part. And having a lot of children who are from young age exposed to hearing other people's testimonies. "I know the earth is flat" over and over and over again...
Such an operation could be augmented with stuff like:
1. Writing a book claimed to be from angels/aliens that tells flat earth stories.
2. Telling believers to have a lot of kids (because grown-ups are more difficult to convert).
3. Telling believes to not to believe anyone who writes or says something to the contrary. Works better with children.
4. Spread emotional tricks like the elevation emotion "warm feeling in the bosom" and claim it means the cult is true. Again works better with children.
I agree 100% about the Illusory Truth Effect. We see that technique employed daily by the news and entertainment media. The idea that spiritual experience equals dopamine rush is fascinating. Could you post a link to that study?
In essence, you are saying that you believed the Mormon faith was “true” because you heard that weekly, if not more, ever since you were a child and that your “spiritual experiences” were nothing more than dopamine triggers of your reward center and not a “witness from the Holy Ghost” that it was “true”. This begs the question of how does anyone learn “truth” if “truth” is nothing more than any belief system a person has been brainwashed into believing and there is no spiritual essence or being that gives you the warm fuzzies that something is true?
This got me thinking. I used to do a lot of dog training. Many dogs I could teach a trick and they could learn to do that trick consistently in that circumstance. If I changed the room or moved it outside, they might need to relearn that trick in the new circumstance. After getting the trick down in several different environment, with different sounds, scents & creatures surrounding them, they were likely to be able to transfer that trick to any situation. It had become universal for them and not compartmentalized to anything beyond the trick I intended.
I wonder how much missions serve a similar purpose. We have testimonies in home, in church, and in seminary. I wonder if doing Mormon testimony day after day FOR YEARS in a different language & culture, in front of different people every day helps groove in one’s brain the universality of that belief to make it unwavering in a way that might not be so if someone went to college away from family, people from their ward & seminary, and weren’t affiliated with any new ward. I wonder how much a mission is designed (consciously or subconsciously shaped on positive results) on leveraging the stage of psycho social development (coming out of adolescence and entering early adulthood) and before the frontal lobe is fully developed. It makes sense to me as to why they dropped the age to serve a mission down to 18 for boys. They’re at the tail end of adolescence where they’re working out identity vs. confusion. It seems to me a time when young men would be most vulnerable to heavy duty indoctrination when they’re able to be away from their family and legally responsible for their own decisions. A most vulnerable time indeed.
Can we talk about the jesus picture they go around showing ppl, blonde hair and blue eyes cause that's not the Jesus of the Bible.
Do Mormons actually consider themselves Christians ? I really don’t know for sure .
I am a Greco Catholic , by my own choice since I was 20 .
Thanks 🤗💐!
Yes, they do!
They do however they have striking breaks with the teachings of Jesus in Israel, and that is kind of mind boggling.
(cont) Their Jesus was just a man who later became a God. Their Jesus has 3 heavens with a need for males and females in Heaven. Their Jesus doesn't allow a woman into Heaven on her own.
Mormons consider themselves Christians, but most mainstream Christian denominations don’t.
@@whatsup3270 Their fictitious Jesus is also supposedly Lucifer's brother.
You're so beautiful 🎉❤️
Can you tell me about your tattoo? I want to get a floral half-sleeve but I'm scared 😅 I resigned my membership at the beginning of 2023. Still feels fresh.
Psychosomatic, physiological, amygdala responses are not proof of the divine.Goosebumps ≠ the Holy Ghost moving through you.
As a born and raised atheist I can confirm that hearing about religious people thinking themselves out of the confines of religion gives me a religious feeling, it makes me believe in humanity 😇
Why does the illusory truth effect sound like brainwashing!? 😂
Because it is. That's exactly what it is. That's cult behavior 101.
Right? its called HYPNOSIS (smh)
I enjoy your videos about the Mormon Church and probably take undue delight in exposing its faults. But as a practicing Catholic, I want to defend religious practice in general. Every religion, like many other groups that instruct people about life and happiness, teach the young and try to form them. Is this sinister? Brainwashing? A famous Cardinal once admitted that all religious instruction can be dismissed as indoctrination, unless one believes in the Holy Spirit. It is all manipulation unless what is done is true and guided by God. That, of course, is a matter of faith. No one can prove the presence of the Spirit and it is easy to claim God's guidance when in reality it is only the preferences of a particular group, one's tradition, etc. And religion has been used to justify slavery, repression of women, war, and injustices of all kinds. We often claim that something is traditional and inspired by God when it is really just preferences and limited worldview of past ages. Religion ain't perfect. The Church must always reform, keeping asking itself, "is this from God or from ourselves?" If we are asking, it is probably from ourselves.
Still, religion does a lot of good (in education, health care, aide to the poor, spiritual development, etc.,) and, out of conviction, we proclaim that it comes from God. We should do so humbly, aware of our limited understanding of the Divine but still willing to share what we believe to be true. A healthy Church should accept criticism and be transparent about its money, its leaders and its beliefs. When we hide, we create doubt or distrust.
There was a very funny South Park episode which mercilessly mocked either Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses (I get them confused) but at the end the lead character who represented the religion said something like, "yeah, I know that what we say is stupid, but we are really good to each other and support our families. That is good." I was kind of stunned by that. After mocking them, it admitted the good. I am sure that is true of Mormons and even Catholics.
Hey Lex, I'm navigating a Faith crisis and would like any guidance or tips you have.
I guess my biggest question at the moment is how can I keep the good and throw away the bad.
Leaving the church feels hard because there's so many good people that I feel I'll lose the opportunity to connect with and in growing up in the church it's difficult to navigate because my entire sense of self was built around my religious beliefs so it's like I have to rediscover myself all over again.
In short I'm wondering how can I keep the good like values of family and personal improvement and just wanting to be a good person while throwing out the bad like toxic perfectionism and the never ending weight of expectations and never feeling enough?
Any tips would be appreciated,
thanks sincerely.
You don't how I believe. Why do put words in others mouths?
The Real ??? is, why do you deceive with Click Bait titles.
I am not sure about others, but I definitely don't want to be with MY family forever.
Illusory Truth Effect - exactly what happens to people when it comes to political issues and they can't be bothered to do any actual research on THEM - SAME/SAME, SHAME/SHAME.
At one point during my church membership, I did a thought experiment about what if I was stuck on a desert island or somewhere without any access to scriptures or any church teachings at all. Would my testimony weaken in that case?
I came to the conclusion that truth should be durable and rise to the top, so if it is so fragile that you have to continue to read doctrine every day to keep it strong, it might be more like I was brainwashing myself rather than that I was part of something that was the truth.
Of course, at the time, I just dismissed those thoughts as Satan's temptations 😅😅
I could never grasp the testimony concept.
They said we'll you can operate on your parents.
Well my dna test says they were not my parents.
The more question I ask . Their answers gave me more questions.
The cult mentally just never took ahold of me.
A lot of 'regular' Christians have testimonies as well.
But the reality is, testimonies are mostly based on some 'emotional' event and doesn't mean much to a third party listener.
Life is an Illusion, and you're delusional
What family were you going to be with? The one you grew up with or the one you married into?
It's you and your spouce/spouces living together for eternity, making enough spirit babies to populate your own planet for the entire history of that planet until that planet experiences its own Armageddon.
I wish I was kidding. But that's the doctorine I was taught.
After being married in the temple & asking my husband "If we are gods of our world and our sons marry in the temple, becoming gods of thier world, then how is that families are together forever. Do we light beam each other back & forth to each other's worlds"? He filed for divorce
I’ve always bought that testimony meetings must be hella boring.
A therapy group and the audience is to act like professionals (lmao)
Even as a kid they felt super culty and MLM marketing vibes.. I hated them every single time and never once came away from them feeling anything but a desire to bail out of the weirdness.
Harris just did a video on this too!
Fascinating! I never heard of the LDS church until I was 18. Then I read about the doctrine , I prayerfully asked for the truthfulness of it and I got my answer. Amazingly enough I started attending meetings and the members often stated their testimony shared with conviction and sincerity. I guess Paul was one of the first “delusional” converts because in his writings he keeps repeating that annoying testimony all over again!
Comparing the Apostle Paul to the delusional conman Joseph Smith is laughable. People said they got those feelings when they heard the "revelations" of Warren Jeffs and David Koresh, too. You're in a cult.
From Italy. My story is different. I was NOT born in the Church. I did NOT pray every day. I did NOT read the Scripture every day, over and over. But I receivedd strong spiritual impressions about Joseph Smith and the BoM. After 50 years I can say that JS was also a man, with human faults, that the BoM has been written out of 1800 American Bible culture. That the Chirch today is guided by men who do not follow Jesus. Any religion has gone through the same process. My search was not (and is not) whether the church is true or not, but whether the theachings restored by JS are true or not. I'm not influenced by any cultural tradition (I was born and raised as Catholic and I studied Buddhism): I rely on my spiritual guide who helps me to find the way that is right for me among so many ways present in the word today. My religion is with Jesus. The Church is a secondary matter. You are following another way. The love of God is upon you in any case.
🌹🖖
Feelings from the Holy Ghost = Elevated Emotion
Well we really love you lex why did the the apostle Paul say prove all things Christianity self proves why Mormonism in the contrary is proven false with the use of evidy
I hope you know that The Lord Jesus Christ truly loves you.
You should really thank God that He brought you out of that Cult!
Don’t let People deceive you into thinking that God is the bad one.
Repent.
Yes, join our cult instead! Our cult is a better cult than the other cult because of... uh... reasons.
Can you use your brain for a second? Think about this:
Especially that word "repent" doesn't sound great when talking to someone who escaped one cult already.
Sounds like you're actually threatening the people who already have a religious trauma.
I hope you have gotten your name removed from their rolls. When that happens you'll be 100% FREE
I find it funny people think it even matters.. you would think if the corporation cared they'd be more proactive about their records, the fact they aren't makes it pretty obvious that facts don't matter to them.
@@sjenson6694 It DOES matter to the LDS heads who still count them as members. That is WHY it is important to get your name taken off the rolls.
I think this channel publishes messages from ex-Mormons.
And us MORMONS alike ! Good
I thought Mormons discouraged defacing your body like tattoos?
Don't be a dweeb; her tatoos came AFTER she left mormonism
I think the main reason is the first you mentioned; everyone else around us (those whom we trust) also believe... it's a self reinforced double delusion. Yes, the burning in the bosom is the good 'ol reward center feedback loop...
Testimony which is not personally verified first hand account knowledge is worthless... like the witnesses of the gold plates. Obviously the Holy Spirit is not going to testify to you that a belief system (like mormonism) which is patently, categorically, demonstrably false isn't going to happen... so the self delusional feedback system reinforces t h e false belief and round it goes.
marcus 😮
She does not mention tattoos anywhere in the video, unless I missed it. Do you think she's currently a Mormon despite the channel's name, the video's title, and the video's content?
They do!
Eh, this is more of a guideline than actual rule. You can enter the temple with tatoos
I was not born into the lds church. I actually never heard of the church until I was nine when I was put into a children's home where one girl was a " Mormon ". AT 13 I was adopted by an older couple who were Mormon. They gave me the opportunity to choose for myself to join or not. My friends in the town helped me to feel the comfort and love I needed then. As years went on I felt that I couldn't understand the church and what it stood for especially what I was going through after growing up with what I did and now after adolescent changes I couldn't talk to church people about made it more difficult. I left the church first for personal sexual difficult topics I later found help for. A few later I left again for others hearing on RUclips but I get confused a lot of the time because I feel I won't deny God he is my creator but I can't find where I'm home at. Yet when I really think about it my real life home is where I was brought up. My young womanhood is where I found out who I really am.
You can have God in your life without a church telling you who God is. I have an aversion to organized religion after my Mormon experience. I still believe in God, but I'll never join another church because I don't need to.
While I am sure that there are some who are just indoctrinated, most (edit:devout) Mormons, believe deeply and defend their faith because of the supernatural, spiritual experiences they have had. Now you may choose to debate the source of those experiences, but I’m here to tell you they are deeply moving. That is why most LDS people are so deeply committed. That is the reason why I cannot let go of it completely even after 30+ years of separation from the church. It’s not all just indoctrination, there’s more to it
Even though I no longer believe in the church, I still feel deeply about a couple of experiences that I'd had in the past that were personal and very meaningful to me. I no longer attribute it to god, however I still know that I had those moments and they can't be taken from me. I have also, since I've left, had another such experience that meant a lot to me. I'm not a spiritual person, I was never a visionary woman, but I sure as hell have had a couple of emotional experiences that went beyond normal. So I kind of can relate, but I still have been able to seperate my spirituality from the church, it wasn't easy though.
Thats exactly what i hear from other evangelical failthful believers along with people of the hindu faith judaism, islamic folk, muslims, even buddhists have a supernatural experience where “god” tells them they are a part of the one and only true religion.
You should listen to the testimonies of the Heaven's Gate cult. They will sound very similar to the LDS testimonies you've heard. Just because someone's testimony is deeply moving doesn't mean they aren't indoctrinated.
I have had many supernatural spiritual experiences over the years, way after I left the church, so mine had absolutely nothing to do with religion.
Maybe these experiences are simply distinct from doctrines. ❤
I am a convert to the church of jesus christ of latter day saints and I am deeply motivated by own experience and testify that the church is true. Now while that may sound completely absurd to the common person, it really isnt for those that believe in their testimony. Its either because im new to the church that I have scavanged and viewed for myself its precepts, or the church is completely false itself which is an overgeneralization. To say that something about it is entirely false however is a farse itself. So no, the church is not true or false in essence, but real in every way either way. But I believe its precepts are true. I know what youre saying though. It sounds completely absurd to vainly state that something is true. That bothers me as well but I believe my testimony has been a powerful experience. All in all, even if the church is fake, ive still found a lot of peace, love, and harmony joining it.
Ever hear of the Gospel Toppics Essays?
"or the church is completely false itself which is an overgeneralization" of course and many scammers know this well. Which is why a common tactic is for a scammer to mix a false narrative with factual truths. Because they hope that the truths provide some authenticity. And yes it can give you good feelings and still be the wrong road Jesus warned about. Jesus spoke in John 16:2 about "the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service". Such a person would probably feel good about killing one of Jesus's followers but it did not mean that they were doing the right thing.
@@melorca1962 What did Joseph Smith gain for dying for his church? I don't understand the ex-mormon narratives that sound completely false themselves. I am genuinely a pioneer in this church and so far it has done a lot of good. I came from "the Catholic church" and that's a lot of falsehood. I truly believe in the great apostasy because of this because all Protestant church are formed after the great abominable church.
@@unicorntamer2207 Any claim to discredit the church whether it be right or wrong is not a good reason why I should leave Jesus church. We are a proud people of faith and integrity.
@@Hypexotic I'm sorry to tell you that you left one church with a lot of falsehoods for another church with just as many falsehoods. Do you know why there was an angry mob going after Joseph Smith?
Your podcasts are hilarious im a latterday saint you exagerate the truth because you dont fully understand it i love you because i feel you are different than the bullying antimormons and i feel you are still a latterday saint at heart and in time will come back to church love you
She ain't coming back, and your church is a complete fraud. Love you!
She discusses serious personal thoughts and experiences. Those are neither something a stranger understands better than she does nor something he/she is free to laugh off.
“you exaggerate the truth because you don’t fully understand it” makes absolutely no sense at all. How precisely is the truth “exaggerated”?!?!
@@garyslabaugh1863 that is a good point. I am guessing their answer is "yOu JuSt dOnT unDerStAnd"
Your lost and fooled by a different gospel other than the Gospel of Jesus. You tell me one verse in the Bible that says i have to be a mormon to go to heaven? I bet you don't even know what eternal life is.
Wow. All I can say is you put your point across with great professionalism, all facts and real life experiences. Who possibly can argue with your logic. My warm fuzzy feelings were never for the church, I always knew something/everything was wrong in this cult. You put my thoughts and feelings eloquently into words. There is warmth in that!
What broke my illusory effect loop was looking at the logic of faith...there wasn't any...and that bothered me. ANYTHING could be justified by 'just have faith bro'. Completely zapping me of any free will and motivation
You need both. The object of faith must be true for the faith to be of value. In my tradition of Christianity, we historically called these two uses of the word "faith" the "fides quae" and "fides qua." The body of Christian teaching does not become true because someone believes it. It is true even if no one does (and this is a separate discussion). But personal faith apprehends it, receives it for one's self.
Circular logic, by any other name is still circular. 🤷♂️