Cedars - excellent point
Cold Steel - I'm not going to try and point out places where the BoM has been refuted, where those supposed miraculous healings didn't occur ( they really didnt) and where those eye witnesses you cite are mythical retellings of less impressive events. Metaphorically I hold cast iron evidence of your 'spouse' cheating on you but I absolutely understand why you wouldn't want to see the pictures, if that ever changes pm me and I'll be there for you. What I do want to address is the methods the LDS church and it's members use for brainwashing/habit forming.
1/ Children are taught biblical stories ,Book of Mormon Stories and foundational LDS stories as fact. They are praised for their acceptance of this information. They are regularly asked to repeat it in talks , primary songs, presentations and in family settings. There is naturally no access to or time given to alternate explanations . Several early concepts of wickedness, the world , Satan and fear are taught as opposition to the truth and that they must fight these things. Primary songs repeat concepts like :
Follow the prophet, follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet; Don't go astray.
Follow the prophet, follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet; He knows the way.
Finally they are habituated into Mormon practises like giving ten percent of their pocket money as tithing, praying about everything, blessing food at the tables and so forth.
2/- Framing. As a child this was done to me and as a missionary I unwittingly used the same technique. Whenever I felt emotion, adrenaline, euphoria, awe, peace, extreme happiness, strong empathy or idealistic hope burnt in my chest - as long as I remember- my peers told me that that was the spirit, that was my testimony, that was god revealing to me his love. I began to associate all those beautiful parts of human emotion , especially the concentrated ones ( like the moment of the birth of my children, the first time one of my kids told me they loved me, when people did really kind things for me etc) as the results of the spirit. When I taught people on my mission I did the same,
'Mike, as we talk today, we're going to cover some special and important concepts and the spirit of god will be here <pause> it's going to feel different, you're going to feel different , in here <touch chest> and here <touch head> as we talk about the love you have for our Saviour and how he's working now in the world I want you to listen to those feelings of the Spirit.'
Low educated Mike would now have been anchored by my words to expect odd feelings and with a sense of expectation which I had framed such that, as long as he felt somewhat different to his usual self, I'd be able to claim was a divine affirmation of the whole presentation. Brainwashing / parlour trick/ neuro linguistic programming - call it what you will. It worked like a charm.
3/- Groupthink. Hymns, shared prayers, shared rituals ( blessings, baptisms, giving priesthood, sacrament, gift of the Holy Ghost etc.) , talks , lessons taught to each other, frequent visits by home teachers / visiting teachers, callings ( jobs within the church), regular administrative meetings , publically bearing testimony and so on are all behaviours that encourage certain patterns of thinking and acting ( and are repeated so frequently that they become unthought about second nature to seasoned members ) such that their is a truth that active Mormons across the world are very similar. It is almost impossible to gain acceptance in the group if you do not adhere to the phrasing, mannerisms, dress sense and ritualistic order of behaviour. Think of how uncomfortable we felt when someone did something 'incorrect' while bearing a testimony ( sang a song, went on too long, talked about something non- belief related, said something from another faith's language or cracked a joke) , people would possibly say afterwards that the spirit left the meeting or some other such idea. There is a 'hidden' set of LDS commandments more powerful than the written ones, it involves white shirts, facial hair, tattoos, earrings, musical instruments in sacrament meeting, skirt length, dancing distance, disco lighting, chaperoned lifts, missionary visit lengths, things you must not talk about, things you shoud talk about, what is gossip and what is not and so on.
4/- Double binds. Do not lie / if you don't have a testimony bear it till you get one, the first law of heaven is obedience / the spirit of the law, free agency / obey your leaders, the prophet speaks on behalf of god / sometimes the prophet speaks as a man.
TL:DR. Personal LDS examples of mind control.
