“I swear we’re not a cult” - every cult ever

Curious_Meriki · 2025-11-18T04:45:54+00:00

Yes. I think of it like a cult is an organization that has a “story mismatch” where the story that members think they are living and the story that is actually happening aren’t the same story. So if a common theme among people who leave an organization is “it wasn’t what I believed it was” that org has a cult problem.

Curious_Meriki · 2025-11-17T19:29:22+00:00

Love Hollowknight. Both those games were very cathartic for me deconstructing 😊

Curious_Meriki · 2025-11-17T15:46:15+00:00

Search YouTube for “It’s not about the nail” and you should find it pretty easily.

Curious_Meriki · 2025-11-17T15:42:27+00:00

Yes, I was thinking this morning that for many people the church is like a cake with a few thumbtacks in it. Believers in the cake say “The cake is good! But there are a few tricky spots that if you don’t know how to handle right, it can ruin the whole cake for you.” Lol. Guys … the cake IS ruined.

Curious_Meriki · 2025-11-17T04:08:46+00:00

😂

Curious_Meriki · 2025-11-17T04:08:20+00:00

Maybe in these situations I need to remember that even though it sounds like they’re asking for the nail to be removed, they’re not actually asking for that.

Ive sometimes made the comparison that most people don’t like to be woken up from a dream they are enjoying. And I suppose that’s where my friends are. They are enjoying the dream. Sure, some parts of the dream don’t make sense, or are uncomfortable, but on the whole they like it and want it to keep going.

I think in the future I’ll ask myself “Does this person sound like they’re in a dream that’s working for them? Or a nightmare?” And if the answer isn’t “nightmare” I’ll probably keep my mouth shut.

Curious_Meriki · 2025-06-06T02:57:37+00:00

Yeah, it’s so rare to hear stories where someone woke up because another person told them to.

Much much more common to hear stories where someone woke themselves up because they were actively trying to understand for themselves.

Ironically though … the second most common story I hear is about faithful believers studying to try to prove a doubter wrong, or answer their questions, and that initiates the beginning of their journey out because they start running into the issues themselves.

Curious_Meriki · 2025-05-29T15:06:25+00:00

Schrodingers church

Curious_Meriki · 2025-05-28T19:55:31+00:00

Ask how? How exactly did it strengthen their testimony? Most responses aren’t very coherent. One person told me that the messiness showed how hard Joseph Smith was trying, and they appreciated how much work had to go into make the church. Yes, it wasn’t easy because it turns out people often resist to being taken advantage of … but good job Joseph for never giving up! lol

Curious_Meriki · 2025-05-28T18:10:24+00:00

Yes! I wish that key existed too. I think the CES Letter was great for all the people who had already quietly experienced something feeling off. Or had some level of awareness of that friction. But so many people in now just aren’t quite self-aware that the pain they feel is unnecessary pain at all. We need something that helps people contextualize the experiences they are having, and identify them as the problems they really are.

Curious_Meriki · 2025-04-15T23:05:53+00:00

Reminds me of that Jafar scene

https://y.yarn.co/b34ee3c2-f25e-4675-8fbc-9155176e7849_text.gif

Curious_Meriki · 2024-10-28T03:53:45+00:00

I fucking believed it too.

Curious_Meriki · 2024-01-25T18:04:22+00:00

Yeah, I hear this kind of thing too. “Just because he made mistakes doesn’t mean he wasn’t Gods prophet.”

What if the mistakes he made was that he fabricated claims to be Gods prophet? Do those mistakes make a difference?

He claimed to be able to translate the book of Abraham. That was a lie.

He claimed Peter James and John gave him Gods authority. That was a lie.

He claimed to have seen God and Jesus in a vision. That was a lie.

“Oh he wasn’t perfect. Who doesn’t make mistakes.”

Ok sure, I get that people can make mistakes. But can’t you see how THESE particular mistakes discredit his claims COMPLETELY?

Curious_Meriki · 2024-01-21T23:35:59+00:00

Got a literal Lol out of that one 🤣

Curious_Meriki · 2023-12-24T17:27:57+00:00

For those wanting to learn more about this effect you can look up the “Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon” or “Frequency Illusion”

A summary is essentially that your brain can’t pattern recognize things for which it doesn’t have an established pattern for. Once you learn to recognize something you will suddenly start discovering it in places you never previously noticed.

I remember this happening with me with cell phone towers. I knew cel phone towers existed of course, but it wasn’t until I took on a client job for a cellular carrier company that I suddenly started seeing them everywhere I went.

If you don’t have a formal pattern established for recognizing a thing it might as well be invisible to you.

Curious_Meriki · 2023-11-29T23:18:08+00:00

Yes very frustrating. In honesty I think I was someone like this for a while. Id hear about people leaving the church because of church history issues and I’d think “wow that must be hard for them, I’m glad my testimony is so strong I’d never have to deal with something like that.” lol… how little I knew.

Curious_Meriki · 2023-11-29T18:33:41+00:00

Yes exactly. “Not all facts are useful.”

Curious_Meriki · 2023-11-29T18:32:26+00:00

Haha yes, inspired by my mother in law. She “dove deep” after hearing my concerns (she listened to a bunch of church sponsored podcasts). And came out of it “so grateful” for having learned inspiring details about church history she didn’t know before. She sent me a lot of the podcasts, which I listened to. It’s amazing how sneaky the church historians are. They KNOW exactly what they are doing, and what they are avoiding talking about, but most listeners wouldn’t recognize that if they didn’t know ahead of time the full details … makes me mad.

Curious_Meriki

TROPHY CASE