Discussion with author Luna Lindsay on the topics sacred science, milieu control and other techniques used by Joseph Smith in conjunction with the seer stone, photographs of which were recently published by the Mormon church.
I will be listing concepts covered in the discussion and adding support material over the next few days.
Audio Only:
Concepts
- High Demand Group
- A group organized around an authoritarian hierarchy which typically includes ideological totalism and employs methods of psychological manipulation and control. This includes controls on members behavior, informational exposure, thoughts and emotions. ((One description is found in the BITE model described here))
- Totalistic ideology
- Any all-or-nothing emotionally-charged convictions about man and his relationship to the natural or supernatural world. An ideology which is sweeping in its content and ambitious — or messianic — in its claims, whether religious, political, or scientific. Can be see in religion, political movements, or even scientific organizations in groups large or small. ((See Robert J Lifton,”Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of ‘Brainwashing’ in China.”chapter 22 on totalistic ideology here))
- Scrying
- Scrying (also called seeing or peeping) is the practice of looking into a translucent ball or other material with the belief that things can be seen, such as spiritual visions, and less often for purposes of divination or fortune-telling. The most common media used are reflective, translucent, or luminescent substances such as crystals, stones, glass, mirrors, water, fire, or smoke. ((Scrying at wikipedia.org))
- Scrying can play a role in high demand groups by contributing to the mystical manipulation and attribution of special divine powers to a charismatic leader.
- Ganzfeld Effect
- The ganzfeld effect (from German for “complete field”) or perceptual deprivation, is a phenomenon of perception caused by exposure to an unstructured, uniform stimulation field. The effect is the result of the brain amplifying neural noise in order to look for the missing visual signals. The noise is interpreted in the higher visual cortex, and gives rise to hallucinations. ((Ganzfeld Effect at wikipedia.org))
- Bibliomancy
- A folk-magic technique in which the answer to a question is derived through a ritual similar to the following: a sacred book (in Mormonism – any of the canonized scriptures) is allowed to fall open and a page or verse is chosen at random. Meaning is sought for in the selected passage and interpreted to provide an answer to the original question. ((See Bibliomancy at wikipedia.org))
- Milieu Control
- Control of human communication. By controlling what information is trusted or provided to members – as well as the meaning of words – the group exerts control over not only the individual’s communication with the outside but also his inner life – all that he sees and hears, reads and writes, experiences, and expresses. ((See Robert J Lifton,”Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of ‘Brainwashing’ in China.”chapter 22 on totalistic ideology here))
- The fact that a great number of Mormons are unfamiliar with Joseph’s use of the seerstone in both treasure digging and translation/revelation demonstrates that the church has historically been successful in milieu control on this issue. By concealing the nature of the use of the seer stone in the origination of the Book of Mormon to later converts, a key piece of information is left out. Concealment may take the form of denial, revision of history or redefining terms or associations in order to make the facts more palatable. By altering information in such a way, members are given to consent to involvement in the group in a manner which is unethical. ((see blogpost on Misinformed Consent))
- Loading the language
- The group develops its own complex vocabulary. Words carry with them entire packages of implications, emotions, metaphors, and even past experiences. the group invents new words and phrases that carry with them much more complicated understandings, or they manipulate existing words to change their meanings subtly or dramatically. Loaded language serves several purposes: 1. Relabels or redefines meanings 2. Shuts down critical thinking ability 3. Further isolates the group, making it difficult to communicate with outsiders. Concepts can be relabeled with emotionally charged words which carry preconceived notions. These can be used to make something seem automatically positive and impossible to argue against, or inherently negative — impossible to argue for. ((See Luna Lindsey’s excellent explanation here))
- Redefining or renaming the peep stone as a seer stone or urim and thummim cloaks the folk-magic roots of the practice. As such, members who are exposed to the stone under those redefined names see them as extensions of biblical practice and thus more acceptable despite the fact that the Biblical Urim and Thummim have few if any parallels with how Joseph used the stones. Members are put into a position where rejecting the peep-stone is equivalent to rejecting the bible, which had its own emotional barriers.
- Mystical manipulation
- There is manipulation of experiences that appear spontaneous but, in fact, are planned and orchestrated in order to demonstrate divine authority or spiritual advancement or some special gift or talent that will then allow the leader to reinterpret events, scripture, and experiences as he or she wishes. ((See Robert J Lifton,”Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of ‘Brainwashing’ in China.”chapter 22 on totalistic ideology here)) Imagine a magician who performs a trick as proof of his power, but does not inform the audience that it is, in fact, sleight of hand. The sincere believer then believes the magician to possess special power which, if infused with religion, may extend to submitting to divine claims and asserted authority.
- The most basic examples would be Joseph claiming through the stone to find a pin or telling people to dig in a certain location where they would find a tail-feather. Those events could easily be manipulated, and people believing them to be proof of Joseph divine gift would then be primed to believe other claims of Joseph.
- People convinced as such would be even more inclined to believe that an ancient text could be divined through the stone by Joseph’s power and then subsequently direct communication with God. At each turn, the stone is a tangible reminder of Joseph’s claimed power, originally getting its validation through a form of mystical manipulation which elevated Joseph above any of his peers.
- Sacred Science
- “…[The group] maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic dogma, holding it out as an ultimate moral vision for the ordering of human existence. This sacredness is evident in the prohibition (whether or not explicit) against the questioning of basic assumptions, and in the reverence which is demanded for the originators of the Word, the present bearers of the Word, and the Word itself. While thus transcending ordinary concerns of logic, however, the milieu at the same time makes an exaggerated claim of airtight logic, of absolute “scientific” precision. Thus the ultimate moral vision becomes an ultimate science; and the man who dares to criticize it, or to harbor even unspoken alternative ideas, becomes not only immoral and irreverent, but also “unscientific.” In this way, the philosopher kings of modem ideological totalism reinforce their authority by claiming to share in the rich and respected heritage of natural science” ((See Robert J Lifton,”Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of ‘Brainwashing’ in China.”chapter 22 on totalistic ideology here))
- When members are ultimately exposed to the reality of the use of folk-magic and peepstones in bringing forth the Book of Mormon, they may approach their leaders with questions. Many will have a hard time accepting it. They would immediately reject such notions coming from other non-Mormon religious leaders as occult magical practices that are inconsistent with Christianity. They are told, however, that they should accept such things from Joseph Smith because of his special sacred status as Prophet, Seer and Revelator. They are told that these criticisms about the use of occult magic cannot be levied against the Prophet. As such, the sacred science protects Joseph Smith and any of his activities – no matter how repellent members would find them in other non-Mormon religionists. Similar rationalizations are used on doctrinal issues of polygamy, child brides, polyandry, blood atonement, etc.
- Gas-lighting
- A form of psychological manipulation in which information is twisted, spun or selectively omitted or false information is presented with the intent or effect of making victims doubt their own memory, perception, and sanity. ((See Gas-lighting at wikipedia.org))
- May not be consciously intentional by the perpetrators, but may be a method of projecting their own insecurity onto others.
- Gas-lightingcan be seen in at least two different phases with Mormons dealing with theseer stone.
- First, Mormons in the past who have discovered the facts about the peepstone may have confronted leaders about it and were told that those stories were anti-mormon lies. The member is then put in a position where they doubt their ability to discern truth from lies, fear that they have been misled by Satan or that they cannot trust information unless it comes directly from current church leaders. No matter how they take it, they are individually and personally diminished in relation to the authorities of the church.
- Second, now that the church has made the public acknowledgement and disclosure about the peepstone and its use, members may bring up the Churches record of minimizing, concealing or otherwise distorting the facts as evidence of a strategic campaign of misinformation (milieu control). Defenders of the church will respond by asserting that “the church has never hidden the facts or lied about the seerstone” with the implication that the questioner is simply a “fault finder”, prideful, hateful or anti-mormon. This causes the member to doubt their own motives or perceptions about how the church has conveyed information in the past, i.e. maybe they were not studious enough to have learned what the church was truthfully presenting, maybe they have been led by Satan to seek contention, perhaps they are too prideful. In either event, the member is led to diminish themselves in relation to the authority of the church.
- In both situations the member must have a strong sense of personal identity and confidence in their own cognitive faculties to overcome the psychological manipulation.
- Double bind
- A situation in which a person is confronted with two irreconcilable demands or a choice between two undesirable courses of action. This creates a situation in which a successful response to one message results in a failed response to the other (and vice versa), so that the person will automatically be wrong regardless of response. The double bind occurs when the person cannot confront the inherent dilemma, and therefore can neither resolve it nor opt out of the situation. ((See Double-Bind at wikipedia.com))
- Church members confronted with the seer stone are given the primary injunction that they must accept that God communicated to Joseph Smith through the peep stone and that Joseph used the peep stone to hunt for treasure. They are also under an unspoken contradictory injunction to reject occult magic practices and deception as products of the adversary and anathema to God and his purposes.
- The use of peep-stones has historically been associated with occult magic
- It is intuitively obvious that any man who could see treasure in a stone would get it for himself rather than hire himself out to find it for someone else. As such, it is likewise intuitively assumed that any man doing so is deceiving/defrauding people.
- Other
- Forensic Panel Report on Brian David Mitchell
- On “Plunder” archive.org
- Mitchell redefined “plunder” of apostates as something which was commanded and permissible from God, separate from “stealing” which would be sinful. An example of redefining terms and loading the language as well as sacred science.
- James Randi debunks Faith Healer Peter Popoff
- Forensic Panel Report on Brian David Mitchell
