The Mormon Conspiracy has exceeded my expectations and in a little more than one and one-half years, we have sold out of the first printing. The popularity of the this book has been increasing every month with additional sales each month.
Therefore, a second printing and a revision for a second edition was completed and is now ready for sale and distribution to readers. The cost remains the same, $9.95 plus postage and handling of $3.00 or a total of $12.95 delivered to the reader’s mailbox. It can be purchased at amazon.com and from many book stores that stock it and can be purchased on special order from almost all book stores. It can also be ordered by credit card by logging on to our website: www.mormonconspiracy.com , or by simply writing to us by e-mail (wood1@mormonconspiracy.com) requesting a copy of The Mormon Conspiracy, listing your address and we will send you the book with an invoice.
This book has been sold and distributed in all fifty states of the United States and in more than 30 countries throughout the world. It is especially popular in the English Speaking countries of the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. The book has been translated into German and parts of it have been translated in Spanish and Arabic, and has been distributed in Arabic, German and Spanish speaking countries.
We welcome your comments and urge you to contact us at our e-mail address: wood1@mormonconspiracy.com, or log on to our website: www.mormonconspiracy.com
Following is the Afterword that is included in the revision.
Since the first printing of my book, I have read several investigations and reports on Mormonism. With this information, and the e-mails received from almost every state in the United States and many foreign countries, I have compiled the following information to supplement the conclusions that were discussed in the first printing.
A handful of Mormon believers have tried to show the authenticity of Mormonism by offering “scientific and logical” proof that Joseph Smith’s Book of Mormon is true by trying to show that it is a factual history of the ancient Indians of Central and South America. They have attempted to show that Smith’s book is authentic since studies comparing the Book of Mormon with other ancient writings show that Smith’s word usage and writings correlate favorably with these ancient writings. This, they claim, would show that Smith did indeed translate from the ancient golden plates when writing his Book of Mormon.
A few devout Mormons have disputed DNA and archaeological studies that clearly show that Smith’s Lamanite (Indian) ancestors emigrated from Eastern Asia. They argue that the DNA of Joseph Smith’s Lamanites has disappeared in the centuries following the time period of Smith’s book. These arguments are prominently placed in official Mormon Church internet websites. The official Mormon Church website focuses primarily on providing church-sponsored “research” that contradicts factual research that disproves Mormon beliefs and teaching.
Concerning Mormon Church-sponsored “research,” Raymond Richards writes: “Each field of scholarship has its own pseudo-scholars. Geography has its flat earthers. Biology has its creation scientists. Archeology has it believers in ancient astronauts. Medicine has homeopaths. Physics has inventors of perpetual motion machines. Astronomy has astrologers. Historians have holocaust deniers - and the Mormon church. There are other religious groups from the United States with false and dangerous ideas - 7th-day Adventists, Christian Scientists, and the cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses - but none of them has the millions of members or billions of dollars of the Mormon church. We must take the Mormons seriously. ….When a religion claims to be the supreme fount of fact, when it contradicts research and opposes freedom of inquiry, then it should be challenged by academics. Although students are often victims of this church, we should fail students who use unsound methodology to believe in pseudo-scholarship, such as Creationism or the Book of Mormon as history. If we grant degrees to incompetent students, then universities are a joke.” (Raymond Richards, paper presented at University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand)
In his book: Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan list four components of Mind Control, control of behavior, control of thoughts, control of emotions and control of information. This is accomplished, according to Hassan, by unfreezing, changing and refreezing. The control of members by the use of these four components is accomplished in many ways, including the large number of social activities promoted by the church, the testimonials at church meetings, the teaching visits in the homes, satellite programs beamed into local ward houses by higher authorities of the church, periodicals such as the Ensign, faith-promoting books from the Church’s publishing house and television programs from church-owned stations.
What is it that causes people to believe in magical and mystical organizations such as the Mormon Church, an organization basing its beliefs on a fairy-like story of Joseph Smith’s golden plates and his translation of these plates (with God’s help) in writing the Book of Mormon? How is it that an organization is able to attract and keep members whose donations allow it to build a 50 billion dollar empire? I believe that Larry and Tammy Braithwaite, former members of the church, have put forth a credible answer to this question in their book, Journey to the Center of My Soul. This is the concept of The Pattern, (a method of fear and control that the Mormon Church uses to keep members) The Binder, (Church leadership binds “us heart and soul to the perpetual requirements of being a good Mormon”) and The Bound (“We gradually give up questioning the doctrine and history of the Church that seemed vague and troublesome and try to concentrate on doing all we could to be worthy of the larger, eternal blessings.”)
The Double-Bind is then employed that confuses and denies the Bound the ability to “think or feel rationally.” For example, whereas church doctrine (D&C 93:36) teaches The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth, church leaders say You will remain silent on those [doctrines] where differences exist between you and the Brethren. (Bruce McConkie’s Letter, Feb. 19, 1981)
“What The Pattern does, in effect, is turn the independent rational mind around so that the Bound reflects only the mind of the Binder, as a mirror. It creates a whole new orientation of the world, a conversion from the logical to the illogical-- the real to the unreal -- the truth to lies.”
This concept is explained further: “In the real world, nature provides us with an open system of trial and error, awareness and learning. Exercising our own bodies, senses, minds and self-direction allows us to reach for the stars, to see a greater range of possibilities and fulfill ourselves by being true to ourselves. In contrast, The Pattern, or upside-down world of Mormonism, took away our individuality. We became part of the mass known as the Latter-day Saints. We were instructed several times a week about what to think, what to believe, how to behave, what to read, how to dress and how to spend our money.”
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church was a master at using The Pattern in sidestepping any questions or problems that he faced in his leadership of the Church.
One example of Smith’s use of The Pattern is when he told Oliver Cowdery and Hiram Page that he had a revelation from God that they should go to Toronto, Canada and sell the copyright of his Book of Mormon. After returning in failure, these men asked Smith why their mission had failed since it was a revelation from God. Smith went into another room for a few minutes and returned saying that the whole thing had merely been a test to see if they would do all things whatsoever the Lord commanded them. (It’s not God or Joseph that messed up, it was Hiram and Oliver, who needed to be tested, who failed.)
Following are some of the answers to the questions given by Church officials in order to reinforce mind control, that transfers faults of the Church, Joseph Smith or Church leaders to rank and file members:
The Mormon Church teaches: Nothing is ever God’s, church leaders‘, or the church’s fault. It is always the fault of the member’s behavior or a misunderstanding of church doctrine, or that Satan has led you in the wrong direction. This is a carryover from Joseph Smith, the founder of the church, who was very clever in always making the person feel guilty and responsible when he fails or questions church policy. Bishops and other church leaders generally give the same responses that Smith made to his followers. If you question church doctrine or the Book of Mormon, the Bishop or other church officials will tell you to read it again, be humble, remember you are a child of God, pray about it and he will tell you that it is true. Doubters of the truth of Mormonism are told that they are risking apostasy and separation from their families for eternity. This line is a powerful mind control tactic.
The following from an e-mail writer also describes ways to reinforce mind control:
“I took 4 years of LDS seminary throughout high school just to realize how brainwashed these people really are. They truly believe in a blind faith that will take 10 percent of their earnings until the time of their death. Kids who receive the priesthood and then abandon the church are taught that they will spend an eternity in Hell, whereas if you murder millions of people, like Hitler did, the most time you can spend in hell is 1000 years.” These kids are forced to stick with the church on the belief that if they leave they are worse human beings in God’s eye than Hitler was.
The testimony is an integral part of mind control that church leaders exercise over Mormon Church members. Tammy Braithwaite, a former long time member of the Church, taught her young children a testimony, as soon as they were able to talk. She remembers her son repeating his testimony: “I know that Joseph Smith was a pwoffut and the Book of Mommun is twoo.” She now knows that she was teaching her son to lie and realizes that “This kind of repetition of meaningless mantras is, of course, one of the techniques in brainwashing.”
These testimonies are often repeated in church meetings with such testimonies often beginning with I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church on the face of the earth. I know that Gordon B. Hinckley is a Prophet of God, etc.
Realizing that they have the keys that control entry into temple ceremonies (such as marriage) church leaders have utilized this tool to further the binding of members to church teaching. Some elements of mind control that are used in temple ceremonies include members repeating vows of loyalty, submitting their bodies to washing and anointing in order to remove sins, wearing of special temple garments and experiencing an imaginary heaven by being pulled through the veil.
A temple ceremony is necessary to achieve the church’s promise of eternal family life in heaven, since members must be sealed to their fathers in a special temple ritual. This results in further mind control, by increasing the binder to the bound members. And since only those members who pay full 10% tithing are allowed in the temple, this also increases the coffers of the church.
Officially designed undergarments are required to be worn at all times for those who receive temple ordinances and for women who are married in the temple. This is mind control of the highest order since garments signify the church’s control over the individual. Garments are also a phobia (a tactic used in mind control) since Mormons fear that if they don’t wear them, something awful will happen to them. The garment serves as another binder of the bound Mormon to Mormonism.
According to church sources, more than 60,000 missionaries are serving in missionary centers throughout the United States and the world, or about one-fourth of this age level(19 and 20 year olds).
Following the few weeks’ training session, missionaries are assigned to a missionary center, manned usually by a husband and wife team who insures correct behavior and monitors the work of these young missionaries. However, the greatest element of mind control by the church is that the two missionaries are expected to always be together, either in missionary work, recreational and non-work activities. In this respect, they are the watch-dog for each other. This insures that one or the other is unlikely to break any missionary rules such as dating, making unapproved telephone calls, or misrepresenting the approved text of the church. This togetherness is another example of the binder of the church controlling the bound church member.
Since the fifteen Mormon Apostles (President, his two counselors and the twelve Apostles) are considered to be God’s representatives and therefore cannot make a mistake, they are considered infallible by church members. When the Prophet speaks, the thinking has been done. This is a very effective mind control tactic used by the Mormon Church that reinforces the concept that if these men are God’s representatives, God will not allow them to make a mistake. Therefore, if the Apostles teach that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, then Joseph Smith was a representative of God, and therefore, his doctrine, revelations and his book, the Book of Mormon is the truth, the same as if spoken by God. Again, the Binder (church leaders) is controlling the Bound (church member).
In one section of my book, I describe the poor living conditions that some students at BYU face and other members face by living in trailer courts. I suggested that instead of the church spending millions of dollars glorifying Mormonism by building temples and “historical” monuments having expensive statues of Joseph Smith and other early church leaders, that this money could be more appropriately spent in assisting those families and students who live in austere circumstances. One e-mail respondent wrote “…wow I have seen with my own eyes how poor and distressed a few of its members are. The friend, who is a member, introduced me to some elders --she pay’s tiths (sic) regularly and she is so bad off that I have even bought groceries for her so she won’t go hungry….”
A major theme of my book is that Church leaders are carrying forward the plans of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to establish a theocracy of Mormonism throughout the United States and eventually the world. Actually this plan is more successful in some foreign countries than it is in the United States as exemplified by the following e-mail received from New Zealand.
“The Mormons DO have quite a hold on things in the city of Hamilton [New Zealand]. Ever since that sister’s threat, I’ve had a tough go of it. She and her mum know a lot of high-placed people in the church. It seems that Mormons “force” people into high positions and high paying jobs….. (or else?) I do know the highest status lawyer in the Waikato region is a strong Mormon…. Very active in the Hamilton, NZ church… and he’s the head coroner and has a strong relationship with the police.
“I am here in New Zealand and see that the Mormon church has literally corrupted and destroyed many of the local Maori people. The church has convinced them that they are [the church] a very whanau, (pronounced “fawnau” meaning ‘family’) friendly church. What the Mormons are doing is, once rooking a Maori father into the church, they promise him that (through God) his family will (magically) be better off. When the “better life” doesn’t materialize the church tells these (unknowing about the Mormons) folks that they need to talk the rest of the Whanau into joining the LDS church or cut themselves off from the non-members, because that (the non-Mormon family members, e. g. cousins, aunties, uncles, etc) is the cause of the failing of the coming of the “promised” good life. “The truth is, the most devastating thing one can do to a Maori family is to tell them to cut themselves off from their family (whanau). Knowing this, the Mormon church exploits this to the max.”
The following concerns of an American succinctly illustrate the Mormon Church’s control of politics in the United States: “Our school district has a very large Mormon base, several of whom are direct descendants of previous church presidents and original apostles. These individuals tend to use their social status to influence politics within the area. I am very concerned about some of the issues that may arise from the growth of the Mormon church, and the political power that seems to be building in the organization. I have done quite a bit of research into the origins of this religion and find it quite baffling that any logical person could believe the authenticity of what Joseph Smith claimed to have happened. The fact that so many people are doing so, seemingly blindly is very unnerving.”
I was aware that the Mormon Church teaches “What God is, Man may become.” However since this belief is so bizarre, I didn’t include it in the first printing of The Mormon Conspiracy. In my e-mail correspondence with male Mormon Church members, I asked them if they believe that they may become Gods of their own planets. I was surprised when many said that they did. The following was one member’s answers to my questions:
Is it true that you believe that you may become a God of your own planet? Answer: Yes
If you become God of your own planet, how will you get there? How will you find a planet that has the same life-giving environment as Earth?
Answer: I will have the power to create my own planet just as God had the power to create the earth upon which we live. It will not be necessary for me to find one but to create one of my own.
How can you be with God when you are away on another planet? How can you be together with your family, if your daughters and sons are married to others and your sons and your daughters’ husbands are Gods of other planets?
Answer: Being with God does not necessarily mean one has to be physically within His presence at all times.
It simply means that you are worthy of being in the physical presence of God if you choose to be.
HOME
