Preface
"Problems can't be solved until they are discovered."
~ Edwin G. Boring
How this Book came to Be
This book is the culmination of a twenty-year odyssey, a personal quest for a solution to an unknown problem that had become emotionally and intellectually intolerable for me. My main symptom was that I could never quite think, or do things "right" --- I felt and thought that something must be terribly wrong with my mind, because significant others could always set things "right" for me, therefore, I must be "stupid." It was implied that my problem wasn't shared by others; I was told that it was I who needed to change. I believed this assessment. But if I needed to change, how could I --- if I didn't know what my problem was. My search began with three questions: What was wrong with me? What was my problem? Does it have a name? I was willing to abide by whatever I found to be true. What I found through a trial and error search, following threads and connections, was a pattern of behavior I finally identified and named The Pattern of the Double-Bind.
What I also discovered was that I was not alone in my dilemma; as I continued on, the Pattern began to assume Universal implications. At first, I found that my loved ones, and others in Mormonism, were also trapped inside it, unknowingly, the same as I; this created an urge to find its origins. It was in this extended search that I found that The Pattern went way beyond my own personal experiences in Mormonism.
The Pattern is not obvious, the reason being that its insidious nature operates silently with powerful cultural taboos and customs contained within it: one must not see, hear, speak, or question anything contrary to its unexamined "truth." Once I had discovered The Pattern in my own life, it was particularly painful to realize that I had "voluntarily" cooperated, as an "accomplice," in perpetuating a lie --- a lie masked as a truth.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon Church --- and also referred to as Mormonism --- contains, as its psychological basis, this Pattern. I was raised almost exclusively within its environment, was married in the LDS (Latter-day Saints) Temple (1950), raised six children, and lived a life dedicated to the death covenants exacted in the Temple. Mormonism is not the only corporation of its kind to be based on this Pattern, but it is where I first discovered it.
In extending the ramifications of this Pattern to its logical end it is found that it causes the very problems it claims to be able to cure ... by the use of the cause! It is a circular system used to control others which reverses the possible evolution towards intellectual integrity ... a form of de-evolution, and in its extreme form leads to mental havoc and possible madness. Yet, at the same time, it claims to be the means of obtaining peace of mind through "intelligence." In other words, The Pattern is a form of illogical "logic." Needless to say, I found out what was "wrong" with me; my ability to think rationally, to question, was condemning me; reason is the enemy of the Mormon church.
The cure for this madness is its opposite ... it is to be able to reason without fear. This is made possible by the exposure and understanding of the cause, hence, the aim of this book ... to expose the nature of The Pattern and to show how it is possible to live a life relatively free from its web of deceit.
The first chapter exposes The Nature of The Pattern and the Double-Bind; it defines and gives examples of what the Double-Bind is, how it is used in different stages and the results incurred. The second chapter presents examples of personal experiences of The Pattern of The Double-Bind in Mormonism, which includes The Maze of Mormonism, the hub around which The Pattern revolves ... the double-bind. This is followed by my first personal, conscious discovery of the Double-Bind; the next chapter shows, with examples, how the Pattern exists in the Mormon Marriage and Family Relationships. Additionally, I show the parallels of my own Mormon marriage with the marriage of Emma Hale (1827) to the founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith. I also explore the Core of the Problem as it has been incorporated by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young --- the latter being the second "prophet" and leader of the Mormon church. Next, the Core of the Problem is examined, NOT in the Mosaic Ten Commandments, per se, but in the long shadows cast by the sundry laws contained in the Book of the Law that attend the Commandments --- which, in Mormonism, are not generally examined for relevant conflicting associations between the two.
Finally, I outline How to Free Oneself from The Pattern; the last few chapters introduce a positive orientation to life that is possible when free from The Pattern's destructive influence. Another book, one of a series (in process), will further document the Pattern's early extended historical origins. The finding, knowing, and understanding the original principles connected with the history of the Double-Bind help to clear and lift the mind and emotions to an aerial view where it is possible to more fully claim one's own personal Identity, which the use of The Pattern destroys --- whether that use is perpetrated consciously, or unconsciously.
What follows is my attempt to explain this illogical logic ... logically.
Next Page: The Nature of the Pattern and the Double-Bind
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