KEEPING THE ILLUSION ALIVE - A LESSON FROM CASTRO

 Well, as of late, I have not been getting tons of sleep.  As this DoC thing starts to blow up, I end up going to bed with DoC on the mind, likely dream about it and wake up with DoC counter arguments on the mind.  This is not a bad thing, because I process what I am getting so pissed about.  Some of it is my baggage from relationship trauma and some of it just plain stress from the mess we were plunged into as core people made really bad calls and stressed out the best people within the Church (those who reject the evil around them and choose not to embrace the lies and deceit of the gadiantons). The fact is this:  it will get a helluva lot more intense than it ever has been before it gets better.  It will be a press that will force all to decide where it is at.  There will be no middle ground.  It is this way by design and on purpose from God.  He has to have us know where we are at.

Last night, I had a very "strong and long" dream - so much so that I did not once wake up nor did I even turn over to trade sides even once in about seven hours (very rare for me).  I was in Cuba.  Castro was dead, but they were still trying to keep communism alive while trying to modernize the economy.  The people were demoralized and literally dying of starvation while the upper class lived on the same level as some of the poorer people in a first world country.  They were using tech that was 30-50 years old and I was being shown the wonders of their world by handlers from the regime.  The Cuban elite class also had handlers that appeared to be Chinese.  It was hilarious to me (though I was trying to feign respect as much as I could) how they would gush over their flip phones and antiquated farming, manufacturing and building methodologies as if it were cutting edge.  Well, it was for them.  To me, it was funny.  All of the tooling for their industry modernization program was literally stuff we were throwing away in the West that they were buying up at scrap prices.  It was sad to think that they were so indoctrinated that they were living well below their means and oblivious to how good they could have it if they would just return to common sense and get out from under the strong delusion they were under.  They were nice enough - but had been led astray by this strong delusion.

At the end of the dream, I was being shown something (the wonders of communistic ideals) by my Cuban handlers and that is when the driver of our car got off the official "show" route and we ended up in the true slums.  The handler was in a total panic that I was going to see the real goings on in Cuba.   In the slums, there was little food or medicine and the people were living no better than the animals.  It was late dusk and I watched as the dead, who had died of disease and hunger, were being brought out to be placed along the road to be picked up in the night.  The misery was beyond anything imaginable.  The dream ended as I was observing the Asian handler frantically trying to get the Cuban driver back on the path of the official narrative they were trying to project to me as their official guest.

There is great metaphor (in my current situation) in this dream.  I will leave it at that.  I often rely on my dreams to spell things out for me.  My wife, I suspect, is kind of jealous of my dream world because she has so few right now, but has been promised that she will develop the gift over time.  Dreams are a way of processing complex situations and spitting out an answer - if the gift of interpretation of dreams has been developed.  The mind is incredibly complex and it has a way of sorting stuff out.  Before I discovered girls and got distracted at college, I had a process that I developed in High School to get myself through with flying colors.  I would study in the evenings and then create a synopsis or cheat sheet of the high points I was supposed to remember.  My daughter perfected her game quite a bit more than I did and has flash cards to accomplish the same thing.  So pleased with my kids that are so smart and talented.  All of them.  Some scary smart....   Anyway, just before bed after reading scriptures, I would go over the main principles I would need the next day on the test.  My mind would be marinating in what I needed to internalize for next day's activities.  When morning rolled around, I had it down pat.  I am sure the brain was ordering and prioritizing information all night long.  I could breeze through anything that way.

So the take away from that dream is that we need to be careful of those around us who are influencers (but specifically of the evil or detrimental kind).  There is one that I refuse to be company with and her name is Trisha J. from the DoC crowd.  Absolute hatred for Brigham Young and anything to do with polygamy.  So in her blind hatred for one thing (plus probably from the needle hanging out of the shoulder event), she has thrown all leadership out back to Joseph, denied that he was ever sealed to more than one woman, trashed Priesthood authority at least back to 1834 and I am sure, will eventually chuck Jesus and God to the curb.  It does not take long before the "handlers" above her in the chain feel that she is finally ready to handle the "higher thinking" and introduce her to the final line of thinking that puts her over the edge to eternal damnation.  Not passing final judgment here (saying that she is going to hell); just stating where the trajectory takes her to.

Here is the deal with these folks (DoCers and anti's like Tal Bachman or Mr. Godmakers himself).  You push back on them and begin to nail them with logic and they then resort to the "why are you judging me?!?" line.  Nobody from my camp is judging anybody.  If anything, we are defending those that have been judged and thrown under the bus and are just trying to give them a fair shake in usually what is a one-sided argument or smear campaign.  When my dad was alive, I had several siblings who had daddy issues because my dad admittedly was gone quite a bit when they were younger as he was attempting to support a family of eight kids.  After he died, they began flinging the poo about him and making up really wild stuff that had no merit.  I shut them down and stressed my relationship with them - but I would rather have it that way than have something that is not real.  The train for that kind of thing had left the station long ago (while he was still alive).  It takes a real coward to fling the poo so late in the narrative - especially without all the facts.  Sadly for my siblings, and other poo flingers, EVERY word that has left their lips will have to be accounted for.  Every.  Single.  One.  This is on the order of bearing false witness (which often occurs without the victim present) and it is not a victimless crime as it erodes character.  Where the Gospel is involved, it erodes faith and cankers the soul.  It is not right.  In fact, it is highly immoral to engage in that.  The sin is not with the person defending the person's character, it is with the one flinging the poo.

Some have been critical of me for stating my obvious discontent for the shoulder/needle thingy.  They think I am being harsh or critical of President Nelson.  Not in the least.  I am stating that I believe he and others who have pushed the "safe and effective" jabberwonky have fulfilled Isaiah 28 perfectly.  To a T.  God will deal with them as He will.  It is not my role or position to do so.  Simply is not.  He still holds the keys to the kingdom and, in my opinion, is simply not wielding them well.  I can still sustain him when he is acting as a Prophet, while still allowing him to be human.  Even if that choice may have cost hundreds or even thousands or tens or hundreds of thousands of lives (over time) and untold misery.  He will have to answer for that.  I will have to answer to whether or not I "hear(d) Him", or not.  It is very simple. 

Just as I have not chucked my wife to the curb for the times she has stepped out of line, nor me for my shortcomings, I do not hold any leader to an unrealistic expectation.  However, I may not trust his counsel as much on future topics.  That likely will never be earned back; he does not have enough years left to do that.  I will allow President Oaks to do that when he takes the reins.

Here is a great set of quotes from a gal I admire and respect:

—Mark E. Peterson Some modern people have created cults of their own, and among them are those who attempt to take refuge in section 85 of the Doctrine and Covenants. They endeavor to say that the Church has gone astray, that the leaders are no longer inspired, and that “one mighty and strong” is needed to take over the affairs of the Lord [see D&C 85:7] And without any evidence of modesty whatsoever on their parts, they themselves volunteer for the position. There is one verse particularly in that section which they fail to consider. It is especially pertinent. It says that apostates and others who have been cut off from the Church will not be found among the Saints of the Most High at the last day. Why? Because salvation is in the Church, not elsewhere. Listen to the Lord’s words: “And they who are of the High Priesthood, whose names are not found written in the book of the law, or that are found to have apostatized, or to have been cut off from the church, as well as the lesser priesthood, or the members, in that day shall not find an inheritance among the Saints of the Most High.”

President Brigham Young was very expressive in describing the fate of apostates when he said: “Why do people apostatize? You know we are on the ‘Old Ship Zion.’ We are in the midst of the ocean. A storm comes on, and, as sailors say, she labors very hard. ‘I am not going to stay here,’ says one; ‘I don’t believe this is the “Ship Zion.”’ ‘But we are in the midst of the ocean.’ ‘I don’t care, I am not going to stay here.’ Off goes the coat, and he jumps overboard. Will he not be drowned? Yes. So with those who leave this Church. It is the ‘Old Ship Zion.’ Let us stay in it.” And then he added: “If the candle of the Almighty does not shine from this place, you need not seek for its light anywhere else.”