Introduction
Researchers have long highlighted the intersections and similarities between religious and conspiracist beliefs. As early as 1945, Karl Popper cynically suggested that conspiracy theories may represent “the secularization of religious superstition” after noting that the unseen and nearly omnipotent agents of many grand conspiracy theories are virtually indistinguishable from “the Homeric gods whose conspiracies explain the history of the Trojan War.” In time since, many other researchers have noted that conspiracy theories have quasi-religious features inasmuch as “their contents, forms, and functions parallel those found in beliefs supported by institutionalized religions” and that there is an analogy (if not a homology) between religious beliefs and some of the contents and functions of conspiracy theories (Franks et al., 2013). Religious studies scholar, Asbjørn Dyrendal (2020), has more recently observed:
Since there are vital, shared underlying mechanisms, and shared forms and functions, one might ask whether it makes more sense to consider conspiracy theory as religion in the sense that they overlap, rather than as a substitute. The answer is more complicated. While some of the general mechanisms behind conspiracy beliefs and religious beliefs are identical, the empirical relations vary. Dyrendal A. (2020). Conspiracy theory and religion.
In this presentation, we will explore the intersections between conspiracy theory and religion by examining (1) the features and functions shared between religious and conspiracist discourse, and (2) the phenomenon of “conspirituality” and its history in American culture. We will examine the historic relationship between alternative spirituality and conspiracy theory, with each representing parallel currents within an ever-flowing countercultural stream of strategies for satisfying epistemic, existential, and social needs. Finally, we will consider Mormonism as one of many ‘new religious movements’ emerging from the milieu of alternative spiritualities that characterized the “Second Great Awakening,” and persevering as a hotbed of conspirituality into the present.
Quasi-Religious Features
In the introduction to the Handbook of Conspiracy Theory and Contemporary Religion, editors Robertson, Asprem, and Dyrendal (2018) propose that scholars ought to consider the three domains of conspiracy theories in, about, and as religion. Speaking on the lattermost, they implore scholars to explore whether conspiracy theories and religions share “cognitive, psychological, and social constraints” and whether both “provide some of the same functions, for example, with regard to creating in-group identity, maintaining group cohesion, attributing evil, or providing worldviews that make issues of existential importance fathomable.”
When disparate conspiracy beliefs coalesce into a generalized worldview, the lines between conspiracist and religious discourses become even more blurred. This is not only because conspiracy narratives often incorporate religious themes into their contents, but because conspiracist discourse often parallels religious discourse regarding theophilosophical functions. That is, many of the existential questions addressed by religious narratives are also addressed in some manner by conspiracy theories. In the form of holistic worldviews, conspiracy theories and religion both provide narratives addressing the big questions of what is (ontology), how we know (epistemology), what to do (praxeology), and what to aim for (axiology) (Dyrendal, Asprem, & Robertson, 2018; Taves, Asprem, & Ihm, 2018).
Additionally, both conspiracy theories and religious myth are invoked to explain evil and ‘why bad things happen to good people’ (i.e., theodicy). Both affirm that the reality of the universe is more than it seems, with forces and phenomena that are beyond unenlightened comprehension (i.e., enchantment). Both invoke narratives about unseen, intentional agency driving momentous events. Both present values, persons, and groups in dichotomous terms of good and evil. Both often follow patterns of apokalypsis in the mode of prophetic speech that discloses the hidden course of evil’s designs, and through such revelations provide a means of salvation from disastrous consequences (i.e., soteriology). Finally, both promote a worldview that is intrinsically purposeful (i.e., teleology), propose claims that are epistemically unfalsifiable, and often present eschatological and millennialist narratives about the imminent transformation of present circumstances into a new utopian order (Dyrendal, 2020).
Conspirituality
In recent years, sociologists of conspiracism have begun talking about the concept of conspirituality, the confluence of New Age spirituality and conspiracy theory. In their proposal of the concept, Ward and Voas (2011) characterize conspirituality as “a broad politico-spiritual philosophy” rooted in two convictions: “(1) a secret group covertly controls, or is trying to control, the political and social order, and (2) humanity is undergoing a ‘paradigm shift’ in consciousness.”
While Ward and Voas characterize conspirituality as an emerging phenomenon specifically associated with “New Age” spirituality, other scholars have been quick to point out that the intermingling of conspiracy theory and countercultural spirituality is far from something new. Rather, these scholars argue that “it is not so much the confluence of alternative spirituality and conspiracy theory that is novel as the particular modes in which this ‘conspirituality’ is expressed” (Asprem & Dyrendal, 2015).
The Cultic Milieu
To situate our conversation, let us first explore the concept of the cultic milieu—the undercurrent subcultures within broader society wherein participants embrace marginal, forgotten, or rejected beliefs and practices in opposition to the orthodoxies of the societal mainstream. This milieu exists in defiance of the epistemic hegemony—those social institutions that govern, formally or informally, which knowledge and means of knowing (i.e., epistemic capital) are acceptable and which are heretical. Such institutions may include state or religious authorities, the mainstream media, and academia.
Importantly, the cultic milieu is not an independent category definable by the features shared between the beliefs and practices comprising its elements, except for the commonality that said beliefs and practices are rejected by the epistemic hegemony. Therefore, the cultic milieu represents a tapestry of diverse beliefs and practices that are joined together primarily by their status as knowledge domains stigmatized by the mainstream. As such, the content domains of the cultic milieu change across time and place in accordance with evolving standards that separate respectable practices and beliefs from the marginal.
This supportive, seedbed milieu is characterized by a network-based circulation of rejected knowledge, a shared ethos of seekership, and a shared identity based on deviance and opposition to perceived “orthodoxies”. Milieus of this sort are permanent features of any society, [...] but, due to the role of deviance in producing shared identity across the milieu, their content and thematic concerns are entirely contingent on the nature of “establishment” institutions at any given point in history. Asprem E, & Dyrendal A. (2018). Close companions? Esotericism and conspiracy theories.
Because the knowledge domains of the cultic milieu share a commonality in marginalization by “establishment” discourses, the rhetoric of conspiracy theory affords a common language that pervades the milieu and binds its disparate interest groups together. That is, conspiracy theorizing provides a narrative mechanism that rationalizes the legitimacy of the discourses of the cultic milieu, despite their marginal status, by casting them as liberating truths being suppressed by the conspiring authorities of the epistemic hegemony.
The cultic milieu of 21st-century Western society is represented by those domains rejected by the epistemic hegemony of academia, orthodox religion, conventional medicine, the mainstream media, etc. Examples include parapsychology, astrology, alchemy, numerology, spirit channeling, near-death experiences, New Age spirituality, energy healing, homeopathy, etc. Some of these domains in more recent history enjoyed legitimacy among the societal mainstream, whereas others have only ever known acceptance among the fringe. As D. Michael Quinn demonstrates in Early Mormonism and the Magic World View, many practices that are marginal today—including astrology, divination, alchemy, protection magic, visions, and dream interpretation—were relatively common practices of Western “folk religion” and often even the academic elite, well into the 19th century (Quinn, 1998).
With this historical perspective in mind, the conjoined relationship between conspiracy theory and the alternative spiritualities of the cultic milieu is neither new nor surprising.
If we view [conspirituality] as a result of structural elements in the cultic milieu, rising from its interest in stigmatized knowledge, promotion of mystical seekership, and suspicion of ‘establishment’ discourses, we expect to find conspirituality across a much broader historical and cultural span, in all contexts where it makes sense to talk about a cultic milieu. [...] Conspirituality does not necessarily signify the merger of two formerly distinct cultural spheres, but may indicate the common origin of elements that have only later (and only partially) been separated from each other through ideological and situational elaboration in specific interest groups. Asprem E, & Dyrendal A. (2015). Conspirituality reconsidered: How surprising and how new is the confluence of spirituality and conspiracy theory?
Esoteric Roots
As a historic example of conspirituality, consider Western esotericism—the “set of practices and discourses on the intersection of European religion, philosophy, and science that have, historically, come to be rejected by the institutions that decide what counts as real knowledge” (Asprem & Dyrendal, 2018).
Esotericism is of particular relevance for a number of reasons. First, the historical development of esotericism as a cultural category is teeming with conspiracist narratives, which has contributed to the current reality wherein esotericism is “a hotbed for conspiracy theorizing and its attendant publications and networks [are] central vehicles for the transmission of conspiracist motifs” (Asprem & Dyrendal, 2015). Secondly, Mormonism emerged as a new religious movement in a time, place, and community where esoteric practices were highly prevalent, which has consequently left a lasting imprint on the religion (Quinn, 1998). Therefore, understanding the historical relationship between esotericism and conspiracy theory may prove critical to understanding the prevalence of Mormon conspiracism.
The origins of Western esotericism hearken back to the Gnosticism and Hermeticism of the Mediterranean during Late Antiquity. Each featured a dynamic between secrecy and the use of specialized means to obtain revelations of “higher” knowledge. Consequently, the theme of apokalypsis (i.e., revelation of secrets past, present, and future) is prominent in esoteric discourse. This tension between secrecy and revelation, and the emphasis on “special epistemic practices,” are part of what makes esoteric and conspiracist discourses especially compatible.
Gnosticism and Hermeticism were not always viewed as “esoteric” knowledge domains—each “were widely spread and occasionally sanctioned as integral parts of medieval and renaissance worldviews” (Dyrendal, Asprem, & Robertson, 2018). However, these subjects were stigmatized by the epistemic hegemony of the early church fathers and the later Reformation and Counter-Reformation, along with other pagan traditions that were “considered dangerous and heretical influences corrupting Christianity from within.” This stigmatization continued during the subsequent Enlightenment, as esoteric discourse was separated from its theological context and rebranded as bad science and philosophy (Dyrendal, Asprem, & Robertson, 2018). Thus, these knowledge domains became “esoteric” as they were rejected by the mainstream, though they continued to be promoted, in a clandestine manner, even by social elites (Quinn, 1998).
The Second Great Awakening
Both conspiracy theories and new religious movements proliferate during times of social transition or upheaval. The decades following the American Revolutionary War and the founding of the United States as a new nation was certainly one of those times. It is unsurprising that the period of pronounced religious revivalism now termed the Second Great Awakening began in this climate. Like the First Great Awakening of the preceding century, the Second Great Awakening was in no small part a reaction to the influence of Enlightenment rationalism in leading many to embrace Deism, Universalism, Unitarianism, and even atheism. However, whereas the revivalists of the earlier awakening built primarily upon the foundations of established traditions, the momentum of the Second Great Awakening was primarily behind contemporaneously more marginal Christian movements.
This period also witnessed the emergence of several new religious movements, such as Restorationism, Adventism, and Mormonism. Furthermore, alternative spiritualities associated with Western esotericism, such as Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism, also saw a rise in popularity between the First and Second Great Awakenings.
Starting in the nineteenth century, people who were discontent with the rapid social, political, and religious upheavals that followed in the wake of the revolutions and the industrialization of society, found a useful resource for opposition in this body of rejected knowledge. [...] The ancient sages once more became the sources of “tradition,” but a sort of tradition that was now already cast as oppositional, underground, and potentially dangerous. Ancient wisdom had been remade as rejected, and possibly suppressed, knowledge. Asprem E, & Dyrendal A. (2018). Close companions? Esotericism and conspiracy theories.
The conflict over the authority to control epistemic capital continued during these periods of revivalism between the established hegemony of the rationalists and Protestant clergy against rising Christian movements and practitioners of magic and esotericism. Quinn (1998) explains that one of the strategies whereby Protestant clergy participated in the effort “to separate religion from magic” was to promote the idea that the age of Christian miracles was over and that any such manifestations of “spiritual gifts” or “supernatural effects” were either “fraudulent illusion or the workings of the Devil” (Quinn, 1998; Thomas, 1971). However, “the clergy and rationalist elite seemed to be losing a battle, ‘since, in part, folk magic represented a reaction against clerical elites and the established order’” (Quinn, 1998; Underwood, 1993).
Mormonism Comes Forth
This is the climate in which Mormonism emerged in early 19th-century New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. As Quinn and numerous other scholars have painstakingly documented, the Smith family and the earliest converts to Mormonism were thoroughly immersed in the esoteric practices of the 19th-century cultic milieu. The Book of Mormon and early Mormon teachings contain pronounced echoes of esoteric and folk magic discourse, in addition to participating in the debates over epistemic capital by denouncing deism, universalism, and atheism, while promoting the continuance of visions, miracles, spiritual gifts, and revelation.
Mormon scripture is also teeming with conspiracist discourse including, for example, narratives about countless secret combinations (e.g., Ether 8), a conspiracy to steal and alter the early Book of Mormon translation manuscript (D&C 10), murderous plots against the Saints “in the secret chambers” (D&C 38:13, 28), “the Nicolaitane band and all their secret abominations” (D&C 117:11), the order of Master Mahan (Moses 5), “evils and designs […] of conspiring men in the last days” (D&C 89:4), and “the subtle craftiness of men” who “lie in wait to deceive” and keep earnest seekers from the truth via “hidden things of darkness” (D&C 123:12–14).
For these and other reasons, I submit that early Mormonism can be viewed as a particular expression of conspirituality that emerged from the cultic milieu at the periphery of the Second Great Awakening. It represents a blend of alternative spirituality, oppositional to the Protestant establishment, with the practices and conspiritualist discourses of Western esotericism. Mormonism subverted the epistemic hegemony of the day through claims to revelation of “higher” knowledge through specialized channels coupled with narratives of conspiracy to hide and suppress those truths by shadowy and powerful opponents. It situated Mormon converts as plucky underdogs, the heirs of the blessings of Israel through divinely preserved lineages, and participating in the final moments of an eternal cosmic conflict between the forces of righteousness and the conspiring agents of Satan.
At a very basic level, Mormonism combined diverse elements from nonconformist spiritualities and alternative histories of the 19th-century American cultic milieu, weaving them together with a conspiracist discourse regarding Apostasy and the exclusivist Restoration of the esoteric truths. Truths that would usher in a new age for humanity via the revelation of a “New and Everlasting Covenant” and the establishment of Zion—the utopian Kingdom of God on Earth.
Mormon Conspirituality
To summarize, conspirituality is an expression of countercultural spirituality that 1) embraces knowledge and practices rejected by the epistemic authorities of the mainstream, 2) presents this counterknowledge as essential to elevate humanity to a more enlightened state, and 3) explains the marginal status of this counterknowledge as the product of active suppression by conspiring others. Inasmuch as it is always a reaction to a particular epistemic hegemony, any expression of conspirituality in history will inevitably reflect the cultic milieu of the time in place from which it arises.
Mormonism, I argue, is an expression of conspirituality reflecting the cultic milieu of the 19th-century American environment from which it emerged. As the ethics, knowledge, and practices of mainstream American society have evolved over time, so too has Mormon conspirituality. To illustrate this point, let us examine Mormon conspirituality at two different points in time: 1) the period of relative separatism and isolationism that characterizes Mormonism during the 19th century, and 2) the Mormon conspirituality of the present era.
Victorian Counter-culture
There can be, perhaps, no better example of Mormonism as 19th-century American conspirituality than its founding text—The Book of Mormon. Joseph Smith claimed to translate an ancient Christian record created by the previous inhabitants of the American continent, by means of the gift and power of God. The Book of Mormon presents the Bible as not only deficient, but purposefully made so by agents of the Great and Abominable Church, who have removed plain and precious truths from its text. Smith presented The Book of Mormon as restoring these suppressed truths, while also advancing an alternative history of both Indigenous Americans and the people of Israel. This alternative history drew from ideas regarding the lost tribes of Israel and the mound-builder civilization, that were by no means accepted by the contemporary mainstream, even if they enjoyed a degree of marginal popularity (Vogel, 1986; Dougherty, 2021).
Beyond that, however, Smith and his closest early associates were immersed in the “magical worldview” of his time and place that espoused belief in dowsing rods, stone gazing, enchanted treasures, guardian spirits, protective amulets, fortune talismans, astrology, palmistry, divination, visions, etc (Quinn 1998; Brooks, 1994). These can be considered part of the cultic milieu of 19th-century New England. It was via the same peep stone with which he purported to locate lost items and buried treasure that Smith claimed to translate the gold plates and later receive revelations for the church. The Book of Mormon and many of these early revelations contained pronounced conspiracist themes, including ancient secret societies and contemporary conspiring malcontents determined to suppress the truth and thwart those seeking it. Mixed with these themes were also assurances that God was about to perform a marvelous work that would usher in a new and glorious age of enlightenment and utopian peace—a work in which Smith’s followers would play a critical role.
As a new religious and social movement, early Mormonism represented a full-throated rejection of contemporary mainstream Christianity. Despite this, Mormonism drew on the ideas of the religious environment from which it emerged, either by reacting to them or adopting them in modified form. Hence, we see clear repudiations in The Book of Mormon of the Calvinism, deism, universalism, and rationalism of the time, but also the incorporation of versions of Arminian and Methodist theology. In Ohio, Mormonism was highly influenced by Campbellite Restorationism, from which it drew the bulk of its early converts. Restorationism itself was a reactionary movement seeking a return to the primitive Christianity from which it perceived the contemporary mainstream had apostatized. Its exponents claimed to be producing “a Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things.”
“Mormonism is a heretical elaboration of American Protestant Christianity.”
Joanna Brooks (2020). Mormonism and White Supremacy
Together, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon incorporated modified versions of Campbellite ideas into Mormonism’s developing theology. A catalyst for much of this theological development was Smith’s project to revise the Bible. Again, this effort was inspired by beliefs that fundamental truths had been removed from the Bible, resulting in mainstream Christianity being in “an awful state of blindness.” By revising the Bible, Smith was rejecting the mainstream Christian authorities of his day and presenting oppositional counterknowledge.
Joseph Smith provided an expanded version of the early chapters of Genesis in what we now have as The Book of Moses. In his version, Smith re-imagines the Genesis creation accounts into a single unified narrative and provides an alternative telling of the Garden of Eden myth. Here Satan is elevated to a pre-existent being who first conspired to usurp God’s authority and destroy the agency of humankind, and thereafter to sabotage God’s plan by tempting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Smith also presents Cain as not just the first murderer, but as the father of an ancient secret society—Satanic in its origins—and perpetuated through subsequent generations into the present. Smith’s revision seemingly draws inspiration from pseudepigraphal works, such as the Enochic literature, that were rejected as credible by mainstream Christian authorities but were nonetheless available to the cultic milieu of Smith’s day (Townsend, 2020).
As with The Book of Mormon, Smith’s revision of Genesis produces an alternative Biblical history representing counterknowledge in defiance of the Christian epistemic hegemony of his day. Smith would replicate this approach with his translation of The Book of Abraham from standard funerary scrolls that accompanied two Egyptian mummies purchased in Kirtland, Ohio. The Book of Abraham contains many of Mormonism’s distinctive theological ideas, including the pre-existence of humankind, the astronomy of Heaven, a revised creation account supporting a henotheist cosmology, and a harmonization of 19th-century racial theories regarding the Curse of Cain and the Curse of Ham. Each of these, in their own way, may be considered forms of counterknowledge challenging the epistemic capital of mainstream authorities.
The Countercultural Kingdom of God
In addition to presenting religious counterknowledge at odds with the American Protestant establishment, early Mormonism also represented a countercultural social experiment and a rejection of conventional societal norms. The earliest and most prominent example is the communitarianism of what is now called the United Order.
Before Joseph Smith moved the church to Ohio and revealed a system of ecclesiastically-directed communitarianism, Isaac Morley and several others were already living a system of common property on his farm. Members of Morley’s “Big Family” were likely inspired by the Owenites, who had had established a community as “the Friendly Association for Mutual Interests” in nearby Kendal, Ohio. The Owenites were followers of the social reform ideas promoted by Robert Owen, whose principal philosophy centered around the abolition of private or individual property in a community of commonly shared resources (Staker, 2010).
Not long after the Owenite community in Kendal collapsed, Isaac Morley, along with several other families who would become early converts to Mormonism, formed a cooperative community founded upon Owenite principles—located on Morley’s expansive farmland. Shortly after his arrival in Ohio, Joseph Smith transformed this informal common property system into a system of church-directed consecration and stewardship. The purposes of this new project were manifold. In addition to “restoring” a practice of the ancient Christian church, the United Firm provided for the Smith family and his closest associates, created a system to ostensibly support the poor, and financed the church’s effort to colonize Missouri and establish the political kingdom of God on earth (Staker, 2010).
This project was firmly rooted in Mormon eschatology, which predicted the imminent apocalypse and terrible calamities awaiting the Gentile nations, followed by the Second Coming of Christ who would establish his utopian millennial kingdom among the surviving faithful. It’s hard to imagine what could be more oppositional to the hegemony of state and religious establishment than this eschatological vision. Supported by the properties and funds consecrated by members in Ohio, the Mormons began to acquire lands in Missouri where the Latter-day Saints could take refuge from the coming storm and eventually build the New Jerusalem.
When the Missouri Zion project came under threat from opposition by the old Missouri settlers, this was interpreted as evidence of the Satanic conspiracy against the Saints. The Mormons responded by creating a church war department, raising a militia, and marching out to forcibly retake what was theirs. Though this unconventional approach failed, the Saints would return to paramilitarism with the formation of the Danites—an oath-bound secret militia—during the conflicts of the Missouri-Mormon war.
When the Mormons settled in Illinois, they embarked on yet another unconventional political project wherein they systematically blurred the distinctions between church and state. Smith envisioned a system of “theodemocracy” as a replacement for the established system of republican democracy. In secret, he established the Council of Fifty to represent the eventual theodemocratic government that would supersede the existing government and function as a replacement for the US Constitution.
Creating A Peculiar People
Early Mormons also developed several countercultural notions of kinship. The most famous of these is Smith’s system of plural marriage, but others warrant examination as well. Mormons believed that they were the modern representation of ancient Israel, not just in a spiritual or figurative sense, but by literal genealogical descent. While this notion was nebulous in the 1830s, it would become increasingly concrete over the following 150 years. As early as the translation of The Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith identified himself as being of Israelite descent. He would reaffirm this idea in subsequent revelations now contained in The Doctrine and Covenants. He would also extend Israelite lineage to others in the Mormon ecclesiastical hierarchy. Subsequent Mormon authorities would further extend it to white Latter-day Saints generally. This was made most explicit through the ritual of patriarchal blessings, which increasingly made a priority of declaring Israelite lineage for white Latter-day Saints within even Joseph Smith’s lifetime.
In the decades after his death, the notion that white Latter-day Saints were literal descendants of scattered Israel became more and more prominent within the faith, coinciding with the rise of Anglo-Israelism on both sides of the Atlantic. By the late 19th-century, Latter-day Saint general authorities were publishing their own works synthesizing Anglo-Israelism with Mormon doctrine in the shaping of a unique Mormon identity. Throughout the bulk of the 20th-century, efforts to continue this identity work among new generations of Mormons were extensive and bore the stamp of church sanction through official publications and instructional materials produced by the church.
Of course, the most prominent way in which Mormons reimagined kinship counter to the conventions of the societal mainstream was via plural marriage. Like many other marginal new religious movements in 19th-century America, Mormons came to reject traditional monogamous marriage. Contemporaneously, the Shakers practiced celibacy, the Cochranites explored “spiritual wifery,” the Oneida community experimented with “complex marriage,” and the Mormons developed “celestial marriage.” Much has been written about Mormon polygamy, so I won’t belabor the point. Suffice it to say that in the cultic milieu of the Second Great Awakening, it wasn’t uncommon to reject traditional narratives regarding marriage and kinship in favor of counterknowledge ofttimes presented as the restoration of the practices from a forgotten, more enlightened past.
Few things provide as sharp an example of Mormon conspirituality as Nauvoo polygamy. Introduced as an esoteric doctrine only to be disclosed to those few spiritually prepared to receive it—the confidentiality of which Smith reinforced via solemn rituals appropriated from Masonry—Mormon plural marriage began as a conspiracy unto itself. Undoubtedly, Joseph Smith and his initiated associates perceived themselves as part of a “benevolent conspiracy” which had to keep their practices hidden for the present from the unenlightened who would oppose them (Walker, 2014). They viewed those who labored to expose their secret society as part of a Luciferian conspiracy to impede their holy work.
In Nauvoo, we see how those most prone to view their world through the lens of conspiracy are also more likely to engage in conspiracy against their perceive enemies. Here I am speaking both of those Mormons who secretly practiced polygamy and those who sought to expose it. It can similarly be applied to the vigilante paramilitarism of the Missouri War and afterwards. This pattern of conspiracy and counter-conspiracy continued in the Utah territorial period, in the rise of Mormon Fundamentalism, and into the present day. After a fashion, it is the truest prophecy ever produced by Mormonism—sustained again and again via perpetual self-fulfillment.
Fundamentally Conflicted
At the turn of the 20th century, American Christianity found itself engaged in a battle over control of the cultural institutions that set the priorities regarding which forms of epistemic capital are deemed valid and which are to be rejected. On one side, there were the Modernists, who were busy about the work of updating Christian theology in the light of advances in scientific knowledge and Biblical criticism. Opposing them were the Fundamentalists, who doubled down on the inerrancy of the Bible, the historicity of its narrative content, and the empirical reality of Biblical miracles. The Fundamentalists were especially dedicated to resisting secular influences on Christian theology from the sciences and liberal academic scholarship on the Bible.
At the same time, Mormonism also found itself at a crossroads regarding its place and relationship with the American religiopolitical mainstream. The Latter-day Saints had recently been compelled to abandon the practice of polygamy, had just secured Utah statehood, and elected Reed Smoot—a sitting member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles—to the US Senate. At this moment, the Mormons were afforded an opportunity to wield a measure of real political power at the national level, provided they could sufficiently assimilate and find acceptance by the American mainstream. Having lost much of their relative isolation, they were not left unaffected by the battle for control over the epistemic hegemony taking place through the politics and discourse of American Protestantism.
As the fundamentalist-modernist controversy raged and divided Protestant denominations, Mormons also had their internal debates over the historicity and authority of scripture, how to harmonize Mormon doctrines with scientific discoveries, and the implications for the faith of secular scholarship on the Bible. We can find LDS general authorities representing either side of the internal Mormon microcosm of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy.
The Utah Mormons also faced a challenge from within, with the rise of Mormon Fundamentalism and its competing claims to authority. This also represented a battle over epistemic capital. Mormon Fundamentalist figures like Lorin C. Woolley, J. Leslie Broadbent, Alma Dayer LeBaron, and Elden Kingston built their claims to authority on charisma, counterknowledge, and appeals to the teachings of previous Mormon leaders. But the hierarchy within the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve wielded institutional authority and control over church resources, making them the de facto Mormon epistemic hegemony. Despite this advantage, however, the direction taken by the LDS church at this time was almost certainly influenced by the challenges to institutional authority represented by the rise of Mormon Fundamentalism.
Ironically, just as the Fundamentalists lost the battle over control of the epistemic hegemony and were retreating to society’s margins, those advocating for an anti-modernist expression of Mormonism (e.g., Clark, Fielding Smith, McConkie, Benson) were seizing control of institutional discourse, and largely shaped the 20th-century LDS church in their image. This trajectory ensured that Latter-day Saints remained outside the American mainstream but also set them up to be aligned with white Evangelicals and the resurgent Protestant Fundamentalism of the latter 20th century.
Mormon Conspirituality Today
Despite an extensive and ongoing campaign to secure acceptance into the American mainstream, many Mormons still find appeal in the rejected knowledge and conspiracist discourse of the cultic milieu. Indeed, a rich ecosystem supplies ample resources to Mormons looking to satisfy epistemic, existential, and social needs among the knowledge domains of the cultic milieu. This includes individuals seeking spiritual enlightenment beyond what they find in the pews and or the curated instructional materials of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Numerous online forums, publishing companies, nonprofit foundations, and pseudoscholastic conferences cater themselves specifically to such persons looking for esoteric Mormon knowledge and spiritual fulfillment.
As already mentioned, the cultic milieu of 21st-century Western society is represented by those stigmatized knowledge domains presently excluded from the societal mainstream. Examples include parapsychology, astrology, alchemy, channeling, numerology, ufology, pseudoarchaeology, the New Age, homeopathy, etc. Several topical domains of the cultic milieu have found outsized popularity among Mormons. These include naturopathy, visionary near-death experiences, apocalypticism, anti-government conspiracism, and varieties of pseudohistory and pseudoarchaeology. The reasons for the popularity of these particular domains have everything to do with Mormon history and theology, which we will further consider in a moment. For now, suffice it to say that Mormonism’s origins as an expression of American conspirituality—and the decision by Mormon leaders to pursue a course of conspiracist anti-modernism during the 20th-century—have served to keep Mormons in contact with the discourse of other domains of the cultic milieu.
Revelations and Visionary Experiences
A critical feature of Mormon doctrine is the democratization of individualized revelatory experience to anyone, irrespective of their position or authority in the church. This notion presented challenges right from the infancy of the movement, so Joseph Smith quickly instituted constraints regarding who is authorized to receive revelations on behalf of whom. Even so, the tradition that any member—no matter their status in the community—is entitled to receive direct divine communications from God, remains a hallmark of the Mormon faith. Perhaps then, it is little wonder that discourse rooted in the epistemic capital of personal visionary experiences has flourished in Mormon communities. Conspicuous among these are near-death experiences (NDEs) and apocalyptic visions regarding the imminent American eschaton.
Mormons have produced a wealth of popular literature on these topics. Some prominent examples include Betty Eadie’s Embraced by the Light, John Pontius’s Visions of Glory, or Julie Rowe’s A Greater Tomorrow. In his book, Terrible Revolution, Chris Blythe (2020) demonstrates how the content and functions of today’s Mormon NDE and apocalyptic literature continue the historical traditions established by Mormon figures during the 19th century. Blythe details how Mormon exponents generated a wealth of apocalyptic literature featuring multiple recurring themes: the destruction of the Gentile nations via plagues, tyrannical governance, racial conflict, and an eventual descent into anarchy, complete with roving bands of degenerate marauders. The dark works of conspiring agents—especially the sinister machinations of a nefarious one-world government—make frequent appearances in this literature. Interspersed with these motifs are other Mormon eschatological themes regarding the gathering of Israel, the redemption of the Lamanites, the preservation of the US Constitution by the righteous, the founding of the New Jerusalem in the American heartland, and the refuge of the Saints who will weather the horrors of the premillennial tribulation in divinely-protected sanctuary cities.
The NDE literature also regularly features Mormon cosmological ideas, particularly regarding the preexistence of the soul, the continuance of earthly social relationships in the afterlife, and the eventual multi-tiered meritorious glorification of humankind. The NDE literature is often the avenue whereby authors introduce visions presenting Mormon teleological interpretations of human history and Mormon eschatology regarding the American apocalypse. Betty Eadie’s Embraced by the Light was a #1 New York Times bestseller, selling over 15 million copies worldwide, and was the first book endorsed by Oprah on television.
The Mormon influence in this space is so pronounced that one can often detect Mormon eschatological motifs in the NDE literature produced by non-Mormons. This, of course, is interpreted by Mormons as validation of Mormon ideas, rather than the cross-pollination of ideas from different interest groups within a shared domain of the cultic milieu. The popularity of NDE literature among Mormons has also led to a smaller, growing body of “pre-birth experience” literature, wherein authors relate accounts of memories from their life before birth.
Intra-Mormon Conspiritualist Discourse
Another way in which Mormon conspirituality is manifest in the present day is through the discourse between different Mormon interest groups within Mormondom. The internal discourse in various Mormon communities regularly features conspiracy theories involving Mormonism itself. Let us examine three examples of intra-Mormon discourse that typify the function of conspiracy theories in and about Mormonism.
Book of Mormon Pseudoarchaeology
Our first example will focus on efforts by apologists to validate Mormon doctrine by syncretizing scientific and archaeological discoveries with Mormon scripture and the teachings of early Mormon leaders. Let us consider the attempt to pinpoint Book of Mormon geography and to find archaeological evidence supporting its narrative and its claim to be the literal, factual history of real ancient peoples. The overwhelming mainstream consensus outside of Mormondom is that archaeological evidence directly contradicts the details of The Book of Mormon’s narrative. Therefore, Mormon apologetics in Book of Mormon geography are best understood as pseudoarchaeological counterknowledge in opposition to mainstream scholarship and to advance religious rhetorical goals.
Mormon apologists sometimes invoke conspiracist rhetoric to explain why their interpretations of archaeological data in support of The Book of Mormon are rejected by mainstream scholars. Namely, the suppression of supporting information and the censorship of Mormon scholars by the Gentile-controlled epistemic hegemony. Altogether, Mormon apologetics in Book of Mormon geography meet the definition of conspirituality by 1) advancing counterknowledge rejected by the mainstream, 2) explaining the rejection of this counterknowledge via suppression by conspiring others, and 3) promoting this counterknowledge as capable of precipitating a paradigm shift in human understanding about the universe and our place in it.
Our discussion of this example might end here if it weren’t for an ironic twist. Within the space of apologetics regarding Book of Mormon geography, there exist competing factions engaged in a contentious debate over which pseudoarchaeological model should garner widespread acceptance within Mormondom. In effect, there is an ongoing battle over epistemic capital and control over the internal epistemic hegemony of Mormonism regarding Book of Mormon geography. On one side, there are organizations like FAIR, the Interpreter Foundation, and Book of Mormon Central—which enjoy the favor and support of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and institutional bodies of the LDS church. These represent pieces of the internal LDS epistemic hegemony. On the other side, there are figures like the FIRM Foundation, Jonathan Neville, Wayne May, and the Joseph Smith Foundation—who advance a Heartland model of Book of Mormon geography in opposition to the Mesoamerican model favored by the LDS epistemic hegemony.
The rhetoric of the Heartlanders fits the model of conspirituality even better than that of those who favor the Mesoamerican theory. After a manner, the Heartlanders represent an expression of the Mormon cultic milieu that exists within the broader cultic milieu of general society. As we will see, in this counterculture of a counterculture, a rich ecosystem exists that supports the dissemination of stigmatized knowledge rejected by the already marginal Mormon epistemic hegemony. Within this milieu, Mormon conspiritualists find themselves in dialogue with entrepreneurs of especially marginal epistemic capital.
For example, one of the primary exponents of the Heartland model, Wayne May, is a frequent contributor and editor of Ancient American magazine. The magazine’s self-stated purpose is “to describe the prehistory of the American Continent, regardless of presently fashionable beliefs” and “to provide a public forum for certified experts and nonprofessionals alike to freely express their views without fear nor favor.” Over its nearly 30-year history, Ancient American has featured articles on such far-ranging topics as “Did the Incas Sail to Africa?”, “Inscribed Bone Puts Vikings in Utah,” “Hebrews in 1st Century Illinois,” and “Is Cuba the Lost Island of Atlantis?”
Notably, Ancient American magazine was founded by Frank Collin, who served as a long-time editor and frequent contributor under the penname “Frank Joseph.” Prior to his involvement with the magazine, Collin was involved with the National Socialist White People’s Party (aka the American Nazi Party), and later formed the National Socialist Party of America. After serving a sentence for child molestation, Collin adopted the pseudonym of Frank Joseph and started a career as a New Age writer and exponent of pseudoarchaeology. Wayne May and Frank Collin have maintained a collegial relationship through their shared interest in conspiritualist pseudoarchaeology and collaborative involvement with Ancient American magazine, starting with its inaugural issue.
Competing Mormon Historiographies
Our second example of intra-Mormon conspiritualist discourse highlights another fault line within Mormondom representing the battle between different interest groups over epistemic capital. Specifically, it is a fight over which of competing faith-affirming historiographies should prevail as the “official” retelling of Mormon history. Let us look at two examples.
In response to the increased availability of controversial information regarding details of Mormon history via the internet, as well as advancements in the scholarship of Mormon historians, the mainstream LDS church has in recent years taken a more forthright approach to its presentation of LDS history. Supported by the excellent resources provided by the Joseph Smith Papers Project, the LDS church has published an updated account of its history via the multivolume Saints series. Additionally, it quietly released the Gospel Topics Essays as an apologetics resource for responding to members’ doubts arising from troubling aspects of Mormon history. The topics of these include Joseph Smith’s involvement with folk magic and treasure seeking, the “translation” of The Book of Mormon via folk magic methods, the origins and later rationalizations for the racial restrictions on access to the priesthood and temple ordinances, and Joseph Smith’s polygamy in Nauvoo and its continuance by his successors.
In a not-too-distant past, the details of these subjects were outright denied and sometimes suppressed by LDS ecclesiastical authorities or LDS apologists, to which longtime supporters of Sunstone can attest. These subjects were certainly not openly discussed in church settings without considerable social stigma. To a degree, that has changed, demonstrated by the far more transparent historiography of present-day church materials. That change was wrought, in no small part, through decades of contentious debate over epistemic capital between the ecclesiastical hierarchy and allied LDS apologists against critical Mormon and non-Mormon scholars. In this case, the epistemic capital deemed acceptable by the internal Mormon epistemic hegemony has changed as product of these debates.
However, not all Mormons are happy to see these changes and some interest groups continue to battle for control of the Mormon epistemic hegemony in favor of a traditionalist historiography. Among the leaders in this effort is the Joseph Smith Foundation, which has been active in accusing the Church Education System, the Maxwell Institute, the Church History Department, and even members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, of being deceived or complicit in a conspiracy by progressive Mormon scholars to rewrite Mormon history with a false, faith-destroying narrative based on anti-Mormon disinformation. The JSF argues that a rejection of these “new narratives” and the adoption of a traditionalist, hagiographic portrayal of Joseph Smith and Mormon history is necessary to enlighten Latter-day Saints to revolutionary truths of the Restoration and to recognize their true identity and purpose in preparing the world for the coming Kingdom of Christ.
Regarding that identity and purpose, the JSF and its associates emphatically promote a Mormon-flavored version of Anglo-Israelism—the belief that northwestern European peoples are descendants of the fabled lost tribes of Israel. JSF materials enthusiastically promote these pseudohistorical claims, marry them with narratives about the Israelite ancestry of Indigenous Americans, and even present the novel claim that some white Mormons are also descendants of Nephite explorers. They claim that proper recognition of this identity will awaken Latter-day Saints to the great responsibility that is part of their divine birthright, to establish the latter-day Zion. Notably, the JSF and its associates are also proponents of the Heartland model of Book of Mormon geography, already discussed. In this we see another example of Mormon conspirituality expressed within the already conspiritualist counterculture that is Mormondom relative to broader society.
One more example in the theme of intra-Mormon battles over historiography also bears mentioning. In recent years, we have witnessed a resurgence of conspiracist historiography that denies Joseph Smith practiced polygamy. Rather, Mormon polygamy is the product of a conspiracy within the early Mormon movement that ultimately resulted in Smith’s assassination and an effectual coup over ecclesiastical control of the church. This narrative isn’t particularly new; it has been popular at different points of time among interest groups who rejected Brigham Young’s authority and never practiced polygamy. The most recent expression of it, however, has found popularity amongst disaffected former members of the mainstream Brighamite church, who nonetheless retain a devout faith in Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. These are typically members involved in the Denver Snuffer and Doctrine of Christ adjacent milieu of Mormons, sometimes called “the Remnant Movement.”
Figures in this space have been very active in promoting conspiracist content that impugns the LDS mainstream. A conspicuous example is the multipart documentary, Who Killed Joseph Smith?, produced by Justin Griffin. Griffin assiduously presents a conspiracy narrative that fingers Willard Richards and John Taylor as the true murderers of Joseph Smith at Carthage jail. In online forums, exponents of this conspiracy theory—such as Rob Fotheringham, Mark Curtis, Michelle Stone, and John Hajicek—trade in supporting narratives about the forging of historical documents to coverup this takeover conspiracy and introduce a false narrative about Joseph Smith’s involvement in polygamy. Supporters of this conspiracy theory believe that an understanding of this counterknowledge is the key to awakening Latter-day Saints to the “awful state of blindness” in which they reside, and catalyzing a paradigm-shift in understanding that will prepare believers for the revolutionary return of Christ.
Organized Ritual Sex Abuse
This brings us to our final example of intra-Mormon conspiritualist discourse. In 1991, a 12-page church memorandum addressed to the Strengthening Church Members Committee was leaked to the press. The subject was on clandestine Satanic ritual abuse within the ranks of the church—written by presiding bishopric second counselor, Glenn L. Pace. The memo detailed Pace’s interviews with church members who recalled memories of ritualized abuse as children. Pace’s report detailed that children were being “instructed in Satanic doctrine” and “baptized by blood into the Satanic order, which is meant to cancel out their baptism in the Church.” Pace suggested that abusers were using and corrupting the oaths and rituals of the temple endowment ceremony, and reported that many victims had flashbacks of abuse when receiving their temple endowment. The report also spoke of human sacrifice, including ritualized infanticide. Pace wrote that “when sixty witnesses testify to the same type of torture and murder, it becomes impossible for me, personally, not to believe them.”
Shortly after the leak of the Pace Memorandum, the Utah legislature allocated $250,000 to investigate reports of Satanic ritual abuse in the state. Over 30 months, investigators interviewed hundreds of victims, but concluded there was insufficient evidence of the Satanic elements of these incidents. Importantly, many of these cases verified cases of real abuse, but the details regarding Satanic rituals being the context of that abuse could not be corroborated. To many, the reported details of these episodes are incredible today but at the time the US was in the midst of a moral panic over Satanic influences hidden in everyday society.
The widely accepted beginning of this moral panic is dated to the 1980 with the publication of Michelle Remembers, which detailed “recovered memories” of Satanic ritual abuse revealed via hypnosis in therapy sessions between the coauthors. Two years earlier, however, Mormon author Beatrice Sparks published Jay’s Journal, which presented itself as the anonymized autobiographical journals of a troubled Utah teenager whose tragic suicide was precipitated by his involvement in clandestine Satan worship. Sparks had previously written the national bestseller, Go Ask Alice, which established the genre of allegedly true stories presented in the format of anonymized journals of teenagers whose lives had tragically come apart via involvement with immoral social influences. Neither Go Ask Alice nor Jay’s Journal are remotely factual stories, but in the minds of the countless who have read these books, they are nonetheless true. For now, Jay’s Journal is of particular interest because it details a story written by a Mormon author, involving Mormon characters, and widely retold among a Mormon audience.
Also contributing to this moral panic was Mormon therapist, Barbara Snow, who came to specialize in so-called “recovered memory” therapy and was a clinical director at the Intermountain Sexual Abuse Treatment Center. Snow was an avid practitioner of clinical methods that have since been denounced by respected professional psychiatric associations. It was via exposure to these methods that Snow’s patients developed a pattern of suddenly remembering vividly detailed episodes of ritualized sex abuse. One of those patients is the now infamous alternative health and spirituality guru, Teal Swan. Unsurprisingly, many of the cases investigated by the State of Utah’s investigation were also Barbara Snow’s patients.
Among the patients “treated” by Barbara Snow were grandchildren of her work colleague and the co-founder of the Intermountain Sexual Abuse Treatment Center, Marion Smith. According to a report composed by Smith, after being interrogated by Snow, these children reported several episodes of ritualized sexual abuse at the hands of their father. Moreover, this abuse allegedly occurred as part of an organized child sex abuse ring that regularly met in the home of Russell M. Nelson’s daughter and son-in-law, also accused of being chief participants. Later investigation confirmed that the father indeed abused his children, but none of the details regarding “touching parties” and an organized cell of ritual child sex abusers have ever been—or ever will be—confirmed. Nonetheless, this story, and others like it, of organized cells of child sex abusers hiding among the Mormon elite continue to be distributed in many circles today.
This particular example of intra-Mormon conspiracy discourse is fascinating for a number of reasons. First, it is one that in one form or another, finds a receptive audience among a wide swath of different Mormon interest groups. As evidenced by the Pace Memorandum, it has at times found endorsement by devout mainstream Latter-day Saints, even among the upper ecclesiastical hierarchy. In other forms, it has been (and continues to be) wielded against the LDS mainstream and its leaders. In her report, Marion Smith claimed that members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles were involved in suppressing investigation into child sexual abuse by members of then Elder Nelson’s family. This narrative of coverup and complicity at the very top of the LDS hierarchy has made this particular expression of intra-Mormon conspiracy theorizing considerably popular among disparate interest groups that express no love for the LDS church. Thus, where one may most reliably encounter these stories today are among some Mormon Fundamentalists—particularly in the online forums of the aforementioned polygamy-denying variety—and among some exMormons.
It should not be surprising that exMormons sometimes also show a predilection toward conspiracy theories, especially involving Mormon history or the LDS church. Having typically been enculturated within Mormon communities, exMormons should not be expected to be free from the cultural influences that socially condition a proclivity to see the world through a conspiracist lens. Certainly, a loss of belief in the truth claims and religious narratives of Mormonism may decrease the likelihood that an individual will endorse conspiracy theories invoking those narratives. However, exMormons are also more likely to endorse conspiracy theories involving the LDS church—a feature they share in common with many Mormon Fundamentalists. At the end of the day, there is more than one way to Mormon and that includes more than one way to be a Mormon conspiracist.
Conclusion
The examples we’ve discussed today demonstrate how, historically and in the present, Mormonism may be understood as an expression of conspirituality, by 1) making claims of marginalized counterknowledge in opposition to the epistemic hegemony of the social and religious mainstream, 2) presenting said counterknowledge as the key to awakening humanity to a higher state of enlightenment in preparation for a forthcoming utopian age, and 3) invoking the rhetoric of conspiracy to explain why Mormon counterknowledge is rejected by the mainstream.
We must acknowledge that “religious communities do not speak with one voice.” Like any faith community, Mormondom is a broad and complicated spectrum of Mormon expressions that defy categorization. There are hundreds of documented expressions of Mormonism with a variety of doctrinal and cultural differences. Moreover, adherents within a single one of these denominational expressions are not homogeneous and comprise a diversity of religious beliefs and attitudes. Therefore, whatever statement we make regarding Mormon conspiracism is inherently a generalization that will not represent every Mormon or every Mormon community.
By understanding Mormonism as conspirituality, my hope is that we can better appreciate how the discourse and social dynamics of Mormon communities may encourage, to varying degrees, conspiracy thinking among individuals at different points of the Mormon spectrum. By applying a framework that situates Mormon discourse as a battle over epistemic capital in tension with the authorities that circumscribe the acceptable discourse of the mainstream, we can better understand how Mormon discourse functions to construct identities infused with a sense of righteous peculiarity and divinely-guided purpose. Equipped with such a framework, my hope is that we can develop better strategies to curtail the proliferation of socially isolating and dangerous conspiracy theories within our Mormon communities.
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