Mormon Temple Washing & Anointing Ritual w/ hidden camera

This footage was recorded in the Mesa Arizona Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormon) on May 21, 2016. This is called the "Washing & Anointing" ceremony and it has evolved significantly over the years. Up until the 1950's, initiates in this ritual were required to stand completely naked in front of two strangers as they were touched all over their bodies with water and consecrated oil.

Sometime starting around 1930 initiates were allowed to wear a very thin "shield" that closely resembled a white poncho with slits up both sides throughout the entire ritual. The ordinance workers would reach under the "shield" to touch various parts of the initiates body. Up until at least the mid-1950's the ceremony still required the initiate to stand completely naked in front of two temple ordinance workers without the "shield" covering their naked body.

The practice of touching the initiate all over their bodies stopped on Jan. 18, 2005 when the ordinance was changed so that the temple workers would only touch the initiate on their forehead and the the initiate would wear their temple garments (aka underwear) underneath a much thicker and more modest "shield".

On May 17, 2016 the rules were changed once again. Now initiates are fully clothed throughout the entire ritual and the shields are being phased out completely.

I'm on Twitter: @NewNameNoah

[MrJamesv]

"I wash your head, so that your brain and your intellect may be clear and active..."

So it's kinda their fault we all woke up, isn't it? ;)

[jodelhauitiii]

I went through for the first time 2002 before I was sent on my mission.
I hadn't the faintest idea of what will happen and found my self naked with a shield in front of an old lady with a very bad breath.
I was touched by her under the poncho to be washed, anointed and dressed in the garment.
I felt horrible and confused.
Later when I did it "on behalf" I had to endure the procedure a dozen times in a row.
Washing anointing dressing the G and repeat.
I just have not a single good memory of the temple. Not the dead dunking, not the endowment, not my wedding. Everything was just horrible and awful to me. I still can't understand why I tortured myself for nearly a decade with it.

[AxelQC]

I did W&A once and vowed never to do it again. I found it creepy and disturbing. This was in 1989 in the days of the shield, when a creepy old man would touch you in uncomfortable places, then hand you the magic undies.

[davidandersen]

Weird - I don’t remember my washing and anointing. I can only imagine I was overwhelmed. I do remember that my father was there to essentially help me through to offset the creepy factor. I went through in 1978 - My recollection was of how the slitting of my throat completely confused me. But looking around my Mother, Father and brother did it, so who was I to say anything, I was just a kid…

[HarunAlMalik]

that wink got me laughing. good work NNN.

[candiecand]

I'm glad that I am no longer a mormon and have never been to the temple. Thank you LORD.

[theofficialloricrandall]

This is the first I have ever known that the men receive the Priesthood in the temple. As a woman it is such a punch in the gut. Men who lived and died doing nothing to "earn" this "power" are vicariously just simply "given" it...and us girls? The hell with us.

[Trillidotia]

"I wash your nose, that you may smell..." LOL!

[cayea]

The Mormon church has made many drastic changes to the temple ceremonies. Too bad there's no videos from before 1990. That's when the naked annointings, and blood oaths demonstrating your throat being slit, heart being cut out, and being disemboweled, ... happened. I wonder though if people still get secret temple names. And if men still get to know their wife's temple names while women are not allowed to know their husband's temple names, which caused such an imbalance of power going into a marriage. I always wondered why a woman could marry a man, sleep with him, have kids with him, and spend the rest of her life with him, but never know his name. I just always felt icky to me. And then there was the very disturbing 5 points of fellowship, ... it was all too much.

[AngelOrtiz-jfxq]

I am former Mormon and 3rd degree Mason, the similarities no concidence, each group says the other burrow from the other. Who's telling the truth 🤔

[Tsarina]

Important differences between the men's and women's ceremonies:
- Women are not given the Priesthood there at the beginning. I think that's not part of the men's live ceremony, but can't confirm. I think it's only for the proxy ordinances (for the dead). Women are however given some kind of "priestesshood" as detailed below.
- Women are anointed preparatory to becoming "Queen and Priestess unto their HUSBANDS" not unto God.
- Women are pronounced clean of the sins of their generation with no strings attached, rather than dependent upon their faithfulness. To some this makes the whole "priestess unto your husband" thing all better. Frankly I find it insulting that I'm guaranteed a lower position, rather than ever being given the option to struggle for a higher one.

Yup. It's all freaky, and I hate it. I went home the night I had all these ceremonies done, cried for hours, and had repeating nightmares about it for the next week or so.

[Lorenzo]

CAMERA VIEW COMMENT/QUESTION: I don't expect you to give away the secret but I am astounded how you got a camera view of your own face from across the cubicle. It appears that the camera is not on your person but on the wall or on the body of the officiator. My fantasy is that you somehow have all the officiators as well as yourself willing participants in the filming. Too bad Go-Pro technology didn't exist a few years ago when we used to do this ordinance mostly naked. That would have been an even better experience for investigators to fully grasp that Mormonism is more creepy than sacred.

[korihortheantichrist]

I can already hear the gnashing of teeth from 50 North Temple.

[gcrranch]

I cant believe people think this is ok! Wow just wow this is insane

[fayelewis]

The devil is the founder of all these things.
Second Nephi 26:22 says, “And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things.”

Secrecy is criticized in Helaman 6:22: “And it came to pass that they did have their signs, yea, their secret signs, and their secret words.”

While some members will claim that Mormon temples are “sacred not secret, ” [church historian Richard] Bushman said that “temples are secret, plain and simple, ” noting that even members “don’t speak to each other about it.”
(“Seek understanding, not converts, Bushman urges Mormons, ” Deseret News, March 6, 2008).

[katjoy]

Who the Hell is "Norman J. Jacobs, who is dead"? is this that creepy baptismal of the dead ceremony?

[order_truth_involvement]

I'm so lucky I left and didn't receive the melckisecrap craphood, the Lord saved me from this cult. I need to save my brother now, he's only 12. I always went to the "baptisms for the dead, I even baptized a few myself, just doing what I was told, but I never felt good. I never felt the mormon holy ghost. I honestly just felt awkward. This is not of God.

[truthseeker]

So different! I went for my first, and for MANY times afterward for the dead, to the Mesa AZ. temple too. This is NOT what I experienced. Such changes to those 'eternal principles' boggle my mind.

[tonyd]

healthy bowels? are they actually praying that you have heakthy shits or is there another meaning to the word bowels there?

[johnw]

NNN, you had a perfect opportunity...if you believe in it, you could've scared those guys to death after they anointed you. You could've thrown your hands in the air, started shouting and talking in tongues! :-D lol!