Former Mormon lifts the lid on church's 'creepy' baptisms for the DEAD that sees children being put through 'traumatizing' ceremonies to 'save' those who have passed away

A former Mormon has lifted the lid on the church's bizarre 'baptisms for the dead' - revealing the temple sent her to a cemetery to take pictures of gravestones as a kid and then forced her to participate in a ceremony for the deceased.

Alyssa Grenfell, 31, who now works as an assistant principle in Austin, Texas, was raised in a 'devout Mormon family' in Utah, but decided to leave the 'controlling religion' in 2017.

She has since dedicated her life to helping others 'navigate their own way out of the LDS church' - releasing her own 'guide' called How to Leave the Mormon Church, while also becoming a viral social media star for sharing her experiences online.

Most recently, Alyssa spoke out about a 'creepy' process that saw the group baptize people who have passed away - even if they weren't members of the religion before their death.

A former Mormon has lifted a lid on the church's bizarre 'baptisms for the dead' - revealing the temple sent her to a cemetery to take pictures of gravestones as a kid

Alyssa Grenfell (seen with her husband before she left), 31, was raised in a 'devout Mormon family' in Utah, but decided to cut ties with the 'controlling religion' in 2017

She has since dedicated her life to helping others 'navigate their own way out of the LDS church' - releasing her own 'guide' called How to Leave the Mormon Church

In a video shared to her YouTube channel last week, where she has more than 85,000 subscribers, Alyssa announced: 'The Mormon church is baptizing your dead relatives.'

She explained that members of the religion believe that 'everyone must be baptized by the proper Mormon authority' to move on to 'Spirit Paradise' when they pass away.

'Essentially, when someone passes away, if they haven't had the chance to receive a Mormon baptism, they're not saved,' she said.

'So Mormons take the names of those who have not been baptized and take them to the LDS temple.

'They also believe that it's up to the person to accept or reject the baptism on the other side.

'That's why Mormons have no qualms about baptizing basically everybody against their will because they think everyone should have the chance to accept or reject it, and that the choice is left to them once the practice is complete.' 

Alyssa explained that when someone living would get baptized, the priest would also baptize anywhere between five and 15 dead people at the same time.

And for each deceased person, the living person who is getting baptized must be dunked into the water, which meant they were sometimes going under 'over and over again' in quick succession.

She explained that members of the religion believe that 'everyone must be baptized by the proper Mormon authority' to move on to 'Spirit Paradise' when they pass away

'You're not free to wipe your eyes or clear your face of the water, so it can be hard,' she continued.

'You're getting dunked over and over and over again and you don't even have time to collect yourself between the dunkings.

'If you ask or say I need a second they act like you're really holding up God's work. With the number of times you're being dunked, it's really exhausting.' 

She said the ceremony usually occurs around age 12, explaining you are also forced to wear an all-white jumpsuit, which she admitted left her feeling 'basically naked' once it got wet.

Most recently, she spoke out about a 'creepy' process that saw the religious group baptize people who have passed away - even if they weren't members of the religion before their death. She's seen during her baptism as a kid

'As you step out, you're covering yourself, specifically the chest region because you feel basically naked and so it's also traumatic in that way,' she added. 

Alyssa also opened up about some of the extreme measures that the Mormon church goes through to keep track of who has passed away and who needs to be baptized.

She recalled once being sent to a graveyard to take photos of the headstones during her 'youth program.'

'Probably the creepiest aspect of this is they encourage some members - at least they did for me - to go to graveyards and take photos of all of the gravestones within the graveyard so that they can have the birth date and the death date,' she revealed.

'So when I was in one of the youth programs, we drove to a graveyard and began taking photos.

'At the time I was like, "Is it ethical to take photos of gravestones? I don't feel like it is but I'm here for a church activity so I'm going to assume that any moral qualms I have are incorrect and that my church is obviously the one that's correct."'

She said Mormons keep 'very extensive' and 'meticulous records' that date back to the 1500s.

Alyssa (seen with her husband after they left) also opened up about some of the extreme measures that the Mormon church goes through to keep track of who has passed away

She recalled once being sent to a graveyard to take photos of the headstones during her 'youth program'

'They collect death records, census records. They collect as much raw data as they can get their hands on, they digitize it and use that to gather and harvest names for their project,' she alleged.

'The church approaches different kinds of recordkeeping businesses or industries and asks for permission to take the information, and then puts it within their own database.

'They often use a lot of public-sourced information to gather more and more records to be part of this large database.

'And the reason they're doing this is so that they can take these names to the temple and have people be baptized after they've departed.' 

Alyssa added that because people made a 'ruckus' about the process in recent years, the church 'changed the rules' - so now, they only baptize dead people 'who are direct relatives of members of the church and who have been dead for at least 95 years.'

'The rationale behind that is that if you've been dead for 95 years, all of your own children are also likely dead and anyone that deeply cares about you enough to make a fuss is also dead,' she stated. 

'I will also say that this idea that you're only going to be baptized for people who you're directly related to sounds nice, but if you go back 40 generations, you are related to millions and millions of people.

'All they have to do is find one person linked to Mormonism, and they can baptize a trillion people.'

Alyssa previously went viral for sharing how she found her personal style and 'reclaimed her body' after leaving the religion in her late 20s. She's seen before cutting ties with the religion

She showed off a snap that showed her 'wearing a tank top in public' for the first time, admitting, 'I felt so scandalous' 

Alyssa said she eventually started wearing short-sleeved tops regularly, and put on her first bikini at age 28 

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, some famous faces that have been baptized by the religion after their deaths include all the founding fathers, the past US presidents, most Catholic popes, Christopher Columbus, Adolf Hitler, Joan of Arc, Genghis Khan, Joseph Stalin, and Buddha.

Alyssa previously went viral on TikTok for sharing how she found her personal style and 'reclaimed her body' after leaving the religion in her late 20s.

She showed off a snap that showed her 'wearing a tank top in public' for the first time, admitting, 'I felt so scandalous.'

'Six years after leaving the church, I got my nose ring, I got my ears pierced, and I have three tattoos,' she told her followers. She's seen getting a tattoo 

The content creator said she eventually started wearing short-sleeved tops regularly, and put on her first bikini at age 28.

'Six years after leaving the church, I got my nose ring, I got my ears pierced, and I have three tattoos,' she told her followers. 

Although she said it took her 'years' to become as comfortable in her own body, she added that she now loves looking back on her transformation. 

'Honestly, there's something so beautiful to me looking through all these photos and seeing this transformation, the self discovery that's taken place in my life, of finding out who I am outside of Mormonism,' she shared.

And Alyssa hopes that being so open about what she went through will help others who may be struggling. 

'My experiences as a devout Mormon transitioning out of a controlling religion have inspired me to start the resource for others going through the same thing,' she wrote on her website.

'Few can comprehend the massive chokehold this cult has on the mind of those who are taught to believe. I want to help people escape and live a free, full life - unlimited coffee included.'