Richard Dawkins, in his work The Selfish Gene, coined the phrase "meme" (rhymes with cream) to describe a unit of cultural or intellectual information that passes from mind to mind in a process analogous to genes. Examples he gave in that book include tunes, ideas, catch phrases, fashions, etc.

Meme is a term to describe an idea (or "unit of information") that uses our complex, communicating brains to reproduce itself. If you hear a tune on the radio and later find yourself whistling it, you've picked up a meme. If you invent a clever phrase and find other people using it, you've transmitted a meme. Whoever first described a euphemism as "politically correct" invented a very potent meme. And so on. Dawkins meme idea has become a meme in itself, and given rise to the nascent science of memetics. Much work in memetics has focused on "viruses of the mind", virulent memes that infect individuals and reproduce rapidly. Two excellent books on the topic (both of which discuss Mormonism) are Virus of the Mind by Richard Brodie and Thought Contagion by Aaron Lynch.

In a later paper, Dawkins said the following:

"Like computer viruses, successful mind viruses will tend to be hard for their victims to detect. If you are the victim of one, the chances are you won't know it, and may even vigorously deny it. Accepting that a virus might be difficult to detect in your own mind, what telltale signs might you look out for?

1. The patient typically finds himself impelled by some deep, inner conviction that something is true, or right, or virtuous: a conviction that doesn't seem to owe anything to evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, he feels as totally compelling and convincing.
2. Patients typically make a positive virtue of faith's being strong and unshakable, in spite of not being based on evidence."

It seems apparent that Mormons are subject to engineered memetic viruses that form the very basis of the religion. I have thought of several: "The Church is true" (the biggie). "Lengthen your stride." "No success can compensate for failure in the home." "As man is, God once was. As God is, man may become." "Follow the brethren." "The prophet will never lead the church astray." "Follow the Prophet." Other memes cannot so be stated as succinctly, but are just as powerful. A good example is the implicit subjugation of women through "priesthood" authority, reinforced in countless ways throughout Mormon culture.

Recognizing what is being done to our minds is the first step to taking back control. For more information on memetics, try this link. I suggest linking to Dawkins "Viruses of the Mind" paper from this site as a first step.

More on Memes:

When the church was new, it prided itself in its separation from other sects and indeed the public at large. Because it's beliefs were unusual, it separated itself to protect its belief system from outside influence. Thus the reason for the existence of the branch at Colesville, settlements at Kirtland and Far West, Nauvoo and of course ultimately Salt Lake. Early converts were taught to waste no time in making an exodus to Salt Lake or outlying LDS communities in order to reduce the number of converts who would have second thoughts before being engulfed by the meme society. Persecution and events such as the battle of Crooked River, or the invasion of Johnston's Army into Salt Lake, only heighten that separation and protection of the meme system.

Meme science dictates that the more unusual or extreme a belief system, that the more there is a barrier or separation to protect the "hosts" of the meme. This as occurred not only with Mormonism, but essentially every other extreme (as compared to the public at large) belief host system (e.g. Jimmy Jones colony in Guiana, Bogwan colony in Oregon). This is actually a necessary evolution to protect the meme.

However, much of the growth of the church recently has been as a result of a continuous moderating stance in its beliefs. Temple ordinances have been changed, scriptures modified to be less offensive in a racial sense, racial rules have been dropped, sectarian separation has been downplayed (the Catholic Church is no longer considered the church of the devil), etc. In essence, the church is actively painting a picture that its members are not "weird" as Gordon B. Hinckley stated in his "60 Minutes" interview. Whereas before, in the 19th century, the church was in almost every way trying to separate itself from the public norm.

There is no question that many early church members sacrificed everything they had, in some cases their lives, for the cause. The high separation of the belief system from other more normative belief systems both inspired them and protected their belief. The radical difference of the Mormon belief system (take polygamy for example), was in essence the difference that made that sacrifice possible.

However, meme science also dictates that as a meme system becomes less distinguishable from other memes, that the protection of the meme "hosts" or members is less necessary, but that the self-preservation aspects of the meme also decrease. The hosts of the meme become less willing to make the same sacrifices or have the same protective diligence as before.

In other words, even though the church is growing by leaps and bounds by becoming more mainstream, its downside is that it is less able to hold and deeply dedicate its 'hosts' or members as it was in the early more closely held days.

Personally, I think this is evident in the abysmal temple attendance that I've seen at a number of temples as well as an overall drop in activity in wards where the church has been established for many years (more overall indifference in traditional Mormon areas). Thus we have memberships where there is a significant number of untraceable and indifferent members... like one I investigated that the phone number turned out to be from a worker at a United Airlines baggage desk who knew nothing of Mormonism or what in the hell I was talking about... (actually we found out later that he did... but couldn't remember, it had been so long). There is a significant number and growing log of these in each ward of the church.

The church is growing very rapidly in some foreign areas, but the membership in general is quite non-informed and soon becomes indifferent as well (I've seen this very much first hand). The members are merely members on paper only. Many, many have gone back to their original faiths, but are still members of record.

So, amid all the feeling of betrayal that many of us have with the church doing a "changie pooh" on all of the things that we lived with, but now have found out are not important (e.g. women not getting an education but only marriage), there is a downside to this long-term in the church. It will grow, but it will grow in a very shallow sense, not able to strongly hold its members as it once did. Events such as the 2002 Olympics may give the church a lot of publicity, but it will be a publicity that will paint the church in a more mainstream light, where ultimately, people will be less willing to make the strong demands that the church requires. The church will then morph its message again to be even more mainstream... in other ways we can only imagine. Thus more numbers initially, considering that membership records stick for life in the LDS church but usually only for a year in others (then you're dropped from the mailing list), but less commitment overall in the long term.