Back in the 80s and 90s, when VCRs were in vogue, many of us joked that there were videotapes of our lives that would be replayed after we died to determine if we were good enough or not at the Final Judgment. This notion was even part of the premise of the 1991 Albert Brooks / Meryl Streep movie Defending Your Life in which Brooks has to go in front of a tribunal, watching events from his life to defend his actions. In a similar vein, every Primary child has sung these words: “If the Savior stood beside me / would I do the things I do?” As a counterfactual this is not as sinister as the idea that Big Brother is always watching, but it’s a surveillance-based thought experiment.

The Panopticon effect is the self-disciplining behavior people adopt when they believe they are constantly being watched, even if surveillance isn’t continuous, stemming from Jeremy Bentham‘s prison design where a central guard tower could see all inmates, but inmates couldn’t see the guard. Coined by philosopher Michel Foucault, this concept explains how the possibility of observation induces individuals to internalize authority and regulate their own actions, leading to automatic conformity in prisons, schools, workplaces, and modern digital surveillance. 

I was recently in a ward in another state, visiting family, and the speaker was a young man home from college. He said something that made the congregation laugh: “God is always watching you. Like a hawk. And Jesus is like a bald eagle or something.” He continued, adding that the Holy Ghost was always whispering things to you like “Don’t get the Cheetos,” and that if that happens you should. Not. Get. The. Cheetos. It was a talk that was both entertaining and also troubling. It’s the kind of thing that keeps therapists in business. When you imagine that you are under constant surveillance, you are prone to becoming scrupulous or developing OCD. At minimum, it’s pretty hard to relax and just live a normal life when you think every action, word and thought is under scrutiny. As we used to joke in the days of VCRs, was God watching you in the bathroom?

In a religious environment, surveillance operates like this:

  • Omniscient watcher: God “sees your heart,” thoughts, intentions
  • Moral reporting systems: confession, worthiness interviews, accountability partners
  • Community enforcement: gossip, shaming, ostracism, “prayer concerns”
  • Doctrinal absolutism: rules framed as eternal, unquestionable
  • Fear of spiritual consequences: sin, damnation, loss of salvation, separation from God

Surveillance becomes metaphysical: Even your thoughts are not private.

In the modern world, we do encounter actual surveillance all the time: at the airport, CCTV cameras at the ATM, security cameras in businesses, Airbnbs with exterior cameras, our phones overhearing us chatting about a band we like then getting bombarded with ads for that band’s upcoming concert, etc. These aspects of surveillance may curb our behavior if there are potential consequences for the things we do. It’s why some people refuse to have a social media account or like to use incognito mode on their computer. It’s why criminals who are smart avoid being caught on camera or wear a cap pulled low over their face. Stressing out criminals or making it harder to commit crimes isn’t the worst thing to happen.

But feeling like you are in a surveillance state for non-crimes (such as thoughts) can be particularly damaging. This is even more true when the surveillance is internalized. It can manifest as:

  • Harsh inner critic
  • Chronic shame
  • Self-punishment
  • Perfectionism
  • Moral anxiety

You don’t need cameras anymore—the mind does the policing. This college kid who thinks that God is watching him like a hawk (and probably also judging his thoughts) lives under the constant threat of detection, that he will not be good enough, that normal feelings like sexual attraction or anger must be suppressed lest God see him falling short of the LDS ideal he’s been taught. This can lead to increased anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms. In high-surveillance environments like high-control religions or families, people often develop PTSD-like symptoms.

  • Emotional numbness
  • Fear of making mistakes
  • Difficulty trusting others
  • Hyper-responsibility
  • Indecision

In high-vigilance groups and families, the focus shifts from healthy ways of relating to unhealthy ones:

  • Mutual care → mutual monitoring
  • Belonging → compliance
  • Solidarity → suspicion

This leads to people feeling isolated, even when surrounded by others. This type of approach also stunts moral development. When I was growing up, we always used to say that the bishop’s kids were the worst, meaning the most rebellious, the hellions, especially when they got away from their family. I don’t necessarily think that is true given the majority of bishops’ families I’ve known, but it is somewhat true that families in which the parents exert a lot of control over their children and demand conformity often turn out kids who run the other way when they reach adulthood. In Jennette McCurdy’s autobiography I’m Glad My Mom Died she talks about being raised by a very controlling mother in the Mormon church, and once she became independent (while she was also grieving her complicated loss after her mother’s death) she really went off the deep end. As Andrew S pointed out, the Church does a good job teaching abstinence and a terrible job teaching moderation. If you’ve been completely locked down in relation to sex and alcohol and now suddenly you can do whatever, you might be prone to more extreme behavior.

Surveillance encourages rule-following over moral reasoning, obedience over conscience, and avoidance of punishment over ethical reflection. Instead of asking oneself “What’s the right thing to do?” a person will ask “What will happen if someone sees me doing this?”

This is particularly damaging because it changes caregivers and supporters to monitors we must fool and please through our actions, hiding any unacceptable (as defined by the surveillance system) parts of ourselves. This is particularly damaging to LGBTQ and other marginalized people whose very existence requires masking to “pass” in a hyper-surveillance community or family. Being loved requires being approved by the people watching us in such a system. Everything you do can and will be measured by these observations.

There can be long-term effects of living in this kind of environment. People often:

  • Choose “safe” careers over meaningful ones
  • Avoid leadership or visibility
  • Struggle with boundaries
  • Over-function to avoid criticism
  • Experience delayed identity development
  • Need later life “deprogramming” to rediscover agency

In order to heal from the mindset that develops through this kind of upbringing, people need to recognize it, name it, focus on practices that restore embodiment and reduce fear and shame. Essentially, the individual needs to learn that they are allowed to exist without being watched, and that they are a trustworthy person who merits love and acceptance without being compelled to comply with someone else’s wishes.

  • Do you recognize any of these traits in yourself?
  • Do you think the church is hyper-vigilant of member behavior? How does it compare with other churches?
  • Did you experience the compounding effect of family culture, or did your family culture help mitigate the surveillance you experienced at Church?

Discuss.