Today we learn something which could be mind boggling when applied to her statements past and present.
Her true religion is the Law of Attraction. If you are not familiar with this concept, which has enjoyed flashes of popularity at various times over the last century, it is the principle behind the popular new age book "The Secret" and "Think and Grow Rich" before that, etc.
Arias is telling us over and over that this is what she really believes in. She mentions it frequently as a motive for why there's nothing negative in her journal about Travis. She says quite plainly that she was unwilling to "put out there" the negative for fear of attracting more of the same.
The Law of Attraction is quite commonly used in multi-level marketing programs to blame the "associates" who are not producing up to the standards held up in the "I attracted Fabulous Wealth" testimonials. We see Travis Alexander himself get up there in one video clip shown on Dateline and say, "This is where I started...." You can be that he goes on to say that through the application of positive thought and their trainings, every one of those in the audience can achieve what he achieved.
Later in the testimony of this trial, a comment is made about Travis accusing Arias of failing to "work the program"--another multi-level marketing buzz phrase.
So...once he started calling her a sociopath and a *advertiser censored*, how in the world was she going to rid the world of such negative thoughts about herself? Mind you, she is a True Believer in the Law of Attraction, which is nowhere found in Mormonism. Mormons believe that success comes from obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel-- paying tithing, keeping clean sexually, avoiding alcohol, tea and coffee, attendance at meetings, taking all callings (requests to volunteer for work), and avoiding association or sympathy for exMormons.
All these requirements are asked about in Temple Recommend interviews. A person may be denied a Temple Recommend for breaking any of these rules. Nowhere is mentioned the Law of Attraction.
Were Jodi Arias to be excommunicated for fornication, the earth would tremble with the negativity coming her way from all the Mormons who would have been informed of church action taken against her. Think of all those Mormons who would know she had been deprived of her membership AND THEY ARE FORBIDDEN TO ASSOCIATE WITH HER, as a condition of their own temple worthiness.
I am sorry if Mormons are offended by their practices being discussed, but this is vital to the understanding of motive. I have been a private investigator myself and you have to think like the perp thinks if you want to understand the crime.
Excommunicated Mormons are shunned even by their own families because of the temple recommend interview question. When you leave the church, even if you resign, like I did, you may suffer employment consequences if you life in Utah, Arizona, or Idaho where there are strong Mormon communities. Prepaid Legal was full of Mormons. Travis was a leader there. It is not inconceivable that his position as a role model and exemplar would be jeopardized. Can you imagine what his good buddies at PPL were going to think if they had to confess that they "associated" with Travis Alexander after his excommunication?
Exactly. He would lose not only his status as a desirable bachelor, he could also see his income take a nosedive as people who would have wanted to sign up under him chose someone else like Chris Hughes. Someone they wouldn't have to confess that they were associating with or sympathizing with.
Jodi Arias believed in the Law of Attraction before she met Travis Alexander. She never quit believing in it-- and who doesn't believe in being positive? It is another thing, though, to be an extremist and have a superstitious view of it where you believe that looking at an envelope with the right mental paradigm causes it to contain a bill or a check. There are wackos in almost any psychological system of success who carry normal principles to such an extreme they become a parody.
I think Arias believed that she attracted Travis to her because of the goodness inside her. When he began to name the darkness that he saw in her heart, he realized how she had dragged him down, down, down. He had more to lose by allowing her in his bed than we have previously been discussing. Since he had already gone to the bishop and been put on probation, he would surely be excommunicated.
He stood to lose everything based on his value system.
She also saw herself as losing everything based on her value system -- and once he told her THAT HE HAD PUT THAT NEGATIVITY out into the world, she (nutcase) concluded that to remove it--the only way to stop it--was to kill him.
That way, she could reframe the relationship in a positive way. For the good of all concerned. She made sure she gave Travis what he needed--the opportunity to pay for his sins with his own blood, so he could go to heaven-- and herself the freedom from the negativity that he was putting out about her that was destroying her future.
Thanks for the kind words I've received - I am a writer and am currently writing a book about some of these very topics. Even though my book is a novel, it's based on real events but I have to say is much less dramatic than the true crime we are all seeing revealed one little piece at a time.
