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This has always been my favorite deconversion story. This is Julia Sweeney, who played the Androgynous "Pat" on Saturday Night Live.

Nobody goes through deconversion. They only realize they've gone through it. We don't set out to lose faith. It just happens and we realize it almost after the fact. Deprogramming imposes a change of belief from without. Deconversion takes place within. It is slow and steady right up until the end, when the cognitive dissonance between what you believe and what you call yourself becomes unbearable. The final "decision" is conscious, but it's after-the-fact. By the time you call yourself an unbeliever, the believing is long gone. My entire journey played out in front of all of you. You can see it in the arguments I made and in the arguments I stopped making. Afterward, there was a period of reflection, retracing steps, realizing where, when and how things changed. Anyway, just some thoughts.