Is there a mystical tradition per se in Mormonism?
HHMMmmmm.....
Posted on 03/15/2013 9:39:58 PM PDT by Colofornian
Most religious traditions begin with or develop a mystical tradition—a tradition given to the study and direct encounter with the divine, the ineffable, or the transcendent. Somewhat surprisingly, the theme of the mystical has in recent centuries been as prevalent outside of the religious sphere as inside, suggesting that it may be fundamental to the human experience generally. Mysticism leaves its traces in the arts and cultures studied by the humanities.
We also might ask what role mysticism plays in Mormonism. Is there a mystical tradition per se in Mormonism? Are mystical texts present in Mormon scripture? Are there mystical elements in Mormon ritual practice? Is anything constitutively mystical about the Mormon experience of the divine? What place remains for mysticism in a tradition that conflates the heavenly and the earthly? How might aspects of Mormonism compare with more explicitly mystical traditions? What role does the "secular mystical" play in Mormonism?
We are seeking papers on the mystical, whether in literature and art, or the relationship of mysticism to Mormonism. Some topics that might be considered are:
• The psychology of mysticism
• Meditation and mysticism
• Mysticism and conversion experiences (including secular conversions)
• Visions and higher states of consciousness
• Embodiment and out-of-body experiences
• Divinization/deification
• Emptying out and Pure Conscious Events
• Epistemology and the mystic
• Mysticism and nature
• Neuroscience and mysticism
We are interested in the work of all scholars (LDS or those whose work touches on Mormonism) whose research and writing engages the humanities, so the topics aren’t limited to those taking up the conference theme.
Conference Location
The 2013 conference will be held in Provo, Utah at Brigham Young University. Submission Guidelines We encourage scholars in the humanities, arts, history, and social sciences to submit paper proposals or panels. Creative submissions on the theme in story, verse, drama, or performance are also encouraged. Submit your proposal, including a 200-word abstract, through the on-line form at mormonscholars.net. Submission deadline: January 5, 2013.
Submit proposals to agoff@devry.edu
Questions can also be sent to Alan Goff at the email address listed above.
Full details available at the organizer's web site.
Being held this very weekend @ BYU is a conference that is teaching occultic (read divination) principles and principles of Zen Buddhism and Jewish mysticism.
From another Web site -- Mormon Scholars.net -- where they have an announcement on this weekend's conference at BYU on "The Mystical": We now invite you to register for our 2013 conference, which will be held March 15 and 16, 2013, at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. This year’s meeting focuses on mysticism, with presentations by two notable guest speakers, David Loy and Elliot Wolfson, as well as papers on this and other topics.
Who is David Loy that will be teaching spiritual concepts to BYUians?
"David Robert Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism." David R. Loy
From the conference announcement:
We are seeking papers on the mystical, whether in literature and art, or the relationship of mysticism to Mormonism. Some topics that might be considered are:
• The psychology of mysticism
• Meditation and mysticism
• Mysticism and conversion experiences (including secular conversions)
• Visions and higher states of consciousness
• Embodiment and out-of-body experiences
• Divinization/deification
• Emptying out and Pure Conscious Events
* Epistemology and the mystic
• Mysticism and nature
• Neuroscience and mysticism
Divinization? (Divining "familiar spirits" & other spirit entities?) Deification (becoming gods)?
At BYU???
Well, now we know why ex-Lds history prof D. Michael Quinn wrote: Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
Per Pratt's sermon:
Who communicated with our great Prophet, and revealed through him as a medium, the ancient history of a hemisphere, and the records of the ancient dead? Moroni, who had lived upon the earth 1400 years before....Who revealed to him the plan of redemption, and of exaltation for the dead who had died without the Gospel and the keys and preparations necessary for holy and perpetual converse with Jesus Christ, and with the spirits of just men made perfect?...Those from the dead!...Shall we, then, deny the principle, the philosophy, the fact of communication between worlds? No! verily no! Editors, statesmen, philosophers, priests, and lawyers, as well as the common people, began to advocate the principle of converse with the dead, by visions, DIVINATION, clairvoyance, knocking, and writing mediums, etc., etc. This spiritual philosophy of converse with the dead, once established by the labors, toils, sufferings, and martyrdom of its modern founders, and now embraced by a large portion of the learned world, show a triumph more rapid and complete — a victory more extensive, than has ever been achieved in the same length of time in our world.
Source: GOD-MEN AND SPIRITUAL VEGETABLES: The Occult Worldview of Mormonism
That's right...Mitt Romney's ancestor promoting occultism -- talking with the dead (divination)...which is NOW also being promoted by Mormon scholars on the BYU campus this very weekend!
This is all not exactly very surprising given that the very Mormon "scriptures" say that The primary focus of the Mormon church is on serving the dead! (Doctrine & Covenants 128:15; 138:27)
For more on Pratt's 1853 'sermonizing,' we can see that Pratt claimed that the very purpose of Mormon temples included: Ye are assembled...and have laid these Corner Stones, for the express purpose that the living might hear from the dead, and that we may prepare a holy sanctuary, where "the people may seek unto their God, for the living to hear from the dead"...
Per Pratt: the "spiritual philosophy of the present age" (spiritism had been introduced in the U.S. about five years prior) "was introduced to the modern world by Joseph Smith." And, he claimed, the real reason that Smith was killed was because Smith acted as "a medium of communication with the invisible world,whereby the living could hear from the dead."
Yes, you heard it first from Mitt Romney's G-G grandfather -- 160 years ago during the emphasis on occultism within Mormon history...which also coincides with its April start date as a "church." (see 15 occultic and controversial facts you may want to know about Lds temples [Vanity] for documentation on this]
Pratt emphasized how "ONE OF THE LEADING OR FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHS OF 'MORMON' PHILOSOPHY, viz. - 'That the living may hear from the dead' commenced thru Smith acting as a "medium."
For more on this sermon, see: Journal of Discourses/Vol 2/Spiritual Communication [The OTHER World Series: Lds discourse w/dead]
That’s quite interesting. I read a book once, though I cannot vouch for its author since he makes some incredible claims, that touched on Mormonism within a larger context of Satanism. The author claimed he got sucked into the occult, and went deeply into it, and was told by his teachers to join the Free Masons and the LDS based on the “magical currents” the religion provides for those involved in it. It was good to join if your discourse with the spirit world (Satan) was hitting a slow patch. According to his occult priest, or whatever they call them, “The [LDS] was made by witches for witches.”
Ever wonder if these supposedly "ghostly" spirits might simply be demonic agents in weak disguises?
Some think that the weakest "level" of such demonic agents are "familiar spirits." Essentially, it seems their role is to simply act as distractors.
The prophet Isaiah wrote:
4 And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust. (Isaiah 29)
Isaiah also cautioned: 19 When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? (Isaiah 8)
Yet the Book of Mormon references "familiar spirits" in a positive manner in 2 Nephi 26:16:
16 For those who shall be destroyed shall speak unto them out of the ground, and their speech shall be low out of the dust, and their voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit; for the Lord God will give unto him power, that he may whisper concerning them, even as it were out of the ground; and their speech shall whisper out of the dust.
Who are those who are destroyed? (The dead) They are speaking out of the ground amidst the dust. Cemetery style.
Only when Joseph Smith "translated" one phrase in this verse, their voice shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit, I wonder if he knew that phrase "familiar spirit" is linked every time in the Old Testament (15 times) to mediums and divination and raising ghosts (1 Samuel 28) and witchcraft?
A Mormon apologist attempted, on behalf of the BYU Maxwell Institute, to wiggle out of the obvious reading of 2 Nephi 26:16 here
I’m surprised that you posted this in the middle of the night when all good Mormons are snuggled between their sheets of purity and dreaming of their future godhood.
“I’m surprised that you posted this in the middle of the night when all good Mormons are snuggled between their sheets of purity and dreaming of their future godhood.”
L to the O to the L!!!!
(Well, a few of them were @ the BYU campus today/tonight attending this very conference held thru tomorrow...just wanted to "update" all on what kind of "spirit" had intensified there to "settle in" this very weekend!)
And allow me to remind all: Mormonism is not simply a cult, but a heavily entrenched occultic cult.
By occultic, I'm citing the original Latin meaning of the word: That which is hidden.
The Lds Church Handbook of Instructions boasts about special occultic knowledge gained in the secretive Lds temples: “...members receive important knowledge of 'things which have been kept hid from before the foundation of the world. (D&C 124:41)” The Church Handbook of Instructions, Book 2, p. 261.
I was reading thru a 1995 Lds Women's Relief Society publication and came across this eye-opener about the origin of Mormon temples:
"We often assume that because the Saints were building a temple, everybody knew what would happen there. That is not so>. Temple ordinances as we know them had not yet been revealed. In Kirtland, the temple had been used primarily as a meeting-house. The upstairs rooms housed the School of the Prophets. Even if the women had known about the temple ordinances, they would not have expected to take part in them. They were women of their time and anticipated nothing more than they were used to." Marjorie Draper Conder, p. 162 "Relief Society: So What?" Hearts Knit Together: Talks from the 1995 Women's Conference Ed. Susette Fletcher Green Dawn Hall Anderson, Dlora Hall Dalton Deseret 1996
So even the Mormons were clueless in the beginning as they built seemingly purposeless temples! (As of 1843, Lds temple endowments had still not unveiled...More of that which was hidden!)
The entire Mormon "gospel" is built upon hiding it from initiates, so that they have to "climb" higher up to gain access to hidden esoteric principles:
"On one occasion Joseph Smith made the following declaration: 'When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the Gospel--you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 348).
From the thread source: We are seeking papers on the mystical, whether in literature and art, or the relationship of mysticism to Mormonism. Some topics that might be considered are: • The psychology of mysticism • Meditation and mysticism • Mysticism and conversion experiences (including secular conversions) • Visions and higher states of consciousness • Embodiment and out-of-body experiences • Divinization/deification • Emptying out and Pure Conscious Events * Epistemology and the mystic • Mysticism and nature • Neuroscience and mysticism
***************************************
Now, note the contrast: As the Christian world focuses on either Lent or preparing for Good Friday two weeks away...and Easter to follow...the BYU campus is holding a conference seeking presentation papers on "esoteric" this and "occultic" that...not that everything under the umbrella of mysticism qualifies as "occultic"...Still, enough is listed above to see more of the "cat out of the bag" at BYU!
I’m not convinced that Mormons actually care about their theology. It is, fundamentally, a very emotionally based religion, on the “burning of the bosom” as opposed to logical arguments. It’s not that surprising to see such a heavy interest in the occult, therefore, especially when they have so much of the occult already. The signs on their “sacred” garments, the Temple rituals and symbolism. Free Masonry, from which Joseph Smith borrowed from, was itself inspired from occult symbolism. I’ve seen Masonic symbols in works by Agrippa, an ancient occultist, before the advent of the Masons.
Mitt Romney is a direct descendent of Parley P. Pratt, a Mormon "apostle." Mitt Romney's ancestor taught:
"Gods, angels, and men are all of
one species,
one race,
one great family,
widely diffused among the planetary systems as colonies, kingdoms, nations, etc.
Source: The Key to the Science of Theology, 1978, p. 21
Mormon "theology" essentially says the Mormon man-gods & man-angels bounce around the universe and thereby arrive on planet earth as essentially aliens.
Lds "apostle" John Widtsoe originally published in 1915 a work called Rational Theology.
Widtsoe in that book slandered God, reducing him to be of slime and then mortal origins:
"God and man are of the same race..." (Widtsoe, p. 61)
There is a reason in the Old Testament that God warned repeatedly about seeking out Spiritists.
Islam and Mormonism were both started by men who claimed to have talked to angels. Whether either did, I don’t know. But I suspect they might have. And those angels, fallen angels, helped them spread deceptions that have trapped people into false religions.
There is a reason in the Old Testament that God warned repeatedly about seeking out Spiritists.
Islam and Mormonism were both started by men who claimed to have talked to angels. Whether either did, I don’t know. But I suspect they might have. And those angels, fallen angels, helped them spread deceptions that have trapped people into false religions.
That's a good read.
Except that many Lds are quite intelligent, even if not so spiritually discerning.
And more Lds than ever can discover things on the Internet that their parents, Boy Scout leaders, and other leaders ne'er dare mention about their past.
Sometimes, then, the Holy Spirit instills a "hunger" to dig into the "origins" of what they "caught" (as well as what they were "taught"). And when they discover disconnects galore, it tends to only intensify their emotional and spiritual and intellectual struggle.
They want to be true to the truth...yet they are heavily emotionally, spiritually, financially invested, as well as "dug in" family ties-wise...
They have to know that advocates for truth are praying for their release from legalistic bondage, e'en tho it may come at a high price tag relationally.
The Living Truth, Jesus Christ, sets them free...no matter how much sentimentalism has them all "wrapped up."
“Except that many Lds are quite intelligent, even if not so spiritually discerning.”
That’s a good view of it. I have met many ex-Mormons who certainly wouldn’t fit with what I had just written, and who came out of it exactly because Mormon doctrine and history was exposed along with the Gospel message. I was thinking of my worst encounters, the kind who sit there refusing to acknowledge that, for example, Smith predicted New Jerusalem would be built by Mormons in “this generation,” but didn’t happen, along with ignoring the the obvious contradiction with the Bible which has New Jerusalem literally floating down from heaven.
Listen to the words of the Twelth "prophet" of the LDS church, Spencer W. Kimball: “Brethren, 225,000 of you are here...I suppose 225,000 of you may become gods. There seems to be plenty of space out there in the universe. And the Lord has proved he knows how to do it. I think he could make, or probably have us help make, worlds for all of us, for every one of us 225,000.” The Ensign (official magazine of the LDS church), p. 80, Nov. 1975)
That all seems to ring a bell -- even down to the last line: Isaiah 14:12-15:
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
Kimball: ...you may become gods. Isaiah to
Lucifer: "...art thou fallen from heaven" Why? "I will be like the most High."
Kimball: "I think he could ... have us help make, worlds for all of us, for every one of us 225,000."
Isaiah to Lucifer: "For thou hast said in thine heart...I will exalt my throne above the stars of God...I will ascend above the heights of the clouds...
So when Mormons speak of "exaltation" what are they referencing?
“That exaltation which the saints of all ages have so devoutly sought is godhood itself.” -- LDS apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1991 version, p. 321
Bad typo. Correction:
“... was exposed, who also received the Gospel message” not “mormon history and doctrine was exposed along with the Gospel Message.”
Is there a mystical tradition per se in Mormonism?
HHMMmmmm.....
And so it began...
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 (esv)
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Joseph Smith tells of his ancestry, family members, and their early abodes—An unusual excitement about religion prevails in western New York—He determines to seek wisdom as directed by James—The Father and the Son appear, and Joseph is called to his prophetic ministry. (Verses 1–20.)
1 Owing to the many reports which have been put in circulation by evil-disposed and designing persons, in relation to the rise and progress of aThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, all of which have been designed by the authors thereof to militate against its character as a Church and its progress in the world—I have been induced to write this history, to disabuse the public mind, and put all inquirers after truth in possession of the bfacts, as they have transpired, in relation both to myself and the Church, so far as I have such facts in my possession.
2 In this history I shall present the various events in relation to this Church, in truth and righteousness, as they have transpired, or as they at present exist, being now [1838] the aeighth byear since the organization of the said Church.
3 aI was born in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and five, on the twenty-third day of December, in the town of Sharon, Windsor county, State of Vermont. … My father, bJoseph Smith, Sen., left the State of Vermont, and moved to Palmyra, Ontario (now Wayne) county, in the State of New York, when I was in my tenth year, or thereabouts. In about four years after my father’s arrival in Palmyra, he moved with his family into Manchester in the same county of Ontario—
4 His family consisting of eleven souls, namely, my father, Joseph Smith; my amother, Lucy Smith (whose name, previous to her marriage, was Mack, daughter of Solomon Mack); my brothers, bAlvin (who died November 19th, 1823, in the 26th year of his age), cHyrum, myself, dSamuel Harrison, William, Don Carlos; and my sisters, Sophronia, Catherine, and Lucy.
5 Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester, there was in the place where we lived an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the sects in that region of country. Indeed, the whole district of country seemed affected by it, and great multitudes united themselves to the different religious parties, which created no small stir and division amongst the people, some crying, a“Lo, here!” and others, “Lo, there!” Some were contending for the Methodist faith, some for the Presbyterian, and some for the Baptist.
6 For, notwithstanding the great alove which the converts to these different faiths expressed at the time of their conversion, and the great zeal manifested by the respective clergy, who were active in getting up and promoting this extraordinary scene of religious feeling, in order to have everybody converted, as they were pleased to call it, let them join what sect they pleased; yet when the converts began to file off, some to one party and some to another, it was seen that the seemingly good feelings of both the priests and the converts were more bpretended than real; for a scene of great confusion and bad feeling ensued—priest contending against priest, and convert against convert; so that all their good feelings one for another, if they ever had any, were entirely lost in a strife of words and a contest about opinions.
7 I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father’s family was proselyted to the Presbyterian faith, and four of them joined that church, namely, my mother, Lucy; my brothers Hyrum and Samuel Harrison; and my sister Sophronia.
8 During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness; but though my feelings were deep and often poignant, still I kept myself aloof from all these parties, though I attended their several meetings as often as occasion would permit. In process of time my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect, and I felt some desire to be united with them; but so great were the confusion and astrife among the different denominations, that it was impossible for a person young as I was, and so unacquainted with men and things, to come to any certain conclusion who was bright and who was wrong.
9 My mind at times was greatly excited, the cry and tumult were so great and incessant. The Presbyterians were most decided against the Baptists and Methodists, and used all the powers of both reason and sophistry to prove their errors, or, at least, to make the people think they were in error. On the other hand, the Baptists and Methodists in their turn were equally zealous in endeavoring to establish their own tenets and disprove all others.
10 In the midst of this war of words and tumult of opinions, I often said to myself: What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be aright, which is it, and how shall I know it?
11 While I was laboring under the extreme difficulties caused by the contests of these parties of religionists, I was one day reading the aEpistle of James, first chapter and fifth verse, which reads: If any of you lack bwisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
12 Never did any passage of ascripture come with more power to the heart of man than this did at this time to mine. It seemed to enter with great force into every feeling of my heart. I reflected on it again and again, knowing that if any person needed bwisdom from God, I did; for how to act I did not know, and unless I could get more wisdom than I then had, I would never know; for the teachers of religion of the different sects cunderstood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible.
13 At length I came to the conclusion that I must either remain in adarkness and confusion, or else I must do as James directs, that is, ask of God. I at length came to the determination to “ask of God,” concluding that if he gave wisdom to them that lacked wisdom, and would bgive liberally, and not upbraid, I might venture.
14 So, in accordance with this, my determination to ask of God, I retired to the awoods to make the attempt. It was on the morning of a bbeautiful, clear day, early in the spring of eighteen hundred and twenty. It was the first time in my life that I had made such an attempt, for amidst all my anxieties I had never as yet made the attempt to cpray dvocally.
15 After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was aseized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick bdarkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.
16 But, exerting all my powers to acall upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into bdespair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of clight exactly over my head, above the brightness of the dsun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.
17 It no sooner appeared than I found myself adelivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I bsaw two cPersonages, whose brightness and dglory defy all description, estanding above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My fBeloved gSon. Hear Him!
18 My object in going to ainquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join.
19 I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all awrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those bprofessors were all ccorrupt; that: “they ddraw near to me with their lips, but their ehearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the fcommandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the gpower thereof.”
20 He again forbade me to join with any of them; and many other things did he say unto me, which I cannot write at this time. When I came to myself again, I found myself alying on my back, looking up into heaven. When the light had departed, I had no strength; but soon recovering in some degree, I went home. And as I leaned up to the fireplace, bmother inquired what the matter was. I replied, “Never mind, all is well—I am well enough off.” I then said to my mother, “I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.” It seems as though the cadversary was aware, at a very early period of my life, that I was destined to prove a disturber and an annoyer of his kingdom; else why should the powers of darkness combine against me? Why the dopposition and persecution that arose against me, almost in my infancy?
SEE!
Even at the begining, Joseph was a Prophet!!
Predicting the despised and venomous Flying Inmen of FR!!!
--MormonDude(When would be a good time for a couple of our well-trained young folks to visit you, at your lovely home, with your loving family at your side; and tt teach you all the Truth that is MormonISM?)
You mean like the sources of the Temple Rituals?
They canNOT be found in anything that MORMONism calls scripture; so just WHERE did they come from?
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