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.”