Seven Sub-Topical Samples Proving Mormonism's Occultic Origins [The OTHER WORLD Series]

The so-called 'premortal' world Mormons claim they had as alien spirits on a distant planet, supposedly located near the star they call "Kolob":

"Before the foundations of this earth were laid, WE were ALL in the presence of the Father as spiritual children. Lucifer was one of us..." (Joseph Fielding Smith, Jr., Religious Truths Defined: A comparison of Religious Faiths with the Restored Gospel, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, p. 67, 1959/1962)

2. Per a Mormon Seminary and Institute teacher in Salt Lake City, the so-called 'First Vision' of unnamed entities who appeared to the lad, Joseph Smith, a mere age 14, 'came AFTER his being seized and overcome for a time by Satan. The attack was a powerful one.'

Mormon seminary/institute instructor John K. Challis contributed a chapter to a Salt Lake City published book in 1993 (Aspen Books; title: Riches of Eternity). Challis' chapter title was: "The Reality of Satan." Allow me to quote directly from Challis (pp. 37-38 of book), who himself highlighted the word "after" in the following excerpt:

'Attack of a powerful 'unseen' being...Joseph spoke of a thick darkness'

"In two of the four published recitals of the First Vision (the 1835 account and the 1838 account, which is now JS-H:1:5-20), the attack of a powerful 'unseen' being is recorded... His glorious theophany came AFTER his being seized and overcome for a time by Satan. The attack was a powerful one. Joseph said in 1835 that my toung [sic] seemed to be swolen [sic] in my mouth, so that I could not utter, I heard a noise behind me like some person walking towards me, I strove again to pray, but could not, the noise of walking seemed to draw nearer, I suprung up on my feet,...and looked around, but saw no person or thing."

The citation of what Smith reported was footnoted as coming from Dean C. Jessee, compiler and editor, The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith (Deseret Book Co, 1984, p. 75. (Note: Deseret Book Company is owned by the Mormon Church)

Challis added: "In his 1838 recital of the events, Joseph spoke of a 'thick darkness' gathering around him and said that it seemed for a time he was 'doomed to sudden destruction' (JS-H 1:15)." (p. 138)

3: In the early 1820s, at the start of each Fall, a ghostly personage appeared to Mormonism founder Joseph Smith engages in follow-up occultic activity with Joseph at ages 17, 18, and 21 to ensure the introduction of The ghostly false Gospel of Mormonism

Lds "apostle" Mark E. Petersen, speaking at one of the bi-annual Conferences the Salt Lake City Mormon church hosts for its entire church, April, 1952:

"And then read of his [Joseph Smith's] visits with...Moroni, a personage who came back from the dead and ministered to Joseph Smith, gave him direction, and helped him in the production of the Book of Mormon." (Lds "apostle" Mark E. Petersen, Conference Reports, April 1952, pp. 106-107).

4: Joseph Smith had plenty of occult books to influence him. See former BYU History professor D. Michael Quinn's Occult Origins of Mormonism: Availability of Occult Books to Joseph Smith (1999)

5: Mitt Romney's Great-Great Grandpa (Lds 'apostle' Parley P. Pratt) said Joseph Smith was a 'medium' and Mormonism itself is founded entirely on the practice of necromancy, and that the spiritualist movement of the Nineteenth Century, which had begun only five years earlier, actually aided the cause of the LDS church

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.

[Please note: The above isn't 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)]

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"...

Excerpt C: Pratt claimed that the spiritism culture of the 1840s and 1850s was introduced by Joseph Smith

(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."

"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." + "..How do the Saints expect the necessary information by which to complete the ministrations for the salvation and exaltation of their friends who have died? By one holding the keys of the oracles of God [allegedly a Mormon prophet], as a medium through which the living can hear from the dead."

It would be “easy” to conclude that modern-day Mormonism has shed such “medium” vocabulary. That would be a false assumption.

The Salt Lake City-based Mormon church routinely produces massive curricula documents for their high school seminary and college Institute coursework. The course manual published in 1978-1979 for their Religion 211-212 requirements included this note on p.418 of The Life and Teachings of Jesus & His Apostles: "'Speak by inspiration, not of yourself, but simply as a MEDIUM through whom the mind and will of the Lord is revealed..." (Bruce McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, vol. 3, p. 317) .

6. History of Mormon temple paranormal activity and how communication with the dead is STILL encouraged by the Mormon Church hierarchy

7: Mormon occultic phenomena continued to literally "haunt" the Mormon Church throughout the 19th century

In fact, after the above was posted last year, I came across a few other examples of evil spirits "hanging out" with future Lds "prophets" (like Lorenzo Snow, a "prophet" of the 1890s who served as an Lds missionary in England in the 1840s:

"As they had with other church leaders, evil spirits sought to confound Lorenzo [Snow] in his efforts. One night in his London apartment, he was awakened by loud noises. 'It seemed as though every piece of furniture in the room was put in motion, back and forth against each other in such terrible fury that sleep and rest were utter impossibilities.' Accompanying the commotion was an oppressive feeling that filled the whole room. The disturbance came again the next night, and several more nights after that..." (The Presidents of the Church: Biographical Essays, by Heidi S. Swinton, 1986 Deseret Book Co, 1986, p. 154...Deseret Book Company is owned by the Mormon Church).

Another prominent Lds general authority of the 1950s and 1960s – Hugh B. Brown -- serving as one of the top three-ranked Mormon leaders from 1961-1970 after being designated an "apostle" in the 1950s, described how an attack by demonic entities was intertwined with his call to be a church leader:

"We were in Canada. I was...an attorney for an oil company and manager of it...I drove to the city of Edmonton...I went into the bedroom alone and there, through the night, I had the most terrible battle with the powers of the adversary. I wanted to destroy myself. Not in the sense of suicide; but something within me was impelling me to wish that I could cease to be...It was terrible. The blackness was so thick you could feel it. Sister Brown came in later in the night, toward morning in fact, wanting to know what was the matter. And when she closed the door, she said, 'What's in this room?' And I said, 'Nothing but the power of the devil is in this room...That night at 10:00 o'clock, October 1953 – the telephone rang. Sister Brown answered. She called me and said, 'Salt Lake's calling,' and I wondered who could be calling me from that far away. I took the phone and said, 'Hello.' This is David O. McKay calling. The Lord wants you to give the balance of your life to Him and His Church..." (The Life & Teachings of Jesus & His Apostles, Course Manual Religion 211-212, 2nd edition 1978-1979, p. 133).

Regarding factual evidence, three of these witnesses testified that they had:
“seen the plates which contain this record . . . And we also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of a surety that the work is true. And we also testify that we have seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been shown unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon . . .”
Eight other witnesses testified that they saw and handled the plates.

Normandy, for the sake of your soul, please read what I am about to paste for you. It demonstrates that everything you just wrote is false.

Character of the 11 Witnesses

Joseph Smith claims that after he translated the plates, he returned them to the angel Moroni. Therefore, there is no way to verify the veracity of the plates or Smith's translation. Smith's only defense of his account is the eleven men who signed statements claiming to have seen the golden plates. Therefore, the credibility of Smith's account rests on the testimony of these eleven witnesses. There are three key witnesses who claim to have seen the angel show the golden plates to them. The remaining eight allege to have seen the plates but not the angel. The LDS church asserts these men never denied their testimony. However, when we examine the lives of the witnesses, we find they were untrustworthy, wavering, and gullible witnesses.
Six of the eleven witnesses, including the three key witnesses were eventually excommunicated from the church. Former Mormon President Ezra Taft Benson summed up the legacy of the eleven witnesses this way. "Six of the original Twelve Apostles selected by Joseph Smith were excommunicated. The three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon left the church. Three of Joseph Smith's counselors fell--one even helped plot his death. . . . The wolves among our flock are more numerous and devious today than when President Clark made a similar statement [in 1949]."
Let us first examine the character of the three key witnesses since their testimony is the most important. In a letter dated December 16, 1838, Joseph Smith stated this about the three key witnesses and John Whitmer, one of the eight. "John Whitmer, David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and Martin Harris are too mean to mention."
Martin Harris' testimony shows him to be a gullible and unstable man. He changed his religious conviction approximately thirteen times. He had joined several Christian denominations and other cult groups that include the Universalists, Strangites, and the Shakers. In Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph Smith gave revelations in which he denounces Martin Harris and calls him a "wicked man." The Mormon leaders published an article in the Elder's Journal, a Mormon publication edited by Joseph Smith, in which they accused Harris guilty of "swearing, lying, cheating, swindling, drinking, with every species of debauchery. . ." (Elders Journal, August, 1838, 59). Here the leaders of the Mormon Church strongly criticize the character of Harris.
Oliver Cowdery was also shown to be a very gullible man. He was led astray by Hiram Page, one of the eight witnesses who himself claimed to have divine revelations from his own seer stone. Although Joseph Smith denounced Hiram as a false teacher, Smith stated "to our grief, however, we soon found that Satan had been lying in wait to deceive. . . . Brother Hiram Page had in his possession a certain stone, by which he obtained certain 'revelations' . . . all of which were entirely at variance with the order of God's House, . . ." Despite Smith's condemnation, Oliver Cowdery joined Page's movement. Not only was he a gullible man, he was also indicted on several accounts of fraudulent business practices. The Mormon Church in a letter wrote, "During the career of Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer's bogus money business, it got abroad into the world that they were engaged in it. . . . We have evidence of a very strong character that you are at this very time engaged with a gang of counterfeiters, coiners, and blacklegs . . ." Cowdery was eventually excommunicated and he later joined the Methodist Church.
David Whitmer wrote, "God spake to me again by his own voice from the heavens, and told me to 'separate myself from among the Latter- day Saints, for as they sought to do unto me, so should it be done unto them." In the spring of 1838, the heads of the church and many of the members had gone deep into error and blindness. . . . About the same time that I came out, the Spirit of God moved upon quite a number of the brethren who came out, with their families, all of the eight witnesses who were then living (except the three Smiths) came out; . . ." Here David Whitmer denounced the Mormon Church and encouraged people to follow his example and the example of the other witnesses and leave the church.
Joseph Smith in response attacked the character of David Whitmer. Smith stated, "God suffered such kind of beings to afflict Job . . . this poor man who professes to be much of a prophet, has no other dumb ass to ride but David Whitmer, to forbid his madness when he goes up to curse Israel: and this ass not being of the same kind as Balaam's . . . he brays out cursing instead of blessings. Poor ass!"
The character and life of the eleven witnesses to the Book of Mormon are very different from the Apostles of Christ. None of the Apostles wavered in their defense of Christ, even though all suffered and most died for their faith. The Apostles remained consistent in their teaching and never fell into any type of apostasy. Their lives were marked by honesty and integrity. They were never indicted for any criminal activity except for preaching Christ. The character of the Book of Mormon's eleven witnesses does not strengthen Smith's defense but cast further doubt on its authenticity.
Probe Ministry website quote

Normandy, you put forth the witnesses as testifying they had seen the plates and therefore, the plates existed. What you actually put forward is a group of false witnesses, who lacked character, morals and convictions. This is not support for your truth claim.

Normandy, To continue with the FALSE CLAIMS of the mormon witnesses, as recorded in history... PLEASE read this carefully and more than once.

"I have reflected long and deliberately upon the history of this church & weighed the evidence for & against it loth (sic) to give it up - but when I came to hear Martin Harris state in public that he never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver [Cowdery] nor David [Whitmer] & that the eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it, the last pedestal gave way, in my view our foundation was sapped & the entire superstructure fell in heap of ruins.
"I was followed by W Parrish, Luke Johnson & John Boynton [Boyington] all of who concurred with me, after we were done speaking M Harris arose & said he was sorry for any man who rejected the Book of Mormon for he knew it was true, he said he had hefted the plates repeatedly in a box with only a tablecloth or handkerchief over them, but he never saw them only as he saw a city through a mountain. And said that he never should have told that the testimony of the eight was false, if it had not been picked out of [him/me?] but should have let it passed as it was...
(Stephen Burnett letter to Lyman E. Johnson dated April 15, 1838. Typed transcript from Joseph Smith Papers, Letter book, April 20, 1837 - February 9, 1843, microfilm reel 2, pp. 64-66, LDS archives.)

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1: 'Lucifer was one of us...'

2. Per a Mormon Seminary and Institute teacher in Salt Lake City, the so-called 'First Vision' of unnamed entities who appeared to the lad, Joseph Smith, a mere age 14, 'came AFTER his being seized and overcome for a time by Satan. The attack was a powerful one.'

'Attack of a powerful 'unseen' being...Joseph spoke of a thick darkness'

3: In the early 1820s, at the start of each Fall, a ghostly personage appeared to Mormonism founder Joseph Smith engages in follow-up occultic activity with Joseph at ages 17, 18, and 21 to ensure the introduction of The ghostly false Gospel of Mormonism

4: Joseph Smith had plenty of occult books to influence him. See former BYU History professor D. Michael Quinn's Occult Origins of Mormonism: Availability of Occult Books to Joseph Smith (1999)

6. History of Mormon temple paranormal activity and how communication with the dead is STILL encouraged by the Mormon Church hierarchy

7: Mormon occultic phenomena continued to literally "haunt" the Mormon Church throughout the 19th century

Character of the 11 Witnesses