by J H Brennan
The Great Pyramid has long been considered a repository of occult mysteries—or, alternatively, of scientific knowledge bequeathed by a high civilization now vanished from the face of the earth. Investigators have been particularly interested in the King’s Chamber, a bare, flat-ceilinged room of polished red granite, some thirty-four by seventeen by nineteen feet high. This chamber, set deep in the heart of the pyramid, is empty except for a large, open sarcophagus of polished, chocolate-colored granite. When Napoleon entered it with a small group of advisers in 1798, he insisted that he be left alone for a time. His colleagues reluctantly agreed and filed out, leaving their leader to meditate on the mysteries of the ancient edifice. Napoleon subsequently emerged, white and shaken, but flatly refused to discuss what had frightened him. Years later, nearing death in exile on the small Atlantic island of Saint Helena, he recalled the experience again and seemed, momentarily, to be about to describe it. But he changed his mind and died with the mystery unexplained.
In the absence of facts, we may only speculate. But our speculations might be guided by the experience of Dr. Paul Brunton, a British author who, in the early 1930s, was one of the last men to receive permission to spend a night in the King’s Chamber. In his record of the adventure,5 Brunton describes a visionary experience in which he appeared to leave his body and learn the message of the pyramid (that men must turn their attention inward for salvation) from the spirit of a high priest of ancient Egypt.
Brunton’s experience is in line with an esoteric doctrine that the Great Pyramid was originally built as a device for separating the soul from the body of a living initiate, thus allowing a foretaste of life after death—the essential shamanic experience. Whether Brunton’s vision was subjective or a hallucination is almost beside the point. It is an observable reality that certain environments react on specific people in very similar ways and the sensation of leaving one’s body is far more commonplace than most people imagine—surveys in Britain and the United States show that anywhere between 25 percent and 46 percent of people claim to have had an out-of-body experience at least once in their lives. We are entitled to wonder if Napoleon, an intensely religious man once quoted as saying that a state without religion was like a ship without a rudder, also believed that he left his body and conversed with a spirit.
Here again, the objective reality of his experience is beside the point, for a vivid, subjective vision would have been quite enough to produce a profound effect on his mind. It may have imbued him with a sense of destiny or a sense of history. Certainly he possessed both in his later days and could scarcely have done what he did without them. He was, like Hitler and Churchill in a later age, very aware of the contribution he was capable of making to the fate of nations. His answer to the British announcement of his exile in 1815 was typical: “I appeal to history!” In the light of all we have so far discovered, it would seem to be a history profoundly influenced by spirit intervention.
15. AN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
SPIRIT INTERVENTION IN HUMAN AFFAIRS WAS NOT, OF COURSE, CONFINED to the Old World. Shamanism has existed in South America since time immemorial, as it has among the native North Americans. But by the time the nineteenth century rolled around, there was an intriguing coexistence between ancient spirit practices among the indigenous peoples and more recently developed contacts and techniques among the white settlers. As in the Old World, some contacts had profound implications for the cultural and political future of the continent. Among these were the experiences of a strikingly handsome young man named Joseph Smith Jr.
Smith was the product of a family that had seen hard times. His grandfather, Asael Smith, came from Topsfield, Massachusetts, but lost much of his property in America’s economic downturn in the 1780s and moved to Vermont. His son, Joseph Smith Sr., managed to establish himself as a farmer, but a series of crop failures in the early years of the new century forced him to move with his growing family to Palmyra, New York. Joseph Smith Sr.’s third son, Joseph Jr., grew to maturity within a confused, and doubtless confusing, religious background. His mother, Lucy Mack, came from a family that espoused Seekerism, a movement searching for a new revelation to restore true Christianity, but she herself attended Presbyterian services. His father, Joseph Sr., seemed to have no religion at all—he declined to attend any church and kept his son at home with him on Sundays. The whole family believed in visions and prophecies, however, and tended to engage in the more superstitious practices of folk religion. Meanwhile Palmyra was constantly swept by a series of revivals generated by the Second Great Awakening, an evangelical Christian movement that had been gaining momentum since 1800.
Against this background, the adolescent Joseph Jr. developed into a likeable young man with romantic inclinations and an interest in such oddities as treasure hunting. He took to claiming he could locate buried gold by means of a crystal “peep-stone,” and even managed to convince a few people he was endowed with supernatural powers. Unlike his father, the younger Joseph, now fourteen, seemed to feel the need of a church, but was confused about which one to join. Mindful of the New Testament advice that anyone lacking wisdom should ask God,1 he went off to the woods to pray and was rewarded by a vision of the Almighty accompanied by Jesus Christ, both of whom told him, face-to-face, not to join any of the available churches, which were all in error. He went to break the news to a local minister who, predictably, dismissed the spirit encounter as delusional.
Joseph Smith, the young American whose meetings with spirits led to the establishment of the Mormon Church
Smith continued to believe, however. He took the divine advice about churches but retained both his interest in religion and his practice of prayer. In 1823, he was rewarded with another spirit revelation. While praying in his bedroom for forgiveness, an angel named Moroni appeared to instruct him on the whereabouts of a set of gold plates inscribed with the history of the ancient peoples of America. Smith was to learn that this text was originally written by many ancient scribes inspired by the spirit of prophecy and revelation, then abridged and edited into its final form by a prophet-historian named Mormon. When he completed the work, Mormon gave the account to his son Moroni for safekeeping. It was this same Moroni, transformed into a glorified, resurrected being, who stood shining before Smith now.
An artist’s impression of Joseph Smith’s first contact with the angel Moroni
The plates, claimed the angel, were buried in a hill not far from Smith’s father’s farm in Wayne County. Smith followed the directions and discovered the plates in a stone box, along with a breastplate and mysterious pair of silver-rimmed spectacles with crystal peep-stone lenses.
For four years the angel refused Smith permission to move the gold plates, then suddenly relented. Not only was he allowed to take them home, but he was charged with the task of translating them into English from the original “reformed Egyptian.”2 When Smith demurred, he was offered divine guidance and told to use the magical spectacles he had found in the stone box. With their aid, tradition has it that he completed the job within three months—an impressive feat for what turned out to be a 588-page volume. Other sources suggest a more reasonable time span of two years,3 during which two of Smith’s followers were visited by the spirit of John the Baptist and ordained into a priesthood.
The plates described the thousand-year history of Israelites led by God from Jerusalem to a promised land in the Western Hemisphere some centuries before the birth of Christ. Their descendants split into two warring tribes, the Nephites and the renegade red-skinned Lamanites. Hostilities were briefly interrupted by the appearance of Christ to the Nephites following their conversion to Christianity, but resumed apace until the Nephites were eventually overwhelmed. But before they were wiped out completely, one of their generals, by the name of Mormon, assembled the records of his people and abridged them into a single text that he engraved on the golden plates. This Book of Mormon was then hidden by his son, Moroni—the same Moroni who was now appearing in angelic form to rev
eal its existence to Smith.
The style of the book is reminiscent of the Old Testament, with names borrowed from or similar to those of the Bible. Some biblical chapters are closely paraphrased. The suspicion naturally arises that Smith composed the whole thing as a creative work of fiction, with the “gold plates” the most fictional element of all. Furthermore, the original plates disappeared once they had been translated, taken back, according to Smith, by Moroni. Nonetheless, no fewer than eleven witnesses were prepared to testify to having seen them, in some cases touched them and examined the engraving on them. Today, every printed copy of the Book of Mormon begins with a statement of their testimony in two uneven groupings:
THE TESTIMONY OF THREE WITNESSES
BE IT KNOWN unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unto whom this work shall come: That we, through the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which contain this record, which is a record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, their brethren, and also of the people of Jared, who came from the tower of which hath been spoken. 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; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true. And it is marvelous in our eyes. Nevertheless, the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these things. And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgmentseat of Christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens. And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen.
Oliver Cowdery
David Whitmer
Martin Harris.
THE TESTIMONY OF EIGHT WITNESSES
BE IT KNOWN unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, unto whom this work shall come: That Joseph Smith, Jun., the translator of this work, has shown unto us the plates of which hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship. And this we bear record with words of soberness, that the said Smith has shown unto us, for we have seen and hefted, and know of a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of which we have spoken. And we give our names unto the world, to witness unto the world that which we have seen. And we lie not, God bearing witness of it.
Christian Whitmer
Jacob Whitmer
Peter Whitmer, Jun.
John Whitmer
Hiram Page
Joseph Smith, Sen.
Hyrum Smith
Samuel H. Smith.
The signatory Martin Harris, whose name is appended to the first of these two testimonies, was a wealthy neighbor of Smith’s and, despite some initial doubts, one of his earliest followers. He assisted in the translation and, when it was complete, mortgaged his farm in order to fund publication in book form. Date of first issue was March 26, 1830. Just eleven days later, Smith and a handful of followers formally organized themselves into a legal entity they called the Church of Christ. One of its more important teachings was the imminent return of Christ to Earth, a tenet that led Smith to an important project—the establishment of settlements known as Cities of Zion where followers could find refuge from the tribulations of the Last Days. In accordance with this plan, there was a general migration westward.
In Kirkland, Ohio, Smith acted on a further revelation to set up the United Order of Enoch, which introduced collective ownership among Mormons under the overall direction of the Church. Divine guidance failed him, however, when he opened his own bank to facilitate land purchases. The bank soon collapsed, leaving the Church itself in substantial difficulties. A warrant was issued for Smith’s arrest on charges of banking fraud. Smith responded by leading his followers to Missouri where another Mormon community had already been established.
Missouri proved to be a less than peaceful environment. There was conflict between members of the new religion and their more orthodox neighbors. Mormon property was burned, women and children murdered. Eventually the Mormons lost patience and began to arm themselves. A group known as the Danites was formed to protect the community and avenge wrongs done to members of the Church. The situation degenerated into open warfare. It was clearly a war the Mormons could never win. After an ignominious surrender to some twenty-five hundred state troops, Smith was taken into custody and charged with treason. After several months in prison and a grand jury hearing, Smith managed to escape while being escorted to Boone County. His authority over his followers was by now at a low ebb, with many convinced he was a fallen prophet. His leadership was sliding slowly into the hands of his former defender, Brigham Young. When the governor of Missouri threatened to exterminate the entire community of some fourteen thousand souls, Young led them en masse to Illinois.
At first this seemed like a good move. For the next few years, things quieted down considerably and the Mormons were permitted to build their own city, Nauvoo, on the site of an abandoned town. But as their numbers and influence grew—Smith had long since instituted a missionary program to spread the word of his revelation—so did the resentment of their neighbors. To make matters worse, there was dissension within the Mormon community itself. Smith’s popularity had further diminished following a revelatory ordinance issued by the Church permitting plural marriage for a limited elect … which naturally included Smith himself. He was also suspected of furthering his personal interests in Mormon land purchases.
By the middle of 1842, popular opinion in Illinois was noticeably turning against the burgeoning Mormon community. There was criticism in the press of their political and military aspirations and a massive scandal when Smith’s bodyguard was accused of shooting at the Missouri governor. Although the bodyguard was subsequently acquitted, anti-Mormon elements in Illinois lost no time in spreading rumors that Smith had predicted the governor’s death. Unsuccessful attempts were made to extradite Smith to Missouri, but his final downfall was not due to external enemies but to a split in his own ranks.
By the spring of 1844, a rift had developed between Smith and several of his closest followers, two of whom accused him of proposing marriage to their own wives. This led to the formation of a competing church and grand jury indictments against Smith for a series of alleged crimes, including polygamy. Smith retaliated by ordering the closure of a rebel newspaper, a poorly judged move that led directly to increasing opposition and eventually to a military confrontation with the Illinois governor. Smith and his brother Hyrum were arrested on charges of inciting a riot and treason against the state of Illinois. While they were awaiting trial, a mob stormed the jail. Hyrum was killed at once and Joseph Smith was shot several times before falling to his death from a window.
Joseph Smith’s short, eventful life was marked by frequent—one might even say constant—spirit communications. Although the most important of these were undoubtedly the exchanges with the angel Moroni that led to the discovery of the golden plates, the early structure of the Mormon church was based on a continuing series of “revelations” during which spirit voices guided Smith on the way his organization should function. Although some of the advice was controversial—the polygamy edict is an obvious example—the fact remains that a church that had exactly six members on the day of its foundation in 1830 now boasts more than 14.1 million worldwide.4 And, impressive though the growth may be, it does little
justice to the financial power of the Mormon church (now officially the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), particularly in America. Although the church body issues no fiscal statements, one source claims that were it a corporate entity, it would rank approximately halfway down the Fortune 500 list of the country’s top-earning companies.5 Financial and voting power inevitably reflects on political influence. In 2012, Mitt Romney, a follower of Joseph Smith, became the Republican Party nominee for the presidency of the United States and missed election by the narrowest of margins.
PART THREE
SPIRITS IN THE MODERN WORLD
IT IS BY NOW EASY TO SEE HOW THE COURSE OF HUMAN HISTORY has been influenced, directly and indirectly, by spirit contacts. But it is equally easy to forget that history is a continuing process. Just as incidents and actions in the distant past continue to reverberate down the centuries, so incidents and actions in the modern era contribute, sometimes dramatically, to the unfolding of our future.
Spirit intervention cannot be dismissed as the product of earlier, superstitious eras. Nor, whatever its essential nature, has it succumbed to the materialistic rationalism of post-Enlightenment culture. As we shall see in this section, spirit contact, influence, and even intervention have all continued into modern times. Some might even make the case that, in the age of mass communications, spirit influence has actually increased.
16. IS EVERYBODY THERE?
THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM, JOSEPH SMITH, LIKE MOST PROPHETS, was and is considered by his followers to be an unusual, uniquely talented individual because of his spirit contacts. Yet four years after his death, the spirits were again making their presence known, this time to ordinary people right across America. Stranger still, the unlikely development was anticipated by the spirits themselves in a prophecy by the famous “Seer of Poughkeepsie,” Andrew Jackson Davis.