The Celestial Room

…Anyway, the last time I was in there, I got a “prompting”, if it can be called that, to do something the church would definitely frown upon. What am I to make of this?

Personal revelation.

Right now, I think of the CR in terms of a place of rest, which many people need in the modern world.

Inspiration for career path etc? None. And I have asked. I find the best thing to do in there is to pray for others, as it is a holy place of a kind.

But, what I remember, is that I found much more peace and insight and revelation, and was better able to commune with the gods, just out sitting on the boat fishing or hiking up on the cliffs, or just sitting out by the burn barrel at night watching the stars.

I love nature and I have found the writings of John Muir and John Burroughs really inspiring. I think John Muir was a saint, and will hopefully receive a just reward somewhere for what he has done for this world.

A place that is quiet and ritually separated from the rest of our life, a sanctuary of sorts, is a perfect place to receive inspiration and personal revelation. I don’t know about the specifics of your experience SamBee. But if nothing else, those moments are very insightful.

I don’t know about the specifics of your experience SamBee. But if nothing else, those moments are very insightful.

Well, I got a prompting that if I acted on it, and my bishop found out, I’d be disciplined… put it that way!!!

not every prompting is inspired. i think the example in 1Ne4 is important for a lot of reasons. in nephi’s case, it wasn’t just a single prompting, but an entire debate on killing. did nephi do the right thing? we might say yes, and it wasn’t just a test like the early church required of its members in the case of polygamy, etc. in the case of nephi, the rationale or having the brass plates and killing nephi was fully justified by the spirit to nephi’s rational mind.

i think it’s important to “try the spirits”, and make sure that our inpiration is properly justified. this is to seek the place where the mind and spirit are in accord and at rest.

I was a rascally teenager. I dropped out of school to drop LSD and smoke pot. I then had a very powerful experience and became a very dedicated LDS kid, focused on serving a mission. So I got my mission call and went through the temple for the first time. I thought it was “meh” and a little weird. I decided not to think of it much. My mission was good and I went to the temple twice while there. They were not good experiences, but not bad either.

After returning home from the mission and getting married (which happened quickly), my wife and I attended the temple regularly. I just didn’t like it. For 7 or 8 years I went very infrequently. A couple years ago I was having a faith crisis and thought I was nearly agnostic. But I went to the temple (I determined I believed “enough” to go, maybe I was wrong) and had one of the greatest experiences of my life. I don’t want to give many details – I will just say that I was able to envision what the Celestial Kingdom might be like as I was in the Celestial Room.

Anyway, I believe Satan can influence us even when we are in a temple. Of course, our own thoughts can also seem like a prompting. I cannot know what the source of your “prompting” was.

Sam Bee Wrote, “It’s interesting… the first time I was in the temple, I didn’t get any of those bitchy thoughts that have a nasty tendency of intruding. I didn’t feel tempted… but now… been through the Celestial Room… well”

We are still free to think inside the temple. I have had “bitchy thoughts” there as well. When I had an argument with my ex-mother in-law about points of doctrine between general Christianity and Mormon beliefs. I went to the temple and during the whole endowment session, I was rebuked by the Lord for being so arrogant and argumentative.

there are times that in the temple I will actually have certain secular songs going through my mind, songs that I didn’t even listen to on the way to the temple. Mostly I listen to Christian music or even the MOTAB on the way to the temple to avoid light mindedness. At least the songs weren’t too bad then I thought, “perhaps the temple takes me to my happy place and some of those songs are reminiscent of my relaxation and happy – good-feel-vibes.

Also it is good to remember that one Sabbath day I went out on a walk near a concert and I was feeling the spirit listening to rock music on the Sabbath. And I had no regrets. I think we place to much on the holy and pure and fail to realize that much of our mundane existence will be within the holy confines of the Heavenly areas. Remember the “same sociality that exists here will exist there.” It just goes to show that when we die, we take our knowledge and experience with us. We take it into the temple, it will more than likely go to heaven, just more refined.

Many years ago as I was entering my crisis stage, I decided I needed to go to the temple to help sort things out. Though I was living in SLC, I went to the Manti temple, because I wanted a much lower key place than Salt Lake could provide. As I was going through an endowment session, I was particularly troubled with the signs and tokens. In the midst of this, I felt a very specific voice telling me “Don’t knock it. I don’t understand it either. But someday you will be glad you didn’t reject it”. I was fully aware of the illogic of that message, the paradox, and implausibility of it. Nevertheless, the anxiety and frustration I was feeling about it simply went away.

Some several months later I went inactive, and didn’t attend Church for 17 years, but when I did, I was glad that I could without carrying any negative feelings about the signs and tokens. I still don’t pretend to understand them, but it’s no big deal. And it has allowed me to have some very warm, comfortable feelings about my temple experiences. The biggest message I have gotten from the temple is a sense of peace, purity and power that I have felt there.