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Shannon Flynn told how Mark Hofmann defeated a lie detector test, and explained how those tests work. It was a fun conversation. Mark says that self-hypnosis is his new religion now. Shannon made an interesting note about Mark Hofmann. Even though the Salamander letter was made up, it helped bring to light much of the magical world view that Joseph Smith operated in. The letter wouldn’t be near as controversial today as it was in the 1980s. Do you all agree?
https://wheatandtares.org/2017/10/09/how-lies-bombs-bring-truth/ How did you all learn about seer stones and magic? Do you think this is properly credited to Hofmann’s forgeries for bringing this to light?
I’m not super impressed by a lie detector test being defeated. I knew before that they aren’t very reliable, and I thought that results weren’t allowed to be submitted as evidence in court…? I could be wrong, but I’m too lazy to Google check myself. I think I found out about the seer stones via someone’s avatar on here, interestingly enough. I don’t remember the participant, but the avatar is an image of JS looking into a hat, to use the seer stones as he ‘translates’ the BoM. That was pretty shocking and world-crumbling for me. I haven’t revisited it too heavily since then, but I do try to incorporate my other knowledge into my picture of JS. For example, I take into consideration all of the ways the brain wires itself together that we have learned about in the last 100+ years. Synesthesia is a good example. Today we classify it in technical terms, complete with rigorous methods of testing for diagnosis. It’s important to note that synesthesia isn’t classified as a mental illness, though, because the individuals still have perfect (read: whole) functioning in their daily lives.
Did JS have some sort of hallucinogenic or visionary brain, where he saw things “in his mind’s eye” and experienced them akin to how he experienced everything else? If so, it would make sense that he described his experiences to others in explicit detail and would be very inspiring. I think most visionaries are like that, regardless of if their visions inspiring hope and faith or power and dominance. However, the trickiest part is how much we, as a community and individuals, buy into the literalness of it all. It’s up to us to accept evolving ways of receiving new light and understanding, especially if they don’t come from our professed tribe.
As far as him being responsible for blowing the lid on church history, one commenter noted that it may have been sensationalized and brought into the public’s mind more, but it sounds like there were people dedicated to the mission of scholarship in church history long before Hofmann.
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