In the strange little corner of the internet where they seem to spend much of every day, a few of my more, umm, continuous critics profess to be baffled by what they claim to see as my obsession with near-death experiences.   There’s no need for bafflement.  I’m by nature pretty transparent and, indeed, sometimes almost too candid, and I’m certainly open about my interest in near-death experiences.  I’ve been interested in them since at least the... Read more

      Occasionally, one hears the claim that, in the course of the First Vision, the Father actually, literally, touched Joseph Smith’s eyes.  Here’s a note on that subject, extracted from A Pillar of Light: The History and Message of the First Vision (American Fork, UT: Covenant Communications, 2009), which was written by the late and still-lamented Matthew Brown:   The idea that God the Father physically touched Joseph Smith’s eyes before he saw the Savior comes from a secondhand... Read more

    Please mark your calendars for the fourth “Temple on Mount Zion” conference.  Jointly sponsored by BYU’s College of Humanities, BYU’s Department of Asian and Near Eastern Languages, and the Interpreter Foundation, it will convene between roughly 9 AM and 5 PM — the precise times remain to be confirmed —  on Saturday, 10 November 2018, in Room 251 of the Tanner Building on the Brigham Young University campus.   I have a list of the tentative presentation titles.... Read more

    “President Nelson Shares Life Lessons in Pacific Northwest: President Eyring joins prophet on visit to Seattle and Vancouver, BC”   On Sunday, I received this account, from Larry Clifton, who lives in the area.  I thought that some readers might be interested, and I share this with Brother Clifton’s permission:   President & Sister Nelson & President Eyring held a special devotional in Seattle last evening. . . .  Just a bit of background:  in planning the event the local... Read more

    Here are a few more notes that I’ve drawn from Pim van Lommel, Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (New York: HarperCollins, 2010).  Dr. van Lommel is a Dutch cardiologist:   Many thousands of people are known to have had a near-death experience, but estimates put the number of people who have had one in the past fifty years at more than 25 million worldwide.  Fairly recent studies in the United States and Germany suggest that approximately... Read more

    The situation could change — has, in fact, been changing — with stunning rapidity.  We don’t know what new allegations or evidence might or might not come forward.   If I had to make a prediction right now, though, I would guess that the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the United States Supreme Court is dead or, at  best, on life support.   I say this as someone who has supported Judge Kavanaugh, who has been disgusted... Read more

    I offer here my own inadequate translations of two of the most loved verses in the Qur’an, which is revered as holy scripture by the world’s more than 1.5 billion Muslims:     God!  There is no God but He, the Living, the Self-Existent. Neither slumber nor sleep can seize Him. Whatever is in the heavens or on the earth is His. Who can intercede in His presence without His permission? He knows what is before them and... Read more

    Many years ago, while I was still an undergraduate and before I was married (and maybe before I had even met my future wife), several of us — including at least two of us who were studying classical Greek — got together, in lieu of less worthwhile activities like our studies, to make a film that we named Oedipus Wrecked.  No expense was spared, up to a limit of perhaps $9.37.  And the very latest cutting-edge technology was... Read more

    A bit more from Pim van Lommel, Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience (New York: HarperCollins, 2010).  In this case, two near-death experience accounts:   I was immersed in a feeling of total love.  It was crystal clear to me why I’d had cancer.  Why I had come into this world in the first place.  What role each of my family members played in my life, where we all were within the grand scheme of things, and... Read more