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<\/a>Before leaving for church today, I read \u201cBrigham Young Unfiltered:\u00a0His Life, Conversion, and Faith in His Own Words\u201d (BYU Studies<\/em> 64\/1 [2025]: 5-19<\/a>), written by the irreplaceable LaJean Purcell Carruth. \u00a0I commend it to your attention:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we have Brigham Young\u2019s own words, what he really said according to the shorthand record, we hear a very different man from the one that is so often criticized. Brigham bashing has become a sport for some people\u2014criticizing him for his words or parts of his teachings, often without correct information or considering the times in which he lived. Yes, he said things that I and many others wish he had not said. But I have said many things that I wish I had not said, and I suppose every person has. We need to reexamine what we believe and say about Brigham Young, with a more broad understanding and based on correct sources.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n By the way, for some of you who may be wondering what has become of our dear friend \u201cTwo Cumorah Fraud\u201d: \u00a0I shadow-banned Fraud early last week. \u00a0What is shadow-banning? \u00a0It\u2019s an admittedly rather devilish way of barring someone from commenting here that still allows the commenter and (if I choose) me \u2014 but nobody else \u2014 to see his posts. \u00a0In other words, he can go on for some indeterminate length of time still thinking that his priceless contributions are appearing to others as before, when they\u2019re actually not. \u00a0Fraud had already posted several comments that day and, after the shadow-ban went into effect, he posted seven (7) more<\/em> comments before the day ended. \u00a0His seven additional offerings covered the same widely-varied thematic range that all of his prior<\/em> contributions had covered, and all of them conveyed the same signature kindness and the same charitable spirit that his comments had always<\/em> carried with them. \u00a0He ceased attempting to post here after that; I suppose that, somehow, he eventually realized that his blows weren\u2019t landing. \u00a0I hope that Fraud can find another venue where he can continue to make his, umm, contributions to the Kingdom \u2014 preferably far from here. \u00a0And I wish him shabbat shalom<\/em>.<\/p>\n I\u2019m saddened by this news; she had so much left to offer: \u00a0\u201cFormer Utah Congresswoman Mia Love has died at age 49:\u00a0Former Utah Congresswoman Mia Love died on Sunday, March 23, 2025\u201d<\/a> \u00a0 I had not realized that the end would come so soon; less than two weeks ago, she published an article in the Deseret News<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cMia Love: My living wish for the America I know:\u00a0As her battle with brain cancer comes to an end, Mia Love takes up her pen \u2014 not to say goodbye but to say thank you\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n My brother, Kenneth,<\/a> died, suddenly, exactly thirteen years ago today on 23 March 2012. \u00a0That was the first major blow of what remains by a considerable distance the worst year of my life. \u00a0I was still reeling from his loss when the year\u2019s other blows began to fall a couple of months thereafter. \u00a0Strictly speaking, Kenneth was my half-brother. \u00a0But he was my only sibling and, despite our difference in age, we were very close. \u00a0Even after all these years have passed, there are very few days, if any, when I don\u2019t think of him and miss him. \u00a0I\u2019ll post my customary tribute to him within the next couple of days. \u00a0But I\u2019m thinking of him today.<\/p>\n With my brother\u2019s passing and Mia Love\u2019s passing on my mind, I think it not inappropriate for me to mention a few of the many passages that I marked during my recent reading of Bruce Greyson, \u201cResearchers\u2019 and Experiencers\u2019 Descriptions of Near-Death Experiences: In Search of a Conceptual Model,\u201d Journal of Near-Death Experiences<\/em> 41\/3 (2023): 169-201. \u00a0Dr. Greyson, who is Chester Carlson Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, is the author of (among many other relevant things) After: A Doctor Explores What Near-Death Experiences Reveal about Life and Beyond<\/em>, and is one of the preeminent authorities on the study of near-death experiences.<\/p>\n Based on a recent survey the he conducted of precisely equal numbers of researchers in the field and actual experiencers \u2014 one hundred each \u2014 he reported that a very commonly mentioned feature of NDEs<\/p>\n was a sense of hyperreality. \u00a0Researchers typically described this in terms of \u201c\u2018realer than real\u2019 or hyperreal;\u201d \u201cmuch more real and certain than this world;\u201d or, \u201can intensity that makes them different from coma experiences\/visions.\u201d<\/p>\n Experiencers typically described hyperreality in terms of \u201ca sense of being in a reality more real than our usual one;\u201d \u201csomewhat like a dream only more real than life itself;\u201d \u201ca reality that feels more real than the one we live in;\u201d \u201cit is very real, and remains so long after the experience; no matter how many people in the world could try telling you that NDEs are not real, you know they are real with your whole being;\u201d or \u201cit is more real, authentic, more to-be-trusted than things you experience in my [sic<\/em>] normal day-to-day life; you know it is real.\u201d (181-182)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In the quotation above, as in the quotations below, I have omitted the internal references provided by Dr. Greyson. \u00a0I also preserve his italicized emphasis below:<\/p>\n The second-most-commonly-mentioned phenomenological feature was an out-of-body experience. \u00a0Researchers typically described out-of-body experiences in terms of \u201cthe sense of a center of consciousness existing apart from the body;\u201d \u201cclear and vivid perception of having left the physical body;\u201d \u201csubjective awareness escaping the spatial confines of the body;\u201d \u201caltered proprioception, with a sense of disembodiment;\u201d or \u201cperceiving the material world from a location outside the physical body.\u201d<\/p>\n Experiencers typically described out-of-body experiences in terms of \u201cspirit or soul lifts out of the body, rises up to ceiling, looks down on self;\u201d \u201ca separation of the eternal spirit from the body, and the act of leaving the dying body behind;\u201d \u201cit\u2019s not a sensation of leaving your physical body, it is<\/em> leaving your body;\u201d \u201cseeing your own body from far above, confirming that soul\/spirit\/consciousness is separate from this body, mind, intellect, and ego;\u201d or \u201cbeing decoupled from one\u2019s physical body, free from the constraints of material existence.\u201d \u00a0(182)<\/p>\n A subtype of out-of-body experience was a veridical or corroborated out-of-body experience. \u00a0Researchers describe this subtype of out-of-body experience typically in terms of \u201cvisual awareness of objects, entities, or events in the environment that can be confirmed by third parties;\u201d accurately and veridically perceiving events in the here-and-now;\u201d \u201cevidential features;\u201d \u201csensory experiences of surrounding areas that are confirmed later;\u201d or \u201cviewing one\u2019s surroundings, with subsequent corroboration.\u201d \u00a0(183)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Especially with Sister Love\u2019s case in mind \u2014 she finally passed away as the result of a long and, I presume, a very painful illness, I\u2019m happy to record that an absence of pain, even a sudden cease of previous pain, was commonly reported \u2014 particularly by those who had themselves undergone a near-death experience. \u00a0(See page 188 of Dr. Greyson\u2019s article.) \u00a0That is heartening, encouraging, and comforting.<\/p>\n Posted from Po\u02bbip\u016b, Kaua\u02bbi, Hawai\u02bbi<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Before leaving for church today, I read \u201cBrigham Young Unfiltered:\u00a0His Life, Conversion, and Faith in His Own Words\u201d (BYU Studies 64\/1 [2025]: 5-19), written by the irreplaceable LaJean Purcell Carruth. \u00a0I commend it to your attention: \u201cWhen we have Brigham Young\u2019s own words, what he really said according to the shorthand record, we hear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":108527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1104,2905,38509,788,900,903],"class_list":["post-109546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-death","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mia-love","tag-mormon","tag-nde","tag-near-death-experience"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a>
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/a><\/a>