{"id":112805,"date":"2025-09-13T00:12:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T06:12:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=112805"},"modified":"2025-09-13T18:57:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-14T00:57:43","slug":"she-couldnt-have-done-it-impossible-but-she-did-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2025\/09\/she-couldnt-have-done-it-impossible-but-she-did-it.html","title":{"rendered":"She couldn’t have done it. Impossible. But she did it."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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\"Tigris<\/a>
\u0645\u0634\u0647\u062f \u0644\u063a\u0631\u0648\u0628 \u0627\u0644\u0634\u0645\u0633 \u0641\u064a \u0628\u063a\u062f\u0627\u062f \u0639\u0644\u0649 \u0636\u0641\u0627\u0641 \u0646\u0647\u0631 \u062f\u062c\u0644\u0629 (\u201cA sunset view in Baghdad, on the banks of the Tigris River\u201d) \u00a0Wikimedia Commons public domain image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Having been on the road much of the day and having spoken at a fireside this evening, I\u2019m a bit late with this notification. \u00a0However, today being Friday, a new article went up this afternoon in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>: \u00a0\u201cPossible Remembrance and Re-enactment of Old World\u2019s Hieros Gamos <\/em>in the Book of Ether,\u201d<\/a> written by Micha\u00ebl Ulrich<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Abstract:<\/strong> This paper explores the conclusions that can be drawn from a Mesopotamian origin theory for the Jaredites. The goal is to show that the story of Jared\u2019s daughter in Ether 8 could be a ritual similar to <\/em>hieros gamos, or sacred marriage, from Mesopotamia. To achieve this, etymologies are given for three names (Jared, Ether, and Akish). These interesting etymologies help substantiate the sacred marriage theory for Ether 8. Finally, a comparison between Ether 3 and Ether 8 shows that both illustrate an initiation into the divine. In the former case, it is a righteous initiation into the divine; in the latter, it is an initiation into an idolatrous imitation of the divine.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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And, based upon it, \u201cInterpreting Interpreter<\/em>: Ether\u2019s Mesopotamian Marriage,\u201d<\/a> written by Kyler Rasmussen<\/a>, went up on the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s website:<\/p>\n

This post is a summary of the article \u201cPossible Remembrance and Re-enactment of Old World\u2019s Hieros Gamos in the Book of Ether<\/a>\u201d by Micha\u00ebl Ulrich in Volume 66 of Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship<\/em>. All of the Interpreting Interpreter<\/em> articles may be seen at https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/category\/summaries\/<\/a>. An introduction to the Interpreting Interpreter<\/em>series is available at https:\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreting-interpreter-on-abstracting-thought\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A video introduction to this Interpreter article is now available on all of our social media channels, including on YouTube at https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/BD1AxeyFeTE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Takeaway:<\/strong> Ulrich explores possible connections between the Book of Ether and ancient Mesopotamian culture, focusing on Sumerian\/Akkadian etymologies for the names Jared, Ether, and Akish, as well as parallels between Ether 8 and the literary motif of the \u201csacred marriage\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Half<\/a>
An artist\u2019s rendering of the Vancouver Washington Temple, for which ground was broken a few weeks ago. It will stand just across the Columbia River from Portland. (Fair use)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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I\u2019ve recently been reading Titus Rivas, Anny Dirven, and Rudolf H. Smith, The Self Does Not Die: Verified Paranormal Phenomena from Near-Death Experiences<\/em>, translated by Wanda J. Boeke (Durham NC: International Association for Near-Death Studies, 2016).\u00a0 It\u2019s an expanded English translation of a Dutch original.<\/p>\n

Today, I share with you Case 2.18 (\u201cHelen\u201d), which is recounted on pages\u00a0 49-51 of The Self Does Not Die<\/em>. It is taken from Near Death in the ICU<\/em> (Appleton, Wisconsin: Sloan Press, 2015), which was written by a critical-care physician named Laurin Bellg.<\/p>\n

\u201cHelen\u201d \u2013 the name is a pseudonym, adopted to protect the experiencer\u2019s anonymity \u2013 was involved in a very serious multi-vehicle accident.\u00a0 However, she immediately got out of her car in something of a panic in order to assess the damage and to determine whether anybody else needed help.<\/p>\n

Afterwards, she was able to report how many vehicles had been involved\u2014there were four\u2014and to describe a gray floral-delivery van that was ornamented with company decals on its side.\u00a0 They consisted of blue writing superimposed on a spray of red roses.<\/p>\n

She walked over to a dark green four-door sedan that was smashed against the hood of her own car at a very sharp angle, where it had hit her from the side after running a stop sign.\u00a0 A bearded, dark-haired man was slumped over the steering wheel, moaning.\u00a0 She saw how the bearded man\u2019s car had impacted hers and, thus, had led to a pile-up because the floral-delivery van behind her and a white suburban behind it<\/em> had been unable to stop in time.\u00a0 Her car was wedged in between the van and the green car, smashed, accordion-like, between them.<\/p>\n

The door of the van was too damaged to open, so that, although the driver seemed to be essentially unhurt, he couldn\u2019t get out of his vehicle.<\/p>\n

The driver of the white suburban was also in good shape.\u00a0 Helen very clearly heard her calling emergency services for help anthen, having finished her call, Helen saw her rushing rather frantically around, checking on people.\u00a0 Helen saw her reach into the green car, weaving her arm under its injured driver to turn off its engine, which was beginning to billow smoke.\u00a0 Then she leaned in to try to soothe and comfort him, rubbing his back and assuring him that help was on its way.<\/p>\n

Helen saw that the passenger in the green car was crying, obviously upset.\u00a0 So, while the driver of the white suburban focused on the green car\u2019s driver, Helen went around to the passenger side of the vehicle.\u00a0 She tried to offer comfort and support to the crying woman through the shattered window, but the woman didn\u2019t answer or respond.\u00a0 In fact, the woman didn\u2019t even appear to notice her presence, which, Helen thought, was probably understandable because of how very upset she was.<\/p>\n

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It was then that [Helen] heard the wailing sirens of approaching police cars and ambulances.\u00a0 She took that as a cue to get back to her own vehicle so that they could all be properly cared for.\u00a0 Walking back to her own car, a sudden realization stopped her in her tracks\u2014she was looking at a woman, apparently unresponsive, in the driver\u2019s seat of her car and realized that she<\/em> was that woman.<\/p>\n

She was simultaneously standing outside of her own car, looking at what appeared to be her body trapped in the driver\u2019s seat of a very damaged vehicle.\u00a0 It took her a while to orient to the fact that she was looking at her own body while somehow being separate from it.\u00a0 In doing so, she eventually came to the sobering reality that if she was outside of her body, looking at herself trapped in the heap of mangled metal, then she must be dead.\u00a0 Nothing else made sense.<\/p>\n

The official police report indicated Helen was quite entangled in the debris of her car and it took nearly thirty minutes to extricate her.\u00a0 It was unclear, at the time, exactly what was injured or broken, but, soon enough, the odd angles of her ankles revealed the truth of her injuries and that was what was called into the hospital ahead of her arrival.\u00a0 Not only was she trapped in the rubble of her car, both of her ankles were clearly broken, and she was observed, by experienced rescue workers, to be unconscious at the scene.\u00a0 There is no physical way that she would have been able to get out of her vehicle, let alone walk around and report with such great accuracy what she later described. . . .<\/p>\n

She told us details she couldn\u2019t possibly have been aware of unless she was awake and walking around, observing from the specific angles she described \u2013 especially when she saw her own body in the driver\u2019s seat of her car.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Posted from Portland, Oregon<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 Having been on the road much of the day and having spoken at a fireside this evening, I\u2019m a bit late with this notification. \u00a0However, today being Friday, a new article went up this afternoon in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship: \u00a0\u201cPossible Remembrance and Re-enactment of Old World\u2019s Hieros Gamos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":38278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19054,15574,900,903,960,906],"class_list":["post-112805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ether","tag-mesopotamia","tag-nde","tag-near-death-experience","tag-obe","tag-out-of-body-experience"],"yoast_head":"\nShe couldn't have done it. Impossible. 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