{"id":114919,"date":"2026-02-17T19:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=114919"},"modified":"2026-02-17T19:38:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T02:38:41","slug":"in-case-you-happen-to-be-in-belgium-this-coming-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2026\/02\/in-case-you-happen-to-be-in-belgium-this-coming-friday.html","title":{"rendered":"In case you happen to be in Belgium this coming Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SLC's<\/a>
Our conversation with Dr. Matthew Grow took place at the Church History Museum in Salt Lake City. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fourth installment of our Becoming Brigham<\/em> series is now up, and you can watch it (and its three predecessors) at becomingbrigham.com<\/a>. \u00a0And did you, by any chance, catch the interview that I did two or three weeks ago with Nathan Lenaghen, of BYU-Idaho Radio? \u00a0Here it is: \u00a0\u201cNew documentary series focuses on Brigham Young\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

And if, by chance, you missed the Becoming Brigham<\/em> fireside that we held in south Orem on 31 January \u2014 and just in case \u00a0you haven\u2019t yet watched the videotape of the whole thing<\/a> \u2014 the question-and-answer portion of the program (featuring me, Camrey Bagley Fox, John Donovan Wilson, and our director, Mark Goodman) has been excerpted for you. \u00a0The Q-and-A session runs just slightly more than thirty minutes, and you can watch it at https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WPUr-enslSg.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Eddy<\/a>
If I\u2019m not mistaken, De Melkerij is located at Brusselsesteenweg 3A, 1980 Zemst, Belgium. This photo was provided by Eddy Martens.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m pleased to hear that some members of the Church in Belgium \u2014 the name that I know from among the group is that of Eddy Martens \u2014 have organized a screening of the 2024 Interpreter Foundation theatrical film Six Days in August<\/em><\/a> for, I believe, this coming Friday. \u00a0Not only that, but they\u2019ve created Dutch subtitles for the film. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a way,\u201d says Brother Martens,<\/p>\n

for us all to learn something more about the history of the church, to strengthen our testimonies and to bring members and friends together. After the screening we\u2019ll have a drink at the house of one of the members. It\u2019s a great opportunity to strengthen friendships and to befriend new members. And I think it\u2019s nice to do this outside of a church setting, to bring the gospel in our everyday world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m afraid that I don\u2019t know the time of the showing, but the screening will be held at a local cultural center called De Melkerij<\/em> \u201c(The Dairy\u201d). The name comes from the fact that the venue was a dairy and cheese factory from 1942 until 1981. Now (among other things), it\u2019s a theater where movies are shown and there\u2019s a nice place to have dinner.<\/p>\n

I would love to see others organize such viewing parties \u2014 and not merely in Europe. \u00a0Of course, they don\u2019t have to be theater-sized. \u00a0They could be in somebody\u2019s basement television room, or in a living room. \u00a0But they could<\/em> be theater-sized. \u00a0Such things are certainly doable. \u00a0And they\u2019ve been done<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Brother Martens supplied this photo of the interior of De Melkerij\u2019s theater, presumably taken at a previous event there.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We watched the second half of the great 1940 Disney movie Fantasia<\/em><\/a> with a third-generation unit last night; we had watched the first half a night or two previously.<\/p>\n

Fantasia<\/em> wasn\u2019t a financial success for many years after its premiere, apparently beginning to finally turn a profit only when it was re-released in December 1969. \u00a0That was certainly when I saw it, and it had a great impact on me. \u00a0Wikipedia says that the film was promoted for that re-release with a psychedelic-styled or -themed advertising campaign, and that it became popular among teenagers and college students who supposedly appreciated it as a psychedelic experience.<\/p>\n

I was a child of California in the sixties and I was surrounded by (and actually enjoyed) its distinctive culture, but I never did psychedelic drugs and was never even slightly tempted by them. \u00a0Still, I guess I was part of the teenage and college-age audience that loved Fantasia<\/em>. \u00a0Under the influence of my memorable high school German teacher, Lenore Smith, I was already developing a love of classical music, and Fantasia<\/em> certainly reinforced that. \u00a0I enjoyed all of the pieces that were featured in the the film, but I emerged with a particular passion for the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor<\/a>, by Johann Sebastian Bach<\/a>, and for the\u00a0Pastoral Symphony (No. 6)<\/a><\/i> by Ludwig van Beethoven<\/a>.\u00a0 My other favorite sequence, I think, was the combination of the depiction of Walpurgisnacht<\/em> in Night on Bald Mountain<\/a> <\/i>by Modest Mussorgsky<\/a> with the Ave Maria<\/a><\/i> of Franz Schubert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was fun to expose the third-generation unit to Fantasia<\/em>. \u00a0The 3GU is much younger than I was when I<\/em> first saw the film, but I hope that it will have a similar impact on the 3GU\u2019s mind and sensibilities.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/a>
A nice image from southern California, where I was born and raised, suggestive of a tunnel with light at the end. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here, completely unrelated to the foregoing, are three passages that I marked while reading Pim van Lommel, Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience<\/em>\u00a0(New York: HarperCollins, 2010). \u00a0The first is a specimen of the panoramic life review reported by many who experience NDEs:<\/p>\n

\n

My whole life so far appeared to be placed before me in a kind of panoramic, three-dimensional review, and each event seemed to be accompanied by an awareness of good and evil or by an insight into its cause and effect. \u00a0Throughout, I not only saw everything from my own point of view, but I also knew the thoughts of everybody who\u2019d been involved in these events, as if their thoughts were lodged inside me. \u00a0It meant that I saw not only what I had done or thought but even how this had affected others, as if I was seeing with all-knowing eyes. \u00a0And so even your thoughts are apparently not wiped out. \u00a0And throughout, the review stressed the importance of love. \u00a0I can\u2019t say how long this life review and insight into life lasted; it may have been quite long because it covered every single subject, but at the same time it felt like a split second because I saw everything at once. \u00a0It seemed as if time and distance \u00a0didn\u2019t exist. \u00a0I was everywhere at once, and sometimes my attention was focused on something and then I was there too. \u00a0(36)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The next two are examples of the conscious return to the physical body:<\/p>\n

\n

When I came to in my body it was dreadful, so dreadful. . . . \u00a0The experience had been so beautiful that I didn\u2019t want to come back. \u00a0I had wanted to stay there . . . and yet I came back. \u00a0From that moment it was a real struggle to live my life inside my body, with all the limitations I experienced at the time. . . . \u00a0But later I realized that this experience was in fact a blessing, for now I know that the mind and body are separate and that there\u2019s life after death. \u00a0(40)<\/p>\n

Before I get a chance to turn around and dive into that heavenly light, I notice a slender hand on my back, from my right shoulder down to my waist. \u00a0This large hand pushes me very firmly yet lovingly back into my body. \u00a0For a moment I feel like I\u2019m doing a couple of somersaults in the air. \u00a0Then I realize that I\u2019ve landed back in my body. \u00a0Back to the pain and to the doctor\u2019s deafening screams and slaps. \u00a0I\u2019m furious, incredibly furious! \u00a0I don\u2019t know if I actually uttered all the insults that came to mind. . . . \u00a0I think I did, because I felt a sense of relief afterward. \u00a0I\u2019ve never felt a fury like this rage. . . . \u00a0(40-41)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I thought you might enjoy them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 The fourth installment of our Becoming Brigham series is now up, and you can watch it (and its three predecessors) at becomingbrigham.com. \u00a0And did you, by any chance, catch the interview that I did two or three weeks ago with Nathan Lenaghen, of BYU-Idaho Radio? \u00a0Here it is: \u00a0\u201cNew documentary series focuses on Brigham […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":114922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38578,292,2905,788,903,28443],"class_list":["post-114919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-becoming-brigham","tag-brigham-young","tag-latter-day-saint","tag-mormon","tag-near-death-experience","tag-six-days-in-august"],"yoast_head":"\nIn case you happen to be in Belgium this coming Friday<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  The fourth 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