{"id":115006,"date":"2026-02-23T21:16:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=115006"},"modified":"2026-02-23T21:16:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:16:23","slug":"this-is-your-daughter-virginia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2026\/02\/this-is-your-daughter-virginia.html","title":{"rendered":"“This is your daughter, Virginia.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Doomed<\/a>
Jana Dahmer as Miriam Works Young, with John Donovan Wilson as Brigham Young, in the 2024 Interpreter Foundation dramatic film Six Days in August<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The fifth installment of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s ongoing series of mini-documentaries is now up for viewing, and (of course) it\u2019s available at no charge: \u00a0Becoming Brigham<\/em>, Episode 5\u2014\u201dWhy Brigham Young?\u201d Part Two<\/a>. \u00a0Today\u2019s video features Matt Grow<\/a>, who is the managing director of the Church History Department in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n

All<\/em> of the episodes of Becoming Brigham<\/em> \u2014 including this new one, Episode 5 \u2014 are available for viewing at becomingbrigham.com<\/a>. \u00a0We hope that you\u2019ll subscribe, so that you don\u2019t miss any of the forthcoming episodes, and that you\u2019ll share the becomingbrigham.com<\/a> site with others. \u00a0There\u2019s good stuff on the way.<\/p>\n

I anticipate that the number of installments in the series will eventually reach about seventy or seventy-five, which means that, barring unforeseen circumstances, Becoming Brigham<\/em> will conclude sometime around the middle of 2027. \u00a0That is, as it happens, about the time that the open house will be held for the renovated Salt Lake Temple. \u00a0We\u2019re trying to imagine ways in which Becoming Brigham<\/em> might contribute to that celebration. \u00a0After all, it was Brigham Young who began construction of the Salt lake Temple, designating the spot where it would stand within just a few days of his arrival in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.<\/p>\n

\"Jesse<\/a>
An illustration, by Jesse Krau\u00df, of a near-death experience
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I think that I\u2019ll share a story that I marked sometime ago while reading Sarah Hintze, The Announcing Dream: Dreams and Visions of Children Waiting to Be Born<\/em> (Mesa, AZ: Three Orchard Productions, 2016). \u00a0It\u2019s told by a woman who is identified only as Joann B.:<\/p>\n

I was scheduled for my first surgery. \u00a0It was a very delicate surgery that was to last seven hours. \u00a0But during this experience, I stopped breathing. \u00a0Instantly, I found myself suspended in the air above my body. \u00a0I could look down and see everything the doctors and nurses were doing. \u00a0I saw the heart monitor flat and the nurses stirring about. \u00a0My doctor moved away from me to allow another doctor to come in. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t understand why everyone appeared to be so worried.<\/p>\n

I found myself in a place where there was a brilliant white light all around me. \u00a0As my senses became alert, I heard a beautiful sound \u2014 it was the sound of peace. \u00a0I cannot describe it with mortal words, only that a powerful feeling of peace permeated my very being. \u00a0I could hear spiritual beings moving around behind me in a very calm and orderly manner. \u00a0I don\u2019t know where it came from, but all of a sudden I was holding an infant. \u00a0There was a personage behind me and he said to me, \u201cThis is your daughter, Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n

I looked at her and I was so thrilled. \u00a0Ever since I was a child I had always wanted a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl. \u00a0These were the features of the beautiful baby girl I was holding. \u00a0My fianc\u00e9, Wade, had blond hair and blue eyes.<\/p>\n

I looked at her and asked, \u201cHer name is Virginia?\u201d \u00a0The personage behind me said \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n

I turned around to thank him, and all of a sudden, the heart monitor started going again and I was immediately returned to my body. \u00a0I knew I had been summoned back. \u00a0I was really sad, and my arms hurt because I wasn\u2019t holding that beautiful baby. (43-44)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It scarcely needs to be said that Joann B. eventually did have a blond-haired, blue-eyed baby girl who was given the name Virginia.<\/p>\n

But that isn\u2019t the aspect of the story that caught my attention. \u00a0Rather, it\u2019s Joann B.\u2019s recollection of having been \u201csuspended in the air above [her] body. \u00a0Such accounts are omnipresent in the literature. \u00a0I\u2019ve probably read at least a hundred of them, and probably many more than that, from widely scattered places and times. \u00a0In more than a few such cases, they report verifiable details that could not have been observed from the location of the witness\u2019s body. \u00a0What to make of such things? \u00a0If even one of these cases is true, accurately reported, that would seem to be very good evidence for the distinct nature of mind and brain.<\/p>\n

So here\u2019s another instance. \u00a0Cited in a paper by my friend Brent Top<\/a> entitled \u201cThe Near-Death Experience: Why Latter-day Saints are So Interested,\u201d it\u2019s a lesser-known element of a fairly familiar event from the nineteenth-century \u00a0life of the Prophet Joseph Smith:<\/p>\n

One experience is particularly remarkable. \u00a0It involves Joseph Smith, Jr., the Mormon Prophet, himself. \u00a0Most Latter-day Saints are familiar with an 1832 event in Hiram, Ohio, where Joseph was beaten, tarred and feathered by his enemies. \u00a0What may not [be] so familiar is the account of Joseph\u2019s out-of-body experience at the time. \u00a0His wife, Emma Hale Smith, remembered:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe converts to Mr. Smith\u2019s teaching were constantly arriving from all parts of the country, [which added] greatly to the disturbance of antagonists to the Mormon religion, and in March, 1832, the most violent persecution followed. \u00a0Mr. Smith was dragged from his bed, beaten into insensibility, tarred and feathered and left for dead. \u00a0A strange part of this experience was, that his spirit seemed to leave his body, and that during the period of insensibility he consciously stood over his own body, feeling no pain, but seeing and hearing all that transpired.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This account was given many decades before Raymond Moody\u2019s best-selling 1975 book Life After Life<\/em> coined the term near-death experience<\/em> and made NDEs and OBEs (out-of-body experiences) popular subjects for numerous other books and innumerable conversations. \u00a0Thus, it\u2019s doubtful that either Joseph or Emma was influenced by Dr. Moody\u2019s writing.<\/p>\n

\n
\"HBLL<\/a>
The entrance to the Harold B. Lee Library, the main library at Brigham Young University, a portion of which is visible behind the brightly lit entrance pavilion and a significant portion of which is underground. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Surprise! \u00a0Here\u2019s something from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial \u201cHow Religion Poisons Everything\u201d File<\/em>\u2122: \u00a0\u201cBYU at 150: The Language University:\u00a0BYU teaches courses in more foreign languages than any college in America\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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

\u00a0 The fifth installment of the Interpreter Foundation\u2019s ongoing series of mini-documentaries is now up for viewing, and (of course) it\u2019s available at no charge: \u00a0Becoming Brigham, Episode 5\u2014\u201dWhy Brigham Young?\u201d Part Two. \u00a0Today\u2019s video features Matt Grow, who is the managing director of the Church History Department in Salt Lake City. All of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":30491,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[38578,29959,292,39670,39673,6903],"class_list":["post-115006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-becoming-brigham","tag-brent-top","tag-brigham-young","tag-matt-grow","tag-matthew-grow","tag-salt-lake-temple"],"yoast_head":"\n"This is your daughter, Virginia."<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"  The fifth installment of the Interpreter Foundation's ongoing series of mini-documentaries is now up for viewing, and (of course) it's available at\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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