The home of John and Elsa Johnson, in Hiram, Ohio, from which Joseph Smith was dragged by a mob during the cold night of 24 March 1832 and nearly killed.
(Click to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or, perhaps more accurately, an out-of-body experience.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had long known about the time, in late March 1832, when a mob of nearly forty men dragged Joseph Smith from his home in the middle of the night, beat him, tarred and feathered him, and attempted to poison him with a vial of nitric acid. \u00a0He bore the scars for the rest of his life and, because of a tooth that broke when they were trying to force that vial into his mouth, spoke with a hissing \u201cs\u201d for many years (apparently until the German-born Jewish convert Alexander Neibaur, a dentist, fixed the tooth in Nauvoo).<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I hadn\u2019t been aware of this aspect of the story:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The full extent of Joseph\u2019s injuries that night is shown by a little-known account recorded by Joseph III, who must have heard the details from one or both of his parents. \u00a0Joseph was so near dying that he had a near-death experience. \u00a0He was \u201cbeaten into insensibility . . . and left for dead.\u201d \u00a0Joseph III related that Joseph\u2019s \u201cspirit 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<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nKarl Ricks Anderson, The Savior in Kirtland: Personal Accounts of Divine Manifestations<\/em> (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012), 78-79, citing Joseph Smith III, in Recollections of the Pioneers of Lee Country (Illinois)<\/em> (Dixon, IL: Inez A. Kennedy, 1893), 98.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Such out-of-body experiences have been extensively documented in recent decades. \u00a0I\u2019m struck by this one as an early specimen, but absolutely a textbook case.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Victoria, British Columbia<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Or, perhaps more accurately, an out-of-body experience. \u00a0 I had long known about the time, in late March 1832, when a mob of nearly forty men dragged Joseph Smith from his home in the middle of the night, beat him, tarred and feathered him, and attempted to poison him with a vial of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"John](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/08\/JJFarmHExterior2_Detail.jpg\")
<\/a>