![\"Bryce's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/12\/Retouched-Colorized-Oliver-Cowdery-daguerreotype-584x773.jpg\")
<\/a>For the background of this daguerreotype, colorized by Bryce Haymond, see http:\/\/www.mormoninterpreter.com\/oliver-cowdery-daguerreotype-restored-in-full-color\/
(The Interpreter Foundation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Some wish to dismiss the testimonies of the Witnesses to the Book of Mormon on the basis of the fact that Martin Harris, for example \u2014 on perhaps two or three occasions \u2014 described seeing the plates and the angel and the other artifacts with \u201cspiritual eyes.\u201d \u00a0These skeptics assume, despite many other statements affirming the physical literality of the Witnesses\u2019 experience, that this means that the Witnesses only \u201cimagined\u201d seeing the plates, the angel, the Liahona, and the rest, or that it was a hallucination or some such thing.<\/p>\n
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There\u2019s much to be said against this view, and much that has<\/em> been said. \u00a0But here are a couple of relevant pieces that I just encountered tonight, from the invaluable Robert Boylan of Ireland:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Spiritual Eyes\u2019 in pre-1830 literature\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge Lamsa on People Seeing God with \u2018Spiritual Eyes'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n While I\u2019m thinking about the Witnesses, let me tell you something about the progress of the film that we\u2019re doing on that subject<\/a>, and alert you to our substantial financial needs for it \u2014 which are unavoidable even though we\u2019re making every effort to keep the costs as low as we reasonably can:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We have, thus far, interviewed a number of scholars for the film, which \u2014 I hasten to add \u2014 will be a docudrama, and not merely a succession of talking heads. \u00a0Thus far, we have interviewed Susan Easton Black, Terryl Givens, the late Richard Lloyd Anderson (for which I\u2019m very grateful!), Don Bradley, John Turner, Richard Bushman, Matthew Roper, and Ann Taves. \u00a0We intend to do a number of additional interviews, but we also intend to film reenactments on location. \u00a0Doing so, however, is seasonally sensitive. \u00a0That is, we want to film in the spring, the early summer, and\/or the fall in places like Palmyra, not in the dead of winter.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But if we\u2019re to get such filming underway this next spring, we need to have the funding in hand, or almost entirely in hand, by about the beginning of March 2019. \u00a0That\u2019s a tall order, and we may well not pull it off in time.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n If we don\u2019t make that funding goal, completion of the film will be delayed until at least the equivalent time next year.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n However, I feel passionately that this is an important film that will help \u2014 and interest \u2014 a number of people, and that there are people out there who need to see it as soon as we can possibly complete it.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n (Beyond the full and complete movie that we\u2019re working on, we also have it in mind to put the film up in shorter snippets online, as well as to post \u201cfilm footage\u201d that doesn\u2019t ultimately fit the movie\u2019s narrative arc but is still solid and helpful. \u00a0All of our finished work will be available for use in appropriate classes in the Church Education System, too. \u00a0We\u2019re brainstorming a host of ideas for how to get the good materials that we\u2019re capturing before the eyes of an audience that will enjoy and benefit from them.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Quite earnestly: \u00a0If you are interested in helping us to complete this effort, please join us. \u00a0You can contact me via daniel_peterson@byu.edu. \u00a0I would be happy to discuss the project with you personally. \u00a0Or you can donate to the Interpreter Foundation via several methods described on its website<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n