I recently talked with a TBM friend who I haven't seen in a while, and who does not know about my disaffection. In the course of catching up, he told me about a friend in his ward who had this experience:

She wanted to have more children, but the husband did not. She felt prompted to have children, but because of the husband, they did not for another year. At that point, she had a vision. A little girl appeared at the foot of her bed and spoke to her, saying that she needed to have her. She then stopped taking her birth control pills without telling her husband. They conceived, and at first the doctors thought it was a boy. It later turned out to be a girl. The woman says that years later, as the child grew older, she looked just like the little girl that had appeared to her. She also claims to have had many visions of various sorts.

I think that what really bothered me about this is that I finally saw just how deeply buried in the mystical, magical Mormon worldview my friend is. To him, this must seem like a very convincing story, and any attempt from me to explain it away would seem like a cop-out. To him, these experiences are very real, and fit directly with what he believes about reality.

Now, I have many reasons to be skeptical of claims like these, and I don't feel like they need to be enumerated in this post. What I would like to know is this:

Have any of you experienced visions, blessings, etc. that contained prophesies or similar things? Have they come to pass? Have they not come to pass? Do you know of any such experiences? Can you post links to such experiences?

I've never experienced any visions. I know a woman that says her recently deceased sister came and sat next to her and comforted her in the temple. I don't know if she actually "saw" her, or if she just "felt her presence". I'm not going to ask.

I've never been seriously ill, but I've received blessings for minor ailments that never helped. In my TBM days, I just assumed they weren't important conditions...nothing to bother heavenly father over. Elder Scott gave a blessing to a man on my mission that was dying of cancer. I felt so blessed that I was going to see an apostle miraculously heal a man. He just told him that he was going to die. I figured it was just his time...he was needed on the other side.

Only one of the two has come true.

The first one was that I would die young. I'm coming up on a 40 something birthday this week. Maybe that is relative.

The second was that she would have another baby after her Downs baby girl she had stillborn in her 40s. She had a vision where a little girl came to her and told her she is waiting to come to earth. My parents concieved and had a baby girl shortly after this both of them in their middle 40s.

Needless to say, my youngest sister is my mother's favorite and I'm never in her good graces.

1 out of 2 ain't bad for a prophetess.

Thanks for sharing those!

I have had a few.

The one that comes strongly to mind, is when I was sealed to my family in the temple. Let me fill you in on the background. My husband and I weren't perfect when we got married. We had never "done the deed" but we were deemed unworthy to get married in the temple by his bishop, but we were given clearance from mine. So, we had a civil marriage. We never felt like we "fit the mold" and it took us 9 years of guilt and trying and rejection to finally be able to get sealed with our 4 children.

While I was standing looking at my children in the sealing room, my vision changed and it looked as if I was looking through sheer fabric. The walls kind of disappeared, even though I could still see everyone present in the sealing room, and it opened up into sort of an endless space with small groups of people whispering to each other. They seemed completely unaware of us, and as fast as it had happened, it was gone and I realized I hadn't heard a single word the temple worker was saying.

I am now officially a former Mormon (this is my first time talking about it to anyone besides my husband- The "vision" or leaving the church) One thing I think we all face is trying to decide what exactly we believe now, if we even believe in any sort of higher power. Once you decide what you kind of believe, I think a majority of the time, you will find that your experiences are still relevant. Did that amazing experience happen in the temple because it's the "one true church" or did it happen in the temple because of the circumstances. My years of guilt leaving upon seeing my children enter the room, the love that surrounded us, the peacefulness of the moment.. Was it "a sign" or was it sort of a "zen" situation? Could the same thing have happened in a peaceful, quiet forest or did it HAVE to be in the temple? I have heard a lot of stories of "Visions" and "prophecies" but very few that I have heard ever sort of validate anything specific to Mormonism.

Everything I have experienced in my lifetime of "mormonhood" proves nothing that Mormonism is true, although I believed it did with all my heart at the time. It simply proves that I had spiritual experiences whether they were from a higher power or some sort of inner peace.

Dito Klaire.

In fact, I was having this conversation last night with some post-mormons as well.
I clearly remember an occasion on my mission where I completely and randomly made some turns and ended up specifically to an individual who later claimed were looking for christian ministers.

On another occasion, I "thought" I saw a little girl in white run around the corner. I've had daughter since then.

I do sense there may me something more that binds us humans. Just watched Matrix the other day too and pondered over the question "What IS real?"

But until I can prove with real evidence, and that we don't have to squint really hard on some obscure radio frequency noise to prove supernatural existence, I'd say we can just keep them in view and not worship these experiences.

Regarding blessings, I've never seen anything miraculous there, only unfulfilled promises. My partriarchal blessing was full of them as well as full of something else. I did have an interesting experience when I was getting sealed to my wife in the SL Temple. We were getting on the elevator to go up(or down, I'm not sure) to the sealing rooms and the elevator door kept opening back up and closing again. At the time, I thought it was a sign that we had relatives getting on the elevator with us and were going to go with us to the ceremony. Now.... I realize it was just a faulty sensor on the elevator and nothing more. Perspective is everything.

Blessings dont work, but TBM's will twist their view of things like a pretzle to make any blessing they have witnessed "come true". Of course lots of times people do heal up, with a great deal of help from medical science and the good old fashioned human body that has evolved to repair itself.

Even dumber is the vision thing. Lets see, woman wants to have a baby, so she stops taking birth control and has sex, 9 months later a baby is born. Holy shit its a miracle. Just because she saw a girl and had a girl means exactly what? Isnt that a 50% likelyhood no matter what? Thats pretty good odds. I never really bought into blessings other than for giving comfort and I never believed that vision crap at all. My mom on the other hand has visions about everything. When to take a crap, when to clean the lint trap in the dryer. God its annoying.

My mother had a similar dream/ vision about me. She and dad had 5 kids and were going to be done. Mom has a dream/ vision where a young man stood at the end of her bed. She said she first though it was her oldest son, my brother, but realized it wasn't. This person stood there looking lovingly at her, but I don't think she said he said anything.

She took that to mean there was one more baby to have, but was open about it with my dad. So they have one more....me.....1961.....and what do I do when they start indoctrinating me with the church as a young child? Rebel, tell them I didn't believe it, didn't want to go to church, etc. And this was before I was baptized.

I never felt comfortable in chuch my entire life and the only time I was active after 13 years old was when I tried it again as an adult, went on a mission, then quit for good a few years later after reading up on the true history and evolution of the church.....no wonder I never believed it!

When I was about 20 yrs old, mom said I looked like the young man in her dream. Maybe I did want to be born into this family, but not because I wanted to be mormon.....maybe because I wanted to break the mormon cycle my dad started when he joined as a young man.

Maybe throw rocks at me if you don't agree, but I don't think dreams should count.
Sometimes dreams are just dreams. I had a very powerful dream one time that I could fly. I would run as fast as I could, curl up into a ball and BAM I was flying. That doesn't mean anything other than my dream was reflecting and trying to make sense out of something from my subconscious mind.

I really actually love dreams and the intense symbolism involved. Tornados = Stress Light = Knowledge.. Those types of things. If I have an intense dream I'm in a tornado, it doesn't mean I should be watching the skies because there's going to literally be a tornado, it means that there is internal conflict and stress that may need to be resolved. If by chance there happened to have been a tornado follow that, it's probably coincidence. Maybe a child standing at the foot of the bed talking to you could mean you literally need to have that child, or maybe it means that there's lots of changes and you are going to reinvent your life so to speak, or maybe how you're living might not be making you happy and if you're not reinventing your life, you need to.

My husband went to the temple and prayed before he proposed. He told me then he knew our marriage would work out and he had seen me (in a vision of the future) with our two little boys and we were all so happy.

And so far it's all happened. But I've left the church. Dunno what that could mean. :/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2013 06:16PM by NewPerspective.

My mom CONSTANTLY is going on about this type of stuff. My family has nicknamed her religion "Ghost Story Mormonism." We were making jokes about it even as fully TR holding TBMs. Every single time we'd attend the Temple, she'd be on about the spirits of the dead she sees there (seriously, worse than the 6th sense kid. Saying "I see dead people" would have been less ridiculous). Mix in a special family occasion (wedding, mission, etc.) and you'll have a "Did you hear the angels shouting for joy?"

Literally every single potentially meaningful occasion or "mormon milestone" in my youth (Baptism, 4x PH ordinations, PB, Temple (hah), Mission Call, missionary setting apart, missionary release, fiance temple (hah again), marriage, and probably many more... our lives pretty much revolved around Church Co.) was hijacked by mom telling ghost stories.

I concluded many years ago that she's either on drugs, psychotic, or making them up for attention. But for the life of me, I just don't understand what possesses someone to act this way. EVERYONE around her can see she's full of it -- even as a full blown TBM who BELIEVED in angels, visitations, etc. I KNEW(TM) she was full of crap. She's just not a very nice person -- horrendously verbally and psychologically abusive to those she says she "loves with every fiber of my soul" in F&T, and that only scratches the surface.

My personal favorite is what I call the retroactive prophecy, particularly when it later gets corrected. As in, "I always knew your child would be a girl" after the ultrasound, followed by "I always knew he would be a boy" after He's born. Both "prophecies" complete with physical descriptions and claims to having met and spoken with this "little soul who's so anxious to come to earth."

Man... this whole mormonism thing does a number on you.

My mom did stuff like that too, but not all the time. All these years I thought my mom was the only one that's bat $&@t crazy.

I actually had a blessing that worked.. I had a spot on my left shin that turned out to be skin cancer. My Dr at the time removed it from my medical record bc I left my insurance and would not receive coverage with a new insurance agency with skin cancer, but he did tell me it was important that I get covered and seen soon. I was 21 and did not have care, and the cancer got bad.. I turned to my friends dad who had the "priesthood" to give me a blessing. He did. two days later the cancer dried up like a scab and fell off. I'm not even kidding. I am no longer a member of the church, and don't think it was because my friends dad had the priesthood...I think anyone who happens to be in the right mindset can bring healing to themselves. Anyways...just my little story.

In terms of visions.. I had a vision at 16 on my way out of my house at 6am to walk to the bus stop. I looked across the street and there were three kids standing there. A boy about 10, a girl about 7, and another boy about 5. They were just standing there looking at me. I stopped and the girl said "Mom!" The oldest boy scolded her saying she ruined it..and then they disappeared. This has remained with me my whole life...and I have since had a boy and then a girl. I was convinced that I needed to have another child because of the vision...and I am...but not for me. I am going to be a surrogate for a couple and I am excited only for my own wondering if it will be a boy. :)

I also had my share of dreams and what I can call visions. Something really similar to the first story happened to me regarding my youngest son and it wasn't only dreams, but I heard him cry twice and dream about him before my wife conceived... Also experienced somebody's prescence days after he died and I was not the only one who felt that. By the way, we felt at the exact same moment.
Those and other experiences still make me wonder about the afterlife and our previous stage whatever that is.
I am done with mormonism. To me there was always something fishy about the doctrines, the leaders, JS, BY, the money... So coming to learn all that i have learned about TSCC, it is a relieve for me because it answers so many doubts I had and it is easy to verify how false all that is... But those experiences talked about in this post, those are things I still can't explain and that I want to understand. Unfortunately last time I posted some questions in that regard, only a couple of posters took me seriously.

Once again though, Mormons are claiming it's their super special status with God and their Giant Priesthoods that entitle them to these sort of visions. But my very non-LDS friend had a similar thing happen to her. In her case, the little girl said she would be her daughter and wanted my friend to name her Pam.

In due course, my friend got pregnant, had a girl and, as requested, named her Pam. Unfortunately, the little girl always hated the name Pam and not long after becoming an adult, legally changed her name. Go figure.

My point is, stuff like this happens or is thought to happen by people of all religions.

You are right CA Girl. I knew even as a TBM that those things happen to all kinds of people... That is why I say, putting aside mormonism, I am still trying to sort out what is the deal with those experiences...

Leaving the fold becomes very difficult when you've had experiences you can't explain without tscc. I've had LOTS! Soon after I left I began a journey (research) about angels and miracles. Holy Cow! Once your world expands beyond tscc you can understand the human condition brings a certain amount of mysticism naturally, especially if you are culturally immersed in it. Check out how many documented visions there have been of Mary, Vishnu, Buddha, Mohammed, and other religious leaders and don't forget to include animals, the world of Animal Medicine has exploded in my realm! Without sounding "weird" I think our brain can validate things to us without our consciousness, but I do believe it comes from something already stored there.

My SIL had a vision of two girls appearing by her bed. So they had two more kids...both were boys.

My very good friend claimed to have visions that were right out of the book "Visions of Glory." So she recently got baptized into the LDS church. She is waiting for all the last days stuff to unwind and she will be one of the elect. I am watching this in amazement.
She is actually a very smart person. I just don't get it.

It's a fairly typical story. My DW (and her son) saw our little boy after coming home from the temple, a few years before he was born.

If you live for 20 years with a woman who sees dead people, you learn a lot. For example, when a woman is pregnant the little girl/boy follows around the parent.

When our kids were old enough to talk but young enough to remember "the other place", they could recall events in their parents' lives that occurred many years before they were born.

I have had many, many visions. But they have usually followed a dozen or more flaming shots of tequila. Or this one time I chugged a whole fifth of Jack Daniels...

4 years ago, a year after my marriage ended, I had a dream that I had a "baby named Penny" In the dream I thought, why would I name a baby Penny when I have a daughter Jenny? (names changed) And then I woke up.

When I thought about the dream I realized that I had never dreamed of a girls first name before, I was single, and I have never personally known anyone Penny. I came to the conclusion that it didn't mean that I would have a baby named Penny but that I would be in a relationship with someone younger than me named Penny.

So did it happen?

Actually yes. I developed a crush on a waitress/bartender but I didn't know her name at first. When she told me her name was "Penny" I was blown away. We had been friends and then became club buddies (me, her and her best friend) for the last 2 years, but I have been stuck in the friend zone. 2 months ago I got fed up and gave up on her. We're still facebook friends, but that is it. She is half my age and drop dead gorgeous. It was a fun 2 years but I gave up.

So my dream did happen, but I just don't understand why I would have a dream about a 2 year friendship.

But when I had the dream, I absolutely knew that someone named "Penny" would come into my life. I just don't know what to do about it anymore.

Blessings and visions, along with discernment, are spiritual experiences. The problem with TBMs and anything spiritual is 1) they believe only mormons have these experiences and anyone else (gentiles) who think or say they've had them are deceived by the devil, and 2) TBMs believe not only that every mormon has these but every TBM *has* to have to have them. Therein lies the problem...

A friend I grew up with told me this story after his mother died. She was elderly, passed away after a lengthy illness. A dozen or so people were in the room when his mom passed on; about half were his family and the other his sister's. My friend and family belong to a traditional denomination, whereas his sister and her family are evangelicals, (none of them are mormon or ex.) His mom took her last breath, heart faded out and within a few seconds the air in the room was, to him, "like a beautiful spring morning." If you've been present when someone died, you know the body does some not so fragrant things upon death. He didn't mention what he felt to anyone, and everyone left for home. But driving home he said his wife told him she noticed a "freshness" in the room after mil died, said she looked at the window to see if someone had opened it, but of course the windows in the room didn't open. Later that night in talking to his sister she told him a niece said the air in the room became "tingly, like mountain air." Maybe this was something like group semi-hysteria or maybe these people were able to sense something spiritual. I don't judge. My personal conviction is that it is a spiritual world and occasionally we're allowed glimpses of that.

The problem in tscc is the belief that *everyone* can and must have these kinds of experiences, which creates a lot of nonsense even manipulative "visions." Try telling a TBM that your kids were confirmed by a minister who laid a hand on their heads saying "receive the Holy Spirit" and that church has been doing this for centuries before JS was born. Their skepticism is amusing. In tscc the Spirit and all things spiritual essentially are commanded by the bishopric on up. There's no understanding of different gifts, leaving the door wide open for manipulation and delusions of many kinds.

The gift of discernment though is the ability to discern the truth, so if you're ex or on your way out, one way or another, you were able to see through tscc and tscp.

I never had any visions or even anything I could call a spiritual experience while in the Mormon church. Not even close. I felt "the spirit" sometimes, and when I didn't feel it, I thought I was doing something wrong or that I was sinning so I had tons of guilt. So horrible.

When I left the church 5 years ago, I was pretty much an atheist, but in a way where I was just so incredibly impressed with the mystery of it all. Like, really, I just somehow came to exist, on this planet in this vast thing called the universe? I'd get drunk with friends and just look up at the stars and laugh, and try to get across to my friends just how crazy I thought it was to be something called a human being!!

Soon after this, I started experimenting with entheogens, or mind-altering plants that change states of consciousness. I had experiences that essentially stopped me being an "atheist" in a sense. I do believe that I, we, you, etc, everything, the universe, is "god".

Especially on ayahuasca, which is a very powerful medicinal tea that has been used in the amazon for thousands of years- I had major visions. It completely changed me, the experiences absolutely profound. I had visions about states of mind and consciousness and how it is possible to un-tangle yourself from your thoughts/ego/etc, and experience "enlightenment" (this launched an intense interest in meditation, before this experience I knew very very little about it). I had visions about Mormonism which literally showed a picture in my mind of how it limits people and instills fear.

I had one experience on this medicine where it was like I had literally just "woken up" from a sleep, I woke up and remembered everything, past lives, what the universe was, and why I had specifically chosen to be born into a Mormon family. It was really intense and crazy! So hard to grasp at these visions in normal reality.

These experiences also opened me up to having very acute senses in normal reality, I can feel and see energy at times on places and people.
Sounds crazy, and I wouldn't believe it if I didn't experience it myself.

It was also through these experiences that I realized the "spirit" Mormons claim to own is really just the feeling of a persons energy center in their heart beginning to open. Nothing unique. Some religions or forms of spirituality understand this and know how to open up these energy centers w/o all the bullshit by doing certain meditations/chanting/etc.

Anyway. So yeah. I do believe visions are and can be real, sometimes I'm sure they are just created (hell, could be that theyre all created! who knows?) or imagined. Alls I know is I had way more visions/spiritual experiences outside the church than in it!!

In regards to healing and blessings, I like the book "the power of your subconscious mind". Healing is not unique or special, it can happen to anyone who believes in it. It's all in the mind ;)