Editor's Preface: I spoke recently and at length with a very credible, Mormon-connected source with a long history of involvement in the LDS education system. Both inside and outside Mormon circles, this person enjoys a reputation for personal impeccability, integrity, honesty, accuracy and credibility. I have personally known this individual for nearly 40 years and can, along with many others who have known and worked with this individual, vouch for this person's reliability. By way of mutual agreement, the source’s identity is being protected. The source has reviewed the following post in its entirety, provided editorial input and agreed to its dissemination through posting it here on the Recovery from Mormonism website.

In other words, it's legit.
_____


The events described below involved a supposedly magically-engineered “Black Box” (on the order, in common parlance, of a “Doodlebug”). The device was an alleged money-making invention that was promoted by its investor-seeking LDS schemers to Mormon Church leader/my grandfather Ezra Taft Benson, other prominent LDS figures and Mormons of material means in the mid- to late-1960s. For example, several individuals in the Oakland-Berkeley, CA area—some of whom were described as being “very wealthy”—invested in this supposed marvelous work and a wonder. This list included business people, lawyers and a surgeon. Mormon apostle Ezra Taft Benson took the bait—and ended up taking a heavy loss.

The word in certain select Mormon circles was that someone had invented a Black Box/Doodlebug that could lead its users to significant sources of material wealth. It was said, for example, that if one “put oil in the front of the device, it would go find oil;” or “if one put gold in the front of it, it would go find gold.” It was described to potential investors as “a wonderful device.”

In the late 1960s or early 1970s, the source talked with Brigham Young University professor of religion and philosophy, Truman Madsen. The subject of the Black Box episode came up. Madsen told how he had been approached as a potential investor, and that the men told him about the device and how it was destined to produce great wealth for its inventor(s)/investors. They had fasted and prayed to be guided to investors who would not be corrupted by this great wealth but, rather, would use it to build up the Kingdom (LDS Church). Madsen’s comment was that “they made you feel like your calling and election was made sure,” etc., but Madsen did not invest. Madsen said that he was told by the Black Box promoters that “they [the promoters] couldn’t patent the Black Box because the government was so corrupt that somebody might steal the patent.”

Others who were said to be familiar with the alleged operational capabilities of the Black Box described how the gadget was explained to targeted potential investors in terms of how one would drill for an oil well--with important caveats to “cover their butts.” The Black Box, it was claimed, was “completely reliable, but oil-drilling equipment is not perfect.” While “the device was very precise , . . . [I]f the drill was thrown slightly off its intended course, it might miss the oil pocket or reserve, resulting in a dry hole.” Further efforts at self-protection for the Black Box’s pitchmen included the qualification that investment was raised “for one drilling project at a time;” meaning that “if they missed on the one you invested in, you just lost your money; you had no claim on any future successes unless you had invested in those projects also.”

Two individuals behind the Black Box scheme (Glenn L. Pearson and J. Dal Peterson) were eventually--and successfully--sued for fraud, with the court rendering judgment in late 1971. Pearson was a BYU religion professor described as “a very close friend of Ezra Taft Benson.” The plaintiff in the lawsuit was an individual who had lost $33,000.00. (A copy of the case’s court documents is in possession of the source. A BYU student who tracked down those documents described them as being “illuminating”). The court ordered the defendants to repay the $33,000.00.

Pearson left his teaching position at BYU and reportedly went into “mineral investing.” After a few years and the court-ordered repayment had been made, Pearson reportedly approached Ezra Taft Benson (who had lost two shares, or $66,000.00, in the Black Box scheme), asking Benson “to help him regain his position of teaching religion for the Church;” i.e., to help him “get his job back.”

On 19 December 1975, the source was informed by a prominent BYU faculty member that that person (the prominent BYU faculty member) had talked the day before with another BYU religion faculty member who had said that he personally was in the office of Jeffrey Holland (then BYU’s Dean of Religion) when Ezra Taft Benson called to urge taking Pearson back on to the BYU Religion faculty. Holland, the religion faculty member allegedly said, masterfully semi-agreed with Benson but made no commitment.

According to the source, Pearson reportedly “developed a new course of study for the Book of Mormon” that was driven by encouragement from Ezra Taft Benson. In October 1976, the source discussed the Pearson case with Ellis Rasmussen, who had been BYU’s Assistant Dean of Religion under Holland’s deanship and who, by this time, was himself the Dean. “Rasmussen,” the source said, “affirmed that he [Rasmussen] and Holland had discussed the question of Pearson’s re-joining the faculty and decided it not a viable or wise solution. Rasmussen himself had had no pressure put on him to re-hire Pearson since he had been Dean. Pearson had been hired after the Black Box episode to develop a new Religion 130 course and it was that course which Ezra Taft Benson wanted to be piloted at BYU.

Rasmussen and Holland perceived that this would be letting "them" (Ezra Taft Benson and Glenn L. Pearson) "get their toe in the door," so worked it so that the course would be piloted "somewhere in SLC," not BYU. In the end, Pearson did not regain his teaching position at BYU. Instead, he wrote curriculum for the Church’s Institute system, probably while living in Provo or Salt Lake City, and eventually joined the faculty at the Institute of Religion at Utah State University in Logan, and stayed there until his retirement.

Whether Ezra Taft Benson ever recovered his lost $66,000.00 investment in the Black Box/Doodlebug caper is not known.
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Note: The above legal action refers to Civil Case #33691, Utah County Court, Sterling Durrant vs. Glenn W. [L. ?} Pearson and J. Dal Peterson.



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 06:10PM by steve benson.

Nothing like mormons screwing mormons. They like it sooo much, they usually go back for more.

One more reason to never, ever, ever (unless you will bleed out and he is a doctor) do business with a mormon.

. . . but it may not have been a coincidence that ETB eventually sold the Benson family cabin in Salt Lake City's Mill Creek Canyon. It was a large, comfortable, aspen-surrounded place, next to a splashing, bubbling stream, with a tire swing hanging near the stream and a welcome sign out by the narrow, winding canyon roadway that said in Native American Ute language, "Welcome."

Then, abruptly, this favorite family gathering place was gone, out of our hands, with no explanation.

I smelled a rat.

Or rather, it might have been the lingering aroma of the "Black Box" hoax.

Who knows? Anyone got a peep stone and a hat to provide a reliable answer?

:)



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 04:18PM by steve benson.

believe there was mr a Pearson who taught book of mormon class 100level byu-provo around 1981,2....is he related??

one thing remember was kind of upset to one of class students and hit him(just sound, he was behind)
....

. . . at the 130 level at BYU.

He did not get his proposal through to teach it at BYU after but Pearson had previously been a BYU Book of Mormon teacher, perhaps in the 100s intro-level courses.

Pearson and fellow BYU religion teacher, Reid Bankhead, wrote a book entitled "Building Faith with the Book of Mormon," which I had at one time but eventually found to be useless and disposed of. (I had Bankhead as a return missionary-level Book of Mormon teacher):

http://gospelink.com/library/contents/987


Pearson also authored the book, "The Book of Mormon: Key to Conversion":

http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Mormon-Key-Conversion/dp/B000O8FLMA


Here's a short bio on him:

"Glenn L. Pearson was born on November 12, 1918 on a farm near Ririe, Idaho. After high school, he served in World War II as an enlisted man in the European Theater.

"When the war was over, he served an LDS mission in Minnesota. He then returned to Utah and entered college. He married Ardith Hunsaker of Honeyville, Utah on March 25, 1943. They had three sons, two daughters.

"Pearson earned his bachelor's degree at Utah State University, and his Master's degree at BYU.

"Between 1955 to 1958 he was employed as director of the LDS Institute of Religion at UCLA and Santa Monica City College. During that time he began work on his Ph.D., but did not write a dissertation.

"In June, 1958, he returned to BYU, as a member of the faculty until 1972.

"He was a prolific speaker and writer. He wrote and published ten books, edited two, and contributed chapters to two others. In addition to the manuals he wrote for the LDS Institute of Religion, he wrote lessons for MIA, Sunday School and Family Home Evening manuals. He was a poet who wrote several hundred poems; some have been published, but most have not. He died on the 29th of March, 1999."

http://files.lib.byu.edu/ead/XML/MSS2960.xml


Perhaps someone here who took Pearson's BYU class in Pearson's pre-Black Box days could enlighten us as to what level, and in what subject, Pearson taught there before he quit (following the 1971 trial in which he was ordered to repay an investor who had lost 33K in the Black Box scheme).

Suffice to say that my source noted that Pearson had been a religion teacher at BYU and mentioned Pearson's Church-education career in the context of Pearson's focus on the Book of Mormon. Indeed, as noted in the OP, Pearson recommended that a new Book of Mormon course for Religion 130 be offered at BYU, and ETB unsuccessfuly tried to get Pearson reinstated at BYU, where Pearson and ETB both had hoped he would be allowed to test-teach it.

Alas, the Black Box proved to be Pearson's career casket.



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 06:40PM by steve benson.

if only if amerikan mormons were able to live under united order, true-saint-like....instead of love_of_money/power_brighams_dna_laden....

I love it when mormon bosses are victims of their own greed.

Was by your account. Most of my family is still in but recognizes the flaws of doing business with other Mormons, just surprised how crazy your stories of your grandpa are. I thought he would be more intelligent with his background, but clearly he just was not a smart man.

. . . gullible.

And, to use your own words, how "smart" is that?

As to who's "as gullible as that" when it comes to comparing them to ETB, Mormonism's true believers clearly have their individual areas of expert gullibility.

:)



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 06:53PM by steve benson.

But your grandpa takes it to the next level. Unbelievable reading through some of your stories.

Cowdery, Harris, et al, who bought into Joe's scam from the get-go (gold plates in a hill behind the farm, rocks in hats for finding buried treasure, polygamy-pushing angels with flaming swords, you know the drill).

ETB is not uniquely dumb in the history of Mormon gullibility but I agree with you that some of the stories about him are certainly theologically entertaining. :)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 06:59PM by steve benson.

Your grandfather was a respected by politicians as an intellect. Not some backwoods bible thumpers in the 1800's. You should publish all these stories to expose him and his ignorance. Sometimes book smart or spiritual smart is a long way from street smart. Seems from your stories your grandpa had the spiritual smarts but lacked street smarts for sure. Ignorance isn't bliss.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 07:00PM by almost.

. . . that still allows them to be sucked in by stories of peepstones, sexual predation-driven polygamy in the name of the Almighty, gold plates conveniently carried away by angels, dark-skinned cursed people made that way by a racist White God, non-existent Meso-American horses being driven around by non-existent Nephite chariot warriors, a book of scripture that claims to be the prophet Abraham's personal diary but really is nothing more than historiucally-verifiable superstitious death beliefs concocted by primitive ancient Egyptians, and magic Masonic underwear?

(Not to mention the payment of 10% fire insurance known as tithing that they are solemnly told will keep them from being burned up in the Last Days).

Taken as a whole, the gullibility ability of "street-smart" Mormons appears to be quite amazing. And those "respected" Mormons happen, in some cases, to be prominent people in society's public sphere.

Be it the Book of Mormon's Stone Box or Glenn Pearson's Black Box, both require a complete and weird suspension of disbelief,

That's religion for ya.



Edited 12 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 07:54PM by steve benson.

They have people try and sucker them into mlms, investment properties, and volunteering for the church. Luckily they haven't fallen for this and snuffed out most of the bunk, but they are still paying 10%, but at least not from their retirement savings, as dad believes he paid on income all those years now the money he saved has already been tithed so he's good. His stake president doesn't like it, but is forced to sign his approval when my dad says he's full tithe payer.

My parents are not famous or world renown, so their ignorance is no big deal, but your stories of your grandpas failings are great and I hunk there would be a huge audience who would read about just how gullible a supposed prophet was in today's church. He's truly a pawn in the game the church played, no wonder your feelings for him come out the way they do, id be embarrassed as well and want to separate myself from my grandfather if he did half the things your did. Keep them coming.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 08:04PM by almost.

. . . a practice I would venture to guess even street-smart Mormons engage in (including, perhaps, members of your own family?)

And, yes, my grandfather was quite gullible on religious matters but Mormonism both creates and fosters an authority-based gullibility mindset--and boasts a clear history of that fact.

The U.S. Constitution to hang by a thread with Mormon missionaries riding in at the last minute to save it? That was Joseph Smith's gullibility-engendering notion and Grandpa Benson (along with millions of other similarly-deluded Mormons) have bought it hook, line and sinker.


"almost," your family has to be gullible in order to be TBMs. Wake up and smell the B.S. :)



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 08:46PM by steve benson.

It's why my dad won't pay on retirement savings, he recognizes he has already paid his fare share all those years. It's a step in the right direction.

. . . might that be?

Tithing based on the gulliblility-dependent scam religion is an awfully high "fare" to pay at any level.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 08:11PM by steve benson.

No question some gullible people in the church and both our families. I just hope none of mine ever get famous for it.

. . . and what level of gullibility-gushing Mormon doctrine and pseudo-Mormon history is acceptable for him to continue to do so?

Or still throwing good money at it. No question our families have something in common, ignorant sheep

. . . embraced by his dad, and then to demonstrate how his father's payment of tithing to the Mormon Cult is proof positive of "street-smart" intelligence.

I mean, how dumb does he think I am?

:)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 08:15PM by steve benson.

I've seen worse, but at least he finally figured it out. Some never do.

. . . giving to a Cult in the first place?

And is he still an active, faithful member, despite the gullibility gushers still being spewed forth by Mormonism?

Digging for buried treasure using astrological enchantments, a peep stone and a witching stick was Joseph Smith's early Mormon version of today's Mormon Black Box. Apparently, Smith's frauds seem to not yet constitute "enough of the enough" for your dad.

(May I gently suggest that you think about discontinuing your defense of TBM irrationality that exists at whatever level in your family. I think that might be a good first step for you).

:)



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2014 08:49PM by steve benson.

I think they as awelling as others are too gullible for sure, just hope none of them ever get famous and ruin the family name.

Your grandfather is famous so they are interesting see how a once intelligent and prominent person can fall for such nonsense. Keep them coming, a lot of us grew up following your grandpa only to now find out yars later he is jowly what we thought he was

Whew! I guess you can't make this stuff up.

Sounds like a rock in a hat to me. No wonder they bought in.