I can't find that particular part in the list of first visions.
Does anyone remember hearing about that force that immobilized him and scared him when he prayed, before he saw two personages?

Apparently it isn't part of the story anymore and my sister said she doesn't remember ever hearing it.

Just hoping somebody has information about it. Thanks!

I remember watching a video years ago and they portrayed how ole Joe was overcome by a dark force but pushed threw it so I was taught that also.

http://www.mrm.org/first-vision

After reading all of the info about it, you can draw your own conclusion.

However, growing up in the church, I'm pretty sure the story always included the dark force that over took him before the light showed up. It gives an account of it in the BoM introduction pages. My Bom is in the attic, but maybe someone out there has one that can tell you the exact wording.

I've been out for 3 years. It wouldn't surprise me if they took the dark force part out of the newest version of the BoM.

Pearl of Great Price Joseph Smith History Chapter 1 versus 15-17.

Link to Bamboozled's citation.
https://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng

Verse one... it's 1838, 18 years after the infamous first vision, and he's writing down his evolved story. Problem is, history previous to this 1838 rendition doesn't agree.

Viewed in chronological order, history is not kind to the church.

It's in the new JS movie. So it must be true.

It entered Joseph's body through his nose, caused the visions that he later claimed, and controlled his body like a marionette for the rest of his days. It took flight from Joe's bullet-ridden body as he fell from the window, and laid dormant in the woods near Nauvoo until it found an even more suitable host...Brigham Young.

That would make a great X-file case or Dr Who...

In the original JS first vision movie, they made it a big deal. When he was praying in the grove, it became very dark with dramatic music, I seem to remember something about him not being able to talk or something? Then after that god and Jesus appeared to him. I remember it being scary when I was little.

In the updated movie, they took out the dark part completely.

The new movie, Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration, does include the dark part. There's eerie music, you hear footsteps in the woods, all the colors are dulled and blurred. It scares my young kids.

Huh, I must have forgotten. I think they toned it down some, I don't remember it being as scary and dramatic as the original.

Luke felt the dark force too. Lord Vader was close by....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2014 01:29PM by perky.

I was think about venom and Spider-Man. I only have vague memories of that comic book episode though. Seems spidy was over taken by a dark force.

The Mormon cult is the biggest editor around. It was here, oh, NO it wasn't, YOU must have been mistaken big time.

THE story really goes like this...yadda, yadda, yadda.....until the big whigs tell you differently. It is enough to make your head spin.

I used to wonder how they ever keep anything straight, that is until I realized that they do not intend to from the get-go nor do they have to. They simply give whatever excuse/reason/large fib available and because they are the BIG WHIGS who supposedly talk to God....

ALL IS WELL, don't you peons know???

I was always told about the dark force (satan) who tried to stop Joseph from praying. (If only Satan had been able to stop him... /sigh)

But when talking to new members or non members that part is never mentioned. I asked why and I was told it is "not essential" and would give off a bad vibe.

My non-Mormon mother used to try to explain Mormonism to her friends giving her distorted understanding of how it began. She would always tell the vision story by saying Joseph had a seizure before angels appeared to talk to him. So I've always called it the First Seizure instead of the First Vision.

The old missionary lessons in the 1970s and 80s were memorized lessons. It included a verbatim script of the story that included him being seized upon by a dark force that made him unable to speak and that just when he felt he would be completely overcome by the dark force, the light appeared and he saw two personages. So non-members, at least in the past, were told this dramatic version.

That might explain him waking up flat on his back not knowing how long he had been there.

He got his hand chopped off by his son, Luke.

Then later he was killed by the Emperor.

...some bad shrooms

It's in Joseph Smith History 1:15. It reads:

...I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction."

Perfect!

It got watered down and repackaged as the spirit of contention.

I knew I had been taught that, but didn't know where it was written. I am beginning to wonder if perhaps it was the sh'rooms!

Similarly my sister does not remember the penalties from the temple. Selective amnesia must run rampant in congregations.

Thanks again.

Liz, this is what got me started on my journey out of the church. Back in 2004 the church put out a new JS DVD and had taken that part completely out. It caught my attention since I grew up in the church and every baptism showed the film strip.

It bothered me so bad that I asked myself one question. I asked: if they took that out, what else have they omitted? I googled "first vision omissions" and opened Pandora's box.

Game over by their own whitewash.

We were told to skip that part when we told the First Vision story to investigators on my mission. The mission president said it would just confuse people and not bring a good spirit into the discussion. This was in the early 90s and although we all knew about it growing up, we were already being told to omit it decades ago.

... So a scion of the Smith Witch Clan decides to seek God in the woods. ... and "Thick darkness gathers around (him), and it seemed for a time as if (he) were doomed to sudden destruction."

I think I remember he got his tongue tied as well.

This calls for a new term to replace "theophany" in describing the entire event.

... seems "diablophany" would denote such a supposed vision more properly.

And it's small wonder the Mormon Ministry of Truth is consigning that part of the wacky tale to their bottomless memory hole.

That's a tough one!

When I look back at the First Vision account, it sounds just like a night terror.

It's a typical symptom of Amanita Muscaria poisoning.

So, JS "offered up the desires of his heart" to God?

Apparently his desires were granted. 33 times.