Hi. I'm a nevermo lurker. Just so you know who I am, I have an interest in the connection between cults and domestic violence, both in their power structures and how the types of violence/power reinforce each other.

But today I have a question about ordinances for the dead. When LDS are given names to baptize, how do they mentally see the person behind the name.

What I mean is, there are thousands of "John Smiths" in history. How do you know John Smith, father of Mary Jane Smith, and son of Paul and Greta Smith from any other John Smiths?

If someone is standing in for John Smith, do they try to imagine him? Feel like they become him? Just go through the motions? Figure God will sort it out? Something else?

What does it feel like to be a proxy? Were you instructed to meditate upon anything?

Were you supposed to get anything out of it? Like, as the dead are baptized, you are reminded of your own baptism and are cleansed (for example)?

Thank you for any insight you give.

The times I went to the temple, for the most part, it was just going through the motion. The endowment is long so you had a chance to ponder on the person if you so wished. I often felt I had to get it all correct for then, ya know, be sincere.

Baptisms and confirmations were different. It was a case of going as fast as you could without drowning the person being baptised. I always figured that was why the used the youth, they were smaller, easier to dunk under, haul them up, just enough time to take a breath, then dunk them again for the next name.

Confirmations sounded a bit like the caller in a horse race. Flat out, lift hands of head, down again.

Before Mormons perform the proxy ceremonies in their temples (baptisms, etc.), they try to pinpoint people who have died using existing demographic records. That's what Mormon genealogy is all about: the attempt to establish the identify of specific individuals who have died without the "opportunity" to be a Mormon.

So the goal is that every deceased person baptized vicariously in a Mormon temple has a documented name, birth date, birth place, death date, etc., to make sure the unique identity of the person is known. But yes, if mistakes are made, God will somehow make sure the mess all gets "straightened out" at some point in the future.

: )

As a teenager I attended the temple on a couple of occasions to do baptisms (we lived a fair distance from the London temple so a temple trip was a major event). On one occasion my parents were the only people in doing endowments that day so they set up a baptismal session just for me. I was baptised for 175 people in that session. At the time I was thrilled and proud to think that I been the means of so many people joining the church. In retrospect the experience was akin to the one described by Blakballoon above. I cannot remember the names of anyone I was baptised for.

I left the church before I was old enough to do my endowments. From what I have seen and read about the endowment ceremony I cannot understand or imagine either of my parents taking part in this ritual, particularly my mother. This would have been before any of the watered down versions of recent years. A part of me would like to go through it just once, out of curiosity, of course.

Some Mormons have claimed to see the spirits of those they were involved with baptizing in proxy, or doing their sealing ordinances while in the temple.

Emphasis is on spiritual and sacred when in the temple doing these rituals.

I was able to participate in baptisms for dead as a teenager, and like others I was there with, we "felt" a spiritual presence there with us when we were being baptized, and then confirmed.

Other than that I didn't see anyone other than those I was physically present with.

No visual spirits, just presences were "felt." How much of that was from our expectations, one can only imagine how much influence that has going into such an event.

How is it that people can claim to see spirits and hear voices in the temple, and that is supposed to be spiritual? But if you do the same thing outside of the temple, everyone sees you as someone having a serious mental illness? Could it be that the whole mormon church is crazy?

It's an odd paradox isn't it? When I read your statements and thought about it, I remembered being told that Jesus talks personally to the Prophet in the Holy of Holies in the SLC temple. So it's considered a sacred place where the veil is thin. So if you see dead people in the temple, it's good and shows how sacred the temple is and how spiritually blessed you are to be there and see them. But otherwise, if you see dead people in the world, they might be evil spirits up to no good. I don't know. I do have relatives who have claimed to see dead people in the temple, and it's woo-woo sacred to them.

I once had a psychologist ask me if I had ever seen god. I laughed and said "no". I wonder how Thomas Monson would answer that question.

That he is a special witness for the word of God

If they think about it, they might be spooked or they might be trying to get an impression from the Holy Ghost. Most would likely be looking around, taking in the sights and imagining other kids naked as they drip and skid across the floor back to the dressing rooms.

Adults seldom do these dunkings unless they have a special reason of being related to the dead person. In that case they'd have a real basis for imagining their image.

The second to last time I attended the temple was for an individual named "Juan" with the birth date of 1792. There were no other details. No last name. No month or day of birth. I thought this to be too ambiguous to be able to tie it to a real person. It troubled me. I wondered about the efficacy of my walking through the endowment thinking this was a waste of time. Of course it was...

After my lone dead dunking affair I never went back so didn't even know about temple names until I joined this site. My dear parents never told us boys anything about the temple (penalty of death or something?). I would have DEMANDED Eeyore if I'd gotten that far!

RB

Announcement from 7 FEBRUARY 2016:

"New resources for the work of salvation....

From the Temple Department, the newly offered ability for Church members to print ordinance cards at home before going to the temple to perform the ordinance work. [See related story.]

From the Family History Department, a “beginner card” named “Strengthening Eternal Family Bonds through Temple Service: Start Building Your Family Tree,” and an accompanying online experience."

"A recent multiyear study showed that when recent converts perform baptisms and confirmations in the temple with family names within the first two months of their baptism, convert retention improves significantly, Elder Nielson said. He added that this finding “is one of the most significant breakthroughs in improving convert retention that we have seen in many years.”"

https://www.lds.org/church/news/church-announces-new-tools-to-help-with-work-of-salvation?lang=eng#3410641903

God needs multiyear studies to achieve breakthroughs now? What a lazy ass.

Jesus is supposed to know all that stuff; wouldn't it have been easier for him to tell Monson at their weekly confab, and save all that trouble?

Even more proof that there's no revelation in the church.