REVISED Clarifications for Visions in a Seer Stone

Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft, 2022

[No abstract]

Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture, 2017

Joseph Smith used the term the Urim and Thummim to refer to the pair of seer stones, or “interpreters,” he obtained for translating the Book of Mormon as well as to other seer stones he used in a similar manner. According to witness accounts, he would put the stone(s) in a hat and pull the hat close around his face to exclude the light, and then he would see the translated text of the Book of Mormon. By what property or principle these stones enabled Joseph Smith to see the translated text has long been a matter of conjecture among Mormons, but the stones have commonly been understood as divinely powered devices analogous to the latest human communications technology. An alternative view, presented here, is that the stones had no technological function but simply served as aids to faith. In this view, the stones did not themselves translate or display text. They simply inspired the faith Joseph Smith needed to see imaginative visions, and in those visions, he saw the text of the Book of Mormon, just as Lehi and other ancient seers saw sacred texts in vision. Although Joseph Smith also saw visions without the use of stones, the logistics of dictating a book required the ability to see the translated text at will, and that was what the faith-eliciting stones would have made possible.

no proof of this fact, that while in France he became familiar with some of the teachings then current on the subject, for though nothing like the present book had ever been published by any writer of any nation, nevertheless the practice of occultism was well known to no few occult students as witness the many stories current connecting Dr. Dee, Cagliostro and others with mirror gazing and seership, all of whom lived and were active in occult practices before Dr. Randolph's time. One thing is certain, if we may believe but a fraction of what is written on the subject, the very air of Paris was permeated with every from of occult thought during the several periods when Dr. Randolph visited there, even the men closely associated with the affairs of the government of France, being members of the Fraternity, deeply versed and keenly interested in this subject. It is therefore small wonder that Dr. Randolph became fired with the thought of writing a text on the subject and clarifying the varius teachings relative to the practice so that all truly interested might readily understand the method of procedure and its results. At the early period of 1850-51 Dr. Randolph succeeded in doing little more than making numerous notes on the subject of Soul Sight, his time and attention being occupied with other and seemingly more immediately important subjects. At this period Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the Napoleon III, of history was perhaps the central personality of all Europe and certainly so of France. Napoleon was so thoroughly steeped in occultism that even the most hardened historians call him "mystic minded," and though officially connected with the Fraternity and active in occult affairs he, himself was gifted with either Soul Sight or the power of occult prophesy. Napoleon was first informed of the strange powers possessed by Dr. Randolph, through General Hitchock who had visited Paris in the late forties and had become acquainted with Napoleon, and then through Drs. Fontain and Bergevia, the French Rosicrucians living in New York. Napoleon firmly believed that Mystics or Occultists had the power to foresee the future in more or less detail and above all else, he sought someone who was capable of reading the mystic scroll. Dr Randolph was invited to visit Paris and the Rosicrucian Lodge when in session. This he did , and the seance was so successful, that shortly thereafter he was made the Supreme Grand Master of the Rosicrucians of the world who derived authority from the Supreme Grand Lodge of France. After Randolph's work in France was completed, his thoughts again reverted to the text on Soul Sight and he returned to America with the idea of devoting his time to the completion of this task. However, this was not to be. Conditions had so changed that his mind became engrossed with other and seemingly more important affairs: First there had arisen a party which sought the freedom of all men, irrespective of color, and whose energies were at the moment directed toward the release of the colored men of the South. This idea had its inception in the minds of men who had been, and still were, connected with the Supreme Grand Lodge of Russia, men who considered the Emperor of Russia who had freed the serfs, as almost a God-man and who eagerly sought for an American leader to repeat the noble experiment. Second, the occult and mystic students in America, thought the efforts of General Hitchcock and others had become so numerous that it was desirable that an organized effort be made to band these together into one unit. followers, the Truth can be singled out and the hand of Oriental, Arab or European master traced with precision. In his writings, in some form of expression, is said to lie hidden the study and application of the deepest secrets revealed to mankind. Among the invaluable possessions handed down to him by Count Giounotti, representing the true philosophy and methods of the Rosicrucians are strewn the observations and secrets of the Ansairii, of Moor, Persian Turk, Hindu-whenever he had found that man who had made himself a member of this vast, unnamed fraternity. These are some of the reasons for the great value attached to Randolph's works. They date from a time when occultism was comparatively simple. The unfortunate brood of mystic fledglings which today flutter between the always obscure guiding light and honest reader are disconcerting. In the darkened field of confusion may give up. Who to believe? One must believe before the senses can receive the proof. The truth giver and the liar may appear alike to one who has not seen or felt the presence of Truth. From 1850, for upwards of twenty-five years, the field of mystic teaching in this country was open and uncontested, Randolph and a number of coworkers occupied it completely. There is for this reason a complete satisfaction in reading his works. An unbroken line of lifelong followers down to the present day, is the strongest tribute one can make to his philosophy and methods. Seership now republished in this new edition, was among the most popular of Randolph's books after Ravelette and Eulis. It is not, as one might gather from superficial reading of the title, a work devoted to ordinary crystal-gazing. It is a work dealing with magic of the loftiest and most powerful kind. There is much scattered information in the literature on magic mirrors, and in recent years a small book by Bosc has appeared in French, but a comprehensive work embodying methods, the history and practice amongst various nations, does not exist up to the time of the appearance of this work. There is nothing here for the dabbler in occult phenomena. On the contrary, the high-minded and ambitious experimenter may find hidden in the lines of this work the most profound truth, the discovery of which may lead him to the greatest attainments. The work is indeed practical, but at the same time, its purpose is to entice the reader toward the high planes where one becomes Soul Conscious and to impress upon him the uselessness of commonplace phenomenalism. It is with the heartfelt desire of accomplishing the author's wish that the publishers send forth this illuminating and instructive work upon a new venture. ALLAN F. ODELL SEERSHIP; Guide to Soul Sight and How to Use the Magic Mirror Chapter1 SEERSHIP or SOUL SIGHT Clairvoyance, or Somnambulic Vision; Its Art and Culture, with Rules for Its Attainment I TRUST I may be pardoned if I make and attempt to rescue the subject of somnambulic vision from the charlatanry of the day. In these days clairvoyance, which is a natural power inherent in the race, is regarded as a sort of forbidden or rare wonder, mixed up with mesmerism, fraud, circles and so on, while it is also the garb under which more barefaced swindling is carried on than under any other one gift of God to civilized man.(1) I hold it to be emphatically true, that No curtain hides from view the spheres Elysian, Save these poor shells of half transparent dust' While all that blinds the spiritual vision Is pride and hate and lust.

Internally-generated light sensations ("phosphenes," "entoptic images") play an important role in many myth-systems, including myths of the world's major religious traditions. References relating to these light visions are often encoded in symbolic form and include descriptions of the following: the behaviors known to induce light visions, the characteristics of light images a practitioner can expect to see, the links between specific light images and particular spirits or deities, the kinds of extraordinary powers bestowed on someone who induces light visions, and the metaphysical significance assigned to cultivation of light visions. Light visions are easily induced, even without instruction, which means this capability could have been discovered independently in many different contexts. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the role that light visions play in the creation and reinforcement of myth systems. Here I focus on two kinds of visions - visions of "green receding rings" and "white flashes" - to examine how these images have been incorporated in selected myth-systems. Some examples will be drawn from cultures in which light visions appear to fit Witzel's hypothesis of an early, out-of-Africa "Gondwanan" myth-family (e.g., San Bushman of South Africa, the Dani of New Guinea and Australian Aborigines); other examples will show light visions embedded in more complex storylines characteristic of the "Laurasian" myth family (e.g., the Indo-Aryan Rig Veda, the Shangqing "Highest Clarity" School of early Chinese Daoism, Tibetan Buddhist "Highest Yoga Tantra," the classical Maya myths of Mesoamerica, and the Tukano Indians of Amazonia). This analysis suggests that light visions need myths (to explain why light visions appear and what they mean) and that, conversely, myths need light visions (to restore or reinforce belief in the continued potency of the myth).

Visual Resources, 2009

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