Lucifer's Lantern

The following email was sent to the Sydney Australia Mortdale Stake on Sunday Oct, 28th 2024 by an  individual (likely using an alias) who pretended to be distributing an official church statement. ----------------- Sydney Australia Mortdale Stake Pilot Program: Informed Consent Dear Brothers and Sisters, I have some wonderful news, your Stake has been chosen to trial a new approach to learning about the Gospel. As you know our leaders are trying to be more transparent with some of the messiness in our history. No doubt you have all started to notice this with the release of the Gospel Topics Essays (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/essays?lang=eng) 10 years ago and videos of President Nelson  showing us how Joseph translated the Book of Mormon, with his face in a white stove pipe hat, with a seer stone. This pilot program will involve two different objectives. The first is for our beloved missionaries to ensure that all converts are fully ...

    Several years ago I collected a handful of rocks from the Oregon coast. One in particular I called "The perfect rock" and even though I'm not superstitious, I have a habit of carrying it with me. At one point, while I was obsessively researching Joseph Smith and his seer stones, I decided to refer to my "perfect rock" as my seer stone, as a sort of inside joke with myself.     Coincidently, I had began meditating a lot after leaving the church. One method of meditation involved focusing your mind onto a singular object.  I will admit that I prefer sensory deprivation meditation by means of a blindfold, but focusing on an object changes things up a bit and provides a different experience.       Sometimes I will meditate using a candle, or by staring at a particular point on the wall. One day, I opted to use my "seer stone" as my object of focus. Its smooth black surface tends to fade in and out of clarity and serves its purpose in getting ...