Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
History and Religion
“Why the Witnesses Project?”

“Why the Witnesses Project?”

Last updated on: February 3, 2025 at 5:45 pm by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

“Why the Witnesses Project?” 2025-02-03T17:45:35-07:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The American military cemetery in Normandy, France (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)

The current issue of the Journal of Near-Death Studies, the official journal of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS), to which I subscribe, arrived two or three weeks ago, and I’m finally beginning to read it. It’s dated “Summer 2023,” which seems to make me really late. But, alas, such delays are all too common among small, understaffed, and underfunded academic journals. (This is far from the first time that I’ve seen such a thing.) Anyway, it’s a special issue dedicated to the theme “Should IANDS Endorse a Post-Physicalist Worldview?”

The theme is also the title of an editorial in the volume written by Janice Miner Holden, who is both the journal’s editor and the current president of IANDS: Janice Miner Holden, “Should IANDS Endorse a Post-Physicalist Worldview?” Journal of Near-Death Studies 41/21 (Summer 2023); 81-90. That editorial, which argues that, yes, IANDS should endorse “a post-physicalist worldview” and, thus, renounce its current official neutrality, is followed by fifteen responses, of which my first impression is that most agree with her while some do not. Janice Miner Holden then offers a rejoinder. I look forward to reading through all of the responses and the rejoinder. I’ve just completed her editorial.

Dr. Holden offers three broad arguments for her conclusion:

Recent developments in the field of near-death and related studies virtually demand the adoption of a post-physicalist worldview.
An affirmative but open-minded viewpoint based on what she calls “reflective judgment theory” would ensure that members of IANDS who don’t share a post-physicalist worldview still have a place in the conversation.
Survey data indicate that the overwhelming majority of IANDS members are already convinced believers in a post-physicalist worldview.

Of these arguments, it is the first that is of interest to me. I’ll quote from her summary of the “recent developments” that, she says, support the adoption of a post-physicalist conception of reality. She cites

robust empirical support for the existence of psi experiences, in which people have knowledge that could not be explained in terms of sensory or rational processes; these include precognition — knowing beforehand that something is going to happen; telepathy — knowing what someone out of contact is experiencing, and remote viewing — perceiving phenomena at a distance. [She also alludes] to empirical support for the existence and impact of mystical experiences. Prominent among sources of support for their challenging perspectives is results of empirical research on near-death experiences (NDEs), in which, in many cases, people report having had complex perception and cognition during a time when their brains were seriously disabled or when measurable brain activity was absent. Another important source of support is numerous cases of veridical perception associated with NDEs, in which the experiencer reported perceptions during their NDEs that were seemingly impossible to have resulted from normal perceptual or deductive processes yet were later verified by one or more credible witnesses to have been accurate . . .

[H]aving examined the empirical evidence, I find that physicalism is inadequate to explain transpersonal phenomena — those involving the transcendence of the usual limits of space, time, identity, and influence — including paranormal and psychic phenomena. Thus, a post-physicalist worldview seems, to me, to be essential: one that both includes and transcends physicalism. (83, 84)

I’m strongly inclined to agree with her, which would (on several points) have surprised my younger self very much. And I say this despite my nagging discomfort — easily understandable to anybody who is familiar with my Latter-day Saint frame of reference — with the term post-physicalist. But that’s a problem for another day.

Joseph Smith (portrayed by Paul Wuthrich) working in his garden
(Still photo from the set of ‘Witnesses” by James Jordan)

In connection with this month’s focus, in the Come, Follow Me curriculum, on the recovery of the Book of Mormon and on the witnesses to the gold plates, the Interpreter Foundation is making a number of its video productions available. Here is one of them. It’s a ten-minute piece entitled Episode 19: Why the Witnesses Project?

Witnesses of the Book of Mormon—Insights Episode 19: What is the purpose of the Interpreter Foundation’s Witnesses Project, and all the related media: the Witnesses feature film, the Undaunted companion docudrama, and the Insights videos? This is Episode 19 of a series compiled from the many interviews conducted during the course of the Witnesses film project. . . . These additional resources are hosted by Camrey Bagley Fox, who played Emma Smith in Witnesses, as she introduces and visits with a variety of experts. These individuals answer questions or address accusations against the witnesses, also helping viewers understand the context of the times in which the witnesses lived. This week we feature Daniel C. Peterson, President of the Interpreter Foundation and Executive Producer of Witnesses. For more information, go to https://witnessesofthebookofmormon.org/. Learn about the documentary movie Undaunted—Witnesses of the Book of Mormon at https://witnessesundaunted.com/.

And don’t forget that the 2021 theatrical movie Witnesses is currently available for free streaming — but only through the end of this month, February 2025: Watch Witnesses Free! The accompanying 2022 docudrama, Undaunted: Witnesses of the Book of Mormon, is likewise available for your viewing at no charge. (See the relevant link at The Witnesses Initiative.) Unlike Witnesses, though, the free-viewing window for Undaunted has no closing or end date.

Moreover, in not altogether unrelated news, the Interpreter Foundation’s most recent theatrical release, Six Days in August (2024), is now available for streaming via Fandango, Amazon, AppleTV, Google Play, Spectrum, and Microsoft. We hope that you will enjoy these offerings! And, if you would like to see more such productions in the future, please feel free to make a supporting donation.

Thanks to advanced modern technology and the kindness of a generous donor, the Interpreter Radio Show is now beamed to audiences on the moon — seen in the distance in this photograph of one of Interpreter’s worldwide communications campuses — where residents dress like Quakers and live to be a thousand years old. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Up today on the never-changing website of the Interpreter Foundation: Interpreter Radio Show —January 19, 2025, including Doctrine and Covenants in Context: D&C 12–17; Joseph Smith—History 1:66–75

For the 26 January 2025 episode of the Interpreter Radio Show, Steve Densley and John Thompson welcomed special guest Noel Hudson. They discussed Noel’s article “‘Upon Thy Belly Shalt Thou Go’: The Garden of Eden Serpent Symbology Based on the Concept of Seraphim,” which was recently published in Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship, as well as Come, Follow Me Doctrine & Covenants lesson 8.

A recording was made of their conversation. It has since been edited to remove commercial breaks and has been made available at no charge for your listening pleasure.

The Interpreter Radio Show can be heard on Sunday evenings, each and every week, from 7 to 9 PM (MDT), on K-TALK, AM 1640, or you can listen live on the Internet at ktalkmedia.com.

Lady Justice atop London’s Old Bailey (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I expect that most of you have heard of the unanimous decision from the United States Ninth Circuit of Appeals on Friday to dismiss James Huntsman’s tithing lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While the Church certainly welcomes the favorable outcome, there is evidently no plan to issue an official statement on Church Newsroom. However, this is apparently the statement that is being provided to media outlets as they have requested comment over the past few days. It is attributed to Doug Andersen, who is identified as a spokesperson for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

Tithing donations are considered sacred by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and are dedicated to advancing the Church’s global religious mission. Today’s unanimous decision by the eleven-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the claims against the Church and Ensign Peak. We welcome this decision inasmuch as the Church has consistently affirmed that funds used for the City Creek project came from the earnings of invested reserve funds and not from donations. Today’s decision vindicates what President Gordon B. Hinckley declared during General Conference twenty years ago and is a confirmation of constitutional rights afforded to religions in the United States of America.

History and Religion

Travel and Religion

Previous Post

February 2, 2025

"Witnesses" is now available for free streaming!

Next Post

February 4, 2025 Why CAN'T Mormons Send Flowers?

Who said, 'For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life'?

Select your answer to see how you score.

James John Peter Paul