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Life before Life?

Life before Life?

Last updated on: January 25, 2026 at 12:50 pm by Dan Peterson

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Life before Life? 2026-01-25T12:50:55-07:00 Dan Peterson

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The Plan of Salvation, as understood in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in an illustration that I recall from my childhood (Wikimedia Commons public domain image). Please note, over at the far left, an infant descending to earth from the pre-mortal world.

A while back, I read an interesting book by Sarah Hinze that bears the title The Announcing Dream: Dreams and Visions of Children Waiting to Be Born (Mesa, AZ: Three Orchard Productions, 2016). Sarah Hinze is, by the way, the same person who was behind a 2022 documentary featuring accounts of parents and families who claim to have met the souls of their children before they were born. I believe that it can be watched online: Remembering Heaven. Anyway, here is one of the passages that I marked during my reading of The Announcing Dream. It’s told by someone called “Joann B.” who required surgery to undo a problem in her reproductive system:

I was scheduled for my first surgery. It was a very delicate surgery that was to last seven hours. But during this experience, I stopped breathing. Instantly, I found myself suspended in the air above my body. I could look down and see everything the doctors and nurses were doing. I saw the heart monitor flat and the nurses stirring about. My doctor moved away from me to allow another doctor to come in. I couldn’t understand why everyone appeared to be so worried.

I found myself in a place where there was a brilliant white light all around me. As my senses became alert, I heard a beautiful sound — it was the sound of peace. I cannot describe it with mortal, only that a powerful feeling of peace permeated my very being. I could hear spiritual beings moving around behind me in a very calm and orderly manner. I don’t know where it came from, but all of a sudden I was holding an infant. There was a personage behind me and he said to me, “This is your daughter, Virginia.”

I looked at her and I was so thrilled. Ever since I was a child I had always wanted a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl. These were the features of the beautiful baby girl I was holding. My fiancé, Wade, had blond hair and blue eyes.

I looked at her and asked, “Her name is Virginia?” The personage behind me said, “Yes.”

I turned around to thank him, and all of a sudden, the heart monitor started going again and I was immediately returned to my body. I knew I had been summoned back. I was really sad, and my arms hurt because I wasn’t holding that beautiful baby. . . .

I told one nurse exactly what I had seen her do while I was clinically dead. She was so startled she dropped the tray she was holding at the time. (43-44)

As you might have expected by this point, “Joann B.” married “Wade” and soon became pregnant. Her firstborn child received the name “Virginia Rose” and was blue-eyed and blond.

And here is a story told by “Lois B.”:

I was putting three-year-old Johnny to bed when he asked for a bedtime story. For the past few weeks, I had been telling him of the adventures of his great-great-grandfather, a colonizer, a soldier, a community leader. As I started another story, Johnny stopped me and said, “No, tell me of Grandpa Robert.” I was surprised. This was my grandpa. I had not told stories of him, and I could not imagine where he had heard his name. He had died before I had even married.

“How do you know about Grandpa Robert?” I asked.

“Well, Momma,” he said with reverence, “he’s the one who brought me to earth.” (35)

The main concert hall in Brigham Young University’s still relatively new Music Building. (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

Last night (Friday night), we attended a performance by Joshua Henry in the main concert hall at the BYU Music Building. Not really my favorite musical style, but he’s a wonderful showman with a powerful voice. I was very impressed, too, by a couple of passages from his guitarist, Jordan Peters.

One of the great blessings of our lives has been residing so close to Brigham Young University, which has provided us with years and years of concerts, lectures, films, dramatic performances, and athletic events. To a lesser but still not insignificant extent, we’ve enjoyed offerings from Utah Valley University, which is even closer to our home.

The board of directors of the Interpreter Foundation takes a break for snacks during today’s quarterly meeting. The painting, done in 1910, is commonly mischaracterized as an illustration from “Quo Vadis” depicting a banquet in Nero’s palace. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

The board of directors of the Interpreter Foundation convened for one of the Foundation’s quarterly meetings this morning (Saturday morning). We had a number of important issues to discuss, and it was good to have Jeff Bradshaw there, as he is just freshly back from a filming trip to Africa.

Yesterday, I think, my anonymous but dedicated Malevolent Stalker revealed to his online devotees that the principal if not the sole reason for my involvement with the Interpreter Foundation is my desire to travel and to gorge myself at the expense of the Foundation’s donors (of whom I’m one, which makes my thought processes just a bit confusing). Anyway, realizing that my mercenary cat is out of the bag, I’ve decided to share the painting above, which was created by a visiting courtroom artist during a pause in today’s meeting. Our proceedings today were actually a bit more restrained and spartan than usual, but the photo gives you a pretty good idea of the general atmosphere.

The Lubbock Texas Temple (LDS Media Library)

This item, from a CBS affiliate in Texas, was retrieved from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™. It represents yet more evidence — as if any additional evidence were really needed! — of how theists and theism blight our communities: “East Texas Food Bank receives 42,000 pounds of food from Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints”

But that scarcely exhausts the Hitchens File, which actually seems inexhaustible. Here’s another atrocity: “Spreading a ‘Beautiful Light’: People Come Together for Year of Service in Idaho: Idahoans are invited to collectively perform 250,000 acts of service to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary”

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