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Panel Perspectives on the Book of Abraham, and Other Fun

Panel Perspectives on the Book of Abraham, and Other Fun

Last updated on: April 29, 2026 at 5:16 pm by Dan Peterson

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Panel Perspectives on the Book of Abraham, and Other Fun 2026-04-29T17:16:33-06:00 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.

On the set of Six Days in August (2024), Brigham Young (portrayed by John Donovan Wilson) ponders what to do following the assassination of Joseph Smith. He is also one of the three co-hosts for the Becoming Brigham documentary series.

Fourteen installments of our Becoming Brigham series are up, as of today. And every one of them is available here. I’m pleased with their visual quality, as well as with their content, and I hope that you are, as well. (I hope that you’ve been watching them.)

I confess, though, that I’m not even remotely satisfied by their reach, to this point. As I say, I don’t think it’s a problem with their quality. While I’ve heard a quibble or two here and there, the responses that I’ve seen and heard thus far have been, overwhelmingly, very positive — with the exception, of course, of the small clique of people who affect to disdain everything that I do and that the Interpreter Foundation does (and who could easily have written their “reviews” of Becoming Brigham before we even began to create it), and with the exception of a few who simply harbor a settled and determined hatred for Brigham Young himself (and who may not have even bothered to watch a single episode of the series before weighing in). My strong sense is that the vast majority of the Church, even in the English-speaking world and even of those who would find Becoming Brigham interesting, flatly don’t know that it exists.

So I’m asking each of you out there — if you’ve found any value in Becoming Brigham thus far — to make a conscious effort, even a small one, to call the series to the attention of your friends, your extended family, your neighbors, members of your ward, your priesthood quorum or Relief Society group, your Institute class, and people you know at work who might enjoy it or benefit from it. The way this project is going to spread and have the influence that we wish it to have is through word of mouth. If everyone who has been watching Becoming Brigham were to mention it to just one other person who hasn’t, that would potentially double its audience. As President David O. McKay never said, “Every viewer a publicist.”

Of course, if you yourself hate the project, please just forget about it. You haven’t seen it. :You’ve never heard of it. Say nothing to anybody else on the subject.

I found this Deseret News article by Justin Dyer interesting and worthy of reflection, and I commend it to your notice: “Analysis: For accurate conclusions about Latter-day Saint retention, look at the best data: Singling out only one poll or survey can lead to mistaken ideas about what’s really happening”

Facsimile 1 in the Book of Abraham (LDS Media Library)Newly posted today on the completely stagnant website of the essentially moribund Interpreter Foundation: Reprint: Panel Perspectives on the Book of Abraham, featuring David M. Calabro, Michael D. Rhodes, Stephen O. Smoot, and John S. Thompson:

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Abraham and His Family in Scripture, History, and Tradition, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, John S. Thompson, Matthew L. Bowen, and David R. Seely. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/abraham-and-his-family.

“We met yesterday along with several other presenters and went through several questions about the Book of Abraham and some of the controversy surrounding it. Just to kind of get a sense of where we are right now, I’ll just say upfront that I think there’s a growing feeling and a movement that things for the Book of Abraham are looking better and better all the time. I think it’s a wonderful thing. We’re very convinced that as we look at some of the more scholarly and historical issues, it is something that is becoming vindicated more as time goes on.”

Butchard Gardens, Victoria, British Columbia
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Responding to my quotation, yesterday, from Dr. Reggie Anderson’s account of what he calls a “dream,” one not especially thoughtful critic leaps rather illogically to the suggestion that, if it’s a dream, then “near-death experiences” — to which, as I observed, Dr. Anderson’s account does indeed bear a few strong resemblances — are also mere dreams and not real experiences.

I’m not sure, though, despite Dr. Anderson’s use of the term dream to describe it, that his experience was merely a dream. It might have been, of course. But it might also have been a privileged vision of the world to come. Or it might, itself, have been a kind of out-of-body near-death experience. I don’t know.

However, the suggestion that near-death experiences, whatever else they may or may not be, can be generally dismissed as nothing more than mere “dreams” seems to me plainly untenable. People don’t typically doze off and take naps during car or motorcycle accidents or airplane crashes or during difficult childbirths. They don’t commonly dream while medical instrumentation indicates zero brain activity. And dreams don’t usually convey verifiably correct information about what is happening in other rooms or on other floors of a hospital or about conversations transpiring many miles away from the location of the “dreamer.”

While I’m on the subject, though, I want to share with you a small handful of additional comments about Dr. Anderson’s “dream” that, again, remind me very strongly of the accounts of near-death experiences that I’ve read. All of them come from Reggie Anderson, with Jennifer Schuchmann, Appointments with Heaven: The True Story of a Country Doctor’s Healing Encounters With the Hereafter (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2013), 85:

I heard his words in my heart and not in my ears

References to unvoiced and seemingly telepathic communications are quite common in NDE reports.

The veil had parted, allowing me to peer into the other side, and what I saw was a world far more colorful and vibrant than the one we live in. It was a world of peace and love, a place where anxiety, fear, and worry lines simply vanished. I knew the permanence of that place far outweighed the temporary life we have here.

Indescribably and inexpressibly vivid colors, some seemingly beyond the spectrum of light that is normally visible to us, are also frequently reported by near-death experiencers. As is a sense of hyper-reality.

I longed for the day I could go back. But I also knew it wasn’t yet my appointed time. I had been tasked with things to do here.

Here, too, there is a strong point of contact with those who report NDEs. Many want to stay or to return, but many also say that they knew that they still had a mission to fulfill or responsibilities to meet in mortality.

I had seen and heard more in the depths of my soul than I could ever articulate with my tongue.

The ineffability of the experience is a commonplace in NDE accounts.

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