The Spirit World:  A Joyful Experience

 

(From the Book, Life Everlasting, beginning on page 8, by Duane S. Crowther)

 

Duane S. Crowther is a well-known author of Latter-day Saint books on gospel themes, music, and the writer's art. The above book was published in 1967.  He is currently (2017) a Bountiful Temple Ordinance Worker.  He holds a BA in Music Education from BYU, an MA in Old and New Testament from BYU, an MBA from the University of Phoenix, and completed coursework for a PhD in Music Education at the University of Utah.  I feel very pleased that I got to shake his hand.

 

He is known for his carefully-documented studies of doctrinal themes such as Prophecy--Key to the Future, Life Everlasting, Prophets and Prophecies of the Old Testament, and The Godhead. The author of over 50 books, and numerous magazine articles, he has lectured at BYU Education Weeks, Writers' League functions in several states, business and writing seminars, and other educational gatherings.

 

“It is important to recognize that death is a blessing, a joyful experience and often serves as a pleasant relief to those who were suffering in mortality.  The many instances recorded of those who have left their bodies to enter the spirit world are almost completely void of allusions to difficulty or pain from the separation process.  To the contrary, their experiences may be summarized in the statement of Ella Jensen, who related that:

 

“There was practically no pain on leaving the body in death but the intense pain was almost unbearable in coming back to life.”

 

 Not only this, but for months and even years afterward, she experienced new aches and pains and physical disorders that she had never known before.”

 

Heber Q. Hale, while talking with his guides in the spirit world taught that:

“(Spirits) readily observed their displeasure at our use of the word ‘death’ and the fear which we attach to it.  They use, there, another word in referring to the transition from mortality, which word I do not now recall and I can only approach its meaning, as the impression was left upon my mind, by calling it the ‘New Birth.’”

 

Jedediah M. Grant, a counselor to Brigham Young in the first presidency of the Church, was twice allowed to venture into the spirit world as his death drew nigh.  He recounted his experiences to the other counselor in the presidency, Heber C. Kimball, who retold Brother Grant’s experiences at the funeral.

 

President Grant had recounted his newly-gained knowledge of the superiority of the future to the present life in these words:

 

Brother Heber, I have been into the spirit world two nights in succession and of all the dreads that ever came across me, the worst was to have to again return to my body, (when I revived), though I had to do it.”

 

In the funeral sermon President Kimball added his own comment that “Brother Grant said that he felt extremely sorrowful at having to leave so beautiful a place and come back to earth, for he looked upon his body with loathing, but was obliged to enter it again.”

 

It was perhaps, because of this experience of Jedediah M. Grant that President Brigham Young later said,

 

“I can say with regard to parting with our friends and going ourselves, that I have been near enough to understand eternity so that I have had to exercise a great deal more faith to desire to live than I ever exercised in my whole life to live.”

 

Lorenzo Dow Young, during his vision of the life hereafter, also felt great reluctance to leave the beauty of the future life to again take up mortality:

 

I could distinctly see the world from which we had first come.  …To me, it looked cloudy, dreary and dark.  I was filled with sad disappointment; I might say horror, at the idea of returning there.  I supposed I had come to stay in that heavenly place, which I had so long desired to see, up to this time; the thought had not occurred to me that I would be required to return.

 

I plead with my guide to let me remain.  He replied that I was permitted to only visit these heavenly cities, for I had not filled my mission in yonder world; therefore I must return and take my body…

 

We returned to my house.  There I found my body and it appeared to me dressed for burial.  It was with great reluctance that I took possession of it to resume the ordinary avocations of life and endeavor to fill the important mission I had received.  I awoke and found myself in my bed.  I lay and meditated the remainder of the night on what had been shown me.”

 

When the administration of President Lorenzo Snow restored Ella Jensen to life, her first words were, ‘Where is he?’  We asked: Who, where is who?’  ‘Why, Brother Snow,’ she replied.  ‘He called me back.’

 

They told her that he had gone.  She said: “Why did he call me back?  I was so happy and did not want to come back.”

 

It appears that those who have hope of dwelling among the righteous in the next life may well anticipate that their death will bring them into a state of increased joy and happiness.

 

One of the greatest blessings of passing through the veil is the privilege of again enjoying the company of relatives and friends who have previously died.  The expectation of this blessing is a motivating force to all who seek a reunion with those who have preceded them, helping them to regard death with happy anticipation rather than fear.