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Lingering / Wandering Spirits & Mormon Experiences

Lingering / Wandering Spirits And LDS Experiences

We started this topic in the Exorcism thread so I thought in adding a new thread about 'spirits' being attached to a person or experiences of similar nature. We can discuss also the impact it has in Church members and you can also post those experiences here (Of course, without mentioning any names). Feel free also to post the knowledge you have received from any LDS book or LDS author. Thanks.

We can start with the simple question: How open do you think the Church feels about this topic?. Have you ever experienced something like being haunted by a spirit?.

Experiences Mormon and Spirits Wandering Lingering

One night, several years ago, I woke up and felt like waves of something were crawling over me. It lasted for some time. I tried to cast out the evil spirit, it took about three tries. That is one of the reasons that I am very interested in the subject.

NightHawk

Lingering / Wandering Spirits & Mormon Experiences Studies Doctrine Mormon

What makes you think were evil spirits? was it just a sensation or you saw something too?. Did you use what is written in Doctrine and Covenants to get rid of it?. Tell us more please.

Experiences Mormon and Spirits Wandering Lingering

I didn't see anything, I was just overwhelmed with horrible feelings, physical as well as spiritual. I raised my arm to the square, and commanded them, in the name of Jesus Christ, to depart. Then I continued to pray and read scriptures for a bit, and after about an hour or so, the feelings began to go away.

NightHawk

Experiences Mormon and Spirits Wandering Lingering

When my (first) husband and I were preparing to receive our endowments and be sealed in the temple, we had a huge fight that nearly ended our marriage altogether. In looking back on it in later life, I think I may have been under the influence of a malicious spirit. I was angry and determined that we would *not* be sealed. In the middle of the dozenth round of angry words being exchanged, I was right in the middle of a sentence... the phrase I wanted to say was, "I have a responsibility to myself..." and I forget now what I thought that was, because as soon as I said the word "responsibility"... it was like a bubble popped. I saw clearly that my responsiblity was to my husband and my eternal family, and I had no idea what in the world we were arguing about. I felt muddled and confused, like I wasn't sure really where I had been for several days. I have no memory of what we had argued about. I apologized to my husband, and told him I had no idea what I was thinking, and asked if he still wanted to go. he said yes. We had something like 15 minutes to get ready and get out the door to be on time for our session at the temple, and we barely made it. He never questioned my sudden change of heart.

Roz

Lingering / Wandering Spirits & Mormon Experiences

Two stories;

Shortly before my wife and I were married, she called me at work one evening. Actually it was night time as I was working very late. She asked me if I could come over to her house before I went home that night. I could tell that there was something wrong and she sounded frightened.

At that time in my life I was in Law Enforcement doing some very hard, dangerous work. When I walked into her house I felt very ill at ease. I remember that I felt like I did every time I entered a house searching for a hiding fugitive. I felt like I had walked into the middle of a hostage situation, unarmed and unprepared.

She was sitting on the couch, I asked her what was wrong. She said that she had woken up and felt like someone or something was trying to force himself upon her. She immediately explained that there was no one physically there but yet she felt like there was someone there.

I must say here that the veil between my wife and the spirit world is very thin. As we have served in our local Temple as ordinance workers and in her ward calling as a family history consultant she has had many wonderful manifestations of the spirit.

She told me once all of the lights were on she new that no one physically was there but the evil spirit was. She was afraid that I thought she was nuts because we had never really discussed this nature of her spiritual gifts before, and when she had confided it in others she often felt somewhat shunned.

After I understood what it was she was telling me I had no problem excepting it and immediately recognized what I was feeling as the same thing.

I enterd the living room where she was sitting, knelt down, invited her to join me. I took her hands and only released them long enough to make the signs of the priesthood. After invoking the name of Jesus Christ and stating my Priesthood authority to act in His name, I commanded the spirit and all spirits that did not worship Jesus Christ as their master and savior to depart the home which we were in. I then requested the Holy Ghost to direct the Cherubim to place guards at all entrances to the home and prevent all spirits not worshiping by that same criteria to be prohibited from reentering the home.

I felt my tension release and she said she felt the spirit leave. She later informed me that what she hadn't told me was that the whole time she was explaining to me what had happened she knew exactly where the spirit was standing in her living room. Apparently when I entered the living room to kneel I had gone to exactley where it was standing and had forced it to move from it's place before commanding it to depart. That was nine years ago and that is still the procedure I follow when ever we move into a new home or apartment, or after we have repented of doing something in the home, usually an attitude problem that would cause the spirits we desire in and around our home to have to depart due to our grieving them.

Story two;

About a year ago I was out hometeaching. I received a call at the home I was at from my wife that I needed to call another young couple in our ward. This other couple was one that I had helped teach the Gospel and that I had baptised more than a year earlier. They had never really become active or maintained there conversion to the Gospel. They were back doing many of the things they had prior to their baptism. As a member of the Elders Quorum Presidency and actually the acting President as the real President was out of town for an extended period on business, I was aware that the Bishop was concidering convening a disciplenary action against them.

When I called their house, the husband asked me to come over as soon as possible as he was having trouble with "evil things" in his house, and wanted me to do that "priesthood thing" I had done for them before. Just after they were baptised, as their home teacher I had presented a lesson on blessing a home and he had asked to do that for them, which I had. I had as part of the lesson counseled them on being cautious about their actions in the home, maintaining a spirit of reverence in the home, whom they invited into the home, and other items related to maintaining a spiritual home.

They had since moved, fallen away from the church and returned to their old ways.
I told the husband that I would come over with my companion and speak to them. After explaining to my companion what was going on and our praying about how to proceed we were impressed that they, the family, were not praying at all and we should not invoke the spirit to be present through the priesthood in that home but instead should go and teach the husband and wife how to pray for themselves in their own home.

When we entered the small apartment the husband and wife were sitting in the living room with their infant daughter. I again felt that tight awareness of danger feeling that I felt before. The difference was that this time I recognized it immediately and felt well prepared and literally spiritually armed and strong. Two other men were sitting at the table in the dining area. I recognized one of them as a man that had been a member of our ward, had been excommunicated, rebaptised and excommunicated a second time. I did not recognize the second man but later found out that he was a local drug dealer and is now in prison. Actually both of these men are currently in prison.

As we entered the living room the one man which I knew from church tried to start up light jovial conversation with us. Without thinking about it, my mouth said, We are not here to socialize, We are here as ministers of Jesus Christ and bearers of His holy priesthood. I had no intention of saying that, it just came out. I know that it was the Holy Ghost speaking through me.

The result was that both men got up, and left the apartment. It almost startled me but both of them simultaneously bowed their heads as they walked past us and left. We concluded by instructing the family again in maintaining a spiritual home, and in how to pray. We then assisted them in conducting a family prayer circle with the husband as voice.

Their family never returned to the church, eventually fell apart and both were eventually also excommunicated. But it is a spiritual experience along the lines of this thread that I will never, ever forget.

Lingering / Wandering Spirits & Mormon Experiences

Thank you. That was a magnificent message.

Is this about the extent of your personal experiences?

Personally, I think that this is a particularly important subject. For various reasons, we seem to have (as a church) gotten away from the "mystical" in our religion. By mystical, I mean all those things that aren't subject to scientific inquiry. We pay lip service to them, but don't actually pay attention to them.

Just consider how your wife was reluctant to discuss her experiences, because of the rejections that she had experienced.

Thank you also for the description of how you dedicated homes. I find it interesting that you mention using the signs of the Priesthood, as this is generally not something that people know about - how and when to use them in our daily lives.

NightHawk

Lingering / Wandering Spirits & Mormon Experiences Mormon Doctrine Studies

I would like to share an experience that is not of a bad spirit but still involves visiting spirits.

My grandmother died when I was not quite 13 (1973 - you do the math). Anyway she and I were extremely close. She was like a mother to me. I lived with her when my parents were divorced and then again when my father's second marriage ended.

When she died, I was not a member of the Church. I joined in 1986. After joining the Church, every now and again I would have dreams where she and I were in the same room together visiting. When I would wake up, I always experienced the same feelings of separation from her. It was an unpleasant feeling and one I only had when awaking from these dreams.

I did my grandmother's ordinance work close to 6 years ago. When in the celestial room, I felt this incredible love. This was only the second time I had been through a session, the first being my own endowment, so I didn't know this was anything unusual, but as a frequent visitor to the Temple, I can now tell you this was more than the usual peaceful feelings I experience while there. I really didn't want to leave the room, much like I didn't want to wake up from my dreams, but I didn't make a connection to my grandmother in any way at the time. Then as I was leaving the room, I turned to watch the door close and felt that same "painful" feeling of separation from my grandmother that I had always had when awaking from my dreams of her.

I know that she was with me in that room. I did not imagine it because if I were going to make it up in my mind, I would have done so while in the room. In fact, I really regret that I didn't recognize her presence at the time. I did recognize the feeling of separation though, immediately.

Since doing her Temple work, I have never had another dream where my grandmother came to visit me . I believe she was visiting me for a reason and once her work was accomplished there was no further need.

Although this is about a good spirit, I still think it is an example of a spirit being attached to me.

I have also experienced the bad attachments. I will share that another time after someone else posts so as to limit somewhat the length of my post.

Edited: tenaheff on 2nd Mar, 2004 - 6:51pm