Firsthand Accounts of the Second Anointing

[_Maxrep]

My understanding of the endowment, which may not rise to Nehor's level :) , is that after the ordinance of the washing and anointing takes place, the couple, in a private setting, have the opportunity to receive a visitation from the second comforter. This means plainly that Jesus Christ will minister to them, and that they will see his face - it is an actual, physical visitation.

You've been drinking that same Kool-Aid that Charity mixes.

I don't doubt that in an experience like that, having the first part of the ritual, then repairing to a private sealing room, the intimacy and emotion of the moment would lead people to feel like they had had a profoundly spiritual experience, but the "visit from the Savior" stuff is an Faith-Promoting Rumor that even if it's not being personally experienced, none of them would publicly deny. Would people on the sidelines say the Emperor had no clothes, when everyone else is saying how exquisite they are?

Yes, i believe its an Faith-Promoting Rumor. I should have clearly stated that I was playing right along with the CaEMS, willful suspension of disbelief. I do remember reading up on the subject many years ago.

[_Sethbag]

Alter Idem, your hypothesis seems to presuppose that there would in fact have been a lot more, wondrous and "sacred" stuff going on along with the CAEMS ceremony. I'm not sure that supposition is a good one. What if there's really not much more to it than that? You get a blessing, the things you are annointed "to become such" in the endowment you are now annointed "to be" or something like that, the apostle washes your feet, and that's it, plus the private ceremony where the wife washes the feet of the husband and blesses him. I know I've come out of the temple ceremonies before and wondered that that was all there was to it. Like the temple marriage ceremony. I had presupposed, before participating in it as proxy for the dead before my mission, that there was a lot more to it, and in fact there wasn't.

I read the post quoted in the OP and don't get the same feeling that you do, ie: that he's leaving out enough important stuff that he must just have contrived this story based on the recorded experience of others. It's possible it really was just that simple.

[_Maxrep]

Hey Maxrep...

My impression, and I could be off base, is that the invitation for the Second Anointing, takes place on an EXTREMELY limited basis.

Just curious what gave you this impression. :-)

I would have thought the same thing until the CES director, now patriarch told me that "thousands and thousands" of members have had it done.

The more I learn the more I am finding that indeed lots of folks seem to have parents or relatives who have had their CaEMS.


:-)

~dancer~

Hi TD,

I might do some poking around on the internet to see if I can find some piece of information that backs up what I said as far as frequency. I may just have to plead ignorance! Ha ha :) . It was quite a few years ago that I was interested in the subject. I do remember reading from "Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith" and from McConkies "Doctrinal New Testament Commentary". Maybe there is a little Paul H Dunn thrown in just to spice things up a bit!

If the individuals you have talked with are in the know, then you probably have a better handle on it than I do.

One aspect of this subject that interests me is that the visitation from Christ is supposed to be part of the Calling and Election when you read up on it.

[_Maxrep]

Alter Idem,

is this what is missing from the account?

"After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, `Son, thou shalt be exalted.' When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and his election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter, which the Lord hath promised the Saints, as is recorded in the testimony of St. John....

"Now what is this other Comforter? It is no more nor less than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself; and this is the sum and the substance of the whole matter; that when any man obtains this last Comforter, he will have the personage of Jesus Christ to attend him, or appear unto him from time to time, and even He will manifest the Father unto him, and they will take up their abode with him, and the visions of the heavens will be opened unto him, and the Lord will teach him face to face, and he may have a perfect knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God; and this is the state and place the ancient Saints arrived at when they had such glorious visions--Isaiah, Ezekiel, John upon the Isle of Patmos, St. Paul in the three heavens, and all the Saints who held communion with the general assembly and Church of the Firstborn."TPJS, Deseret Book Co. 1979, pp. 150,151


I believe what Sethbag is saying, and what many of us may be thinking, is that after all is said and done there may just be a ceremony - that's it. Apostles and prophets of the past may have collectively built up the pomp and circumstance of this ordinance so that the implied visitation from Christ has melded its way well into Mormon folklore.

[_Trinity]

Update.

Dad says he has not had his CaEMS. I asked him straight up and he paused for maybe two seconds before telling me he and mom had not. Take it for what it is worth.

For the record, I find institutionalized lying to be morally wrong.

[_truth dancer]

Hi Trinity...

Thanks for checking and for the information.

:-)

Not that it is any of my business at all (smile) but do you think your father knows your sister and BIL had their CaEMS?

~dancer~

[_Trinity]

Hi Trinity...

Thanks for checking and for the information.

:-)

Not that it is any of my business at all (smile) but do you think your father knows your sister and BIL had their CaEMS?

~dancer~

Absolutely. He and I have discussed it before. Like I said, my family has discussed my sister's situation openly. That is why I don't really think he would feel compelled to lie to me.

[_Alter Idem]

Alter Idem,

is this what is missing from the account?....

Hi Maxrep, what I meant was Annointed one's relying on past written explanations to supplement his story.

The following is my best recollection of what happened in performing this ordinance. It has been nearly 6 years since it happened so I may well have omitted some things. I have briefly reviewed published accounts of the second anointing to jog my memory.

Sounds to me like someone who didn't actually experience it, but was able to put the post together using a journal account someone else recorded.

[_Sethbag]

So he "jogged his memory" by looking at other accounts to help himself be sure he wasn't forgetting anything important six years later, and you think this is evidence that he might just have been making it up?

How do you regard the different versions of the First Vision? Don't you find it unlikely that Joseph Smith would forget he'd actually seen Jesus and God? And not even six years later?

[_harmony]

Hi Trinity...

Thanks for checking and for the information.

:-)

Not that it is any of my business at all (smile) but do you think your father knows your sister and BIL had their CaEMS?

~dancer~

Absolutely. He and I have discussed it before. Like I said, my family has discussed my sister's situation openly. That is why I don't really think he would feel compelled to lie to me.

My husband's family has been in the church since the beginning. None of the members of his family that I have known has ever had this ordinance done, even though they were stake presidents and bishops. I think they just didn't live close enough to Utah and/or they didn't have enough money to worry about them not keeping close to the church. Those that lived in Utah weren't important enough to warrent such a thing.

Personally, it creeps me out.