View source for Question: Did the three witnesses's experience of seeing the plates and the angel take place only in their minds?

{{FairMormon}}
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==Question: Did the three witnesses's experience of seeing the plates and the angel take place only in their minds?==
{{BMCentral|title=Why Were Three Key Witnesses Chosen To Testify Of The Book Of Mormon?|url=https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/why-were-three-key-witnesses-chosen-to-testify-of-the-book-of-mormon|number=267}}
===The Three Witnesses were very explicit that they had actually seen the angel and the plates===

Some critics suggest that the witnesses’ encounter with the angel and the plates took place solely in their minds. They claim that witnesses saw the angel in a “vision” and equate “vision” with imagination. To bolster this claim they generally cite two supposed quotes from Martin Harris.  Supposedly Harris was once asked if he saw the plates with his “naked eyes” to which he responded, “No, I saw them with a spiritual eye.”<ref>Wilford C. Wood, ''Joseph Smith Begins His Work'', Vol. 1, 1958, intro.</ref> In another interview Harris allegedly claimed that he only saw the plates in a “visionary or entranced state.”<ref>{{CriticalWork:Metcalf:Ten Years|pages=70-71}} Quoted in {{CriticalWork:Morgan:Correspondence|pages=xxx}}</ref>

Oliver Cowdery wrote explicitly for himself and Martin Harris when he replied, in a November 1829 letter, to questions about whether "juggling" (i.e., trickery or conjuring) could have explained what they saw:

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"It was a clear, open beautiful day, far from any inhabitants, in a remote field, at the time we saw the record, of which it has been spoken, brought and laid before us, by an angel, arrayed in glorious light, [who] ascend [descended I suppose] out of the midst of heaven. Now if this is human juggling—judge ye."<ref>Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, in letter dated 29 November 1829, quoted in Corenlius C. Blatchly, "[http://www.juvenileinstructor.org/1829-mormon-discovery-brought-to-you-by-guest-erin-jennings/ THE NEW BIBLE], written on plates of Gold or Brass," ''Gospel Luminary'' 2/49 (10 Dec. 1829): 194.</ref>
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Critics impose their own interpretation on phrases that do not match what the witnesses reported in many separate interviews.  When challenged on the very point which the critics wish to read into their statements&mdash;their literal reality&mdash;both Harris and the other witnesses were adamant that their experience was literal, real, and undeniable.  As early convert William E. McLellin reported:

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"D[avid] Whitmer then arose and bore testimony to having seen an Holy Angel who had made known the truth of this record to him.  [A]ll these strange things I pondered in my heart."<ref>William E. McLellin, journal, 18 July 1831, reproduced in {{McLellinJournal1|start=29}}.</ref>
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[[es:Pregunta: ¿La experiencia de los tres testigos de ver las planchas y el ángel tuvo lugar solo en sus mentes?]]
[[pt:Pergunta: Será que a experiência das três testemunhas de ver as placas e o lugar anjo tomada apenas em suas mentes?]]

[[Category:An Insider's View of Mormon Origins]]
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