“Spiritual Experiences” is a term that needs defining among Latter-day Saints. Many of us assume that a powerful emotion at church is a spiritual experience, but it might just be a powerful emotion. Or an emotional response to an authentic spiritual experience.
But Latter-day Saint spiritual experiences are vastly greater in variety. Below is a list of different types of experiences that we employ in our discussions of justification for our beliefs. For frequently asked questions about our witness testimony, click here.
Member Testimonies of Jesus Christ
Some of these types of experiences include the following:
- Personal revelation of the reality of the atonement of Christ
- Personal revelation of Christ’s forgiveness
- Spiritual confirmation of the resurrection of Christ
- Eyewitness confirmation of Christ on the other side of the veil
- Eyewitness confirmation of Christ on this side of the veil
Click here to view examples of member testimonies of Jesus Christ.
Prophetic/Apostolic Testimonies of Jesus Christ
Click here to view examples of prophetic/apostolic testimonies of Jesus Christ.
The Book of Mormon
Our witness testimony of the Book of Mormon includes experiences such as the following:
- Personal witness that the Book of Mormon is true by way of an extraordinary feeling
- Personal witness that the Book of Mormon is true by way of another kind of experience
Click here to view examples of witness testimony of the Book of Mormon.
Personal Revelation
Experiences of personal revelation include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Personal revelation in response to inquiring if the Church is true
- Personal revelation that the church is where God wants a person to be
- Private, specific aspects of one’s life spoken in a priesthood blessing
- Specific and unique future life events predicted in a priesthood blessing, that have come to pass
- “Burning in the bosom” in response to a prayer inquiring about a specific issue
- Specific words felt or spoken to one’s heart or mind in response to a prayer about a specific issue
- Being led to a new source of information in response to a prayer for understanding
- A prompting to answer a question of another person
- A vision in response to a prayer for help with a problem
- A strong impression to rethink something you were planning to do
- Audible hearing of a spiritual prompting
- Revelation via dream
Click here to view examples of witness testimony of personal revelation.
Miracles and Answered Prayers
Miracles and answered prayers can include such as experiences as:
- Church service (ministering or other) reaching out or arriving personally in answer to a prayer
- Experience of physical healing by the priesthood or by the prayer of faith
- Experience of emotional or other healing by the priesthood or the prayer of faith
- Being raised from death back to life by the power of the priesthood
- In response to a prayer, an event occurring that could not possibly be coincidental
- A “tender mercy” miraculous event that was completely unexpected
- A prompting to do something very unusual, resulting in an extraordinary blessing to oneself or someone else
- Witness of possession by spirits
- Witness of exorcism
- Experience of divine providence in a time of need
- A vision in one’s church service
Click here to view examples of witness testimony of miracles and answered prayers.
Temple Work
Our experiences in temple work include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Miraculous events while seeking or preparing names for temple ordinances
- Miraculous events during temple worship
- Personal revelation during temple worship
- Miraculous confirmation that a deceased person is seeking temple ordinances
- Miraculous confirmation that a deceased person has gratefully accepted temple ordinances
- Healing of generational relationships through temple work
Click here to view examples of witness testimony of temple work.
Missionary Work
Experiences in missionary work include but are not limited to the following:
- Being guided to a specific person while doing missionary work
- Finding an investigator in response to the investigator’s prayer while doing missionary work
Click here to view examples of witness testimony of missionary work.
Prophets
Our experiences with prophetic figures include the following:
- Personal encounters with prophets and apostles
- Personal experiences of prophetic revelation
- Spiritual or other confirmations of the prophetic mantle
- Spiritual confirmation of the prophetic calling of Joseph Smith or other church leaders after Joseph Smith
Click here to view examples of witness testimony of prophets.
Gifts of the Spirit
Our experiences with gifts of the spirit include such phenomena as speaking in foreign tongues, healings, prophecy, and other experiences.
Click here to view examples of witness testimony of the gifts of the spirit.
The Afterlife
Our experiences with the afterlife include but are not limited to the following:
- A vision of ancestors
- Audible hearing of a voice from the other side of the veil
- Angelic visitation
- Visitation by a scriptural figure
- Seeing to the other side of the veil
Click here to view examples of witness testimony of the afterlife.
Repentance and Conversion
Our experiences of repentance and conversion involve personal transformation in the context of church teachings and church participation. For an in-depth collection of resources on conversion, click here.
Click here for examples of our testimony of repentance and conversion.