Learn More:

• Wikipedia - Seer Stone
• Wikipedia - Scrying
• Wilford C. Wood Museum - Welcome to the Wood Museum
• Fuller Consideration - Seer Stones

Learn More:

• Wikipedia - Seer Stone
• Wikipedia - Scrying
• Fuller Consideration - Seer Stones

Learn More:

• Wikipedia - Seer Stone
• Wikipedia - Scrying
• Fuller Consideration - Seer Stones

Summary:

Why this matters:

• Lives were lost in the name of God.
• Ron and Dan truly believed they were communicating with God.
• Ron and Dan drew inspiration from and compared themselves to the story of Nephi having to kill Laban for the greater good in the book of Mormon.

Why this matters:

Learn More:

• Wikipedia - Henry Agrippa
• Utah Lighthouse Ministry - Mormonism & Magic

Summary:

• It demonstrates that Joseph had more than a passing fascination with magic as a teen.
• If Joseph really did have it on his body when he died then it shows he was still very much interested in magic.
• The purpose of such a talisman was supposedly to help the owner have influence over others, become rich, and powerful, and find peace among other things.
• The inscription comes directly from "The Magus" which was a magical book by Francis Barrett.

Summary:

For a long time only reproductions of the plates were available as the original artifact was lost. The plates were later rediscovered in Chicago and scientifically analyzed.  They turned out to be made by one of Joseph Smith's contemporaries in an effort to trick the prophet.

Why this matters:

• The Kinderhook plates were a hoax.
• Joseph Smith, the prophet and seer, could not tell it was a hoax
• Joseph gave an overview of what the inscriptions meant, even though they were meaningless
• It seems improbable that the story that would have emerged if a full translation had taken place would be related to the Book of Mormon. However the translation seemed to reinforce the book of Mormon.

Summary:

Joseph Smith translated the book of Mormon by supernatural means. As a faithful Mormon growing up in the church I believed that he used a device called the Urim and Thumim that was buried in the stone box with the plates. This turned out, not to be the case. The Urim and Thumim were apparently only used to translate the first (lost) 116 pages of the Book of Mormon. After Martin Harris lost this Book of Lehi the Angel became angry and confiscated the plates and the Urim and Thumim. The plates were eventually returned to Joseph, but the "translators" were not. From that point on when work on translating the plates continued Joseph used a peep stone he had in his possession from his ealier days as a scryer placed in the bottom of a hat. The plates were never looked at and were either in a box or under a cloth. Recently the church has released pictures of the seer stone and released an essay about the process of translation.

The first 116 pages of the Book of Mormon were translated using the Urim and Thumim fixed to a breastplate portrayed here.

Typical Artwork showing the translation process still found in churches and printed manuals today.

But this New Artwork portraying how the translation process more accurately occurred.

Why this matters:

• This is simply not what I was taught when I was growing up
• This is not what I taught others as a missionary 
• This is the same seer stone used for profit by Joseph to locate buried treasure by magical means
• Joseph used this stone in a hat method for both magical scrying and religious revelations
• This is the same seer stone that Joseph allegedly admitted he couldn't see anything in
• There is no indication that the stone works today. If it does than why aren't Seers of the church using it instead of hiding it in a vault all these years?
• This is the same seer stone that Joseph allegedly admitted he couldn't see anything in
• What was the point of the breastplate and Urim and Thumim if they were not used in the translation process
• What was the point of the Golden Plates if they were not used in the translation process 
• Joseph demonstrated later that through the stone he could translate documents buried in a cave on the other side of the world. Again, why did he need the gold plates?
• Church leaders blame the artists for not portraying the translation of the Book of Mormon accurately, while the church payed for and uses the artwork to teach about the Book of Mormon.
• Church leaders blame the members for not studying their history enough (when facts about the seer stone were scarce to say the least and could really only be found in anti-Mormon material)
• It turns out the South Park episode was right after all even though you told all your friends growing up that it was ridiculously inaccurate.

Summary:

Why this matters:

• The First Vision is the key doctrinal moment in Mormonism proving that God and Jesus are separate individuals. The earlier versions of this vision match more of a Trinitarian view of the Godhead. (As does the original printing of the Book of Mormon)
• No one heard the story of the First Vision (including his family) until over a decade after it happened.
• Dates and ages are not consistent
• Motive for going to the Lord in prayer is not consistent
• Who appears is not consistent
• Joseph is not the only one to have had a miraculous encounter with deity in the New England area. His first vision is not unique and some claim Joseph copied other's stories to create his own.