Spirit World Links

by Harry Anderson

No, this is not some portal to the next life, or a detailed instruction as to how to  perform a séance and communicate with departed loved ones. Rather, after  finishing my book, Called To Serve Again, several readers have come to me with  many questions and have asked where they can learn more about the Spirit World.  I thought it might be helpful to gather together several of the links to some  of the sources and stories that I used in researching my story. I will group the links according to topic, and this will be a work in progress as I will add additional links from time to time.

Much of this information comes directly from the LDS.org website, but in order to avoid any copyright infringement, I will not copy and paste the quotations on my site.  Instead, I will only include the links and describe where to look for the pertinent  information. I wish to emphasize that these links are in no way meant to  promote my book, but these are only listed in an attempt to help those who wish to learn more about death and the state of the spirit until the resurrection. I hope all will know and understand that death is not the end, but through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all mankind will be resurrected and live again.

Are there spirits?

Where is the Spirit World?

What do our spirits look like?

At one point in my book, I talked of some spirit children holding hands as they cross the monorail platform. I took some liberty with this because of some accounts of people seeing children or infants as departed spirits in their dreams or in visions. However, in the LDS Gospel Doctrine manual, it is taught that all spirits assume their adult form even if the person passed away as a child. Then when the person is resurrected, they will come forth from the grave in the same form and age as when they passed away, and they will grow to adulthood in their perfected body. Here are some of the links:

However, to write about something, you need to have a clear vision of it in your head, and it seems that I ended up with many more questions than I could ever get answers to. I think it kind of started with facial hair. Do spirits have facial hair? I believe so. If your uncle wore a moustache his whole life on this earth, would he still have a moustache in the spirit world? I believe he would. What about a goatee? Or lamb chop sideburns? Then we move on to hairstyles — what if you always thought you looked best wearing a mullet? Head-banger hair? Would Michael Bolton or Fabio be allowed to have long hair still? I believe so, it is their choice. So then, what about hair color — does everyone have gray or white hair, or does your hair resort back to its natural color? Can you change your hairstyle as a spirit? I am not even sure if your hair will grow or you will need to have haircuts. Then come other related hygiene questions, such as if you have a very, hairy back as a mortal, would this still be a problem as a spirit? Will women still have to shave their legs? or arm pits? Not a lot of answers out there to these questions.

In the end, I kind of had to decide on certain rules and stick to them, and these were often based upon my best, educated guess. Also, the rules must be uniformly enforced and fair. For sure, we are guaranteed that when we are resurrected, we will have perfected bodies, but until that time, I felt that when we pass from this life, we take with us certain, defining characteristics and peculiarities that make us unique individuals. Further, when we do pass from this life, we may change our appearance, but it will likely take time and occur gradually. Thus, if someone is overweight, they will not change immediately to fit and trim when they die, but they will still appear large, or muscular, or thin. I didn’t want to debate about actual skin pigment, but I felt certain that cultural traits would still be present — not everyone changes to an anglo-saxon when they become a spirit. Rather, oriental people will still appear to be oriental, or polynesians will appear as polynesians, or aboriginals will appear as aboriginals, etc, and these traits may not ever change. This brought me back to hair, which I decided would have to be similar to how it appeared prior to your death, even if you had lost some hair, or allowed it to grow under your chin, or changed it to jet black. In that way, you will still be you in the next life, for better or worse.

What will happen in Paradise?

What will happen in Spirit Prison?

Is there really such thing as a guardian angel?

The scriptures never use the term “guardian angel,” but there are many references to “ministering angels,” or angels who assist mortals on this earth. A classic example would be the angel who comforted the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane (see Luke 22:43).

Stories of Glimpses into the Spirit World

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