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already surrounded... I was told where there were deposited some plates, on which was engraved an abridgment of the records of the ancient peoples that had existed on this continent. The angel appeared to me three times the same night and unfolded the same things. It is important to note that this apparition was not Joseph's first vision. Indeed, he had "been forbidden to join any of the religious sects of the day" because he had claimed to have been favored by a mystical revelation while he was alone in the wilderness at the age of fourteen. When Angel Moroni appeared to him Joseph Smith had been praying for a vision, for, he says, "I had full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation, as I had previously had one." The angel appeared three times during the night of September 21, 1823 (which happens to be the autumnal equinox), repeating exactly the same words. After the third time Joseph was surprised to hear the cock crow and to find that daylight was approaching, "so that our interviews must have occupied a toa Cs ot ta the whole of that night." Joseph Smith got up and began his normal chores, but he found himself so exhausted (like the children at Fatima) that he couldn't work in any useful way. His father thought he was sick and told him to go home. On the way he fell when trying to climb a fence and remained unconscious. The angel then appeared to him once more and told him to repeat his words to his father and to reveal his instructions. The father told Joseph to go and do as he had been commanded and said that "these a eooan things were of God." Thus, the young man was allowed to go to the place where the plates were buried. He found them inside a stone box, which he had no difficulty opening, but he was unable to take the plates out of the box. Again the angel appeared, and it told him to come back precisely in one year and every year after that; four years later he would be permitted to take the plates. The remainder of the story is well known. Thanks to the help of a wealthy farmer named Martin Harris, Smith was able to work on the translation of the golden plates, which he read with the help of special stones he had found in the box. When Harris took the plates and the beginning of the translation to Professor Charles Anthony of New York, this learned gentleman stated that the translation was correct, "more so than any he had before seen translated from the Egyptian." Looking at the plates that had not yet been translated, he said that they were Egyptian, Chaldaic, Assyrian, and Arabic, and the professor signed a statement to that effect, which he later tore to pieces, however, when he learned that the young man had found the plates upon the instruction of an angel! m1 1 rr a ees a a. woo4ad , toa tar +aAAn + Eleven persons have stated that they saw the plates unearthed by Joseph Smith. In June 1829, in response to a communication obtained by Smith, the Mormon prophet retired to the woods accompanied by Martin Harris, David Whitmer, and Oliver Cowdery, and knelt "in fervent prayer," hoping to recieve a vision of the plates. As nothing happened, Martin Harris withdrew from the group, believing that it was his presence that prevented the miracle from taking place. The others resumed their prayers and, after a few minutes, an angel stood before them, holding the plates: "He turned over the leaves one by one, so that we could see them and discern the engravings thereon Atiat. ato distinctly." The Book of Mormon was first published in 1830. It is a strange document, similar in many ways to the Oahspe bible or the Book of Urantia, two accounts of early history similarly "inspired" by divine intelligence. The Oahspe bible is an account of the origins and antiquity of mankind and contains many references to the Red Men. It was recieved "psychically" by John Ballou Newbrough about 1881, and it originated with Shining Beings whom he called angels. It is futile to engage in a debate concerning the truth or falsity of the statements made by Joseph Smith. We are looking here for indications of a higher order, and we can define as a miracle any event, real or imagined or even faked, which creates certain paranormal but verifiable effects. The transformation of an ordinary farmboy from rural New York State into an unchallenged leader of multitudes is an unusual fact that deserves attention even if we doubt the story. When we trace the turning point of this man's life to the sighting of a strange light and to contact with an entity inside