0:00:00 - 0:00:21 Yesterday, I uh was eating dinner with my family and I had an experience and I happened to have a notepad right there on the table where I sit and I grabbed the pen and, you know, one of the kids is they're just carrying on and talking about things that kids talk about having a good old time. I wrote 0:00:20 - 0:00:54 reflections on vividness of visions. And um I thought that I would make a video about this at some point and I guess now's the time. Um So while, excuse me, while I was sitting there eating dinner, um I, somehow I was, I was, I was there. So there's, there's so much variation in the way that the visions 0:00:54 - 0:01:17 can happen. Um I've experienced many, many, many different types, I guess. And um at this time, I was, I was, you know, I was sitting there, I heard everything my kids were saying. I was there, I was present, but at the same time, I was in the temple complex in Jerusalem in ancient times, thereby the 0:01:17 - 0:01:52 altar of sacrifice. And the um the smell of the place was, it was so vivid and um you know, the the closest data points I can connect it to in my own temporal life. I've butchered a significant quantity of chickens and rabbits due to some homesteading activities that we've done. Um, and I've, I've butchered 0:01:52 - 0:00:00 a deer and elk and two pigs. So I've had probably for just a normal American. I've had much more experience with this than someone who just has always purchased meat at the store. Nice and plastic wrapped. And there's, there's a vivid smell to the whole process. It's not pleasant. Blood has a smell, 0:00:00 - 0:02:48 guts have a smell. Even fresh meat has a smell and you only get the slightest pinch of that once it's been processed and aged and refrigerated and blood drained out and all that good stuff. So um several things that I wanted to mention about this. Um and I won't even enumerate the reasons why because 0:02:48 - 0:03:18 they are diverse enough that it, you know, will be one or two for some people and maybe some people, it won't be important at all to hear this. I don't know. But um we really have to be more open minded with what God can do and not be so quick to dismiss out of hand what he would otherwise do in our 0:03:18 - 0:03:42 lives. And it's not like we're just sort of floating in space on the bounds of the limitations with this. You have the scriptures before you and you say that you believe in them. But what would be your first reaction if you were sitting at the dinner table and all of a sudden you were also in the temple 0:03:41 - 0:04:09 of old at the altar of sacrifice. You, you'd probably think you're going crazy or something. I mean, I mean, I don't think you would allow that to go beyond an impression and to, to, to, there's a topic that I have not fully formulated called suspension of disbelief. And that, that's a phrase used by 0:04:09 - 0:04:36 in, in various applications by it just in life. Like theater, people use it, actors and actresses. Um But you, you have to have maybe a, maybe a more scriptural phrase is a willingness to believe. And, and when I say unbelief, I bet people's minds run straight to, uh, here's a list of rules and if you 0:04:35 - 0:04:53 don't follow them, then you're in unbelief or churches would, might teach if you don't, if you don't prescribe to our sect of religion, you're living in unbelief or, you know, there are many, many ways that this might be used. But I think there are very important ways that it should be used that it's 0:04:53 - 0:05:20 never used or very unlikely to be used in. And, and one of them is if God's teaching you something, are you going to react like Moses and turn towards the burning bramble? It wasn't actually a bush, um or ee even at great cost. So he took the sandals from off his feet and he walked into a, a bramble 0:05:19 - 0:05:45 of thorns. It's something that most people wouldn't have even paid attention to and anyone who did would much more likely run away, scared than move closer towards. You know, you, you think if God speaks to you, it's going to be this glamorous thing that you recognize to be an extraordinarily positive 0:05:44 - 0:06:12 thing. And yet, what do the scriptures say? You know, how terrible was this experience for Jacob? Who probably was way more righteous than you are right now so far? And, and why do you think you'd react so much better than the apostles did when they were so frequently scared of Jesus? And they were willing 0:06:12 - 0:06:35 to give up their whole life to follow him. And then the reaction was not wonder, but which in a modern sense is a positive word, but in a, an ancient sense is a negative word. It's, it's a surprise. That's scary for the most part. That's how it's used. It's a terrible surprise. So you, you think if you 0:06:35 - 0:06:53 saw Jesus walking on the water, you'd consider yourself privileged and it'd be like going to sea world and see, you know, Shamu, I, I think Shamu must be dead by now. Sorry, who, who, whatever the name, they probably stopped naming them so that they can replace them without people noticing like your 0:06:52 - 0:07:13 kid's goldfish. But you know, the killer whales um jump out of the water and splash down and you think that's what it'd be like to see Jesus walk on the water. But what if it would be more like a horror movie? Um, and you think, well, how could that be? It's Jesus, the, the warm and fuzzy Jesus that 0:07:13 - 0:00:00 you think, you know, is a product of your imagination. The real warm and fuzzy Jesus, you can't describe as warm and fuzzy. You need words that don't really exist here, but the closest thing to that requires a process of suffering that lies far beyond what people are willing to do for the most part. 0:00:00 - 0:07:59 That's an understatement. But I'm just doing my best with the words that I have available. So let's talk more about this. Um This vividness of visions. I was thinking of making a separate video about this, but I'd like to knock this out so I can get on with my day because I have other important things 0:07:59 - 0:08:33 to write about. Um When you look at pictures, this is I, I, I don't wanna say I detest but maybe it's not too strong. II, I have an aversion to movies about scriptures, stories and uh pictures for the most part about scripture stories. Even I've got this painting here of the lion and the lamb and there 0:08:33 - 0:09:03 are inaccuracies in it, but it's not the fault. It's a good painting as far as painting goes like skills. And I, I quite like the thoughts I have when I look at it. But um if you're really good at painting. Typically, you don't have the required um experiences to be a seer and you haven't seen the things 0:09:03 - 0:09:29 that you're painting. I don't know if that makes sense. It's extraordinarily rare for these things to cour because painting takes a certain extraordinary amount of dedication in training and practice, that precludes the even greater training and practice it takes to develop seer and that, that is expressed 0:09:29 - 0:09:57 in a way that's going to be offensive to many because you're going to think that I'm reducing a gift of God down to a practicable skill is practicable word. I think it is. Uh And yet I will show you that that is actually um the best way to receive it. It's still a gift, but it's got much fewer bounds 0:09:56 - 0:10:29 on it that way, much more power is possible that way. Anyway. So, um so it's a shame because there are some amazing painters out there. And I just wish that I could reach up and give them something that, that I have seen and I have experienced so that they can use the gifts that God gives me and mix 0:10:28 - 0:11:05 it with the gift that God gave them to uh to help more people see how good He is to see more of the things that eyes hath not seen and that hath not entered into the heart of man, but that my eyes have seen and have entered into my heart. And I'm sure I'm not alone in that wish. But when you look at 0:11:05 - 0:11:29 pictures of the temple altar and you see the priests, they all have clean clothes. You know, we struggle enough with five kids making sure our kids don't look like they're homeless. Uh, especially one who continues to wipe his hands on his clothes when he's eating something messy and he has a tendency 0:11:28 - 0:12:08 to make not messy meals into messy meals because he's a, he really enjoys his food. It's a wonderful thing to see. It makes you feel happy and what you do to put food on the table. I wish, I wish we better, um, understood. No, I wish we better appreciated the joy that we give God when we have joy in 0:12:07 - 0:12:52 what he gives us. Ok? If, if, if we could, um, I heard someone say not too long ago that nothing we do can hurt God. He has overcome all things and so nothing we do can effect him. But I think it would make us very sad to learn just how much we do affects him. So much of what we do either hurts him emotionally 0:12:52 - 0:13:34 or makes waste of opportunities to give him great joy in ways that really, really don't cost as much. And, uh, it's like that if we, if we could learn to enjoy the simple things in life, like my one son enjoys a good meal. It would, it would flood heaven with, with joy that that would not otherwise be 0:13:34 - 0:00:00 there that might surprise some people. Um God has God lives in such a way that He has access to all joy. But it's false to believe that we do not have an impact on the level of joy he has, is very unfortunate to think that the greatest levels of joy can only be achieved in concert with other people. 0:00:00 - 0:14:35 This is so important to understand. And so I just throw it out there and I'll return to it in another time. God willing. So you think you see these pictures of these priests under the law of Moses and they're at the altar and they're wearing clean clothes. Have you ever butchered an animal? I have special 0:14:34 - 0:14:57 clothes. I wear, um, I have a specific pair of boots I wear when I'm doing outdoors work, um, you know, on the property and that it there, um, it's been a procession of old boots from the army because when I was issued boots from time to time, I would just keep wearing the old ones until they actually 0:14:57 - 0:15:27 wore out. And, um, and so when I, when I was discharged, I had like five pairs of boots or something and it's been 10 years since I was discharged, uh, maybe 11 now. And, um, I still have two more pairs of boots. So, uh, and I've really worn out the ones that I've gone through anyway. Um, so what, what 0:15:26 - 0:15:50 always happens with those boots is that they get stained permanently to, to a, you know, a black color because of the blood of the animals that I kill while wearing them and invariably, no matter how clean you try to remain, you just get blood everywhere. Now, that's a fairly controlled situation where 0:15:49 - 0:16:15 it's a very low volume, even at the apex of animal slaughtering. I, I was, I've never, uh, killed nearly as many animals as the priests under the law of Moses did every day, especially on the holidays where some accounts described that there was so much blood because they had to be, the throats had to 0:16:15 - 0:16:34 be cut at the altar and then the blood poured out on the ground. That's what the law required. And so you can imagine in a situation where people are bringing sheep and there's a lot of people, there's a lot of sheep and that's a lot of blood. And actually the temple of the time of Jesus, I hear they 0:16:34 - 0:16:59 had drains installed that were fairly advanced for the time because the blood had to be channeled out to a waterway in order to clear the, the ground. It, it would otherwise it would be a pool of blood, a, a deep pool and that's a real, a real mess. There's, there's significance to that that I won't 0:16:59 - 0:17:20 go into right now. But even still accounts state that uh historic, there are historical accounts that describe that on the holy days where the sacrifices were prescribed to increase in volume. Um, the priest would still literally be standing in pools of blood because those drains couldn't pump it out 0:17:20 - 0:17:51 fast enough and imagine that. Imagine the sounds and the smell of that. No. Why, why be so graphic? Well, it's funny that this, this extremely holy thing, you have this sanitized view of it and, um, it's totally fake. Those priests would have been covered in blood all the time and it, we struggle with 0:17:51 - 0:18:17 five kids to keep their clothes clean with a washer and dryer. Imagine when you don't have that and you don't have modern cleaning chemicals. How on earth could you get those stains out, let alone clean the, the clothing it would have reeked and those priests would have stunk, wouldn't they think about 0:18:16 - 0:18:41 it? So, have you ever butchered an animal? You stink afterwards no matter how careful you are you, you, you, you're gonna stink and the more animals you butcher, the more you're gonna stink. Now, now think about that, you've got a priest who's supposed to be living a higher law and a living more fully 0:18:41 - 0:19:10 towards God. Totally consecrated, not distracted with uh normal life, just air quoting all of that because there's holiness in all of it. But this is meant to be very obvious, right? You're set apart and yet think of coming home to your wife and you just stink literally to high heaven. Sorry. That's 0:19:10 - 0:19:30 funny to me. You really stink. Right. And your wife might be thinking, man, I wish my husband wasn't a priest because priests smell terrible or man, I don't know who cleaned their clothes and how that all worked. But imagine being the wife of a priest and you're constantly washing blood out of clothing 0:19:29 - 0:19:59 the old fashioned way. So, um, that would have been a nightmare in modern mentality. But these were the best people supposedly called to the highest office, supposedly. Um, again, because there's so much holiness in normal life and we call it a curse, you know, the curse of Adam to work by the sweat 0:19:58 - 0:20:28 of your brow. But it's actually an enormous blessing. And I'll explain that at some point. Um, what, what, what's the takeaway here? What are you getting at, Rob? Well, don't be so naive as to, well, first before we get to that, I've made the argument before that if you're in a religious tradition, you 0:20:28 - 0:20:55 will struggle to accurately perceive the limits that, that tradition imposes not just on what you believe, but on what you can even think on what you can even think. And I won't give you the long form recollection of that position, but suffice it to say that in the religious tradition, I was in for 12 0:20:54 - 0:21:24 ish years, intense, 12 and intense years, I was all in. And I really was shocked, I was shocked at the degree to which I was impeded from even thinking certain ideas. It wouldn't have crossed my mind. It didn't cross my mind and, um, if it did, I would immediately toss out the idea as this can't be true 0:21:24 - 0:21:44 because, but for the most part, that, that part wasn't so surprising, but the, it wouldn't even cross my mind set of ideas. It's shocking and, and yet they're plainly written in the scriptures, they should be really obvious just based on common sense. You don't have to delve deeply into the mysteries 0:21:44 - 0:22:09 to see this property be true. And so if, and as you come out of religious traditions, if you see this too, you should speak about it and write about it and help others to see because people don't believe me on this. Uh But as you go through it, you will see anyway. So, so that's one, one piece of this 0:22:08 - 0:22:34 . How is that related to being covered in blood? Um If you watch these movies or look at these pictures of priests, uh even when they show like the animals throat getting cut, I, I'm pretty sure I've seen this in one of these religious videos. Um It's all sanitized. It's nothing like when you really 0:22:34 - 0:22:50 butcher an animal in the mess and you'd never get the smell out of that out of watching the video. You're, you're not, the smell is not gonna hit you. And the reason is because the people making the video have never experienced anything like that either. I guess we need more farm boys making religious 0:22:50 - 0:23:23 videos or farm girls, shout out to the farm girls. Um So that's one point. What's, what's another point about why I'm going into the this so deeply, what you think of as good is not what good actually is and what you think of as evil is not what evil actually is and what you think of is valuable is not 0:23:23 - 0:23:54 what's actually valuable and the extremes that you think of is what's most or least valuable. The real extremes are far beyond that. All of this is actually an immensely core concept in the gospel or set of concepts and what better way to teach this to people then to have the holy, the, the pinnacle 0:23:53 - 0:24:14 of holiness that they see because they could see the sacrifice from the gate of the Tabernacle or um through the equivalent in the temple complex, the people who brought the sacrifice to the priest, they were mad at the door and then the priest took it to the altar and that they, you know, they washed 0:24:13 - 0:24:47 the sacrifice and then they cut the throat and dump it out right there at the altar and people could see it and imagine that that experience for them and how visceral it was, it would be very hard for them to associate the stench of blood and rotting blood and the, the sight of blood with something bad 0:24:46 - 0:25:12 . I mean, they'd know it was bad because you can murder people or whatever. But what I'm saying is they would be doused in, they would be immersed in associating that with good. And so this extraordinarily bitter experience of seeing an animal you've cared for since it was born chilled. And the necessity 0:25:11 - 0:25:38 of doing so because of your own imperfection and the powerlessness of handing it off to someone to do for you, what you cannot do for yourself and then to smell, I've talked about the blood, but also the burning flesh and to smell the guts cause that was all part of it. It, it would have really been 0:25:37 - 0:26:25 an intense mapping of what would typically be regarded as terrible things directly to some sort of pinnacle of holiness and it doesn't end there. So then as I said, I was at the dinner table. So then uh I don't even know how to say this in ways that aren't going to get me in trouble. Um Yeah. OK. I'll 0:26:24 - 0:26:59 switch out of narrative mode and speak in suppose mode. So have you ever walked by someone who was wearing way too much perfume or cologne? Now, if you're like me, you don't like most perfumes and colognes, which is a very interesting characteristic that I wish I could go into right now. But let's keep 0:26:58 - 0:27:21 focused, but some are nice, but all can be overdone, right? Would you agree with that? It's, it doesn't matter how nice it smells, you can have too much of it. Well, maybe do, maybe you don't. But you could imagine someone feeling that way, even if you don't. Now, I'm gonna tell you the most potent smell 0:27:21 - 0:27:49 that there was in the world of the ancient Israelites was the incense used specifically at the, at the veil of the temple and, or Tabernacle, whichever they had at the time, the recipe was prescribed by God through Moses. And it was illegal under penalty of death for anyone else to compound that concoction 0:27:49 - 0:28:20 . So that smell was uniquely potent, potent. And the also the, the its essence was different than anything else. Now, uh of course, the the later temples had different dimensions. Solomon's temple, Herod's Temple. Uh I guess they call that the second temple because they don't like to admit the fact that 0:28:20 - 0:28:49 it was built by gentile, especially one oppressing the people who then made them pay for it. It's the ancient Trump built the wall and made them pay for it. Um But anyway, the, the, the Tabernacle is obviously much smaller, but imagine being in a small confined space with a whole gallon of perfume or 0:28:49 - 0:29:17 cologne and it's pumping through one of those uh mister things that people put essential oils into. And it is actually worse than that because it's incense, it's smoke, right? So you're in a confined area breathing this smoke that is impregnated with extremely pungent odors that are just ridiculously 0:29:16 - 0:29:42 over the top strong. So imagine that, OK, that is not even though, you know, it's, you'd think it'd be easier to make the case that offering incense on the altar of incense was a much better job than offering animals on the altar of sacrifice. It, it's still not something that people would sign up for 0:29:42 - 0:30:07 today. They, they would hate it. Right. Be, be terrible for most, almost all people they'd say really this is what you want me to do and that was a very important job, right? What are the effects of that? So the the blood sacrifice priests would have to go home and their wives would have to deal with 0:30:07 - 0:30:36 the fact that they stink and that their clothes are all stained up with blood, just caked blood. What, what would the effects be of the altar of incense person? Well, what happens when you're around a pungent aroma and then you leave it if you know a smoker, you know the answer to this question, they 0:30:36 - 0:31:10 smell like cigarettes all the time. What would the high priests smell like? You would smell like the Holy of Holies? He would smell like that incense that's only burned there. At what intensity, at the same unpleasant intensity of being at the vale. No. And a much diluted intensity and to the, to the 0:31:10 - 0:31:42 point where like cologne and perfume, it could actually be pleasant. And so as he was out about the people, he would smell like the Holy of Holies at an intensity that would be pleasant and what rendered it. So his willingness to breathe smoke for however long he was in there, his willingness to rise 0:31:41 - 0:32:16 to the call to be what he had to be, to be there. So I hope this is a rich set of ideas to consider and, and maybe you thought about it before. I don't know, but don't take lightly the Lord's willingness to show you amazing things. And maybe a metal level lesson to extract from this is well, one lesson 0:32:16 - 0:32:51 to ask is what are the modern forms of blood and smoke? That's an interesting question. There is no temple today that's, that serves the purpose of the temple as revealed to Moses. But are there forms of blood? Are there people who walk in pools of blood? Whose blood is it? What does it smell like? What 0:32:51 - 0:33:25 does it look like? How would you know if someone is uh around that blood day in and day out? How terrible would it look to a normal person? How, how awful and repugnant would it smell to a normal person? And how important would it be to see those things as good as better in fact than anything outside 0:33:25 - 0:34:13 of that would be? What would be the aroma of the holy of Holies today? And how close would you have to be to smell it? Would you recognize that it's unique to the presence of the Lord? These are very important questions in the L DS endowment ceremony, um people are shown that God sends new and valuable 0:34:12 - 0:34:56 information to the earth through messengers who carry certain recognizable attributes. And I would claim that I've just explained to you some of the most important ones. So on the one hand, be more willing to be open to the Lord when he opens dramatically different ideas or experiences to you and on 0:00:00 - 0:00:21 Yesterday, I uh was eating dinner with my family and I had an experience and I happened to have a notepad right there on the table where I sit and I grabbed the pen and, you know, one of the kids is they're just carrying on and talking about things that kids talk about having a good old time. I wrote 0:00:20 - 0:00:54 reflections on vividness of visions. And um I thought that I would make a video about this at some point and I guess now's the time. Um So while, excuse me, while I was sitting there eating dinner, um I, somehow I was, I was, I was there. So there's, there's so much variation in the way that the visions 0:00:54 - 0:01:17 can happen. Um I've experienced many, many, many different types, I guess. And um at this time, I was, I was, you know, I was sitting there, I heard everything my kids were saying. I was there, I was present, but at the same time, I was in the temple complex in Jerusalem in ancient times, thereby the 0:01:17 - 0:01:52 altar of sacrifice. And the um the smell of the place was, it was so vivid and um you know, the the closest data points I can connect it to in my own temporal life. I've butchered a significant quantity of chickens and rabbits due to some homesteading activities that we've done. Um, and I've, I've butchered 0:01:52 - 0:00:00 a deer and elk and two pigs. So I've had probably for just a normal American. I've had much more experience with this than someone who just has always purchased meat at the store. Nice and plastic wrapped. And there's, there's a vivid smell to the whole process. It's not pleasant. Blood has a smell, 0:00:00 - 0:02:48 guts have a smell. Even fresh meat has a smell and you only get the slightest pinch of that once it's been processed and aged and refrigerated and blood drained out and all that good stuff. So um several things that I wanted to mention about this. Um and I won't even enumerate the reasons why because 0:02:48 - 0:03:18 they are diverse enough that it, you know, will be one or two for some people and maybe some people, it won't be important at all to hear this. I don't know. But um we really have to be more open minded with what God can do and not be so quick to dismiss out of hand what he would otherwise do in our 0:03:18 - 0:03:42 lives. And it's not like we're just sort of floating in space on the bounds of the limitations with this. You have the scriptures before you and you say that you believe in them. But what would be your first reaction if you were sitting at the dinner table and all of a sudden you were also in the temple 0:03:41 - 0:04:09 of old at the altar of sacrifice. You, you'd probably think you're going crazy or something. I mean, I mean, I don't think you would allow that to go beyond an impression and to, to, to, there's a topic that I have not fully formulated called suspension of disbelief. And that, that's a phrase used by 0:04:09 - 0:04:36 in, in various applications by it just in life. Like theater, people use it, actors and actresses. Um But you, you have to have maybe a, maybe a more scriptural phrase is a willingness to believe. And, and when I say unbelief, I bet people's minds run straight to, uh, here's a list of rules and if you 0:04:35 - 0:04:53 don't follow them, then you're in unbelief or churches would, might teach if you don't, if you don't prescribe to our sect of religion, you're living in unbelief or, you know, there are many, many ways that this might be used. But I think there are very important ways that it should be used that it's 0:04:53 - 0:05:20 never used or very unlikely to be used in. And, and one of them is if God's teaching you something, are you going to react like Moses and turn towards the burning bramble? It wasn't actually a bush, um or ee even at great cost. So he took the sandals from off his feet and he walked into a, a bramble 0:05:19 - 0:05:45 of thorns. It's something that most people wouldn't have even paid attention to and anyone who did would much more likely run away, scared than move closer towards. You know, you, you think if God speaks to you, it's going to be this glamorous thing that you recognize to be an extraordinarily positive 0:05:44 - 0:06:12 thing. And yet, what do the scriptures say? You know, how terrible was this experience for Jacob? Who probably was way more righteous than you are right now so far? And, and why do you think you'd react so much better than the apostles did when they were so frequently scared of Jesus? And they were willing 0:06:12 - 0:06:35 to give up their whole life to follow him. And then the reaction was not wonder, but which in a modern sense is a positive word, but in a, an ancient sense is a negative word. It's, it's a surprise. That's scary for the most part. That's how it's used. It's a terrible surprise. So you, you think if you 0:06:35 - 0:06:53 saw Jesus walking on the water, you'd consider yourself privileged and it'd be like going to sea world and see, you know, Shamu, I, I think Shamu must be dead by now. Sorry, who, who, whatever the name, they probably stopped naming them so that they can replace them without people noticing like your 0:06:52 - 0:07:13 kid's goldfish. But you know, the killer whales um jump out of the water and splash down and you think that's what it'd be like to see Jesus walk on the water. But what if it would be more like a horror movie? Um, and you think, well, how could that be? It's Jesus, the, the warm and fuzzy Jesus that 0:07:13 - 0:00:00 you think, you know, is a product of your imagination. The real warm and fuzzy Jesus, you can't describe as warm and fuzzy. You need words that don't really exist here, but the closest thing to that requires a process of suffering that lies far beyond what people are willing to do for the most part. 0:00:00 - 0:07:59 That's an understatement. But I'm just doing my best with the words that I have available. So let's talk more about this. Um This vividness of visions. I was thinking of making a separate video about this, but I'd like to knock this out so I can get on with my day because I have other important things 0:07:59 - 0:08:33 to write about. Um When you look at pictures, this is I, I, I don't wanna say I detest but maybe it's not too strong. II, I have an aversion to movies about scriptures, stories and uh pictures for the most part about scripture stories. Even I've got this painting here of the lion and the lamb and there 0:08:33 - 0:09:03 are inaccuracies in it, but it's not the fault. It's a good painting as far as painting goes like skills. And I, I quite like the thoughts I have when I look at it. But um if you're really good at painting. Typically, you don't have the required um experiences to be a seer and you haven't seen the things 0:09:03 - 0:09:29 that you're painting. I don't know if that makes sense. It's extraordinarily rare for these things to cour because painting takes a certain extraordinary amount of dedication in training and practice, that precludes the even greater training and practice it takes to develop seer and that, that is expressed 0:09:29 - 0:09:57 in a way that's going to be offensive to many because you're going to think that I'm reducing a gift of God down to a practicable skill is practicable word. I think it is. Uh And yet I will show you that that is actually um the best way to receive it. It's still a gift, but it's got much fewer bounds 0:09:56 - 0:10:29 on it that way, much more power is possible that way. Anyway. So, um so it's a shame because there are some amazing painters out there. And I just wish that I could reach up and give them something that, that I have seen and I have experienced so that they can use the gifts that God gives me and mix 0:10:28 - 0:11:05 it with the gift that God gave them to uh to help more people see how good He is to see more of the things that eyes hath not seen and that hath not entered into the heart of man, but that my eyes have seen and have entered into my heart. And I'm sure I'm not alone in that wish. But when you look at 0:11:05 - 0:11:29 pictures of the temple altar and you see the priests, they all have clean clothes. You know, we struggle enough with five kids making sure our kids don't look like they're homeless. Uh, especially one who continues to wipe his hands on his clothes when he's eating something messy and he has a tendency 0:11:28 - 0:12:08 to make not messy meals into messy meals because he's a, he really enjoys his food. It's a wonderful thing to see. It makes you feel happy and what you do to put food on the table. I wish, I wish we better, um, understood. No, I wish we better appreciated the joy that we give God when we have joy in 0:12:07 - 0:12:52 what he gives us. Ok? If, if, if we could, um, I heard someone say not too long ago that nothing we do can hurt God. He has overcome all things and so nothing we do can effect him. But I think it would make us very sad to learn just how much we do affects him. So much of what we do either hurts him emotionally 0:12:52 - 0:13:34 or makes waste of opportunities to give him great joy in ways that really, really don't cost as much. And, uh, it's like that if we, if we could learn to enjoy the simple things in life, like my one son enjoys a good meal. It would, it would flood heaven with, with joy that that would not otherwise be 0:13:34 - 0:00:00 there that might surprise some people. Um God has God lives in such a way that He has access to all joy. But it's false to believe that we do not have an impact on the level of joy he has, is very unfortunate to think that the greatest levels of joy can only be achieved in concert with other people. 0:00:00 - 0:14:35 This is so important to understand. And so I just throw it out there and I'll return to it in another time. God willing. So you think you see these pictures of these priests under the law of Moses and they're at the altar and they're wearing clean clothes. Have you ever butchered an animal? I have special 0:14:34 - 0:14:57 clothes. I wear, um, I have a specific pair of boots I wear when I'm doing outdoors work, um, you know, on the property and that it there, um, it's been a procession of old boots from the army because when I was issued boots from time to time, I would just keep wearing the old ones until they actually 0:14:57 - 0:15:27 wore out. And, um, and so when I, when I was discharged, I had like five pairs of boots or something and it's been 10 years since I was discharged, uh, maybe 11 now. And, um, I still have two more pairs of boots. So, uh, and I've really worn out the ones that I've gone through anyway. Um, so what, what 0:15:26 - 0:15:50 always happens with those boots is that they get stained permanently to, to a, you know, a black color because of the blood of the animals that I kill while wearing them and invariably, no matter how clean you try to remain, you just get blood everywhere. Now, that's a fairly controlled situation where 0:15:49 - 0:16:15 it's a very low volume, even at the apex of animal slaughtering. I, I was, I've never, uh, killed nearly as many animals as the priests under the law of Moses did every day, especially on the holidays where some accounts described that there was so much blood because they had to be, the throats had to 0:16:15 - 0:16:34 be cut at the altar and then the blood poured out on the ground. That's what the law required. And so you can imagine in a situation where people are bringing sheep and there's a lot of people, there's a lot of sheep and that's a lot of blood. And actually the temple of the time of Jesus, I hear they 0:16:34 - 0:16:59 had drains installed that were fairly advanced for the time because the blood had to be channeled out to a waterway in order to clear the, the ground. It, it would otherwise it would be a pool of blood, a, a deep pool and that's a real, a real mess. There's, there's significance to that that I won't 0:16:59 - 0:17:20 go into right now. But even still accounts state that uh historic, there are historical accounts that describe that on the holy days where the sacrifices were prescribed to increase in volume. Um, the priest would still literally be standing in pools of blood because those drains couldn't pump it out 0:17:20 - 0:17:51 fast enough and imagine that. Imagine the sounds and the smell of that. No. Why, why be so graphic? Well, it's funny that this, this extremely holy thing, you have this sanitized view of it and, um, it's totally fake. Those priests would have been covered in blood all the time and it, we struggle with 0:17:51 - 0:18:17 five kids to keep their clothes clean with a washer and dryer. Imagine when you don't have that and you don't have modern cleaning chemicals. How on earth could you get those stains out, let alone clean the, the clothing it would have reeked and those priests would have stunk, wouldn't they think about 0:18:16 - 0:18:41 it? So, have you ever butchered an animal? You stink afterwards no matter how careful you are you, you, you, you're gonna stink and the more animals you butcher, the more you're gonna stink. Now, now think about that, you've got a priest who's supposed to be living a higher law and a living more fully 0:18:41 - 0:19:10 towards God. Totally consecrated, not distracted with uh normal life, just air quoting all of that because there's holiness in all of it. But this is meant to be very obvious, right? You're set apart and yet think of coming home to your wife and you just stink literally to high heaven. Sorry. That's 0:19:10 - 0:19:30 funny to me. You really stink. Right. And your wife might be thinking, man, I wish my husband wasn't a priest because priests smell terrible or man, I don't know who cleaned their clothes and how that all worked. But imagine being the wife of a priest and you're constantly washing blood out of clothing 0:19:29 - 0:19:59 the old fashioned way. So, um, that would have been a nightmare in modern mentality. But these were the best people supposedly called to the highest office, supposedly. Um, again, because there's so much holiness in normal life and we call it a curse, you know, the curse of Adam to work by the sweat 0:19:58 - 0:20:28 of your brow. But it's actually an enormous blessing. And I'll explain that at some point. Um, what, what, what's the takeaway here? What are you getting at, Rob? Well, don't be so naive as to, well, first before we get to that, I've made the argument before that if you're in a religious tradition, you 0:20:28 - 0:20:55 will struggle to accurately perceive the limits that, that tradition imposes not just on what you believe, but on what you can even think on what you can even think. And I won't give you the long form recollection of that position, but suffice it to say that in the religious tradition, I was in for 12 0:20:54 - 0:21:24 ish years, intense, 12 and intense years, I was all in. And I really was shocked, I was shocked at the degree to which I was impeded from even thinking certain ideas. It wouldn't have crossed my mind. It didn't cross my mind and, um, if it did, I would immediately toss out the idea as this can't be true 0:21:24 - 0:21:44 because, but for the most part, that, that part wasn't so surprising, but the, it wouldn't even cross my mind set of ideas. It's shocking and, and yet they're plainly written in the scriptures, they should be really obvious just based on common sense. You don't have to delve deeply into the mysteries 0:21:44 - 0:22:09 to see this property be true. And so if, and as you come out of religious traditions, if you see this too, you should speak about it and write about it and help others to see because people don't believe me on this. Uh But as you go through it, you will see anyway. So, so that's one, one piece of this 0:22:08 - 0:22:34 . How is that related to being covered in blood? Um If you watch these movies or look at these pictures of priests, uh even when they show like the animals throat getting cut, I, I'm pretty sure I've seen this in one of these religious videos. Um It's all sanitized. It's nothing like when you really 0:22:34 - 0:22:50 butcher an animal in the mess and you'd never get the smell out of that out of watching the video. You're, you're not, the smell is not gonna hit you. And the reason is because the people making the video have never experienced anything like that either. I guess we need more farm boys making religious 0:22:50 - 0:23:23 videos or farm girls, shout out to the farm girls. Um So that's one point. What's, what's another point about why I'm going into the this so deeply, what you think of as good is not what good actually is and what you think of as evil is not what evil actually is and what you think of is valuable is not 0:23:23 - 0:23:54 what's actually valuable and the extremes that you think of is what's most or least valuable. The real extremes are far beyond that. All of this is actually an immensely core concept in the gospel or set of concepts and what better way to teach this to people then to have the holy, the, the pinnacle 0:23:53 - 0:24:14 of holiness that they see because they could see the sacrifice from the gate of the Tabernacle or um through the equivalent in the temple complex, the people who brought the sacrifice to the priest, they were mad at the door and then the priest took it to the altar and that they, you know, they washed 0:24:13 - 0:24:47 the sacrifice and then they cut the throat and dump it out right there at the altar and people could see it and imagine that that experience for them and how visceral it was, it would be very hard for them to associate the stench of blood and rotting blood and the, the sight of blood with something bad 0:24:46 - 0:25:12 . I mean, they'd know it was bad because you can murder people or whatever. But what I'm saying is they would be doused in, they would be immersed in associating that with good. And so this extraordinarily bitter experience of seeing an animal you've cared for since it was born chilled. And the necessity 0:25:11 - 0:25:38 of doing so because of your own imperfection and the powerlessness of handing it off to someone to do for you, what you cannot do for yourself and then to smell, I've talked about the blood, but also the burning flesh and to smell the guts cause that was all part of it. It, it would have really been 0:25:37 - 0:26:25 an intense mapping of what would typically be regarded as terrible things directly to some sort of pinnacle of holiness and it doesn't end there. So then as I said, I was at the dinner table. So then uh I don't even know how to say this in ways that aren't going to get me in trouble. Um Yeah. OK. I'll 0:26:24 - 0:26:59 switch out of narrative mode and speak in suppose mode. So have you ever walked by someone who was wearing way too much perfume or cologne? Now, if you're like me, you don't like most perfumes and colognes, which is a very interesting characteristic that I wish I could go into right now. But let's keep 0:26:58 - 0:27:21 focused, but some are nice, but all can be overdone, right? Would you agree with that? It's, it doesn't matter how nice it smells, you can have too much of it. Well, maybe do, maybe you don't. But you could imagine someone feeling that way, even if you don't. Now, I'm gonna tell you the most potent smell 0:27:21 - 0:27:49 that there was in the world of the ancient Israelites was the incense used specifically at the, at the veil of the temple and, or Tabernacle, whichever they had at the time, the recipe was prescribed by God through Moses. And it was illegal under penalty of death for anyone else to compound that concoction 0:27:49 - 0:28:20 . So that smell was uniquely potent, potent. And the also the, the its essence was different than anything else. Now, uh of course, the the later temples had different dimensions. Solomon's temple, Herod's Temple. Uh I guess they call that the second temple because they don't like to admit the fact that 0:28:20 - 0:28:49 it was built by gentile, especially one oppressing the people who then made them pay for it. It's the ancient Trump built the wall and made them pay for it. Um But anyway, the, the, the Tabernacle is obviously much smaller, but imagine being in a small confined space with a whole gallon of perfume or 0:28:49 - 0:29:17 cologne and it's pumping through one of those uh mister things that people put essential oils into. And it is actually worse than that because it's incense, it's smoke, right? So you're in a confined area breathing this smoke that is impregnated with extremely pungent odors that are just ridiculously 0:29:16 - 0:29:42 over the top strong. So imagine that, OK, that is not even though, you know, it's, you'd think it'd be easier to make the case that offering incense on the altar of incense was a much better job than offering animals on the altar of sacrifice. It, it's still not something that people would sign up for 0:29:42 - 0:30:07 today. They, they would hate it. Right. Be, be terrible for most, almost all people they'd say really this is what you want me to do and that was a very important job, right? What are the effects of that? So the the blood sacrifice priests would have to go home and their wives would have to deal with 0:30:07 - 0:30:36 the fact that they stink and that their clothes are all stained up with blood, just caked blood. What, what would the effects be of the altar of incense person? Well, what happens when you're around a pungent aroma and then you leave it if you know a smoker, you know the answer to this question, they 0:30:36 - 0:31:10 smell like cigarettes all the time. What would the high priests smell like? You would smell like the Holy of Holies? He would smell like that incense that's only burned there. At what intensity, at the same unpleasant intensity of being at the vale. No. And a much diluted intensity and to the, to the 0:31:10 - 0:31:42 point where like cologne and perfume, it could actually be pleasant. And so as he was out about the people, he would smell like the Holy of Holies at an intensity that would be pleasant and what rendered it. So his willingness to breathe smoke for however long he was in there, his willingness to rise 0:31:41 - 0:32:16 to the call to be what he had to be, to be there. So I hope this is a rich set of ideas to consider and, and maybe you thought about it before. I don't know, but don't take lightly the Lord's willingness to show you amazing things. And maybe a metal level lesson to extract from this is well, one lesson 0:32:16 - 0:32:51 to ask is what are the modern forms of blood and smoke? That's an interesting question. There is no temple today that's, that serves the purpose of the temple as revealed to Moses. But are there forms of blood? Are there people who walk in pools of blood? Whose blood is it? What does it smell like? What 0:32:51 - 0:33:25 does it look like? How would you know if someone is uh around that blood day in and day out? How terrible would it look to a normal person? How, how awful and repugnant would it smell to a normal person? And how important would it be to see those things as good as better in fact than anything outside 0:33:25 - 0:34:13 of that would be? What would be the aroma of the holy of Holies today? And how close would you have to be to smell it? Would you recognize that it's unique to the presence of the Lord? These are very important questions in the L DS endowment ceremony, um people are shown that God sends new and valuable 0:34:12 - 0:34:56 information to the earth through messengers who carry certain recognizable attributes. And I would claim that I've just explained to you some of the most important ones. So on the one hand, be more willing to be open to the Lord when he opens dramatically different ideas or experiences to you and on 0:34:56 - 0:35:17 the other, learn to discern what has real value and how different it is from what the world offers, take care.