David H. Smith and Dabbling in the Occult 1

David Smith and Dabbling in the Occult #1

I’m going to develop this into a full blog entry. I got the book From Mission to Madness: Last Son of the Mormon Prophet by Valeen Tippetts Avery from the library. From the preface, “David Hyrum Smith (1844-1904) was a brilliant and charismatic man, whose mind began to be clouded by mental illness when he was twenty-eight. Painter, singer, philosopher, theologian, naturalist, preacher, poet, and traveler, he approached life with warmth, humor, and intellectual curiosity. For a decade and a half before tragedy struck he was so effective a missionary for his church that he was placed in its presidency, so good a poet that his hymns are still sung, so compelling a preacher in Utah that it was rumored he would supplant Brigham Young, and so entertaining a writer that his descriptions of the places he visited conveyed to readers in the Midwest the excitement of America’s expanding frontier. Enthusiastic about the world in which he lived, David not only devoted himself to his religion but also dabbled in séances and spiritualism, defined the religious implications of contemporary science, challenged the Utah Mormons about polygamy, and argued the place of reason in a revelation-oriented theology.” [Italics emphasis is mine.]

It did not hit me at first. This preface holds the key to the mental illness development of David Smith. I do not have the Scriptural reference off the top of my head. The Old Testament especially the Pentateuch warns against consulting with witches, diviners, necromancers (spiritualists, talkers with the dead). The Israelites led by God and Moses were warned to have nothing to do with these things. King Saul, the first king of Israel, dabbled into this arena also with disastrous results in going to the witch of Endor to consult with the “ghost of Samuel”. We, nowadays, want to subscribe mental illness to genetic disorders or chemical imbalances. We underestimate the influence of the occult and opening the door to demonic influences.

I have had 2 classes, Rejection I & Rejection II, with material developed by one of the founders or main persons connected with Lake Hamilton Bible Camp which specializes in deliverance ministry. The book, Rejection and Its Fruits and Its Roots, is relevant to this subject. I’ve also had teaching in connection with CCM (Contemporary Christian Ministries) in regards to “opening of doors”. In addition, I have gone through the process of deliverance and inner healing for things in my life that were not right with God. I have been blessed and freed from past unhealthy soul ties and past fruits and roots as related to rejection, fear, pride, and other ungodly things in my life. I realize this can be a one-time event, but it also becomes a lifelong process.

I was wondering about this episode with David Smith. I have never heard anyone mention that he “dabbled in the occult” (spiritualism, séances). This would explain how he could open himself up to the demonic. David Smith was born after his father, Joseph Smith, Jr., along with his uncle, Hyrum Smith, were killed by mob actions. There are also sins connected with the parents—generational curses. Whether Joseph Smith, Jr. (JS, Jr.) originated the doctrine of polygamy or not is open to debate, we do know that he dabbled into masonry and promulgated baptism for the dead and other esoteric practices that could have opened doors in the life of David Smith. The very loss of a parent before one is born is a form of “rejection”. (anger/resentment at not having parent in life; sense of abandonment.)

A good example of this would be that the murder of JS, Jr. caused David Smith to grow up without his actual father. He did have a father figure in the form of a step-father Lewis Bidamon, when Emma re-married. David Smith became a part of the “Josephites”/”Reorganites” (Joseph Smith III-JSIII) in following his brother to become a part of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS) in contrast to the Utah “Brighamites” or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). In missions to the west, David Smith had to deal with persons telling him that his father JS, Jr. had promulgated and practiced polygamy while he could not speak with his mother Emma (improper) or his brother JSIII who took a hard-line stance that his father neither originated nor practiced the doctrine of “plurality of spiritual wives”. David’s later mental illness ended up costing his son Elbert a father figure so the sins of the father are visited upon the grandson going from generation to generation.