Introduction

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that the Holy Ghost (aka the Spirit) is central to understanding truth.1 Knowledge gained by the Holy Ghost is considered the foundation of a testimony, which is, according to Elder Dallin H. Oaks, a “personal witness borne to our souls by the Holy Ghost that certain facts of eternal significance are true and that we know them to be true.”

LDS description

The Preach My Gospel manual, chapter 4, gives a clear and understandable summary of the kinds of phenomena meant to indicate an experience with the Holy Ghost. Those most directly related to mental and physical phenomena are reproduced below:2

  • “Gives feelings of love, joy, peace, patience, meekness, gentleness, faith, and hope.”
  • “Gives ideas in the mind, feelings in the heart.”
  • “Occupies the mind and presses on the feelings.”
  • “Helps scriptures have strong effect.”
  • “Gives good feelings to teach if something is true.”
  • “Enlightens the mind.”
  • “Replaces darkness with light.”
  • “Strengthens the desire to avoid evil and obey the commandments.”
  • “Teaches truth and brings it to remembrance.”
  • “Gives feelings of peace and comfort.”
  • “Guides to truth and shows things to come.”
  • “Reveals truth.”
  • “Guides and protects from deception.”
  • “Helps to perceive or discern the thoughts of others.”
  • “Tells what to pray for.”
  • “Tells what to do.”
  • “Edifies both teacher and students.”

Potential phenomenological explanations

Based on the above list and common descriptions (for example), what is perceived as an LDS spiritual experience (or the Spirit or Holy Ghost) may be postulated to involve one or more of these elements:3

  1. A feeling of elevation: this is a hormonally-mediated feeling that produces a “swelling” feeling in the chest and is generated when witnessing or performing altruistic acts or participating in acts of transcendent beauty.4
  2. Frisson: “a psychophysiological response to rewarding auditory and/or visual stimuli that often induces a pleasurable or otherwise positively-valenced affective state.”
  3. The warm glow of familiarity (aka “glow of warmth”): We resonate with things we are already familiar with. There is also a tendency to believe information to be correct after repeated exposure known as the illusory truth effect (e.g., retentive socialization and indoctrination within the LDS Church). This may be why a Latter-day Saint doesn’t feel exactly the same “Spirit” when they attend a Catholic service and why the Catholic also doesn’t feel exactly the same “spirit” attending an LDS service.
  4. Some kind of inner speech or inner experience may be responsible for some aspects of the mind engagement suggested by D&C 8:2 “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart” (D&C 8:2).
  5. Congruence with accepted LDS doctrine or current policy. Although the relationship is probably complex, it seems reasonable to postulate that oxytocin release is related to tend and befriend proclivities. Hence, rumination on ideas which are accepted by one’s group are more likely to initiate strong oxytocin type responses. Formally speaking, any inspiration which is received that does not affirm LDS doctrine and current policy is not considered The Spirit by Latter-day Saints.5

What is it like?

Since so many mental and physical states may be associated with feeling the Spirit, it’s difficult to know for sure if others are feeling the same feelings/states (in part or in totality). Still, certain expressions outside of the LDS faith seem consistent with expressions that come from within the LDS faith:

Especially if some or all of the above phenomenological explanations hold true, then perhaps it is possible to simulate aspects of an LDS spiritual experience by those who are not members of the faith (or even members who have struggled to feel the Spirit) through some meditation exercises. To be clear, guided meditation is not usually the manner in which Latter-day Saints prepare themselves to experience the Spirit, but the act of prayer, deep reflection during scripture reading, or deep reflection during the temple ceremony or in the Celestial room may be invoking similar kinds of reflection and hence spiritual, mental, and physical processes.

See also:

  1. The LDS Church teaches that the Holy Ghost is central to understanding truth:

    • And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. (Moroni 10:5)
    • But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. (John 14:26)
    • [The Holy Ghost] will show unto you all things what ye should do. (2Ne 32:5)

    And leaders have taught:

    When we know spiritual truths by spiritual means, we can be just as sure of that knowledge as scholars and scientists are of the different kinds of knowledge they have acquired by different methods. (Oaks, April 2008 Conference)

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  2. The complete list describing encounters with the Spirit in Preach My Gospel chapter 4 (scripture verses not included):

    • “Gives feelings of love, joy, peace, patience, meekness, gentleness, faith, and hope.”
    • “Gives ideas in the mind, feelings in the heart.”
    • “Occupies the mind and presses on the feelings.”
    • “Helps scriptures have strong effect.”
    • “Gives good feelings to teach if something is true.”
    • “Enlightens the mind.”
    • “Replaces darkness with light.”
    • “Strengthens the desire to avoid evil and obey the commandments.”
    • “Teaches truth and brings it to remembrance.”
    • “Gives feelings of peace and comfort.”
    • “Guides to truth and shows things to come.”
    • “Reveals truth.”
    • “Guides and protects from deception.”
    • “Glorifies and bears record of God the Father and Jesus Christ.”
    • “Guides the words of humble teachers.”
    • “Recognizes and corrects sin.”
    • “Gives gifts of the Spirit.”
    • “Helps to perceive or discern the thoughts of others.”
    • “Tells what to pray for.”
    • “Tells what to do.”
    • “Helps the righteous speak with power and authority.”
    • “Testifies of the truth.”
    • “Sanctifies and brings remission of sins.”
    • “Carries truth to the heart of the listener.”
    • “Enhances skills and abilities.”
    • “Constrains (impels forward) or restrains (holds back).”
    • “Edifies both teacher and students.”
    • “Gives comfort.”

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  3. Certain psychophysiological experiences may correlate with a spiritual experience, as described above. A naturalist may suggest that the entirety of the experience could be explained by appeal to such mechanisms. On the other hand, many believing Latter-day Saint could argue that these experiences are initiated or driven by encounters with the Holy Ghost and largely mediated by spirit to spirit communication apart from human physiology. Other Latter-day Saints would argue that psychophysiological phenomena either correlate with, or are part of God-given mechanisms used to convey or enhance spiritual experiences. ↩

  4. A direct connection between variants in oxytocin receptor genes (OXTR rs53576, rs6449182 and rs3796863) and receptivity to spiritual feelings has been demonstrated by Cappellen et al in 2016 (summary). ↩

  5. According to the official 1913 First Presidency Statement:

    When … inspiration conveys something out of harmony with the accepted revelations of the Church or contrary to the decisions of its constituted authorities, Latter-day Saints may know that it is not of God, no matter how plausible it may appear. (Gospel Doc­trine Teacher’s Man­u­al Les­son 6: “I Will Tell You in Your Mind and in Your Heart, by the Holy Ghost”)

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