Can the human spirit remember anything without a physical body? (LDS perspective)
Upvote:0
I found it! I won't give the full quotations because the story is well known and it's a couple of longer passages.
In Genesis 3:1-6 and Moses 4:7-12 (two accounts of the same story), we have the story of Satan tempting Eve. It appears, as Satan is talking to Eve, that he knows what the fruit will do to Adam and Eve. He could only know that if he were to remember the council in Heaven where the plan was laid out. Without a memory, he wouldn't have had any other way to know what the fruit would do.
Upvote:1
Yes, our spirits can store and remember and recognize truths, lessons, and even people we knew in our prior existence before coming to earth. We didn't have a mortal body before coming to earth, but our spirits have memories or "echos" of something or someone we recognize.
We can't remember now because we have the veil of forgetfulness over us while we are being tested, but after we have passed our tests and as we progress in life, I believe we can get glimpses of these memories back to our conscious minds, not just to our hearts. Here are the LDS articles I'm getting that viewpoint from:
- https://www.lds.org/new-era/2015/02/what-we-know-about-premortal-life?lang=eng
- http://www.ldsliving.com/9-Things-You-Have-Forgotten-About-Your-Premortal-Life/s/77778
- https://www.lds.org/new-era/2015/02/to-the-point/why-cant-we-remember-our-premortal-life-as-spirits-and-when-will-those-memories-return?lang=eng
- https://www.lds.org/new-era/2015/09/what-you-knew-in-premortal-life?lang=eng
The church also teaches that we, as humans, are "intelligences or spirits that "have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or etermal" (Abraham 3:18)." As you see, they refer to our spirits as intelligences, therefore, our spirits are intelligent and can store memories on a spiritual level even without a physical mind.
Upvote:5
Yes.
Gospel Fundamentals Chapter 35: Life after Death
In the spirit world our spirits will have the same form as when we lived on the earth with bodies of flesh and bones. We will look as we do here. We will think the same way and believe the same things as we did here. Those who are righteous in this life will still be righteous. Those who were unrighteous will still be unrighteous. We will have the same desires after we die as we had while on this earth.
Pay attention to "We will think the same way and believe the same things as we did here." What we think and believe stem from our experiences in mortality. Those experiences are stored in our memories. If we couldn't remember until after the resurrection, we wouldn't be the same person as a spirit. We would be a void so to speak until we regained our memories.
34 Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world.
The same spirit we have now, will remain with us. This includes our memories.
I hope this answers your question.
Upvote:5
Yes it can, in fact every person on Earth had a perfect knowledge of the universe and of the plan of salvation prior to being born into it. It was for this reason that the Earth was created, and the plan presented. As pre-mortal beings we had progressed as much as possible, and required bodies in order to progress any further.
Upon entering this world, and receiving a physical body, a veil is placed over our minds, and the memories of our spirit are forgotten:
Ecclesiatsies 1:11
There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
The veil does not erase our memories however, it only conceals them, so that we may be tested, to see if we will obey the commandments of God without them. When we are resurrected, the veil will be lifted, our memories will no longer be hidden from us, and we will become aware of how well we performed during the test of our mortal life:
Alma 11:42
The spirit and the body shall be reunited again in its perfect form; both limb and joint shall be restored to its proper frame, even as we now are at this time; and we shall be brought to stand before God, knowing even as we know now, and have a bright recollection of all our guilt.
There have been times where individuals have parted the veil, and accessed those memories of their spirits:
D&C 110:1
The veil was taken from our minds, and the eyes of our understanding were opened.
Our spirits are not immaterial, they are made of matter, but matter that is more refined and pure than the matter we perceive here on earth. Our Spirits are just as capable if not more capable of retaining knowledge than our mortal bodies are.
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