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insighT:
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Kent Allen Bessey

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Sian Ann Bessey

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Previous Issues

Expressing Mind & Spirit
I have often puzzled over the meaning of the words “mind” and “spirit.” Do they describe separate entities, or merely different manifestations of the same essence?

Sensing there is an important distinction between mind and spirit, let me suggest that human reasoning characterizes the first and revelation the second. Furthermore, I believe these two sources of insight, though they may appear to be at odds with each other, are genuinely complementary and mutually reinforcing.

Elder Boyd K. Packer, during a BYU commencement address in April 1994, stated: “Each of us must accommodate the mixture of reason and revelation in our lives. The gospel not only permits, but requires it. An individual who concentrates on either side solely and alone will lose both balance and perspective.”1

Brigham Young, who manifestly relied on revelation as he worked with the early saints, understood the importance of cultivating and applying human reasoning: “We are trying to teach this people to use their brains.”2 On another occasion, he said: “Whatever duty you are called to perform, take your minds with you.”3 I suspect Brigham Young must have had an experience or two with someone who had forgotten that.

During an annual university conference at BYU in August 1991, Elder Bruce Hafen stated:

I know that some BYU students and other members of the Church are
too trusting, too reliant on authority figures, and they expect the Holy
Ghost to do their thinking for them. We must rouse them from their
dogmatic slumbers, teaching them to love the Lord with all their heart,
might, mind, and strength. They need education that liberates them
from ignorance and superstition, developing the tough-minded
independence on which self-reliant people and democratic societies
utterly depend....

We move them from dogmatism through healthy skepticism toward
a balanced maturity that can tolerate ambiguity without losing the
capacity for deep commitment. By example as well as precept, we
teach how to ask good—even searching—questions, how to trust, how
to know of ourselves. This university’s vitality is a continuing witness
for the proposition that within the broad gospel framework, robust
faith and healthy skepticism are not mutually exclusive....

Our university courses are not Sunday School classes, but our fears
about that legitimate concern can inhibit some of us more than they
should. As President Spencer W. Kimball once said, “Every
[BYU teacher should] keep his subject matter bathed in the light of
the restored gospel.” We must be cautious about both sentimental
emotionalism at one extreme and stale academic neutrality on the
other. And of course, we should teach students to respect rigorous
standards of evidence, but let us not neglect all “anecdotal”
evidence. Every personal testimony is in a sense anecdotal, but
testimonies of personal experience are among the most powerful
forms of data.4

I appreciate Elder Hafen’s candor and insight. As I pondered the relationship between mind and spirit, an interesting thought occurred to me. Modern revelation tells us that “a fulness of joy” is only possible after the inseparable uniting of “spirit and element.”5 Might this also be the case for attaining a “fulness of intelligence”?

In other words, is it true that without the physical mind (brain) the potential of the “spiritual mind” could never be realized? If so, develop-ing and refining the physical mind will be far more important to our eternal enjoyment than many now suppose.

As you read the articles published here, consider how reason and revelation have molded your own thoughts, beliefs, and convictions. Although Brother Brigham’s straight talk (“use their brains”—“take your minds with you”) would never survive the massaging of a public relations committee, frankness can be a virtue—one highly prized by those seeking a truer view of themselves (or of a situation).

Candor, tempered by love, would likely improve the quality of our conversations; candor tainted by ill feeling would not. I believe both content and intent play essential roles in the edifying of one another. I hope you will express your mind and spirit and take time to enjoy the thoughts and expressions of others published in INSIGHT. ∞

Kent A. Bessey
Editor

NOTES:
1. Boyd K. Packer, “Spiritual Orientation” in Educating Zion, eds. John W.
Welch and Don E. Norton (Utah: BYU Studies, 1996), 181.
2. Brigham Young. Journal of Discourses, 11:328.
3. Brigham Young. Journal of Discourses, 8:137.
4. Bruce C. Hafen, “The Dream Is Ours to Fulfill” in Educating Zion, eds. John
W. Welch and Don E. Norton (Utah: BYU Studies, 1996), 225-227.
5. Doctrine and Covenants 93:33-34.