For several years, I’ve been examining various challenges to Joseph Smith’s claim that he translated the Book of Mormon through the gift and power of God. In this third installment, I examine the theory some naturalist critics have turned to as a more rational explanation: that it was the product of “automatic” or “spirit” writing, similar to the processes said to have produced such works as the Course in Miracles and the Urantia Book. In this paper, I examine the Book of Mormon in relation to the phenomenon of automatic writing as well as new scientific explorations of communication from the spirit world.

Robert A. Rees, Janet Brigham Rands