Young Mosiah Hancock's Spirit Leaves His Body During Missouri Mob Attack — Personage in White Sends Him Back

During the brutal Missouri persecutions of 1838, young Mosiah Lyman Hancock — then just four years old — witnessed and experienced horrors beyond imagination. Two mob members seized him and, after telling him he could pray, did him great violence.

He recorded what followed:

'I could look upon my body, and I was far above them and was glad; for behold, I saw a personage draped in perfect white who said to me, "Mosiah, you have got to go back to the earth, for you have a work to do!" How I ever came back I can never say!'

A near-death experience in the most literal sense — his spirit left his body during the assault, he viewed himself from above, and a heavenly messenger in white appeared to tell him his mission on earth was not finished. He was then returned to his body.

Fuller account of this event (in the witness’s own words):

I was born in Kirtland, Ohio, April 9, 1834. When I was four years old, we were in Far West, Missouri. The mob came upon us and took my father, Levi W. Hancock, and others. I was standing by my mother, and two of the mob came and took me. They said, 'Here is a little Mormon, let's kill him.' They took me out and one of them said, 'You can pray before we kill you.' I knelt down and prayed. I could look upon my body, and I was far above them and was glad; for behold, I saw a personage draped in perfect white who said to me, 'Mosiah, you have got to go back to the earth, for you have a work to do!' How I ever came back I can never say, but I found myself back in my body and the men were gone.