"Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction." — Joseph Smith Jr.1
In the early spring of 1820, Joseph Smith ventured into a grove of trees not far from his home to pray and ask which church to join.2 But when he knelt and "began to offer up the desires of [his] heart to God," Joseph was seized by a dark power that completely overcame him and bound his tongue so he could not speak. The thick darkness gathered around him and Joseph felt as if he was "doomed to sudden destruction."3 Joseph later wrote that this was no imaginary ruin, but was "the power of some actual being from the unseen world."3
Joseph called out to God, exerting all strength to ask for help. Just before he was ready to despair, Joseph saw a pillar of light over his head.3
