What is the “burning in the bosom” people feel when they pray about the Book of Mormon?
Read Dave’s answer
Answer 1
The “burning in the bosom” is but one of the many ways the Holy Spirit manifests itself to us.
That particular phrase comes from Doctrine & Covenants 9: 8–9, which is similar, albeit not in language or style, to what is taught in some business schools as the good-old reliable “gut-check” method of decision-making:
But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.
But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which is sacred save it be given you from me.
So I personally don’t often feel a “burning in the bosom,” and when I have, it has seemed more like a warm, comfortable sense of assurance that any kind of intense burning.
Joseph Smith once taught that when "the Holy Ghost falls upon one of the literal seed of Abraham, it is calm and serene; ... while the effect of the Holy Ghost upon a Gentile, is to purge out the old blood, and make him actually of the seed of Abraham.” I’ve often thought that explained why I haven’t felt the burning in my bosom as often as I’ve felt the “baptism of fire,” or an intense tingling sensation that can be likened to electricity coursing through ones veins that makes the “purg[ing] out of the old blood” seem like an apt metaphor.
So even though the term “burning in the bosom” is colorful, it is found nowhere in The Book of Mormon. Instead, in Moroni 10:4–5, the scripture simply promises that God will “will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”
So I think a more complete answer to your question should also examine the other ways that the power of the Holy Ghost is made manifest according to the scriptures (adapted from What If I Don’t Feel the Burning in the Bosom? ):
- Feelings of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, faith, meekness.
- Thoughts that occupy your mind or impress themselves upon your feelings
- A still, small voice 1 Kings 19:11-13
- A desire to do good and obey God’s commandments
- The feeling that something is right mentioned above in D&C 9:8
- Feelings of comfort
- Feelings that “enlarge [your] soul,” “enlighten your understanding, and cause you to hunger for more truth
- Feeling constrained (encouraged) to take an action or restrained (held back) from doing something
Why so many ways for the Spirit to communicate? I believe it is because the Lord wants us to “always remember Him” and to “hunger and thirst after righteousness,” and providing us with a wide variety of spiritual experience with Him and the Holy Spirit, we learn as we go to recognize and honor those spiritual promptings and manifestations as being good and true in whatever form we receive them.
So to conclude my answer of “what did / does it feel like?” let me simply say that the feeling is always sublime and other-worldly. One friend of mine, a few months after his baptism and we brethren had laid our hands upon his head and I had commanded him to “Receive the Holy Ghost,” told me that he had tried “every drug known to man” in his younger years, and that “feeling the Holy Ghost is infinitely better than any drug I ever tried.” Less than a year after that, he died from Hepatitis C contracted from sharing needles when he was young, so I’m prone to give his statement a great deal of credence. But as for me, I liken the feelings brought on by the Holy Spirit to light, joy, enlightenment, assurance, confidence, and peace - all at once.
Answer 2
You have a choice to make.
You can choose to believe that the feeling comes from the operation of the chemicals within your body, or subconscious neurons firing, which are deceiving you into believing something absurd. You can choose to believe that what you are reading is nonsense, and the “warm fuzzy feeling” you got in answer to prayer has nothing to do with The Book of Mormon or your prayer, but is rather some kind of physical phenomenon science hasn’t yet studied. It is certainly possible that there is no God, you didn’t receive an answer to your prayer, and any hope you might have had that The Book of Mormon might be true are vain delusions, and all of the other Mormons who have felt similar feelings in answer to their prayers are similarly deluded because those feelings are, as at least one atheist in The Book of Mormon said, the product of a “frenzied mind.” You’ll enjoy the respect of atheists and other non-Mormons, and could even make some money writing a book about what fools those Mormons are for believing in the coincidence of such feelings and their prayers.
OR
You can choose to believe that God lives, and has answered your prayer. You can choose to believe that God has told you through a visitation of the Holy Spirit that “The Book of Mormon - Another Testament of Jesus Christ” is true. You can choose to learn more about the glorious truths of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ - truths that will give you a cohesive and comprehensive worldview that has enormous explanatory power and will answer most of the questions you have. You can choose to have faith, repent, and be baptized that you might receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost - which will help you live a life fulfilled - a life of faith and joy, united in fellowship and love with other Mormons. You can choose a life in which you can be confident that your faith and repentance will be rewarded with peace and comfort and strength in this life and eternal life and incalculable reward in the life to come. Of course, if you choose this life, you will probably need to give up on the idea that other Christians and atheists will respect your choice of beliefs anymore. Quite the contrary - you will be ridiculed and mocked, and some will even question your sanity and ability to reason.
So, there are three possibilities:
the warm fuzzy feeling is just the product of your foolish mind,
the devil made you feel it, or
your Father in Heaven has rewarded your faith and hope and sincere prayer with a visitation of His Holy Spirit to let you know that The Book of Mormon is true and God’s evidence in these latter days that Jesus is the Christ - the Eternal God.
So, it’s up to you - which sounds like the better choice to you?