Doug Tales 8: Awake and Arise!

Doug Mendenhall’s fifth and sixth publications are a pair of closely-related books, I See…Awake! (2015) and I See…Arise! (2016). Awake comes before arise, as we need to awake to our true circumstances before we can arise and take action.

Of course, as Hugh Nibley once remarked, “Without strong pressure what man is going to repent who thinks things are going his way? It usually amounts to being ‘awakened…out of a deep sleep’ (Alma 5:7), and what is more annoying than being awakened out of a deep sleep?” “Last Call: An Apocalyptic Warning From the Book of Mormon,” Sunstone, Jan. 1988, page 22

Doug explains what he had been up to recently in Mount Pleasant, Utah, as well as the background and purpose to the two I See books, on pages vi-xi of his preface to I See…Awake!:

For the past four years my daughter, Denise, our friend, Kitten, and I have offered a series of workshops that I called “Jedi workshops” though they really had nothing to do with the Star Wars saga. It started out with just 12 selected individuals that were taught things that the Spirit told us to teach. We ended up doing four levels of workshops over a four year period with many hundreds attending. The information taught, built on each other though there were many varied concepts.…

I only mention this because as the Spirit told me what to write in this book, some of it started to look eerily familiar—like material from these workshops. I even pulled out my notes and compared the information, though what is taught in this book is like a Jedi workshop “on steroids.” Concepts that the three of us had no idea why the Lord wanted taught now make sense to me. For example, Kitten taught a concept of looking at numbers differently and then reducing them to a single digit, which Pythagoras taught anciently. No one, including myself, ever thought to ask her why she was told to teach such a thing. I now realize that much of what was taught was in preparation for the material in this work. Those concepts from the workshops have been added upon considerably….

Just like the workshops, there must be a foundation laid before we get into the deeper material. Though much of the foundation material might not be “new” to many people, it is important to understand the concepts taught in this first volume. Yes, I did say first volume. What I had hoped would be a pamphlet turned into two books in order to get it all in.

In the book, Conquering Spiritual Evil [Volume One], there is also a foundation laid in order to understand how to deal with evil. It is my hope that you will have read that volume before venturing here because of the foundation it lays out. Among other things, that volume taught how to cast out and shield. Some of its material was what I call the “Hollywood” version of evil—possession, portals, and casting out. This book delves into those subjects but at a different level and from a different perspective, but it will also show how Satan mainly uses subtle forms of influence to get us to do his will. We will look at how the conscious mind works and what has been done to pervert and alter it. We will also see how Satan mimics the Gods of Light, doing his works in darkness. But by studying what he does and what he mimics also shows how the Gods of Light work. In order to accomplish this I have asked several sighted people, whom I trust, to look at the spiritual side of our physical world. If a person is able to see into the past and forward into the future the scriptures call them a seer….

They have provided incredible insights into how things work between our so called physical/mortal world and the world of spirits. (God bless them for their insights and willingness to share what they have been shown!) We will also look at what our Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, and the angels do for us on the other side of the veil. For example, what happens on the other side of the veil when a person receives the baptism of fire? What takes place and how is it accomplished? Just how involved are these beings of light in our lives? It may surprise you. We know those of darkness are intimately involved in our lives as well….

I must offer the obligatory disclaimer. I am solely responsible for this work. I represent no one, nor any institution, religious or secular. This work is not a doctrinal commentary and certainly doesn’t pretend to be. I am not a doctrinal scholar. It contains our experiences and those of others to hopefully help people understand how to combat those evil influences that pervade our world today. It shares ideas that might be employed to help a person overcome those influences….

Many people have claimed that “knowledge is power.” I tend to agree to a point. Knowledge is necessary to become like our Heavenly Parents; it is necessary for salvation; but if we don’t act or use that knowledge, what good does it really do us? We have come here to this “laboratory” to experience, to use that gained knowledge in righteous actions, not sit on the sidelines and observe. The fight is on, and we should be part of it. Knowledge and truth allow us to be effective in the battle that is waging before us, seen or unseen, physical or spiritual. Knowledge combined with action is power. That action requires practice. All the time in the library is great, but it needs to be put into practical use. If that was not the case, why come here to earth? We could just learn all there is to know during class time in the Celestial realms and never have to experience mortality. But that is not the case.

Action is required; it is time to “awake and arise” and join in the fight. It is our hope that this book will be an aid and give more tools, for this obligation we have agreed to before coming to this earth. The tools and understandings offered will be of no value if we don’t practice using them, becoming proficient, as the Gods of Light are. Otherwise, why did we come here?

It is for this reason that this book is mainly an experiential work. The Lord has never really allowed us to share much else. What do I mean by “experiential?” Whenever He told me to write a book, it has always been based on what we have experienced. Yes, it is based on the scriptures or what Joseph Smith taught, but for me it is not theory—it is personal. So when I get an email from a possessed man and am asked for help, my first thought usually is, “Oh boy, another chapter” or for those of you that really know me, “Really, Lord, why me?” Then we go out and see what the Lord wants taught. I must admit, I prefer this way of learning because it is far more educational and interesting. Classwork can be boring at times…….