Room for reincarnation in LDS theology?

[Ahimsa]

In April 1843, for example, Smith taught that “the purpose of successive probations or ‘worlds’ was to permit the gradual accumulation of intelligence and knowledge,” Beckstead says.

Around that time, Joseph Lee Robinson, another Smith confidant, reported that Smith “discussed the ‘idea that we have passed through probations prior to this’ and surmised ‘that we must have been married and given in marriage in those probations.’"

Several of Smith’s wives have written about his belief in plural probations.

“Mary Elizabeth Rollins, who wed Joseph in February 1842, claimed that he suggested to her they had an intimate relationship before they met,” Beckstead says.

And yet, if Smith did believe in the reincarnation of souls, why didn’t his teachings on the subject carry on after him?

The problem, if you believe Beckstead, was that Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, “fundamentally misunderstood” his reincarnation theology. And church leaders since Young have dismissed it as a “doctrine of the devil.” Although, on occasion, Smith’s teachings have found support among LDS leaders.

Apostle Orson F. Whitney, for example, in a 1919 article in the church publication Improvement Era, “subtly expressed his disappointment” that reincarnation wasn’t taught as church doctrine…