In their joint historical work, MacKay and Dirkmaat reconstruct dictation using seer stones, including accounts of a stone in a hat while the plates were covered or stored away. They distinguish what witnesses observed from Smith’s unobservable mental experience and decline to choose a cognitive mechanism from those reports alone.
- Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith’s Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon (Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Deseret Book, 2015).
- Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat, “Firsthand Witness Accounts of the Translation Process,” The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon: A Marvelous Work and a Wonder (2015): 61–79.
they do not offer a perfect window into the consciousness of Joseph Smith.