Givens shared her studies and research into Heavenly Mother, including multiple biblical accounts in which she believes a female deity is depicted as a pillar of light, Plant reports in an email. “She then made the connection that during the ‘First Vision,’ when Joseph Smith was visited by God the Father and Jesus Christ, he first mentions seeing a pillar of light.”

That shows that “Heavenly Mother was also present during the First Vision,” Plant says Givens concluded.

In answer to a question, Givens discussed whether the Mother God might be synonymous with the Holy Spirit. In the past, the writer has addressed this possibility.

“Is she part of the Godhead? One assumes she is,” Givens told The Salt Lake Tribune in 2013. “So, is she the Holy Spirit? The [scriptural] record is silent on this and so much else that we fall into the sticky quagmire of speculation.”