Whittle postulated that:

“[A]ccepting the magic and occult dimensions of early Mormonism might ‘help religion not to be the opiate of the people.’”

Benson Whittle, BYU Studies – Whittle Untitled Review (1987), 121; see D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1998), 582-fn656.