Mormons readily accept the doctrine that Satan has power over the evil spirits that chose to follow him in our premortal life, but few Mormons have considered that the separate group called unclean spirits (those who are in spirit prison after their mortal death) are under Satan’s power. The following quotes from LDS leaders affirm this doctrine.
I know very well that, whether we are active or not, the invisible spirits are active. And every person who desires and strives to be a Saint is closely watched by fallen spirits that came here when Lucifer fell, and by the spirits of wicked persons who have been here in tabernacles and departed from them, but who are still under the control of the prince of the power of the air. Those spirits are never idle; they are watching every person who wishes to do right, and are continually prompting them to do wrong.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London September 1, 1859 .
We may enquire where the spirits dwell, that the devil has power over? They dwell anywhere, … on this continent; it is full of them. If you could see, and would walk over many parts ofNorth America , you would see millions on millions of the spirits of those who have been slain upon this continent. Would you see the spirits of those who were as good in the flesh as they knew how to be? Yes. Would you see the spirits of the wicked? Yes. Could you see the spirits of devils? Yes, and that is all there is of them.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London June 22, 1856 .
. . . but they shall be destroyed in the flesh, and shall be delivered unto the buffetings of Satan unto the day of redemption, saith the Lord God.
Doctrine & Covenants 132:26.
I have not the least doubt but there are spirits there [in the spirit world] who have dwelt there a thousand years, who, if we could converse with them face to face, would be found as ignorant of the truths, the ordinances, powers, keys, Priesthood, resurrection, and eternal life of the body, in short, as ignorant of the fulness of the Gospel, with its hopes and consolations, as [are those on the earth who have not received the Gospel].
And why this ignorance in the spirit world? Because a portion of the inhabitants thereof are found unworthy of the consolations of the Gospel, until the fulness of time, until they have suffered in hell, in the dungeons of darkness, or the prisons of the condemned, amid the buffetings of fiends, and malicious and lying spirits.
Parley P. Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London April 7, 1853 .
The wicked and unrepentant [spirits in the spirit world] have still, like the rest, their free agency, and, applying themselves to no useful or wholesome undertaking, seek pleasure about their old haunts and exalt in the sin and wickedness of degenerated humanity. To this extent they are still tools of Satan. It is these idle, mischievous, and deceptive spirits who appear as miserable counterfeits at spiritualist seances, table dancing, and ouija board operations. The noble and great ones do not respond to the call of the mediums and to every curious group of meddlesome inquirers. They would not do it in the world of mortality, certainly they would not do it in their increased state of knowledge in the world of immortality. These wicked and unrepentant spirits are allies of Satan and his host, operating through willing mediums in the flesh.
These three forces [Satan, evil spirits, and unclean spirits] constitute an unholy trinity upon the earth and are responsible for all the sin, wickedness, distress, and misery among men and nations.
Stake President Heber Q. Hale, “Heber Q. Hale’s Heavenly Manifestation of the Spirit World, January 20, 1920 ,” from an unpublished typescript, 4. He gave this account at the request of the LDS Church
