Joseph Smith, in describing the first vision he had (in 1820), said that he saw two "personages" (from the context, it is clear that these personages are God the Father and the Son) above him in the air.

But, as I've mentioned elsewhere, we believe God and Jesus have glorified bodies, which are different in many respects than the physical bodies we have. For example, they are not subject to the same physical laws (the law of gravity is obviously violated in this case...). I'm a physicist, I tend to worry about things like that. So, if their bodies are different than the physical objects we normally interact with, what does it mean that Joseph said he "saw" them? Does it mean that Joseph saw them in the normal sense? I tend to doubt it.

Something I'd like to point out (which many Mormons often forget, I think), is that the First Vision was a *vision*. What it means to see something in a vision, we don't precisely know (at least I don't). However, we do know a bit more about the later vision Joseph had, which is contained in the Doctrine and Covenants section 76. In that instance, Joseph and Sidney Rigdon were granted a vision, with other people present in the same room (who did not see the vision). If I recall correctly, Joseph and Sidney took turns describing the vision, saying, "I see the same" to affirm the validity of the other's description.

So, when Joseph says that he "saw" God the Father and Jesus Christ in the first vision, I think we need to be careful about interpreting "saw" as meaning "used the ordinary optical sense involving light being detected by eyes and signal being transmitted to the brain via the optic nerve". I'm not saying that it does *not* mean that for sure, but that one should be careful when assuming it does. Plus, if you read some of Smith's alternate accounts of the First Vision, (other than the standard one found in the Pearl of Great Price), some of them do seem to describe more of a spiritual event and less of a physical one.

So, it seems foolish (to me) for us to expect Smith's experience (or other people's spiritual experiences, for that matter) to be describable in terms of the laws of physics.

However, (here's the caviat), the fact that a real, physical, viewing of a glorified body is possible, is made manifest to me by the Savior's visit to the Nephites, where the people went forth "one by one until they had all gone forth, and did see with their eyes and did feel with their hands..." (3 Nephi 11:15), as well as the record in Luke: "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." (Luke 24:39).