Course: Psychology 459, Fall 2006, Generation
25
Instructor: Dr. Leon James
Introduction to Theistic Psychology www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/ch1.htm
My Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/459f2006/charles/charles-home.htm
Class Home Page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/classhome-g25.htm
Instructions for this Report: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy25/459-g25-weekly.htm
Theistic Psychology
Josh Charles
Week 5
1. Describe the psychobiology of
"conjunction" with God? You need to include the concept of how
thoughts and feelings are substances. How do you see this concept as applying
to you?
God’s
Connection Within Me
The bodies that I posses both physical and spiritual are made from specific substances. Without these substances I wouldn’t exist at all. My physical body is made up of atoms from the physical sun. My physical body is a vessel given to me by God, the divine human, to be molded and shaped through experiences and actions around me. My mental body is created from spiritual substances of good and truth from the spiritual sun. Just as an empty vial is filled with water to nourish your body on a hot day the spiritual substances fill your mental mind with good and truth to nourish the inflow of rational thinking.
Conjunction with God is achieved in two ways. The first way is through the acceptance of good and truth received from him into the mental organs. Every human being is born with a conscience in order to make choices in their life. The decisions and choices every individual makes must first go through the mental cognitive and affective organs. Throughout daily life routines God puts everyone in situations in which good or bad decisions can be made. Take for example, finding someone’s bag full of valuables. The name and address are there but the decision of doing the right thing and returning it or doing the wrong thing and keeping what’s not yours is presented. Like old time comedy routines there is both a devil and an angel on each shoulder whispering into your ears. God gives you both good and truth but it’s up to you to do what is right.
Going back to the bag situation there are many thoughts and feelings running through your consciousness. Where do these thoughts and feeling originate at? They of course originate in the mental world in your mental mind. Knowing this we are aware that thoughts and feelings are influenced by the spiritual light of good and truth cast down upon you by God. So through God’s spiritual light of good and truth we are given the opportunity of rational thinking and decision making of what is right.
Application
of God’s Spiritual Light
Currently a senior in college and the world in
front of me many situational and pivotal decisions of where I want my life to
take me are popping up. With the
knowledge of my mental mind possessing both good and truth the application of
this concept is a strenuous one. I can honestly say that the “voice” of consciousness
is a hard one to follow at times.
Situation factors come along with the problems I face, however, most of
the time I try to go with my “gut instinct.”
What I feel maybe be right at the time is how I will react to a given
situation. Upon learning of the concept
of my thoughts and feelings affected by god I feel that this is a very rational
possibility but have yet to see the insight of God’s influences.
2. Describe the infrastructure of
physical things from the perspective of substantive dualism. Show that the
inmost of any object is the mental world of humanity. How does this change the
way you look at objects around you?
Subatomic particles around us
Everything around us from the ocean depths to the mountain peaks contains physical material which, in turn, contains subatomic particles of time and space. From the few science classes I’ve taken, subatomic particles are able to exist in which ever possible state from solid to liquid to gas. With just the tip of my finger there are billions and billions of subatomic particles that make up that tip. These subatomic particles are throughout the universe making up everything we see, touch, feel, and breathe. This means there must be an infinite amount of ways subatomic particles can align themselves to create something. According to theistic psychology subatomic particles must be made up of spiritual substances.
As far as physical science goes we know that there are subatomic particles yet we are unable to measure them with physical machinery. This must mean that the particles which make up all around us are spiritual substances because we are unable to read them. We can compare atoms to our physical body and the sub atomic particles to our mental body.
Built by subatomic particles
A personal philosophy I’ve had for a good portion of my life is that there
is always a negative to a positive and vise versa. Everything throughout the universe has a
counter part in order to keep it even and at equilibrium with whatever’s around
it.
The idea of human beings being born with a mental body isn’t a hard concept to accept. So the idea that atoms and subatomic particles being similar to the physical body and mental body makes sense. Everyone has some sort of part of the physical sun within them why not also the spiritual sun as well?
I also find it interesting how scientist can believe in subatomic particles that we can’t see with the naked eye or even know if they exist. This is the same way with God in my opinion when I heard about subatomic particles. We are unable to measure or see with the naked eye these particles so scientist put faith in the data and the ideas of the sub atomic particles. Much the same way God is for most people.
As nuclear bombs and breaking atoms makes me wonder how this relates to God. The sheer destruction and energy brought about by a nuclear bomb makes me wonder the spiritual energy within the atoms and sub atomic particles to create such a explosion. How does this relate to God’s will and his power?
3. Explain why God hides from people.
What would happen if God showed Himself to your friends? Include the concept of
of how Divine Speech descends through the layers of
meaning through the human mind, reaching its lowest as the literal meaning of
Sacred Scripture.
A hidden God
Our physical plain which we inhabit is full of choices and free will. God gave us these choices and free will in order for us to be able to accept Him or reject Him. If God was to speak to us this might affect the free will he has given to us. Human beings in times of desperation ask God for guidance. God is omnipresence and everywhere gives guidance in ways only someone who is paying attention will understand. He does not directly speak with one individual as much as he uses forces to guide that individual. Some people are more in touch with these forces than others. These forces and the ability to recognize them I call “gut instinct.” This is the ability to recognize God’s direction and follow it. Times may be troublesome but if you follow your “gut” and you will get through hard times.
If God happen to come down from the cloud and show himself in human form I believe there would be world wide panic. I think that many religious factions and groups would expect God to come down and smite and destroy all evil doers and bring them up to heaven with him. This is the picture I think everyone has about God and his return to earth. God’s presence in the realm of time and space might cause confusion. We think rationally through our spiritual mind and God’s speech towards us in natural language might turn into Holy Scripture verses.
Descending through to divine
speech
Swedenborg discussed how divine speech is the substance of good and truth
from the spiritual sun. While our mental body lies “dominate” within the time
of eternity the spiritual sun feeds our mind with good and truth. There are lays to the mind which Swedenborg
describes. The spiritual light of good
and truth first enter through the highest mind set to the lowest. The celestial-rational mind is the highest
and is unconscious to everyone who is not within that mind set. The celestial-rational mind is the closest
mind set to God an individual has.
Swedenborg described these individuals in the world of eternity as being
able to create cities and paradises with their mind. The next mind set which Swedenborg described
is the spiritual mind. The spiritual
mind is where the first and second levels of heaven are at. Finally, the last stage of divine speech
comes into the natural mind as divine scripture.
4. Describe how Divine Speech
operates our mental life. How does this change your view of God and His
relationship to people?
Divine speech’s significance to
our life
Our mental body and mental mind is in the world of eternity. Divine speech is received and given to us with by the spiritual sun. God fills our brain with good and truth from the spiritual sun like water fills a vase. Everything we think and feel is as a result of God giving us spiritual substances of good and truth which enters the mind. This is how god affects and operates our mental mind through divine speech.
Divine Speech from Sacred Scripture never appealed to me growing up in a non religious family. I saw nothing but bickering and fighting between people of the same religion and couldn’t understand what all the fighting was about. How can I believe or follow or even understand a religion which doesn’t seem to understand itself? Most people I spoke with about religion I felt were only in it because they were being forced by their parents. I’m glad I was not forced to believe in something I couldn’t believe in. I always found it a psychological trip when I spoke with people who seemed forced to believe something.
God’s relationship with me and humanity
I’ve always felt that people were born with innate good and bad. We as human beings are able to create and destroy. However, is it possible to know what is right and to know what path to follow? With all of Swedenborg’s writings and ideas on the after life and God I relate my view on the world as of today. Currently it seems like we’re getting into another crusades with Muslim and Christian warfare. See two sections of religions makes me wonder what one is right or if any of them are right. Is God’s divine speech reaching these people and being misinterpreted?
I also wonder the effect conjoining with God will have upon me. I recently
spoke with a friend who told me that he saw and spoke with Jesus. This friend only told me that he was in hysteria
and that Jesus told him “everything will be okay.” I was very disappointed by the
with the idea of Jesus only telling him that everything will be
okay. If I was to see and speak with
Jesus I’m not exactly sure what I’d say but I’d like a little more than
everything will be okay. The whole thing
I believe was just a fabrication of mental imagines that my friend wanted to
badly to see he tricked himself into it.
I believe this can happen every day to people who want one thing but are
unable to attain it.
5. Where is heaven and hell? Describe
its anatomy. Why do they both exist in everybody's mind?
Heaven and Hell
Heaven and hell seem to become the driving force behind many religions as to what path you are following. How are you living your life and where will it bring you after you’ve passed away? I think many people imagine heaven and hell as a place they go after they die. Like there is a gate keeper on the other side with a one way ticket for you to heaven or hell. However, according to theistic psychology heaven is actually located in our cognitive organ of our rational mind and hell is actually located inside the affective organ or the natural mind.
This makes perfect sense to me, the cognitive or rational part of the mind if the part filled with good and truth from the spiritual sun. Therefore, in a given situation, like you find a wallet on the ground. First, you think rationally with good and truth in wanting to return the wallet. But then you see there are a couple hundred dollar bills within the wallet. Then the feeling of taking that money comes into play. That is the affective organ of hellish traits. So just within people is both heaven and hell.
The existence of heaven and hell
Heaven and hell must exist in the mind for an individual to have free will. God placed human beings here in time and space in order to choose how to live their lives. Either indulging in hellish traits or following the good and truth provided to us through spiritual light from God. Just as there is good and truth within us there must be some hellish traits within us in order to balance them both out.
Anyone is capable of being good and bad. However, I feel that God does not have a ruling factor over our actions. True God maybe be omnipresent but I feel that we ourselves have our own free will to choose right or wrong. Without this choice we are nothing more than drowns with no free will. God may play a part in the way things happen but the way we handle and deal with those events is what defines our character.
God in the way of controlling our lives doesn’t please me one bit. Therefore, I believe the heavens and the
hells were created in order for us to use our spiritual substances of good and
truth in order to determine which path we choose ourselves to follow.
6. Describe the two methods God uses
to conjoin or communicate with people. In what way have you experienced these
two avenues of relationship with God?
Communication from God
God communicates with us through the use of our mental mind. As we stated before there are different levels of thinking and through these levels God trickles down spiritual substances of good and truth.
If we rationally analyze and think about divine speech through sacred scripture we are able to see the true meaning. Once we are able to understand sacred scripture we are able to use it in order to conjoin with God. According to theistic psychology there are three stages of communication with the use of sacred scripture.
The first stage is called external conjunction with God. This is the stage most people are content with. People read and take everything for face value as holding true for both historical and cultural idealisms.
The second stage is called mediate conjunction with God. This is when an individual is able to see behind the lines of sacred scripture and understand the full meaning.
The third and final stage is the interior conjunction with god and this occurs when your celestial and spiritual mind is able to full understand and conjoin with the meaning of God’s teachings.
That little voice in your head
Another way of conjoining with God is following your conscious. Since our thoughts and feelings are in the
world of eternity it is our thoughts that are directly affected by God’s
spiritual substances of good and truth. Therefore, the understanding of your conscious and the ability to
recognize the good and truth within your consciousness. Through this way
we are able to conjoin and become closer to God.
7. Explain why this is a perfect world despite the appearances of imperfection.
Perfection is skin deep
The world around us is perfect. It’s what we create from this world is what leads to imperfections. If you’ve ever spent time camping or hiking through forest you would know that this world is perfect. Everything in nature is beautiful and works together with itself. Being outdoors and fully engulfed in nature and places people haven’t tried to civilize or turn into profit is the most alive I feel.
Growing up on a reservation and being Native American much of my families’ values do come from nature and the environment. Respect of nature and our environment are key because as my grandmother would say “we only have one mother earth.”
The world for me is perfect up until human hellish traits such as greed or selfishness take over. Imperfections with the world are seen through bias eyes. We as a society and planet find it hard to change what’s around us into something positive. We are all capable of good and capable of perfection as a whole. Yet, we bicker and fight amongst each other. We find it hard to meet at a common ground, if we were all able to see past our difference and past our cultural boundaries. If everyone was aware of theistic psychology and rationally looking at God without the rules of their religion that follow I believe a lot more problems can be solved.
God’s view
God has created perfection before us. We are able to be angelic or devilish at a whim. The idea of God creation of everything around us must mean God’s intention is perfection. Spending time creating something important to you many people aim for perfections.
Recently, I had a discussion with a friend who is a devout Christian and she told me that the world is not perfect due to the downfall of man. She pointed out the story of the garden of Eden and how Adam took a bite of the apple which God told him not to do. She explained that since then nothing has been perfect in our world and God is there for your support but can bring down vengeance upon evil doers.
This idea of God as a vengeful God smiting evil doers is wrong according to
theistic psychology. God is ever loving
and kind towards everyone. He would
never take vengeance towards humans because humans have free will to choice
their own destiny.
8. Why does spirituality, or
relationship to God, have to be rational? What happens
with "sensuous spirituality" -- discuss what happens in the
afterlife.
Rational understanding of God
Our relationship with God must be rational in order for there to even be a relationship with Him. The idea of God seems to intimidate people because of the vagueness of everything surrounding God and religion in general. Many misconceptions of God and his intentions for everyone can hurt and damage religions and even worse people and their cultures. Without a rational thought of God we as humanity can do the worst. God fearing people can be manipulated by people into doing evil and horrible things in the name of God because if you do not do the following actions God will punish YOU for not following what others believe is right.
Perfect examples of irrational beliefs in God are cults which many believe in radical ideas about God. Many cults have an irrational idea of what and who God. Many cult leaders manipulate their followers into believing some outlandish idea that God will save them in the drink magic cool-aid laced with rat poison. These people have an irrational understanding of God and many are tricked or forced into a specific mindset.
Therefore, a rational understanding of God with rational ideas is what gets us closer to conjoining with God and a higher mind set. This is true with anything live brings towards you. If people are lead astray and think irrational about a given situation they are living in false pretexts. If you have irrational ideas about God then you aren’t in the right mind set to conjoin with God. Making it impossible to enter to heaven.
Afterlife
The biggest question throughout the ages has been what happens to us after
we die? Is there a bright white light and a
reawakening somewhere? Is there nothing at all and it just ends? Philosophers, priests, scientist have all
tackled the idea of the afterlife each with very different and very interesting
view points about the “other side.” The
best is the show that a psychic puts on.
Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish a real from a fake it’s still an
interesting insight into afterlife. I do
believe that there are real psychics and they are able to see some things that
other people normally can’t. This is where I have to totally disagree with
Swedenborg and say that we can’t put a blanket state of NO ONE is able to
communicate with the other side other than Swedenborg. There are by far to
many people within this world and each person has a unique mental mind which I
believe can be influenced one way or another and some with supernatural
gifts.
9. Explain the formula "mental
world = spiritual world = afterlife = eternity" and write it down. Read it
and edit it until it makes sense. Now try to explain the proof to a friend or
two. How well did you succeed? What is your conclusion or future plan?
Formulating a
Formula
Whenever there is a situation where you drive deep into your thoughts in order to kill boredom or maybe just to kill time you are diving within your own mental world. The mental world is within yourself and since your thoughts, feelings, and emotions are within this world the world is not perfect. You are given free will and choice provided by God. However, God does help you out within your mental world. God gives you spiritual substances of good and truth from the spiritual sun. This fills your mental world and gives you the innate ability to know what is good and true. With this you are given the right way to see things it’s up to you as a person to decided what to do with the choices.
The spiritual world is the world without material. The spiritual world is created from the Spiritual Sun by God. The levels of heaven and hell are within the spiritual world. The result of your mental world and how you lived your life within the heavenly traits of good and truth or the hellish traits will determine your own spiritual world upon awakening.
The awakening which I spoke about is what the afterlife is. According to Swedenborg the person recently deceased is awakened startled and confused. They are given another choice and depending on the conjuction with God are able to decided where they want to spend eternity. Do they enjoy their hellish traits? If the hellish traits are to hard for the individual to give up they are placed in hell where they spend eternity being tortured and being torturer. If they are able to conjoin with God they enter the levels of heaven where depending on the conjunction with God determines the level you enter.
Eternity really means eternity. There is no time within the world of eternity. There is however a spiritual sun but according to Swedenborg is never really gets “dark” as we’re use to here. The sun does go down to a twilight stage but never really sets. The idea of the sun setting is an illusion created by the earth spinning. The same with time and its grasp on our physical world. Time can be seen as an illusion but is here to cohesively keep the constant movement within order. I often think about the use of time and societies that have no concept of the idea of time. However, in the world of eternity there is no time and you are where you belong for eternity.
Understanding a
difficult concept
The formula presented within the following question was
explained to one of my good friends. He
listened intently with an open ear and concluded that the idea of everything
being equal was possible but not probable.
He felt the idea of a mental world was only formulated by chemicals and
nerves within the brain. He talked about
an experiment in which an individual was conscious during brain surgery and
doctors “zapped” certain areas of his brain and he was able to recall certain
events within his life. He felt that our brain was just an organ used to
facilitate our shell of a body. However, within this shell he felt we did have
a spirit and there was an afterlife for this spirit. He had a lengthy
conversation which was very interesting and challenged both of your beliefs and
ideas about the afterlife.
Week 6
Theistic Psychology
By Josh Charles
Report for Section 1.0.6 to 1.0.7
1. Explain the Swedenborg reports in
relation to the positive bias in science. What happened to him? What did he
discover? Describe how you manage to take on the positive bias regarding the
Swedenborg reports.
Positive Bias
The reports produced by Swedenborg are the result of his experiences and experiments done in the spiritual world. However, for science and scientist to contribute in the furthering of knowledge simple rules had to be laid down. In order for much of scientific knowledge today to be true the data must be reliable, valid, and replicable. Experiments in the field of science are not held in high standards if they are unable to be replicated.
This is the main problem I have with the validity of Swedenborg and his reports are the fact that no one else is able to replicate them ever. I feel this gives to much strength and power of one individual’s experiences or even opinions.
When it comes to Swedenborg and his reports and their validity I see the whole thing through the negative bias standpoint.
After accomplishing many feats in his life, Emmanuel Swedenborg, at the age of 57 became conscious of his existence in both the mental and the natural world. As a scientist, philosopher, and engineer God came to Swedenborg and told him he’s be able to study and relate back to the natural world what he observed in the spiritual world.
Swedenborg discovered that we are dual citizens and live in a dual existence. Meaning that when we are born we are born with both a natural body of time and space and a mental body of eternity. The two bodies are connected as one without the individual even knowing it! Only after death is an individual become consciously aware of his spiritual body.
Reaction
Currently we are unable to be conscious within both realms of reality but I feel one day science will figure out a way to crack the mystery surrounded the afterlife and death. A concept that I find fascinating is freezing ones body after death in hopes that in the future technology will be able to bring you back to life. If we are able to accomplish such a feat in the near future what will our newly awakened individuals tell us of their life in the afterworld? With the ever growing popularity of what is happening in the afterlife make way for a religious revolution? Even so with the ideas of and thoughts of what happens in the after life becoming prevalent in Godless science only time and technology will be able to tell if Swedenborg’s reports are accurate.
2. What is the purpose of Sacred
Scripture? How is it meant to be used?
Purposeful Sacred Scripture
According to theistic psychology the purpose of Sacred Scripture is to relate the knowledge of God to the people here on earth. We are well aware that God is a rational human being and therefore his knowledge must be dealt with rationally. His knowledge is referring to what Sacred Scripture is. Many people can sit and read and memorize passages throughout the bible but what good does that do an individual if they aren’t seeing the deeper meaning behind what they are reading. Sacred Scripture holds deeper insight into many things in the world that Swedenborg discovered during his time as an awaken dual citizen in both worlds.
Sacred Scripture filters down through the levels of heaven and even hell to the world of time and space which we are currently in. Our brains are capable of understanding the words of Sacred Scripture and its deeper meaning since our consciousness is in the world or eternity! This means that every individual is able to ‘get’ the meaning of Sacred Scripture and therefore able to raise his conscious awareness of the world around him and the world of eternity.
Usage of Sacred Scripture
Sacred Scripture can be used in many daily facets of life. I have to admit I’ve never actually read any sort of Sacred Scripture revolving around the Christian religion but I have an idea that every religion’s Sacred Scripture pays homage to just living a good life. What is right and wrong, how to handle ethical situations, which path to follow, and just basic judgmental situations everyone deals with every single day are revealed in Sacred Scripture.
As a device of good I believe Sacred Scripture can be also used for bad. One of my favorite quotes from a World War 2 solider is “if God is on our side then who is on their side?” Using God or even Sacred Scripture as a backdrop for going to war, mass genocide, or any other deviant act is not what God intended his words to be used for. God brought Sacred Scripture to us in order for us to rationally understand him as a omnipresent being.
In order for us to grasp the afterlife and what awaits us we must first be able to rationally understand what is around us. The blind leading the blind is one of my favorite expression because many things today seem to be true. With the world moving at such a fast rate the idea of understanding everything at once becomes overwhelming and can lead people into following what isn’t true. Therefore, we must fully understand rationally everything around us by doing it ourselves. We shouldn’t rely on other people to spoon feed us the information. We should go out and get our hands dirty and find out ourselves what is really the hidden meaning in everything especially Sacred Scripture.
3. Explain the two senses we can find
in Sacred Scripture. Give several illustrations from this Section.
The meaning behind Sacred
Scripture!
The two senses that are found in Sacred Scripture are literal and symbolic sense. You must read between the lines when reading Sacred Scripture. The phrase “read between the lines” can be taken one of two ways. The literal sense of the phrase is to just read closer at the literal meaning while the symbolic sense is to look underneath the depth of the words you are reading.
The same goes for Sacred Scripture. The literal meaning of something from Sacred Scripture does not convey the useful symbolic meaning. Coming from the literal meaning would be divine historical events and ancient cultural beliefs of their time when Sacred Scripture was written many hundreds of years ago. However, there is deeper meaning, symbolic meaning, behind what was written those hundreds of years ago.
Anytime someone refers to heaven or hell as place is taking the literal meaning out of the symbolic meaning.
4. Give two illustrations not found in this Section, so you will need to search for this in Volume 18. Make sure you indicate which Section(s) you took your two examples from. How do you react to being told that there is a hidden scientific sense in Sacred Scripture, that is unsuspected to most scholars?
5. What is rational spirituality in
relation to God? Explain how we can comprehend higher spiritual ideas by means
of the new mental organ called spiritual-natural or interior-natural organ. How
did it come into existence? Describe its role in the evolution of human
consciousness. How do you react to these ideas that apply to your own mind?
Rationality and God
Rational spirituality is the need for human beings to connect with God by understanding God’s will. God is a rational being and in order for us to comprehend God we ourselves must become rational beings. We achieve rationality through the understanding of Sacred Scripture. The knowledge and understanding of Sacred Scripture gives us a higher ability to rationalize and understand God’s will.
How is it possible to comprehend a higher thought process? I believe through Sacred Scripture and the ability to recognize the difference from literal meaning and underlying meaning we are able to reach a higher mental plain of understanding. As described earlier in theistic psychology the brain in a mental organ in the plain of eternity. There are levels in which the brain or mental mind can ascend or descend.
The comprehension of higher spiritual ideas comes in through the organ called the spiritual-natural or interior natural organ. The use of the organ is for filtering the spiritual knowledge to your mental brain from the light of good and truth from God. When people are able and aware of the spiritual-natural organ they have a closer relationship to God.
The organs development came from God’s personal rebirth on Earth as Jesus Christ. During this time many people lived in their hellish traits and the creation of God on our plain of existence created a closer relationship to God.
Reaction
The reaction I had to finding out there are hidden scientific sense in Sacred Scripture was a mundane one. I don’t doubt that there hidden messages in everything we do. I’m a strong believe in the fact that God sends us messages for us to rationally decode. We are in a way guided towards the right path if we just keep our eyes open for the signs posted by God. Much in my life has shown me to pay close attention strange occurrences or little things that most people wouldn’t notice. Our mental mind is within the spiritual world and I believe that we receive messages from the spiritual world. We are unable to recognize the full message but I believe at times we are able to notice and recognize the purpose or “gist” of the message.
We as a human race are capable to create and destroy beautiful things. With the help and understanding of Sacred Scripture I believe that we can create more beauty than anything. So many people tend to follow what they feel is right blindly without looking at what they believe rationally. Most people tend not to understand and put blind faith into a abrupt or even corrupt system. This leads to ignorance and ignorance can lead to hellish traits.
6. Explain why substantive dualism is
called substantive.
Substantive dualism
In order to understand substantive we must first look at the meaning of dualism. The idea of dualism comes from the fact that we ourselves are dual citizens.
Upon birth we are dual citizens in the world of time and space and in the world of eternity. Upon death we are reawaken in the state between heaven and hell. Confusion sets in upon comprehending “where” we are. Little do we know that we have passed onto the world of eternity and soon our previous life leads us to where our mental mind will stay in eternity: heaven or hell, depending on certain factors.
The word substantive from my philosophy 100 course meant something deeply significant, relevant, and meaningful. The understanding of a deeper meaning comes into significance when combined with dualism! The meaning of substantive dualism then of course is the idea of a relevant or meaningful knowledge of ones own dualism.
7. What is the most exciting piece of
news you have hears so far in theistic psychology?
The afterlife and it’s mysteries
During the first day of class I thought all we were doing was going to talk about religion this and God that. The idea of theistic psychology did not excite me until Dr. James went into a bit of a rant about theistic psychology. This rant sparked my interest in and actually staying with the class!
The most exciting news about theistic psychology is the idea of an afterlife. Before theistic psychology I didn’t pay much attention to the idea of an afterlife or even anything remotely religious. The reason for this is because I saw religious pressure as a unwanted pressure by people who I felt followed blinding without any understanding of what they are following. Each and every religious conversation I got in with full intention to understand where one is coming from would end in more confusion. The regurgitation of religious scripture to me doesn’t give me anything to work with.
I also enjoy the approach of theistic psychology, the approach being understanding rationally the idea of God. The idea of what or who or where God is taking us as a human race can be manipulated in ways that may harm people. Theistic psychology looks at the whole subject of God from a rational stand point.
The afterlife has always interested me. What does happen to me when I die? One of the most interesting things I heard about death was a man’s weight was measured during his death. After he died a slight amount of weight decreased from his body. Scientist were trying to determine if humans had a “soul” and if it was possible to measure it leaving the body. Of course this isn’t “conclusive” proof of a soul but it was an interesting article to read none the less.
Technology and God
Also, I wonder the impact science and technology will have on theistic psychology. When I think about science and technology having a massive impact on theistic psychology I think about cryogenically freezing ones self in the hopes that we will be able to “revive” you in the future when we have the technology to do so. By all stand point the individual frozen will be dead and therefore, be within the world of eternity. So, I’m thinking if a individual is “brought back” will this lead way to Swedenborg’s findings to be correct? What will that individual be able to tell us about the after life? Will that individual even be able to remember where he or she had been? Questions like these posed about the ideas of afterlife are what intrigue me.
8. List some
objections you or your friends can come up with against the Swedenborg reports,
against the positive bias in science, against the inclusion of God in science,
and similar issues. Be sure
you comment on each issue you list -- (a) what the doubt is and (b) what your
current position is on it.
Discussion
The discussion I have with my friends about the Swedenborg reports are always an interesting. My friends ask a lot of questions and bring up a lot of good points about Swedenborg and the idea of theistic psychology.
One big problem that comes up for my friends to accept the idea of Swedenborg is why he is the only person to given this gift. The friend who brought this idea to my attention is a devout Buddhist and believes that what Swedenborg describes as being conscious in two worlds was the same that Buddha himself experienced. I found this idea very intriguing because I use to research Buddhism and I too believe that this is true. I don’t believe that anyone anywhere can say that they are the ONLY person in history to do this. Maybe in recorded history but history is written by the victors. I believe that much of history isn’t recorded and therefore, I don’t doubt that many gifts are given to people by god yet we do not hear of them.
Another point brought up to my attention about the reports was the validity. Many of my friends didn’t accept the fact that the things Swedenborg did could not be replicated, which is one of the pillar stones of science is replication. Without replication I don’t think the validity of Swedenborg’s reports will be accepted. I think Swedenborg’s ideas can be understood rationally but I don’t believe in the scientific community they will be accepted as real science.
Problems
Also the idea of God in science freaked a lot of my friends out. It’s a big taboo thing to not include God in science because a distinctive line has been drawn and drilled into us with the use of the negative bias in science. God is kept at home and science is kept in the schools. I don’t agree with this. I think God does need to be taken in rationally and have great discussion about God. Growing up I never had a religious affiliation and therefore never bothered to figure out God. The assumption I had about religions was just they wanted you to live a righteous life, which I felt everyone has an innate ability to know the difference between good and bad. If we had clam collective discussions about God during school I believe I could have learned a lot more than before I entered theistic psychology.
9. Make up a dialogue between you and
a hypothetical friend in a situation where you are telling your friend about
this course. No length is specified. It depends on how you write the dialog.
You can add lines of explanations, like a stage play, if you want.
Discussion
Friend: “What is theistic psychology?”
Me: “That’s a good question. I know a lot but I feel I’ve just been learning
the tip of the ice burg about the topic.
From what I know I can give a description.”
Friend: “Alright”
Me: “Theistic psychology is a course taught at the UH by a professor named
Dr. Leon James. Dr. James has been studying the writings of a man
named Emmanuel Swedenborg. Swedenborg
was a very successful scientist in the 18th century. One day God came to Swedenborg
and gave him the ability to be conscious in both this world and the spiritual
world”
Friend: “This world and the spiritual world?”
Me: “Yeah. We are dual citizens and are
born into two worlds. The world of time and space which we are conscious in now
and the world of eternity where when we die we awaken in. Also our conscious or mind is located in the
world of eternity.”
Friend: “Why?”
Me: “Because thoughts and feelings aren’t something that we can measure
therefore, they don’t exist in this plain of reality.”
Friend: “Oh okay.”
Me: “Yeah. So through this ability that Swedenborg
was given he was able to study and rationally understand God.”
Friend: “Rationally?”
Me: “Yes, because in order to understand what God is teaching we must first
look at it rationally rather than literally. Much of the Sacred Scripture
written by prophets ages ago has both literal and an
underlying meaning. Swedenborg recognized this and
was able to in a sense decode everything and lay it out in his reports which
Dr. James bases theistic psychology upon.”
Friend: “Wow. That is really interesting”
Me: “Yeah. There is plenty nooks and
crannies that I could dive into but maybe another time.”