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: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/459f2006/davis/davis-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
God Within Our Minds
By Jamie
Davis
Report 4 for
sections 1.1.4.3.2.
to 1.3.1
Question
1: Explain how Divine Speech descends through the three
discrete degrees of our mind. How do you react to this knowledge?
See
Section 1.1.4.3.2
Answer
1:
Divine Speech begins within the Spiritual Sun. We can consider the Spiritual Sun a comparison to the natural sun in that it emits substances. The natural sun emits both heat and light, while the Spiritual Sun emits good and truth. Since good and truth are the substances God is made of, we can say that the Spiritual Sun is the aura around God. So, from God, or the Spiritual Sun, Divine Speech is emitted as spiritual light and spiritual heat.
First, Divine speech enters the celestial layer of our mind. Within the celestial layer there is also the affective, cognitive and sensorimotor organs as with the next three layers of human minds. Divine speech then descends into the spiritual layer, rational layer, and then the natural layer of our mind. Only at the natural level of thinking are we consciously in the physical world but not in the eternal world.
Finally, through the laws of correspondence, Divine Speech descends into the physical layer of our mind. This is the lowest level of thinking about God and at this level people have the least understanding about Divine Speech is in literal meaning in the form of Sacred Scripture. Sacred Scripture is all the written text about God such as the Bible, the Torah and the Koran along with the Writings of Swedenborg. In these texts are correspondential meanings to the Word. It is very difficult for people to understand the Bible because of the seemingly contradictory statements made in many areas of Sacred Scripture. This is how we can tell when people are reading at the literal level. Perhaps if one attempted to raise their level of thinking by associating the Bible’s words with laws of correspondences, one might be able to reach a rational level of thinking.
Another possible way of reaching the higher levels is done after resuscitation. At this point after the first death, one can be in the other higher layers and understanding of Divine speech based on how close one’s relationship to God is. The closer one is to God, the higher the level of understanding of Divine Speech.
I feel that it is always important for one to be closer to God. I thought this even before I studied theistic psychology because I was taught that we should each have our own personal relationship with God. I can remember even in church they would talk about God as the Father. We must love God as our Father, and we should want to relate to God as loving and wanting only the best for us, as father want for their children.
So, I can see that being close to God in theistic psychology and in my own personal beliefs in beneficial. Now, my response to Divine Speech descending through the layers of our minds makes me think a lot about my relationship to God here in the natural world. I know sometimes we must battle between our hellish and heavenly loves, but sometimes we make the wrong choice.
Theistic psychology teaches that a few indulgences are likely to happen because we are humans struggling to make the right choices, but also, that these are not the end of the world. God does not want us be miserable with guilt after we mess up, but rather He wants us to become closer and raise our level of thinking so that we do not have to struggle so much.
Question
2: Explain the hidden correspondential
sense of Commandments 1 through 5. Give examples from you daily life how this
may apply to you.
See
Intro to Theistic
psychology
Answer
2:
The first
five Commandments in the Bible are about God and how people should relate to
God and God’s image. We can better
understand the commandments through the laws of correspondence.
The first commandment says there shall
be no other gods worshiped before God. Looking at this through the laws of
correspondences, really what it is saying is that God is against humans putting
our physical or natural desires above the spiritual substances of good and
truth. Do not love anything before God, let alone another god. The representation of another god is similar
to human’s loves of materialistic things. People might “worship” this other
god, where this god could be money or power or fame. These are all materialistic things, which are not to be loved
more than God.
The second commandment says not to
make idols in the image of God. What I assume is that this is similar to the
first commandment, but really emphasizing more on the materialistic point. When someone creates the image of God in and
idol, they are trying to make something spiritual into something physical. This is really impossible because humans
cannot see spiritual things, and in creating something that is physical is
almost degrading God’s image. It’s almost like when people make or buy aluminum
Christmas trees. They are simply too
artificial, and far from a real Christmas tree. No matter how realistic it may look, the Christmas tree will
never be a real tree, therefore a step down. So, the first commandment says to
keep the spiritual substance of truth in the mind, and the second commandment
says to act according to it.
The third commandment says not take
the name God in vain. I assume this is referring to swearing, and perhaps using
God to make oneself appear “God Like.” Using God’s name to create a false image
of yourself by stating that you are close to God, when really this is untrue.
God is truth and goodness and I think that if one if creating their own false
appearance in the name of God, that it’ really contradictory. To misuse truth would be to trick or mislead
someone based on understanding that you have that they don’t or to twist the
truth in a dishonest way somehow. Once you understand something about the
truth, use it to benefit others, as opposed to using it to mislead others to
benefit yourself. Hold good and truth sacred; don’t twist it into ugly forms
that suit you. Once you see good and truth, remember where it came from and how
you got it.
The fourth commandment says to observe
the Sabbath. The Sabbath is traditionally thought of as the day of worship and
no work. It is a day to reflect on God
and not to concentrate on other things like work. This really is a period of rest that God allows us after we have
overcome a spiritual challenge. So, we work for some time to overcome our
temptations and when we succeed, we are given some time to rest with our new
reformed self before we start again. God wants us to remember Him after we
overcome one of our spiritual challenges, and this, correspondentially, is the
Sabbath.
The fifth commandment says to obey
your father and mother. Our father and mother make us physically, but goodness
and truth make us spiritually. So to say honor your father and mother is,
again, to say to live with love and truth. Also in the fifth commandment, it
says to honor love and truth will “go well in the land the lord is giving you.”
The “land” refers to God giving us our spiritual heaven in the mind. If we live according to good and truth, we
can live in heaven.
Question
3: Explain the hidden correspondential
sense of Commandments 5 through 10. Give examples from your daily life how this
may apply to you.
See
Intro to
Theistic Psychology
Answer
3:
The sixth commandment, you shall not
kill literally means do not hurt people. When we want to hurt people, clearly
we are in the hell of our minds because we are not thinking about good or truth
at all. How can we want to kill or hurt
someone in the heavens of our minds? We cannot, therefore this commandment is
saying love God by wanting to live in the heavens of our minds, by acting with
only good and love and truth and rationality to our fellow humans.
The seventh commandment, do not commit
adultery, I think is referring to the conjugial marriage between husband and
wife. Recall that in order to enter
heave, one must be in a conjugial marriage with their spouse. This is the
intimate mental sate that a man and a woman share together. This is a very high
form of love, and God wants us all to experience it. If one commits adultery at
the external phase of marriage, I doubt that they will enter into the internal
phase of marriage because they have already violated the trust that a
relationship is based on. Adultery is
done out of many materialistic lustful level thoughts. These are the farthest
from God, and since God urges us to become close to Him, then God commands us
to stay away from these thoughts.
The eighth commandment says thou shall
not steal. The correspondential meaning is that stealing is a form of
deception, or untruthfulness. This is a quality that refers to acting at the
first level of thinking, without regard for your fellow human. Again, this is not loving or being truthful,
and really it is a morally wrong thing to do because it is a combination of
selfish greed and neither good or truthful thinking. God wants us to be selfish only if we can do good unselfish
actions as a result. He does not want
altruistic or selfish behavior, but rather decisions for the common good for
all. Stealing is only going to benefit
the thief, not those who were stolen from.
The ninth commandment says thou shall
not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
I think this says do not deceive your neighbor. Or in other words, be truthful and good to
you neighbor. Love your neighbor’s good
and truth, and do not lie or be untruthful to do harm to them
The tenth commandment says not to
covet your neighbor’s material items. To covet is to desire. So, don’t desire
another’s material objects. This is
important when trying to avoid thinking only at the material level of thinking
about God. If you are constantly
thinking about other’s material possessions in an envious manner, then you are
really not thinking about God at the level of rational thinking.
Question
4:Many people uncritically repeat the idea that "God is
energy." Give a rational proof that this belief is illogical. Then compare
the logic of the opposite idea that "God is a Person." In your
opinion, why is there so much opposition to this view?
See
section 1.1.4.3.3
Answer
4:
The problem
with thinking that God is energy is that really, it’s illogical on many
levels. First, let’s
consider this question. How is it rational to say that God is just energy in
the universe? As I mentioned in a
previous report, God exists outside of time and space, God it not physical
matter. Energy is a physical force within time and space, therefore it is
irrational to think that God if just energy. If God is the energy of the
universe, he is not omniscient and omnipotent because he is physical matter.
Next, in the Old Testament, Sacred Scripture tells us that
God is not natural because He is a person and a person is his or her mind. In
other Sacred Scripture passage, it says that we are “created in His image”. If
we are human beings and were created in His image He too must be a human and
not energy because energy has no form. Therefore, it is logical to conclude
that God is not energy rather He is a person (or mind). When I say God is a
person, what I mean is to say that He is a spirit in eternity who has feelings, thoughts, and sensations. This view is a
rational perspective and gives God more realism then to say that He is energy.
This form of thinking that God is a person is a higher level or rational
thinking and reasoning then the natural level which thinks of God as energy,
the universe, or nature.
The opposition to this theory really remains more on the part that people cannot see how God is a person. IT must be understood though, that a person is not just and individual physical body, but a person has a mind with thought, feelings, emotions and sensations. God has all of these because He is a person and as mentioned in Sacred Scripture, He created humans in His image. We’re not energy in some bubble but we’re people in human form. If we were made in God’s image, God must be a person, too, and he must function much the same way that we do, but perfectly and omnisciently.
God’s thoughts create the universe and each person’s thoughts create their perception and understanding or misperception and misunderstanding that builds their heavens and hells. The idea of God as a person creates an orderly way of looking at reality in which everything fits together, functions as a whole, and what happens on one side happens on the other, too.
People have a very difficult time believing something that they cannot actually see, touch hear etc. Since we can see, touch and hear people, it is hard for humans to rationalize that God is a person. They become mystified that God is some form of energy or a floating spirit who checks in on us periodically. We can misbehave when we’re not in the presence of God, but really God is omnipresent through the human race. God is constantly inflowing into us His substances of good and truth. These substances are in everything at all times if they are alive. Through these substances, God wills their existence. People cannot accept these ideas because their religions hold certain biases or ideologies against these ideas.
Question
5:
The highest idea of God is also the
most rational. What is this celestial view of God in relation to the substances
of good and truth? Can you imagine having this view?
See
section 1.1.4.3.3
Answer
5:
The highest idea of God is also the
most rational in that humans are able to know God only through rational level
of thinking about God. There are three
levels of rational thinking, which are natural-rational, spiritual-rational and
celestial rational. The highest level
of thinking rationally is the celestial-rational level. At this level we are able to love God’s
good and truth as they are God. At this highest level of rational one should
only love that which is good and true.
When we are able to love God through
the love of good and truth we have reached the highest level of understanding
because it is less natural than loving God as a person. The idea of God as
truth reveals a better understanding that only loving God as a person. A person
implies management. It’s correct from the positive bias, given the definition
of God, that God manages the universe. At the highest level of thinking, we are
able to love God as truth, which is how we can relate to the substances of good
and truth. If we love, we are good, and loving God as truth is the celestial
level of thinking.
It is really difficult to think about
God as anything other than a person, but when I consider the fact that God is
the truth and good, it’s easy to compare these a loving the qualities of
God. I think of the example of “love thy
neighbor.” In the readings it mentions that we do not have to actually love the
neighbors if they are bad people.
Rather, we cannot simply hate the neighbors for being bad. We must find
the good and the truth in everyone, since everyone has it, and love them for
it. It seems semi complex, especially
if you have terrible neighbors, but when we think of people in such a way it
shows that we are living in a higher level of thinking.
Am I at the highest level?
Although I cannot say that I am, I can
imagine myself having this view because I was taught by my parents not to judge
a book by its cover. We must look beneath the surface and see the perhaps
people are good inside. We can think
back to a quote by Anne Frank “In spite of everything I still believe that
people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a
foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death.” This is a remarkable thing to say from
someone who has just about seen the worst of human nature. She was still able to see the good in
people, and this is exactly what thinking at the highest level of rationality
is all about.
Question 6: How does rational consciousness of God differ from sensuous consciousness of God? What is the role of Sacred Scripture? How would you describe your consciousness of God? Contrast your consciousness of God with that of a friend or two. How do they differ, or how are they similar?
Answer
6:
The difference between rational consciousness and sensuous consciousness is that rational consciousness of God never depends on direct sensuous experience but only on the understanding of scientific revelations contained in Sacred Scripture as Divine speech. In rational consciousness, the spiritual truths continually flow into everyone’s minds into the upper portion of their rational mind. Since we are conscious in the physical world and cannot be conscious in the spiritual world, we are not directly conscious of these rational truths in our spiritual mind. It is important for us to acquire conscious rational ideas that correspond to them.
Since
rational consciousness of God can be understood logically, rational
consciousness of God is different from a sensuous experience. When we are able
to simply understand something and are able to reason rationally how it
happened, it is a positive development to the individual. When we experience
our first death, our rationality what we have from our minds. Our rational thinking determines which
level of heaven, if you will to be in heaven, you will enter. We loose our
sensuous, corporeal experiences, but our rational understanding remains. In
this way, rationality is the most important part of spirituality.
Sensuous consciousness is often referred to someone “sensing oneness with God” or “the experience of God”. This sensing and experiencing are the operations of the corporeal-sensuous portion of the mind. This portion of the mind is very close to the natural order of the physical body. The orders of operations will reflect physical objects and laws rather than rational spiritual orders of operations.
The Role of Sacred Scripture
When we study Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech our rational mind is elevated to the celestial level of enlightenment by means of higher-order correspondences we acquire for ourselves. As we have explained before this knowledge and facts about God and the afterlife is only contained in the underlying hidden correspondential meanings of Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech. Sacred Scripture plays a role in our level of consciousness it acts like a translator in giving us important information about God that is needed for us to know in order to be conjoined with Him.
In my own experiences with God, I think I was more on the sensuous consciousness level because I can honestly say that I could feel God working. There was a time when I prayed for relief of anxiety, which was building up within me, and I honestly felt it fade away while I was praying. Whether this was rational or not, I still felt a major weight lifted from me, and I know that I was experiencing God. I am not sure if I can relate this to dreams, but a friend of mine had three continuing dreams about God. He mentioned some things that really opened my eyes when he was telling me about it because I had just learned in theistic psychology about the three mental organs and their correspondences with the physical body. My friend Shane mentioned that he was running away from danger, the earth was falling away as if down a cliff or into space. He ran into a forest where he found some nondenominational church or place of worship. When he entered, he claims he felt a sense of safety and peacefulness inside. Sitting in the first row, was a man. This man looked strange because he had no skin or bones but merely the interior systems. He spoke and only said, “soon you will know the truth.” This dream really blew my mind, especially after just learning about the three corresponding organs, and the substances of good and truth. Shane has a very spiritual side to him that is unlike any other person I know because he is struggling with his religious ties to Catholic Church and his own beliefs about God. He doesn’t follow the faith, but he does believe in God. He might be more in the rational consciousness than myself at this point in time.
Question
7: Explain who is Swedenborg.
Contrast the rational perspective on Swedenborg with the mystical perspective
that some people have. How do you relate to both of these perspectives?
See
section 1.8.6
Answer
7:
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a Swedish
scientist. Since his father was a Bishop, Swedenborg also studied the Bible. In
his study of the Bible he went deeper than anyone before in seeing a rational
order when interpreted scientifically and rationally. Although he was a
Lutheran, he avoided the institution of the clergy to which his father
belonged. Swedenborg worshiped the Bible as Sacred Scripture, and this He saw
as the Word of God. Swedenborg realized that the Word of God must have a universal significance.
He searched and studied the books of the Bible in
great detail for years, in their original languages of Hebrew and Greek. He
noticed the consistencies with which the Bible text used certain images and
symbols -- animals, numbers, names and even visions. He interpreted this rich
imagery in terms of scientific meanings for example the chain of causation from
God to individuals and objects, or the conditions of life for "departed
souls." From many details in the Bible, Swedenborg inferred that God must
have created two worlds, one spiritual -- outside time and space, eternal, and
the other natural -- in time and space, where things are temporary. He inferred
that there must therefore be a Spiritual Sun as well as a natural sun (and stars),
and he theorized on various intermediate atmospheres that divided these two
sources of power and substance. Using the latest physiological and anatomical
discoveries of the eighteenth century, Swedenborg wrote several books on the
mind-body connection, which was a hot subject of debate among scientists at
that time.
At age 57 Swedenborg writes that Jesus Christ
appeared to him and told him that he had been prepared since early childhood
for a Divine mission. He was about to become a dual citizen. He was going to
become conscious simultaneously in both worlds. With this new ability, he was
going to have access to facts he had been longing to know about the spiritual
world. The Divine purpose for this special mental awareness was to have
Swedenborg write and publish (on earth) a collection of scientific books on his
observations and experiments in the spiritual world. This collection is now called the Writings
of Swdenborg, which are considered part of Sacred Scripture.
The Mystical Perspective
The mystical perspective of
Swedenborg’s writing appears mainly in Swedenborgian
religions. They believe that Swedenborg was trying to describe mystical
experiences in using these symbolic interpretations. These new church religions
have misinterpreted what Swedenborg really was doing. He was not promoting another type of religion, but he was using
his gift to scientifically report events that occur in the afterlife. His claimed purpose for such a gift was to
enable show humans in scientific methods how God works in our life through
rational thinking, rather than through mystical religious experiences.
The Rational Perspective
Swedenborg was given the gift of
conscious dual citizenship for the Divine mission of showing others how to
rationally think about God. In Theistic
psychology, we can study Swedenborg and what he discovered rationally because
we leave out any religious connotations. Theistic psychology agrees with
Swedenborg’s observations of the spiritual world and they are considered
scientific in theistic psychology, because when in the spiritual world, anyone
can see what Swedenborg did, and anyone could reproduce his studies. According
to theistic psychology, Swedenborg’s observations are empirical, but no one
living can reproduce the conditions to replicate his experiments. Through
understanding his experiments rationally, one can achieve a higher level of
thinking.
My reaction to the mystical
perspective is that people by nature automatically assume that when we talk
about God, we are talking about religion. This is exactly what happens in the
mystical perspective when people begin reading Swedenborg’s writings. They take into consideration the fact that
we are dual citizens and we must live according to good and truth, and so they
begin creating rules, and rituals etc.
It is very easy for people to misunderstand things about God because
they are uncertain about how to go about getting to heaven. I think my relation to this perspective is
that I can understand how easy it is to misread things and we, including
myself, need to use more caution when we automatically think we get it at a
first glance, I am talking about reading text and comprehending the correct
meaning.
With regard to the rational
perspective, I can relate to it because we are able to really understand the
meaning logically through rational thinking.
This is done in theistic psychology and although people cannot believe
the Swedenborg actually experienced this, if they review the writings of Swedenborg,
then perhaps they will change their minds.
The number one argument is that how ca this be science if only one man
was able to do the experiments? How can anyone replicate them? Not every
experiment needs extensive replication. People read the thesis and the methods
and in good experiments the results are common sense because of our experience
in the world. Not every experiment that
is possible to replicate, is done so to prove a theory, especially in
psychology. We cannot simply call
Swedenborg’s writings invalid because of this, but rather we should look to the
law of correspondences in Sacred Scripture, scientifically follow what we can
of Swedenborg’s writings and see what we get there. Really, it all comes down to rationally being able to think about
God’s existence.
Question
8: Google the concepts "substantive dualism" and
the concept "theism and science." Summarize your assessment of this
literature indicating how it relates to theistic psychology.
Answer
8:
Just
Google it
I did a google search for “substantive
dualism,” most of the postings were in fact written by Dr. James. We can say that if we know about substantive
dualism, we know a significant part about theistic psychology. This is mainly because substantive dualism
is the idea that two worlds simultaneously exist. These are the spiritual or mental world and the physical world.
The reason why we call it called substantive dualism is because just as the
physical world is made of physical substances, the spiritual world is made of
the spiritual substances good and truth. The spiritual world is a world of
ideas, and the ideas take physical form in the material world. They are held
together by laws of cause and effect called correspondences, so that what
happens in the mental world has a corresponding result in the physical world.
The human mind, in life and in the
afterlife, exists in the spiritual world while our bodies, when connected to
the mind, exist in the physical world. The spiritual cannot exist in the
physical world and cannot be separated and measured, but it exists in discrete
layers within the physical, outside of time and space. The mental world is the
level of thinking or understanding and its levels also exist in discrete layers
from one another.
Without
understanding what substantive dualism is, it’s impossible to understand how we
are immortal or what our relationship to God is. Also, we would not be able to rationally understand many of the
spiritual truths in theistic psychology, like how everything is essentially good,
without understanding dual citizenship and substantive dualism.
Theism
and Science
When
I googled “theism and science”, the majority of the postings were
about differences between God, science and some even mentioned atheism and
other types of beliefs like Buddhism.
Of all the postings, only a few really brought together the ideas and
this was Ian J Thompson’s page. Theistic
Science Ian Thompson studies the theory of spirit, and mind and nature from
Theism. He does so through the
scientific approached of physics, biology, psychology, philosophy,
spirituality, religion and theology. Interestingly, Ian Thompson mentions that
he does so through studying Swedenborg, and perhaps he is on to learning about
God in many other areas of science than theistic psychology through
Swedenborg’s writings. To me this seems like a huge task because of the amount
of information that may be revealed through his findings. As with Dr. James’
course, I am finding that there is so much information to be absorbed in theistic
psychology alone.
Part II of report 4 for sections 1.3.2
to 1.5
Question 1: Explain the concept of "discrete layers of substances" in the mental world. What is the role of correspondences?
See Section 1.3.2
Answer
1:
This is an excerpt from Dr. James. He also writes that if we remember this then we can think about discrete layers rationally. “Any created object = discrete layers of substances (on the outside, physical, then going inward, mental, which is constructed out of good and truth, then in its inmost, God the Divine Human omnipresent” The discrete layers really are all substances arranged in discontinuous layers so that nothing can cross between them. They are always separated, yet they are functionally locked together by the laws of correspondences. In order for each layer to be maintained and to display change, something needs to happen in the layer inside of the outer layer to cause it.
Each layer exists in a different form, and that is why it is difficult for the natural level thinking man to say that each layer or object is really the same stuff. Natural man must see the object in order to discover what it is made from. Since it is God’s idea that created the object, saying that the object is more idea-like is saying that it is closer to God’s understanding and intent. The more the idea of the object is examined and understood, the more the essential good and truth that God used to create that object is understood.
If
we can think rationally about this concept of discrete layers of substances we
may have an understanding God's omnipresence. We can see that reality is what
we call physical objects in time and space, and these are actually constructed
on a mental infrastructure in eternity. What is "within" an object
that exists in space is the infrastructure of eternity, which has no space since
it is a mental world.
Role
of Correspondences
The law of correspondences relates directly to this topic of discrete layers. God creates all things by means of correspondences and He maintains rational order in the universe by allowing only those phenomenon to come into existence which obey the laws of correspondences. The law of correspondences is the means in which divine speech descends through the discrete layers. At each layers it corresponds to something at the higher level.
Question 2: Explain the meaning of "space" in the mental world of eternity. What is there in your own experience that gives you a sense of space in the mental world? What creates this appearance of space where there is none?
See Section 1.3.2
Answer
2:
There is no space in the mental world of eternity but there is the illusion of space. Why do we need the illusion of space? Simply because it makes us feel comfortable. The illusion of space in the mental world, more importantly, gives us an interface to interact with people and things that we love in the mental world.
How is space an illusion? Well, it may be hard for humans in the physical world to understand because we have space between us and other things all the time. We need space in the physical world because it is important in terms of order and comfort. In the physical world we also need to deal with our inability to get what we want when we want it, for most of us anyway. Since we humans cannot control changes in space as a result of our mental state, we must learn to live with time and space. Space is an illusion in the mental world because it changes, depending on our mental state. Space in the mental world is different in this way.
My Experiences with Space in the Mental World
I
can say that my mental world is often crowded with seemingly random thoughts
that occur on a 24/7 clock. These
thought usually have to do with either me planning ahead to do something,
thinking about something I should have done, or just day dreaming thoughts of
something I see in movies, T.V., everyday life or future and past events. When I am thinking about these things, I
don’t really picture them in a time and space order. Things randomly come to mind, I can remember them if their past
events, or envision them if they are future events. I can move from one thought to the next without thinking about
how they move and change from one image to the next. This is how I believe the mental world is like on a less
randomized scale and a much deeper type of thinking.
Think
about dreams and what they are like while we are experiencing them. They feel realistic. We are interacting with
whom we want to interact. We are in a
place that perhaps is called home, but really it looks nothing like your home
in the physical world. We feel things,
we say things, and we seem to go from one dream to the next without realizing
it. Time and space are irrelevant, but we have the illusion of space between
objects and people in our dreams. We do
not think about it at a conscious level.
Question
3: Define sensations, thoughts, and feelings in terms of spiritual
substances. Explain this concept to a friend or two. What difficulty do they
run into as they try to comprehend this new idea? What is your conclusion?
Answer
3:
Sensations, thoughts and feelings can be defined as spiritual substances. This is because everyone experiences these things, but they do not have a physical part of the body that we can say homes these feelings. The brain does not contain a physical lobe that houses our thoughts, feelings and sensations. We therefore must not make the assumption that these feelings are of physical substances, but rather they are of spiritual substances.
Since these sensations, thoughts, and feelings are made of the mental substance divine good, they also exist in the afterlife. This is because the mental world is the eternal world of the afterlife. These mental substances are more real and more permanent then any of the physical substances of the brain.
Thoughts, feelings, and sensations become yours through identification. One does not need to identify all the feelings, thoughts and emotions in their mind as there own. This is so because there is only one mental world for everyone, therefore, another person’s thoughts are in the same place as ones own.
Reactions Of Others
I did my best in explaining the idea that sensations, thoughts and feelings are not physical but rather spiritual in nature. My friend was very confused because she is agnostic and has a difficult time grasping on to anything that is not physical. She tried to claim that sensations and feelings are physical chemical reactions one has when we have thoughts. I asked her where do the thoughts come from? She says that thoughts come from physical environmental stimulus. I agree that the environment creates some thoughts, but what about memory of events that happened to you when you were little? How does this happen? How does the memory store the information and allow us to experience the thoughts and feelings we had when we were little? Where do the memories go? She couldn’t answer. I told her the reason why they still exist in our minds is because there is a mental world. We talk and think in our own minds, not out loud. This is the mental world, the world within our own minds.
I think I did a good job in trying to explain the mental world and the association of thoughts, feelings and sensations to my agnostic friend. She now has some things to think about in regard to her place and God. I told her more about rational thinking and perhaps this will spark an interest in her in knowing more about God.
My Conclusion
My conclusion is that it is hard at the beginning for a person to change what they have always heard, that thoughts, feelings, and sensations are not physical, but instead are physical reactions that happen in our brains. While there is evidence of the chemical reactions happening when we learn and think, they are not the same thing as actually having the memory or experiencing a feeling. These chemical reactions can be considered the mechanism in being able to feel these things, but they are not the thoughts, feelings and sensations themselves. It will be much more difficult for people to understand if they have no idea how the brain works and if they simply do not believe in God.
Question
4: What is your idea of a vacuum as you learned it from science classes?
Describe the encounter between Swedenborg and Newton where they discussed the
meaning of a vacuum.
See Section 1.3.3
Answer
4:
What I can remember about vacuums in science class is that they are empty of matter. Since they really are just a vast area of nothing there cannot be any type of friction. So, if there is nothing there and there isn’t any friction between anything, then it seems by definition that it can’t exist. A place where there is nothing, not even matter, is non-existent. We can also think in this way that space then must be something.
Swedenborg and Newton had a discussion about vacuums. Newton explains his understanding of a vacuum to Swedenborg. And Swedenborg then agrees with Newton’s idea that a vacuum is nothing, and nothingness is a horrible thing to think about. He uses this to make his point that because a nothing can’t be something, then thoughts, feelings and sensations must be something. Clearly they are not physical things, so the must be spiritual things.
Also, we can now say that since the substances of good and truth are not nothing, they cannot exist in a vacuum, either. If there are no substances of good and truth, God is not operating there. If God is not operating in a place then it can be said it is a vacuum. But, that is silly because God is omnipresent. Therefore, vacuums do not exist.
A vacuum is really a term for stating non-existence. If we think about nothing it is harmful because to deny that is also to deny the thought of existence, and therefore God’s thought, and the good and love in everything. If we do not acknowledge our existence, we are also denying God’s existence. To think of the idea of nothing is to think of the idea that everything good does not exist because in a vacuum life does not exist.
Our thoughts, feelings and sensations would not exist in a vacuum because they have substance. God has substance and his thoughts are spiritual substances that create and fill everything in existence. Since nothing exists in a vacuum, God, who is of substance, and his thoughts, which have substance, cannot exist in a vacuum. Since God and his thoughts create and fill everything, providing the infrastructure for life, the idea of a vacuum does not allow the infrastructure of life to be held in the mind at the same time.
Question
5: Explain the difference between the concept "God as He is in
Himself" vs. the concept "God as He is outside of Himself."
What's the importance of making this distinction?
See Section 1.3.4
Answer
5:
Even though all created things are created out of God good and truth, these newly created things can never be God. Although our minds are created by God's mental substances, we are not God. Both we and God are a fundamental rational, logical, scientific, and actual dualism. “God as He is in Himself” is the idea of God as the omnipotent being orchestrating the universe, while existing outside of creation and overseeing it.
By creating things outside of Himself through using mental substances inside of Himself, God the Divine Human created a reciprocal relationship between Himself and individuals of the human race. This means that He created human minds in such a way that they are human at the level of immortal self and personality, but they are not themselves at the level of the infrastructure of their self and personality.
God as He is Outside of Himself is any form of God that is God but is separate from God as He is in Himself. God as He is Outside of Himself is the Divine Psychologist who uses our conscious and our understanding of life events to grow in accordance with God.
The Importance of this Difference
It’s important to understand the distinction between because God outside himself is actually the infrastructure of good and truth for the universe and the human mind. But, it is logically impossible for God to be inside what he created.
Because of God, we have the ability to experience good and truth as they our essential for life. For this reason, our mental organs receive good and truth, which allow us to mentally grow. While God as He is outside Himself is still God, it is allowed that the created thing which God is a part of, develop it’s own personality and will. It is the innermost level or infrastructure but heavenly are not necessary for us to live by, in order to exist. For this reason, if God as He is in Himself and God as He is Outside of Himself were the same, then everything would be heavenly and there wouldn’t be any choices made. This also eliminates God’s idea of free will.
Question 6: Explain the concept of “being
consciously in the Presence of God”. Select a convenient day to practice being
continuously in the presence of the Divine Psychologist. You can do this in
various ways as you see fit.
Answer 6:
God is with us at all times, but usually this is an unconscious event. People mostly do not think that they are always in the Presence of God. In fact that idea seems scary to those who do not know God! But, being consciously in the Presence of God allows us to constantly be aware of all the decisions we have to make daily. There are simple choices, and there are difficult choices. It all depends on what your heavenly and hellish loves are.
Since we have to make the decisions, sometimes we really struggle to make the right choices, and sometimes we just choose the wrong thing, knowing it is wrong. After we do this, we feel guilty. It is an exhausting feeling. There is this up and down type of wear and tear on our minds, and it is very confusing.
When God is present in our mind in a way that is conscious to us this is also know as human conjunction with God. If one is constantly in the presence of God, the Divine Psychologist, they will always be in heaven; one cannot fall out of heaven unless they suddenly forget His presence.
Theistic psychology provides scientific knowledge of acquiring the skill of staying in the conscious presence of the Divine Psychologist. With these skills the Divine Psychologist will keep you in your heaven no matter what happens in the outside world around you.
My Awareness of The Divine Psychologist
Over the weekend, I practiced being consciously aware of God. It was actually really interesting because
so many more exciting and good things happened to me. First, I didn’t struggle as much with getting things done. I find that my problem really is
procrastination. I put things off until I really need to get them done. However, over the weekend I was able to work
on all my assignments, and I was able to begin packing for the move back to the
mainland. I accomplished so much, all while being aware of God.
I also realized that there are always so many things happening that
concern God, we just don’t think about it.
While I was practicing, I noticed I was having difficulty watching
television shows. I was annoyed at all
the humor being poked fun of women who have insensitive men as husbands.
Everybody Love Raymond was on, and I was unable to watch Ray being insensitive
to his wife. I started watching another
show, Curb Your Enthusiasm on HBO. It
just wasn’t funny anymore. On these
shows it seems that men deceiving their wives and others seems to be a common
ground for humor. While I Love Lucy had
a similar humor, it seems more innocent than say, a man ordering Girls Gone
Wild videos behind his wife’s back, as on Curb Your Enthusiasm. The amount of
humor in everyday life was no longer funny to me while I had God in my
conscious mind.
Question
7: Explain the benefits of studying theistic psychology. For each item
you mention, explain also how you relate to that particular benefit. Are you
planning to continue studying theistic psychology on your own? Explain your
thinking.
See Section 1.3.5
Answer
7:
People get scared when someone speaks out
about God, let alone about God in science.
Theistic Psychology teaches people about scientific methods to prove
that first, God exists when we take the positive bias, and second we are dual
citizens with spiritual substances creating our existence. These two concepts
alone teach people a great deal about whom we are, how God works, and even
about the afterlife. All of these are questions that people are unable to
really answer because they require factual types of evidences.
Theistic
psychology is able to provide, through the positive bias, answers to these
questions. The only requirement is that
we must take all the information as a possibility to understanding what
theistic psychology teaches us. If we
think about the possibility, and begin rationally thinking about these concepts
of God, Divine Speech, spiritual substances, and dual citizenship, we can draw
our own conclusions from these evidences.
I
mentioned these parts of Theistic Psychology because they are what I related to
the most when learning about God in science.
I had to take the positive bias, where I had to understand that we could
neither prove the existence of God, nor disprove God’s existence, so we study
theistic psychology the same way we study science, only with the opposite
view. Rather than stating that God does
not exist in science, we study how God is everything and maintains every part
of science through the laws of correspondences.
Next,
we were taught about Divine Speech and how it is actually constantly within us.
It basically is God’s Word. It is
written in Sacred Scripture, and is able to be applied, not at the literal
level, but at the spiritual level. This
is an underlying message within Sacred Scripture. It reveals the truth about
God and the eternal world. Learning about the laws of correspondences with
Sacred Scripture will enable us to know the truth behind the literal level of
Sacred Scripture.
Dual
citizenship was really another basic part of learning theistic psychology. I learned about all our mental organs, and
how they are a correspondent to our physical organs, the heart, the lungs and
CNS. This was so interesting for me to
learn about. I could then, from this
model of correspondences, see how correspondences might work like in Sacred
Scripture. We have a mental body and a
physical body. Our mind is in the mental
world, a world where we are unconscious in until we die, and is only conscious
in the physical world. This is the idea
of dual citizenship. I think this is a really important part of theistic
psychology because from this point, we are able to read the works of
Swedenborg. He discovered the mental world through his own miraculous
experiences. This was his Divine mission, and he scientifically documented the
eternal world.
I
have learned so much about God and the afterlife in learning theistic
psychology. The most important thing I learned is rational level of thinking,
and it’s unique human characteristic.
Rational thinking, and the levels of thinking rationally allowed me to
really open my mind to learn about theistic psychology. I think I would consider
reading more about Swedenborg’s experiments and perhaps will study it more in
the future.
Question
8: Identify five revelations found in the literal meaning of the
Writings of Swedenborg. Describe each and indicate your thoughts on it. How
does it relate to anything else you know about these subjects?
See Section 1.4
Answer
8:
There are 32 revelations listed in Dr. James’ writings in section 1.4. Although it is a partial list, we can study several and learn a lot about theistic psychology The first revelation I want to address is that children inherit their parents’ character traits as a character tendency which becomes their own unless they undergo character reformation. Those who do not undergo this character reformation remain inhabitants of the lower regions of the mind in this world and continue on into the afterlife of eternity.
To me I read this as saying how
we must be able to choose which eternal path we will follow, heavenly of
hellish desires are going to determine it. God created the modern human with a
split brain. It is different from the
early ancients, which had a whole brain, but were unable to will to be with
God. They essentially had no choice of
loving God, because they didn’t know any other way of life besides heavenly
ways. Today we exist with the
opportunity to choose heave or hell as our destination in the afterlife. God
wants us to have free will, and so we now must experience some bad and some
good, and make decisions accordingly.
The next revelation is that the methods of regeneration must follow in order to prepare for heavenly life, how we must live our daily lives in orderly obedience to God through religion conscience. Thus we choose heavenly or hellish life in eternity by our cumulative choices, which form our permanent inner character as an immortal “spirit”. It also says that people who have good character enter heaven regardless of their religion or belief system.
This reminds me of a personal experience I had when my cousin passes away. I never was able to know her well because of a family feud, but I do know that her father was not a good man. At her memorial service, her father got up in front of the group to talk about his daughter’s life and how she will be missed. Rather, he began creating these nonsense stories about how God will send every non-Christian into hell. I thought that it was inappropriate in many ways. I also really disagreed with him and I am Christian! I thought that he was full of crap. Turns out that according to theistic psychology, and my gut instinct, that he is full of it.
The third revelation that I thought was very interesting is that animals are not immortal and their soul dissipates back into the spiritual world. Unfortunately animals cannot be immortal because they do not have the upper region of the mind known as the rational level. Animals do not have the freedom of will as humans do and therefore cannot be immortal. The spiritual world of eternity does however contain animals but they are there spiritually created animals and they have spiritual characteristics. This is a bittersweet piece of information to me because I am a god owner. I love my dog and I know he will probably not out live me. I am going to be very sad when this happens, but only out of selfishness. It would be more comforting to say that my dog will go to heaven, but this is not the case. On the brighter side, I will be able to have him in my eternal world whenever I want, just by thinking about him. It will be wonderful!
Next the revelation
that has to do with randomness (or chance) and evolutionary patterns such as
selection and adaptation, are in reality non-random but totally determined by
Divine-Human purposes involving love, good, value, wisdom, morality, truth,
justice, usefulness. These purposes also allow for their opposites when they
are received in the human mind and deliberately corrupted by free choice. For
instance, the variety and evolution of animal forms parallel and are constrained
by the variety and hierarchical structures of human affections, emotions, and
sentiments. Every species and genus, every homological structure, every
biochemical process is constrained by, and parallels exactly, the taxonomy of
the human mind-- its affections, thoughts, and sensations built up into
subjective agencies called "selves," living within cultures through
personality and society. Nature is a theater of the spiritual: Swedenborg gives
this principle a scientific basis.
Finally, the last revelation mentions that when we become inhabitants of the upper regions of the mind (called the Heavens) we live forever, we live as married couples (called the Conjugial Love unit), we live in a society, we operate spiritually in both spiritual body and mind, and this is totally different from how the physical body and mind operate. I think that heavenly life would be exciting in so many ways. We get to be married to our best friend and have a life that is truly rewarding and fulfilling.
Question 9: Google Swedenborg. What is your
impression of the activity around his name? Give examples.
Answer 9:
Swedenborgian Churches
It seems that when I did my google search, there were a lot of sites mentioning these new age Swedenborgian churches. There is a lot of activity in this field, also written as New Earth, new church and New Jerusalem. I am getting the feeling that they are not reading the Writings of Swedenborg with any regard to theistic psychology. Really, they have read the writings of Sweenborg and interpreted them to form religious movements. This is an excerpt from the website New Church
“In his writings, Swedenborg describes several spiritual eras in human history, calling them "churches". For example, the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden represents a stage of human development called "the Most Ancient Church." The story of Noah and his family, who survived a great flood, symbolizes a second stage of development called "the Ancient Church." Swedenborg also describes the Jewish and Christian religions as part of this development. It is important to notice that these "churches" are not buildings and not human organizations, but phases in a developing relationship between God and human beings.”
There also seems to be a lot of studious societies all over the world who read the Writings of Swedenborg, not in association to a religious context. There is a group in Australia that holds meetings and seminars discussing topics in Swdenborg’s experiences in the afterlife, and even has posted some articles inspired by Swedenborg’s life. If you are interested in this society, you can read more at Swedeborg in Australia
My impression of all of these websites is that none of them have grasped the idea of the levels of thinking through the correspondences, which are clearly outlined in theistic psychology. I get the feeling that they are passionately interested in Swedenborg’s writings but I think they somehow went astray from the purpose of the writings. I highly doubt the Swedenborg himself would approve of the New Church which basis it’s ideas out of the correspondential meanings, but yet have formed a religious group where it could be considered only at the Mystical Religious level of thinking. Clearly this is not the rational level of thinking that theistic psychology provides when learning bout the writings of Swedenborg.