Theistic Psychology, Non –Theistic
Psychology, and Science
By Ryan Inayoshi
Report Five for Sections 1.5.1
to 1.6.2
Question One: Summarize Section 1.5.1 "Students Speak Out on Swedenborg." Give your impressions and conclusions.
See section 1.5.1
Answer 1:
In this section, 1.5.1, students spoke
out on Swedenborg it seemed that their responses were
redundant. The big question was if Swedenborg should
be included in the history of scientific psychology. This question made them
think about answering things at the end of a semester, where Dr. James had
periodically mentioned Swedenborg throughout some of
the lectures where his findings were relevant. The result was that out of a
class with 23 senior psychology students 13 said yes he should be included and
10 said no, he should not.
Two
of the main reasons that the 13 students mentioned why they thought Swedenborg should be included in the history of scientific
psychology were spirituality and revelation, and God and religion. An example
from one of the student’s comments was, “Swedenborg
tried to bring spirituality into science. He contributes to the psychology of
the mind. Revelation as a phenomenon has not been disproven. Others who were wrong, were included
(like Freud), so why not Swedenborg? He gives a new
paradigm.” I thought this was a pretty good point.
Dr. James has developed an integrated theory of human behavior based on Swedenborg’s work and covered Swedenborg
throughout the semester in his course on the history of psychology. We are
generation 25, so that means 24 other generations have learned about this
stuff, and probably shared it with other people. So the word has been spread,
even though Swedenborg is still not well-known and
not included in psychology literature, Dr. James polled his students to see
what they thought about Swedenborg being included in
the field of psychology.
The
two main reasons why the 10 students gave for not including Swedenborg
in the history of scientific psychology were that science and religion should
be kept separate and Swedenborg belongs to religion
and secondly, Swedenborg’s experiences are not
provable, repeatable, or measurable. An example from one of the students who
said no is, “Swedenborg’s work is based on his
experiences alone and are personal. We have no means of measuring it. How would
we ever find out that what he said was true? That is understandable also
because like I’ve said in papers before, it’s hard for people to believe things
that they can’t see can be proven. Swedenborg has no
scientific basis so he cannot be included in psychology as science. Spirit,
mind, etc. are not concepts included in the definition of science (maybe
philosophy, religion?). How can we explain his concepts without hard core
evidence”.
I
think that all of the students made valid points because I feel that if I asked
10 people about theistic psychology that have taken this class already, the believability would be about 60/40. For the
perspective of the students who said no I feel they mainly came to this
conclusion based on what they have learned in their classes as what constitutes
a valid argument in science. It must be observable, repeatable, and testable. That’s
exactly how I felt in the beginning of the semester. With those definitions of
what can be included in science Swedenborg clearly
does not fit. On the other hand I think that those students who said his work
should be included in science are thinking with the things they learned from at
home and by their religion. They think he should be given the benefit of the
doubt because they believe in the things he is talking about and also it has
the possibility of being true.
Question Two: Section 1.5.1.2, "The Negative
Bias in Science," presents an extensive quote by a negative bias mode
psychologist (Bering). Analyze what he says. Make a conclusion in the light of
what you already know from the positive bias.
See section 1.5.1.2
Answer 2:
Negative Bias
Bering said that we have a cognitive bias towards considering the idea of a
soul, and insist on differentiating between our observable physical selves and
our unobservable mental selves. He recognized the important role that
spirituality takes in human life. He considers spiritual beliefs to be illusory
beliefs that developed in response to social pressures. These illusory beliefs
include psychological immortality and intelligent design of the self. He said
that we have a cognitive bias towards considering the idea of a soul, and
insist on differentiating between our observable physical selves and our
unobservable mental selves.
According to Bering, experiments show that prosocial
behavior is increased when participants are primed for the spiritual. Bering
explains that although it is plausible that these beliefs are passed down
through culture, describing it as a sort of virus, there is evidence that
suggests otherwise. He attributes this to the belief that current behavior will
have consequences in the afterlife.
Bering’s
analysis on the intelligent design of the self is that he suggests that one
consider that if God does not exist, then the unique self or soul of any given
person cannot be the product of intelligent design; rather, it is simply the
end product of standard mechanisms of genetic and environmental recombination.
Also he says that if there is no intelligent design then there is no
teleological function that one is designed to fulfill.
He
concludes saying there is evidence, although very limited, and good conceptual
grounds to argue that natural selection may have set to work on specific human
cognitive errors. These errors include simulation constraints leading to Type I
errors in reasoning about the afterlife, and that natural events were
intentionally caused by supernatural agents.
Positive Bias
Before
taking this theistic psychology course, I would have agreed with Bering and
probably commented that I could have told you that. I feel that Bering is
making these claims because he was initially assuming that God does not exist.
If he would have started his premises considering that God does exist it would
have lead him to a different conclusion. He would have seen that people are not
making up delusional accounts of the afterlife and the consequences for doing
bad deeds here in the physical world. He would have found that these
“supernatural agents” do have an effect on the natural events through the laws
of correspondence.
Ideas about God, psychological immortality, and the importance of our
behaviors are an inseparable part of human thinking because humans are
inseparable from God and are connected to him through our minds. From the
positive bias, these beliefs are not illusory and they are “hardwired” into our
minds to the degree that they are not because of a naturally selected cognitive
error as Bering argues. Spiritual ideas can’t be displaced from the mind, only
overridden, because God cannot be separated from the human mind, which he
creates and powers.
Overcome your bad habits
Bering’s perspective is the lowest because he is denying reality to the
greatest degree possible and purposefully brings truth in weird directions,
like saying that spiritual beliefs come from natural selection. People prefer a
spiritual model of the self and God from the positive bias because it is so
essential to existence and good and truth, the infrastructure of the universe
and the mind, that it is painful to deny it. Even people living in low
rationality don’t like to go against this basic truth. It takes determination
and stubbornness to deny God or reality by thinking in the negative bias.
Question Three: Select a few concepts from Section 1.5.1.3 "Outline
of Swedenborg's Spiritual Psychology" and
discuss them with a friend or two. What observations did you make from this exchange. which concepts are most interesting to you?
See section 1.5.1.3
Answer 3:
Cat got your tongue?
I tried to talk to my friends about some of the topics listed. My first
friend Jon, talks a lot, but he didn’t know what to say. He thinks that this is
unusual because he is not religious, but thinks there’s a God. He just can’t
see what I understand. All of my friends had the same reaction. When science is
able to explain these supernatural phenomena and events, they will stop being
supernatural things. Today, extrasensory perception and the paranormal are our
supernatural. My friend believes that these sorts of phenomena will be
explained by science eventually, just like fire and earthquakes have been.
Challenge
While
I was explaining these things about Swedenborg to one
of my female friends, she seemed very interested. At first when all she knew
was that Swedenborg’s claims of being conscious in
both worlds at the same because I’d have conversation’s
about it when we go drinking at the bar. Sometimes she had this on her face
that screamed, ‘this guy was a complete psycho’. I knew the topics of heaven
and hell would make her interested so I chose to explain those to her rather
then the deeper theistic psychological topics such as the positive and negative
bias, degrees of the mind and the levels of operations. While I was talking
about heaven and hell her whole attitude of what I was telling her changed. She
was amazed when I told her that God does not “judge” people and send them to
hell but, rather they choose to be in the hells of their mind because they
cannot give up their characteristic traits that make them
love the way that they are.
I
think my friend was interested in what I was telling her because she loves
philosophy, and this really made her think and rationalize rather than just
having it explained to her about theistic psychology. It challenged her
think and understand them rationally. I did this due
to my past experience with speaking to friends about theistic psychology. Some
of my friends like that challenge of debate, so that’s what I gave them.
Here’s what People Need to Understand:
From talking with my friends, I can see that it’s common to think that God
and spirituality are by nature irrational and intuitive and not meant to be
understood or explained. People say that God and spirituality are not meant to
be understood. I think that idea is silly because how can an idea, method,
system, or perspective be of help to people if they can’t understand it. I
think that everything is meant to be understood. If there is no way for any
person at any time to understand an idea or a piece of writing, it is
meaningless nonsense.
I guess most people have it suck in their brain that one system is
irrational and the other is not. People are not used to thinking that God and
science could be compatible. Irrational systems do not work with rational
systems, it is true. I guess the key step is for people to see that
spirituality is rational.
Question Four: Section 1.5.1.3 also contains a "narrative
account" in which there is a discussion with angels about what people on
earth know about heaven and hell. What is your impression of this? Give an
interpretation as best you can at this point in your study of theistic
psychology.
Answer 4:
See section 1.5.1.3
What Angels Know of Earth
The people in heaven know that there is an Earth and that there are people
there who will end up in eternity, but that is all they seem to remember. We
the students of Dr. James’ class, also know that there is a world of eternity
and that there are people there, and we will go there too when we die, but that
is all most people really know. In the mental world, they have the same fuzzy
awareness of us. Resuscitated people are now fully spiritual people and the
spiritual world is separated from the physical by discrete degrees. For this
reason, too, they would only have a dim awareness of Earth. It is striking how
little the people in heaven remember of Earth and their experiences here. Dr.
James said that when we are resuscitated, we loose our database of sensuous,
time and space bound information, and really forget our lives.
On Earth, as people grow and change they forget what it was like to be in an
earlier stage, and we are sometimes amazed at what other people do not know
even though we did not know either when we were in the same place they were.
So, it makes sense that the people in heaven would not remember because they
are in an entirely different state.
Darkness in their minds
The thing that sounded crazy was how the angels saw only blackness when they
looked down on the Earth, while Swedenborg, who was
in both worlds at once, could see the people below trying to destroy the
message from heaven by tearing it up and stomping on it. Those people were
living in the hells in their minds. They do not see what is good and true and
are shut off from their spiritual mind, so they hate the truth and destroy it
in their minds. They do that because it is incompatible with what they believe,
so they do not recognize it either as being the truth or as being
valuable.
The people begging to see a miracle shows the sensuous nature of their
understanding of God and life, which is how they could tear up the paper in the
first place and continue wanting to follow delusions and attachments.
How can they not Know
Their reaction to everything he says about knowledge on Earth is pretty
much, “How can they not know?!” Swedenborg says this
literally when the angels question him further about what people on Earth know.
Swedenborg says that it is because people on Earth to
not align their wills with God’s will and continue on living hellishly and
non-rationally instead of trying to become better people and trying to grow
closer to God.
Swedenborg’s accounts and the ideas of theistic
psychology have, for the most part, got the same reception that the message the
angels dropped from heaven did.Since the people in
heaven requested Swedenborg to write the information
down and give the people all these spiritual ideas that they do not know, I’ll
assume that this is a passage from one of his earliest Writings and that this
happened before he started writing.
What was pretty ironic is the comparison of the paper shown brilliantly in
heaven and turned black by the time it got to Earth, and Swedenborg’s
Writings, which from the perspective of theistic psychology are full of truth,
were rejected when they were published. He could not get anyone to read them,
just like no one liked what was on the paper.
Question Five: Summarize what is said in Section 1.6
"Spiritual Psychobiology." How does this relate to what you already
know about the field of psychology?
See section 1.6
Answer 5:
Basic Psychology
Within Swedenborg’s Writings on theistic science,
are the common ideas that today’s theories share. The section on spiritual
psychobiology says that Swedenborg’s Writings are
precursory for contemporary psychology. The fundamentals of psychology, no
matter which school of thought is under discussion, say that actions consist of
both affective and cognitive components. This is what Swedenborg
proposed in his book Rational Psychology.
Psychobiology of the spirit
These mental operations are spiritual and separate from the physical brain
and body, which they affect. Swedenborg describes
these three interconnected components of behavior as the will, or the affective
organ, the understanding, or the cognitive organ, and the sensorimotor organ, which executes the appropriate
action according to the combined information from the feelings and the
thoughts. Since everything that exists has a form, and thoughts exists
undeniably even thought they do not exist physically, there must be a form that
they take. They must be made of something, in other words.
This spiritual material is what everything in the mental world is
constructed of. So, the affective and cognitive spiritual operations take place
within the affective and cognitive spiritual organs, which are constructed of
spiritual material. Since the mental world is eternal, its materials must be
eternal. Since the human mind is constructed of eternal substances, it is
immortal, while the physical body is not.
Each part of the physical body is shaped how it is and works how it does
because of the shape and function of the correspondent part in the spiritual
body. Just like the physical brain contains structural components where
functions occur, so does the mind. In fact, every structural component of the
physical body has a corresponding spiritual component from which it derives its
form.
The entire mental world takes this shape as well, and different communities
of people who share the same willing and thinking patterns correspond with and
make up the different body parts of the human shaped mental world. Similarly,
each thought takes the form of the human shape just as God also has a human
shape. So everything is consistent and it adds up on both ends like an
equation. The world is neat, orderly, and consistent, and biology is a major
part of Swedenborg’s rational psychology.
Medicine
I think that theistic psychology would agree because any problem isn’t
caused in the physical or in the physical brain. Biology is a major part of
contemporary psychology, since most people receiving treatment today are
probably on medication.
The problem is always with the way a person is feeling and thinking. Those
patterns can be changed, in most cases, and changed in most cases without the
use of medication. The medication just interferes with the person’s signals
from the spiritual world so they never get to work on their issues.
Theistic Psychology and Two Additional Contemporary Approaches
The biggest problem with Freud’s theories, though, is that they just don’t
work. There is no practical way to counsel people. Freud is all about
motivations and secret desires as being the basis of all human action. I think
Freud would have it in the same order as Swedenborg
does: feeling, thought, then action. I know that any kind of psychodynamic
method is based on Freud, but I think that stuff is weird and just too
complicated to be practical, and I’m not really sure how anyone says it works.
Or if anyone says it does. But part of it, I guess the good part of it, agrees
with Swedenborg.
From there, they say that the feelings and motives will change according to
a new pattern of thinking and behaving. The cognitive behaviorist take on it
would be, I think, to disregard the feelings and the motives or the affective
organ and to work on changing maladaptive thoughts and actions. If a person
changes their thoughts, the feelings will change in accordance with them.
Eventually, by making outward reform and modifying the thoughts, the
feelings will naturally change because it takes a thought to will them to. Although
theistic psychology says that thoughts are caused by feelings and motivations,
I think it would agree because a person needs to rationally think about the
emotions that they are feeling in order to change them. The person overcomes
their maladaptive, hellish feelings by thinking rationally about how they
should feel and think, so the two perspectives agree, really.
Question Six: Study Section 1.6.1 "Three Levels of
Behavior." Based on that discussion, and your own limited knowledge of the
field, explain the major differences between non-theistic psychology and
theistic psychology. You can also consult other Sections, e.g., Section 2.3
"Is theistic psychology really science?" at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/ch2.htm#Q2
See section 1.6.1
Answer 6:
The
Difference between Non-Theistic and Theistic
Psychology
In
theistic psychology a psychologist does not just invent there own theories like
they do in non-theistic psychology. You must be able
to corroborate the theories in two ways. The first way is called Theoretical.
It means that any new theory must not contradict the rational structure that
has already developed by lawful extraction from the scientific revelations in
the Writings of Swedenborg. Instead, it must enrich
it by explaining more then what has been explained so far about any topic in
human behavior. Other psychologist must be able to comprehend and corroborate
the new theory by confirming it with the writings of Swedenborg
for consistencies and acceptability. The other way is called predictive. It
says that every theory or model must also be able to predict new data about
human behavior and must explain related data that other psychologist may bring
in.
There
are many contradictory explanations of portions of human behavior. As one may
know this is not the case in non-theistic psychology. In my cognitive psychology
class that I am taking right now I can give examples of cases where there are
theories out there that are studying and thought by psychologist that are
contradictory and non is known to be the “truth”. They can tell us which seems
“more correct” but cannot definitely give us a correct theory.
Question Seven: Discuss your answer of question 6 with a
friend or two. What is your conclusion?
See section 1.6.1
Answer 7:
Discussion
with my philosopher friend, again
I
decided to discuss the difference between non-theistic psychology and theistic
psychology, in which in theistic psychology theories must be drawn from
scientific revelations and must all agree with them. She argued that this is
contradictory to what a theory is all about. If in non-theistic psychology
there was a rule that all theories must come from the writings and experiments
of Freud, and they all must agree with them we would not get anywhere as a
science. In science a scientist comes up with a theory only after he has
studying the problem at hand, done sound research, and has the empirical
evidence to back up his/her claims. We learn from other people and from that
better experiments are made and our understanding
of the processes deepen.
My
Conclusion
I think that God has a plan for everything, and things are the way they were
meant to be. I think that when it comes to understanding the operations of the
physical body and brain it is alright to have conflicting theories. This is not
however okay for the working of the mental mind and spiritual world. This is
our species way of growing and learning from each other, each scientist trying
to get closer and closer to the real workings of the brain. God wants us to be
able to know exactly how it works and for it to make scene to all readers, not
confusing them with contradictory theories. That is why I feel only one
psychologist, Swedenborg, was able to write on the
inner workings of the world of eternity. From
his writings can only all other theories come from because they were not his
own writings but from the Divine Psychologist. They are the
actual operations so all things must also agree and originate from them.
Question Eight: Discuss the "transmissive model" (or "transmission
theory") of the mind by William James in Section 2.3. He was familiar with
Swedenborg's Writings from his father, who wrote a book
about him. Do you see a connection between substantive dualism and the model of
William James?
See section 1.6.2
Answer 8:
Two Rational Perspectives
William James recognized two perspectives in respect to the brain and mind.
The first model is the transmission model. From this perspective, the brain
simply functions as a transmitter and does not produce the thoughts and mind at
all. According to this model, the physical mind is constructed of physical
matter while mind and conscience are ‘transmitted’ through it.
The alternate one is called the productive model and the other is the
transmission model. James considered each of these perspectives to be equally
logical and valid. From the productive, materialistic model, the physical brain
produces thoughts and what people experience as the mind. From this
perspective, the thoughts and mind die along with the physical brain since they
are its product. This is the perspective that most scientists, psychologists,
and educated people tend to accept.
Transmission Model
For a clearer perspective, we’ll use Dr. James’ example. Let’s think about
this model in terms of a radio. Without the transmission, the radio is dead. It
is a hunk of metal and parts. But the transmission never stops. Even when the
radio is off or when it is broken, there are radio waves traveling through the
air at all times.
The brain and body are temporary and cannot function without the mind, or
the spiritual body. When the brain and body eventually stop working, the mind
and consciousness remain because they were never a part of the body in the
first place, but only animated it. That is what happens regarding the mind and
brain according to the transmission model, too. The radio is analogous to the
brain and the transmission is analogous to the mind and consciousness. This
model allows the concept of immortality to be potentially scientific.
Substantive dualism
This explains the phenomena that Bering is confused about. That is, why
people have a concept of mind, consciousness, or soul that they perceive as
being immortal and separate from the physical body. Since this is a basic part
of human experience and perception of self, it is simpler to think that this is
actually the case instead of attributing the perception to an illusion or a
cognitive error that cannot be shaken.
Since the transmission is spiritual, that is being transmitted by God, and
it is the mind, the natural next question to ask is, ‘Where is it?’ and the
natural response is the spiritual world, since that’s where all spiritual
things are. The model also fits what Swedenborg and
theistic psychology say about substantive dualism. In fact, it really is
substantive dualism because it is saying that the physical world is a shell
animated by a spiritual mind.
The transmission model would agree that the mind is immortal. It would also
agree that the mind is spiritual and constructed of spiritual substances. This
model would also agree that God exists and affects the world. The transmission
model stops there, but substantive dualism easily picks up where it leaves off
and continues seamlessly.
Question Nine: Discuss your perceptions of how other students in
this class (G25) are adjusting intellectually to the positive bias perspective.
Read some of their reports and include that with what you observe in class.
Answer 9:
Confusion
People who have religious beliefs accept religious beliefs, not any rational
argument. I think that some people in class were already comfortable with the
positive bias. People with religious beliefs in general are happy when theistic
psychology supports the literal sense and ritual sense of their religions, but
automatically reject what does not because it has the appearance of not
supporting their previously held beliefs, not for a rational reason. A few of
my classmates mentioned in their reports and in class that they grew up in a
religious community and that the positive bias was a constant part of their
experience.
Religious people have trouble seeing God as a scientific concept or as being
outside of their religious beliefs and larger than their religious beliefs. I
think that the problem may be that they’re confusing theistic psychology with
religion and trying to match it up with their religious beliefs more than
objective, empirical information that they observe themselves and that they
know about through readings for classes.
Clean slates
Other people who don’t have a religious background seem like they can get a
grip on the concepts better. Any block from this, whether it is from religion
or other semi-rational system or the traditional scientific negative bias
effects understanding of theistic psychology or certain parts of theistic
psychology for me. More important than any particular beliefs, though, I think
is simply a willingness to have fun thinking about the ideas and really
considering them. Simply being open to the ideas and being willing to, as I
said, consider them, be curious about them, and just have fun studying them, is
the determining factor. Anyone can understand theistic psychology. I think that
if they say they cannot understand, they’re not trying to understand, myself
included.
Theistic Psychology
By Ryan Inayoshi
Week 13
Question
1: What are people talking about on the web or in the media when the say
the “Bible Code”? Explain it, then
show how it differs in the method and purpose from theistic psychology. Why is
the Bible code called blind in relation to theistic psychology/
Answer
1:
What
Is the “Bible Code”?
As
I explained in class, The Bible code is a commercial computer program that
allows anyone to search the Bible using the method of “equidistant letter
sequences” (ELS). The computer will then do some calculations and in a few
seconds deliver the information. The method that the computer is using to
calculate the information is by skipping X number of letters of certain
portions of the Old Testament and seeing what new words or phrases it can come
up with. It is done be the user giving specifications of the place and size of
the text sample to be analyzed, as well as the information wanted a name, date,
place, type of event, or a combination of these. I think this was a way for the
people to explain things that they couldn’t explain themselves.
Some
people have found things that startle them like the name of the Prime Minister
Rabin and the date that he was assassinated etc. Others claim that the Five
Books of Moses in the Old Testament contain all the details of the universe and
every individual. Critics of this bible code say that they can demonstrate
similar phenomena using any large sample of text. I think this is done so that
it puts their mind at ease about why things happen.
Differences
From Theistic Psychology
The
purpose of theistic psychology is to obtain the hidden messages in Sacred
Scripture so that one may undergo character reformation and thereby choose to
be in the heavens of their mind upon resuscitation. It is important to note
that the “Bible Code” research and activity is different from theistic
psychology and is not in any way part of it. They are different in their
purpose and methodology. The purpose of the bible code seems to be to find what
important bits of information the computer can manipulate out of sections of
the Old Testament.
Theistic
psychology is based exclusively on the method of correspondences with
enlightenment and the “Bible Code” does not fall into this category. The method
of correspondences with enlightenment is divinely specified in precise and
strict terms and do not allow for deviation in its absolute standard application.
This means that theistic psychology is not based on mechanical translation,
like the bible code, it is based on the ability to understand correspondences
in a rational or spiritual way, not natural. It contains the word enlightenment
which refers to gaining the ability to comprehend spiritual correspondences.
If
you are interested, anyone can do the extraction process of divine speech but
the results will not be genuine, contain enlightenment, unless two conditions
are met. The two conditions are that one’s purpose to discover what is given in
Divine Speech to assist in our regeneration or character reformation, from the
old inherited hellish traits to the newly acquired heavenly traits, and that
one applies the knowledge and reasoning of correspondences acquired exclusively
from the spiritual meaning of the Writings Sacred Scripture.
Question
2: Explain the relationship between layers of meaning hidden within
Sacred Scripture and the levels of human mentality or mind.
Answer
2:
Sacred
Scripture As Divine Speech
The
hidden meaning of Sacred Scriptures is Divine Speech from God. The ideas in
Divine Speech are transmitted to the entire human race simultaneously. The
Divine Speech, which is emanating from God’s mind, passes through the various
layers of the human mind. This is the origin and cause of human consciousness
and immortality. The writings of Swedenborg demonstrates that all of Sacred
Scripture is written in the style of Divine Speech which always contains
several discrete layers of meaning. Every human being regardless of culture or
religion has the same relationship to Divine Speech.
The
literal and historical meaning is pretty accurate and is divine. Due to this it
also contains deeper, more universal meanings that can be recovered or
reconstructed by applying the method of correspondences with enlightenment as
relieved in the writings.
Sacred
Scripture in the Human Mind
In
Sacred Scripture there are scientific layers of meaning that are contained with
in the literal meaning of every verse, phrase, and word. At each level of
understanding the literal, historical, and cultural meaning corresponds to a
deeper more rational, universal meaning. The way in which the layers of meaning
with Sacred Scripture, as Divine Speech, is related to the levels of human
mentality or mind is that they both are set up in discrete layers which are set
up according to rationality and level of consciousness.
People
who have elevated their rational consciousness to the highest level of the
human mind, called “heaven” can perceive and understand these celestial
meanings. If one is not at that level of consciousness the Divine Speech
proceeds from it and descends successively through the layers of the mental
world. The layers of the mind are analogous to the layers of Divine Speech as
Sacred Scripture. The Divine Speech from God enters the mind of every person
simultaneously in the form of unconscious spiritual ideas and concepts called
“celestial-rational correspondences”. They operate in the upper portion of the
organ called the celestial mind. First as I mentioned it enters our unconscious
celestial mind or third heaven, then it enters our unconscious spiritual mind
or second heaven, then in enters our spiritual-natural mind or first heaven,
and then finally into the three layers of the natural mind.
While
in the natural world of time and space the literal meaning of Sacred Scripture
must then be translated back through the correspondential
sense to rise the meaning it
back to the original sense. Each level that Divine Speech descends to is less
rotational and universal then the previous until it reaches the natural,
literal level as Sacred Scripture. This is the lowest level of understanding of
divine speech.
Question
3: Explain the difference between material and spiritual ideas or
concepts. Explain this difference to a friend. What is your conclusion?
Answer
3:
Difference
Between Material And
Spiritual Ideas
Through
the progress of studying theistic psychology we can however understand the
topics more and more spiritually. Materialistic refers to concepts in the
natural world. When we read the reports of Swedenborg
he is describing what he observed using spiritual concepts, however when we read
them at first we can only understand them in a natural and general way. This is
because our consciousness is at first immersed and restricted to the
materialistic concepts of the natural mind.
When
we hear this, being materialistic thinkers, we picture a bright sun shinning in
the spiritual world like our sun shines on earth again the reading says that
this image is strengthened when we picture the spiritual light and heat
emanating from it and till it reaches our mind and descends through the layers
until it reaches our natural mind while we are here in the physical world. Swedenborg wrote that he was able to see the Spiritual Sun
that hovers over the sky of the spiritual world.
There
is no actual space in our dreams and in our thinking, but only the appearance
of space. This point of view is strictly materialistic once you realize that
there is no space in the spiritual world, no places, which
involves sunlight going through space or air. We do however know what it
is like to be in a place where these conditions exist. It is like we are in our
dreams and imagination.
In
my dreams
After
discussing this concept with my friend Jon, I came to the conclusion that this
is a concept I can understand. I am having no trouble getting over my
materialistic approach to understanding spiritual concepts. I can see how it
relates to my dreams and so forth and how life in eternity will be like that.
From my own experience my dreams I am in various places all in the same dream.
I guess that since all you need to do is think of something or someone and you
are there in their presence that is how it can be.
I
felt like I had a good understanding of the topics that we have learned this semster in theistic psychology but after this I feel like I
have a lot more work until I reach this level of understanding. I think that I
need more information or examples so that I can better understand this. My
friend became interested and I think she might try and take a theistic
psychology class, if she has time.
Question
4: Explain the assertion that “there is only one mental world and we are
all in it”. How do you understand this? What difficulties did you encounter
when trying to explain this assertion to another person? What is your
conclusion? What are the consequences in your mind of this assertion?
Answer
4:
There
Is Only One Mental World
We
know that anything that does not exist in time and space like thoughts and
feelings must be in eternity. In the mental world is a world of thoughts and
feelings. These thoughts and feelings are not physical and are not in the world
of time and space. Therefore, our mental world is the world of eternity where
thoughts and feelings can exist. We are familiar with the mental world of
eternity. Our daily thoughts, feelings, and dreams exist there. In the mental
world, which we all share, one can just think of something and it appears in
their presence and when they stop thinking about it, it is removed from their
presence. There can only be one metal world because there is only one eternity
and they are the same thing.
When
we die and enter the afterlife of eternity we are conscious in the mental mind
and no longer conscious in the physical mind or in contact with the physical
world. I know it seems strange to think that the world of eternity or the
afterlife is similar to our thoughts, feelings, and dreams. However, when one
thinks logically it is the only place eternity can exist. This can also be
comforting to people who have lost someone they love dearly. However, the
emotional feeling of love and its thoughts and feelings associated with that
will be retained by us because they are not physical, but rather eternal for
they exist in the mental world of eternity.
My
Conclusion
When
I try to explain this to other people at first it kind of makes sense to them.
I have to get them to think rationally and explain that if our thoughts,
feelings, and emotions are not in our physical body or brain then they must be
in eternity because they are real and must exist some where. The more I explain
about thoughts and feelings being in the mental world, the better they
understand. I have no problem with understanding and accepting this assertion.
I know my thoughts are real and finally I have been told where they are
physically located or spiritually for that matter. The strange thing about this
is when one learns that ones thoughts are in the same place as everyone else’s
thoughts.
Before
I thought if I thought something I was only for me to know unless I shared it
with another person; now I know that is not the case. Thoughts, feelings, and
emotions are eternal and therefore exist in eternity, accessible to all who are
at the same level of consciousness as me. The consequences to this is that our thoughts, feelings
and emotions are not as private as we thought they were. Everyone in the
spiritual world of eternity has access to them.
Question
5: What is regeneration? How do you relate to the idea of
character reformation in your own life? How do you imagine yourself as a
“reborn self”? Would your friends like you better? Would you be a better
citizen or student?
Answer
5:
Regeneration
Regeneration
means that a person goes through character reformation which someone gets rid of
their inherited hellish traits to the point where they are in the exact state
of mind that they desire. It says that God uses Divine Speech as a method for
making scientific revelations to the human race. These revelations constitute
the knowledge of theistic psychology; its purpose or use is to increase our
understanding of the process of our regeneration. The tools needed for the
regeneration process to take place are found in the hidden correspondential
sense of Sacred Scripture in which Swedenborg explain
extensively in his Writings.
God
supplies the power and the know-how while we supply the willingness to go
along. God gives us the power to resist and pursue the enjoyments and
inclinations with which we are born with. When we do this we are using our
freedom of choice to choose to be in our inherited hellish traits like
selfishness, self-indulgence, greed, arrogance, etc. God also regenerates
everyone but only to the extent of each individual’s willingness to face inner
conflict that is attendant to character change.
The
reason why character reformation is so important was because when Swedenborg observed people who had just came out of
resuscitation they were very much themselves. When they reach the complete
point of immortality they feel impelled from within by their ruling passion to
abandon and reject everything in their mind that is not compatible with their
ruling love. Therefore, if one does not undergo character reformation to their
satisfaction they will choose to be in the hells of their mind upon their resuscitation.They had the same character traits, the same
loves and enjoyments, and the same ruling
passions.
Reborn
I
imagine my reborn self to be similar to how I am now. I do not necessarily
think that my friends would like me any better but I do feel that the average
person on the street will. You see I have the tendency to come off very loud. I
am a person who likes to make people laugh and generally am a lot of fun. Then
again, I make some poor judgements, and have some
hellish triats like gambling that I can’t get rid of.
I have been working on this and I feel I am making some progress. I think God
is trying to help me also, because I feel better about myself now.
It
has the possibility of also making me a better citizen although I do not feel
that I am a bad citizen right now. I think that most of my inherited hellish
traits would have to be more personal like greed, and jealousy. I am not a mean
or disloyal person rather I have the tendency to always want more I am curious
to see how character reformation would make me appear to myself and others
because the only person that I know who comes close to this description is my
grandmother, who is my hero. She is the most unselfish person I know. She
raised 5 children by herself, and worked 3 jobs to put them through school. She
even helped raise me, so I hope when I get old, I look
back and say “I was almost as good as my grandma”.
Question
6: Describe the three methodologies used in theistic psychology. Explain
the levels of extractive research. How are these levels related to our mental
anatomy or organs? How do you understand all this? What is the potential
significance of this method for generating new scientific knowledge?
Answer
6:
Three
wise Methodologies
The
three methodologies that are used in theistic psychology are applied,
predictive, and extractive. Applied research is when one uses the knowledge
from extractive and predictive research to improve various critical areas of
need in themselves and in society. The only true research in theistic
psychology is extractive research. Predictive research is when one tries to
construct rational theories out of their understanding of the knowledge gained
through extractive research. Extractive research is the systematic rational
effort to extract scientific meaning from Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech
using the method of correspondences with enlightenment.
2
Levels of Extractive Research
There
are two levels of extractive research. Extractive research is applied to the
natural-rational correspondences of the literal meaning of the Writings Sacred
Scripture. The first level is where one identifies the naked truths in the
literal sentences or the Writing Sacred Scripture. Naked truths are passages
that openly and plainly give scientific revelations at the surface level. These
naked truths are higher-order correspondences intermixed among the natural
correspondences. This first level of natural correspondences does not break
through the higher discrete level of correspondences but rather it serves as a
solid foundation for them.
The
second level of extraction cannot work without enlightenment as we have
discussed in previous questions. This level of extractive research helps to
elevate ones level of thinking with spiritual correspondences, which exist
within the natural correspondences that make up the literal sentences or the
Writings Sacred Scripture.
Main
purpose
My
understanding of the method of extraction is simple. It is the most basic and
widely discussed topic in this course. It is simple the way that one draws out
the true or hidden correspondential sense of Sacred
Scripture. It was also one of Swedenborg’s main
purposes for being conscious in the two worlds; to show us that there is a
deeper meaning that is found within the literal sense of all Sacred Scripture.
The potential significance for this method of generating new scientific
knowledge can be huge. I think that more scientist need to rationally analyze
the Writings Sacred Scripture using the extraction method, and tools provided
by Swedenborg, so that more awareness and studies can
accumulate from this.
Question
7: How do you understand the expression “style of Divine Speech”? How do
you understand that “Divine Speech exteriorized to the next layer of the mental
world”? How does this affect you as a unique individual today? Give the
“specific content of Divine Speech”. How do you react to the fact that this is
what God wants to talk to us about or teach us? Why are these things called spiritual? How important are
these things to society and the human race?
Answer
7:
Divine
Speech and me
As
I said in my presentation, the style of Divine Speech is rational, spiritual,
and universal meanings hidden with the literal, historical, and cultural
sentences of Sacred Scripture. This style of Divine Speech is easy for me to
understand as a concept but difficult if I were to try to extract it myself. This spiritual meanings can only be
found when one utilizes the method of extraction with enlightenment. The
readings say that Swedenborg even found it difficult
in the beginning to extract the hidden spiritual meanings without the bias of
the physical world when he first started this process.
This
had no effect on me personally until I started taking this course. Now I feel
that there is so much that I do not know about what God wants me to know and is
trying to tell me. I feel as if my celestial body or mind is in a classroom
where God is speaking to it and all I am getting out of it is what someone
outside the building receives when they read God’s lips, almost nothing of what
he is actually saying.
Divine
Speech
My
reaction to this is if God wanted to tell us something so important why does it
have to be hidden? I think maybe it’s hidden because
he only wants people who want to see it, be able to see it. Why do we need to
utilize higher-order understanding to get the true message? The specific
content of Divine Speech in itself contains infinite truths and principles in
every word as well as in the whole message.
This
can be as important to society and to the human race as one makes it. If they
are able to rationally understand it one will make it high on their priorty list. This is called
spiritual because there is no cultural or history, which are physical things,
in Divine Speech. One must use their celestial-rational mind to understand this
level of rationality. However, if they mock it and fell that it is all made up
and refuse to see the rationality of it they will toss it aside. The level of
importance is very high, but just as God does not force one to undergo
character reformation at any level higher then what they can handle, nor does
He requires them to understand the hidden meanings of Sacred Scripture at any
higher level then their rational ability.
Question
8: How does Theistic Psychology stack up as a science, according to its
own criteria and definition?
Answer
8:
Theistic
Psychology as a Science
From
what I have read thus far I feel that theistic psychology does stack up as a
science. Just as long as you can prove something with eveidence,
it can qualify as a science to me. The method that theistic psychology uses is
the method of correspondences with extraction to extract the underlying
scientific meaning that is hidden within the literal text.
Swedenborg
studying the afterlife empirically by direct observation and
by conducting experiments. His approach relied heavily on his
observations, interviews of people in the mental world of eternity, and by
controlled experiments. He wrote scientific reports daily on his findings and
conclusions and published them for the world to read and critique.
To
examine for one self if the writings of Swedenborg
are scientific or not one needs to examine the evidence of whether his
discoveries of correspondences is valid. One also must examine the evidence
which includes the way on which correspondences are used by Divine Speech in
Sacred Scripture which gives us the ability to raise our rational understanding
by extracting higher-order correspondences which are in Sacred Scripture.
Unlike other writings dealing with God and the afterlife Swedenborg
left nothing to faith or belief; if it did so we would not call it science
because science rejects what cannot be made sense of. This is why his
writings are so unique and also scientific.
Question
9: Who was Swedenborg? Give a brief
description of what you know so far. Should one believe Swedenborg?
Does it depend on belief or rational understanding and proof? What benefits are
there in studying Swedenborg’s theistic psychology,
which is hidden within the literal sentences of the Writings Sacred Scripture
that he authored? Do you think that he knew that his sentences were Divine
Speech contained in infinite knowledge that the human race could never exhaust?
Answer
9:
Swedenborg’s history
Swedenborg was born in
Have
some faith
From
my own personal experience I think that his writings are true and he did a fine
job at explaining complex ideas in a rational and scientifically understandably
was; far better than any religion here in the physical world. I feel that the
true question should not be if one should believe Swedenborg,
but if his writings are rational and makes sense to them. The reason for this
is that he does not require that one “believe” what he is saying, rather he
explains it in such a way that it is hard to deny. One is able to use their own
knowledge and level of understanding to come to their own conclusions. Like I
said about God, and sacred scripture, it’s up to the person to go out and get
what they are meant to have, the knowledge.
I
think that the benefits of studying theistic psychology are similar to that of
studying religion only in this case the bible stuff is taken out. By this I
mean I mean that I learned nothing about the bible, and everything about heaven
in the afterlife and hell. However, from theistic psychology we know that
studying Sacred Scripture is not the way to find the tools needed, rather one
needs to extract the hidden correspondential meanings
and use those for true character reformation so that upon resuscitation one
will choose to be in the heavens of their mind. I think that Swedenborg was well aware that his sentences were Divine
Speech. He knew that God was giving him the ability to be conscious in both
worlds simultaneously so that
My
Advice
Taking
this course was difficult for me as it was for others in my class, but that’s
only because there was a lot of reading and writing. I did understand what was
going on in class, and I liked the ideas of the mental world. I am not sure if
it is just my nature to give things the benefit of the doubt until I find a
good reason not to believe, but I believe it. My advice is that if you stay
open minded in the beginning and try to understand the concepts the best you
can, you will do fine.
If
you’re prepared for class by doing the weekly readings on time, Dr. James’
lectures and explanations will make more sense and you will have questions he
can clarify instead of being totally speechless when he asks if you have any questions.
The reading help very much. So do them on time.
The
most important piece of advice is to stay on top of your reports. They will
force you to push yourself to the limit, and challenge you to open yourself up
to new ideas you’ve never heard of. If you don’t keep up with your readings,
the pages pile up quickly and before you know it you’re behind, and confused.
Hope the next generation gets the concepts and enjoys this class!