REPORT 2:

My Understanding of Theistic Psychology

By: Brandon Chang

Instructions for this report are at:

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/459-g24-report2.htm

I am answering questions 1, 3, 4, 5, 6

View My Selections

Theistic Psychology Book

THE QUESTION I AM ANSWERING IS QUESTION 1

Section A: My Own Summary of The Selections

6.3.1.1.1 (I) Mental Biology

a) Mental biology is a very important topic to understand in theistic psychology because of the relevance it has to everything we do. Mental biology is how we understand the spontaneous movement of body parts. How do our eyes look at what we want to look at, or how our legs stand and walk. These are things that we do not think about doing, but according to mental biology there is a process of every movement that we do.

b) We can conclude that the movement done by our body is derived from our self. It is obviously our mind that is making us move. According to theistic psychology, it is our thinking in the cognitive organ and our motivational operations in the affective organ that make our body move in certain ways. Therefore our affective organ and cognitive organ must work together in order for us to act out the actions that we do. By saying this, we can say that there is also a connection between the mental mind and the physical body. This is what is referred to as symbiosis. Symbiosis is the connection between mental states and the physical world, which is part of biology.

6.3.1.1.1 (VIII) Divine Speech Descends Through the Discrete Degrees of Every Mind, and Forms Them

a) Spiritual freedom allows us to mature and construct our mind in the spiritual heavens. Everyone’s mind attempts to descend through the levels into the natural mind through the use of the Divine Psychologist. The whole purpose of this is to gain a conscious relationship with the Divine Being. There are three levels, which one must descend through. They are the corporeal, sensuous, and rational. The corporeal mind detects the physical body’s activity in the brain and through the sensorimotor system of its involvement with the physical environment.

b) All of our knowledge of God came from religion and all of religion is based on the knowledge of God on divine revelation. The way that we receive God’s knowledge is through Divine Speech, which enters the human mind. The people who are conscious of their eternity in conjugial heaven are aware of the descent because their spiritual mind is opened after the first and second death. The people who are still connected to their physical body in time and space, are not conscious of Divine Speech entering their spiritual mind. Swedenborg was able to hold his spiritual mind open while still on Earth. Thus, Swedenborg was able to have dual consciousness. This shows that God’s purpose was in making a process of how we receive knowledge through Divine Speech is a scientific form.

1.0.2 What is Substantive Dualism in Science

a) The dualist approach in theistic psychology basically says that the mind is of a different substance than the physical body, and lives or exists not in the natural world but in a world outside of space and time. This place that exists outside of space and time is called the spiritual world of eternity. While the physical body is alive, the mind and body work together through laws of correspondences. Feelings, thoughts, and sensations are all part of the spiritual world, while the electro-chemical firings of neurons are in the natural world.

b) Dualism says that thoughts and sensations cannot exist unless they are made up of some stuff that can operate somewhere in some functioning spiritual or mental organ. The things that they are made of is called rational ether. This rational ether surrounds the Spiritual Sun in the spiritual world. One way to think about dualism is that on the outside layer of the universe there is physical space, which is created by the natural sun and stars. On the inside, is the spiritual portion, which is not visible to the physical world. The substance that makes up this inside portion is the rational ether.

Section B: My Answers to The Five Questions

a)  Explain in your own words how you understand the phrase "mental biology" in theistic psychology. What makes theistic psychology "mental" and what makes it "biological"? You will need to include several related concepts to give an adequate explanation: e.g., evolution of consciousness, discrete degrees, and substantive dualism. You will need to explain these related terms as well before the whole is comprehensible. Is it important for a theory in psychology to be biological?

b) Diagram A in Section 6.3.1.1.1 is a portrayal of mental biology. Explain what elements of the diagram are useful for you, bringing out new aspects you haven't thought of yet. And what elements are problematic for you and why: Is the idea too vague? Does it contradict something you believe?

ANSWERS:

a) The term mental biology was hard for me to understand when I first heard about it.  It took me a little while before I understood what this term meant.  As we started to discuss this topic more in class, I could see how it was related to almost everything in theistic psychology.  Mental biology is a very important aspect in understanding certain things in theistic psychology and how they relate to other topics.

The way that I understand mental biology is that it is the basis of how our physical body is able to do things that we are subconsciously unaware of.  Some examples of this are looking at certain things or walking.  How do we know we are doing this?  It feels so natural to us to do these things, but if you think rationally, you must believe that there is somewhere that these actions and movements have derived from.  They could not have possibly have been created out of thin air.

We are able to move in our physical world through the meaning of mental biology.  In order for us to move, our affective organ and cognitive organ must work together in harmony.  Our cognitive organ is important in that it controls our thinking, which occurs in our mind.  Our affective organ is important because it is our source or motivation.  Thinking about it rationally, without the unity of these two organs we would not be able to create movement.  Using the example of walking, the cognitive organ, which is involved with thinking, is thinking about how to walk.  On the other hand, the affective organ is the motivational force that is giving the purpose for walking.  Therefore we are thinking and wanting to walk.  One may say how can this be possible, because they are not thinking about walking, but rather the legs just do it by themselves. 

This brings me to my next point about substantive dualism.  If one doesn’t understand the meaning of this, theistic psychology will not make sense at all.  Substantive dualism is the belief that there are two worlds.  The first world is the physical world and the second world is the spiritual world.  The physical world is where you see yourself everyday.  It occurs in time and space.  As for the mental or spiritual world, it does not exist in time and space and that is why it is eternal.  In the spiritual world there exists one’s feelings, sensations, and the mind.  By knowing about dualism will help explain why you don’t think about walking, and for some odd reason it just happens.  We are unable to see ourselves thinking about walking because it occurs in our mind.  Our mind is in our spiritual world, it exists neither in space or time.  The same goes for the motivation for walking, which is also not in time and space.  These things happen in the rational ether of the spiritual world.  The only ones that are able to see this are the ones that have passed through their first and second deaths.

From the spiritual world where these unconscious thoughts and motivations of walking come from is the whole process of how things in the physical world are the correlated to things in the spiritual world.  They are connected through the laws of correspondences.   Through the laws, one could say that what happens in the spiritual is some how portrayed in the physical world.  Thus, in order for something to happen in the physical world, it must have happened in the spiritual world prior. 

Overall, mental biology can be viewed as the process of how things are derived in the spiritual world and then to the physical world.  If one wants to go deeper into understanding mental biology, it goes further in that it shows all of the different pathways of how everything originates from God and is then filter through all these levels, and finally is exhibited in the physical world of time and space.  This is why mental biology is so important when discussing theistic psychology and actually understanding how it works and the meaning behind it.

After you get some basic knowledge of mental biology, one is able to explain what makes theistic psychology mental and biological.  Since theistic psychology is based on this principle of mental biology, we are able to rationally explain it. 

Theistic psychology becomes mental in many different ways.  As explained above, an obvious reason is that everything starts in your mental world.  But we must first accept the truth of substantive dualism.  The fact that everything originates in the mind, we must believe that theistic psychology deals with the mind.  It also is mental because everything from God descends through layers in the mental world.  These layers are the corporeal, rational, and sensuous levels.  We do not see what goes on in our mind because it is in neither time nor space. 

These are the reasons why we must understand that theistic psychology is mental.  It is a simple understanding of dualism and how the mind works through the mental world and physical world.  It may not be as obvious to someone who doesn’t believe these things, but to someone who does, it makes logical sense that theistic psychology is mental.

Theistic psychology is not only mental but encompasses a biological aspect.  To prove that it is biological is difficult.  Again, one must accept the theory of dualism.  It is biological because it deals with the brain.  The brain exists only in the spiritual world.  In the brain during a persons thought processes neurons are fired through electrical bursts which makes our whole physical body work.  The only way for the brain to receive these impulses is through the mind.  The mind is the origin of action and then it is sent through the laws of correspondences to the brain, which in turn does the physical part.  Another reason why theistic psychology is biological is that it deals with the body.  This is an obvious example of why it is so.  If theistic psychology wasn’t biological, how could one understand the process of the mind and the physical body.  The only way we are able to understand is through time and space, which is where our physical body exists.  In the physical world we are able to see and understand what goes on.  From this we are able to put together the pieces and come up with an explanation of how things work.  It shows proof to those still in the negative bias.

These are the reasons that I was able to conclude from reading and understanding the term mental biology and how it relates to theistic psychology.  There are so many difficult questions that can be answered through theistic psychology.  This just proves how important mental biology is and how it is both mental and biological.

b)  There are many elements that are useful to me in understanding how everything works in theistic psychology.   I think that everything in this diagram is helpful because it shows you where everything belongs.  For example, how God is the Divine Human and omnipotent.  That is the reason why God is on the top of the diagram.  As it descends through the diagram it shows how everything is connected to each other.  It explains how God is able to spread his knowledge through spiritual heat and light to organs, which in turn correlate to the physical world.  This flow from God to the physical world is really easy to understand by looking at the diagram. 

Another good thing about this diagram is that it shows both the spiritual world and physical world.  It is not a one sided chart, and this makes it a lot easier for one to understand the whole picture of how everything works according to theistic psychology.  I like the fact that it shows where everything goes, and what belongs to the spiritual world and what belongs in the physical world.

The only problem that I have with this diagram is the fact that there are a lot of things on it.  You must understand the meaning and purpose of everything on this diagram before you can understand the whole thing.  I have been lucky to take this class and discuss and learn about all these different things.  As for a new comer in this field I think that it would be very difficult for them to grasp it.  Another thing that is difficult to grasp is the influx lines.  As for me, I know that they exist, but understanding the possibility of it is rather hard.  But learning about it in class has made it a little easier to grasp.

I don’t think that this idea is too vague because as I explained before, there are a lot of things on this diagram.  Being that there are a lot of things on here shows that it is not to vague.  All of these things need to be on here in order to understand it.  Without some of these things, it would be hard to grasp the idea and get a solid basis of how everything works in theistic psychology. 

By learning this diagram I have opened myself up to the possibility of theistic psychology.  Prior to this I had no idea of how any of these things worked.  To be really honest I didn’t really care.  Learning this has not contradicted anything I believed in because I really didn’t know what to believe, and I had no beliefs about it.  I’m glad that I have learned this because it has expanded my knowledge to other possibilities and have gave me some answers to questions that I have always pondered.

THE QUESTION I AM ANSWERING IS QUESTION 3

Section A: My Own Summary of The Selections

2.14 What is Applied Theistic Psychology

a)  The whole purpose of theistic psychology is to teach people how to think rationally about themselves and their projects.  Our reality is constructed by God on a rational basis.  When we think rationally, we are able to go on with life and change things about ourselves that we always wanted to change.  We can look at ourselves through the Divine Psychologist and be able to modify our character.  This process of self-modification is called regeneration of character.

b)  The most important step is to accept theistic psychology as a valid explanation to things.  The most important goal in theistic psychology is regeneration of character.  By regenerating our character we are able to rid ourselves of selfishness, carelessness, laziness, negative traits, bad habits, and rebel against moral imperfections.  It is a biological property of humans and their minds, and we understand how these traits can be passed on through our offspring.   Thus, theistic psychology tries to perfect these traits so that we are able to pass them on and understand them for ourselves.

6.0.5 Spiritual Growth:  How the New Will is Formed

a)  The will refers to the operations of the affective organ.  They deal with our intentions, motivations, goals, purposes, impulses, propensities, inborn preferences, enjoyments, satisfactions, affections, and loves.  These things are mentioned in Sacred Scripture as love and will, but in theistic psychology we use the term character.  Our eternal state of mind can be composed only of our loves, and anything that our loves want around.

b)  Spiritual growth is how we can truly discover and understand ourselves.  Our loves is what rules our mind and can either destroy or enhance it.  It is very important to understand that in the second death our loves play a big role.  It is where we either keep or let go of all the good or all the bad.  If our ruling love is our old will we were born with, then we are compelled at this point to immerse our consciousness completely into the loves of the old will.  This is called descending into the hell of your mind.  If we have the new will, we are able to give up any love which is the old will.  Giving up any love without exception is important in dealing with things like selfishness, unfaithful in marriage, pride, and hatred of innocence.  With the new will we will become happy and able to give up loves, so when the second death arrives we are in the heavens of our mind.

2.3.4 Who is to tell us what are good traits and what evil?

a)  There are two places where we can look and figure out what constitutes good and evil.  The two places are human, and Divine.  We look at what is good and bad in human terms and what is good or bad in Divine terms.  Anything derived from humans is fallible and potentially erroneous.  Anything that is said about good and evil can be debated as time passes.  Even though there may be evidence to a humans theory, there is still room for error.  As for the Divine aspect, revelation is in the form of Sacred Scripture or Divine Speech which enters the conscious natural mind of a chosen individual who was prepared for receiving it.  Divine Speech is the source of our rational ideas that are based on spiritual reality, not natural appearances. This is how the succeeding generations knew that there is God, heaven and hell, and what we must do to avoid hell and enter heaven.  The only scientific revelations are the ones done by Swedenborg, which comes to us through the rational mind of a scientist and not through mystical dictatioin understood by the prophet, as in the case with the Old and New Testaments.

6.3.1.1.1 (VII)  The Economics of Immortality

a)  This is a compilation of things that occur in the heavens of our mind and the hells of our mind.  It gives specific examples of what can be considered heavenly and hellish.

Chapter 6 Personality Theory

a)  Personality theory in theistic psychology has an organic basis which says that each person is born with a unique mind or spiritual body.  The mind is in the spiritual world and is made out of things from the Spiritual Sun.  The Spiritual Sun and mind are essentially the same but is unique for each individual.  The environment in the spiritual world is a mental or rational environment that is constructed from feelings and thoughts in our mind.

Section B: My Answers to the Five Questions

(a) Why is the topic of "regeneration" so basic in theistic psychology?

(b) What are the "character reformation" steps of building a "new will"?

(c) What is the difference between the "old will" and the new will?

(d) What are "heavenly" vs. "hellish" traits?

(e) How does this relate to personality theory in psychology as you know it.

ANSWERS:

a)  Regeneration is a very important aspect to understand in theistic psychology.  Regeneration involves the changing of one’s self.  A key to regeneration is the modification of self.  This means that we are able to change and let go of our loves for the betterment of ourselves.  This involves letting go of our selfishness, moral imperfections, laziness, and bad habits that we all have.  We were born with hellish traits and heavenly traits, which is a logical natural consequence.  Our job is to be able to know what they are and be able to change what needs to be changed. 

What makes the topic of regeneration so basic in theistic psychology is that it something that we need to accomplish.  It is an easy and rational way of changing yourself for the better.  This is what determines what happens to us in the future in our second death.  It is simple to understand because we do it everyday by self-witnessing.  We work in conjunction with the Divine Psychologist and we are able to do the process of regeneration.  If we are able to change the hellish traits in our minds we have traveled one step closer to achieving the ultimate goal of being in the heavens of our mind.   Being in the heavens of our mind makes it a lot easier when it comes to our second death and we need to rid ourselves of our loves that determine hell or heaven in our minds.  

It doesn’t take a scientist to understand the concept of regeneration because it is natural for humans to do it.  By stepping back and reflecting on yourself, and working with the Divine Psychologist who is always present, one can assess their flaws and strength.  Due to the fact that regeneration plays a big role in theistic psychology and the amount of effort it takes just to understand what it entitles makes it so basic in accordance with theistic psychology.

b)  There are a few steps in character reformation and developing a new will.  The first step is to be able to think rationally.  This is very important because without the basis of a rational mind, none of this would make any sense.  The next step is to be able to accept the fact that the Divine Psychologist is always with you.  Not only must you understand that the Divine Psychologist is with you but also to know that you must work with him in order for you to see and understand what needs to be changed. 

The next step is important because it entitles you to understand the difference between what is hellish and heavenly.  Ultimately, we are trying to rid ourselves of the hellish traits so that we can set ourselves up for the moment in the second death where we need to make that life changing decision.  So what is hellish and what is heavenly one might ask.  There are two places where you are able to find out.  One place is in humans and the other is from the Divine.  What comes from the Divine is where we need to learn and understand what constitutes hellish and heavenly.  In the human realm everyone has different views, and as humans we are vulnerable to making mistakes.  Whereas the Divine is constant and it comes from God.  Thus we know that what comes from God is right because he is omnipotent and the Divine Being. 

After distinguishing heavenly and hellish we are now headed to our most important and toughest part.  In this step we need to understand that we must throw out those hellish traits that we have.  Whether we have had it since birth or acquired them through life we need to identify and be able to delete them.  This all works with the Divine Psychologist and self-modification.  It is very hard to get rid of our loves but some of are loves are hellish and need to be trashed.  This is indeed difficult because they are your loves and we want to have them, but in order to achieve a new will we need to take this step.

After this step we are able to start our new will.  We are able to start adding in heavenly traits as the hellish ones have exited.  Our new will began at the point where we were took the step of throwing out our first hellish trait.  The new will keeps growing as we advance and better ourselves from the hells of our mind to the heavens.

c)  There are a few differences between the old will and the new will.  The old will is what we were born with.  Our will is our character, and we were all born with it.  It houses more hellish traits than the new will because we didn’t know better when we were born.  As we move one through life our old will acquires different hells and heavens through our experiences.  In our old will we are unable to let go of our loves because it means to much to us, and our mind isn’t ready to take that next step of reformation.

The new will is where we achieve and start our character reformation.  As stated before our will is like our character.  By changing our character through regeneration we are able to acquire more heavenly traits compared to the old will.  This is because we understand what needs to be done to throw out the hells.  Since we don’t acquire the new will until we start the process of regeneration, our new will can be looked at a a change.  A time where we change the evils in us which essentially means that we are changing our character and thus our will.

d)  Heavenly and hellish traits can be described as evil and good.  Like I mentioned before, everyone has their own opinion on things because we are human.  If we look at the Divine aspect we can know what is heavenly and hellish.  Hellish traits are things that deal with the sake of self.  Heavenly traits are for the sake of God.  Since God is divine we know that it is heavenly and not hellish where as if we do things for ourselves it is hellish because we have hellish traits that can inspire us to do hellish things.  Ultimately, heavenly and hellish traits will determine where we end up in the afterlife.  This will all be decided at the second death.

e)  This relates to the personality theory because it recognizes that everyone is different.  Everyone is unique in their own way, and everyone has their own hellish and heavenly traits.  Not one person is the same, and this shows why we need character regeneration and a distinguishing factor between hellish and heavenly traits.  If everyone was the same then we could say that if everyone changes the same things then we can all be heavenly.  That is not the case with the personality theory.  This is the reason why we need to work with our own Divine Psychologist and figure out what we need to change.  The more hellish traits we can get rid and acquire heavenly traits and then pass those on, then the easier it will be for others the start off with more heavenly traits.  Maybe eventually rid the world of hellish traits.

THE QUESTION I AM ANSWERING IS QUESTION 4

Section A: My Own Summary of the Selections

1.8.4.2 What is God Talking to Us About?

a)  Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech is a very high concept of rational thinking.  This concept of thinking is still rationally inferior to that which sees Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech filtered down to earthly minds, and from there written down by the writer as one writes down someone’s dictation.  If we are able to understand that Divine Speech is put into Divine Scripture so that we as humans can be connected to God and learn his ways is a deeply rational thought.

b)  The word of  God is also known as Divine Speech which is descended into a natural language through the natural mind of a prophet.  The process of Divine Speech into a way into which we can understand must go through layers through the laws of correspondences with enlightenment.  The layers of the mind operate by means of correspondences at each level and define and delimit consciousness and rationality levels.  The third heaven or celestial level is the highest level of rationality for any human.

1.0.1.3 Revelation:  Divine Speech Exteriorizing as Sacred Scripture

a)  The purpose of Divine Speech is to create and maintain everything in a rational order that serves God’s purpose of love.  Our first physical encounter with the Divine Speech is through the Divine Scriptures, which we absorb through our natural mind when we read it.  It is shown to us in songs, prayers, stories, and lessons.  Thus we learn Divine Speech in a natural and physical way.  Divine Speech enters our mind through the third heaven.  Next it will enter our second heaven, and next our first heaven.  After it descends through the first heaven it enters our natural mind as the Sacred Scripture.

3.7.2 Correspondences in Sacred Scripture and Divine Speech

a)  This is a diagram that shows the levels of meaning of Divine Speech in Sacred Scripture and what mentality level it is at.  In the first level it is the Old Testament.  Here they discus how the people thought about it.  A general overview of this was that if you did not follow God’s ways you would be punished, and that the book had special powers in it and only certain people could acquire them.  In the second level, which is the New Testament, they mentioned that the relationship with God is on a personal level.  Also that Sacred Scripture is God’s word given my special people that God selects.  In the third level, which is Swedenborgs writings, the relationship with God is on a particular level.  God is the Divine Human and that he creates and manages all events in the minutest detail, including the growth of human minds, and thinking operations of every unique individual from birth to our immortal eternity.

b) The basis of theistic psychology is to systematically extract layers through correspondences in the Sacred Scripture.  The process of extraction has to follow certain rules governed by the writings.

3.7.1  The Science of Correspondences

a)  Swedenborg discovered a more rational and systematic way of extracting meaning and data from the spiritual world and God.  It is like a hidden message within the text but one needs to be able to crack the code.  A sentence can be given that makes no sense, but when you can decode certain words in it, it will make perfect sense.

b)  An easy way to understand how correspondences work is to think of how spiritual events cause natural events.  In the laws of correspondences, certain spiritual events are able to depict certain natural events.  Swedenborg was the only one who could figure out the code because he was the only one that could live in both worlds at the same time.  An example of this could be the word water.  In natural terms it is a liquid, etc.  But in the spiritual world water is the equivalent of truth.  This is how one can decode the Sacred Scriptures.

c)  This passage simply states that if we are trying to figure out the Sacred Scripture, we must first be able to extrapolate what certain words mean.  We need to figure out that if a certain thing happens in the natural world then what has actually happened in the spiritual world.  Until we can do this we will most likely misinterpret the Sacred Scriptures.

Section B: My Answers to the Five Questions

(a) What is the perspective of theistic psychology provides on Sacred Scripture?

(b) How is it related to Divine Speech?

(c) What are correspondences in Sacred Scripture?

(d) Give some illustrations of Sacred Scripture and show how they are to be interpreted from the perspective of theistic psychology.

ANSWERS:

a)  The perspective of theistic psychology on Sacred Scripture is that this is how God is able to spread his love and knowledge.  God is the Divine Human and is omnipotent, and he uses Divine Speech to communicate with us through the layers of our minds.  As Divine Speech is filtered through the layers it turns into the Sacred Scripture.  The Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech in a literary sense.  This is so that we are able to understand Divine Speech or God’s word here in the physical world.  What theistic psychology does is open our mind up to a rational way of how we are able to communicate and learn through God here in the physical world.  God is in the spiritual world and there would be no possible way he can be here in the physical world in time and space.  This is the reason theistic psychology has rational described the way God is able to spread his love.

b)  As I mentioned before Sacred Scripture is related to Divine Speech through the laws of correspondences.  Sacred Scripture is just the physical form of Divine speech.  It allows people in the physical world to understand Divine Speech that is originated from God.  God’s plan and how he creates and maintains the universe is spread through his Divine Speech and filtered down into the layers and then into the natural world as the Sacred Scriptures.  This is why we as people in the natural world need to figure out the way to decode the scriptures so that we can understand the Divine Speech. 

c)  Correspondences in the Sacred Scripture as discussed in the text are the ways of decoding the Scriptures.  In the text them mention that if one is able to understand the dictionary format then they would be able to decode the Scriptures.  The Scriptures are written in words that make up a sentence.  According to the correspondences in the Sacred Scripture, the sentence is doesn’t mean exactly what it says.  Certain words mean different things.  For example the word rain could mean the word truth in the spiritual world.  Swedenborg was the only person who was able to understand these things because he was able to live in both worlds simultaneously.  That is what makes his writings and theory so valid and rational.  It is because he was there and he was able to see what went on in the spiritual world and figure out what it corresponded to in the natural world. 

Overall, the purpose of correspondences is so that we may be able to figure out what the Scared Scriptures really mean.  If we are able to figure out what they really mean by figuring out the correspondences, then we are able to figure God’s plan with the universe and creation.  So far, Swedenborg was the only person to do this which I find really amazing.

d)  Examples of Sacred Scripture is shown in a few well known forms.  These forms are the Old Testament, New Testament, and the writings of Swedenborg.  The reason why these are considered Sacred Scripture is that these were written and used to convey God’s plan and explain how the universe was created and teach God’s ways of life to the people.  These all exist in the physical world as ways to spread God’s love and teach the Divine Speech to the natural world.

In the section listed above The Science of Correspondence it gives an example of how correspondences work.  Their example was a passage from one of the Sacred Scriptures that stated, “by the way any time rain stops”.  It shows how the real meaning of this passage is extracted using correspondences.  By the way meant “the”, any time meant “attack”, rain meant “will begin”, and stops meant “at daybreak”.  Using correspondences one would be able to understand the sentence “by the way any time rain stops” as “ the attack will begin at daybreak”.  This is an illustration of how correspondences play a role in understanding these Sacred Scripture, and ultimately aid people in the physical world to understand God.

THE QUESTION I WILL BE ANSWERING IS QUESTION 5

Section A: My Own Summary of the Selections

2.6 What’s the relation between the body, the mind, and the spirit world

a)  The scientific laws of correspondences are an old form of understanding physical events and their spiritual causes.  Now theistic psychology is able to use this for body-mind investigations.  An example of this is how the circulatory system in the physical world is the affective organ in the spiritual world, and the respiratory system is the cognitive organ.  There is an exact correlation of how the physical sun produces the heart and lungs, while the spiritual sun produces the affective and cognitive organs.

Also we are all born as dual citizens, thus we have a spiritual body and a physical body.  Due to the fact that we are here in the time and space we are in the physical body.  Our brain is in the physical world while the mind is in the spiritual world because it does not exist in time or space.  The same goes for feelings, sensations, and thoughts.

In the physical world there is a life span before things die.  Our body in the physical body will die off when we are dead.  As for things in the spiritual world, they are in a world of eternity.  If it doesn’t exist in time or space, then how can something die or have a life span.  It is not a rational conclusion to say that it does. 

In the afterlife in the spiritual world people of the same personalities meet and live in a world together.  People who’s personality is of mutual love all live in a world of happiness with a wonderful environment.  Where as the people who are selfish and dishonest all live in the same world of disasters, atrocities, and cruelties.

6.3 The Vertical Community of Minds

a)  Our bodies in the physical world are the same as our bodies in the spiritual world.  In the spiritual world we are all solid figures.  We look exactly how we do here on Earth.  Our physical body is like a bag that surrounds all our internal organs.  As we learned before about correspondences and our physical systems and organs and how they are organs in the spiritual world, you can agree that we look the same in the spiritual world.  In the physical world we can be damaged, but in the spiritual world, our bodies cannot be damaged because they are made in an eternal arrangement.

2.10 How is the mind or consciousness related to the spiritual world?

a)  The spiritual world is produced by the substances streaming from the Spiritual Sun, where God can be seen as a Divine Human appearing in the midst of the sun.  What is streams out of God is what created spiritual events which in turn makes natural events.   Therefore everything in the mind is also produced by means of the substances from the Spiritual Sun.  Feeling and thoughts are produced from the Spiritual Sun and therefore part of the mind. 

Section B: My Answers to the Five Questions

(a) What is the relation between mind and the spiritual world?

(b) How does theistic psychology show their relation?

(c) How can the human mind be immortal?

(d) Why should people be concerned about the afterlife?

(e) What is the "vertical community" and why should people focus on their "dual citizenship"?

ANSWERS:

a)  The relationship between the mind and the spiritual world occur in many different views.  The mind does not exist in time and space, and therefore the mind needs to part of the spiritual world.  The spiritual world is where time and space do not exist and encompasses many other aspects of theistic psychology.  The mind is how everything in the spiritual world is relayed into the physical world.  This is done through the laws of correspondences.  Due to the fact that everything that is not in time and space such as God is in the spiritual world, and that the mind receives information from God shows another way that the mind is related to the spiritual world.  If God is in the spiritual world and the mind receives things spiritual light and heat from God, you must assume that the spiritual world and the mind are related through rational thinking.

b)  Theistic psychology shows their relation by a couple of things.  One way that it shows this is by the laws of correspondences.  Everything in the natural world is derived from the mind, which is not in time and space.  God engulfs the mind through the spiritual light and heat, which is therefore related to the spiritual world.  The whole spiritual world is based upon this spiritual light and heat.  What comes from God is creates the spiritual world and in turn something occurs in the natural world.  Therefore everything in the mind is also produced by this spiritual light and heat and through the understanding if theistic psychology proves their relation. 

Another way that theistic psychology proves this is through the vertical community.  Due to the fact that our bodies in the natural world are the same as our bodies in the spiritual world, we can say that they are related.  Everything our body does in the natural is derived from our thoughts and feeling that occur in our mind.  This happens in neither time nor space.  The spiritual world is consists of the mind and therefore make these two things related.

c)  The only way that the human mind can be immortal is if you believe in dualism and theistic psychology.  Dualism is an important aspect of theistic psychology, which says that there are two worlds, the spiritual and physical.  The physical world consists of things in time and space, where as the spiritual world does not.  The mind is in the spiritual because it doesn’t exist in time or space.  We can say this because thoughts and feelings occur in the mind but thoughts and feelings are not in the physical world.  Therefore if the mind is not part of time and space then it cannot be destroyed.  If something cannot be destroyed then it is immortal. Everything in the spiritual world is eternal and will be forever.  Thus the mind has the last forever.

d)  There are many reasons why people should be concerned with the after life.  But there is one main reason why they should.  If people believe in the after life then they know that they will either live their life in eternal hell or heaven.  If people are concerned about where they would like to end up then they should think about how to set up their life to get there.  They need to rid themselves of all of their evil if they want to be in the eternal heavens of their mind, or vice versa.  The eternal heavens is where there is a health and happy environment of love, where as the eternal hells are the opposite.  This is a very important decision because this is where you will spend the rest of your life.  This is why people should be concerned about the after life.

e)  The vertical community is a term that describes the fact that our body in the physical world is directly correlated with our body in the spiritual world.  The only difference is that our body in the physical world is just a protective covering of our internals.  In the spiritual world our internals is what makes up the shape of our body.  The physical body can therefore die because it exists in space and time, whereas the spiritual body will last forever in eternity.  This is why it is important to focus on the concept of dual citizenship.  If do not believe in dual citizenship then we cannot believe that we have two bodies.  Due to the fact that both the physical and spiritual body are correlated and we need to focus on what happens within dual citizenship.  Whatever happens to one body will happen to the other through correspondences.

THE QUESTION I AM ANSWERING IS QUESTION 6

Section A: My Own Summary of the Selections

2.17.1 The As-of-Self Revealed to Humankind

a)  The as-of-self theory states that we don’t actually have a self that has its own power, but we do have an as-of-self, which is the real feeling that we act freely, from our own will, and not from God.  God is there as our protector, in which he makes sure that we are on the right course in life or trying to find the right path to attain eternal heaven.  He is not there to take our freedom away and tell us what to do, but rather present in our minds as a conscious.

6.3.1.1.1 (II)  God’s Omnipotence and the As-of-Self Free Will

a)  The self is automatically considered autonomous from God omnipotence.  God creates and manages the mental details of the individual in such a way as to ceate in the person the sense of self-determined being we refer to as I, me, myself. 

b) God must entitle us the freedom to choose what we desire or intend to do, or else there would be no such thing as spiritual freedom.  God’s role in maintaining our freedom is by bringing particular memories to our awareness at the right instant that we want it.  He gives us reasoning process necessary for planning and executing evil acts.  God is good in that he never lets you see how we are being managed.  As humans we must understand two things.  The first thing is that we have real sense of as-of-self autonomy and self-determination, but it is God who creates and maintains it.  The second is the we must strive as-of-self to struggle against temptations, knowing and understanding that it is God that is managing and overcoming for us.

Section B: My Answers to the Five Questions

(a) Discuss the concept of the "as-of self."

(b) Why is it difficult for people to accept his idea?

(c) Does the concept of as-of self imply that we don't really have true freedom as human beings?

(d) Is human freedom compatible with the concept of God's omnipotence?

(e) How do you react to this concept? Can you accept it? Does it make a difference whether you accept it or not?

ANSWERS:

a)  The concept of as-of-self is fairly simple to understand.  We as humans are entitled to freedom by God.  God is there only to help us manage our decisions and to guide us in a certain direction.  He is not there to tell us what to do because that would infringe on our freedom.  What this concept says is that we do not have actually have a self that is of its own power, but rather it’s the feeling that we can act on our own and make our own decisions, and that God is not telling us what to do. 

God’s role in this is to bring memories that we have into our consciousness and let that play a role in our decision making process.  He is not there to tell our mind not to do one thing, but to do another.  He also is not there to stop us from doing evil.  He allows us to do evil things as long as he is able to reimburse the person that the evil was done upon with something good.  Thus, by allowing us the feeling of freedom, where we feel we are able to do anything we want is what the concept of as-of-self is.  But at the same time God is there in our conscious the make us aware of what we are doing.

b)  It is difficult for people to grasp this concept because we as humans feel that we can do whatever we want.  We don’t directly see what God is doing “behind the scenes”.  Since we are unable to see what God does, we believe that everything we do is amongst our own free will.  What makes it even harder for a person to accept this concept is the fact that they don’t believe in a God or that God is not omnipotent.  People can think about this concept and believe that it is their own free will forever, but if a person were to rationally think about it they would have to believe this concept.  Where did that drive come from?  How did I make that decision?  If you keep on going through the layers rationally, you will find that God is behind everything.  It is just the feeling that we are free is what makes it difficult for someone to acknowledge the as-of-self concept.

c)  I think that in a way the as-of-self concept does show that we don’t have complete and true freedom.  The reason for this is because when you look at the big picture, God is still there guiding us through our mind.  The fact that he puts those memories into our mind makes it seem like it is not total freedom.  Another factor is that I could still be partially in the negative bias on things.  But thinking about the fact that we actually can do whatever we please proves the point that we are free.  God created it this way because, rationally thinking, it is the only logical way to entitle people freedom.  By making it so that people feel that they are free, makes them think that they are free.  I think that it is very intelligent on his part to create it this way where we can see and feel that we are truly free, and not have any disbeliefs about it.

d)  God’s omnipotence is compatible with human freedom because he is omnipotent.  He can create the feeling of freedom where we can do what we please.  If he weren’t omnipotent then there would be a problem with total freedom.   God is able to create this as-of-self feeling in a special way to allow us the opportunity for free will.  God will not go against giving us the chance of freedom because this would cause many problems in the world and universe.  We would not be able to identify where we wanted to end up in the afterlife.  What is God made everyone do heavenly things, it wouldn’t be fair for someone who was in the hells of their mind that wanted to stay in eternal hell.  Thus God needs to grant us that feeling of freedom, but at the same time not have direct control of it.

e)  I personally think that this is a great concept.  I think that this is the only rational way for God to maintain order in the universe and at the same time grant us free will.  I think that this concept of as-of-self is a perfect way to put how God is able to give us freedom and at the same time omnipotent.  I can easily accept this concept because I can see the rationality and fairness in it.  I don’t think that I would be able to think of another way to set up a system like this.  I don’t think that it is important that you accept this concept because I think that the bottom line is that you feel that you have your own personal freedom.  As long as you feel that you have this freedom you will be happy and have the opportunity to decide what you do on a daily basis, and where you will end up in the after life.

SECTION C: MY ANALYSIS OF PRIOR GENERATIONS IN THE GENERATIONAL CURRICULUM

Generation 20

Lee Ann Jones

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s2004/jones/report1.htm

i)  She felt that after doing this report that it was really important for adults to become interested in this topic of theistic psychology.  She felt that it is a good way to gain an understanding and answer questions that one has about God and religion.  She also felt that it is important that we understand this for character reformation and to better ones self.  She also felt that the concept of theistic psychology can be very useful in life.

ii)  Her initial thought on the course was that it wasn’t what she had expected.  She thought that the course would focus more on the effects of religions on a person’s mental state.  She also thought that the only bad thing about these concepts were that it was based on an assumption that it has been scientifically proven because Swedenborg saw it with his “own eyes”

iii)  She concluded that she was really surprised when they began to in depth about Swedenborgs writings.  Everything that she started to learn in the first couple of weeks follwed her belief system.  She says that she can accept the reality of theistic psychology.  She also concluded that even though Swedenborg’s theories are only claims, that it is hard to discount a claim that she has not researched.  She also says that the apprehension gives credit to the notion of abandoning blind faith in order to gain greater understanding.

iv)  I kind of agree with her on the part where Swedenborg’s theories cannot be scientifically proven because he was the only to see what he saw.  But I also agree that by taking this class it has opened up mind to accept Swedenborg as a legitimate solution.  I also thought that this class what not set out to what I thought I would be, but did gain interest in the topic.

Generation 21

Maria Ellora Cabbat

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459f2004/cabbat/459-g21-report2.htm

i)  She had always been interested in personal development and it is fascinating to see how Theistic Psychology discusses the topic of regeneration and how we are to overcome or replace the old will with the new will.  She also commented that it was fascinating to learn about rational ether and how Divine Love outflows throughout creation and that the mind can receive spiritual love and truth from the Spiritual Sun.

ii)  She thought that it was a great insight to know that the thinking of people of the Old Testament was materialistic and it makes sense to her because the writings found there are full of violence, mostly wars and conflicts between people.  She agreed with the concepts of dualism and the vertical community.  She also agreed with the concept that she has to deny herself so that she may follow the will of God because she believes that what she does here affects what she will become in the afterlife.

iii)  She concluded that she can see the rationality of theistic psychology as that it points out to the betterment of the individual and whole humanity not only here on earth but also in the afterlife.  She also concluded that even though she reads the Bible because she is Catholic, that the self is indeed full of evil and only when she surrenders to god can she experience real joy and peace.

iv)  She is a Catholic so a lot of the church related things that she talked about didn’t really apply to me because I have no clue about that kind of stuff.  I agreed with the topics that interested her because I too found those interesting.  Being that I didn’t really understand the all the church stuff I felt a little lost.  But even though it doesn’t apply to me, maybe I could possibly think about someday and just keep it as general knowledge.

Generation 22

Patrick Greer

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/459s2005/greer/459-g22-report2.htm

i)  He felt that theistic psychology and the unity model of marriage has reinforced what understanding he had acquired so far in life about the love between men and women and how a man is to interact with a woman he loves.  He also feels that a woman is always correct in a relationship and that it is up to the man to concede to her wishes.  He also went on to say how shocked he was that the students in his class were so gullible to theistic psychology.  He was also shocked that the professor automatically assumes all students know and accept the Bible.  He was also shocked to see how the students went from the negative bias in the beginning of the semester to the positive bias at the end.

ii)  He thought that theistic psychology would be better than the current atheistic psychology system today but would have liked to see examples of how theistic psychology would approach real-world psychological problems like depression.  He also thought that theistic psychology is needed to do any study of the mind.  Another thought that he had was that it is important to have an open mind to any possibilities.  He thought that a human didn’t need freedom in order to be happy in life.

iii)  He concluded that he neither accepts or denies the as-of-self because as he understands things now, it is impossible to reach a concrete decision either way.  He also concluded that the meaning of theistic psychology was inline with his own beliefs about spirituality.

iv) I kind of agree with him on some of the aspects that he mentioned.  I think that the way his insights apply to me is that I believe that everyone has their own insights about things.  We are all human and we should be able to think what we want and agree and disagree to what others say.  One thing that I didn’t agree with him on was that I think that freedom does play a big role in a person’s happiness.  I don’t think that an individual can be happy without some type of freedom.

Generation 23

Melissa Alcover

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/459f2005/alcover/alcover-459-g23-report2.htm

i) From reading through some of her passages I could sense that she feels that there is too much involved with theistic psychology. She stated that if there were anything any more complex, that theistic psychology would be to confusing for people to understand. She also went on to say that there are so many different layers in the mental biology diagram, and this makes it very difficult to learn about.

ii) One thing that she thought was that the mental biology diagram was a little vague. She also thought that we as human beings have true freedom, but God still has ultimate control but he allows us to do what we please. She also mentioned that a person can learn about theistic psychology but not necessarily believe it or follow it.

iii) She concluded that this class was a really good class. In the beginning it was a little hard for her to grasp Swedenborg’s writings. Her class was really good in keeping up with the readings and trying to be accepting to the possibilities of theistic psychology. She thought that a lot of the topics were interesting because she has never really thought about them. She thought that it would be a good topic for people to learn.

iv) I think that I can relate to what she concluded about the class. I agree that this was a really tough subject to grasp in the beginning of the semester, but towards the end it got easier. I think that everyone felt this way because they all thought that this class’ topic was going to be about something else. I don’t know if I could apply any of her information to myself, but I can say that I agree with a lot of her thoughts and feelings.

SECTION D: MY ADVICE TO FUTURE GENERATIONS

After doing a couple of these research papers in this class I have learned many things. One important thing that I have learned is that in order to write a good paper, you must have a good general knowledge of the subject matter. There are so many different aspects that are involved in theistic psychology and they are all connected in one way or another. Being unsure about a topic could lead to uncertainty of another one. This is way it is important to keep up with the readings assigned. It is also important to ask questions if you are unsure of something.

Another very important tip that I can give, and that has probably been said over and over, is do not procrastinate. This is very bad because it leads to stress and problems. These reports may look easy when you first look at the details. When you start to do it, you will find that it is very time consuming and it takes a lot of effort to make everything work. That is why an early start will be beneficial to you in the long run.

Another tip that I have is to read the directions to the report carefully. There are a lot of fine details hidden within the directions. Some examples are, the links that you must set up, labeling sections and title, and how to save and post the report. By following the little details can improve your chances of getting a better grade.

My Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/459s2006/chang/chang-home.htm

Class Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy24/classhome-g24.htm