Selections From Theistic Psychology by Leon James
Which is online at
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic
That I Summarized in My Report 2
Which is online at
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/459f2005/xx/459-g23report2.htm
Selections for Question 1
(a) 6.3.1.1.1 (I) Mental Biology
The reality of mental biology can be observed when you consider how you move your eyes to look around, or your legs to stand and walk. Let’s say you are reading this and at one point you decide to reread the sentence, and your eyes spontaneously move back to the beginning of the sentence, then move forward again. What controls these eye movements?
We can say in a general way that it is you, the person, the self, who is moving the eyes. True. But more specifically, we can say that it is our thinking operations in the cognitive organ and our motivational operations in the affective organ, when acting together, that are then moving the eyes, or the legs, hands, or throat and tongue while talking. There is therefore a connection that must exist between our mental operations of thinking or intending, and the operations of the physical body. This operational connection between the mental and the physical worlds can be called symbiosis. The symbiotic connection between mental states and the physical world is part of human biology.
Diagram A
Diagram A above constitutes one single concept in theistic psychology. Many different passages from throughout the Writings Sacred Scripture are encapsulated in the diagram. Swedenborg reports that a single idea, when we are in our mental heavens, would take volumes to describe with the ideas and words we have in our natural mind. As soon as we are resuscitated, we begin conscious life in the eternity of our spiritual mind (see Section xx). At that moment we automatically and spontaneously talk like all "spirits" who already inhabit eternity. This is a thought-language rather than a word-language such as we use with natural languages. You've heard the expression "a picture is worth a thousand words." Now you can say that an expression or concept in our spiritual mind is worth a trillion words in our natural mind. In a similar way Diagram A creates a single spiritual-natural concept, and it would take many pages of theistic psychology to write this spiritual concept out in the words of English. But because we are capable of thinking rationally and abstractly in our conscious natural mind, we can study the Diagram and gradually piece together an understanding of it. Once you have this knowledge organized in a coherent and personally meaningful way, you can look at the Diagram and encompass it in its entirety in one spiritual-natural concept that you could call "mental biology."
Level 3 progresses to the theistic psychology phase of thinking about the Diagram. This thinking about Diagram A operates by seeing the diagram as a natural-rational representation of Divine Speech (see Section xx). The instant that you make this idea real in your mind, you will experience its spiritual-natural meaning. You will then be able to see the expression "mental biology" and see its spiritual meaning with full conscious awareness (see Section xx). All concepts in theistic psychology are understood at these three levels, and only the third level is actually the level of theistic psychology thinking and reasoning. This third level is genuine and holy, because it is spiritually online, so to speak, not natural. Hence it is Divine, and everything that is of the Divine, is called holy. In other words, it is the Divine Psychologist that has to give you the spiritual-natural perception of Divine Speech, as it is encapsulated or represented in Diagram A. This is why I say that it is "online" as it were, since the spiritual-natural perception of Divine Speech is an influx from the Spiritual Sun into our natural mind, passing through layers of intermediate states.
1.0.5 Topic 5: Sensuous vs. Rational Spirituality
Swedenborg was able to observe the character and life of every generation of people that had lived on earth, and then passed on to their life of immortality in eternity, either in their heavens or their hells, where Swedenborg was able to observe them. Since in this way Swedenborg had access to a cross section of all the people that had lived on earth, he was able to describe objectively and empirically the evolution of human consciousness across time. He discovered that the earliest generations, or the "Most Ancient" civilization on earth, was made of a celestial human race that now dwelt separately in their own human heavens, which are different from the heavens Swedenborg visited that belonged to the generations that came after the celestial race (see Section xx).
The celestial race people were able to talk to their departed family members and teachers, who spoke to them from their heaven, instructed the people on earth, and sometimes imposed punishment on them to chastise them from any tendency to do or think evil. In other words, the celestial people on earth were dual citizens consciously. Like Swedenborg's unique experience (see Section xx) the celestial race had their spiritual mind activated and conscious, whereas the spiritual race that came afterwards, had their spiritual mind completely unconscious. From then on, the only source of knowledge of the afterlife of eternity was through revelation in Sacred Scripture. Swedenborg was able to read in the spiritual world the various versions of Sacred Scripture that the subsequent generations had received from God.
(c)Discrete Degrees: 5.1.1: The Minds Three Discrete Degrees
The Minds Three Discrete Degrees
Diagram III portrays the major components of the human mind. These are arranged in successive and simultaneous degrees. If we take a successive order or developmental view, the highest is also the earliest in growth. First comes the "soul proper" (A--green) which is closest to the Divine Order in creation. Next comes the mind, which is also called the "spirit" (B--white). Below this is the "spiritual body" that encases the mind or spirit (C--pink). Finally, the natural or physical body (D--black). You should remember that what is highest is inmost or most interior, and what is lowest is most outward or external.
Now when we take a slice of the mature mind we can see it in simultaneous order of degrees. What is highest or inmost--the soul, is now in the center of the slice. The next ring is the mind or spirit, around that comes the spiritual body, and finally the outside is the physical body.
From this you can see that human beings are born as dual citizens in two different but interconnected worlds. We possess a physical (natural) body within which is encased the spiritual body containing the mind and the soul. You should know that the "within" discussed here is a discrete degree within. There are three discrete degrees in the created universe called celestial, spiritual, and natural. The degrees are distinct in the sense that there is no direct connection between them. The physical body is in the natural degree but the mind or spirit is in the spiritual degree. Within each degree there are many sub-layers but there are no layers touching each other between the degrees. There is no way of starting with the natural degree and, climbing its layers, until you touch the spiritual degree. In other words, nothing from the physical body can enter directly into the spiritual mind. And vice versa--nothing from the spiritual mind can enter into the physical body.
(d) Substantive Dualism: 6.3.1.1.1 Part C
God is defined as the Supreme Being who is the perfect, omniscient, omnipotent, good, wise, Creator of the universe, and further, that He is the object of worship in all religions. A Being who is good and wise must be a Person, which the dictionary defines as "human individual." This shows that since God is a Person, He must be Human, in other words, Divine Human. God is the Divine Human Person in whose "image" human beings have been created by God. We are called humans, while animals are not. What's the difference? Human beings are born dual citizens. At birth our mind or spirit is born in the world os spirits while our physical body is born in the natural world. The two are interconnected by the functional laws of correspondences (see Section xx). The physical body in the natural world grows along with the mental body in the world of spirits. The two are perfectly connected by interdependent action. The mind contains the affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor organs constructed out of spiritual substances from the Spiritual Sun shining forth in the world of spirits. The physical body contains the corresponding circulatory system (affective), respiratory system (cognitive), and nervous system (sensorimotor) constructed out of physical substances from the natural sun shining forth in our galaxy. This perspective is called substantive dualism.
Selections For Question 3
(a) Regeneration: 1.0.3 Divine Speech, Sacred Scripture, and Conjunction With God
While we are still attached to the body on earth, the quality and level of our life also depends on closeness to God, but in a less obvious way compared to the afterlife. This is because God hides His Presence in the mind. The reason for this is that on earth we are undergoing character change, reformation, and regeneration, while this is not possible in the afterlife. In order to undergo character change that is permanent we must do it as-if on our own, with effort and the willingness to resist temptations (see Section xx). Only in this manner of voluntary and free choice is the new character something we can love, something we can accept as our eternal heaven (see Section xx). Due to the necessity of this freedom of choice and as-of self effort, God hides Hi Presence in our mind so that we may feel free to reject Him if that is our choice.
(a2)Regeneration: 1.0.3.2 Part B: Degrees of Conjunction With God
The next day they go back to their study of theistic psychology and from this spiritual perspective they can clearly see that they underwent temptations the night before, during which they were no longer consciously conjoined to God. It is common for people who are undergoing regeneration through temptations, to vary the degree of their conjunction with God, as they pursue their normal daily activities. During temptations we engage in activities and thoughts that are disjunctive of our relationship to the Divine Psychologist -- who is ceaselessly co-Present in our mind, managing the endless physiological operations in our affective and cognitive organs.
Character reformation can only begin in adult life when we are mature enough to think for ourselves. Until then we usually think from our undigested socialization and education habits. We ingest our culture and knowledge but we do not digest it. To ingest knowledge and attitudes is to acquire them as habits and to do them routinely out of habit. To digest knowledge and attitudes is to appropriate them, to make them our own. This process of appropriation to self only happens when we freely choose something after thinking about what it is we prefer or like. When we reach adult life and financial and political independence, the future that lies ahead of us is ours -- which means that we are free to choose what we want, what we desire, what we love. Without being able to choose what we love, we don't feel free. Until we feel free, we cannot freely choose our life style, the things we believe, the things we support.
When we reach this state of freedom to think in adulthood, we are capable of beginning character reformation. This takes a lifetime of cooperation with the Divine Psychologist (see Section xx). We undergo regeneration by means of battles with the temptations that the Divine Psychologist brings to us by arranging the environment appropriately and by managing our thinking and feelings to face the temptations. This we do by fighting against the hells we inherited using the weapons of the doctrine of truth we acquire from Sacred Scripture or from conscience and education. Gradually through this procedure, God builds a new character in our mind, one that is fit to live happily to eternity in conjugial heaven (see Section xx).
(b) Character Reformation: 6.3.1.1.1 (A) (IV) Free Will, Heaven and Hell in the Levels of Our Mind
Thinking falsely (= hell in the mind) vs. thinking rightly (=heaven in the mind), is determined not by one's philosophy or self-intelligence, which may vary endlessly from person to person, and from one time to another, but by the Divine Human through Divine revelations given to the human mind through Divine Speech or Sacred Scripture (see Section xx) which defines for us the Doctrine of Truth for Living. In other words, we need to manage our character reformation by first knowing what the heavenly character is, and then struggling to intend and think only that which is according to heavenly order. This process of progressive character reformation, from early adulthood to the separation of the body, is managed and created by the Divine Psychologist, especially through temptations at different levels and intensities throughout the course of life on earth (see Section xx).
6.3.1.1.1 (V) The Divine Psychologist and Our Character Reformation
The natural heavens in the natural mind are a new creation by the Divine Child during the Incarnation Event (see Section xx). This new evolutionary portion of the natural mind is in a more interior discrete degree (see Section xx) than the natural mind that we are born with and which are connected to the spiritual hells, as the diagram shows. The Divine Child created this more interior structure of the natural mind in Himself, and this had the result that ever since then, about two thousand years ago, every human being is born with this new interior natural organ (see Section xx). This new spiritual-natural organ is actualized or "opened" to the extent that we are regenerating, that is, working the daily discipline of self-witnessing and self-modification of our intentions, thoughts, and deeds (see Section xx). The growth of the interior natural organ within our natural-rational mind (see Section xx), is the process of character reformation and regeneration. It is activated and energized by the mediate influx of those who are already living in their eternal conjugial habitations in their mind, as the diagram above shows (see also the Grand Human in Section xx). The more our daily life of willing and thinking becomes orderly, in the order of heaven on earth, the more our natural heavens grow within the new interior-natural organ. Our life on earth becomes more and more celestial, angelic, peaceful, wise, charitable, useful, content, conjugial, productive, understanding, intelligent, creative. And this is only a distant foretaste of the actual spiritual heavens that then become our permanent mental state. We then live as angels forever in the flowering of our youth and enthusiasm for life and love (see Section xx).
6.3.1.1.1 (X) Character Reformation and the Psychology of Cooperation
Some period after this beginning we have developed our ability to think from ourselves, and that point we have the preparedness for undergoing a reformation of our thinking. The Divine Psychologist brings certain information, and certain experiences, to each person, which have the consequence of strengthening the person's interest in morality, religion, or spirituality. If these contacts result in ideas that are compatible with truth, then the Divine Psychologist can bring the person's focus and interest more deeply into rational things of religion and spirituality. If on the other hand the ideas we pick up through these contacts and readings are incompatible with truth, then the individual turns more and more away from truth. Further progress in regeneration is cut off (see Section xx).
The Divine Psychologist is an active manager in this crucial process. It would not work otherwise! We are informed by Divine Speech that God's omnipotence must rationally extend to every detail, or else it cannot logically be called omnipotence. This includes therefore the details of the process by which information of the right sort comes to our attention at the right time, then impresses us enough to pay attention. Then there are the details of how reflect upon this information on other occasions, so that there is a functional and powerful cumulation of justifications, like a snowball that gets to be bigger than a house or tree. This mighty snowball of reasonings crushes all the former reasonings and false justifications. Only that is left which agrees with the newly realized truths about God and life, about morality and spirituality, character reformation and heaven or hell. Every human being has a conscience by which the Divine Psychologist communicates to our natural mind messages about truths, and punishments about evils. We feel and sense from within what is right or wrong. We feel a deep pain of regret and embarrassment when violate community standards and cultural taboos. These feelings and thoughts are actively fomented, stirred up, and directed by the Divine Psychologist in the direction of the person's heaven.
This is the process of reformation. It is the inner realization that there is morality, there is spirituality, there is immortality, there is heaven and hell, there is a Divine Human God who loves us and manages it all for our good. This is also called enlightenment, because we now understand and see true reality. From then on, we are prepared and ready to start character reformation, which is the regeneration of the affective organ. This requires our active cooperation with the Divine Psychologist. Hence we need to learn about the psychology of cooperation. Studying theistic psychology at level 1 (see Section xx) does not require reformation, enlightenment, regeneration, or cooperation. But studying theistic psychology at level 2 and 3 does require enlightenment and cooperation to some extent at earlier levels, and much more at later stages of study (see Section xx).
(c) Old Will/ New Will
5.1.1.11 Regeneration of the Adult Mind
Altruistic loves and the truths of doctrine from Sacred Scripture, cannot be appropriated by the inherited "old will" which must first be reformed and regenerated. We must suffer ourselves to undergo temptations and to battle them with the truth of doctrine from Sacred Scripture. Then we acquire a "new will" which is suitable to react by correspondence to the remains in our unconscious spiritual mind. Then only do these remains become ours, part of the new proprium by which we can enter the heavens in our mind (see Section xx).
5.4.1.5 Self-Witnessing As A Spiritual Discipline
The Writings reveal this complex anatomy of the mind by which a higher layer is conscious of what is happening at a lower layer. This is the feature that allows us to undergo the process of regeneration by which the old will is put to rest or dies, and the new will is created (see Section xx). Self-witnessing is the essential requirement for regeneration since the old will cannot die in general but only in specific. We cannot make a declaration of suicide and an act of self- sacrifice. The old self will only be strengthened by such an approach. It can die only by our rejection of the loves it contains. A higher level of our mind must witness the evils of the lower level, and then the lower level must agree to reject each love in turn. This is the real suicide of the material self. In its stead rises the dual self, which is the material self obedient to the spiritual-natural self that we can acquire in the natural mind.
5.1.1.3 Internal and External Within Each Degree of Mind
If we arrive with a new will, the old will having been regenerated, the content of the internal-natural mind is heavenly and we enter heaven. But if we arrive with the old will that has not been regenerated, with the character we inherited, we enter hell. People can be regenerated to three degrees of operation. Those who are regenerated to the first degree, enter the First or Natural Heaven. In other words, the lowest degree of the spiritual mind is "opened" or made operational, and they dwell at this level of life to eternity. Those who are regenerated to the second degree, enter the Second or Spiritual Heaven. In other words, the intermediate degree of the spiritual mind is "opened" or made operational, and they dwell at this level of life to eternity. Those who are regenerated to the third degree, enter the Third or Celestial Heaven. In other words, the highest degree of the spiritual mind is "opened" or made operational, and they dwell at this level of life to eternity
(d) Heavenly VS Hellish Traits
1.0.3 Divine Speech, Sacred Scripture, and Conjunction With God
Sacred Scripture reveals that we are born with an inherited character that is made up entirely of hellish traits. We also have some good traits, but these pale in intensity when compared to the hellish traits. Besides this, the hellish traits we inherit tend to corrupt and destroy the heavenly traits. Every individual must therefore put up the voluntary effort of resisting the old hellish traits and enjoyments, until eventually we come to loath them and avoid them like the plague. In their stead, God gives us a new way of thinking and feeling that is in accordance with heavenly order. then we can have the good life that surpasses everything we could hope for or imagine.
Denial of God through materialist philosophy and cynicism, is the negative bias that puts us at a distance from God. In this orientation we cannot receive directly anything good and true from Divine Speech. But we still receive things indirectly, such as the ability to think with common sense, and the instinct of preservation and social cooperation. However this indirect association with God is not powerful enough to overcome our inherited hellish tendencies. God keeps control just as much as ever, but in this situation of denial or disobedience, He allows the occurrence of evils in order to preserve people's sense of freedom of choice (see Section xx).
It appears that the majority of people are unwilling to put up the mental and emotional effort to change their inherited character traits and weaknesses. As a result, God allows much evil and false ideas to run amuck in society, making the lives of people a hell on earth, as is indicated by the symptoms of crime, prejudice, injustice, abuse, depression, ill health, ugliness, unhappiness, divorces, poverty, lack of education, etc. All these evils are allowed by God in order to preserve the freedom of all individuals to chose voluntarily to reform and to prepare for a life of heaven in eternity. Those who fail to do so, can only experience a life of hell in eternity (see Section xx).
1.0.5.2: Sensuous Consciousness of God Does Not Remain in the Afterlife
This becomes clear when you consider the physiological fact that heaven is inside our rational mind (see Section xx). This was different for the celestial race, who now dwell in their celestial heavens, which Swedenborg was allowed to visit. Their celestial race heaven, which are separate and inaccessible to our heavens, is built physiologically within their sensuous mind, which is governed by the affective organ (the will) in conjunction with the cognitive organ (understanding). But the physiology of the human race was drastically evolved or altered when the spiritual race came into being. The heavens of the human race were now built up differently, inside the cognitive organ (understanding). The affective organ, which was hellish by inheritance since the Fall (see Sections xx), had to be regenerated or recreated through the battles of temptations, in which we fight for our life with the truth in our understanding (see Section xx). We must win this battle in order to be "saved" for heavenly life in eternity. It is the only way we can acquire heavenly traits, that is, by giving up voluntarily and getting rid freely of the hellish traits that we were born to enjoy and hang on to as dear life itself.
5.1.1.1 Part B Internal VS External Mind
Our external mind contains hellish traits (from inheritance), while the interior mind contains heavenly traits (from influx). The problem for our race on this earth is to learn how we engineer a switch in content so that the external natural mind is voided of merely materialistic concepts and principles, and is "infilled" with rational concepts that correspond to heaven. Materialistic concepts can be of two types--empty (not infilled) or infilled with rational (spiritual) concepts from heaven. When infilled, materialistic concepts become alive, reflecting rational and spiritual truth, hence true reality. But when they are still empty, materialistic concepts reflect a distorted truth and reality.
5.1.1.1 Part C Born Into Eternity
The purpose of our being born into eternity as mental bodies connected to time-space bodies, is to have the opportunity and experience by which we can develop a natural mind, and thus a personality put together by our own loves and choices. In other words the Divine Psychologist works with each human being so we each may free ourselves from spiritual slavery to the race's sensuous mind, and to freely love and adopt the rational spirituality called our heaven. Once we have the new affective organ, or new will, that we acquired through fighting spiritual temptations (see Section xx), we no longer need our natural mind, nor our physical bodies, which die off, leaving us at resuscitation, in the mental body of eternity (see Section xx).
To free ourselves from our inherited hellish enjoyments or loves in the sensuous mind, we must be willing to fight in spiritual temptations (see Section xx). For these all important battles in which we fight for our eternity in heaven, the Divine Psychologist gives us spiritual weapons in our cognitive organ or understanding and rational thinking. These spiritual weapons are rational truths obtained from Sacred Scripture.
The hellish loves cannot withstand spiritual truth in our understanding or cognitive organ. Their influence is through our inherited sub-conscious sensuous organ of the mind (see diagram above). But the spiritual truths in our rational understanding are higher in our rational mind, and a universal law of dualism is that what is in a higher degree of the mind controls what is in a lower degree, and never the other way (see Section xx). Hence, in order that we may give birth to, or operationalize, the new heavenly will of our spiritual mind (see diagram above), we must extirpate through spiritual temptations, all the loves in our hells, holding sway over our natural mind, over our personality and character.
Selections For Question 4
(a,b,c)6.3.1.1.1 (I) Mental Biology
Diagram A above constitutes one single concept in theistic psychology. Many different passages from throughout the Writings Sacred Scripture are encapsulated in the diagram. Swedenborg reports that a single idea, when we are in our mental heavens, would take volumes to describe with the ideas and words we have in our natural mind. As soon as we are resuscitated, we begin conscious life in the eternity of our spiritual mind (see Section xx). At that moment we automatically and spontaneously talk like all "spirits" who already inhabit eternity. This is a thought-language rather than a word-language such as we use with natural languages. You've heard the expression "a picture is worth a thousand words." Now you can say that an expression or concept in our spiritual mind is worth a trillion words in our natural mind. In a similar way Diagram A creates a single spiritual-natural concept, and it would take many pages of theistic psychology to write this spiritual concept out in the words of English. But because we are capable of thinking rationally and abstractly in our conscious natural mind, we can study the Diagram and gradually piece together an understanding of it. Once you have this knowledge organized in a coherent and personally meaningful way, you can look at the Diagram and encompass it in its entirety in one spiritual-natural concept that you could call "mental biology."
1.0.1.3 Revelation: Divine Speech Exteriorizing as Sacred Scripture
Divine revelation is the only source of facts, knowledge, and principles about the spiritual world of eternity and the afterlife. Divine Speech emanates from God and permeates the universe, creating and maintaining everything in a rational order that serves God's purpose of love. Divine Speech enters the human mind at the highest level of consciousness that humans are created into called the Third Heaven. Then it descends and exteriorizes to the Second Heaven in our mind. From there, to the First Heaven in our mind. From there into the natural mind, which is where we become conscious of it. We first become conscious of Divine Speech in our natural mind when we read Sacred Scripture, or are exposed to derivative forms of it such as prayers, songs, stories, lessons, instructions. At this point we understand Divine Speech in a natural way, in the way we understand the instructions or explanations of teachers and parents. As we grow older and we are able to read Sacred Scripture on our own, we begin to form more abstract notions of God, though not yet spiritual notions.
Focusing our attention on Sacred Scripture brings us into direct contact with God because the content of Sacred Scripture is revelation from God. Saying that Divine Speech is proceeding from God is exactly the same as saying that Divine Truth is proceeding from God. Divine Truth is a substance called spiritual light that is streaming forth from the Spiritual Sun that Swedenborg was able to see in the spiritual world. At age 57 he suddenly found himself with the unique ability of being conscious in his spiritual mind, which is unconscious to us until the afterlife. When we are resuscitated a few hours after death, we awaken in full conscious awareness of our spiritual mind, which until then was unconscious. Now it is the natural mind that becomes unconscious, and the spiritual mind becomes conscious. As a result, we can no longer see or hear anything in the physical world through our physical body. Instead, we can now hear and see and feel everything in the spiritual world.
Since Swedenborg was the only scientist in history whose spiritual mind was conscious, he is the only scientist in history who can give us an objective and empirical description of the spiritual world. Everything that he wrote down and published, called the Writings of Swedenborg (published between 1747-1771), are called Divine revelations or Sacred Scripture. God opened Swedenborg's spiritual mind so that he could objectively report to the world of science what the conditions are in the afterlife of eternity. To study Swedenborg's Writings as Divine revelation is the positive bias in science, as discussed.
6.0.5.4.1 The Ugliness of the Proprium or What Is Our Own
Theistic psychology has two branches of research--extractive and predictive (see Section xx). Extractive research refers to "extracting" knowledge from the Old Testament, New Testament, and the Writings of Swedenborg. Predictive research refers to a theory we construct from our knowledge of theistic psychology, which then needs to be confirmed by showing passages in Sacred Scripture that are consistent with the theory. We can consider the research of Peter Rhodes about Gurdijef as predictive research in theistic psychology since he always confirms a Gurdijef concept by contextualizing it in a Swedenborgian environment, as shown above. Other instances of predictive research may be seen throughout this book (see section xx).
Selections For Question 5
(a) 2.6 What's the relation between the body, the mind, and the spiritual world?
Relation Between Mind and the Spiritual World
(1) The scientific laws of correspondence between natural events and their spiritual causes were known in prehistoric times on this planet, but were subsequently forgotten due to evolutionary and ecological changes described in the Writings (see the "Science of Correspondences" in Chapter xx). Now that they are revealed and accessible again, psychology can use it as a methodology for body-mind investigations. For example, there is a correspondence between the circulatory system of the body and the affective mind, and between the respiratory system and the cognitive mind. This parallelism indicates that the mind is a biological organ and has an anatomy that can be described. The mind has two organs made of spiritual substances (not natural). Spiritual substances originate from the Spiritual Sun of the spiritual world, while natural substances originate from the natural sun near each planet. There is an exact correspondence between how the natural sun produces the heart and the lungs, and how the Spiritual Sun produces the affective and cognitive mind.
Future research in theistic psychology will be able to discover the detailed relationships between body and mind. Since the physical body is visible to our instruments and measurements, its known physiology becomes a model for the mind's psychobiology that cannot be observed with physical measurements.
(2) Every human being is born simultaneously with a physical body and a spiritual body (see "dual citizenship" in Chapter xx). The physical body is located in the natural world while the spiritual body is located in the spiritual world. Swedenborg reports that the spiritual body of those who are still alive on earth, is visible to the inhabitants of the spiritual world, though no direct conscious communication is possible until the person awakens in the spiritual body as soon as the physical body is functionally dead (becomes a corpse). The mind with its affective and cognitive organs is located in the spiritual body while the brain is located in the physical body. Whatever happens to the physical body on earth we can sensate and feel in our spiritual body in the spiritual world. Since sensations. thoughts, and feelings are not physical objects, they cannot be located in the material brain which is physical. Non physical objects, that is, spiritual objects, must be located in the spiritual body in the spiritual world. Sensations, thoughts and feelings are spiritual objects and events.
(3) Natural objects, like the physical body and brain, have a temporary life or existence, but spiritual objects, like the mind or spiritual body, are permanent (immortal or eternal). In other words, sensations, thoughts, and feelings are immortal parts of human beings. Thus every thought and feeling we have is recorded permanently in our interior memory, which is in the spiritual body. Swedenborg demonstrated that people in the spiritual world are able to recall every single detail of their lives on earth.
(b)2.7 Theoretical Implications of God's Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence
Mind and Spiritual World Relationship
Omnipresence refers to God's "presence" everywhere through His Omnipotence and Omniscience. Omnipresence is the logical consequence of Omnipotence and Omniscience. Because of being present everywhere, God can be addressed by human beings wherever they are and talk to Him, knowing that He is present, listens, and cares. Note that Omnipresence cannot be a physical presence because physically the same object cannot be present in more than one location. That would be illogical. Therefore it's not rational to expect to see God physically or to hear His voice through sound waves. Instead, Omnipresence refers to spiritual presence. Within every physical object the underlying framework is spiritual. Another way of saying this is that the spiritual world of no space is within the natural world of space. This becomes understandable if you know that spiritual=mental. There is no space in our mental world. Instead, there are mental "states" in our mind. Our thoughts and feelings change, not by moving around, but by changing state.
(c) 2.8 What is God's Role in the Evolution of the Human Race?
Theistic psychology has a vantage point to know the laws of evolution that create our future. This is especially significant since the Writings of Swedenborg present valid proof of the existence of the afterlife in the spiritual world. We are therefore born immortal individuals. Only the physical body is temporary. The spiritual body or mind is immortal because it is constructed out of substances from the Spiritual Sun, and these substances are not in time or space, hence they are permanent. This knowledge greatly enhances our ability to prepare for our future.
The scientific revelations in the Writings of Swedenborg specify the levels of evolution of the human race from beginning (birth on a planet) to eternity (immortality in heaven or hell). These facts about the spiritual world and the afterlife may not be harmonious with various religions and philosophies. It then becomes a challenge to reconcile the earlier belief with the new scientific data from the spiritual world. I believe this is possible and that theistic psychology is culture-free rather than sectarian. This is a necessity since sectarian beliefs or religions tend to be divisive of the unregenerate human race, rather than unitary, as science is. The rational spirituality of Theistic psychology offers this pan-cultural approach to God. It is revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg that the quality of a person's life after death--whether in the heavenly part of our mind or hellish, depends not on religion or belief, but on having developed a heavenly character or hellish. This may done whatever one's religion.
(e) 6.3.1.1.1. (Part A) (IV) Free Will, Heaven and Hell in the Levels of Our Mind
Diagram B below gives a general account of the vertical community and its function in creating heaven and hell in the human mind. The spiritual mind is the organ in which are located the human heavens, as shown in the earlier diagram. While we are attached to a physical body on earth, our spiritual mind is unconscious. Our awareness and conscious knowledge is located in the natural mind which is built up by ideas and experiences we have through the physical body, such as our social exchanges and life as a citizen. It is not suspected that this mental life in our natural mind could not be built up without the unconscious interactions we have with the vertical community through our spiritual mind. In other words, the abilities we have through the natural mind's affective and cognitive organs could not function at all without the mediate influx from both the heavens and the hells into our natural mind, as depicted in diagram B.
6.3.1.1.1 (V) The Divine Psychologist and Our Character Reformation
It is the same with hellish feelings when you will what is evil, as explained above. This evil intention, when justified and carried out, gets deposited in your spiritual hells in the spiritual mind, as the diagram shows. Note that there must be communication, networking, structured coupling of the natural and spiritual minds through mediate influx, as shown by the arrows in the diagram above. There must be a functional coupling or interaction by the laws of correspondence (see Section xx), between the natural heavens and the spiritual heavens, and between the natural hells and the spiritual hells. This structural coupling is called the vertical community. Those endless numbers of people from the numerous planets who are already in their eternity in their spiritual heavens or hells, could not survive in their spiritual mind unless their mind was coupled with the natural minds of those who are still attached to the physical bodies on the numerous planets. As we alternate and oscillate our daily life moments from hell to heaven and vice versa, between evil feelings and intentions and heavenly ones, we do so by alternating between the mediate influx of those who are in their spiritual hells and those who are in their spiritual heavens, as the diagram shows.
5.1.1 The Mind's Three Discrete Degrees
From this you can see that human beings are born as dual citizens in two different but interconnected worlds. We possess a physical (natural) body within which is encased the spiritual body containing the mind and the soul. You should know that the "within" discussed here is a discrete degree within. There are three discrete degrees in the created universe called celestial, spiritual, and natural. The degrees are distinct in the sense that there is no direct connection between them. The physical body is in the natural degree but the mind or spirit is in the spiritual degree. Within each degree there are many sub-layers but there are no layers touching each other between the degrees. There is no way of starting with the natural degree and, climbing its layers, until you touch the spiritual degree. In other words, nothing from the physical body can enter directly into the spiritual mind. And vice versa--nothing from the spiritual mind can enter into the physical body.
6.3.1.1.1 (VI) Societal Consequences of Individual Effort
The spiritual heavens (depicted in diagrams A and B above), are created within our unconscious spiritual mind by the Divine Psychologist, but only to the extent that it can act as one, with the affective and cognitive organs being fully coordinated, conjoined, married into a unity. This can be built up by the Divine Psychologist in exact proportion to the heavenly order being produced in our natural conscious mind. This changeover, or makeover, of our character begins in adult life when we become enlightened (see Section xx). This refers to the realization and understanding that we are born dual citizens in the natural and spiritual worlds, and that heaven and hell are in our mind from birth to eternity. This conscious enlightenment in our rational understanding, is produced by the Divine Psychologist in the natural mind by connecting our conscious understanding with rational ideas based in the spiritual mind. Although these rational-spiritual ideas are not conscious in a direct way, nevertheless they produce an elevation of understanding in the natural mind, and this can be distinctly felt or noticed. When we notice it, we experience extraordinary delight and clarity of vision. We can then make use of the new perspective by incorporating it into the ideas or issues that we are consciously involved with. As the diagram above shows, these issues can be positive or negative.
Selections For Question 6
(a) 2.17.1 The As-of Self Revealed to Humankind
In the Writings of Swedenborg God reveals this method. It is called the "as-of self." In other words we do not 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.
Many people have used the presence of evil, the suffering of the innocent, and the success of dishonest people, as a rationale for disbelieving God or dethroning God in their mind. People have attempted various solutions to this basic puzzle but real progress could not be made until God provided scientific revelations to explain how the world is managed and run. The "as-of self" is absolutely essential for our happiness as human beings and for eternal life in heaven. Through the "as-of self" we can take responsibility for what happens because God cooperates in maintaining that sense of as-of self freedom.
Yes we are. God maintains the perfect balance of power in every feeling, thinking, sensing and moving. We do these things without our own power and yet because of the balance of power we can act without power as long as God cooperates and participates in every detail at every moment from conception to eternity. As a result of this we can continue to develop our as-of self character and always feel that it is us in freedom that creates it. At the same time God warns us in scientific revelations that we must not attribute this freedom and power to ourselves but only to God. In this way God can develop our mind and character to its full human potential. But when we deny that God is the participant-operator of all our life and experience, we fall into unreal and injurious states of mind called "hell" and our character becomes enamored of illusions and delusions that eventually lead us to a hellish life from which we are unwilling to escape to eternity. So much is at stake whether we accept reality as it is revealed by God, or whether we reject rational revelation and construct our own world of unreality, illusion, and suffering.
(d)6.3.1.1.1 (II) God's Omnipotence and the As-of-Self Free Will
The concept of "self" in atheistic psychology assumes that the self is a self-determined human agent that makes up the person. No account has to be made of God's omnipotence and how there could be an autonomous self. The self is automatically considered autonomous. But the concept of "as-of-self" in theistic psychology is the idea that God creates and manages the mental details of the individual in such a way as to create in the person the sense of a self-determined being we refer to as "I, me, myself." In reality, as revealed by Divine Speech, God has to create and manage the mental details that are held together just right to create a self-conscious human person that has the sense or feeling of being autonomous or inner existent. No sense of "self" would be possible by itself, as an autonomous natural or spiritual object unless it were put together and held together and driven to action, by the Divine Psychologist. What we notice with our eyes or senses is selected and determined by God. What we don't notice or ignore, as well. What we remember or forget, what we succeed in or fail at, all is selected and determined by the omnipotent God.