Theistic Psychology 459
Spring 2008
Instructor: Dr. Leon James
Course: Psychology 459, spring 2008, Generation 27
Instructor: Dr. Leon James
Introduction to Theistic Psychology
My home page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/459s2008/watanabe/
Class Home Page: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy27/classhome-g27.htm
Instructions for this Report: http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy27/team-reports-g27.htm
Team Report 3; Lecture 6
Section
1: Lecture Content
Section 5: Choosing
between Heaven and Hell
4 Categories after Resuscitation
There are four categories to which we feel more compelled to act out our chief
loves and desires after resuscitation. Two of these are hellish, and the other
two are heavenly. Therefore, what we are more intensely motivated to act out
depends on our chief loves and desires that we obtain even
when we are still alive and connected to our physical body. In this
sense, it is extremely important to understand that we essentially ‘choose’
heaven or hell by practicing and nourishing certain loves and desires (either
heavenly or hellish) while we are still in the physical world.
Before we are resuscitated, we have the ability
to ‘open up’ or operationalize our spiritual layers,
that is, layers 4, 5, and 6. If we are able to accomplish this before
resuscitation, we can then be conscious in one of those three heavenly layers.
This can be called “heaven” or “conjugial
heaven”. However, if those layers are not operationalized
before resuscitation, then we will be conscious in hellish layers 7 and 8 (9 becomes permanently non functional after resuscitation) in
eternity. In other words, being conscious only at levels 7 and 8 will
condemn us to an eternity of hell.
The four categories are as follows:
1) Love of Self for the sake of Self alone: this category is one of the two hellish categories. Here,
we are driven by our own selfishness, we are
egotistical, lack compassion and are generally speaking hateful of God,
marriage, and children.
2) Love of the World for the sake of Self alone: this is the second of the two hellish categories. Here, we
are often constantly cynical, are envious and deceitful towards others, and we
find that we always want to possess what we don’t have
or what others have.
3) Love of Self for the sake of others: this is the first of the two
heavenly categories. Here, we strive to be effective, successful, and useful
members of society. We find that we want to be knowledgeable, happy, and well
liked.
4) Love of the World for the sake of
others: this is the
second of the two heavenly categories. People that are drawn to this category
after resuscitation are people who want power in order to help his or her
community/country, people who are generous and loyal, who are respectful of
human rights, who are sincere and avoid deception, as well as supportive of a
just and fair justice system (law), etc.
I find that these four categories are fairly basic
and are easy to comprehend. It’s not hard to
understand that your behaviors and desires in your physical life are what you
will be attracted or drawn to after death or in the spiritual world after you
are resuscitated. It would then be in our best interest to love ourselves for
the sake of self as well as others, or love the world for the sake of
self and others. For example, just because someone is very rich does not
mean that he or she is a bad or greedy person for desiring or obtaining that
kind of financial achievement. He or she could be using the money in a way that
would help those who are less fortunate, or whose true desire is to obtain that
money for others. In this sense, this person is displaying
heavenly traits and will fall into one of the two categories after
resuscitation.
Should we act selfishly, and only think about ourselves (personal gain)
all the time, then it will be inevitable that we will be
drawn to such hellish traits in the spiritual realm after our physical
body has expired. For example, a student has a classmate who is exceptionally
good at math. Despite the classmate’s talent, he or she does not have many
friends. The student, who is not so good at math, decides to pretend to
befriend the classmate in order to obtain answers for homework or for
pressuring him/her to cheat during exams. This is a false sense of friendship
because after the semester is over and there is no
more math classes, the student rejects the classmate as a friend and has
therefore used the classmate for his or her own personal and selfish gain. This
is a hellish trait, and further practice of this behavior will ensure a place
in one of the hellish categories after resuscitation.
What
determines “heavenly” and “hellish” traits?
Because of social
and cultural diversity, some find it difficult to pinpoint an exact definition
of heavenly and hellish, or good and bad traits. According to theistic
psychology, we are born with an innate disposition to hellish traits and
behaviors. However, it is key to understand that our
ultimate goal is to become heavenly, and that is what God wants from us.
Through our conscience and through correspondences from Sacred Scripture, we are pushed in the right direction to a more heavenly and
fulfilled life.
That being said, heavenly and hellish traits are often only
defined by the individual and the spiritual consequences of his or her
behaviors. There cannot be a universal rule that applies to all
behaviors and actions – instead, relying on an individual’s innate conscience
and his or her ability to classify what he or she is about to do in one of the
four categories. Ask yourself before you get mad at a driver for making a
mistake on the road – is this for the sake of self alone, or for the sake of
self and others? If an individual is adept at being able to rationalize a
situation and predict a behavior’s potential hellish or heavenly qualities
(according to the 4 categories), then essentially it will
be easier to determine what is good and bad.
Theistic psychology implies that in order to develop a rational and consistent
approach to determining good or bad, sometime in our lives we begin to be
overcome with a sense of choice (as opposed to following rules and regulations
that we were taught in society – layers 8 and 9). As this occurs, we begin to
realize that there is a God and that Sacred Scripture (as well as our
conscience) serve as guides towards understanding the difference between
being/acting heavenly or hellish. Although I agree that generally speaking our
conscience acts as a good guide for pointing us in the right direction, I feel
that an individual does not have to accept God or Sacred Scripture (as truth)
in order to lead a heavenly life. There could be good people who
either do not accept God or who are, simply put, not educated enough to
even know about God and Sacred Scripture. This is only a personal opinion,
however.
Section 6: The
Psychological Process of Regeneration
In short, regeneration is the process of opening up our spiritual layers of our
spiritual body in eternity. While we are still in the physical world, we are
not conscious of our spiritual layers (4, 5, 6).
However, through the Divine Psychologist, we are exposed
to spiritual truths and upon understanding them, the Divine Psychologist will
then proceed to put us through spiritual temptations. In spiritual temptations,
we are able to give into the temptation or resist by means of reasoning with
the spiritual truths that we have come to understand and acknowledge. By
resisting, we are opening up our spiritual layers. Should an individual not go
through the process of regeneration during their time in the physical world, then they will be subject to the mental hells of the layers
that they were in, that is, layers 7 and 8.
The Divine
Psychologist brings us spiritual truths through Sacred Scripture and its correspondential meanings. It is important to understand in
order for the Divine Psychologist to brings these
spiritual truths into our conscious mind, we must be willing to understand the
truths as rational understand. We cannot be forced
into understanding, accepting, and using these truths (regenerating) in a
rational way. If this is the case, then we are not truly
understanding and applying them, instead we are merely suppressing evil
loves and enjoyments.
Achieving victory in spiritual combat enables our spiritual layers 4, 5, and 6
to come into contact with the very same layers that
already exist in eternity. The lower layers or natural layers react accordingly
through correspondences (layer 7). As our heavenly layers develop even more,
layer 8 will respond and react by correspondence, and then lastly the lowest
natural layer (layer 9).
The concept of regeneration at first seemed a little bit hard to believe,
mainly because there isn’t much that we really know
(besides things like Swedenborg’s work and research) about what goes on after
death. However, when I attempt to understand the process of regeneration when I
have already understood and accepted the concept of how we obtain or choose
heaven or hell via our behaviors and actions in the physical world, then it
becomes easy to see and understand how regeneration is so important. Even those
that don’t have a firm grasp of the content of Sacred Scripture, it isn’t hard
to see that basically, the way you act and behave, as well as the way you handle
situations in everyday life, will have an effect on whether or not you will
spend eternity in your mental hells or your heavenly ones.
Section 2: Team Presentation on
(1) love of
self for the sake of self alone: being selfish, egotistical, self-centered,
disloyal, cruel, lacking compassion, domineering, hateful of God, marriage,
children, and heaven, etc.
(2) love of
the world for the sake of self alone: being cynical, pessimistic, avaricious,
envious, deceitful, wanting to possess what belongs to others, etc.
(3) love of
self for the sake of others: wanting to be effective, successful, useful,
helpful, positive, popular, knowledgeable, happy, liked, etc.
(4) love of world for the sake of
others: wanting power in order to be of service to others and country, being
frugal, powerful, rich, compassionate, generous, loyal, respectful of human
rights, sincere, avoiding deception, protecting marriage and children, considerate
towards strangers, supportive of a just and fair law and order, etc.
Heaven and Hell in mental traits
In
every day life, we are practicing a mixture of all four categories. It is
a daily personality habit. The team said that you can love God for self alone, indicating hell in one’s mental traits.
The presenter used the example of the speaking voice. She speaks softly
because she is shy. She may not want to express her feeling or emotion in
public or even front of any friends. She may feel the need to protect
herself with shyness because of love for herself. She does not want to be
hurt or feel shame; therefore, she tries to hide as much as she can by not
speaking out loud. However, if she continues to
do this, then somebody suffers. My classmates who are listening to me
have to be that much more attentive to what she says. This will cause
lose of class time, and may result in losing their interest and them no longer
wanting to listen to her. Moreover, no response from class
mates results in an overall low grade for all. This corresponds to
layers 9 and 8. Consciousness at the layer 9 and
8 in eternity is called hell. Layer 9 is so
closely connected to the physical body (12) therefore it cannot
be modified in regeneration. In layer 8, we have
been trained to think through our interaction with parents, teachers,
neighbor hoods, media, and so on. I lived physically in this world for 30
years; and I have learned the moral things to do every day. I have tried
to think of people first, not because of me but for my mental health. For
example, I have learned to let people go first in a busy store even though I am
in a hurry. I believe that being patient and not being mad is a good
daily habit. We learn “what is right from wrong”, what is normal
morality, from them. Morality is a scientific principle because it must be defined rationally according to their spiritual
consequences of the individual.
However,
when I am made aware of this I try to speak as loudly
as I can. I think of my class mates first, which
then helps them listen to me much more easily. We avoid stress or
tension. They also start to have an interest in my topic and respond
accordingly. Consequently and collectively, our grades go up. Now I
seek to speak more audibly before public audiences, knowing it will benefit me
in my career.
Consciousness
at the layer 6, 5, and 4 in eternity is called
heaven. The mental state of Layer 7 is rational and involves a consistent
approach to understanding God through Sacred Scripture and in conscience, or “what is good and evil”. It is of
incalculable value because they include happiness, love, and wisdom. Also, through the knowledge of mental anatomy, we can
specify that layers 4, 5, and 6 are dependent for development on what is going
on in layers 7 and 8. Layer 7 allows us to understand in a rational and
scientific way “why for the sake of self is hell”. To evaluate myself is
my daily habit too. “Why did I want to do that?” or “Why could not I stop
doing that?” If I would stop evaluating myself, then I would not consider
self and the world. I always ask myself if what I do is good for me and society.
We
sometimes misunderstand people in rich. I once thought that rich people
mean and not humble. This is a false general statement. I can still
give to others while possessing a lot of money, showing that I do this for the
sake of others. This kind of thinking is involved layer 7.
Hell by Swedenborg observed:
Those who discard category 3 (heavenly
traits) and choose to remain in either 1 or 2
(hellish) become caricatures, lack in themselves, like the picture of Drian Gray. Living in various hellish societies where
they may enjoy themselves at first, but eventually they find themselves in
societies that practice cruelties against each other. It creates our life
of hell in eternity.
Heavenly
Live in layer 3. We find themselves in
beautiful heavenly surroundings or societies where people live together in
sub-populations or cities. People are enjoying all their heavenly desires
and feeling peace from all troubles that they discard in layers 1 and 2.
For the sake of
The
creation of a life in hell results from doing things for the sake of
self. The cause of hell is the ‘love of self for the sake of self’ or the
‘love of the world for the sake of self’, an outcome of our depraved
self. However, we have a chance that God creates the mental world of
heaven in a person by giving the person a new self through regeneration.
Good
We can choose good traits, in layer7, to allow us to live in the heaven of our eternity
through our perspective of spiritual truths.
Evil
Evil traits require you to live in the hell
of your eternity. Love of self for sake of others is because God
ceaselessly works in our mind to desire to better ourselves, for the sake of
our future in eternity.
All about the Motivations
Motivation
from the affective organ (heart) produces action. Motivations are
important. Your motives are the outcome of your love, affective
organs. You do something for heavenly motives. For an example the team used picking up a puppy on the road.
If the reason for the motivation is for the care of the dog, then it is
heavenly. However, if she rescues the puppy on the road, but then abuses
the poppy, it is hellish. However we are not
able to measure or judge it. Society also seeks to the focus on overt
acts because it is not possible to know what a person’s motives in any
particular act Hence self-monitoring is very important.
This is important the basic principle of regeneration: Whether your
action is hellish or heavenly, bad or good, wrong or right, depends not on the
act but on your motive in doing the act. This is very important as we
learned.
2. Explain
how we can be naturally sane but spiritually insane.
The
team used a very good analogy. Every person has an internal and external
man. The internal man is in the spiritual mind 4, 5 and 6. The
external man is in the natural mind 8 and 9. Both are different and each
has a character.
The
external man has a non-theistic scientific perspective that depends on the
cultures and societies. The wicked internal is in hell; and its light is
thick and darkness, though, their external man may enjoy the light. They
do not believe in the world after death; and they do believe that nature is self-created instead of created by God.
It
is similar to that of the internal man enjoying their actions by their good
light, heaven and enlightenment from the lord. However
we can not measure good people or the wicked because the external natural mind
are kept in an appearance that simulates the good. They pretend that they
are thinking cognitively and willing act through the affective organ.
The
team’s example was the story of a mermaid. When she went above the water,
the behavior she used under the water is weird, or would be out of place.
At the same time, if the behavior she learned above the ocean were acted out
inside the ocean world, it would also be viewed as
weird too. Each existence is both weird and legitimate. I was raised in
3. Explain
the process of regeneration. In what sense is it a psychological process? Who
is the Divine psychologist? Where in our mind is God present? What is the role
of Sacred Scripture in regeneration?
Psychological Process of Regeneration
Children do not have a well developed conscience and rational mind, layer 7.
They have to learn to focus on the overt act. After the dying and
resuscitation process, we still continue in layers 6, 5, or 4, while we are
still attached to the physical body, depending on how far we could get in our
regeneration. Regeneration is affected and accomplished
by the Divine psychologist. DP brings truths into the mind and temptations which are to be refuted and opposed by means of
reasoning with those truths. Even omnipotence God does not regenerate us
by force or threat. As long as we are not forced or threatened by evil
suppresses loves will not come out again. We must be willing to face
spiritual combat against temptations by using spiritual truth in our
understanding. Once the rational mind is filled
with enough spiritual truths, we can face spiritual combat and begin the long
process of being regenerated by the DP. We must evaluate 8A (our
intensions and motivations), 8C (our thoughts and reasoning), and 9/8S (our
overt activities) and analyze being hellish or not heavenly. We must
consciously talk to God and receive more courage and power. Gradually the
difficulty decreases. And then we have a new
outlook, new loves, new desires, and new motives. These new things keep
us happy, peaceful, untroubled, and successful in eternity. However, in
this physical world, it is impossible to achieve the task on our own because we
love hellish enjoyments. Therefore, we need Divine Psychologist.
Divine Psychologist
Divine
Psychologist is not present physically in the physical world but is present
spiritually in the mental world. We are not able to see them with our
physical eyes. For example, when we say “I see”,
it is not seen physically, but with rational understanding and interior
seeing. As I mentioned before, Divine Psychologist is the one able to
know whether a person is wicked or good on the inside
and communicate with different layers. We need DP for the
regeneration.
Sacred Scripture
The
divine psychologist brings truths to us through Sacred Scripture and
instruction based on it. It is by spiritual heat and light from
God. It is
(a)
Summarize the main ideas presented by the team.
Questions for the Psychologist with a positive bias
mode of thinking
All the answers for these questions are based on the
lecture note section 5and 6
. Over all answers were trying to explain the meaning of regeneration and what
steps require for us to generate to a higher layer of
mind. Also, the term discussed about the 4 categories
of loves and desires and how can we choose between heaven and hell?
Questions for the Psychologist with a negative bias
mode of thinking
1. What is the
difference between theistic science and natural science?
2. Do you think that talking about love, spiritual heat in negative bias?
3. Do you believe in God's existence?
4. Don’t you think there is a heaven after our physical death?
The overall answer from a negative bias perspective was to convent that there
is no heaven or hell and there is no afterlife. According to a natural science,
how we act or think is depended on our brain that affect
our physical body. Once, we die, we can think anymore. Therefore, psychologist
in negative bias does not believe in spiritual mind, heaven, hell and
regeneration. They think that these ideas cannot be proven
by scientific ways so they cannot say if it is true.
(b) Describe what they did and how
they interpreted it.
The term has to pretend that they are broadcasting the radio show. The topic is
regeneration, heaven and hell. One student has to be a host
and one student has to be a psychologist with positive bias mode of thinking
and then they switch the role. One student has to be a host and one student has
to be a psychologist with negative bias mode of thinking.
The term begin with one student interviewed another student who plays a
positive bias psychologist roles. There were 5
questions asking about regeneration, heaven and hell. The psychologist gave an
example about what is heavenly and hellish. For example, when
someone try to steal money from the company because he needs more money to
support his family. He is acting in the hellish traits although he wants
his family to have a better life but his action will cause problem to the
company although his company might not know that he did it. On the second, they
switched the role to a negative bias psychologist. Basically,
the term tried to convent that everything that positive bias
psychologist said about heaven and hell was not true and cannot be proven in
scientific way.
(c)
Describe some of the ideas that needed a better justification or greater
amplification.
The idea about regeneration and how can we move up to a higher layer was still
unclear and hard to understand. Although, we have been studying the 12 layers
chart for a while. I still get confused about these layers. I think that in
order to understand better is to refer back to the chart from time to time.
(d) What
was the success of the approach they used?
I think the overall approach was great by playing role as a radio broadcasting
and switch role between positive bias and negative bias psychologist because it
kept audience interesting more that just summarize the lecture note.
(e) What improvements are needed in the procedures or in the instructions?
The instruction for
this exercise is pretty clear and interesting because it allows us to compare
the answers when we have to think in negative bias and positive bias. I think
that one thing that we can improve the instruction for this exercise is to ask
other people outside class.
In previous exercise that we have done was hard for us to explain to other
people because they do not have knowledge about we learn. So
it is hard for them to understand. This exercise would be a good opportunity to
talk with other people. I think that we can just ask people about heaven and
hell without telling them about the lecture content so we can get the answer
with negative bias. Since everyone in this class already explore to positive
bias mode of thinking, it would be interesting to see how other people who not
have been explore to positive bias would think.
(f) What are the limitations of these
types of exercises?
The original instruction is to have three students. One student has to be a
host and the others 2 have to be psychologists and
both psychologists have to present at the same time. Since the term only has
two students, they cannot have to two psychologists answering the questions at
the same time. I think that if we can do 2
psychologist with negative and positive bias presenting at the same time,
people can understand more clearly and be able to compare the pro and con
between different mode of thinking.
(g) Describe what happened when you
did some of the steps of the exercises
In everyday life, I am
practicing a mixture of all the 4 categories of loves.
In order to regenerate myself to a higher layer, I have monitor myself about I
am doing in daily life. I was hard for me to monitor everything I do. I
sometimes fall back to a hellish categories and I have to remind myself that if
I practice ruling love in hellish traits it will affects me in after life. I
think that it might take sometimes for me to not thinking in hellish traits
because I am still thinking about myself for the sake of self
alone more than thinking about the sake of others. Now I am married and
I sometimes act selfish and forget to think about my partners. I have to remind
myself that I am not alone anymore. I have someone that I share my life with and we both need to regenerate to a higher in order for us to
reach the unity model of marriage and then we live happily together in
heaven of eternity.
Section 4 Web links
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/whatbudbeliev/303.htm
This article allows us to explore more about heaven
and hell from Buddhism perspective. It said that the Buddhist does not accept
that these places are eternal. The Buddha's Teaching shows us that there are
heavens and hells not only beyond this world, but in
this very world itself.
Life after Death
http://lifeafterdeath.info/Paranormal.htm
this website discuss about paranormal activity. what
could happen after we die and if it is possible that we will conscious after
our physical death. They said the evident for life after is weak because there
is no scientific explanation.
Heaven and hell
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heaven-hell/
The doctrines of heaven and hell are doctrines
concerning the afterlife. Recent theological work that denies existence beyond
the grave has sometimes included metaphorical reference to heaven and hell as
aspects of one's present earthly life.
Regeneration
http://mb-soft.com/believe/txs/regenera.htm
This website is talking about the
regeneration as a spiritual change wrought in the heart of man by the Holy
Spirit. We can see the historical discussion. Also
it is Biblical perspective. The literally means of regeneration means a
“new birth”.
For the sake of others
http://www.tenbiggestmyths.net/service/living.for.the.sake.of.others/
This article made me uncomfortable. However,
I also realized that it is not easy to do something for the sake of others in
this physical world. This article let us think skeptic but also
rational. However, I believe that most people believe that it is not only
myth.
Motivation
This website
is about the charity working in low-income countries to enhance the quality of
life of people with mobility disabilities. This site recommends this program enables people motivate to working together.
7. http://www.theisticpsychology.org/articles/self-witnessing-theistic.htm
This website
examines how spiritual self-monitoring (or self witnessing)
enables one to view their threefold self and subsequently whether or not their
actions and behaviors are desirable or not. Self-witnessing is
said to be observational on an introspective level of evidence.
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedenborgianism
An important
section of this website illustrates a lot of the
topics discussed in this team report. In particular, it describes the love of
self (for sake of self alone) corresponds to a hellish
trait and those that are governed by this love of self will end up in their own
hell.
9. http://www.euro-tongil.org/swedish/english/emanu3.htm
Much like the
previous website, this site also illustrates in part how hell originates from
man’s love of self for the sake of self alone. It also
describes how and why God gives us free will, and the consequences of how we
live our lives if men did not possess free will.
10. http://www.theisticpsychology.org/articles/ethics.htm
This website
is a key website for further understand the concept of the Divine Psychologist
(paralleled to God in this website) and how the Divine Psychologist helps us in
nudging us in the right direction and providing us with situations and choices
wherein we have the power to resist or to give into such spiritual combat.