Report 2:

My Understanding of Theistic Psychology

By Denise Nakamura

Instructions for this report are at:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy21/459-g21-report2.htm

Question 1:

People sometimes refer to the negative aspects of religion – religious wars, persecutions, intolerance. How can theistic psychology reduce this negative aspect of religion? What makes Theistic psychology different from religion? How do they compare in explaining the idea of “salvation”? Can theistic psychology be universal if it relies on Sacred Scripture of Western religions and traditions? What is “religious behaviorism”?

Section A: Summary of Selections Pertaining to Each Question

People sometimes refer to the negative aspects of religion – religious wars, persecutions, intolerance. How can theistic psychology reduce this negative aspect of religion?

1.0 The Negative and Positive Bias in Science

This book explores whether it is possible to use God as an explanatory concept in psychology and still remain within the scope and definition of a science.

"Theistic" psychology contrasts with "atheistic" psychology which prohibits the use of God as an explanatory concept for any phenomenon or theory in psychology. By contrast, theistic psychology makes use of knowledge about God from "scientific revelations" which are found in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). We will examine the data and experiments he presents in his Writings concerning God, the spiritual world, life after death, and the human mind, with a view to evaluating whether such a system can remain scientific.

Summary of Selections from Section 1.0:

Theistic psychology may reduce negative aspects of religion by looking at them from a scientific point of view. By being objective, people will be able to look at the differences in religions that lead to religious wars, persecutions, and intolerance and understand that although there are differences, religious groups can agree to disagree without fighting.

What makes theistic psychology different from religion?

2.1. What’s the difference between religion and theistic psychology?

The difference is that between mystical and scientific. Mystical systems depend on blind faith or credulity and as a result, there are a variety of mystical systems, or religions, and each believes to have the real truth while thinking that the others do not. This is why religion depends on declared membership, on affirmations of a common creed, and dependence on the willingness to believe something that cannot be explained in a scientific manner. As a result, when we examine religions in a rational or scientific way, we cannot arrive at a conclusion since the creed or faith resists breakdown and rational analysis.

On the other hand theistic psychology is not a religion but a science. Theistic psychology contrasts with atheistic psychology which automatically excludes God as an explanatory concept. Theistic psychology automatically includes God as a concept in all explanations about human behavior and dynamics. While religion depends on creed and faith, theistic psychology depends on rational and scientific explanations of the laws and mechanisms by which God causes every event and behavior to occur. Therefore theistic psychology advances by cumulative research and critical analysis of all models, theories, and data.

Theistic psychology encompasses religion that is based on the literal sense of revelation. While religion defines God in personal and historical terms, theistic psychology provides a rational account of the mechanisms or rational procedures that God uses to manage every cause and effect. Theistic psychology therefore has a scientific explanation for the terms and concepts used in religion, e.g., omnipotence, Divine Providence, sin, salvation, heaven, hell, angel, devil, regeneration or rebirth, prayer, sacraments, and so on. Every religious practice and idea is given a scientific explanation in theistic psychology. This is possible because these scientific revelations were embedded or hidden in the literal sense of revelation. There they lay for many centuries unsuspected by all those who studied and wrote about revelation and the Bible. But now that the science of correspondences has been revealed, we have available to us a vast source of new facts about God and how the universe is managed. Sin is real but what makes it real and how does it injure us? Heaven and hell are real but they exist as states of our mind. Miracles are real but they are no different from ordinary every day phenomena in terms of how God makes events happen. No event can occur except that God makes it happen in that particular way. This is the rational consequence of the concept of "omnipotence" and "infinity" as applied to God.

2.3. Is theistic psychology really science?

Theistic psychology is science because it meets all the requirements of science.

(a) It is based on cumulative research by independent scientists who can rationally evaluate each other’s work.

(b) It employs empirical methods for extracting knowledge from the scientific revelations in the Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772). These include

data on the spiritual world,
observations of experiments in the spiritual world,
interviews with large samples of individuals who are living in the afterlife,
descriptions and models of the anatomy of the human mind which becomes visible in the spiritual world, historical details about pre-historic life on this planet,
descriptions of life on other planets,
the science of correspondences, and
a rational model of God’s management techniques.

(c) Systematic application of revealed principles to the description of events and behavior. Theistic psychologists do not invent their own theories as in atheistic psychology, which has ended up with a potpourri of contradictory explanations of portions of human behavior. All theories in theistic psychology must be drawn from these scientific revelations and must agree with them. Other psychologists must be able to corroborate the theories in two ways:

(i) theoretical—any new theory must not contradict the rational structure that has already developed by lawful extraction from the scientific revelations in the Writings of Swedenborg . Instead, it must enrich it by explaining more than what has been explained so far about any topic in human behavior. Other psychologists must be able to comprehend and corroborate the new theory by confirming it with the Writings of Swedenborg for consistency and acceptability.

(ii) predictive—every theory or model must also be able to predict new data about human behavior and must explain related data that other psychologists may bring in.

Given these prerequisites of science, theistic psychology meets all of them.

Summary of Selections from Section 2.1:

Theistic psychology is different from religion because it is a science; it looks at religion from a scientific view. Theistic psychology is scientific, not mystical like religions. It does not require faith or a belief in a God, as religions do, because it explains things rationally, based on research. Basically, everything in religion that is explained mystically is explained rationally and scientifically by theistic psychology.

Summary of Selections from Section 2.3:

Another reason theistic psychology is different from religion is because it itself is not a religion, it is a science and meets all the criteria in order to be a science. The research that this science is based on can be evaluated by other scientists objectively and uses empirical methods to analyze Swedenborg’s work. There are also theories and predictability, one of the main goals in science, which allow scientists to anticipate future human behavior regarding Swedenborgianism.

How do they compare in explaining the idea of “salvation”?

Section 3.7.2.3

In other words, the new spiritual-natural organ can be activated by reacting to the correspondences in the three heavens. Through this built in feature, we are able to be aware and process higher order correspondences in a virtual form. This processing is what elevates our consciousness all the way to the Third Heaven of our mind, where we can understand what Divine Speech is saying about love and the hierarchy of human affections. Knowing this allows us to be angels on earth, that is, live a life of preparation for angelic life in the afterlife. This is also called becoming regenerated (see Section xx). Regeneration is also called salvation because only by character reformation can be prepare our mind for heavenly life. The mind that is unregenerate when awakening in the world of spirits, is unwilling to be elevated into the life of heaven. Swedenborg observed this phenomenon on many occasions.

2.20.1 The Inner Scientific Sense of Divine Speech

Many scientific secrets are revealed in the Old Testament about God's methodology for creating new mental pathways for the regeneration of the human race. Regeneration refers to the formation of a new heaven within our rational mind. This is the heaven that contains our eternal life. Anyone entering this heaven in their mind becomes an immortal angel living in conjugial bliss to eternity. This rational revolution did not exist prior to their creation by the Divine Incarnation.

Christians realize that this new creation of the Divine-Human constitutes the salvation of the human race, but they do not yet know the scientific explanation of how it constitutes salvation. This has been revealed by God in the Divine Speech that He created through the minds of selected prophets and revelators. But not in the natural historical meaning that constitutes the content of Sacred Scripture. This natural history serves for religion, which is a cultural phenomenon that God uses to teach about Himself, worship, commandments of living, heaven, and hell. The scientific part had to remain hidden until the human race was ready to understand it and accept it in a rational way, based on one's understanding and perception. This hidden science of the mind has now been revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg, which constitute the rational revolution. Now anyone can develop ordinary rational skills through cultural and scientific literacy. This was not possible before. With this modern scientific rational mind we can comprehend the Rational Mind of the Divine-Human that was created through the Incarnation.

Summary of Section 3.7.2.3:

According to Swedenborg, he describes ‘salvation’ as the reformation of the mind and character before entering the spiritual world. This stage is necessary because our minds need to be raised to a higher level in order for us to reach a spiritually higher level after death. In other words, this process makes us “better fit” to enter the spiritual world.

Can theistic psychology be universal if it relies on Sacred Scripture of Western religions and traditions?

2.1. Because by loving God He is able to give us what we were created for, but not otherwise. The purpose God had in creating human beings is that they be born on some physical earth, develop a rational mind, and at death, be resuscitated into an eternal world of conjugial happiness called heaven. This is a noble and loving purpose and we can appreciate it by feeling gratitude. So it makes rational sense to say that the rational mind God creates in us needs to be given information about God so that we can know God and love Him more than anything else we know. This information comes to us through Divine Speech or Sacred Scripture dictated by God. This is the same as Divine Truth which gives us the facts about God and true reality, rationally understood. Divine Speech must be the source of all information for theistic psychology.

Clearly, if information about reality, God, and the universe is made up as someone's theory, we will never know the real reality, the real truth, which only God the Creator possesses. Obviously, the human mind is created to receive communication from God as Divine Speech. If this were not the case science would never know about true reality. It doesn't make sense to separate reality into two parts, one that we can test and another we can only speculate about. Reality is integrated and cannot be separated. If you separate reality into non-overlapping components you can never understand reality rationally, which it is. God is rational and runs the universe rationally as shown by the rationality of laws we can discover about the physical universe and the rationality of God's revelations.

Theistic psychology is therefore based exclusively on Divine scientific revelations. Nothing is added to it that is from another source.

Theistic psychology was created by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) who was given the unique ability in modern history to be conscious simultaneously in this world and in the spiritual world. This special ability, which he had between the ages of 57 and 84, was given to him by God who elevated his rational consciousness all the way to the highest level of thinking possible called the "third heaven" in the human mind. He was thus given the unique task of authoring the third component of Sacred Scripture which took several thousand years of human evolution to deliver to our conscious mind (see Preface). Today the Western tradition has received the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Writings of Swedenborg. These three components of Sacred Scripture have been given to humankind in order to allow us to have a rational consciousness of God. Theistic psychology is based exclusively on these three collections of revelations, also known as the "Threefold Word."

The Writings reveal and demonstrate that all Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech transformed into a natural language.

The Writings reveal a rational method of reconstructing the original content of Divine Speech before it was transformed and written down in a natural language. We need to do be able to do this reconstruction or recovery, since the natural version of Divine Speech in Sacred Scripture is mostly natural in content and appears as history and prophecy. The spiritual information about God, the afterlife, or God's management laws of the universe, are hidden from the literal sense of Sacred Scripture. And yet it is the spiritual information that we need in order to form a rational understanding of God and how God runs the universe. We cannot invent hypothetical interpretations and hope to be fully right. Then we won't know when we are right and when wrong, and our spiritual progress will end in contradiction and conflict. Therefore God must reveal to us a rational method for recovering from Divine Speech what He tells us about the spiritual world and the rational laws He uses to manage the universe.

The Writings of Swedenborg are therefore a scientific revelation because they give us rational methods for discovering what God has been telling us through Divine Speech encoded and transformed into a natural language. Theistic psychology is the knowledge we can extract from these scientific revelations. Whatever is thus extracted must follow the laws of extraction set forth in Divine revelation. If we use other methods of extraction we get nowhere towards the truth.

This is why God revealed to us precisely what methods of extraction must be followed.

Sacred Scripture must therefore be viewed in both its literal historical meaning and its correspondential or universal meaning. This is the meaning we extract or recover when we apply the method of correspondences as specified in the Writings. When viewed in its literal meaning, Sacred Scripture discusses religion and history. But when viewed in its universal meaning derived from the science of correspondences, Sacred Scripture is science. Both positions--religious and scientific-- are legitimate and do not contradict each other. Literally, the Writings appear to be written for the New Christian Church prophesied in the Book of Revelation at the end of the New Testament of the Bible. The Writings are therefore a continuation of that revelation but at a more rational level of presentation as suitable to the modern scientific mind.

Religion is always bound up with culture and history, while theistic psychology is universal, of relevance to all religions and cultures and times. Different religions have different and contradictory explanations for the same phenomenon, while there is only one theistic psychology. Within theistic psychology there cannot be any disagreement or contradictory scientific theories since its knowledge base consists solely and exclusively of the scientific revelations given in the Writings of Swedenborg--a one time event in history that cannot repeat itself. The reasons why there cannot be new additional revelations in the future are fully explained and established in the Writings. Therefore the giving of these scientific revelations marks the beginning of a new evolutionary path for the human race.

4.5 Scientific Revelations in Sacred Scripture

Quoting from the Writings of Swedenborg:

By focusing on the universal meaning of Sacred Scripture, the natural historical meaning recedes in the background. From a sectarian religion, Divine Speech is reconstructed into a science of the human mind and God. Note that the literal sense is also true and is unaffected by the scientific sense drawn from it. Hence it is not accurate to say that the scientific sense destroys religion or impairs it in any way. In fact, it's quite obvious that when both the literal and scientific senses are known, the literal and historical meaning is strengthened, not weakened. Theistic psychology supports all religions and is dependent on the literal sense as a foot is dependent on a shoe, or as the head is dependent on a hat for protection, or as the egg is dependent on the egg shell. The literal sense is the eggshell and the scientific sense is the egg, or, the hat is the literal sense while the head is the scientific sense. Take away the hat and your head has no protection, or, take away the egg shell and the egg is lost. In the passage below, "the internal or spiritual sense of the Word " refers to the scientific sense of Divine Speech.

Summary

Section 2.1:

Theistic psychology can still be universal even though it relies on Sacred Scripture of Western Religions and traditions because it is revealing the divine truth through the divine speech of God without any bias. Theistic psychology reveals this truth rationally as facts about God

Because Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech written in natural language, it was made for everyone to read and comprehend, revealing truths about God that He wanted natural beings to know. It is also universal because it is based solely on the scientific writings of Swedenborg, so there can be no disagreement between religions.

Section 4.5:

Theistic psychology is universal because it supports all religions by providing the scientific meanings of Divine Speech by God. It is so basic to all religions that without it would be like a foot without a shoe; religions need theistic psychology.

What is “religious behaviorism”?

13.0.1 Religious Behaviorism vs. the Psychology of Religion

Religious behaviorism is the name I propose for the branch of theistic psychology that makes a scientific study of religious concepts and phenomena such as God, prayer, heaven, hell, eternity. Both religion and theistic psychology are grounded in Divine Speech or Sacred Scripture. Every culture and civilization on this earth has always possessed a religion based on Sacred Scripture by which God could be known, worshipped, and obeyed. While religion is based on the literal sense of Sacred Scripture, theistic psychology is based on the underlying scientific sense that has now become accessible to us through the Laws of Correspondences by which Divine Speech is given. This previously unsuspected knowledge has now been revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772) (see Volume 1).

Summary

Section 13.0.1:

‘Religious behaviorism’ is the term given by Swedenborg regarding the study of religious concepts and phenomena.

Section B: My Commentary

(i) I felt this question was important because it addressed some of the most basic concepts in theistic psychology that need to be understood. It also addressed the difference between theistic psychology and religion, something I feel is important because people may confuse theistic psychology for a type of religion, which is wrong. In general, I thought this question cleared up some confusion about theistic psychology and addressed some basic ideas that would seem to be misunderstood by people who first hear of theistic psychology.

(ii) Now that I have answered the first question I have learned I wasn’t always aware of the consequences of differences in religions, such as religious war and intolerance. I have learned that theistic psychology can play an important role in reducing this intolerance to ease some of the problems in society. I also learned that because of the differences among societies and religions each group will come to its own conclusions about certain aspects of religions, like Sacred Scripture, and this can lead to many problems.

(iii) What I agree with most about Swedenborg’s work is that it is scientific and works if you keep an open mind by assuming the positive bias. I think that if everyone can be open to the fact that what Swedenborg experienced is possible then we can learn a lot from him and about other religions, such as the different interpretations of religious concepts. I also like that the fact that theistic psychology is universal because it applies to all religions.

Question 2:

In what ways is theistic psychology like the psychology you’ve known prior to this course?

Answer:

Section A: Summary of selections pertaining to each section

2.3.2 Criteria for Theistic Psychology as Science

Theistic psychology is a proposal to allow God as a scientific concept as long as it meets scientific, rational, and logical criteria, as follows: It must

(1) be rational, coherent, internally consistent, comprehensive, understandable, capable of representation in models and diagrams

(2) not contradict common sense and scientific reasoning

(3) have a factual empirical basis of systematic observations and experiments

(4) be capable of supporting normal scientific cumulative research by a generational scientific community

2.3. Is theistic psychology really science?

Theistic psychology is science because it meets all the requirements of science.

(a) It is based on cumulative research by independent scientists who can rationally evaluate each other’s work.

(b) It employs empirical methods for extracting knowledge from the scientific revelations in the Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772). These include

data on the spiritual world,
observations of experiments in the spiritual world,
interviews with large samples of individuals who are living in the afterlife,
descriptions and models of the anatomy of the human mind which becomes visible in the spiritual world, historical details about pre-historic life on this planet,
descriptions of life on other planets,
the science of correspondences, and
a rational model of God’s management techniques.

Summary

Section 2.3.2:

Theistic psychology is similar to the psychology I’ve known prior to this course because it is scientific and uses empirical methods to obtain data. It is rational, doesn’t contradict scientific reasoning, based on systematic observations and experiments (empirical), and can support cumulative scientific research.

Summary of Selections from Section 2.3:

Similar to the summary from the previous sections, Theistic psychology is similar to other areas of psychology because it meets all requirements of a science: it is based on cumulative research and uses empirical methods. It is also like other areas o psychology because it is as objective as possible.

What are overlapping topics and methodologies? Give at least two topics or methods that overlap and show how theistic psychology provides different explanations for them.

I can honestly say that the topics in theistic psychology do not overlap with those that I have learned about in my previous psychology courses. Until this course I had no idea that there was even such a thing as theistic psychology and everything encompassed in it; I had never heard of Swedenborg or even a psychology of religion course. The only aspect that overlaps theistic psychology and other areas of psychology are the methodologies.

Like any other branch of psychology, theistic psychology uses empirical methods and is based on cumulative research done by individual scientists.

Section B: My Commentary

(i) I felt this question was important because it allowed me to incorporate what I knew from my previous psychology courses with what I am learning now in theistic psychology. By thinking about it in relation to other areas of psychology I was able to really see that theistic psychology is a science because it meets the same criteria that other areas of psychology have to meet.

(ii) I think this question solidified the value of theistic psychology as a real science for me. It helped me to understand that although I thought I was assuming the positive bias I wasn’t doing so completely because, even though I believed what Swedenborg said was possible, I never thought of theistic psychology as a real science. I also realized that people in society who assume the negative bias probably don’t realize that theistic science is a real science either. People who assume the negative bias probably don’t take theistic psychology seriously and, like me in the beginning, don’t even think twice about the scientific methods that were used to obtain information that are the basis for it.

(iii) There is not much to agree with on “this perspective” because this question was about how theistic psychology is like the psychology I’ve known prior to this course. However, now that I am better informed, I can agree on the fact that theistic psychology is a real science that meets all the criteria in order to be one.

Question 3:

Why is the topic of “regeneration” so basic in theistic psychology? What are the “character reformation” steps of building a “new will”? What is the difference between the “old will” and the new will? What are “heavenly” vs. “hellish” traits? How does this relate to personality theory in psychology as you know it?

Section A: Summary of Selections Pertaining to Each Question

Why is the topic of “regeneration” so basic in theistic psychology?

6.8 Sexuality: Love of the Sex vs. Love of One of the Sex

During character reformation, or spiritual development, we must investigate our traits and decide with each if it is hellish or heavenly, then reject the one and accept the other. In this manner we take progressive steps toward our regeneration, which refers to the preparation of a conscious character that can live in heaven to eternity. The trait of sexuality also needs to be examined in ourselves, a task that lasts a lifetime on earth. The following diagram can be helpful in distinguishing between heavenly traits of sexuality and hellish. Sexual behavior and attitude are closely linked to selfishness and altruism.

6.0.10 The State of Reformation Begins Regeneration

Regeneration is the central issue in theistic psychology. Without regeneration there is eternal hell and with regeneration there is eternal heaven. Given that we are born immortal human beings what can be more important to us than regeneration?

We discussed above that regeneration begins in adulthood and continues lifelong, and beyond. Regeneration is a word frequently used in Sacred Scripture, especially in the New Testament and the Writings. Little details are offered in the literal sense of the New Testament and the bulk of what has been revealed about it is in the literal meaning of the Writings. In the future much more will be known about regeneration when extractive research recovers the scientific revelations that lay hidden in the literal sense of Divine Speech.

6.0.1 The Conscious Self and Its Development

People who listen and obey the voice of their conscience, or who obey the Ten Commandments because they are from God, are given the power to inhibit and suppress their antisocial ruling love. Since the ruling love controls all the loves below it in the motivational hierarchy, suppressing it also inhibits the loves below it. As the antisocial ruling love is gradually suppressed and suffocated, a new altruistic ruling love seats itself in the command function. The new ruling love maintains a hierarchy of loves below itself, so that the entire motivational dynamics of the person is changed from hellish to heavenly.

This transformation process is called regeneration and involves temptations (see Section xx). Temptations bring our ruling love out of the background command into the foreground executor. We cannot deny it or ignore it. It's in our face and putting tremendous pressure on us to act in accordance with its satisfaction. This mental stress or conflict can sometimes be experienced as extreme and devastating. The deeper the hellish love that comes out in the temptation experience, the more we are shocked and challenged to approve or disapprove, and to go along or to fight like hell to resist it. This is a subjective experience. In fact, as revealed in the Writings, we have zero power to oppose the furious hells attacking us, grabbing hold of us, wanting desperately to make us part of them. They succeed if we give in, stop resisting, and let ourselves enjoy the evil, and finally loving it so that we look for it again, anticipate it, and are willing to abuse self and others in order to keep getting it. But when we resist in the Name of God, we are given as-if our own power to resist, and desist, and finally to hold the experience in aversion and disgust.

Summary

Section 6.8

Regeneration is how we come to live in either heaven or hell. During regeneration we must either choose or reject our hellish loves. By rejecting them we are able to live in heaven for eternity, but if we accept them we will be in hell.

Section 6.0.1.0.

Because theistic psychology deals with the spiritual world, the topic of regeneration is so basic because it is what provides the option of eternal hell or eternal heaven. Without regeneration, people wouldn’t be allowed to choose between their heavenly and hellish traits, they would only have hellish traits and, therefore, spend their entire spiritual life in hell. However, with regeneration, people can ‘reform’ their character and make their decision about where in the spiritual world they want to be. It is difficult for humans to reject their hellish loves, but doing so proves that they are fit enough to join others in heaven.

What are the “character reformation” steps of building a “new will”?

6.0.5 Spiritual Growth: How the New Will is formed

The "will" refers to the operation of the affective organ. These operations vary by categories which we are all familiar with--intentions, motivations, goals, purposes, impulses, propensities, inborn preferences, enjoyments, satisfactions, affections, loves. All these sub-categories of the affective operations are referred to globally in Sacred Scripture as "love" and the "will." In theistic psychology we use the term "character" to refer to the hierarchy of our loves in every day life. We discussed above the word "propirum" which means "our own self" or that which we feel is our own. In order for something to feel our own we must choose it in freedom. If we choose it by necessity or threat we are not choosing it in freedom and therefore it is not our love, and finally, it is not our own. It remains outside of our own loves. Our immortality consists only of those things that our own. Other things that belong to our personality or appearance and reputation, do not transfer across our second death (see Section xx). Our eternal state of mind can be composed only of our loves, and anything that our loves want around, which means thoughts of a certain kind.

The will is the actual human being, while the personality, knowledge, and memory are outside the actual human being, something that our will loves to keep around for enjoyment and can change at will!

The will, dominant love, or character is therefore our proprium, our self, our very own--what we are in reality rather than appearance.

Upon our first death, the physical body drops off and we are resuscitated in the world of spirits. Surprisingly to most people, as observed by Swedenborg, we appear to ourselves to be in a solid body whose youth, sensitivity, and health is far greater than what we people remember from their material earth body. Swedenborg himself was able to confirm this while living simultaneously in his physical body and "in spirit" as he sometimes refers to it. We are in a mental state in which we experience rapid change. The first few weeks all our earth memories are intact. This is when we appear to be meeting with "dead relatives" and former friends or spouses. We also seem to be living in a city and a house similar to what we left behind on earth. Through a series of intense and rapid experiences we are led more and more into our real character, our real loves that pulled the strings behind our personality habits and appearances.

We discover ourselves truly for the first time. We cannot resist the intense urges of loves that have been held cooped up by social personality, reputation, or the law. Like a genie out of the bottle, we rush into all sorts of frantic behavior and new conduct of great passion and intensity. Now is your eternal destiny sealed. Your second death is quickly approaching and you are compelled from within, by your ruling dominant supreme love, to act to please that love, to satisfy yourself, to enjoy life in its most. This is the moment of destiny for which we all must prepare. If the ruling love is the "old will" we were born with, we are compelled at this point to immerse our consciousness completely and fully into the loves of the old will. This is called descending into the hell of your mind.

If you have a "new will" you are quite pleased at this point to give up altogether any love that is in the old will. Giving up any love and every love in it, without exception, like--selfishness, pride, unfaithfulness in marriage, love of disobedience, hatred of innocence, etc. etc. (see Section xx). With the new will we are happy to give every one of the loves in our old will, so that now, upon our second death, we are resuscitated into the heaven in our mind.

Which is our immortality, whether in heaven or in hell, is determined completely by our daily choices. Theistic psychology gives us a scientific understanding of how God creates the new will in an individual. It is a process that requires our cooperation, which involves the willingness to resist temptations brought to us by the Divine Psychologist as our character is being rebuilt, day by day, and hour by hour.

Summary

Section 6.0.5

In order to build up a new will after the first death, an individual must give up the hellish loves out of freedom of choice, not out of fear of going to hell. The reason for this is because choosing heavenly loves out of fear is not really choosing them, rather, it is avoiding hell. By doing this the old will is given up because it is what possessed the hellish traits; everyone is born with hellish traits and it’s up to the individual to reject these hellish traits, especially during regeneration, in order to obtain a new will and go to heaven. In order for a new will to be formed an individual must be willing to make the necessary changes, such as giving up hellish loves.

What is the difference between the “old will” and the new will?

Summary

Section 6.0.5

The old will is what we are born with, it consists of hellish loves and does not help us in anyway to get to heaven. The new will is what individuals obtain after the first death if they willingly change their character by rejecting their hellish traits for the sake of being good. The new will rejects all hellish traits and is what allows people to get to heaven because it only encompasses heavenly traits.

What are “heavenly” vs. “hellish” traits?

7.11 Moral Intelligence and Evolution

What is it that enters the state of heaven or hell at our second death? It must be a pure character either way. No mixed character can survive either in heaven or in hell. Upon the first death, we awaken in the world of spirits where we undergo a series of significant experiences arranged for us by the Divine Psychologist (see Section xx). The purpose of the experiences is to have us discover who we really are on the inside and what our inmost loves are. These are the determining conditions for our life in immortality. Can we abandon every single evil enjoyment or hellish trait we still have after the first death? That's the question of importance.

Some people can live by abandoning every heavenly trait. What's left is the unrelenting pursuit of their infernal loves, which are called cupidities and lusts. In these they now have their full life to eternity. Other people can live by abandoning every hellish trait. What's left is the unrelenting pursuit of heavenly loves, which are called rational loves because they are the result of a marriage in our mind between our rational thinking and altruistic motives. This way of thinking about our future in terms of what ruling loves we possess is now a new stage of moral thinking and reasoning.

Summary

Section 7.11

Hellish traits are what we are born with; they are evil desires that are selfish, infernal loves. Swedenborg called these hellish traits cupidities and lusts. Heavenly traits are rational loves and result from a marriage between our mind, rational thinking, and altruistic motives. These loves are unselfish and stem from a love of the world instead of oneself.

Hellish traits are what get individuals into hell if they don’t reject them, and heavenly traits are what get individuals into heaven if they reject hellish traits and embrace heavenly ones.

How does this relate to personality theory in psychology as you know it?

6.0 Personality theory in theistic psychology has an organic basis. Every individual is born with a unique mind or spiritual body. The mind is a spiritual organ constructed out of the substances streaming forth from the Spiritual Sun in the spiritual world. Swedenborg was able to see this Sun every day for the 27 years of his unique conscious life in both worlds simultaneously. The substances of the mind and the substances of the Spiritual Sun are the same, though adapted to each unique mind. It is similar with the brain which is constructed out of material elements from the natural sun, or star, that originated the planet. Every object on the planet is made of matter from its star. Swedenborg became very familiar with the surface appearances of the spiritual world, just as we are very familiar with the environment around us--trees, houses, beaches, mountains, animals, clouds, rivers. The environment in the spiritual world is a mental or rational environment constructed from the quality of the feelings and thoughts in the mind.

The outflow of the Spiritual Sun creates a space of rationality or what I would like to call rational ether. An analogous idea is the physical sun creating an energy sphere or gravitational field around itself in which the planets are deposited by separation from the sun, and then cooling off. The Spiritual Sun, by its efflux or outflow, creates a volume or sphere around itself made of rational ether called the spiritual world.

When human beings are born each individual's physical body is made of matter from the natural sun, and the individual's spiritual body is made of substance from the rational ether. We are thus born dual citizens belonging simultaneously to both worlds. One body is formed and dies in the natural world; the other body is formed in the spiritual world and never dies, since whatever is made of spiritual substance is eternal and impossible to destroy. Every feeling, every thought, and every sensation we ever had was an actual operation in the spiritual fibers of the mind and thus established a spiritual synapse that is indestructible. Swedenborg has proven that this is the case in the following manner.

In the spiritual world people who operate in the highest possible level of their mind are called "higher angels." They have the ability to review the content of people's memories in the world of spirits and to effect temporary changes. These therapeutic interventions are helpful when they instruct new arrivals about the laws of the spiritual world which must be understood rationally for good mental health there. These higher angels sometimes intervened with their special mental powers in order to help Swedenborg gather empirical observations. In this case they intervened in such a way as to bring the individuals back into the state of consciousness they were in when they first arrived. People from heaven and hell were temporarily brought back into the world of spirits which is the state of mind they had when they arrived from earth many years ago. Swedenborg then questioned them concerning their life on earth. They had with them all their memories. Nothing was missing or obscured proving that every operation in the mind is stored cumulatively in the memory of the natural mind. In the spiritual world it is known as the "Book of Life."

While we still have the physical body our natural mind is being built up from sensory input and rational abstraction. The natural mind is where we have our normal daily conscious awareness of self and the world. When the natural mind is completed, the physical body disintegrates ("dies"), and we begin a new consciousness in our spiritual body. We are then called "spirits," "angels," and "devils" depending on what is on our natural mind.

In order for the natural mind to develop and become prepared for conscious life in the spiritual world it is necessary for the spiritual mind to be operationalized and active simultaneously. The spiritual mind does not develop, like the natural mind, out of interaction with the physical body, but out of interaction with the spiritual body. The spiritual mind is also built from the substances of rational ether that is created by the Spiritual Sun around itself. The content of the spiritual mind is organized and ordered by the continuous influx of the Spiritual Sun. This operation is unconscious while we are tied to the physical body, but becomes conscious when the physical body disintegrates and we begin our immortal life as "spirits." Swedenborg was given the special ability to be conscious in the spiritual mind while he was still tied to the physical body. This was necessary in his unique case in order to allow him to write the scientific reports in the Writings (27 volumes in English translation). People would be spiritually damaged or destroyed were they allowed to be conscious simultaneously in both worlds.

Summary

Section 6.0

Hellish traits relate to personality theory because it is what people are born with in the natural world and the theory is about the unique minds and spiritual bodies of people. Everything is made from the spiritual sun, including the hellish traits that we are born with. The idea is to reject these hellish traits throughout life and especially at regeneration because you want to reform your character based on freedom of choice and embrace heavenly traits in order to go to heaven Personality theory also addresses the natural mind preparing for the spiritual world, which occurs through the process of regeneration.

Section B: My Commentary

(i) I felt that this question was important because, like it states in the question, regeneration is a basic part of theistic psychology. By answering this question I felt that I would have a better understanding of one of the basic concepts of theistic psychology, which would be good since I am taking a course on it. I also remember one of my classmates doing their oral presentation on the old will and new will and thought this would be a good opportunity to better understand this topic.

(ii) This perspective helps me better understand myself because I can see what my hellish and heavenly traits and loves are and know what decisions I have to make in order to get rid of my hellish loves. It also helps me understand society better because I can see what the hellish and heavenly traits of other people are.

(iii) I agree with the idea of regeneration, a new and old will, and heavenly and hellish traits. I think without these processes and changes people would be able to enter the spiritual heaven without actually being “good” people. Since people are born with hellish traits I think the stage of regeneration, obtaining a new will, and rejecting hellish traits are good “initiations” in order to get into eternal heaven.

Question 4:

What is the perspective theistic psychology provides on Sacred Scripture? How is it related to Divine Speech? What are correspondences in Sacred Scripture? Give some illustrations of Sacred Scripture and show how they are to be interpreted from the perspective of theistic psychology.

Section A: Summary of selections pertaining to each section

What is the perspective theistic psychology provides on Sacred Scripture?

3.8 Divine Speech or Sacred Scripture as the Source of Scientific Revelations

There is nothing in the scientific code of correspondences that is contradictory to religion. There is no difficulty in understanding that Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech that is written for the entire human race, not only for a particular ethnic group at a specific time in history. The literal meaning of Sacred Scripture is always historical, cultural, and religious in context and content, but the extracted scientific meaning that is hidden within, is universal, applies to all human beings, and is independent of time, culture, religion, or race (see Section xx).

Swedenborg's daily explorations of the spiritual world for 27 years, led him to examine experimentally the functional interaction between the written version of Sacred Scripture on earth and its version in the spiritual world. It may be surprising at first to hear that there are books in the afterlife world called the spiritual world, which consists of heaven and hell, and the interspace between them called the world of spirits, where all of us are resuscitated a few hours after the death of the physical body (see Section xx). But because this may be surprising, it doesn't lessen the actuality of that fact which Swedenborg confirmed by visiting libraries and interviewing authors engaged in writing. Of course we must recall that the world of our afterlife in immortality is a mental world that exists in rational ether created by the outflow of rational substances from the Spiritual Sun (see Section xx).

3.4 The Spiritual Sun

The reason Sacred Scripture contains two levels of meaning, natural and spiritual, is because the spiritual concepts are purely rational and cannot be understood rationally prior to one's reformation in adult life during which we abandon materialistic thinking and begin to acknowledge the co-presence and co-participation of God in all the details of our life and environment (see Section xx). Until that point in adulthood our relationship to God remains external to our inner self because religion is a cultural involvement with God and much of it is cultural and mystical rather than spiritual and rational. Hence Divine Speech always comes to the human race through a particular ethnic group in history and is recorded as religious Sacred Scripture. But now we know that Sacred Scripture is written in a dual meaning, one for the cultural religion and the other for theistic psychology and science.

Summary

Section 3.8

Theistic psychology views Sacred Scripture as universal, applying to all groups of people at all times. It has scientific meaning, not literal meaning as it is interpreted by religious groups, and comes from God through Divine Speech.

Section 3.4

Sacred Scripture has a natural and spiritual meaning. The reason for this is because the spiritual concepts have natural meanings that cannot be understood by people who have not undergone character reformation. Only after the change in relationship to God can one understand the spiritual meaning of Sacred Scripture. Although Sacred Scripture is also written for the cultural religion, theistic psychology takes it as purely scientific.

How is it related to Divine Speech?

3.7.2.3 How Divine Speech Unifies the Human Race

This conclusion was additionally confirmed when Swedenborg viewed the Sacred Scripture read by the angelic spirits, which is the name given to those who dwell permanently in the First Heaven of the human race. At each level, Divine speech communicates itself in the form of Sacred Scripture written down in some language -- celestial-rational language, spiritual-rational language, or spiritual-natural language, for the three heavens respectively. These three types of human languages correspond to each other by discrete degrees (see Section xx). A fourth type of human language is called natural language, and it is what we speak and know here on earth. Sacred Scripture on earth is written and translated in many natural languages. It is always written in natural correspondences, which are a degree below the first three. By the time Divine Speech has descended and exteriorized to this ultimate level of human consciousness, the topic of Sacred Scripture appears to be historical, cultural, and religious. But using the method of correspondences revealed in the Writings, one can mentally or spiritually "climb back up" through the discrete degrees. At each higher level, the topic of Divine Speech will change.

Summary

Section 3.7.2.3

Sacred Scripture is related to Divine Speech because it is the form in which Divine Speech communicates itself to the human race. Sacred Scripture is written in many different natural languages so that all people can understand it. Because of the long process that Divine Speech goes through in order to reach the natural world through Sacred Scripture, it becomes historical, cultural, and religious. However, one can work their way back up through the different spiritual degrees and see how Divine Speech is different at each level.

What are correspondences in Sacred Scripture?

3.7.1 The Science of Correspondence

In contrast, the code of correspondences Swedenborg discovered provides us with a systematic, rational, and replicable method of extracting meaning and data about the spiritual world and God. It is like hiding ordinary text by substituting every word in the original with a new word according to a dictionary list, as in this made up example: "By the way any time rain stops." If you know the dictionary code you can decipher the content using this arbitrary dictionary:

by the way = the

any time = attack

rain = will begin

stops = at daybreak

which yields the message: "The attack will begin at daybreak."

Therefore another way of thinking about correspondences is to think of how spiritual events cause natural events. Correspondences specify which spiritual events cause which natural events. You can see why this could not have been discovered by anyone since spiritual causes were unknown. No one before Swedenborg had lived simultaneously in both worlds. He was therefore the only one who could discover what spiritual events caused which natural events by observing both worlds at the same time. But once he discovered these relationships of correspondence, he could codify the relations and explain it to everyone else. In fact, I know of at least one book that presents correspondences in a dictionary form so that one can look up a natural object like "water" and it will give its spiritual correspondence "truth." Whenever "water" is mentioned in Divine Speech or Sacred Scripture we are to think of "truth." The word "water" disappears and the word "truth" is substituted for it. In this way you can read all of Sacred Scripture and understand what it is saying about the spiritual topics.

Summary

Section 3.7.1

Correspondences in Sacred Scripture are like hidden messages. For example, a phrase from a specific excerpt may have a different meaning from what one may assume by reading it. As in the example above, correspondences could be codes for different meanings than meets the eye. In other words, certain meanings correspond to certain words or phrases in Sacred Scripture.

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

13.0.3 Levels of Correspondences in Sacred Scripture

The content of the New Testament is spiritual-natural (see level 1 above). At this level of mental operation, we have conscious knowledge of many details about the spiritual world, not available before from the Old Testament. When I first read the New Testament at age 40 I was amazed to discover these details about the spiritual world I did not know about. For instance we are told that "heaven is within you" which, once you figure it out, means that the spiritual world of the afterlife and of eternity is a mental world and that our immortality is dependent on our mind, not the physical body. Other details in the New Testament show that what we do in our mind is more important and permanent than what we do in the physical body. We are also taught in the New Testament to reason at a spiritual-natural level of thinking. For instance, we are told of spiritual correspondences of many parables that are told in a natural language, as for instance that "seed in the ground" is natural correspondence of a spiritual meaning--"truth in the mind or understanding." And finally, we are told that in order to live in eternity we must "regenerate" which refers to modifying our inverted mental operations through rearranging everything in our thinking in accordance with the interior-natural correspondences of the New Testament.

Summary

Section 13.0.3

From the New Testament, the Sacred Scripture “heaven is within you” corresponds to “the spiritual world of the afterlife and of eternity is a mental world and that our immortality is dependent on our mind, not the physical body”. Other examples are: “seed in the ground” corresponds to “truth in the mind or understanding”, “regenerate” corresponds to “modifying our inverted mental operations through rearranging everything in our thinking in accordance with the interior-natural correspondences of the New Testament”.

Section B: My Commentary

(i) I thought this question was important because Sacred Scripture and Divine Speech are key parts in theistic psychology. They are important because they have scientific meanings, different from religious meanings, and they have correspondences. I also thought that having to find examples would be good practice for me in being able to identify Sacred Scripture and their correspondences, and that knowing how the key ideas of theistic psychology relate to each other is part of having a good understanding.

(ii) By answering this question I was able to better understand the reasons for conflicts among religious groups. I was able to do so because I learned that there may be different correspondences for Sacred Scripture. One religious group will probably interpret Sacred Scripture differently from another group and problems and conflicts arise as a result of this. I also learned that as a person who isn’t religious, I hadn’t read deep enough into quotes from the bible that I’ve read. I haven’t read much from the bible, but what I did read I took too literally or just didn’t understand. Now I realize that there are correspondences to Sacred Scripture.

(iii) Since theistic psychology is a science and I am assuming the positive bias, I do agree with the answers I found to the questions. Since Divine Speech had to be translated into a natural language, through Sacred Scripture, that those in the natural world could understand, it seems obvious (now) that there should be corresponding meanings as you go into higher levels of Divine Speech.

Question 5:

What is the relation between mind and the spiritual world? How does theistic psychology show their relation? How can the human mind be immortal? Why should people be concerned about the afterlife? What is the “vertical community” and why should people focus on their “dual citizenship”?

Section A: Summary of Selections Pertaining to Each Question

What is the relation between mind and the spiritual world? How does theistic psychology show their relation?

2.6 What's the relation between the body, the mind, and the spiritual world?

Swedenborg's observations and experiments are unique in the history of science because he was able to be simultaneously aware of the natural and spiritual worlds. His data rationally demonstrate that every event in the natural world is preceded by a corresponding event in the spiritual world. In other words, what happens in the physical body (natural world) corresponds one to one with what happens in the mind (spiritual world). Recall that in the spiritual world the mind is visible just like the physical body is visible in the natural world.

Here some facts we need to know in order to understand the relation between "physical body" and "spiritual mind" (see the concept of "substantive dualism" in Chapter xx).

(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.

(4) When people awaken in their spiritual body (shortly after death of the physical body), they begin their new life in eternity. What kind of life is it? Swedenborg reports visiting the lands and cities where people congregate there. Social life there depends on the character or interior personality of the individuals. People whose character is in altruism and mutual love, congregate together and see their environment as some heavenly appearance that corresponds to their altruism and mutual love. They appear young, beautiful, and ecstatically happy in their condition of eternal conjugial life. Nothing is lacking. Everything is supplied before them, whatever they want or fancy, which is all good.

But people who are selfish, cruel, and dishonest in their character or interior personality habits, congregate in different places that appear like hell cities in their atrocities, cruelties, and hatreds for each other. In this way human lives are spent in eternity, either in heavenly conditions or in hellish conditions, depending on people's character, which is the quality of the mind, of the thoughts and feelings they have and constitute their living, or very life. These cannot be taken away or substituted for other thoughts and feelings without destroying the very self or basis of the individual as a unique human being.

2.4 What about the spiritual world and the afterlife—how can that be researched?

In the spiritual world there is no physical space but only the appearance of space, as in dreams. Mentally we can travel to any distance instantaneously and therefore in the spiritual world, which is like the mental world, all "travel" is instantaneous and depending on the state of mind. When you change your thinking or your mood in the spiritual world, the surrounding environment completely changes to reflect your new mental state. Stability and localization in spiritual space depends entirely on your mental state. Two individuals who are in an entirely different mood cannot approach each other or be in the same "space" for contact. The spiritual world is thus a map of the mental world, and vice versa. This correspondence offers various methodologies for research which we will explore (see Section xx).

Summary

Section 2.6

The relation between the mind and the spiritual world is that the mind is in the spiritual world, and whatever happens in the natural world, in the physical body, corresponds with what happens in the spiritual world. The mind is with the physical body in the natural world until after the first death, when only the mind continues on with the person into either eternal hell or eternal heaven. The mind is immortal so it can remain in the spiritual world forever

Because people enter the spiritual world through the heaven or hells in their minds, what they imagine themselves to be in their mind is how they appear in the spiritual world. The mind is very important in the spiritual world because it is what allows the individual to experience it. Theistic psychology shows this relation between the mind and the spiritual world through rational scientific methods. Theistic psychology is not based on religion so it is able to see things objectively without attributing events to God.

Section 2.4

The mind does not occupy any physical space in the spiritual world, everything is based on how it appears to you in your mind. This is why the spiritual space around you changes when your mental state changes, everything in the spiritual world is dependent on your mental state. In a sense, your mind is the spiritual world.

How can the human mind be immortal?

2.2 What about evil, sin, hell, devil, and heaven in relation to theistic psychology?

Upon death of the physical body, we are cut off from input from the natural world. At that point we "awaken" and become conscious in the spiritual mind (see "resuscitation" in Chapter 1). Once fully resuscitated (about 30 hours after death), we are able to observe the environment in the spiritual world, which we could not do before. At that point we begin to observe and confirm what Swedenborg was able to see and hear for 27 years prior to his death in 1772.

Upon "death" the spiritual mind continues its operation and serves for our immortal life in the spiritual world. You can see that the quality of the spiritual mind that we each bring "with us" determines the quality of our life in the spiritual world. The spiritual mind is the containant of our inner character--what we love more than anything--the hierarchy of our motives and satisfactions. The quality of the human mind is defined by the level of its affective and cognitive functioning. The quality of the "external" natural mind is determined by the quality of our experiences and knowledge, built up over years of development and growth. The affective organ operates our feelings and motives, while the cognitive organs operates our thinking and reasoning. According to theistic psychology, there is a built-in hierarchy of functioning in the human mind so that our thinking and feeling can be rational and altruistic, or by deliberate inversion, irrational and selfish.

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

It can be understood rationally when you consider that the spiritual world is produced by the substances streaming out of the Spiritual Sun, where God can be seen as a Divine-Human appearing in the midst of that Sun. In God, infinite things are one. What is streaming out of God through the Spiritual Sun produces and creates spiritual events, which in turn produce natural events. God produces natural events through the intermediary of the Spiritual Sun. Therefore everything in the mind is also produced by means of the substances streaming out of the Spiritual Sun. In other words, all mental events are produced in the spiritual body by the Spiritual Sun. Feelings and thoughts are nothing but states of organic objects made of these substances from the Spiritual Sun.

Summary

Section 2.2

The human mind can be immortal because it is cut off from the physical world at the death of the physical body. At this point, the mind enters the spiritual world and remains immortal there. With our physical body gone, our mind must be immortal in order to remain in the spiritual world.

Section 2.10

The mind is immortal because it is in the spiritual world, which was created by the spiritual sun. This means that the mind is also made by the spiritual sun, hence its immortality, because the spiritual sun produces and creates spiritual events in the spiritual body.

Why should people be concerned about the afterlife?

2.4 What about the spiritual world and the afterlife—how can that be researched?

Theistic psychology investigates the overlap between the mental world and the spiritual world by means of the laws of correspondences revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg. These scientific revelations indicate that we are born dual citizens in the natural and spiritual world, living in both worlds simultaneously. Our physical operations in the brain and its physical body parallel exactly our mental operations in the mind and its spiritual body. Our brain is active in correspondence with our mind—what we think and feel. The mind is in the spiritual body while the brain is in the physical body, and the two are tied by scientific correspondence laws. When the physical body dies, the connection is broken, and the person becomes conscious in the spiritual body. This is what Swedenborg was able to experience many times, but prior to the death of his physical body. When we awaken in the spiritual world a few hours after death, we can begin the process of corroborating directly everything that Swedenborg was able to perceive.

6.0.5 Spiritual Growth: How the New Will is formed

The will is the actual human being, while the personality, knowledge, and memory is outside the actual human being, something that our will loves to keep around for enjoyment and can change at will!

The will, dominant love, or character is therefore our proprium, our self, our very own--what we are in reality rather than appearance.

Summary

Section 2.4

People should be concerned about the afterlife because we are all born dual citizens in the natural and spiritual world. After our death in the natural world we will go to the spiritual world, or afterlife, where we will spend an eternity in either heaven or hell. The afterlife could either be spent in agony or in a pleasant environment, but it’s up to the individual where she/he will go, to heaven or hell.

Section 6.0.5

The new will is very important to the afterlife because it will decide where an individual will reside in eternity, heaven or hell. By not rejecting hellish traits people will spend their afterlife in hell, but rejecting them will get them to heaven. The new will is very important to the afterlife because choosing it will determine where an individual will reside forever, there is no moving from hell up to heaven; this is why people should be concerned about the afterlife.

What is the “vertical community” and why should people focus on their “dual citizenship”?

5.4.1.3 We Are Never Alone—The Vertical Community

We have the illusion that our mental private world is individual, while our physical social world is interactive. But now the scientific fact has been revealed that the mental world is also a social world in which we are surrounded by many others. Quoting from the Writings regarding our horizontal and vertical communities:

Man does not know that in respect to his mind he is in the midst of spirits, for the reason that the spirits with whom he is in company in the spiritual world, think and speak spiritually, while his own spirit thinks and speaks naturally so long as he is in the material body; and the natural man cannot understand or perceive spiritual thought and speech, nor the reverse.

This is why spirits cannot be seen. But when the spirit of man is in company with spirits in their world, he is also in spiritual thought and speech with them, because his mind is interiorly spiritual but exteriorly natural; therefore by means of his interiors he communicates with spirits, while by means of his exteriors he communicates with men. By such communication man has a perception of things, and thinks about them analytically. If it were not for such communication, man would have no more thought or other thought than a beast, and if all connection with spirits were taken away from him, he would instantly die. (TCR 475)

Our thoughts and feelings are therefore social events, interactive exchanges with spirits, and being in company with spirits. The normal operation system of the mind is a consequence of the character of the spirits that we are with, moment by moment, in our thinking and feeling. There is a simple but powerful relation between our negative thoughts or emotions and the character of the spirits that communicate with our mind. The spirit societies constitute our vertical community to which we belong and into which we are locked. Change in our feelings and thoughts is possible only with rearranging the spiritual societies with which we are communicating. Every thought or feeling is either from angels in heaven or from devils in hell. And the Writings specify that rational thoughts and compassionate feelings can only come from heaven, while negative thoughts and emotions can only come from hell.

2.6 What's the relation between the body, the mind, and the spiritual world?

Summary

Section 5.4.1.3

The vertical community consists of three parts: conscious awareness of individual in the celestial degree, conscious awareness of individual in the spiritual degree, conscious awareness of individual in the natural degree. The celestial degree is the highest level of consciousness, the purest; then comes the spiritual degree, and then it is the natural degree, where we are right now, before the death of the natural body. The celestial degree consists of the highest angels, the spiritual degree is where most of us go after the death of our physical body, and the natural degree is where we are with our natural bodies. In the natural degree we cannot see or interact with any being from the higher degrees of the vertical community.

Section 2.6

People should focus on their “dual citizenship” because it’ll help them to get in touch with the spiritual world and they’ll have a better chance of getting into heaven after the death of their physical body. By focusing on their dual citizenship people will be more aware of what kinds of changes they need to make in the natural world in order to spend the rest of their immortal spiritual life in heaven.

Section B: My Commentary

(i) Like the other questions, I thought this one was an important and basic idea in theistic psychology. I felt it was important to answer the questions asked because the ideas addressed in them are key to understanding the rest of theistic psychology. There were also some subsections that were not discussed in class and I felt these were important for my greater understanding of theistic psychology and what Swedenborg experienced.

(ii) This question helped me to understand things about myself better because I could see the changes I want to make in order to be in a good place in my afterlife. I was also able to better understand “greater” society, as in the vertical communities, by reading about what can and does go on in the different communities.

(iii) Since we are assuming the positive bias for this class I would have to say I agree with the perspectives of the questions. People need to be concerned about the afterlife because it is possible that there is such a thing as the afterlife and the immortal spiritual mind. And if there such things as these then we need to do what we can to make the best of our afterlife and understand what part our spiritual mind plays in it.

Section C: Prior Generations

Tricia Castro www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s2004/castro/contents1.htm

(i) In the beginning Tricia was very closed minded to the subject of theistic psychology because she didn’t know enough about it. As she read the readings and learned more through the course she realized that people need to be open minded in order to be able to absorb all the information and grasp the concepts Swedenborg introduces.

(ii) Tricia had no idea what the course was about when she signed up for it, but as she was introduced to the ideas of Swedenborg she began to think he was delusional. At first, Tricia did not accept the readings because she couldn’t believe the statements Swedenborg was making. After changing her attitude and adopting a positive bias though, she was able to understand theistic psychology and thought it was an interesting approach to understanding both God and Science. Tricia also thought that one of the strengths of theistic psychology is the fact that it looks at God from a rational and scientific point of view; she appreciated the data and proof provided by Swedenborg. Although Tricia was able to understand theistic psychology after adopting the positive bias, she couldn’t help but return to her thought of Swedenborg being delusional because he was the only one who was conscious in both the natural and spiritual world. In the end she did think that he was delusional because she thought that the most people could do was speculate about whether Swedenborg was actually telling the truth about his experiences.

(iii) Tricia concluded that there is much overlapping of science and religion and that she might give theistic psychology another try because of its scientific approach. She also concluded that theistic psychology will be a popular area of psychology in the near future because people are starting to realize that God and science actually have a lot to do with each other.

(iv) Tricia’s insights apply to me because, like her, I was really skeptical of this class when I first learned what it was about. I thought I was taking a social science seminar, which it may still fall under the category of, but I had no idea that I’d be learning about Swedenborg and theistic psychology, two things that I had never heard of before. I also had to change my attitude and adopt a positive bias, the term itself was hard for me to grasp in the beginning. After I was finally able to accept that what Swedenborg claimed may have been true (and after I kept telling myself that he was delusional, like Tricia did) I was able to understand the concepts much better because I wasn’t rejecting them from the very beginning. You can’t learn about something if you refuse to accept the possibility that it might be true, that is Tricia’s main insight and I feel it applies very well to me.

Shirley A. Leman www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s2004/leman/report1.htm

(i) Upon first hearing what the class would be about Shirley claimed to have felt spooked because she hadn’t talked about God for a long time. Although she was nervous at first, Shirley was also excited because some of the concepts from theistic psychology validated her personal philosophy. She didn’t say this explicitly, but I think Shirley was really happy with the course because, as it stated in her autobiographies, she had always been interested in God and this was a course that looked at God and concepts of religion from a scientific perspective, which she happened to like.

(ii) Although Shirley had a very positive bias toward theistic psychology there were a few ideas that she couldn’t understand as well as she’d hoped. Some of her questions were: Can science use God as a causal explanation without being able to prove it empirically? Can the two coexist and not negate or contradict one another? Can we use the experience of our biology and spirituality self as knowledge of this existence? She thought this class would be interesting and educational, and it was, but she still needed to have a better understanding of a few concepts and ideas.

(iii) Shirley concluded that theology and science complemented each other, and that the more she understood those dynamics the more she felt validated as a person. She also said that her work and education have never been more aligned with her spiritual and personal beliefs. Shirley’s final concluding thought was that if everyone used their spiritual wisdom with rational scientific knowledge more often the world would generally be a better and happier place because we’d all be learning from each other instead fighting with each other.

(iv) To be brutally honest, I don’t think any of Shirley’s insights apply to me. I think this because we seem to be completely different people coming from very different backgrounds. As young children, Shirley and I both were not brought up with religion; however, the difference is that Shirley wanted to learn about God whereas I was completely indifferent to God and religion. Shirley also started the course with a positive bias and found that a lot of the ideas of theistic psychology applied to her life. I, on the other hand, had a really hard time adopting the positive bias (it took a few weeks) and I still don’t feel that theistic psychology, in any aspect, applies to my life. Although I understood what Shirley was saying, I could not relate to her because I just don’t feel the way she does about religion or theistic psychology.

M. Heather Piper www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s2004/piper/report1.htm

(i) When Piper first heard the contents of Dr. James class her curiosity was immediately sparked because she came from a Christian home but was not inclined toward Christianity. In fact, she felt that God and science were in no way related, should be kept separate, and should not be taught in schools.

(ii) When she found out what Dr. James’s class was about, Piper was ready to drop it because she felt so strongly in the separation of church and state. However, due to her complicated schedule, she stayed and found that the topics of the class actually sparked her curiosity. Piper also did not believe in God before the start of her course and thought that she would have some problems learning theistic psychology because of her atheism.

(iv) In her conclusion, Piper expresses some very strong feelings. Even after the assignment, she did not believe in God and still felt that religion should not be taught in schools or mixed with science. She also believes that theistic psychology will affect the future development of psychology because it will help explain people’s behaviors, which she thinks is very wrong. Piper also felt that God was becoming a convenient excuse, taking the place of responsibility.

(v) I think some of Piper’s insights apply to me, but only to a certain degree. Like Piper, I am not religious. However, it doesn’t mean I don’t believe in God because I am still confused about that and am not sure yet if I do believe in God or not; and my feelings about God intertwining with school are not as strong as hers. I do agree with her about keeping church and state separate, although there is one part where I think she contradicts herself. I also agree with her that religion should not be taught in schools, because of the separation of church and state, unless it’s in a university setting where it is not mandatory for students to take the course.

Tyrone D. Clark II www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s2004/clark/report1.htm

(i) As he learned about Swedenborg and theistic psychology, Tyrone was very accepting of concepts and ideas from these two subjects. He had gone to church his whole life and, upon hearing what it was about, felt that theistic psychology was the real explanation to heaven, hell, religion, and science. He also found this course to be enlightening because he had been in a state of spiritual flux before taking the course, and he felt that it answered all of his questions about God and the afterlife.

(ii) Because of his wonderful acceptance of and agreement with Swedenborg’s writings and theistic psychology, Tyrone’s thoughts were just like those a true Swedenborgian. He believed so much in theistic psychology that it just seemed natural, according to what I read in his report, for him to think in such a way. But even though he believes entirely in Swedenborg’s writings and theistic psychology, Tyrone was objective enough to know that Swedenborg was open to criticism because of what he based his writings on, his own experiences.

(iii) Tyrone concluded that even though he felt alone, theistic psychology helped him realize that there are other people in the world struggling with their spirituality. He also concluded that the world needs a tool to bring religion and science together because only being united will help to make sense of the world.

(iv) Tyrone is another student of a previous generation whose insights do not apply to me. Unlike Tyrone, I was not raised with a religious background and did not always have religion in my life, which may be why things didn’t click for me when I started this course the way it did for him. Theistic psychology and Swedenborg’s writings have also not been a help in figuring out my sense of spirituality.

Takashi Nakamura www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s2004/nakamura/report1.htm

(i) Takashi was raised a Buddhist but did not have any strong conflicting feelings when he started taking theistic psychology. In fact, he found that Buddhism and theistic psychology shared many things in common. And although he calls himself a skeptic, Takashi was very accepting of theistic psychology and Swedenborgianism.

(ii) Although his education of theistic psychology and Swedenborgianism went fairly smoothly, Takashi did admit to wanting to leave the class on the first day. But one of the reasons he liked theistic psychology so much was because he felt too many people rely too much on praying to God to solve their problems, which he thought was wrong. He also thought it was interesting because it can be applied to any religion and felt that understanding theistic psychology would be advantageous to everyone.

(iii) Takashi concluded that theistic psychology did not change his view of the relationship between Divine Being and science. He also found that Buddhism and Swedenborgianism share similar views. Takashi also concluded that without theistic psychology religion cannot be viewed from a scientific point of view, which is true because that is one of the main ideas of theistic psychology.

(iv) Like Takashi, I was also very skeptical of the course and Swedenborg’s writings when I first learned of them. And although I do not consider myself to be religious, if I had to identify with one religion it would be Buddhism because my parents are Buddhist, even though we don’t do much in terms of practicing the faith. I also agree with Takashi about it being wrong for people to rely on prayer and God to solve their problems without actually doing anything to help themselves.

Section D: Current Generation

1^st Oral Presentation – by Trisha Park 9/9/04

Trisha’s presentation was based on the readings from Dr. James’s online book Theistic Psychology, sections 1.0-1.0.2

The presentation addressed the issues of the negative and positive bias in science, the monist and dualist approach, and substantive dualism. The negative approach in science is disregarding the possibility of ideas while the positive bias accepts ideas as a possibility. It is important to have a positive bias in theistic psychology because even though you may not agree with it or Swedenborg, it doesn’t mean that they can’t be true. The monist and dualist approaches are the two ways of looking at the science of psychology. The monist approach is the idea that the mind and body are made up of physical matter, the dualist approach is the idea that they are made of different substances. The monist approach is more widely accepted because it takes a scientific approach. Substantive dualism is the idea that the mental world is a spiritual world and that all thoughts and feelings are spiritual operations located in the mind. It also says that the physical world is made of matter and the mental world is made of substance, in other words, our thoughts and dreams don’t take up physical space.

In regards to the negative and positive biases, Trisha felt that whenever your mind is made up, it’s made up. So if you already have a negative bias and don’t want to change it there’s nothing you can do about it because you have to change your attitude first. She also said that if you believe in something strongly enough, it will be true. An example of this was going to school and making up your mind about doing well or failing; if you make up your mind to do well you will, if you make up your mind to fail you will.

The concepts from Trisha’s oral presentation are very important to the questions I answered in Section A. The positive bias is especially important because one cannot begin learning about theistic psychology or Swedenborg’s work without this attitude. Without accepting the possibility of Swedenborg’s experiences to be true, even if you don’t necessarily believe them, you are already closing the door to knowledge of this area of psychology. You can’t learn about something you completely reject.

Substantive dualism is also an important concept because it states that the mental world is a spiritual world and that all thoughts and feelings are spiritual operations located in the mind. The ideas of heaven and hell are based on substantive dualism since heaven and hell exists in everyone’s mind. It doesn’t take up physical space and everyone goes to one of the levels of the heaven or hell in their minds when they die. Without this concept, the heavens and hells of people’s minds would not be possible. These concepts support Swedenborg’s contributions to theistic psychology.

2^nd Oral Presentation – by Maria Ellora Cabbat 9/30/04

Maria’s presentation was on the book A Thoughtful Soul: Reflections from Swedenborg p. 39-50

The concepts addressed in this presentation were heaven, hell, and salvation. In heaven there are angels, which are spiritual influxes from God. Angels are also humans who were born on earth and designed to become angels. In hell exists evil, in the form of contempt of others, hatred, savagery, and cruelty. There are also caves, underground chambers, ruins of houses and cities after a fire. People create their own evil, depending on what they consider to be evil and what they imagine hell to be like. Salvation is the idea of a heaven within us. Love and truth permits one to enter heaven and Lord’s mercy is universal and not only for people that belong in the church.

With respect to these concepts, Maria believes that people will strive to live the good life in order to get to heaven (as do a lot of people), people don’t want to go to hell, and that the realization that heaven is in every person will prevent conflict and division between groups.

These concepts apply to my report because heaven and hell are the places where people go after their death and salvation is what can save a person from going to hell. The idea of heaven and hell is consistent with the information I found for Section A; heaven and hell are made in people’s minds and are what they imagine them to be. Salvation, the idea that heaven is within us, is similar to heaven itself because heaven is in our minds and doesn’t take up physical space. People can experience salvation by embracing their heavenly loves and rejecting their hellish loves, allowing them to enter heaven.

3^rd Oral Presentation – by Emmy Zukowski

Emmy’s presentation was based on Dr. James’s online book, Theistic Psychology sections 6.0.5-6.0.5.2

Emmy’s presentation was about the concepts of the effect of “will” on spiritual growth, the importance of divine speech, and the celestial race vs. the spiritual race. “Will” is a freedom of choice, all satisfactions, enjoyments, affections, and loves are chosen by free will. Divine speech comes in the form of Sacred Scripture and is there because God does not speak to us directly with words but through our mind and scripture. The celestial race is in direct relation to God while the spiritual race is one grade lower.

Emmy believes that since God is connected to all things created these concepts are all related to each other. She also thought that it is important to choose a new will wisely because whether we go to heaven or hell depends on what kinds of loves our new will embraces.

The new will and the afterlife are relevant to my report because I answered a question relating to the new will. It is important to choose your heavenly loves over your hellish ones when you are creating a new will at the time of your death because you can go to heaven if you do. However, it’s important to choose your heavenly loves out of wanting to be a better person, not out of fear of going to hell. If you choose your heavenly loves out of fear then you’re not really choosing them, you’re just avoiding hell. Divine Speech is also important because it is the form through which God speaks to us. It is changed a little bit in each heaven and when it finally gets to the natural world it is in the form of Sacred Scripture.

Section E: Advice to Future Generations

The biggest piece of advice that I can offer to future generations is DO NOT PROCRASTINATE! I cannot stress enough how screwed you will be if you put things off. I know it’s overwhelming just to look at the instructions for the reports but if you do things a little at a time or section by section it’ll be a lot easier and painless than to do it all the night before. I also think it’s important not to get stressed out after reading the instructions. If you read them carefully you’ll see they’re really not that difficult, it’s just time consuming because of all the steps involved to finish one report. One thing that really helped me psychologically was reading previous generations’ reports and hearing about the major problems they encountered. After reading about the nightmare experiences other students had, I expected to have a hard time too. But when I actually did the assignments and realized they weren’t so difficult it made it seem that much easier. I recommend starting the assignments early and taking everything one step at a time. Don’t overwhelm yourself by looking at everything you have to do at one time, that will definitely stress you out.

Class home page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy21/classhome-g21.htm

My home page: www.soc.hawaii.edu/459f2004/nakamura/459-g21-report2.htm