Contrasting Mystical vs. Rational Spirituality

1. Preface

In report 2, The Cognitive Organization of Rational Spirituality, I discussed the manner in which one can understand the level of his or her spirituality. The process of understanding one’s rational spirituality is accomplished by completing Dr. Leon James’ diagnostic test. The three levels of spirituality are defined within the text of Report 2. The three levels include ritual faith, mystical faith and rational faith. Examples of each level of spirituality are given in the applied theistic science portion of Report 2. These examples help one to understand each level of spirituality.

The purpose of report 2 was to help the reader better understand the various levels of spirituality and the different aspects of each level. By describing different questioned asked in the diagnostic test and explaining the level of spirituality of each answer, the report helps the test taker to understand better each level of faith. Understanding the levels of spirituality allows one to strive to gain a rational understanding of faith. Completing the diagnostic test helped me to gain a greater perception of my spirituality and allowed me to grasp the importance of gaining a rational understanding of God.

This report is a compilation of the various aspects of Psychology 459 that have been discussed through the course of the semester. Book reviews of Testimony to the Invisible and Spirituality That Makes Sense, the textbooks used in the course, are presented with brief passages to give the reader an idea of the theme in each book. The various group discussions that resulted from oral presentation given during class are reviewed, as well as the lecture notes offered by Dr. Leon James. The process of reviewing the contents of this course helped me to see how much my understanding of God and spirituality has grown during this semester. This report helps to explain the difference between rational and mystical spirituality.

2. Introduction

During the course of this semester, our class read two texts. The first was Testimony to the Invisible edited by James F. Lawrence. This book focuses on the mystical view of spirituality. Testimony to the Invisible contains essays on Swedenborg written by Jorge Luis Borges, Czeslaw Milosz, Kathleen Raine, D. T. Suzuki, Eugene Taylor, Wilson Van Dusen and Colin Wilson. Through these essays, the reader is able to gain an understanding of Swedenborg’s influence on various people throughout history. The second text, Spirituality That Makes Sense by Douglas Taylor, deals with spirituality in a rational sense. In this book Taylor, who is a Swedenborgian minister, helps the reader to gain an understanding of God. Taylor discusses religious mysteries, such as the virgin birth, and gives a rational explanation to these miracles. This rational method also helps the reader to understand the Trinity, evil feelings and the spiritual world. These texts clarify the discussion of this class, rational versus mystical spirituality.

Quotations from Testimony to the Invisible

“Balance between the two spheres is required for free will, which must unceasingly choose between good, which emanates from heaven, and evil, which emanates from hell. Every day, every instant of every day man is shaping his eternal damnation or his salvation. We will be what we are.”

– Jorge Luis Borges, 10

This passage explains the origins of heaven and hell. First, we must remember that heaven and hell are within our minds. This passage caused me to think deeper about the meaning of “we will be what we are”. This leads one to believe that by choosing good you are “shaping (your)… salvation”. As I pondered this passage and thought about class discussions, I understood that it is not necessarily the act of doing good that shapes our salvation. In order to shape your salvation, the good must emanate from within the person. To explain this better I will give an example. Someone could perform an act that the outside world would view as “good”; however, the “do gooder” could be performing the act for selfish reasons. An act of goodness must be performed not for one’s own gain, but for a genuine love of neighbor.

Our hands touch solid objects, our eyes see shapes and colors, our everyday horizons are narrow; yet there are times when the soul seems to stand on hilltops and to glimpse immense vistas of meaning. This feeling is not confined to saints or poets or philosophers – we all have it at certain moments of happiness and relaxation.” - Colin Wilson, 89

This passage had a deep meaning to me. I have often felt a sense of awe during times of happiness and relaxation. Two of the most memorable times I have experienced this were during the births of my children. Although this explanation takes on a mystical perspective, I feel that it is easy to rationalize this feeling. The process of creating a human is an everyday occurrence, but when you experience the birth of your own child you feel a love that is above any other within the natural world. When you understand the immensity of God’s love, you can understand the depth of a parent’s love. The above passage illustrates this love in a poetic tone. One may interpret this passage as experiencing a “oneness” with God, but after meditating on this quote I understand that the feeling described is giving us a glimpse of God’s love.

“Love, Reed said is this oration, is the very life of man. The brute depends on physical strength, while the great man depends on society, particularly the state of its arts and sciences. But the spiritual man knows that love and wisdom are from no other source than the Divine.”

- Eugene Taylor, 145

This quote was from Sampson Reed’s commencement speech entitled “Oration on Genius”. I feel that this passage helps to understand the difference between being successful or accepted and truly accepting love and wisdom. When I thought about this passage, I originally took love and wisdom to mean love for the Divine. After further study, I now understand the passage to mean anything that encompasses love or wisdom is from the Divine. Any love that we feel is directly from the Lord. Love of music, love of art, love of our children, love of our spouse, every love imaginable is from the Divine. The distinction that needs to be made is that there can also be a love of evil. It is through our continued study and search for knowledge of God that we will be able to reject loves that are inherently evil and accept the loves of goodness.

Quotations from Spirituality That Makes Sense

“No light can be shed on this miracle of human birth until we human beings admit that we do not have life in ourselves, that life flows into us. We receive life; we are only receivers or recipients of life from the Lord, who alone is life in itself… No human father gives life to his children.”

- Douglas Taylor 17

This passage helped me to understand how the virgin birth could be possible. Prior to reading this rationalization, I had often doubted the accuracy of the Virgin Mary. Now, when I think of all life coming from the Lord and a man’s semen as “the means of transmitting the soul” I can understand that because God was the father of Jesus there did not need to be a seed to transmit the soul into Mary’s womb. All life comes from God; therefore, there did not need to be a seed to transmit the life of Jesus into Mary’s womb. Jesus inherited tendencies toward evil, as witness by his many temptations, from his earthly mother. However, because his father was the Divine, from him he inherited only good. This explains how Jesus could have had temptations greater than most, yet was still able to reject this evil.

“Here the last vestiges of the human body from May (and its mind) were crying out in desperation to the Divine Soul within, which seemed remote, afar off. The Divine soul seemed to have forsaken the human part. “Why have You forsaken Me?”

- Douglas Taylor 89

I, as have many others, have often wondered that if Jesus was God in the human form, then why did he ask the Lord this question while he was on the cross. This passage helped answer this question. Jesus was part human from his human mother Mary. The Divine soul was still within him while he was on the cross. When I read this part of the text, I thought of how many time I talk to myself during the day. I thought about how my mind, or my soul, is within the spiritual world as well. Therefore, when I am speaking to myself, could it be that I am conversing with my spiritual mind? Although this sounds confusing, it made sense to me that Jesus, the human, while on the cross was speaking not to a separate entity, but instead to his Divine Soul which was residing in the Spiritual world.

“The Lord never casts anyone into hell. Nor is anyone cast into hell against his or her own wishes. People freely choose to go there for eternity because, while living on earth, they have chosen hell in preference to heaven in most situations. The Lord provides us all with opportunities to choose heaven and hell.”

- Douglas Taylor 41

This passage made perfect sense when I stopped to think about two facts. First, the fact that heaven and hell are within a person’s mind; therefore, if a person chooses, through freewill, evil then that person will reside in the hell of his mind. Just as if a person chooses good, then that person will reside in the heaven of their mind. When the earthly body is gone and a person is in the spiritual world, that person must choose to reject evil and accept good or live forever in the hell of his mind. This may seem as though the Lord is “casting” that person into hell for not accepting His truths. However, if the person has lived a life with a love for evil, then heaven will not be a gratifying place. Understanding this concept allows one to accept that it is the person who chooses heaven or hell, not God choosing it for the person.

Each of texts delves into the topic of the Writings of Swedenborg. Testimony to the Invisible looks at Swedenborg as a mystic. There is no scientific rationalization of the Writings within this book. Spirituality That Makes Sense, on the other hand, examines Swedenborg’s Writings in a rational manner. This can be noted while reading each book.

Testimony to the Invisible seems to embrace a “oneness” with the Lord by seeing the happenings of the world as mysterious. An example of this can be seen in Wilson Van Dusen’s essay “A Mystic Looks at Swedenborg”. Van Dusen states, “His writing are rational, but that is their style, not preeminently their nature… not only are his writings the work of a mystic, they are meant to help create mystics…” Throughout this book Swedenborg is referred to as a mystic, a great mystic. These essays do not view Swedenborg, or religion, in a rational manner. However, the book helps the reader learn how many great people throughout history Swedenborg influenced.

Spirituality That Makes Sense goes to great lengths to explain God in a rational manner. Douglas Taylor uses science and rationality to explain many of the “mysteries” of the Bible. One example of this is his explanation of the virgin birth. After explaining to the reader how the father’s semen is a “means of transmitting the soul”, Taylor explains, “Actually, it is life from the Lord that directs the formation and growth of the fetus in the womb.” Through his explanation of human birth, he is able to give a rational explanation of how Jesus could have been conceived by the Virgin Mary. This rational account of God and spirituality allows the reader to fully understand faith rather than accept it blindly.

3. Class Discussions and Lecture Notes

Class Discussions

January 22, 2004 – Tricia Castro: Testimony to the Invisible by Jorge Luis Borges

Tricia Castro discussed in her presentation heaven and hell. She explains that hell is the negative side to spirituality and that God rules over hell just as he rules over heaven. Although Tricia disagrees with this idea, through the course of this class I have come to understand how this could be accurate. In the Bible, the fact that there is only one God is explicitly stated, one ruler of our universe. Accepting the fact that Satan exists would be accepting that there are two deities in our universe, one representing good and the other representing evil. I am able to understand and accept Swedenborg’s description of heaven and hell for this reason.

Another point that Tricia discussed was that “In order to have free will, there must be a balance between heaven and hell”. This makes sense when we consider that heaven and hell are in the human mind. In contrast to this, the statement “man created heaven” is hard for me to accept. My rationale for not accepting this statement is because I believe that God created man. Accepting God as man’s creator leads me to believe that he also created free will, heaven, and hell with in the human mind.

January 29, 2004 – Heather Piper: A Vision of Marriage by Chauncey Giles

Heather Piper gave a compelling presentation on marriage. Heather explained Swedenborg’s definition of marriage as the union of two minds or souls. Swedenborg did not advocate the idea of marriage being a legal contract. He, instead, stressed marriage as a spiritual union with love binding the husband and wife together in real marriage. This concept is a comforting thought to me. After eleven years of marriage, I am facing a divorce. After hearing Heather report, I realized that my marriage was a legal contract. There was deep caring in the relationship; however, there was never a union of our souls. We never were able to “mutually accommodate and adapt substances to one another” in order to “form a more excellent whole”.

This concept of marriage brings to mind the term soul mate. During the class discussion of this topic, we learned that there is a chance that soul mates may never meet in this world. This idea can seem disheartening; however, we must remember that each of us will unite with our soul mate in the spiritual world. One aspect of soul mates that our class viewed as confusing was the joining of homosexuals. This topic still confuses me. I believe that some people are born as homosexuals, so it is hard for me to understand how they can fit into Swedenborg’s Unity Model of Marriage.

April 8, 2004 – Josh Cooper: Spirituality That Makes Sense by Douglas Taylor

Josh Cooper gave an informative presentation concerning several chapters of Spirituality That Makes Sense. In his discussion of shunning evil, Josh gave us examples of how to resist evil in its many forms. We all have evil in us that can show up in the form of frustration and anger for example. We all have evil, because heaven and hell are in our mind. This ill will is from evil spirits within us. Acknowledging this allows us to reject that evil. Josh gave the example of when feeling angry or frustrated he will turn around to see the evil spirits causing the behavior. Even though he does not expect to see an actual evil spirit standing behind him, the act of looking for the evil spirit allows him to accept the cause of his mood. Realizing the evil causing a bad mood allows one to embrace the goodness of free will.

I am gaining a greater understanding of how the influx from God works. The idea of different levels of heaven is also beginning to take shape in my mind. Although Josh did an excellent job explaining these concepts, it is hard for someone who is unfamiliar with this topic to understand the three degrees of the human mind. There was nothing in Josh’s presentation that I could refute, only facts that I found hard to comprehend.

April 15, 2004 – Leticia Valle: Children in Heaven by Chauncey Giles

Leticia Valle covered the topic of children in heaven. Several other students covered this topic during the semester. One point that Leticia covered that the other presenters did not, was the topic of death of an embryo. She explained that an embryo is a soul without a mind. The unborn fetus does not have a personality or have any human experience because it does not have a mind. Embryos’ souls go to heaven and are more holy than the highest angels are. These souls filter the influx of God before it passes to the highest angels. This was hard for me to fathom, but was a concept that I can readily accept. I had two miscarriages before the birth of my children. I could not accept that an embryo had no soul. To imagine that the death of an embryo sends that soul to the highest of heaven gives comfort.

One part of this presentation that was hard for me to accept was that the definition of a child or infant is a person who, “under ‘normal circumstances,’ who has not developed a mental state where they are capable of identifying the difference between good and evil”. I believe there are adults who cannot identify the difference between good and evil. The evils that I am discussing are, for example, gossiping and holding grudges. I cannot accept that some adults can be directly to heaven the same as children simply because they have lesser developed minds. I feel that a normal adult will be held accountable for his or her actions.

Lecture Notes

“But with the positive bias you are granting in advance that the report may be true. In the negative bias you are not granting that the report may be true. This is then the big difference.”

One of the concepts that I have taken to heart by Dr. James is that of thinking of things in a positive bias rather than a negative bias. Often in our society we simply assume something is wrong until it is proven right. In statistics, we learn to “reject the null”. We seem to take the “guilty until proven innocent” approach to much of our thinking. I find this particularly true with religion. This quote was important in allowing me to have an open mind when reading Swedenborg. I wanted to take the approach that he was delusional. Yet, as I read a section of the reading material, I was faced with the idea that Christians willingly accept accounts of the spiritual world such as James in Revelations. I could readily accept this, but immediately wanted to reject Swedenborg. I was thinking with a negative bias. I can now look at the Writings with a positive bias and acknowledge that they may be true until proven otherwise.

1.5 Some of the People Who Have Acknowledged Swedenborg

This section of the Lecture Notes gives a detailed list of people who have studied Swedenborg and their comments about him. This section was important to me, because it allowed me to see how many great minds of our past have accepted Swedenborg and how Swedenborg influenced their lives. Helen Keller, Henry David Thoreau, Benjamin Franklin, Carl Jung and Ralph Waldo Emerson are only a few of the people who studied Swedenborg. It is amazing to me that although I have heard of and studied each of these people, before this class I had never heard of Emanuel Swedenborg. After learning more about Swedenborg, I realize that the reason many may have denied an association with the Writings was due to the belief that Swedenborg was delusional. However, the fact that so many were influenced by him gives credit to the Swedenborg’s work.

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

This explanation of how the body, the mind and the spiritual world are related is a vital part of understanding theistic psychology and the Writings. A new concept I was introduced to in this class was the idea that heaven and hell are not places separate from where I am now, but instead heaven and hell are within my mind. This is easy to grasp when reading about how the mind is within the spiritual world and the body is in the natural world. Things in the spiritual world are forever, but things in the natural world can perish. I better understood this in class when we discussed what makes us move our arm. We know that there are neurons firing in the brain to cause the movement, but we must go beyond the brain. The mind, which is not physical, is the drive behind the firing that comes before the movement. Dr. James’ description of the natural and spiritual worlds helped me to understand better the concept of theistic psychology.

4. Conclusion

This assignment has helped me identify my own views on spirituality in that I now realize that I want to take a rational approach to spirituality. I believe that before I took this course, I was inclined to have a mystical view of God. I was constantly in search of a way to be “one with God”. I desired to “feel his presence”. I now realize that by taking that approach I was operating on blind faith. I have often heard that blind faith is a good thing, but anyone could have blind faith about any numerous ideas. Just because a person has blind faith, does not make the object of the faith true. It is important to make the distinction between mystical and rational spirituality, because the mystical approach is one of blind faith whereas the rational approach takes a scientific view of God and religion. This class has helped me embrace rationalism rather than an oneness with God, what I desire is to understand God.

In the next few years, I hope to grow in my spirituality through continuing to learn about God to gain a greater understanding. I feel sure that I will continue to read the Writings. The Writings do not necessarily give birth to a religion of their own, but instead one can incorporate the concepts of the Writings into their own religious beliefs. For this reason, I am glad to share what I have learned in the course with friends and family so that they to can better understand their own spirituality. I feel sure that I will be intrigued to follow up on successive generational reports dealing with this topic. Most of all I hope to keep good in my mind.

5. Future Generations

Future Generations, you have been afforded a great opportunity to gain a great knowledge about this new concept of theistic psychology. Although at first it will all seem difficult to grasp, by reading the lecture notes (which may seem overwhelming by the time you take this course), reading the texts and participating in class discussions you will be able to understand the topic. I have found that there is a great life lesson in this class. The ideas of Swedenborg transcend religious belief. The main concept is character reformation – keeping what is good in your mind. When I think of goodness, I think of being positive. In the beginning of this course, do as Dr. James asks. Approach this information with a positive bias and assume that it is right until proven wrong! I must say, I found no argument that was able to prove it wrong. So I will continue with my positive bias. Good luck and God bless!!!

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