A Scholarly Site About

Emanuel Swedenborgflashing.gif (2410 bytes)

    1688-1771

 

by Dr. Leon James
Professor of Psychology, University of Hawaii

 *To see a List of Swedenborg's Writings and free access to them online  Click here
 Also: De Hemelsche Leer and other collateral works

*To see an introductory statement about this site Click here

*To see a linked directory listing of hundreds of topics in the Glossary  Click here

You can also scroll down
for many interesting links to articles and Web sites. You will also find some illuminating quotations from Swedenborg's Writings.

"Everything not connected with something prior to itself falls into nothing. " (Arcana Coelestia 5084
"Angels have all their blessedness through truths from good." (
Apocalypse Explained 484)

Click below to access the

Directory of Swedenborg Glossary of Theistic Science
by Leon James

This is my attempt to organize and translate Swedenborg's concepts into modern psychology
and to transform them into scientific dualism or theistic science.  

See also Dr. Ian Thompson's site TheisticScience.org

newsearch.gif (3228 bytes)Swedenborg's Writings Online
Here is the entire collection of Swedenborg's Theological Writings

Online, full text, searchable, and free.

See the Swedenborg Digital Library of Books and Articles
 

Spiritual Psychology
and Theistic Science
by Leon James
Related Web Sites
on Swedenborg
Spiritual Psychology

Three Steps in Our Spiritual Development

Doctrine of the Wife

Forming the New Church Mind

De Hemelsche Leer

Index of Entries for Swedenborg Glossary and Articles

The Sayings and Aphorisms of Leon James, Emanuel Swedenborg, and Jesus of Nazareth

Cyberpsychology and Spiritual Psychology

What is Spiritual Psychology?

Biological Theology

Spiritual Geography

Our Associations with Spirits or the Vertical Community

Spiritual Psychology of Religion and Behaviorism


From Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia 10597

"The Word teaches that a person is alive after death, for example where it says that God is not the God of the dead but of the living, Matt. 22:32; that Lazarus was taken up after death to heaven, but the rich man was cast down to hell, Luke 16:22,23ff; that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are there, Matt. 8:11; 22:32; Luke 16:23-25,29; that Jesus told the robber, Today you will be with Me in paradise, Luke 23:43; and in other statements elsewhere." (AC 10597)


"Nothing is permitted to happen that has not been foreseen, for otherwise it cannot happen." Swedenborg's Spiritual Experiences 1088 (SE 1088)


Brief Chronology of Swedenborg's Life

Infography -- Sources to Information on Swedenborg

The Life of Emanuel Swedenborg

Selected Bibliography of Swedenborg's Works

Swedenborg Scientific Association

General Reference Works About Swedenborg

Swedenborg: A Biography by Jane K. Williams-Hogan, Ph.D.

A Biography of Swedenborg by Rev. Kurt Nemitz

The Principles of the New Philosophy by Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner

Emanuel Swedenborg's Autobiographical Letters

The New Philosophy Online Journal (Swedenborg Scientific Association)

Internal Senses of the Bible  compiled by Ian Thompson

Theistic Science Web Site by Dr. Ian Thompson, Physicist

Layered Cognitive Networks  by Dr. Ian J. Thompson

Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness: A Causal Correspondence Theory  by Dr. Ian J. Thompson

 

Other Articles on Swedenborg
by Leon James
Other Swedenborg Web Sites
What is Spiritual Psychology?

What is Cyber-Psychology?

Two Perspectives on Swedenborg's Writings: Secular and Religious

The Reciprocal Relation Between Science and Religion

Swedenborg and the Future of Psychology as a Science

Overcoming Objections to Swedenborg's Writings Through the Development of Scientific Dualism

Psychology Student Reactions to Swedenborg

Is Personality Forever?

Scientific Dualism in Psychology

Swedenborg's Theory of Trisubstantivism as a Basis for the Science of Human Behavior

Lecture Notes on Swedenborg's Religious Behaviorism

Swedenborg's Religious Psychology

The Fourteen Scientific Fallacies in Swedenborg's AC 5084: Implications for Science Education

Comprehensive Discourse Analysis in a Swedenborgian Perspective

Other Full-Text Articles by Leon James

Quotations from the Works of Leon James


47. DIVINE LOVE AND DIVINE WISDOM MUST NECESSARILY HAVE BEING [Esse] AND HAVE FORM [Existere] IN OTHERS CREATED BY ITSELF.

It is the essential of love not to love self, but to love others, and to be conjoined with others by love. It is the essential of love, moreover, to be loved by others, for thus conjunction is effected. The essence of all love consists in conjunction; this, in fact, is its life, which is called enjoyment, pleasantness, delight, sweetness, bliss, happiness, and felicity. Love consists in this, that its own should be another's; to feel the joy of another as joy in oneself, that is loving. But to feel one's own joy in another and not the other's joy in oneself is not loving; for this is loving self, while the former is loving the neighbor. These two kinds of love are diametrically opposed to each other. Either, it is true, conjoins; and to love one's own, that is, oneself, in another does not seem to divide; but it does so effectually divide that so far as any one has loved another in this manner, so far he afterwards hates him. For such conjunction is by its own action gradually loosened, and then, in like measure, love is turned to hate.

Swedenborg in Divine Love and Wisdom Number 47


A List of Famous Writers Who Said They've Been Influenced by Swedenborg  (includes Calvin Coolidge, Helen Keller, Carl Gustav Jung, Henry James Sr., William Butler Yeats, Arthur Conan Doyle, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jorge Luis Borges, HonorŽ de Balzac, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Carlyle, Walter M. Horton, Hiram Powers, and others)

A New Church Women's Page

The Lord's New Church

The Bible's Deeper Meaning: Outlook Newsletter from the Swedenborg Movement

Why I believe by JudyE and other articles and links

Soulmates Marriage in Heaven by JudyE

Hurtsville, Australia: The Swedenborg Association--Swedenborg's Spiritual Philosophy The Teachings of the New Church/New Spiritual Consciousness

Sermons by General Church Ministers

FAQ Swedenborg

Swedenborg Foundation

Swedenborg Book Publishers and Societies

The Lord's New Church--Esoteric Christianity

Full text Books by Swedenborg Available Online in English Translation

Full Text of Swedenborg's Book The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrines (1758)

List of Swedenborg's Writings

Online Courses and Chat Rooms on Swedenborg Topics

Connect to Swedenborg Information and Discussion Groups on the Internet.

The Swedenborgian Church

Web Directory of Swedenborg Discussants and Lists

Swedenborg: A Biography by Dr. Jane K. Williams-Hogan
Includes the Article, "Swedenborg Chronology, Selected Bibliography, and General Reference Works"

Swedenborg Society in the UK

Dr. Ian Thompson's Site on Theistic Science

John Odhner on the Correspondence to Blood

Swedenborg’s Missionary Work   by Rev. Donald L. Rose A review of Swedenborg's publishing and promotion activities of the books of the heavenly doctrines.

PicoSearch Search this site
New Century Controversy Index Database of Articles
Here is a sample of the articles available there:
  • Introduction to Heaven & Hell Rev. Michael Gladish
  • The Lang Introduction to the New Century Edition Heaven and Hell Kurt Simons
  • The Necessity of Swedenborg’s Introduction into the Spiritual World Rev. Frank S. Rose
  • The Method of Giving Revelation Rev. Martin Pryke
  • The Spiritual World: June 19th, 1770 Rev. Ormond Odhner
  • The Writings as the Word A Study in the History of Doctrine Rt. Rev. Alfred Acton
  • What is Meant by the Divine Authority of the Writings? Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner
  • Swedenborg and Wesley Rev. Ormond Odhner
  • What the Writings Testify Concerning Themselves: A Compilation of Teachings from the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner
  • The Essence of Swedenborg’s Philosophy Rev. Erik Sandstršm, Sr.
  • Affirmative and Negative States Rev. David R. Simons
  • The Authority of the Writings Rev. Geoffrey Childs
  • Emanuel Swedenborg. The Relation of His Personal Development to His Work as a Revelator Rev. Hugo Lj. Odhner
  • The Nature of Swedenborg's Preparation Rev. Elmo C. Acton
  • The Truth: Seen and Heard Rev. David R. Simons
  • Two Advents: One Divine Process Rev. Erik Sandstršm, Sr.
  • The Divine Inspiration of Emanuel Swedenborg Rev. Ormond Odhner
  • Swedenborg’s Claims – Can We Accept Them? Rev. Harold C. Cranch
  • Internal Respiration Patrick L. Johnson

Quoting from Swedenborg's Divine Providence No. 279:  

Affections, which belong to the will, are nothing but changes of state of the purely organic substances of the mind, and that thoughts, which belong to the understanding, are nothing but changes and variations in the form of these substances, and that memory is a permanent state of these changes and variations. Everyone acknowledges, when it is stated, that affections and thoughts exist only in substances and their forms, which are subjects; and as these exist in the brain,  which is full of substances and forms, they are said to be purely organic forms. No one who thinks rationally can help laughing at the fanciful notions of some that affections and thoughts do not exist in forms that are substantiated, but that they are exhalations formed into shapes by heat and light like images appearing in the atmosphere. For thought can no more exist apart from a substantial form than sight apart from its form which is the eye, hearing apart from its form which is the ear, and taste apart from its form which is the tongue. If you examine the brain you will see innumerable substances, and likewise fibers; you will also see that everything in it is organized. What need is there of any other than this ocular proof?

[7] The question arises, What is affection and what is thought in the mind? This may be inferred from all the things in general and in particular in the body where there are many viscera, each fixed in its own place and all performing their own functions by changes and variations of state and form. It is well known that they are engaged in their own operations - the stomach, the intestines, the kidneys, the liver, the pancreas, and the spleen, the heart and the lungs, each organ in its respective operation. All these operations are kept in motion from within, and to be moved from within is to be moved by means of changes and variations of state and form. Hence it may be evident that the operations of the purely organic substances of the mind are of a similar nature, with this difference, that the operations of the organic substances of the body are natural, while those of the mind are spiritual, and that both act together as one by correspondences.

[8] The nature of the changes and variations of state and form in the organic substances of the mind, which are affections and thoughts, cannot be shown to the eye; but still they may be seen as in a mirror from the changes and variations in the state of the lungs in speaking and in singing. There is, moreover, a correspondence; for the sound of the voice in speaking and singing, and also the articulations of sound, which are the words of speech, and the modulations of singing, are caused by means of the lungs, and sound corresponds to affection and speech to thought. Further, sound and speech are produced by affection and thought; and this is effected by changes and variations in the state and form of the organic substances in the lungs, and from the lungs through the trachea or windpipe, in the larynx and glottis, then in the tongue and finally in the lips. The first changes and variations of the state and form of sound take place in the lungs, the second in the trachea and larynx, the third in the glottis by the various openings of its orifice, the fourth in the tongue by its various adaptations to the palate and teeth, and the fifth in the lips by their various modifications of form. Hence it may be evident that the mere changes and variations, successively continued, in the state of organic forms produce sounds and their articulations, which are speech and singing. Now, since sound and speech are produced from no other source than the affections and thoughts of the mind, for they exist from these and are never apart from them, it is clear that the affections of the will are changes and variations in the state of the purely organic substances of the mind, and that the thoughts of the understanding are changes and variations in the form of those substances, as is the case in the pulmonary substances.

[9] As affections and thoughts are simply changes in the state of the forms of the mind, it follows that memory is nothing else than a permanent state of these changes. For all changes and variations of state in organic substances are such that once they have become habitual they are permanent. Thus the lungs are habituated to produce various sounds in the trachea, to vary them in the glottis, to articulate them in the tongue, and to modify them in the mouth; and when once these organic activities have become habitual such sounds are in the organs and can be reproduced. (DP 279)

 

More Swedenborg Related Links on the Web

Swedish Roots: The Revelator and His Revelation
Results of a 12-day visit to Sweden and Swedenborg's roots there, including genealogy, June 1997.

New Church Women's Page

The New Jerusalem Church of Pretty Prairie

Holy Bible Full text

Emanuel Swedenborg's Unique Theological Contribution By Dr. Young Oon Kim

New Church Articles on What the Bible Says About... by John Odhner

Swedenborgians in Phoenix

History of the New Church--Dave's Page

The Swedenborgian Cincinnati-Library Collection of Biblical Commentaries

Swedenborg Home Page in Australia and Book Center

The Third Source
Swedenborg: A Physical & Metaphysical Revelation by Christen Blom - Dahl

Information Swedenborg Home Page

History of Psychology Reports by Students of Dr. Leon James

Human Behavior and Human Spirit:  Quest for the Good and Truth

Function Without Structure

A Personal View on Swedenborg's Divine Love and Wisdom

Rationalism:   Do We have Free Will

Heaven Is A Place On Earth:  A Religious Self-Examination Experiment

Psychology Student Reactions to Swedenborg

Is Personality Forever?

Life After Death
and related articles and bibliographies by students of Professor James

Is there life after Death? ||  The Opening of Spiritual World by Experiences  ||  Death: What Do You Believe?  ||  God Cannot Not Exist  ||  Death: The End or Just the Beginning  ||   A Close look at Afterlife  ||  Live or Die  ||  Swedenborg: Psychologist or Philosopher?  ||   Sexy Versus  ||  Emanuel Swedenborg: An Investigation into Rational Thought  ||  Swedenborg: To Believe or Not to Believe  ||   Knocking on Heavenās Door: The Near Death Experience  ||   An Intellectual Look at the History of Death and Afterlife  ||  Science and Religion: Near-Death Experiences and Belief in the Afterlife  ||  Of Hell and Eternal Damnation: A Look into the Existence of God

Dialog Between Man and His Soul--William Clifford's Article on To Whom Did Jesus Pray

Swedenborg Site in Stuttgart (in German)

The Swedenborg Association

The Swedenborg Society in the UK

ACADEMY COLLECTION  of  SWEDENBORG DOCUMENTS

Swedenborg Library of Bryn Athyn College

Swedenborg School of Religion

It shall first be explained what a spirit is, and what an angel is. All persons after death come, in the first place, into the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell, and there pass through their own times, that is, their own states, and become prepared, according to their life, either for heaven or for hell. So long as people stay in that world they are called  spirits. They who have been raised out of that world into heaven are called  angels; but those who have been cast down into hell are called either satans or  devils. So long as these continue in the world of spirits, those who are preparing for heaven are called  angelic spirits; and those  who are preparing for hell,  infernal spirits; meanwhile  angelic spirits are conjoined with heaven, and  infernal spirits with hell. All spirits in the world of spirits are adjoined to people still on earth; because people still on earth, in respect to the interiors of their minds, are in like manner between heaven and hell, and through these spirits they communicate with heaven or with hell according to their life. It is to be observed that the world of spirits is one thing, and the spiritual world another; the world of spirits is that which has just been spoken of; but the spiritual world includes that world, and heaven and hell. (From Swedenborg's Divine Love and Wisdom No. 140) (DLW 140)

 

And so, meanwhile back on earth, what does all this mean?  It means the vertical community!!  We are members of a horizontal community (as in "I'm an American in the year 2000") and simultaneously, we are members of a vertical community.  Our language and style and behavior pattern are influences from the horizontal community; our thoughts and feelings are influences from the vertical community.  What a mind blower:  I'm not alone in my thoughts and feelings!  Swedenborg called it spiritual influx.  All my thoughts and feelings stream into my mind from all those other minds in the spiritual world who have been there and are there.  Each one of us joins them when we pass on, and the stream or network of thoughts and feelings continues to reverberate and circulate and take new patterns endlessly, forever.  This process is managed by the Laws of Divine Providence.  From Leon James Swedenborg Glossary, see the entry for "Vertical Community" by Leon James--Continued here.

 

These are the general principles of all religions by which everyone can be saved. To acknowledge God and to refrain from doing evil because it is against God are the two things which make religion to be religion. If one of them is wanting it cannot be called religion, since to acknowledge God and to do evil is a contradiction; so also is to do good and yet not acknowledge God, for one is not possible without the other. It has been provided by the Lord that almost everywhere there should be some form of religion, and that in every religion there should be these two principles; and it has also been provided by the Lord that everyone who acknowledges God and refrains from doing evil because it is against God should have a place in heaven. For heaven in the complex resembles one Man whose life or soul is the Lord. In that heavenly Man there are all things which are in a natural man with that difference which exists between things heavenly and things natural.  From Swedenborg's Divine Providence.

 

Swedenborg warns that nothing is more important in our life here on earth than to understand how our feelings rule our thoughts. Without this understanding, truth appears as falsity, and good appears as evil. What a stupendous blunder, robbing us of all lasting intelligence, wisdom, and the warmth of love. Swedenborg has witnessed the lot of those of us who end up in mind's hell with such stubbornness as to keep us there endlessly. Such is the virtual power of the human spirit given to it by the Divine through continuous, ceaseless influx of spiritual substances into the mind.  by Leon James Continued in this article.

 

CL 1. I anticipate that many who read the following descriptions and the accounts at the ends of the succeeding chapters will believe they are figments of my imagination. I swear in truth, however, that they are not inventions, but actual occurrences to which I was witness. Nor were they witnessed in any condition of unconsciousness but in a state of full wakefulness. For it has pleased the Lord to manifest Himself to me and send me to teach the doctrines that will be doctrines of the New Church, the church meant by the New Jerusalem in the book of Revelation. To this end He has opened the inner faculties of my mind and spirit. As a result, it has been made possible for me to be in the spiritual world with angels and at the same time in the natural world with men, and this now for twenty-five years.* * From Conjugial Love by Swedenborg, published in the year 1768.

 

newsearch.gif (3228 bytes)Swedenborg's Writings Online
Go to this new site that allows you to read and search the entire collection of Swedenborg's Theological Writings, as well as a Key for Bible References in the Writings.

 

CL 34. (3) Everyone's own love remains in him after death. People know that love exists, but they do not know what love is. They know that it exists from common conversation. For instance, people say that "he loves me," that a king loves his subjects and the subjects love their king, that a husband loves his wife, and a mother her children, and vice versa, also that this person or that loves his country, his fellow citizens, his neighbor. So, too, with matters abstracted from person, as in saying that one loves this or that thing.

But even though love is so frequently mentioned, nevertheless scarcely anyone knows what love is. Whenever someone meditates on it, he cannot then form for himself any idea in his thought about it, thus he cannot bring it into the light of his understanding, because it is not a matter of light but of warmth. Therefore he says either that love is not anything, or that it is merely some stimulus flowing in through his vision, hearing and social interaction, which thus affects him. He does not know that love is his very life, not only the general life in his whole body and the general life in all his thoughts, but also the life in every single particle of them.

The wise person can perceive this from considering the following proposition: If you take away the impulse of love, can you form any thought? Or can you perform any action? In the measure that the affection belonging to love cools, is it not true that in the same measure thought, speech and action cool? And the warmer the affection grows, the warmer they grow?

Love, therefore, is the warmth in a person's life or his vital heat. The warmth of the blood, and also its redness, have no other origin. The fire of the angelic sun, which is pure love, causes it.
From E. Swedenborg's
Conjugial Love

 

DP 333. The operation of the Divine Providence for the salvation of man is said to begin at his birth and to continue right on to the end of his life. In order to understand this it should be known that the Lord sees what the nature of a man is, and foresees what he desires to be, and thus what he will be; and in order that he may be a man and therefore immortal, the freedom of his will cannot be taken away, as has been shown above in many places.

Therefore the Lord foresees man's state after death and provides for it from his birth right on to the end of his life. With the wicked the Lord provides by permitting and continually withdrawing them from evils; while with the good He provides by leading them to good. Thus the Divine Providence is unceasing in the work of saving man. However, no more can be saved than desire to be saved, and only those desire to be saved who acknowledge God and are led by Him; but those do not desire to be saved who do not acknowledge God and who lead themselves; for these give no thought to eternal life and salvation, while the others do. This the Lord sees and still He leads them, leading them according to the laws of His Divine Providence, contrary to which He cannot act, since so to act would be to act contrary to His Divine Love and contrary to His Divine Wisdom, that is, contrary to Himself.

[2] Now since the Lord foresees the state of all after death and also foresees the places in hell of those who do not desire to be saved, and the places in heaven of those who desire to be saved, it follows, as has been said, that He provides their places for the wicked by permitting and withdrawing, and their places for the good by leading; and unless this were done continually from the birth of everyone to the end of his life neither heaven nor hell would continue to exist, for without this foresight and Providence at the same time neither heaven nor hell would be anything but confusion. It may be seen above (n. 202, 203) that everyone has his place provided for him by the Lord from this foresight.

[3] This may be illustrated by the following comparison. If a javelin thrower or a musketeer were to aim at a target and a straight line were drawn from the target a thousand feet beyond it; and if he should err in his aim by only a nail's breadth, his weapon or bullet, at a distance of a thousand feet, would diverge very far from the line drawn beyond the mark. So would it be if the Lord did not every moment, even every least fraction of a moment, regard eternity in foreseeing and providing everyone's place after death. This, however, is done by the Lord because all the future is present to Him and all the present is to Him eternal. It may be seen above (n. 46-69, 214, and following numbers) that the Divine Providence in everything it does has regard to the infinite and the eternal.
Divine Providence

 

From Swedenborg's The True Christian Religion

771. In the chapter on the Sacred Scripture I showed that the literal sense of the Word is written by appearances and correspondences. Each of its details therefore contains a spiritual sense in which truth is illuminated by its own light, and the literal sense is in shadow. So to prevent the people of the new church, like those of the old church, going astray in the shadows obscuring the literal sense of the Word, especially as regards heaven and hell, how they will live after death, and on the present occasion about the Lord's coming, the Lord has been pleased to open the sight of my spirit, thus admitting me to the spiritual world. I have been allowed not only to talk with spirits and angels, with relations and friends, even with kings and princes, who have met their end in the natural world, but also to see the astonishing sights of heaven, and the pitiful sights of hell. So I have seen how people do not pass their time in some pu deep in the earth, nor flit around blind and dumb in the air or in empty space, but live as human beings in a substantial body, in a much more perfect state, if they come among the blessed, than they experienced previously when living in material bodies.

[2] So to prevent people from plunging yet deeper into erroneous ideas about the destruction of the sky we see and the earth we live on, and consequently about the spiritual world, as the result of ignorance, which leads to worshipping nature and this automatically to atheism - something which at the present time has begun to take root in the inner rational minds of the learned - to prevent then atheism from spreading more widely, like necrosis in the flesh, so as to affect as well the outer mind which controls speech, I have been commanded by the Lord to make known various things which I have seen and heard. These include heaven and hell, the Last Judgment, and the explanation of Revelation, which deals with the Lord's coming, the former heaven and the new heaven, and the holy Jerusalem. If my books on these subjects are read and understood, anyone can see what is meant there by the Lord's coming, a new heaven and the New Jerusalem.

 

True Christian Religion

TCR 475. IV. SO LONG AS MAN LIVES IN THE WORLD, HE IS KEPT MIDWAY BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL, AND IS THERE IN SPIRITUAL EQUILIBRIUM, WHICH IS FREEDOM OF CHOICE.

In order to know what freedom of choice is and the nature of it, it is necessary to know its origin. Especially from a recognition of its origin it can be known, not only that there is such a thing as freedom of choice, but also what it is. Its origin is in the spiritual world, where man's mind is kept by the Lord. Man's mind is his spirit, which lives after death; and his spirit is constantly in company with its like in the spiritual world, and at the same time by means of the material body with which it is enveloped, it is with men in the natural world. 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.

[2] But to make it comprehensible how man can be kept midway between heaven and hell and thereby in spiritual equilibrium from which he has freedom of choice, it shall be briefly explained. The spiritual world consists of heaven and hell; heaven then is overhead, and hell is beneath the feet, not, however, in the center of the globe inhabited by men, but below the lands of the spiritual world, which are also of spiritual origin, and therefore not extended [spatially], but with an appearance of extension.

[3] Between heaven and hell there is a great interspace, which to those who are there appears like a complete orb. Into this interspace, evil exhales from hell in all abundance; while from heaven, on the other hand, good flows into it, also in all abundance. It was of this interspace that Abraham said to the rich man in hell:

Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they who would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they who are there cross over to us (Luke 16:26).

Every man, as to his spirit, is in the midst of this interspace, solely for this reason, that he may be in freedom of choice.

[4] Because this interspace is so large and because it appears to those who are there like a vast orb, it is called the World of Spirits. Moreover, it is full of spirits, because every man after death first goes there, and is there prepared either for heaven or for hell. There he is among spirits, in company with them, as formerly he was among men in the world. There is no purgatory there; that is a fiction invented by the Roman Catholics. But that world has been treated of particularly in the work on Heaven and Hell (London, 1758, n. 421-535).

TCR 476. Every man from infancy even to old age is changing his locality or situation in that world. When an infant he is kept in the eastern quarter towards the northern part; when a child, as he learns the first lessons of religion, he moves gradually from the north towards the south; when a youth, as he begins to exercise his own thoughts, he is borne southward; and afterwards when he judges for himself and becomes his own master, he is borne into the southern quarter towards the east, according to his growth in such things as have regard interiorly to God and love to the neighbor. But if he inclines to evil and imbibes it, he advances towards the west.

For all in the spiritual world have their abodes according to the quarters; in the east are those who are in good from the Lord, because the sun, in the midst of which is the Lord, is in that quarter; in the north are those who are in ignorance; in the south, those who are in intelligence; and in the west, those who are in evil. Man himself is not kept as to his body in that interspace or middle region, but only as to his spirit; and as his spirit changes its state by advancing towards good or towards evil, so is it transferred to localities or situations in this quarter or in that, and comes into association with those who dwell there.

But it must be understood that the Lord does not transfer man to this or that place, but man transfers himself in different ways. If he chooses good, he together with the Lord, or rather the Lord together with him, transfers his spirit towards the east. But if man chooses evil, he together with the devil, or rather the devil together with him, transfers his spirit towards the west. It must be noticed that where the term heaven is here used, the Lord also is meant, because the Lord is the all in all things of heaven; and where the term devil is used, hell also is meant, because all who are there are devils.

TCR 477. Man is kept in this great interspace, and midway therein continually, for the sole purpose that he may have freedom of choice in spiritual things, for this is a spiritual equilibrium, because it is an equilibrium between heaven and hell, thus between good and evil. All who are in that great interspace are, as to their interiors, conjoined either with the angels of heaven or with the devils of hell; or at the present day either with the angels of Michael or with the angels of the dragon. After death every man betakes himself to his own in that interspace and associates himself with those who are in a love similar to his own, for love conjoins everyone there with his like, and causes him to breathe out his soul freely, and to continue in his previous state of life. But the externals that do not make one with his internals are then gradually put off, and when this has been done the good man is raised up to heaven, and the evil man betakes himself to hell, each to such as he is at one with as to his ruling love.

TCR 478. This spiritual equilibrium, which is freedom of choice, may be illustrated by various forms of natural equilibrium. It is like the equilibrium of a man bound about his body or at his arms between two men of equal strength, one of whom draws the man between them to the right, and the other to the left, so that the man in the middle can freely turn this way or that as if unrestrained by any force; and if he turns toward the right he draws the man on his left forcibly toward him, even bringing him to the ground. It would be the same with any unresisting person, even if bound between three men on his right, and the same number on his left, of equal power; also if bound between camels or horses.

[2] Spiritual equilibrium, which is freedom of choice, may be compared to a balance, in each scale of which equal weights are placed; but if a slight weight is then added to either scale, the tongue of the scale begins to vibrate. It is similar with a pole or large beam balanced on its support. Each and all things within man, as the heart, the lungs, the stomach, the liver, the pancreas, the spleen, the intestines, and the rest, are in such a state of equilibrium; and for this reason each is able to discharge its functions in perfect quiet. It is the same with all the muscles; if they were without such equilibrium all action and reaction would cease, and man would no longer act as a man. Since, then, all things of the body are in such equilibrium, so are all things of the brain, and consequently all things of the mind therein, which relate to the will and understanding.

[3] There is a freedom also belonging to beasts, birds, fishes and insects; but these are impelled by their bodily senses, prompted by appetite and pleasure. Man would not be unlike these if his freedom to do were equal to his freedom to think. He, too, would then be impelled by his bodily senses, prompted by lust and pleasure. It is otherwise with one who heartily accepts the spiritual things of the church, and by means of them restrains his freedom of choice. Such a man is led by the Lord away from lusts and evil pleasures and his connate avidity for them, and acquires an affection for what is good, and turns away from evil. He is then transferred by the Lord nearer to the east, and at the same time to the south of the spiritual world, and is introduced into heavenly freedom, which is freedom indeed.

 

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