Consider these results of a rage-depression survey I did on the Web in 2000.

Note: The detailed results may be accessed here --  www.drdriving.org/surveys/rage_depression.htm

The following summary of all statistically significant results is arranged in terms of the 4 spin cycle zones (see diagram above) in relation to the effect attributable to gender, age, and education. Trends that do not reach statistical significance (p<.05) are not mentioned in this analysis.

In terms of gender, more men report feeling anger, rage, or hate on a daily basis than women do--37 vs. 29 percent. In terms of age, more of the younger people (both men and women) report daily rage than older people--the percent for each succeeding age group is 40, 37, 26, and 22 percent (age groups are: 19 or less; 20 to 34; 35 to 54; 55 to 69). In terms of education, the lower the educational background (for young and old, men and women), the more they report anger, rage, or hate on a daily basis--38, 32, 29 percent for the three educational backgrounds (high school, college, graduate school). (Item 11)

About 21 percent of people--one in five, have the experience of enjoying fantasies of violence on a daily or hourly basis. Of these people, 6 percent are women and 15 percent are men. Thus, twice as many men as women enjoy fantasies of violence on a frequent and regular basis (hourly or daily). More of the younger people (men and women of all education) report enjoying fantasies of violence than older people--17, 12,   6, and  2 percent for the four successive age groups. The lower the educational background, the more people report enjoying violence fantasies on a regular basis--14, 11, 7 for the three levels of schooling. (Item 12)

The majority of men and women report feeling impatient with others on a daily or hourly basis-- 62 and 55 percent respectively, thus more of the men then the women report this. Younger people report feeling impatient with others more frequently than older people--about 64 percent (up to age thirty-four) vs. about 48 percent (thirty-five and older). The lower the educational level, the more people report feeling impatient on a daily or hourly basis--63, 59, and 54 percent for the three levels. (Item 17)

Men outnumber women in wanting to be obnoxious or rude to someone on a regular basis--hourly or daily-- almost half of all men (45 percent) vs. one in three women (36 percent). Younger people report this more than older (both men and women): 60, 48, 24, and 11 percent for each of the four age groups. Clearly, as people get older they feel less and less like being rude, obnoxious or sarcastic to someone.  More people report this who have less education: 54, 38, and  29 percent for the three education levels. (Item 20)

On a daily or hourly basis, 45 percent of women and 60 percent of men feel like calling someone stupid, dumb, or an idiot. About 60 percent of people up to age thirty-four feel this way, but only 42 percent among those thirty-five or older. Clearly, as people get older they feel less and less that others are stupid or dumb. More people (men and women of all ages) report this who have less education: 61, 52, 43 percent for the three education levels. Adding all three categories--weekly, daily, hourly, the number of people who report feeling that someone is stupid, dumb, or an idiot on a recurrent basis is 87 percent (high school background), 85 percent (college background), and 81 percent (graduate school background). In all, a majority of our population feels like calling someone an idiot at least once a week, and many feel this several times a week. In all, the vast majority of our population (between 81 and 87 percent) regularly feels like someone else is an idiot. (Item 22)

Younger people report feeling humiliated, disrespected or insulted by someone more frequently than older people-- 35, 30, 15 and 8 percent for the four age groups. Clearly, as people get older they feel less and less humiliated, disrespected or insulted by someone on a regular basis. There is no significant difference between men and women on this. More people report this who have less education: 32 ,19, and 14 percent for the three education levels. Adding all three categories--weekly, daily, hourly, the number of people who report that they have been humiliated, disrespected or insulted by someone: 62 percent (high school background), 52 percent (college background), and 48 percent (graduate school background). In all, the majority of our population regularly feels humiliated, disrespected or insulted by someone. (Item 23)

About 23 percent of men and 13 percent of women (of all ages and education levels) feel like humiliating, disrespecting or insulting someone on daily or hourly basis. Younger people are more prone to this than older: 34, 19, 9, and 4 percent for the four age groups. Clearly, as people get older they feel less and less like humiliating, disrespecting or insulting someone. More people report this who have less education: 28, 16 and 10 percent for the three educational backgrounds. Adding all three categories--weekly, daily, hourly, the number of people who report that they want to humiliate, disrespect or insult someone is: 47 percent (high school background), 35 percent (college background), and 30 percent (graduate school background). (Item 24)

About 16 percent of women feel criticized, picked on or bullied on an hourly or daily basis, while 14 percent of men, feel that way. The main difference between men and women on this item is how many say they rarely feel bullied or picked on: 55 percent of women, but 63 percent of men. Younger people report feeling criticized, picked on or bullied more frequently than older people-- 23, 16, 11, and 8 percent for the four age groups. Clearly, as people get older they feel less and less criticized, picked on or bullied. More people report this who have less education: 23, 14, and 8 percent for the three education levels. (Item 27)

Younger people report feeling like picking on or bullying someone more frequently than older people--17, 6, 4, and 2 percent for the four age groups. Clearly, as people get older they feel less and less like picking on or bullying someone. More people report this who have less education: 14, 6, and 3 percent for the three education levels. Adding all three categories--weekly, daily, hourly, the number of people who report that they feel like picking on or bullying someone is: 29 percent (high school background), 18 percent (college background), and 14 percent (graduate school background). (Item 28)

About 23 percent of women and 20 percent of men feel emotionally out of control on a daily or hourly basis. Only 46 percent of women and 57 percent of men say they rarely or never feel disturbed enough to be out of control emotionally. In other words, about half of our population feels disturbed and emotionally out of control on a recurrent basis--weekly, daily, or hourly: 54 percent of women and 47 percent of men. Younger people report feeling this way more frequently than older people--59, 55, 38, and 30 percent for the four age groups. In terms of the three educational levels, the respective percentages are 26, 20, and 19 percent respectively. (Item 31)

About 38 percent of women and 47 percent of men feel angry on a regular basis (weekly, daily or hourly) because someone tries to stop them from doing what they want. Younger people report this more frequently than older people--65, 46, 28, and 31 for the four age groups. For educational level, adding all three categories--weekly, daily, hourly, the number of people who report feeling angry because someone tries to stop them from doing what they want is: 58 percent (high school background), 39 percent (college background), and 36 percent (graduate school background). Education seems to provide somewhat of an antidote for feeling the frustration of being interfered with on a regular basis. (Item 34).

10.1.1  Negative Emotions and the Vertical Community

Whether by survey data, case histories, or self-witnessing, the evidence is clear. People are immersed all day long in a multitude of negative emotions like anger and depression. Various contributing factors are suspected such as stress, childhood abuse, failed relationships, hormonal imbalance, social conflict, immaturity, and false belief systems. Theistic psychology views these factors as correlations of each other rather than causative. All negative emotions must have their origin in the vertical community (see Section xx).

There is a general relationship between civilization on earth and the people who dwell in their hells. When we descend to the hell in our mind we use negative emotions as a vehicle for our consciousness in feelings and thoughts. Human beings on earth are maintained by God in perfect balance of choice between hell and heaven (see Section xx). But once we are resuscitated in the world of spirits this balance ceases and we are inexorably immersed in either our hell or our heaven, a process which is complete at our second death (see Section xx).

Those who are permanently immersed in either their hell or their heaven are not in balance. They are no longer in the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell in our mind, where balance of choice is maintained. What does it mean to descend to our hell? We do this by using the vehicle of negative emotions, also called "evil loves," "evil affections," "lusts," and cupidities. Our conscious awareness is immersed in an evil love when we appropriate as our own the evil affections of some people who are permanently in their hells. Appropriating a negative emotion means that we think that the negative emotion we are experiencing is our own. By this identification we are opening a channel of communication or influx from that hell society.

It's very important right from the outset to distinguish between non-theistic psychology and theistic psychology when the word "spirits" is used. In non-theistic psychology the concept of spirits has no status except as part of the delusions of schizophrenics who report talking to "spirits" and other "beings." In theistic psychology it is known that no one can talk to real spirits because direct communication across the two worlds has been suspended after the Fall. Spirit possessions ceased after the Incarnation event to allow for the development of rational consciousness of God (see Section xx). Swedenborg was a unique modern case but he did not talk to spirits across the two worlds--he was actually present in both worlds (see Section xx). Spiritism, psychic powers, magic, exorcisms, etc., are all activities not recognized as legitimate or real phenomena in theistic psychology (see Section xx).

Instead, theistic psychology recognizes the vertical community by influx.

Influx does not allow for direct communication. Our emotions moment by moment are caused by spirits in the vertical community with which our mind is associated in the world of spirits. Our mind is born in the world of spirits and is immortal there. Our consciousness of earth is cut off at the death of the physical body. We are immediately resuscitated in the world of spirits and continue our immortality in either heaven or hell (see Section xx). Heaven and hell are both states in our mind. Our consciousness can be in either, but not simultaneously. Swedenborg reports that once we undergo our "second death" and enter either heaven or hell in our mind, we are unwilling to exit form that state. We just go deeper and deeper into that state forever (see Section xx).

We are therefore "spirits" tied to a physical body while living on earth. Before losing this tie we are called "earthlings" ("man" in the Writings). After resuscitation, we are called spirits. After our second death, we are called angels, if we dwell in our heavenly states of mind, or devils if we dwell in the hells of our mind (also--satans, genii, demons, dragons, sirens, etc.).

The awesome discovery in theistic psychology is that while we are earthlings our mind is unconsciously under the influence of the spirits, namely all the people who have undergone their second death in the afterlife, and have reached their final destination in the heavens or hells of their mind. We have not reached our final destination since we are still on earth, but the day will come when we too join the vertical community and we will then be spirits. Hence it is important for us to know in advance what that will be like and how we can influence that final state for ourselves. The key is to do self-witnessing of our daily emotions (see Section xx). With this self-knowledge we inform ourselves of the character of the spirits to which we are associated. It is they who influence or determine what kind of emotions we have.

Those who already dwell in the heavens or hells are thrown together in community life with others who have similar loves and doctrines. Heaven and hell appear to them as cities and societies, each with their specific character or genius, arranged and sorted according to the hierarchy of their affections and intentions (see Section xx).

All this is managed by God since it is obviously pretty complicated to sort out!

God also manages the connections in the vertical community. Moment by moment we are connected and disconnected many times an hour, changing mood guards, so to speak. Our mood fluctuates in quality depending on which of these spirit communities God connects us to second by second. As we are connected with a particular spirit society we instantly experience their chief loves. Of course we attribute these feelings to ourselves since we have no perception of the influx. Only schizophrenics can claim to be aware of influx, and I do not believe that they are actually perceiving the influx, as stated in several places.

Just as we are unaware of the spirits from whom we receive influx, they are not aware who they are connected to here on earth since no communication is allowed. But they are instantly aware of the fact they are connected to earthlings and it is from this that they derive the satisfaction of their loves, either evil and weird or heavenly and orderly. Evil spirits feel alive only when they are connected to the minds of earthlings since they shut out all influx from heaven and the Spiritual Sun where all orderly influx originates from. When we are having a negative emotion or desire or intention from them--that's when they feel utmost satisfaction and excitement of life in themselves. This is how the vertical community works. It's a fascinating aspect of theistic psychology.

The vertical community exists because the human race is always fully interconnected and networked. No person can be born without inheriting personhood from the parents, and the immortality of those who are already in their afterlife depends on their remaining connected to the network of humanity. Since the Fall, the nature of influx has changed because of our inherited evil and resistance to regeneration. Prior to the Fall the human race on earth did not have a split-brain, which reflected the fact that they were celestial human being in Divine order as created. They did not have to study and learn to know whatever they needed to survive on earth. Like animals, they lived by a kind of human instinct whose origin was the vertical community of their heaven. They were thus in full conscious communication in both worlds, as was Swedenborg in the modern era.

Eventually however, the subsequent generations of these celestial people on earth corrupted themselves by trying to use their spiritual knowledge and consciousness to pursue selfish and anti-social purposes. As a result that race died out. A few of the remnants underwent anatomical evolution leading up to the birth of the present human race which I call the "split-brain race" to indicate the evolution from a whole brain to a split brain--left and right.

The mental capacities of the new race were very different. The Writings uses the expression "spiritual race" to distinguish us from the original "celestial race." The methods needed for our regeneration were entirely different. The split brain is a physical consequence of a spiritual cause, which was that the mind's two organs--affective and cognitive--be separated so that they could work independently to some extent. The celestial race were straightforward--whatever they desired or intended, that they also thought and expressed in outward behavior. They were incapable of lying, simulating, or of hypocrisy and deception of any kind. The spiritual split-brain race on the other hand had the will (affective organ) and understanding (cognitive organ) separated so that we can easily simulate, lie, and deceive. We can put on a show of ourselves and hide our true feelings and thoughts. We can thus be split human beings--angels on the outside and devils on the inside.

The purpose of separating the affective and cognitive organs was to allow for the regeneration of the affective organ which was corrupted. Every individual of the spiritual split-brain race is born with a corrupted or disorderly affective organ from inheritance. The issue now became that of how God can give us the ability to reach the heavenly portion of our mind and dwell there in our immortality. This was not an issue for the celestial race--until the Fall, which refers to the corrupted state of the affective organ. Now God had to create or initiate a new method for the spiritual race. This new method was not fully in place until the Incarnation event, when God caused Himself to enter the natural plane of life in the form of the Divine Child who then grew up on earth (see Section xx). During this process the Incarnate Divine Human was able to create the mental pathways that the spiritual human race can use for character reformation and regeneration of the affective organ for heavenly life.

The vertical community plays a crucial role in this method of regeneration. God has made Himself to be a Divine Psychologist to every individual without exception and uses all sorts of psychological  techniques to rebuild our love hierarchies. The principal method God uses for our regeneration is putting us into specific experiences in which we are tempted to follow our inherited loves while at the same time we are aware that they violate the doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture. God had to give the spiritual human race a written form of Divine Speech called Sacred Scripture in a natural language in order to allow us to extract from it the doctrine of truth by which we can make ourselves follow the right thing instead of the evil thing. We are thus regenerated gradually over many years during which we are faced with daily temptations, battles and victories.

Our Divine Psychologist uses the vertical community to give us the experiences of temptation battles and victories. The function of temptations is to bring evil loves we have into our conscious awareness, from where we can judge them by means of our doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture. We thus use our rational consciousness to counteract and resist our sensuous consciousness from the inherited affective organ. The instant we are willing to reject an evil love or intention, God cuts the connection with the particular spirits that sustain that specific evil. Too bad for them, for now they have one less earthling to seduce and instigate. But they can continue to live their hell with other earthlings who have not yet been cut off from them.

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

TCR 613. each evil in the person has a link with those in hell who have the same evil, and on the other hand each good in the person has a link with those in heaven who possess similar good. (TCR 613)

It's amazing to note this fact: When God brings particular spirits into connection with an individual on earth, the spirits receive that individual's memories as their own! There is therefore an exchange going on. The individual has the experience of an operation in the affective organ, which is felt as one's own feeling or impulse. The spirits on the other hand experience an operation in their cognitive organ. Whatever is in the memory and thinking of the individual is experienced by the spirits as their own. In other words the spirits feel themselves to be the individual. What is amazing is that they do not at the same time have the feelings and emotions of that individual. They retain their own feelings, motives, intentions, and obsessions. The exchange of influx affects both the earthling and the spirits but in different parts of the mind. Should all influx be blocked, both earthlings and spirits would instantly cease to exist. Since human beings are all born immortal, it's clear that influx can never cease once the human race was created. It also means that the physical universe where earthlings are born will also never cease, for the spiritual world cannot exist without the natural as its ultimate basis of existence. Once we move into the afterlife we are all spirits. Therefore our immortality depends on continued influx with earthlings.

The Writings reveal that the Grand Plan of God in creating the universe is to increase endlessly the population of the afterlife. The more immortal human beings enter the afterlife the more perfect the human mind evolves, and the more happiness and intelligence exists in each individual (see Section xx). But remember this: Our mind has both a heaven and a hell and the intent of God is to increase the heavenly portion of the human mind and to maintain the hell portion as small as possible, working with earthlings before they enter the afterlife, to help them regenerate into a new affective organ that can live in their heaven. You can see the importance of self-witnessing our emotions all day long so that we have the data to map out objectively the character of our vertical community.

We want to take charge of who God brings us into connection with!

It is our job to cooperate with our Divine Psychologist who desires to connect us with only good spirits. We are stopping Him by being unwilling to resist our evil enjoyments and habits. As we hold on to evil things in our emotions and satisfactions, we are holding on to evil spirits since these are their emotions and satisfactions that we feel as our own. We are thereby forcing God to connect us to evil spirits. He has no choice, for if He refused, we would have no life left. If then He were to connect us to good spirits while we refuse to let go of the evil emotions, what would happen? Our instant annihilation in supreme agony, like scattering our parts to the whole universe. For what is evil and what is good annihilate each other when brought together.

This is why the Divine Psychologist cannot connect us to both evil and good spirits at the same time in the same portion of our conscious awareness. Instead we have the experience of oscillating between the two states. You can see why God must be in charge of how the whole process progresses since otherwise it would not go far before collapsing, meaning that the human race would cease to exist. The interconnections of networks between all human beings is so complex that only God's infinite mind can take care of it.

All the negative emotions we experience are caused by an influx from one or more hell societies that are connected to us by heredity. We know that we inherit hellish traits from our parents (see Section xx). What is the mechanism of this inheritance? It is influx from multiple hell societies. God permits this influx for two main reasons.

First, it maintains the life of those who are permanently immersed in their hells. All they have is their loves, and if you deny satisfaction to these loves, they have nothing left of life. God saves them from lapsing into a kind of death or coma, which is what happens when the mind is deprived of all its loves. Since in the hells we have only evil loves, God finds a way of allowing satisfaction to these loves so that the people in them do not lapse into death.

Second, God uses the evil loves in the hells to maintain balance of choice for people on earth. This balance is maintained by allowing influx from both the hells and the heavens into our mind, though in different portions or levels of the mind, since the two cannot be mixed. Nevertheless, as we identify with all the emotions and feelings we have, it appears to us that we are both evil and good, both hellish and heavenly, depending on the times and the conditions.

Why is it necessary for the hells to communicate their negative emotions to us on earth?

It's because the satisfaction of their loves depends on our feeling it as our own.

In other words, the people on earth form an "ultimate plane" of existence for the people in the hells and the heavens. If all the inhabited earths of the universe were to be destroyed, the people in their immortality in heaven and hell would also be destroyed. The natural and spiritual worlds are so connected that they depend on each other for existence and survival. It is not possible to have emotions on our own, but only communally with the human race as a whole (see section xx). such is the nature of human love and of humanity. To God the entire human race is perceived as one individual (see Section xx). The entire human race acts as one, or, is acted upon as one.

When we are in our heavens or our hells our immortal existence there is dependent on the people still on earth or the world of spirits. Another way of saying this is that those who are passed their second death depend for existence on those who are prior to their first death. So there always must be people on earth having emotions and thoughts, and attributing them to themselves.

What happens when people on earth attribute their positive or negative emotions to themselves?

The people in their heavens or hells, from whom these emotions in us initiate, experience a satisfaction or completion of their love. Love is nothing unless it is satisfied or completed. Loves is two stage process that starts with desire, want, or attraction, and ends with being united to the object of desire, want, or attraction. For instance, when you are thirsty you have an urge to drink, and when very thirsty, the urge is very strong. This urge comes down to us from the heavens in our mind where there are others who experience this urge. They are unable to satisfy this urge since they cannot drink physical water and they do not have physical bodies to experience the need. Unless we on earth, feeling their urge as our own, get to act by drinking, their urge cannot be satisfied. But as we drink, the urge is satisfied in them and we feel it in us.

We have a short-circuited view of this process when we attribute the urge and the satisfaction to ourselves, leaving them out of the picture. But when you complete the full picture, you can see that they depend on us to have loves satisfied, which is their only life, and their only existence.

Similarly with an emotion like anger or depression. They have the hatred and the anger and the depression and the fear and the hopelessness. They communicate it to us, and we attribute them to ourselves. This is the general source of negative emotions to us here on earth. And of course as well, the source of our positive emotions is the heavens.

Quoting from Hugo Lj. Odhner's book Spirits in Human Life which I highly recommend for your study, It is a valuable contribution to theistic psychology based exclusively on the Writings of Swedenborg. It is available online (see Reading List).

"The Lord's mediate influx, or His mediate government of a person’s mind and body, is effected through the spiritual world - through the heavens and the hells. We have already stressed the teaching that all a person’s states draw their causes from the spirits and angels who attend him or her. We are creatures of changing moods. But we are usually able, on reflection, to account for the states into which we have imperceptibly drifted, by tracing them to natural causes. To excuse our frailties or our impatience, we complain that we are tired, are unjustly treated, are bored or homesick, etc. We tend to blame our rebellious moods, our moral lapses, or our indulgence in self-pity upon deficient health or other natural circumstances.

Yet common experience tells us that the same apparent natural causes do not always produce the same moods but serve merely as an occasion favorable to their appearance. The Writings convert this vague perception into a clear doctrine which teaches that there would be no conscious life, no realized affections or distinct thought with us, except for the influx of spirits and angels; and that the real meanings which we attach to our sensations and experiences in this world are derived from the moods which spirits instill into us - moods of delight or aversion." (www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/hh/shl/sm13.htm)
Hugo Lj. Odhner

In the course of our daily round of living we experience negative and positive emotions, intentions, feelings, affections, and loves. We feel attracted to evil enjoyments as well as to good. But the preponderance of negative emotions is due to our inherited ties to the people in their hells. This is the general cause of negative emotions.

Besides their dependence on the natural mind of human beings on earth, people in their hells are also kept alive by an influx into the natural minds of animals. This is what makes some species wild and ferocious because these animal emotions are like the emotions of those who immerse their human consciousness in what is corporeal, sensuous, and animal in us. Noxious, poisonous, and destructive species likewise correspond to the beastly and cruel emotions that are so delightful to those who immerse their consciousness in those things. This total immersion is achieved by their love and longing for hellish things and their hatred and aversion for heavenly things.

In a less direct way, people in the hells are also dependent on material things that cause pain and suffering to human beings--natural disasters, deserts, barren lands, darkness, cold, harmful chemicals, diseases, freak accidents,  etc.

Everything that was discussed with the hells is also true for the heavens, but in the opposite valence. Those who spend their immortality in the heavens of their mind are dependent for their well being and survival for the correspondences of their loves in the natural world. There are many categories of "uses" which they depend on. For instance, the proper functioning of our body requires billions of individual properties and steps form the largest (like an organ) to the smallest capillaries and operations of our cell biochemistry. Every one of these physical operations must be supported by the loves of some heavenly society. Each "use" or function corresponds to a different heavenly society upon which they are most dependent on. Every heavenly society specializes in some particular love which requires a particular operation in the natural world that corresponds to that love.

You can explore the details of this relationship in the following book by John Worcester www.theisticscience.org/books/worcester/index.htm  and the following Web directory of articles on the "Human Organic":  www.humanorganic.org/HO/titles.shtml

The general causes of negative emotions discussed above are made up of a collection of particular causes that center in particular individuals. Everyone inherits particular associations with some of the societies in the hells. Individuals are distinguished form each other by the particular spiritual associations they maintain. This constancy is responsible for all our recurrent behaviors called habits. We maintain habits of emotions, habits of loves, habits of thinking, and habits of style and expressiveness. Whatever is constant in an individual is due to the constancy of the influx from particular societies. Specific causes of emotions apply to unique events. When I get mad a another driver who tailgates me I'm experiencing a situational influx from a particular society of evil spirits. Every event on earth is a unique situation in time and place.

There are therefore general, particular, and specific causes of every reaction and behavior that we have in the course of our daily living. Cultural factors are general contributors to behavior. Personality factors are particular contributors, while situational factors are specific.

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

AC 272. Man lives like a wild animal when his internal man is so separated from his external as to operate upon it only in a most general manner, for man is man from what he receives through his internal man from the Lord, and is a wild animal from what he derives from the external man, which, separated from the internal, is in itself no other than a wild animal, having a similar nature, desires, appetites, phantasies, and sensations, and also similar organic forms. That nevertheless he is able to reason, and, as it seems to himself, acutely, he has from the spiritual substance by which he receives the influx of life from the Lord, which is however perverted in such a man, and becomes the life of evil, which is death. Hence he is called a dead man. (AC 272)

AC 6411.The will and the understanding are so distinct in man that nothing could be more distinct, as has been given me also to know with certainty from the fact that things of the understanding of spirits and angels flow into the left part of the head or brain, and things of the will into the right; and it is the same with respect to the face. When angelic spirits flow in, they do so gently like the softest breaths of air; but when evil spirits flow in, it is like an inundation into the left part of the brain with dreadful phantasies and persuasions, and into the right with cupidities, their influx being as it were an inundation of phantasies and cupidities. (AC 641)

This was written in 1744 long before scientists knew about the left-brain/right-brain distinction. Swedenborg was able to observe that the left brain operations correspond to the cognitive organ of the mind ("phantasies and persuasions"), while the right brain operations to the affective organ ("cupidities"). There is a distinction also between influx from heavenly societies, which is gentle and mild, and influx from hellish societies, which is sudden and intense.

AC 657. There are three degrees of things intellectual in man; the lowest is that of knowledge [scientificum]; the middle is the rational; the highest, the intellectual. These are so distinct from each other that they should never be confounded. But man is not aware of this, for the reason that he makes life consist in what is of sense and knowledge only; and while he cleaves to this, he cannot even know that his rational part is distinct from that which is concerned with knowing [scientificum]; and still less that his intellectual part is so. And yet the truth is that the Lord flows through man's intellectual into his rational, and through his rational into the knowledge of the memory, whence comes the life of the senses of sight and of hearing. This is the true influx, and this is the true interaction of the soul with the body.

Without influx of the Lord's life into the things of the understanding in man-or rather into things of the will and through these into those of understanding-and through things of understanding into things rational, and through things rational into his knowledges which are of the memory, life would be impossible to man. And even though a man is in falsities and evils, yet there is an influx of the Lord's life through the things of the will and of the understanding; but the things that flow in are received in the rational part according to its form; and this influx gives man the ability to reason, to reflect, and to understand what truth and good are. (AC 657)

This passage talks about the fact that influx activates three distinct levels of the cognitive organ -- intellectual level (highest), rational level, and knowledge level (lowest). The influx is directly into the affective organ, and from there indirectly into the cognitive organ. If God were to influx our cognitive mind directly we would lose our sense of as-of self and freedom. This was the method used to influx the prophets of the Old Testament, and also the angels who spoke with those mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. They were conscious of a "living voice" in their mind so that they knew it was from God. But ordinary influx is not conscious hence not directly into the cognitive organ of the mind. It is this indirect influx that keeps us thinking rationally. When we are immersed in evil enjoyments and intentions we would not be able to think rationally were it not for this influx. Hence it is that people think raitonally even when they plot evil against others.

AC 660. That by the "flood" is signified an inundation of evil and falsity, is evident from what has been stated before concerning the posterity of the Most Ancient Church: that they were possessed with foul cupidities, and that they immersed the doctrinal things of faith in them, and in consequence had persuasions of falsity which extinguished all truth and good, and at the same time closed up the way for remains, so that they could not operate; and therefore it could not be otherwise than that they would destroy themselves. When the way for remains is closed, the man is no longer man, because he can no longer be protected by angels, but is totally possessed by evil spirits, whose sole study and desire it is to extinguish man. Hence came the death of the antediluvians, which is described by a flood, or total inundation. The influx of phantasies and cupidities from evil spirits is not unlike a kind of flood; and therefore it is called a "flood" or inundation in various places in the Word, as of the Lord's Divine mercy will be seen in what is premised to the following chapter. (AC 660)

It is said here that the Fall of the human mind occurred when people of the "most ancient" civilization on earth "immersed the doctrinal things of faith" into "foul cupidities." Doctrine refers to their understanding of the truths of revelation. They tried to misuse this knowledge by putting it to selfish ends called "foul cupidities." This led them to false belief systems that destroyed their understanding of what is good and true. At the same time, they lost the ability to receive influx from the heavenly societies. The resultant state of mind is called a "flood" in Sacred Scripture because this is how it subjectively feels to be "inundated" by evil emotions that bring a flood of fantasies and "persuasions" of false beliefs.

AC 905. The Lord's presence entails freedom; one follows the other. The more the Lord is present the more free a person becomes, that is, insofar as love of good and truth is in him he acts in freedom. Such is the Lord's influx by way of angels. On the other hand, the influx of hell by way of evil spirits brings with it a force and impulsion to dominate. Their whole intention is to subjugate a person to the point of making him nothing and themselves everything. When they are everything a person is one of them. Yet he is scarcely one of them but in their eyes a veritable nobody. Consequently when the Lord is freeing a person from their yoke and dominion, conflict arises. But once he has been set free, that is, been regenerated, he is led by the Lord through angels so gently that no yoke or dominion exists at all, for he is being led by what is joyful and pleasing, he is being loved, and he is being shown respect. This is what the Lord teaches in Matthew,

My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. Matt. 11:30.

It is quite the reverse with evil spirits. With them, as has been stated, a person is reckoned as nothing, and if they could they would be tormenting him from one moment to the next. This I have been given to know from considerable experience, which will in the Lord's Divine mercy be presented later on. (AC 905)

The Divine Psychologist influences our mind by bringing us into communication with those who are in the heavens of their mind. This is called heavenly influx and keeps our mind in freedom of choice between good and evil. But God also brings us into contact with influx from those who dwell in the hells of their mind. This works against our freedom and tries to subjugate and dominate us to act acceding to the delights of the evil spirits who have no regard for us. As we progress in our character reformation (or "regeneration") we are able to think the truths that are effective in opposing the emotional slavery which the influx of hell tries to impose on us.

In order that Swedenborg may understand how influx works he was exposed to direct influx from people in all sorts of hells. On one occasion he described the experience this way:

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

AC 1270. Soon after this some were let out of that hell, but the Lord so arranged it by means of spirits and angels in between that those let out could do me no harm. From that place deep down they moved to a forward position. To themselves they seemed to be pressing forward towards the front, so to speak through caverns in the rock, and in this way up to the top. They at length appeared up on the left so that from there, and so at a distance, they might flow into me. I was told that they were being allowed to flow into the right part of my head but not into the left, and then from the right part of the head into the left part of the chest. They were altogether prevented from flowing into the left part of my head, for if that were to happen I would be destroyed since they would in that case be flowing in with their own persuasions that are dreadful and deadly. But when they were flowing into the right part of the head and from there into the left part of the breast, they were doing so by means of evil desires. This is how it is with influx.

[2] Their persuasions are such as to destroy everything true and good. As a consequence those into whom they flow are unable to perceive anything, or after that even to think. This also was why the spirits were being removed. When they started to flow in I fell asleep. Then while I slept they flowed in by means of evil desires, so powerfully in fact that had I been awake I could not have withstood them. In my sleep I felt a pressure upon me which I cannot describe, only that I subsequently remembered that they had attempted to kill me by a stifling exhalation, which was like a terrible nightmare. At that point I woke up and noticed that they were near me. But when they realized that I was awake they fled to their own position higher up and flowed in from there.

[3] While they were there it seemed to me as though they were being rolled up in a cloth, as in the incident described in 964. I thought that it was those evil spirits who were being rolled up in it, but in fact it was they who were doing it to others. This is achieved by means of delusions, yet the spirits against whom they act in this way by delusions are not aware of anything other than of being actually rolled up. It seemed that those whom they were rolling up in this way rolled down the slope of some rock, but those who had been so rolled up were released and set free. They were spirits who did not wish to leave and so were preserved by the Lord or else they would have been suffocated. Although they would have revived they would have done so after much suffering. At that point those who had been allowed out from the hell below went back by way of the slope on the rock. From that place came a drilling sound as though many large drills were at work, and I perceived that the sound was the product of extremely painful delusions against the Lord's existence. Subsequently they were sent down through the gloomy caverns beneath the rock enveloped in mist into their own hell. While they were in the world of spirits the whole constitution of the sphere there was altered. (AC 1270)

The persuasive thoughts of some evil spirits are so powerful that it takes away the ability to think from those into whom they are allowed to inflow. Obviously it is extremely dangerous to expose ourselves to false belief systems that justify doing evil. The spirits involved in the episode described above are kept segregated so that they cannot influence people except from a distance, meaning, only mildly. The Divine Psychologist maintains absolute control over which spiritual societies are allowed to influence which person when and how much. By this control God keeps the person in spiritual freedom at all times from birth to eternity.

AC 1917. In temptations there are vastations and desolations, and there are states of despair, and of consequent grief and indignation, besides other interior painful emotions; and this with variety and alternation, according to the states of evil and falsity which are excited by evil genii and spirits, and against which the combat is being waged. The diabolical spirits desire nothing more than to find some falsity, in fact it is common with them to induce a falsity from themselves, and then at the same time to make it the subject of accusation. (AC 1917).

"Vastations and desolations" refer to extreme states of depression or anxiety during which we are tempted to believe that we are hopeless and cannot improve, or that our situation is hopeless. We doubt or ignore our doctrine or knowledge of truth from Sacred Scripture. People who dwell in the hells of their mind specialize in various types of evils. "Evil genii" specialize in exciting in us false beliefs and persuasions.

AC 741. Temptations are nothing other than conflicts between evil spirits and angels who reside with a person. Evil spirits activate all the dishonourable things the person has done or even thought which have been with him since early childhood, thus both evils and falsities; and in so doing, the spirits condemn him, for nothing gives them greater delight. Indeed the very delight of their lives consists in doing just that. But the Lord protects the person by means of angels and prevents the evil spirits and genii from overstepping the mark and overwhelming him with more than he can cope with. (AC 741)

It is said here that evil spirits delight in exciting in us memories of things we've done we are ashamed of or feel guilty about. You can see that if they were allowed to keep us in these thoughts, we would get hopelessly depressed--which is what they enjoy since they are hateful of everyone. But they are not allowed to exert the influence they desire. The Divine Psychologist keeps the person in the balance of choice by approaching the counteracting influences of good spirits or angels.

10.1.1.1  The Sting and Torment of Conscience

There are evil spirits who at that time [during temptation] activate a person's falsities and evils, as has been stated. Indeed they draw out of his memory whatever he has thought and carried out since early childhood. Evil spirits can do this so cleverly and wickedly as to defy description. But the angels who are with him draw out his goods and truths, and in this way defend him. This conflict is what the person feels and perceives in himself and is what causes the sting and torment of conscience.

[2] There are two kinds of temptation, the first involving things of the understanding, the second those of the will. When a person's temptation involves those of the understanding, evil spirits activate only the evil deeds he has carried out, which are meant here by 'unclean beasts'. And with these they accuse and condemn. They even activate his good deeds as well, which are also meant here by the 'clean beasts'; but these they corrupt in a thousand ways. At the same time they also activate his thoughts, which are also meant here by 'bird', and in addition they activate the things meant here by 'things creeping over the ground'. This kind of temptation however is mild and is perceived only through the recollection of such experiences, and a kind of mental anguish resulting from this.

[3] When however someone's temptation involves things of the will, it is not so much his deeds and thoughts that are activated. Instead there are evil genii, as evil spirits of this type may be called, who inflame him with the evil desires and the foul loves in which he is steeped, and in this way direct their attack through the person's very desires. They do this so wickedly and secretly that one cannot possibly believe it is they who are doing it. In fact they worm their way in no time at all into the life of his desires, and almost instantaneously twist and convert the affection for good and truth into the affection for evil and falsity. They act in such a way that the individual inevitably thinks that these things come from himself and flow forth of his own free will. This kind of temptation is very severe, and is felt as inward pain and burning torment. This subject is dealt with later on. I have been allowed from much experience to know and realize that this is true, and to know also when evil spirits or genii were flowing in and overwhelming, and from where, who they were and how they did it. In the Lord's Divine mercy these experiences will be described in detail later on. (AC 751)

The Divine Psychologist uses two basic types of temptations as a means to bring our conscious awareness to some evils we should get rid of in order to progress in our character reformation. One type of temptation involves our belief systems, hence the cognitive organ. The other type of temptation involves our will and intentions, hence the affective organ. Both our cognitive and our affective organs must be regenerated or rebuilt since they are associated to the hells by inheritance.

Evil spirits are allowed to activate our thoughts about things we did in the past, and thereby arouse anxiety, guilt, shame, depression, self-doubt, worthlessness. But these emotions are relatively mild forms of temptation since they have to do with things we did in the past. But evil genii are allowed to excite  and "inflame" our current desires and longings for evil enjoyments. These are severe temptations because they involve the present, not the past. It is stated here that we are not conscious of the fact that these evil desires are excited by the spirits, even if we know of their existence from theistic psychology. Because it appears to us that these evil desires are from ourselves, we are filled with severe anxieties knowing that these loves are evil and contrary to our doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture. We feel "inward pain and burning torment." However, Swedenborg was allowed to be conscious of them so that he could observe and describe their operation.

It has been stated already that spiritual temptation when it takes place in someone is a conflict between the evil spirits and the angels residing with that person, and that he ordinarily feels that conflict in his conscience. As regards such conflict it should be recognized in addition that the angels are protecting man constantly and are warding off the evils that evil spirits direct against him. They protect even the falsities and the evils with a person, for they are fully aware of where the person's falsities and evils come from - from evil spirits and genii.

Man in no sense produces any falsity and evil from himself. Instead it is the evil spirits residing with him who produce them, and as they do so they also convince him that these originate in himself. Such is the nature of their wickedness. And what is more, the moment they instill this into him and convince him, they also accuse and condemn him. This I can confirm from a multitude of experiences.

Anyone who has no faith in the Lord is incapable of being enlightened in the matter; he inevitably believes that an evil is from himself. Consequently he makes the evil his own and becomes like those evil spirits residing with him. Such is the situation with man. And as the angels are aware of it they protect even a person's falsities and evils while he is undergoing the temptations that are part of regeneration. Otherwise he would go under, for with man there is nothing but evil and derivative falsity, so that he is just a heap and conglomeration of evils and derivative falsities. (AC 761)

The above passage once more confirms that the ties we inherit to evil spirits in hell cannot be resisted ("we would go under"), because we believe that these evils are from ourselves which "makes the evil our own." Every evil enjoyment or tendency we have is associated with multiple falsities we believe. The false ideas we believe is due to the evil loves we have. All the evil emotions and feelings we experience while on earth, are never ours, but always belong to the evil spirits in hell. It becomes our own when we join those hells after our resuscitation. We then become evil spirits and genii trying to infest others on earth because this is then our delight and our life. Hence we don't want to end up there!

The passage also informs us that we cannot be regenerated without temptations and that we are not brought into temptations unless we possess doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture. Obviously, when we reject Sacred Scripture or deny God's existence, we cannot be regenerated and our character remains such as it is from inheritance. Without doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture we do not possess the wherewithal to oppose and resist evil desires and intentions.

This raises an important issue that has been frequently debated. Can we be moral people when we are still atheists and materialists? The answer is yes because everyone can act from moral principles regardless of religion, philosophy, or culture. Further, many who are religious commit immoral acts, as is well known. What then makes a difference? How do we interpret the assertion that "Without doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture we do not possess the wherewithal to oppose and resist evil desires and intentions"?

The answer is that all overt behavior can originate from either hellish or heavenly motives.

We can cling to a hellish character while we are being very active and prominent in a religious group, maintaining a good reputation for being just, honest, and charitable. Or, we can cling to a heavenly character while we are still tied to immoral behaviors we have not yet given up. Over behavior is indicative of the presence of a motivation to appear moral and tolerant. Note well that the motive is "to appear tolerant," and not necessarily to actually to be tolerant in the privacy of our mind.

The assertion above that "Without doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture we do not possess the wherewithal to oppose and resist evil desires and intentions" therefore applies not to overt moral behavior but to morality in the privacy of the mind. This inner morality is impossible when we are in a state of mind in which we do not have doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture. Consequently, their inner character cannot be reformed, rebuilt, and regenerated. When they get to the afterlife, they can no longer continue in the motive to appear moral and decent. They feel an irresistible urge to express their loves, so that they abandon the former appearances and now appear who they really were all along--lacking morality and restraint in the relentless pursuit of compulsive desires, harmful intentions,  and evil enjoyments. They are thus drawn into their hells where they meet others like themselves with whom they are compelled to live.

Men in the other life are not such as they are during the life of the body, for they cannot then dissemble, they cannot say one thing and do another, and by the good conduct of their intellectual mind they cannot feign what is good when they are evil. Their nature then remains such as is the quality of the will. The intellectual things which have not been inscribed upon their nature pass away, so that no one can pretend to be other than he is in his will, and he acts accordingly. There are also deceitful spirits who can put on the outward appearance of angels, but these are the worst spirits; and it is still made manifest that cunning is implanted in their nature. Few such spirits were admitted to me, for they have been removed from the company of others lest these others should be defiled, and this for many reasons. 1747, Aug. 31, o.s. (SE 191)

10.1.1.1.1      How We are Regenerated

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

TCR 610. I will add to what I have already said the following point. A person's regeneration does not occur in an instant, but successively from the beginning to the end of his life in the world, and after this it continues and reaches higher perfection. It is because a person is reformed by struggles and victories over the evils of his flesh that the Son of Man says to each of the seven churches, that He will grant gifts to him who overcomes. Thus

To the church at Ephesus:
To him who overcomes I will grant to eat of the tree of life. Rev. 2:7.
To the church of the people of Smyrna:
He who overcomes will not suffer harm in the second death. Rev. 2:11.
To the church in Pergamum:
To him who overcomes I will grant to eat of the hidden manna. Rev. 2:17.
To the church in Thyatira:
To him who overcomes I will grant power over the nations. Rev. 2:26.
To the church in Sardis:
He who overcomes will be clothed in white raiment. Rev. 3:5.
To the church in Philadelphia:
Him who overcomes I will make a column in God's temple. Rev. 3:12.
To the church of the people of Laodicea:
To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne. Rev. 3:21.

One final point: to the extent that a person is regenerated, that is, in so far as his regeneration advances towards perfection, to that extent he ceases to attribute to himself any good or truth, that is, any charity and faith, but attributes these to the Lord. For the truths that he absorbs one after the other plainly teach that lesson. (TCR 610)

TCR 611. In so far as a person is regenerated, so far are his sins removed; this removal is the forgiveness of sins.

The reason why so far as a person is regenerated, so far are his sins removed, is that regeneration consists in controlling the flesh so that it does not take control, in taming the former man and his lusts so that he cannot rise again and destroy the faculty of understanding; for if this is destroyed, there is no further possibility of the person being reformed. This reformation cannot occur, unless the person's spirit, which is above the flesh, is instructed and advanced towards perfection. No one, whose understanding is still unimpaired, can fail to conclude from this that such events cannot take place in an instant, but do so one after another, just as a person is conceived, carried in the womb, born and brought up, in the sequence demonstrated above. The properties belonging to the flesh or the former man are inherent from birth. They build the first home for his mind, the dwelling-place of lusts, which are like wild beasts in their cages. They live at first in the forecourts, and little by little creep into the rooms of that house below ground level, and afterwards climb the stairs and make rooms for themselves. This happens by stages as the child grows, becomes a boy and then a youth; then he begins to use his own understanding to think and his own will to act.

[2] Anyone can see that a house built thus far in the mind, where lusts like ochim, ghoim* and satyrs hold hands to dance, cannot be destroyed in a moment, and a new house built in its place. Of course the lusts holding hands and so disporting themselves must first be banished, and new desires for good and truth be brought in to replace the lusts for evil and falsity. Any wise person can see that such things cannot take place in an instant from the single consideration, that every evil is the product of countless lusts, resembling a fruit that below the surface is full of maggots with black heads and white bodies. Evils too, he will realise, are numerous and closely linked, like the offspring of a spider just hatched from its belly. So unless one evil after another is brought out, and the process continues until the link is broken, a person cannot become new. These considerations have been presented in order to make it known that in so far as anyone is regenerated, so far are his sins removed. (TCR 611)

TCR 612.  From birth everyone has a propensity to evils of every kind, and this makes him long for them and do them so far as he is free to do so. For from birth he longs to control others and possess other people's property, the two things which shatter love toward the neighbour. Then he hates anyone who opposes him, and his hatred breathes revenge, a feeling inwardly nursing thoughts of murder. This too is why he makes light of adultery and cheating, which is secret theft, as well as of blasphemy, which includes false witness. Anyone who pays no heed to all these is an atheist at heart.

That is what a person is like from birth, and it is plain from this that he is a hell on the smallest scale. Now since a person is born, as far as the interiors of his mind are concerned, to be spiritual, as animals are not, and since he is consequently born to go to heaven, yet his natural or external man is, as I have just said, a hell on the smallest scale, it follows that heaven cannot be planted in hell, but this must be removed. (TCR 612)

TCR 613. If anyone knows the relationship of heaven and hell, and how one is removed from the other, he can tell how a person is regenerated, as well as what a regenerated person is like. To make this intelligible I must first make the brief revelation that all in heaven turn their faces towards the Lord and look at Him, while all in hell turn their faces away from the Lord. So if one looks down from heaven into hell, one sees nothing but the backs of heads and people's backs. Indeed they even appear upside down like the people of the Antipodes, who have their feet up and their heads down, despite the fact that they walk upon their feet and can screw their faces round. It is the reverse direction in which the interiors of their minds face that produces this appearance. I can report these surprising facts from my own observation.

[2] By this means it was revealed to me how regeneration takes place, exactly as hell is removed and is thus separated from heaven. For, as I said before, a person as regards his first nature, which he has from birth, is a hell on the smallest scale, and as regards his second nature, which he gets from being born again, is a heaven on the smallest scale. It follows from this that the evils in a person are removed and separated just as hell and heaven are on the large scale. As evils are removed they turn away from the Lord, and by stages turn upside down. This happens to the extent that heaven is planted in the person, so that he becomes a new man. For the sake of illustration I shall add that each evil in the person has a link with those in hell who have the same evil, and on the other hand each good in the person has a link with those in heaven who possess similar good. (TCR 613)

TCR 614. What has been said can serve to establish that the forgiveness of sins is not their rooting out or wiping away, but their removal and so separation. All the evil remains that a person has by his deeds made his own. Since the forgiveness of sins is their removal and separation, it follows that a person is held back from evil and kept in good by the Lord. This is the gift he receives by regeneration.

I once heard someone in the lowest heaven say that he was free from sins because they had been wiped away, 'by the blood of Christ' he added. But since he was inside heaven, and made this mistake through ignorance, he was plunged into his own sins, and as they recurred to him, he acknowledged them. This led him to accept a new belief, that everyone, man as well as angel, is held back from evils and kept in good by the Lord.

[2] This makes it plain what the forgiveness of sins is, not an instantaneous event, but the consequence of regeneration, advancing in step with it. The removal of sins, what is called their being forgiven, can be compared with the casting out of filth from the Children of Israel's camp in the desert, which lay all around them; for their camp represented heaven, the desert hell. It can also be compared with the removal of the nations in the land of Canaan by the Children of Israel, and the removal of the Jebusites from Jerusalem; they were not cast out, but separated. It can also be compared with the fate of Dagon, the god of the Philistines; when the Ark was brought in, it first of all lay face down on the ground, and afterwards lay on the threshold with its head and the palms of its hands cut off; so it was not cast out, but removed.

[3] It can be compared with the demons the Lord sent into the swine, which afterwards drowned themselves in the sea; here and elsewhere in the Word the sea stands for hell. It can also be compared with the dragon's crowd, which when separated from heaven first invaded the earth, and afterwards was cast down into hell. Another comparison can be made with a wood full of wild beasts of many kinds; if it is cut down, the beasts take refuge in the surrounding thickets, and then when the ground has been levelled, the area contained within it is cultivated to make agricultural land. (TCR 614)

TCR 615. Regeneration is impossible without free will in spiritual matters.

Anyone who is not stupid can see that without free will in spiritual matters no one can be regenerated. Without that he could not approach the Lord and acknowledge Him as Redeemer and Saviour, and as the God of heaven and earth, as He Himself teaches (Matt. 28:18). Can anyone without that free will believe, that is, look to and worship Him from faith, devoting himself to receiving from Him the means to and benefits of salvation, and co-operating in receiving them from Him? Can anyone without free will do any good to his neighbour and show charity, not to mention absorbing into thought and will many other features of faith and charity, and drawing upon them to put them into effect? Otherwise regeneration would be nothing but a meaningless expression which dropped from the Lord's lips (John chapter 3), something which penetrates no further than the ear, or if it falls from the lips as the result of the thought which is closest to speech, is merely an articulate sound composed of eleven letters*. This sound has no meaning by which it can be raised to any higher level in the mind, but it falls upon empty air and is lost.

* The Latin word regeneratio, 'being born again' or 'regeneration' has eleven letters. (TCR 615)

TCR 616. Tell me, if you can, whether there can ever be such blind stupidity about regeneration as that displayed by those convinced of present-day faith. This is a belief that faith is poured into a person while he is like a block of wood or a stone, and that infusion is followed by justification, which is the forgiveness of sins, regeneration and many other gifts; and that any activity on the person's part is to be utterly ruled out in order to avoid doing any damage to Christ's merit. To establish this dogma even more securely, they have snatched away from people any free will in spiritual matters, making them totally powerless in this respect; as if God would then act alone on His part, and no power would be given to the person to co-operate on his part, and so to link himself with God. If that were so, what would a person be as regards regeneration but tied hand and foot like the slaves chained in galleys?* If he got free from his manacles and leg-irons, he would, like the slaves, be punished and condemned to death - that is, if he used his free will to do good to his neighbour, and believed in God of his own accord so as to be saved.

[2] If a person were to convince himself of such beliefs, although he piously hoped to go to heaven, he would be nothing but a ghost, standing waiting to see whether that faith with the benefits it conveys had been poured into him, or if not, whether it was being poured in; and likewise whether God the Father had shown mercy, or whether His Son had interceded, or whether the Holy Spirit was too busy elsewhere to act on him. In the end he would in his total ignorance about this go away and console himself with this reflexion: 'Perhaps that grace may be present in the moral behaviour I adopt in life and in which I continue as formerly, so that in me it is holy, but in those who have not acquired that faith, unholy. So to ensure that holiness remains in my moral behaviour, I shall take care in future not to exercise faith or charity of my own accord' - and more of the same sort. Such a ghost, or if you prefer such a pillar of salt, is what everyone becomes who thinks about regeneration unaccompanied by free will in spiritual matters. (TCR 616)

TCR 617. A person who believes that regeneration is possible without any free will in spiritual matters, and so without any co-operation, becomes as regards all the church's truths as cold as a rock; and if he is hot, he is like a blazing log on a fire, which burns because of the combustible material it contains, because of his lusts. To employ a comparison, he becomes like a palace sinking into the ground up to its roof and being flooded with muddy water; after this he lives on the bare roof, and there builds himself a shelter of reeds from the marshes. Finally the roof too sinks below the surface and he is drowned.

[2] He is also like a ship laden with precious goods of every kind taken from the treasury of the Word. But these are gnawed by mice and grubs, or thrown overboard by the sailors, so that the merchants are cheated out of their wares. Those who are learned or rich in the mysteries of that faith are like salesmen in shops selling statues of idols, fruit and flowers made of wax, sea-shells, vipers in bottles and such like. Those who, because of the lack of any spiritual power applied and given by the Lord, are unwilling to look up, are in fact like animals which keep their heads down to look, as they seek their food in the woods. If they come into gardens, they are like caterpillars which eat the leaves of trees: and if they catch sight of fruits, and more so if they handle them, they fill them with maggots. Finally they become like scaly snakes, for their fallacies rustle and glitter like the scales of snakes. And so one might continue with comparisons.

TCR 618. Regeneration is impossible without truths through which faith may be formed, and with which charity may link itself.

There are three means by which a person is regenerated: the Lord, faith and charity. These three would lie as deeply hidden as the choicest gems buried underground, if they were not exposed by Divine truths from the Word. In fact they would be hidden from the sight of those who deny man's co-operation, even if they read the Word a hundred or a thousand times; yet there they stand out in bright light.

As regards the Lord, can anyone who has convinced himself of present-day faith open his eyes to see the following doctrines in it: that the Lord and the Father are one, and that He is the God of heaven and earth, and that it is the Father's will that people should believe in Him, as well as countless similar statements in both Testaments? The reason is that they are not in possession of truths, and so not in light which could make things of this sort plain to see. Even if they were given light, still their falsities would snuff it out, and then the truths would be passed over like phrases deleted, or like subterranean passages which people walk over and cross. These remarks have been made to make it known that without truths this first step towards regeneration could not be seen.

[2] As regards faith, neither is that possible without truths, for faith and truth make a single entity. Good is like the soul of faith, and truths make up its body. So to talk of believing or having faith without knowing any of its truths is like pulling the soul out of the body and carrying on a conversation with that invisible object. Moreover, all the truths which make up the body of faith emit light, illuminating it and making its face visible. It is much the same with charity. This emits heat, with which the light of truth combines, just as in the world heat is combined with light in springtime, and this combination makes animals and plants on earth resume reproduction. It is much the same with spiritual heat and light. These likewise combine in a person, when he is in possession of the truths of faith and at the same time the kinds of good which make up charity. For, as I said before in the chapter on faith, there flows from each truth an illuminating light, and from each kind of good a heat which sets on fire. Spiritual light is in its essence intelligence, and spiritual heat is in its essence love. It is the Lord alone who combines these two when He regenerates a person. For the Lord said:

The words which I speak are spirit and life. John 6:63.

Believe in the light, so that you may be sons of light. I have come a light to the world. John 12:36, 46.

In the spiritual world the Lord is the sun, the source of all spiritual light and heat. That is the light which illuminates, the heat that sets on fire; and a person is quickened and regenerated by them both being combined.

TCR 619. These facts can establish that there is no knowing the Lord without truths; and without truths there is no faith and so no charity. It follows that without truths there cannot be any theology, and in its absence there cannot be any church either. Such at the present time is the case with the mass of peoples who call themselves Christians, claiming to be in the light of the Gospel, when in fact they are in utter darkness. For the truths lie as deeply hidden under falsities as gold, silver and precious stones buried among the bones in the valley of Hinnom.* This was made plain to me from the spheres in the spiritual world which flow and radiate from the Christians of the present day.

[2] One of these spheres concerns the Lord. It spreads its influence from the southern quarter, where the learned among the clergy and educated laymen live. Wherever it reaches, it sneaks into people's ideas, and in many cases carries away their belief in the divinity of the Lord's Human; in many other cases it weakens it, and in many others turns it to foolishness, The reason is that it introduces at the same time a belief in three Gods, and this produces confusion.

[3] A second sphere which carries away** faith is like a dark cloud in wintertime, which darkens the day, turns rain into snow, lays bare the trees, freezes waters and deprives sheep of all pasture. This sphere combined with the previous one injects a sort of lethargy concerning one God, regeneration and the means of salvation.

[4] A third sphere concerns the linking of faith and charity. It is so strong as to be irresistible. But at the present time it is appalling, and like a plague it infects anyone who catches a breath of it, tearing apart every bond between the two means of salvation established from the creation of the world and made whole by the Lord. This sphere also attacks people in the natural world and quenches the torches*** which celebrate the marriage between truth and good. I have felt this sphere, and then when I thought about the linking of faith and charity, it intervened between them and attempted violently to separate them.

[5] The angels complain about these spheres, and pray the Lord to have them dispersed. But they received the reply that they cannot be dispersed, so long as the dragon is upon the earth, since they proceed from the followers of the dragon. For it is said of the dragon that it was cast out into the earth, and then

For this reason rejoice, heavens, and woe to those that live on the earth. Rev. 12:12.

[6] These three spheres are like atmospheres driven by a gale and coming from the air-holes of dragons; and because they are spiritual, they attack people's minds and compel them. The spheres concerned with spiritual truths are up to now few there, at any rate in the new heaven and with those below heaven who are separated from the followers of the dragon. This is the reason why those truths are at the present time so hard to see among people in the world, just as ships sailing the eastern ocean are to the ship-masters and navigators sailing the western ocean. (TCR 619)

TCR 620. Some comparisons may be made to illustrate the fact that regeneration is impossible without the truths by means of which faith is formed. This can no more exist than a human mind without an understanding, since the understanding is formed by means of truths and so can teach us what should be believed and done, what regeneration is and how it is effected. Regeneration without truths is no more possible than it is for animals to have life or trees to grow without sunlight. For if the sun did not give light at the same time as it gives heat, it would become like a sack made of hair, as described in Revelation (6:12), and it would be darkened (Joel 2:10, 31). Thus there would be total darkness on earth (Joel 3:15). The same would happen to a person if he were without truths that emit light. The sun from which the light of each truth radiates is the Lord in the spiritual world. If spiritual light from this source did not flow into human minds, the church would be in total darkness or in the shadow of a permanent eclipse.

[2] Regeneration, which must take place through faith and charity, without truths to teach and guide would be like sailing on a broad ocean without a tiller, or without a ship's compass and charts. It would also be like riding a horse in a dark wood by night. The internal vision of the minds of those who possess not truths but falsities, which they believe to be true, can be compared with the sight of people whose optic nerves are blocked; the eye appears to be intact and seeing, while in fact it sees nothing. This is the form of blindness physicians call amaurosis or gutta Serena. Their rational or intellectual faculty is blocked above and only open downwards. As a result the light of reason becomes like the light of the eye, so that all judgments are mere imagination and strung together out of pure fallacies. Then people would stand around like astrologers with long telescopes, standing in public squares issuing empty prophecies. This is what would happen to all students of theology, if the Lord did not open to them genuine truths from the Word. (TCR 620)

10.1.1.2  The Vertical Community: Laws of Social Interaction Among Spirits

SE 192. Evil spirits continually desire to excite enmities amongst themselves, and when it is permitted, simply by phantasy they represent their companions under various shapes of animals, as serpents of various kinds; nor can their companions, who are thus represented, liberate themselves from that phantasy before such permission is withdrawn. Thus they are turned into various kinds of animals, simply by representation, which is also the reason why in stories of olden times it was fabled of the devil and others that they were transformed into so many forms of animals, and why in the Word of God Messiah also they are thus represented, as by serpents, dragons, wolves, etc. This is done according to the cupidities and states of cupidities in which they are. (SE 192)

Swedenborg wrote the above in his "spiritual diary" in 1747. He was just beginning his 27 years of dual consciousness and did not yet elaborate the scientific implications of what he was able to observe. He was very involved in the new experiences, not unlike a biologist who was visiting a tropical island rich in unknown and uncatalogued species. In the diary entry above (of which I quote only one paragraph), Swedenborg discovers the origin of old fables in which animals are actually transformed devils, vampires, demons, etc. Those who spend their immortality in the hell of their mind find themselves thrown together in the company of other people who dwell in their hells, and the associations are selective in accordance with the particular evil loves in which they have immersed their consciousness.

Swedenborg was allowed to appear as well in these communal hells so that he could make his observations of that dreadful portion of the human mind.

Note this very important consequence of Swedenborg's discovery. That we are not alone in our mind!

Our consciousness can dwell at three distinct general levels -- our heaven, our world of spirits, our hell. While we are alive on earth our consciousness is restricted to the world of spirits. Nevertheless, we can experience vicariously what it's like to raise our consciousness to heaven, or lower it to hell.

Swedenborg's discovery is that the mind of the entire human race overlaps. He called this overlap--the spiritual world. If every human mind did not overlap with all the others, there would be no way of being together in the afterlife. No social life. No community. Just dreadful loneliness, alone in the universe. The afterlife is an expanse called rational ether--like the places in our dreams are mental, not physical. There is no place to go to or to move around in our mind. There is no motion, no space, no matter. Everything in it is instantly created and suddenly gone from existence. The mind in the afterlife has come into its own. It can create anything, just like we can in our imagination--but in the afterlife, or the spiritual world, what we can create is real. It can be seen and used by others.

There is a communal life in the mind, though we only become aware of it perceptually when we start our life as "spirits" after resuscitation (see Section xx).

It's obviously important for us to know and understand the laws of interaction that govern this very active afterlife state of mind. We become conscious of other spirits who look like ordinary people like those we knew back on earth. Furthermore, not only do they have a body, but so do we. And we discover the wonderful properties of our spirit-body which is far more sensitive to the sensory experience than what we knew in the physical body.

We discover that others appear and disappear according to our desires, emotions, and thought processes. The same with cities, houses, palaces, animals, caves, lakes, paintings, clothes, food, jewels, carriages that move on their own, etc. etc. These are all instantaneously created by your desires and thoughts. But they are actually real. You can touch them, eat them, wear them, and so can others who are around.

Obviously, it makes a total difference whether we are surrounded by heaven or by hell. Swedenborg describes both in detail in his book titled Heaven and Hell (1758), as well in his major earlier work called Arcana Coelestia (=Heavenly Secrets in Latin). The passage above describes how evil spirits interact in the hells of their mind where they meet and are thrown together according to their obsessions and persuasions. One of the many dreadful ways they interact is described in this passage, namely that certain spirits are able to turn other spirits into animals by means of the power of correspondences which governs all causes in the universe.

They do this by fantasizing certain things which inflows into the other spirits and in them becomes the representation of this or that animal. In other words, the victims act as if they've been hypnotized into believing that they were a particular animal. The power of their own delusion is such that it actually turns them into an animal. Others can see the animal and they themselves believe they've become that animal. In this way the dominant spirits can enslave submissive spirits.

This may sound unfair. How can God allow this, and cooperate with it, supplying the power to the bully spirits to torment the victim spirits?

The answer is that Go