Theistic Psychology: 
The Scientific Knowledge of God
Extracted from the Correspondential Sense
of Sacred Scripture

12.0  In the positive bias mode of thinking, heaven and hell are real serious words! There is no longer any doubt whatsoever that heaven and hell are real. Until Swedenborg's unique intromission into dual consciousness, what evidence did we have that heaven and hell exist? I for one, being both a scientist and seeker of truth, have been able for several decades of my adult life to take up a position that says, "There is no heaven and hell." Today I know of the Swedenborg reports (1688-1772)  that prove the reality of heaven and hell as something he was able to visit daily for 27 years. In every generation since then, his notes and explanations were published and translated in several languages by those who were able to appreciate them. I found them in our university library one blessed lucky day in 1981. They were in the form of 30 volumes in English (Roche Edition), donated to the library by a benefactor who could appreciate them and had the love to want to share them.

 12.0.1  The Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772)

I've been reading them daily for the past 23 years. Anyone today can have free online access to Swedenborg's Writings (see here: www.theheavenlydoctrines.org ). It only takes secondary school textbook literacy to be able to understand all of it. In fact, as you read with the positive bias, you get more intelligent, more rational, chapter after chapter and volume after volume. Swedenborg didn't just include his daily journal entries in amazing detail, describing the people he interviewed and observed, the experiments he was able to run, and the descriptions of the landscapes and cities he visited there. He also adds a rational explanation of what he saw, heard, and found out in the spiritual world. He was a well known scientist, respected for his engineering inventions and elegant solutions to several well known scientific puzzles. He was a government mining engineer with high administrative responsibilities. He was an active member of the legislative body in Sweden and he traveled throughout Europe visiting with scientists and their laboratories, searching for new scientific knowledge and practical applications.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to everyone, he was having these amazing experiences in the spiritual world. In the evenings and whenever he could take time off from the job, he was writing furiously, anxious to record everything accurately and to make sense of it, and finally, to publish it, which he did at his own expense despite his moderate income level, then giving the books away free. There was no hope or intent to make money but to discharge his Divinely appointed duty to write and publish the books of the Writings as new Divine scientific revelations bestowed upon humanity at this time for reasons to be discussed.

The books came out, one after another, from 1744 to 1771, and I have learned from some biographers of Swedenborg, that the books caused quite a bit of stir in the intelligentsia in Sweden and in other parts of Europe. The books of the Writings were at first published anonymously and I read that there was curious talk about who this man was who was writing these amazing travelogues in heaven and hell and who at the same time, writes with such authority and genius about the Bible. Later Swedenborg acknowledged that it was him and after that, he put his name on all his subsequent publications of the books of the Writings.

I also read that Swedenborg became quite a celebrity in Sweden and elsewhere and people wanted to know what all the hoopla was about and whether this man was sincere and could be trusted. People also wanted him to give demonstrations of his ability to see into the spiritual world. On one occasion a woman came to him and complained that her husband had recently passed away and his creditors were after her now to pay certain bills that her husband had told her he had already paid. She begged Swedenborg to talk to her husband in the spiritual world and ask him where he had put the receipt. Swedenborg agreed and reported to the woman that the receipt is inside a certain table with a hidden compartment. She checked it and it was there.

At another time Swedenborg was eating dinner with Royal guests at a city 500 miles from Stockholm. He suddenly got up very agitated and blurted out that there was a major fire going on in Stockholm and it had reached near his house where he had kept his precious notes. After a few minutes he was able to calm down and announced with relief that the fire had been extinguished prior to reaching his house. A few days later, a courier came from Stockholm confirming that there had been a fire and that Swedenborg's house was saved.

When Swedenborg was a little child he was able to speak with angels and he received from them a deep interest about God and the salvation of the human race. His parents were greatly impressed and puzzled by this young child's genius and compassion. Swedenborg developed a lifelong deep love and respect for the Holy Bible which he studied all his life, even more so, when at age 57 he suddenly developed the ability to be conscious in his spiritual mind and see the spiritual world and walk around in it and talk to the people there. For the next 27 years Swedenborg lived in both worlds at the same time.

For the first time in the history of the human race, a respected scientist was given the opportunity to enter the spiritual world while he was still a scientist on earth. This was the greatest miracle or new Divine event in the history of the race. Swedenborg was thus able to divide his attention between what his natural mind was doing--taking care of business here below, and what his spiritual mind was doing--exploring the spiritual world. His daily written notes in nearly 30 volumes constitute history's greatest literary and scientific achievement. The "Writings of Swedenborg," as everyone has been calling them, begin a new age for science because they introduce previously unavailable observational and experimental data about the spiritual world and how it influences, even determines, the events and phenomena in the natural world.

12.0.2  The Fundamental Formula of the New Scientific Revelation

The most amazing fact I learned that helps me understand the whole thing is this:

spiritual world = mental world = immortality = eternity in heaven or hell

This fundamental equation summarizes what theistic psychology is based on and why it is a science. Another way of expressing this relationship is to say that the geography of the spiritual world = the anatomy of the human mind. Both are made of rational ether, which is the expanse created by the Sun of the spiritual world. The mental world is an expanse of rational ether and it is the same expanse as the spiritual world Swedenborg witnessed. In other words, when we are in our mind, thinking and feeling and imagining, we are in the spiritual world. The Spiritual Sun is in our mind because it overlaps completely with the spiritual world. Similarly, heaven and hell are in our mind, for the same reason.

What is amazing is that the mental world of every human being overlaps with the same objective spiritual world since there is only one spiritual world for all human minds. This means that when we are freed from our physical body at its death, our mental body or mind now becomes conscious of the spiritual world. IN this new mental state we are in company with everyone else in that mental state. The afterlife world is a rational expanse where all human beings congregate and live forever. Those who are similar and compatible appear to each other and can interact and form communities of angelic societies, and also, communities of hellish or infernal societies These are the heavens and the hells Swedenborg witnessed..

It takes rational reasoning skills to be able to figure this out and to understand it with total clarity. The effort is well worth it because through it you turn yourself into a fully rational human being. This formula, when fully comprehended, causes you to be spiritually enlightened. Your rational and spiritual consciousness is immeasurably enhanced and taken up to a new higher level of operation. Life on earth becomes completely understandable, completely acceptable, completely controllable. You now take charge of your immortality and provide for yourself and your conjugial soul mate an eternal habitation in heaven, in the company of friends and like minded neighbors.

How is this possible?

Because the process of understanding this formula is an awakening process. This is what has happened to me, and to many others who have read Swedenborg in a positive bias framework without trying to modify or fit the content into a different context, as some readers have also done.

Now this Divinely revealed formula enters science through theistic psychology. Swedenborg did not write this formula, but it is a way I can summarize my understanding of the Writings in relation to the science of psychology, an academic discipline that I have practiced and taught for 40 years, and still am today. It would be useless to science if this formula were to be accepted as a system because I said so. I have seen many formulaic expressions of enlightenment and salvation in several religious and mystical traditions, but not one of them captured my full loyalty because not one of them was completely rational, understandable, clear, scientific, and verifiable evidence about God, heaven, hell, the afterlife. But no such evidence existed until Swedenborg. Now the search is over for anyone who is willing to study the Writings with the positive bias. (See Chapter 1 in Volume 1 for a discussion on the positive and negative bias in science).

12.0.3  The Mind Is Not in Physical Space

The fundamental formula given above expresses the identity relation between the mental world and the spiritual world. It means that the mind of every individual born human is immortal and exists forever in the same spiritual world or eternal state of life. The mind is fixed, unmovable, and immortal because it is not born in physical space and time, like the physical body. Only material objects in space and time can move, like the electrical operations within our brain cells--they move. But the sensations and perceptions of them in the mind does not move, cannot move because sensations and perceptions are not in space and time.

All mental operations take place outside or apart from physical space and time. We need a word to describe the operational reality of mental acts like thinking and feeling. It's common to use the term "mental world" to describe the "place" where mental operations take place. Thoughts and feelings are operations in the mental world. We are very familiar with the mental world so it wouldn't make sense to say--how can we prove that the mental world exists. A condition is defined as existing in science if the observational evidence is available to anyone for verification. Clearly, the mental world is available to anyone for observation and confirmation.

One can deny what exists, of course. Someone can say, "There is no mental world," or, "There is no God," or, "Shakespeare did not write the famous plays but some other man," or, "There never was a holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis in World War II," etc. These denials of reality are irrational.  Among scientists there has been a debate going on for a long time as to whether the mental world of the mind is as real as the physical world of the brain. This question or doubt is prompted by materialism and atheism--the negative bias in science. We need not concern ourselves with this here--but see the discussion of it in Chapter 1, Volume 1. Now within the positive bias, we can rest with the rational concept of the reality of the mental world, in addition to what we already know, namely, the reality of the physical world. Scientific dualism is the acceptance of the possibility that the mental world is as real as the physical, or more real. It is the rational understanding that the universe is dual--one portion of it is natural involving physical matter, time, and space, and the other portion is mental involving spiritual substances apart from time and space that exist in the spiritual world and are eternal or immortal.

The mind must be rationally defined as a spiritual organ. In other words, when we are born we are in fact dual citizens existing simultaneously in the natural world and in the spiritual world. Our brain and physical body are formed from physical matter from the sun and galaxy that has emanated from their hot mass, spread out into space over time, and cooling off, formed planets and an environment that supports plant and animal life. Our mind and spiritual body are formed from spiritual substances from the Spiritual Sun in the spiritual world, which is a hot and bright mass from which emanates spiritual substances, filling the spiritual expanse where human minds are born and continue existing there forever. Every human mind must be immortal because it is composed of immortal spiritual substances. Every physical body must be mortal because it is composed of temporary structures that disintegrate over time and are not capable of maintaining themselves in function or original integrity.

This pint of view is called substantive dualism. Not merely dualism, like the dualism of Descartes and others that are kept track of in the history of psychology textbooks. Substantive dualism specifically includes the existence of the Spiritual Sun, and the formation of human minds out of the substances streaming out of it. Substantive dualism allows for the equation mind=spirit, or, mental world=spiritual world. Other types of dualism are not fully rational and scientific because they are ignorant of the spiritual world and the Spiritual Sun, and are unable to explain how we transition at death from a human being on earth to a spiritual being in the afterlife. They do not give an account of what is the afterlife because they had no way of knowing that. And if they read about it, they had no way of verifying it.

Substantive dualism is possible only since the reports of Swedenborg on his nearly 30 years of daily exploration of the spiritual world where he was able to see the Spiritual Sun with his own eyes, and was able to talk to those who could also see it. In fact, anyone he talked to in the heavenly cities and societies, was able to see the Spiritual Sun, though it appears differently at the different layers of the human mind--very bright and hot at the celestial level, not so bright and hot at the spiritual level.

Now what are these substances that come from the Spiritual Sun that are the constituent forms of our organic mind? The answer is awesome, far more so than anything in physical imagination like Lord of the Rings or The Matrix.

12.0.4  Spiritual Substances Out of Which the Mind is Formed

Swedenborg saw the Spiritual Sun daily for nearly 30 years while living on earth. All of us will be able to see it when we enter the state of our mind called heaven. In the midst of the Spiritual Sun he saw the Divine-Human, just as all the inhabitants of heaven are able to see the Divine-Human in the midst of the Spiritual Sun. In other words the Spiritual Sun is a Divine Aura of the Divine-Human or the Incarnate God.

Sacred Scripture reveals that God is Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. Swedenborg was able to figure out, long before he acquired spiritual consciousness at age 57, that God is pure Love in infinite proportions. He also was able to figure out that this Divine Love must somehow be transmitted to our soul, which then gives it life. This life is what animates our mind as well as the cells of our physical body. But obviously, the way the Divine Love enters the human soul and animates it, must be different from the way Divine Love enters plants and rocks and electrons and gives them their useful form and function.

In other words, God creates "vessels" or receptors for Divine Love streaming forth from Himself into the universe. These created structures or organs receive the Divine Love differently in accordance with their specific structure or form. An electron or galaxy receives the Divine Love differently from a biological cell or the brain, and differently from the soul or human mind. The "chemical world" is animated physically by the Divine Love, and the "vegetable world" is animated livingly. Rocks do not receive life but plants and animals do. The human mind is a unique and superior construction to the animal mind or to physical objects. There is a closer relationship possible between the living human mind and Divine Love than there is with all other constructions--geological, plant, or animal.  And this id due to rationality. Only the human mind can receive rationality. Since rationality is immortal or eternal, made of spiritual substances, it is rationality that imparts immortality to the human mind.

So far we've been discussing Divine Love as a substance emanating from God or the Divine-Human through the Spiritual Sun, and entering all created constructions to animate them or to dynamize them into operation and function or use. This Divine Love emanating from the Spiritual Sun is also called "spiritual heat." Just as physical heat from the natural sun is intertwined with physical light, in a correspondential way spiritual heat (or love) is intertwined with spiritual light, which is also called truth.

So this is the big news: That love and truth are Divine living and immortal spiritual substances out of which our mind is constructed as an organ in the spiritual body in the spiritual world.

When you explore all the dimensions of this fact you will see how awesome it is indeed. And it will take you to enlightenment, or the full clarity and understanding of actual reality, and control over it. What more can one wish for?

First, this is proof that we are immortal. Not of course to those who are still in the negative bias, in which case instead of a proof it will seem like a laugh. But in the positive bias you can see the rationality of this conclusion. It makes sense to say that an object is immortal if it is made exclusively of immortal components. Just as it makes sense to say that a knife made of an indestructible alloy will never have to be replaced or sharpened. No matter how much it is used, no matter what it is used on, no matter what crushes it or burns it, that knife will not need any sharpening for as long as the planet exists. You can see then that the mind cannot die because it has no components that can die, or give out, or be destroyed by some fire or electrical zap. And if the mind is immortal, so are we, because we are nothing else than our mind. We are not our physical body, which gives out over time or is destroyed by something. We are our immortal mind which cannot be destroyed or cease its operations to eternity.

The mind is a spiritual organ like the brain is a natural organ. The brain's structure involves neuronal fibers and neural cells made of physical matter coming from the natural sun in the form of heat and light. Similarly, the mind's structure involves neuronal fibers and neural cells made of spiritual heat and spiritual light from the Spiritual Sun. The neural fibers of the brain are temporary and destructible. But the neural fibers of the mind are permanent and indestructible. The heat and light of the physical sun or star, contain hundreds of distinct elements, many of which have been identified by science, like mercury, diamond, oxygen, nitrogen, and the compounds into which they are structurally gathered like hydrochloric acid or protein molecules. The muscles we use are therefore compound structures made of the heat and light of the natural sun and stars. Similarly, the spiritual neurons of the mind are formed and constructed by the spiritual heat and light of the Spiritual Sun.

12.0.5  The Three Anatomical Levels of the Mind

Our mind, like our brain and sense organs, is an organic structure made of sub-components, like the heart which has a left and a right portion, each doing their own work or function. The mind's organic anatomy has been revealed in the Writings. There are three major levels of mental operations or states to keep track of in order to understand how our mind works and how we can control its direction and development.

Anatomical levels or states of the mind:

• (3) The celestial state or level of operation (= the "celestial mind")

• (2) The spiritual state or level of operation (= the "spiritual mind")

• (1) The natural state or level of operation (= the "natural mind")

You also need to keep track of the type of operation in the mind of which there are three.

Types of operations or functions of the mind:

• (i) The affective operations in the affective organ of the mind (= the "will")

• (ii) The cognitive operations in the cognitive organ of the mind (= the "understanding")

• (iii) The sensorimotor operations in the sensorimotor organ of the mind (= the "sensations")

Affective operations are feelings, motivations, impulses, tendencies, affections, loves. Cognitive operations are thoughts, ideas, concepts, images, and  reasonings. Sensorimotor operations are sensations, attentional focus, and motor determinations or behavioral sets.

If you keep track of the three types of operations at the three levels, you will have a chart in your understanding by which you can comprehend or research almost anything about the human mind. This chart would look this:

I call this type of chart an "ennead matrix" which the dictionary defines as a structure of nine. In this case the mind's operations can be tracked by an ennead matrix that displays nine categories of operations to keep track of in describing the mind's operations:

• (9) the celestial feelings (affective level 3)

• (8) the celestial thoughts (cognitive level 3)

• (7) the celestial sensations (sensorimotor 3)

• (6) the spiritual feelings (affective level 2)

• (5) the spiritual thoughts (cognitive level 2)

• (4) the spiritual sensations (sensorimotor 2)

• (3) the natural feelings (affective level 1)

• (2) the natural thoughts (cognitive level 1)

• (1) the natural sensations (sensorimotor 1)

It helps a lot in deepening your understanding of this universal spiritual human structure if you can reproduce it yourself on a piece of paper and if you can then explain it to someone.

Here is the way I explain it. We have feelings, thoughts, and sensations. I call this the "threefold self." These operations define what the mind is. We can have these operations at different levels of consciousness and rationality. For instance, we can have celestial feelings--like compassion for someone's need, so that we reach out to help. Having or experiencing that celestial feeling is what initiates our action of helping out. The feeling is not enough because we need also to know what would help and how we can provide it. These are thoughts, not feelings. In order to act on anything whatsoever we need to have an initiating feeling or motive or need--these are equivalent in that they are affective operations. Once this initiating feeling is felt or experienced, it starts selecting from our cognitive mind those operations that result in a cognitive plan for help that is assessed as adequate and workable. So the affective operation begins the behavior, the cognitive operation directs it, and the sensorimotor operation executes it. This way of  talking about behavior is called the "threefold self" (see Section xx).

• The celestial self is the third or highest level of operation of the mind (9 ==>8==>7)

• The spiritual self is the second or intermediate level of operation of the mind (6==>5==>4)

• The natural self is the first or lowest level of operation of the mind (3==>2==>1)

The numbers refer to the ennead matrix above. Note that the sequence of behavior is always:

affective==>cognitive==>sensorimotor

The mind always operates by means of the affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor operations working together. The natural mind (cells 3,2,1) is what we are very familiar with because it is our daily conscious self while we live on earth. We are unconscious of the operations that are always going on in the spiritual mind (cells 6,5,4) and in the celestial mind (cells 9,8,7).

In order for the conscious natural mind to operate it is necessary that the other two unconscious levels of the mind be operative. The reason is that all operations of the mind are by correspondence reacting to the influx of the Spiritual Sun. In other words, once the mind becomes operational at birth, not only is it being built up by the spiritual heat and light of the Spiritual Sun, but the portions that are built up have the capacity to receive more spiritual heat and light, which initiates all the operations in the mind. The mind is built out of the same substances that also activate it and keep it functioning in perfect order to eternity. The mind is therefore not only an immortal spiritual organ, but it is also constantly 'online' like an electric stove that is plugged in and is thereby able to do its work of heat. Unplug it, and the stove cannot do its work. It has to be 'online' and you know it from the electricity bill at the end of the month!

The mind's operations are therefore dependent on the inflow or "influx" of spiritual heat (or love) and spiritual light (or truth). This is truly remarkable. The mind is made of love and truth and it is activated by love and truth flowing in. At the same time, the mind has the capacity to invert the incoming love and truth into their opposites. This inversion process requires rational ability.

For further Discussion see Section 1.0.1.1 in Volume 1.

Quoting form Swedenborg's Writings regarding one of his experiences in the world of spirits involving people he called "universal proof-mongers":

The third experience.
After this one of the angels said: 'Come with me to the place where they are shouting "How wise!" You will see monstrous people there, with the faces and bodies of human beings, though they are not human beings.'

'Are they animals then?' I asked.

'No,' he replied, 'they are not animals, but bestial people. They are those who are utterly unable to see whether truth is truth or not, although they can make anything they wish appear to be true. We call such people proof-mongers.'

We followed the noise of shouting and reached its source. There we found a group of men surrounded by a crowd. There were in the crowd some people of noble lineage, who, on hearing that they proved everything they said, and so obviously agreed in supporting each other, turned around and said 'How wise!'

[2] But the angel said to me, 'Let us not approach them, but let us call out one from the group.' We did so, and took him aside; we discussed a variety of subjects, and he proved each point so that it seemed exactly as if it were true. So we asked him whether he could also prove the opposite. He replied he could do so as well as the earlier points. Then he spoke openly and from the heart: 'What is truth? Is there any truth in the whole of nature other than what someone makes true? Say anything you please, and I will make it true.'

'Establish then,' I said, 'the truth of the following proposition: faith is all the church needs.' He did so, with such cleverness and skill that the learned men who were present clapped to express their admiration. Next I asked him to establish the truth of the proposition that charity is all the church needs; and this too he did. Then I asked him about the proposition that charity is of no use to the church; and he so dressed up either proposition and adorned them with plausible arguments that the bystanders looked at one another and said: 'Isn't he wise?'

'Don't you know,' I said, 'that living a good life is charity, and having a correct belief is faith? Does not the person who lives a good life also have a correct belief? And consequently faith is a part of charity, and charity a part of faith? Can't you see that this is true?'

'I shall establish the truth of it,' he said, 'and then I shall see.' He did so, and then remarked: 'Now I see.' But a moment later he established the truth of the opposite, and then he said: 'I see that this too is true.' We smiled at this and said: 'Are they not opposites? How can two opposite propositions both appear to be true?' He was indignant at this and answered: 'You are wrong. Both propositions are true, because there is no truth other than what someone establishes as true.'

[3] A man was standing nearby who in the world had been an ambassador of the highest rank. He was astonished at this and said: 'I admit that something like this goes on in the world, but still you are crazy. Establish, if you can, the truth of the proposition that light is darkness and darkness is light.'

'Nothing easier,' he replied. 'What are light and darkness but conditions of the eye? Is not light changed into shadow, when the eye comes in from sunlight, and also when one stares fixedly at the sun? Everyone knows that then the condition of the eye changes, and light then seems like shadow; and in the opposite case when the eye returns to its normal condition, the shadow seems like light. Does not the owl see the darkness of the night like broad day, and daylight like the darkness of the night? And then it actually sees the sun itself as a dark and dim ball. If a person had the eyes of an owl, which would he call light and which darkness? So what is light but a condition of the eye? And if so, is not light darkness, and darkness light? So just as one proposition is true, so also is the other.'

[4] But seeing that this proof had confused some people I said: 'I have observed that this proof-monger is unaware of the existence of true light and false light. Both of these forms of light appear to be light; but false light is not really light, but compared with true light is darkness. The owl operates by false light, for its eyes are filled with a desire to pursue and devour birds; this light enables its eyes to see by night, exactly like cats' eyes, which glitter like candles in cellars. The false light in this case arises from the desire to pursue and devour mice which fills their eyes and has this effect. This makes it plain that the sun's is the true light, and the light of desire is a false light.'

[5] After this the ambassador asked the proof-monger to establish the truth of the proposition that a raven is white and not black. 'Another easy task,' he replied. 'Take,' he said, 'a needle or a razor and open up the feathers and plumage of a raven; or take away the feathers and plumage and look at the bare skin of the raven, is it not white? What is the blackness that surrounds it but a shadow, which must not be used to judge the raven's color? Consult the experts on optics, and they will tell you that blackness is merely shadow; or grind a black stone or a piece of black glass into fine powder, and you will see that the powder is white.'

'But when you look at it,' said the ambassador, 'surely the raven appears black?' But the proof-monger replied: 'As a human being are you willing to think about anything from appearances? Of course you can speak from appearances of the raven as black, but you cannot really think so. For instance, you can speak from appearances of the sun rising and setting; but as a human being you cannot really think it does, because the sun remains unmoving, and it is the earth which moves. It is the same with the raven; appearances are only appearances. Say whatever you like, the raven is utterly and completely white. It also turns white when it grows old, a fact I have observed.'

At this the bystanders looked at me. So I said that it is true that the feathers and plumage of the raven have inside a whitish tinge, and so does its skin. But this is true not only of ravens, but of all birds throughout the world; and everyone distinguishes birds by their coloring. If not, we should have to say that every bird is white, which is absurd and useless.

[6] Then the ambassador asked whether he could establish the truth of the proposition that he himself was insane. 'Yes,' he said, 'I can, but I don't want to. Everyone is insane.'

Then they asked him to speak from the heart and say whether he was joking, or whether he really believed that there was no truth but what someone established as true. He replied, 'I swear I do so believe.'

Afterwards this universal proof-monger was sent to some angels to have his nature examined. After doing this they said that he did not possess a grain of understanding. 'The reason is,' they said, 'that in his case everything above the rational level is shut off, and only what is below this level is open. Spiritual light is above the rational level, and natural light is below it, and it is natural light which enables a person to prove whatever he likes. But if there is no spiritual light flowing into natural light, a person cannot see whether some truth is true, and consequently not whether a falsehood is false either. The ability to see either comes from the presence of spiritual light in the natural light, and spiritual light comes from the God of heaven, who is the Lord. Therefore the universal proof-monger is neither a man nor an animal, but a beast-man.'

[7] I asked the angels about the fate of such people; how could they be in the company of the living, since spiritual light is the source of people's life; and this is the source of their understanding. They said that as long as such people are alone, they cannot think or talk about anything, but they stand as dumb as machines and as if fast asleep. But they wake up as soon as their ears catch any sound. They added that it is those who are inmostly wicked who become like that. Spiritual light from above cannot flow into them, but only some spirituality through the world; this is what gives them the ability to make up proofs.

[8] When they had said this, I heard one of the angels who had examined him say: 'Make a general conclusion out of what you have heard.' My conclusion was this: it is not the mark of an intelligent person to be able to prove anything he likes; but to be able to see that truth is true and falsehood is false, and to prove that, is the mark of an intelligent person.

After this I looked towards the gathering where the proof-mongers stood with the crowd around them shouting 'How wise!'; and suddenly a dark cloud overshadowed them, with owls and bats flying about in it. I was told: 'The owls and bats flying about in that cloud are correspondences, so as to display their thoughts. The proving of falsities, so that they seem like truths, is represented in the spiritual world in the form of birds of nocturnal habit, whose eyes are inwardly enlightened by a false light; this enables them to see objects in darkness as if in daylight. Those who prove false propositions until they seem true and are afterwards believed to be true, have a similar, spiritual, false light. They are all able to see behind them, but nothing at all before them.'  (TCR 334).

Swedenborg's interviews and experiments in the world of spirits are recorded in the books of the Writings. Never before has a scientist been given this opportunity to access the facts about the human mind by direct observation. These facts, and the inspired rational explanations Swedenborg fashioned around them, constitute the content of theistic psychology.

12.0.6  Love and Truth as Substances

Think about it! The mind is constructed out of love and truth. Who knew before this revelation that love and truth are substances streaming from a Sun? Swedenborg was able to figure it out even before he developed at age 57 the ability to be conscious in both worlds simultaneously. He figured it out solely on rational thinking added to his knowledge of the Bible. Later, when he acquired his spiritual consciousness, he was able to confirm many of the things he had figured out solely on the basis of his rational thinking and the positive bias.

Love and truth issue together but they are received separately in our mind--love into the affective mind ("will")  and truth in into the cognitive mind ("understanding"). The affective organ of the mind is constructed out of the substances of love (or "spiritual heat") and the cognitive organ of the mind is constructed out of the substances of truth (or "spiritual light").

Similarly, the cognitive mind (our thoughts and reasoning operations) is made operational by the influx of spiritual light or truths, while the affective mind (our feelings and motives) is made operational by the influx of spiritual heat or loves.

Now you can begin to see rationally how it is true that the mental world = the spiritual world. The geography of the spiritual world is identical to the anatomy of the mind. The spiritual world is an expanse created by the Spiritual Sun just as the outer space between the planets is a space created by the star that governs the gravitational field wherein lie its planets.

12.0.7  The Geography of the Spiritual World

The spiritual world is an expanse that Swedenborg visited for nearly 30 years while still a citizen on earth. He describes its hierarchically organized vertical structure which consists of these separated layers:

• (a) The Spiritual Sun

• (b) The inhabitations of the Third or Celestial Heaven

• (c) The inhabitations of the Second or Spiritual Heaven

• (d) The inhabitations of the First or Natural Heaven

• (e) The world of spirits where everyone's mind is born and grown

• (f)  The inhabitations of the hells (also arranged in layers of depth)

Swedenborg experimentally observed what happens to a sentence written on a piece of paper by the inhabitants of the Third Heaven who are called "celestial angels." The sentence written in celestial-correspondences "was sent down" to the inhabitants of the Second Heaven who are called "spiritual angels." The sentence had changed. It now said the spiritual-rational correspondence of the original celestial sentence. That was then "sent down" to the inhabitants of the First Heaven who are called "angelic spirits," and the sentence had changed to a spiritual-natural correspondence of the original. This descent of meaning corresponds to the descent of consciousness as love and truth descend from the Spiritual Sun through the layers of correspondences that are built into the layers of the human mind. When the paper was let down into hell the inhabitants read it and what they saw was the logical opposite of the truth that had been originally written.

Here is another such experiment that reveals the how the geography of the spiritual world is related to the anatomy of the human mind. Quoting from Swedenborg about an experience he had in the spiritual world. The expression "marriage of good and truth" is used, which is the same as love and truth, since in the Writings, good and love are defined through each other. Whatever is said anywhere about love also applies to good, and vice versa, just as whatever is said about truth also applies to "wisdom," intelligence, and rationality. "Angel" refers to anyone who is an inhabitant of the heavens.

Awoken from sleep in the middle of the night I saw fairly high up towards the east an angel holding a paper in his right hand. It was brightly lit up by the sun, and in the middle there was writing in golden letters. I saw that the inscription was: The marriage of good and truth. A radiance sparkled from the writing, and spread into a broad ring around the paper. This radiance or halo looked like the dawn in springtime. Afterwards I saw the angel coming down with the paper in his hand, and as he came the paper shone less and less, and the inscription, The marriage of good and truth, changed from gold to silver color, then to that of copper, later to that of iron and finally to the color of rust and verdigris. At last the angel appeared to enter a dark cloud, and passing through the cloud appeared on earth. There the paper, though still held in the angel's hand, was invisible. This happened in the world of spirits, into which everyone comes at first after death.

[2] Then the angel spoke to me. 'Ask those,' he said, 'who are coming here whether they can see me or anything in my hand.' A great crowd came, one group from the east, one from the south, one from the west and one from the north. I asked those from the east and south, men who in the world had devoted themselves to study, whether they could see anyone here with me, or anything in his hand. They all said that they could see nothing at all. Then I put the question to those who came from the west and north. These were those who in the world had taken on trust what learned people said. They too said they could not see anything. However, the last of this group, those who in the world had had a simple faith based on charity, or in other words possessed some truth from good, said, after the first-comers had gone, that they could see a man with a piece of paper, the man in fine clothing and the paper with letters written on it. When they looked closely, they said they could read, The marriage of good and truth. So they addressed the angel, requesting him to tell them what this meant.

[3] He said that everything in the whole of heaven and everything in the whole of the world is from creation nothing but the marriage of good and truth. This is because every single thing, both those that live and breathe as well as those that do not, comes from the marriage of good and truth and was created for that purpose. Nothing exists created to be truth alone, nor to be good alone. Neither of these is anything taken by itself, but by marriage they come into existence and become such as is the nature of the marriage. In the Divine-Human God the Creator Divine good and Divine truth are present in their very substance. The being of His substance is Divine good, the coming-into-being of this substance is Divine truth, and they are in a state of complete union, for in Him they make up one to an infinite degree. Since these two are one in God the Creator Himself, they are therefore also one in every single thing created by Him. By this too the Creator is linked with all things created by Him in an everlasting covenant as of marriage.

[4] The angel went on to say that the Sacred Scripture, which was dictated by the Divine-Human, is in general and in its parts a marriage of good and truth (see above 248-253). Since the church, being formed by means of the truths of doctrine, and religion, being formed by good deeds in life in accordance with the truths of doctrine, are in the case of Christians solely derived from the Sacred Scripture, it can be established that the church too in general and in its parts is a marriage of good and truth. The same as has been said here about the marriage of good and truth applies also to the marriage of charity and faith, since good relates to charity, truth to faith.

After making this speech the angel left the earth and traveling through the cloud went up into heaven. Then as he went up the paper began to shine as before, changing at each stage of the ascent. Then the ring of radiance which previously looked like the dawn came down and dispersed the cloud which had darkened the earth, and the sun shone. (TCR 624)

 

12.0.7.1  Climbing to our First Heaven by means of Spiritual-Natural Correspondences

We have a celestial mind and its operations respond exactly like the operations of the inhabitants of the Third Heaven. They are the same because our celestial mind is in the Third Heaven in terms of its constructions and state of operation. Similarly, our spiritual mind responds in unison with the Second Heaven and our natural mind responds in unison with the First Heaven. The proof of this is seen when we enter the world of spirits at resuscitation from the first death. When shortly after we experience the second death we leave the world of spirits and enter either heaven or hell. If heaven, we enter that heaven which supports the character level we brought with us from earth. If our mind has been regenerated to the celestial degree, we enter the Third Heaven, if to the spiritual degree, we enter the Second Heaven, and if to the natural degree, we enter the First Heaven. Similarly with entering hell, since there is a corresponding hell to every heaven given that a particular hell is just the opposite or inversion of a particular heaven.

What does it mean to say that we are regenerated to the celestial level, or to the spiritual level, and natural level? This needs to be understood before we can see the whole picture rationally and clearly, and to understand the basic scientific revelation in the Writings of Swedenborg, namely, the formula "mental world=spiritual world=immortality.

Since the spiritual world=the human mind, every individual has layers of heavens and layers of hell in the mind. Each layer refers to our consciousness level, or the depth of rational understanding, of the correspondences coming down from Divine Speech and spreading across the human mind of every individual regardless of place or time. When the sentences of Divine Speech reach the natural-rational and sensuous correspondences below the First Heaven, they form the text of Sacred Scripture in the letter of some natural language on earth. This entire process of descent of Divine Speech can be reconstructed by the method of correspondences described in the Writings. We can thereby elevate our rational consciousness of God by understanding ever higher correspondences derived from the literal meaning of Sacred Scripture.

First we go from the natural correspondences of the letter of Sacred Scripture to the spiritual-natural correspondences of Sacred Scripture in the First Heaven. Our understanding is thus enlightened to the first degree of our heavens in the mind. We see the interior spiritual truths within natural ideas of truth about God and regeneration. The Divine Psychologist responds by immersing us in natural temptations by which we agonize over what we believe and what we doubt about our religious doctrines and the moral principles by which we live. We are tempted sore to give in to attitudes and beliefs that make it easier for us, more comfortable, giving us permission to continue enjoying this or that evil we still love. But the temptations bring us face to face with the knowledge of consequences. We see with horror that it is the hells we love and that this love is what makes us doubt the truth we can understand. This new realization is only possible if we elevate our rational understanding of Sacred Scripture to the level of the interior-natural, also called the spiritual-natural level of understanding.

By overcoming our natural temptations we develop a moral character that lives in the First Heaven. All the people Swedenborg met in the First Heaven were "angelic spirits," which means good and decent people who came from earth with angelic traits in which they can now have eternal happiness. People in the First Heaven spend their eternity in cities in which they have an occupation and pace of life that is maximally suitable to their character and inherent interests which include singing, dancing, dramatic presentations, celebrations, sports, and readings. These activities sound surprisingly like those the majority of people enjoy on earth, but we must realize that they are entirely different.

Remember that the First Heaven is a mental construction and therefore it is pure, while these activities on earth are not pure but mixed with ugliness, evil, danger, and unhappiness. No such feelings or events can occur in a mental heaven that is purified from all evil connections. Remember also that the objects in these activates are completely different. On earth, a ball game involves physical balls and posts and weather, but in the First Heaven, these objects are instantaneously created upon demand by the minds of the people who are involved. Everything is created instantaneously and perfectly--the venue, the weather, the visibility where you sit, the ball, the ground condition, etc. Everything is idealized like on a virtual holodeck in Star Trek or the Matrix.

All these rational phenomena in the First Heaven of our mind are created by the spiritual-natural correspondences of Sacred Scripture. We can now elevate our mind to the Second Heaven by immersing our understanding in the spiritual-rational correspondences within Sacred Scripture. When we do this God responds by facing us with spiritual temptations.

12.0.7.2  Climbing to our Second Heaven by means of Spiritual-Rational Correspondences

We have won the battle of morality and conscience, and we are upright citizens and parents in the First Heaven of our mind. But some people want more than this. They want their heaven to be more concerned with truth and God, with spiritual doctrine and rational understanding of our relationship to God. For them it's not enough to be moral. They want to be spiritual and be immersed in higher order thoughts and consciousness of reality. They immerse their understanding of Sacred Scripture in its spiritual-rational correspondences. Their level of thinking is elevated to a new platform of rational consciousness of God and reality. They can now see how God governs everything by means of rational laws of Providence and Permissions. They are delighted by the intricacies of the models which describe how God works. They have reached their happiness and joy in the Second Heaven of their mind.

God responds by facing them with celestial temptations.

12.0.7.3  Climbing to our Third Heaven by means of Celestial-Rational Correspondences

Celestial temptations are attacks against our loves. The earlier spiritual temptations were attacks against our truths. The still earlier natural temptations were attacks against our morality and commitments. Now we experience celestial temptations with devastating facts about ourselves that become apparent to our awareness. We may be moral and upright, and know much about God and doctrine, and yet we still enjoy impure loves that are from hell. For instance, we give in to laziness at the expense of others. Or, we allow ourselves to neglect some people to whom we are responsible so that we can continue doing what we are pursuing for ourselves. Or we may express harshness in our reaction to someone and not care much about the pain it causes them. Or we may love our work and duties more than we love our spouse or children. All celestial temptations bring us to failures of love and caring for others.

In order to overcome celestial temptations we can no longer rely solely on our knowledge of spiritual-rational correspondences of Sacred Scripture. We need to immerse our understanding in celestial-rational correspondences so that we are victorious over our temptations regarding love. We need to elevate our conscious understanding to our Third Heaven in order to allow love for the Divine-Human to be our ruling love. When we are in our Third Heaven we have dethroned all prior attachments of love and made them subordinate to the one ruling love of the Divine-Human. From this love God can now give us the maximum human potential possible. Swedenborg talked to the inhabitants of the Third Heaven. He reports that their intelligence and wisdom is so far above the intelligence of the Second Heaven that it is incomprehensible and "ineffable" to them. When we are in our Third Heaven we do not need to reflect upon truth, doctrine, or science. We instantaneously perceive the knowledge or answer for anything that our love is curious about.

The journey of spiritual development is now available to every individual by studying the inner levels of meaning in the hierarchical correspondences of Sacred Scripture.

12.0.8  Three Degrees of Regeneration by Temptations

Have you ever asked yourself rationally the question "What is immortality?" Sure, an easy answer would be: Immortality is to live forever. This is correct. But if we think about this answer rationally we immediately want to know: Where and how? Unless we can clearly specify the where and how of immortality, it remains something distant that we cannot attach our life to. The one thing we can rely on is our understanding of truth, and this requires clarity or spiritual light. This spiritual light becomes operational in you as soon as you focus your conscious attention on the level of thinking and meaning by which your spiritual mind operates. This doesn't mean that you can become conscious of the operations in your spiritual mind as long as you are on earth. But it means modifying the way we think in the natural mind, where we are conscious, so it reflects more nearly the operations of the spiritual mind. When we modify the way we think and feel, we are being regenerated.

Each of the three organic minds must be regenerated, that is, rearranged into a new order that fits the spiritual order as revealed by Sacred Scripture or Divine Speech. The natural mind contains feelings, thoughts, and sensations. These operations are unregenerate at birth so that we have tendencies and beliefs that contradict the Divine revelations of substantive dualism. The natural mind must be rearranged to agree with moral rules. The natural mind can be regenerated to correspond to the spiritual mind by going beyond moral rules to spiritual rules. All spiritual rules are based on Divine Commandments and obeyed or performed for the sake of the afterlife. You can see that some people are not willing to consider Divine Commandments as their overarching guide in life. They are content in being moral and responsible citizens. They are regenerated to the natural degree, which means that third conscious mental operations are spiritual in the lowest degree. They enter and inhabit the First Heaven and are called "good spirits" or "angelic spirits." They are as happy as it's possible for them to be, but they also realize that there are people higher than they in consciousness that live in the Second Heaven.

But those who are willing first to be moral and responsible, then, to continue being so from a spiritual motive, can be regenerated to the spiritual degree in their natural mind. This second level rearrangement of the natural mind is more interior, more spiritual. The motives are spiritual. This requires that they understand that God exists, that they connect their conscience to God, that they study Divine Speech and its rationality, and finally, that they be willing to undergo spiritual temptations and resist. These are different from moral temptations, which we experience during the regeneration of the lowest part of the natural mind. To regenerate the natural mind still deeper God brings to every individual at just the right time, a specific experience by which our spiritual motives are tempted, that is, doubted.

For example, we hear someone else we think is very intelligent say that there is no God, heaven and hell, and that religion is made up to keep people from misbehaving. And we experience a jolt of doubt: Maybe they are right and you have been naive to believe it all. This doubt is a spiritual temptation. It is higher or deeper than a moral temptation, as for instance, when we want to cheat on our tax returns. Another spiritual temptation might be to read in Sacred Scripture that God gets angry at us for sinning, and then to conclude on that basis that God isn't really perfect. This is a spiritual temptation because Sacred Scripture in many places asserts that God is perfect. We can resolve this spiritual temptation by developing more rational ways of reading Sacred Scripture. In this instance, we can realize that God is said to be angry because He appears that way to people who are experiencing the painful consequences of misbehaving and acting contrary to God's Commandments. They are attributing their pain and suffering to God's punishment, so they see God as angry.

Those who are willing to undergo spiritual temptations, and resist or conquer in them, are then prepared for a still deeper regeneration of their natural mind. The Divine-Human brings to them a series of perfectly timed experiences in which they are tempted at the celestial degree and are willing to resist. Once they resist as-if of their own free will and effort, God delivers them from this connection with their deep hells. The temptation is a device God uses to bring our focus to a particular issue in our life, which is, whether or not we are willing to remain connected to the hells. Some of these connections we inherited and some we have acquired ourselves by the choices we made and loved. Temptations are essential mechanisms for being delivered from our hellish traits. A celestial temptation might be to doubt that love is higher than truth. The spiritual level of thinking in the natural mind orients towards truth rather than love. Celestial temptations are necessary to realign our attachments and to make love or charity to be the first in our life, and truth or faith, a servant to love.

It is God who conquers in all temptations. This is obvious when you consider that temptations are revelations of our connections to hell. The Writings reveal that any part of hell receives the support of all other parts of hell, so that when we fight a hell in us, we fight the entire hells, and only infinite Divine power can fight against all the hells, and conquer. But the Divine power cannot remove our connections to hell until we are willing to resist as if from our own effort and freedom. Then God puts the hells down in us and raises us to the heavens. The feeling of relief after resisting temptations is a consequence of the angels approaching closer and influencing our affective organ with good feelings and wise thoughts.

We can resist spiritual and celestial temptations only through spiritual truths or rational reasonings based on Sacred Scripture. The Writings of Swedenborg reveal how God Incarnate, as a Divine Child growing up in the Holy Land, underwent super-human temptations which allowed Him to face the entire hells, to light them up, and to compel them to obey and be ordered by means of the thoughts and feelings the Divine Child experienced. Part of the Divine Child was merely human from the mother, and part was Divine from Himself as the Human Divine God from eternity. The contact with the hells through temptations of the merely human part of the Divine Child, allowed Him to face them and to interact with them without destroying them, which would have happened had God faced them in His Human Divine. So the Incarnation was a method God used to split Himself for 33 years on earth, so that His infirm merely human part could face the hells, and order them from His Human Divine part with infinite power. This process of ordering the hells by successively elevating his merely human part until it too was one with the Divine of Himself.

This process was completed upon the death on the cross and the resurrection with the Natural Body. This Resurrected Body was made of natural components but purified, or glorified, that is, made Divine. Upon the Resurrection and Ascension to Heaven, God now was called  the Divine-Human (rather than the Human Divine as before). From then on the human race could face the hells in temptations and conquer by stepping through the mental pathways created by the Divine-Human while on earth. All this was revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg which usher the new and everlasting age of the Second Coming, an appearance of God once more, not in the physical world, but in the mental world. The activity of the Divine-Human in our mind is sometimes called the "Holy Spirit" and the intensity or effectiveness of this activity is proportional to each individual's rational consciousness or willingness to be regenerated into a heavenly person. This inner spiritual development process is more active with those who are regenerated to the celestial degree, less active with those who are regenerated only to the natural degree.

There is no entrance into heaven without regeneration, and there is no regeneration without temptations. The Divine-Human is an intimate Divine Psychologist to every human being, participating in the emergence of every thought, every feeling, and every sensation. God orders our thoughts according to the needs of our experience at any one time. Without God's active participation in our thought process, not a single person born on earth  could escape hell and heaven itself would be endangered. The entire human race would perish. Clearly, God is on another plan, to make the human race flourish to its intended celestial status and life of bliss.

There is an automatic reaction in our thinking when we read about these details regarding God's Incarnation, death, resurrection, and worship, namely, that this is religion not science.

The reason for this difficulty or conflict, I think, is that these details come from Sacred Scripture claimed as their own by the Western Judaeo-Christian tradition and religion. But none of the details are known to religion that have to do with the theistic psychology component of Sacred Scripture. If theistic psychology and religion were both based on the literal historical ethnic meaning of the sentences, then indeed there would be no difference and theistic psychology would not be a science. So it's crucial to understand that theistic psychology is not based, like religion, on the literal meaning of Sacred Scripture, but on the universal scientific meaning it carries hidden within it. This hidden meaning is a characteristic of all Divine Speech, hence the method of correspondences used in theistic psychology can be applied to all Sacred Scripture, regardless of which religion has claimed it exclusively for itself. Divine Speech has multiple layers of meaning, each layer appropriate for a specific level of the mind. The layers are carried by cognitive correspondences at different level of rational purity--celestial, spiritual, spiritual-natural, sensuous. By the time Divine Speech is translated into the sensuous-natural level of thinking, it appears as historical narrative, prophecy, and theology.

The details of what it means to enter heaven are not available at the literal meaning of sentences in Sacred Scripture. One must apply the method of correspondences in order to extract them. When this is done, all the original words of Sacred Scripture are replaced by their spiritual-rational correspondences called "signficatives" and "representatives." Once this is done, what remains is devoid of any names, places, numbers, historical events, etc. The ethnic features of the text of Sacred Scripture is gone from the reference and meaning. Instead, we have universal pan-human rational scientific knowledge about salvation and heaven--or, theistic psychology.

12.0.9  The Rational is the Beginning of Being Human

An additional way of understanding regeneration or spiritual development, is to consider the form and function of the rational operations in our mind. The Writings explain that the rational is the beginning of the human. In other words, our mental operations below the rational are animal rather than human. We share with animals many of the characteristics of the natural mind, though not all. The natural mind has three sub-levels of operation called the corporeal (the lowest), the sensuous (intermediate), and the rational (highest). Animals possess a natural mind with two sub-levels, corporeal and sensuous, depending on the evolutionary scale of the species. Chimpanzees impress us because they possess a highly developed sensuous mind which allows them to form sensuous concepts and meanings by which they can interact with humans if they are taught a mechanism of communication. But they do not possess a natural-rational level, as we do, as shown by the fact that we are unimpressed by what chimpanzees or dolphins have to say with the language they are taught. They restrict themselves to sensuous concepts and are unable to discuss with us things like the household's finances or last night's ball game. They will never be able to do this because sensuous intelligence is the highest mental operation they are capable of. This doesn't mean they cannot become useful with these communication skills, when we set up and maintain a special context for their mental abilities.

We must understand this natural-rational level of mental operation that we possess and animals do not possess. This difference between humans and animals is a matter of spiritual structure. Animals do not have a mental organ that can operate at the rational level. As a result they cannot be immortal since immortality is life in the spiritual world and the spiritual world is a world that exists inside the rational mind of human, and nowhere else. Recall that the natural mind we bring with us when crossing the bar is taken out of circulation, embalmed, and laid to rest to be called out only under special conditions, which Swedenborg was able to witness. But when we enter heaven or hell at the second death, the natural mind is withdrawn from active operation and our consciousness shifts into the purely spiritual, that is, into our deepest loves and the thoughts these loves allow or agree with.

The point to remember is that the spiritual world is a world made of rational things. Nothing of the natural corporeal or sensuous can exist there, but only spiritual ideas that correspond to these lower forms of mental operations. For example, chewing food involves corporeal knowledge and sensations. The corporeal knowledge is so close to the sensations that it becomes sub-conscious and automatic. We use this corporeal knowledge to chew and swallow and talk at the same time, which is quite a complex achievement from the sensorimotor perspective, still impossible to duplicate by a robot. We possess all sorts of corporeal knowledge in the lower portion of the natural mind which allows us to voluntarily direct the body's parts and to coordinate them, as in walking, driving, dancing, catching a ball, or dressing oneself.

This corporeal knowledge is useless in the spiritual world where we do not have a physical body but a spiritual body, which is a mental body, a body made of mental elements like the bodies that appear in our dreams. What are the bodies of these dream characters made of? Obviously not of physical matter, though they appear that way externally. They are made of mental stuff, which we now know consists of spiritual substances streaming forth from the Spiritual Sun. Our spiritual body does not need a corporeal mind, and neither does it need a sensuous mind.

Our sensuous mind operates with sensuous concepts and intelligence, that is, ideas that are based on sensations, sequence, time, space, quantity, number. For instance, very intelligent people in ancient times thought that the earth was flat, that the stars were small, that the sun revolved around our sky, and that we were the center of the universe. All these ideas or concepts and the reasoning level that uses them, are sensuous abstractions of what they were able to see about the world around them. For centuries people on this earth were stuck in that mentality, and their civilization reflected this sub-rational level of thinking. Along with this level of sensuous thinking went a corresponding way of feeling which today strikes us as barbaric, cruel, racist, and limited.

Again, the sensuous mind is useless in the spiritual world and the only part of it that remains at the second death is a symbolic version of it, just like in dreams, when we eat or run we do so symbolically, creating a sensuous image or dream that is like eating or running in the physical world. Similarly in the spiritual world. Our spiritual thoughts and feelings, operating with the spiritual mind, after our natural mind is darkened, appear to us externally all around us by correspondence. This is an automatic process in the spiritual world, given that it is a mental world. What is noteworthy and truly awesome is the fact observed countless times by Swedenborg, that the appearances which our thoughts instantiate around us, can be seen by others who are around.

This would be equivalent to your sleeping in a room while others are sitting around. Right now they can watch the sleeper dreaming but they cannot see the images of the dream. Suppose though that it would be possible for them to enter your dream--I've seen a movie like that once. They would then see what you are dreaming though you would not be able to see them. They could not see you either, but only the dream that you are fabricating. When we enter the world of spirits at death and resuscitation, a process that takes about 30 hours, where do we go? Swedenborg saw and reports that all human beings are resuscitated in view of others who are already resuscitated. The world of spirits is the world where minds are born and grow. We stay in the world of spirits for a brief time, perhaps weeks or months, and then we undergo the second death, which brings us to our permanent state of mind to eternity.

12.0.10  We All Meet in the Mind

Quoting from The Writings:

After this the angel said to them, "It is not yet noon; come with me into the garden of our prince which adjoins this palace." They went; and at the entrance the angel said, "Behold the most magnificent garden in this heavenly society."

But they replied, "What do you say? There is no garden here; we see only one tree, with what seems like fruits of gold on its branches and top, and like leaves of silver, with their edges adorned with emeralds; and under the tree we see little children with their nurses."

To this the angel with inspired voice replied, "This tree is in the midst of the garden, and is called by us the tree of our heaven, and by some the tree of life. But go on and draw nearer, and your eyes will be opened, and you will see the garden."

This they did; and their eyes were opened, and they saw trees heavily laden with delicious fruit, about which vines entwined their tendrils, and their tops were bent down with fruit toward the tree of life in the center.

[2] These trees were planted in a continuous row, which went out and on in endless circles or curves like those of a perpetual spiral; it was a perfect spiral formed by trees, wherein one species followed another in unbroken order according to the excellence of their fruit. There was quite a space between the beginning of the spiral and the tree in the center, and this space gleamed with a radiance that made the trees of the spiral beam with an unbroken and unceasing splendor from the first to the last. The first trees were the noblest of all, luxuriant with the rarest fruit; these were called trees of paradise, never having been seen in any country of the natural world, because they do not and cannot exist there. These were followed by olive trees, then those that yielded wine, then fragrant trees, and finally trees useful to workmen for the wood. Here and there in this coil of trees or spiral there were seats formed of branches of the trees behind drawn forward and interlaced and enriched and adorned with their fruits. In that perpetual circle of trees were passages opening to flower-plots, and from these to lawns, divided off into squares and beds.

[3] The companions of the angel, on seeing these things, ex-claimed, "Behold heaven in form! Wherever we turn our eyes something heavenly and paradisal meets them, which is ineffable."

The angel was delighted with these exclamations, and said, "All our heavenly gardens are representative forms or types of heavenly beatitudes in their origin, and because your minds were exalted by the influx of these beatitudes, you exclaimed, 'Behold heaven in form!' But those who do not receive that influx look upon these paradisal objects only as upon a mere forest. All who are in a love of use receive the influx; but those who are in the love of glory not from use do not receive it." Afterwards he explained and taught what was represented and signified by each thing in the garden. (TCR 741)

Swedenborg observed that not every human being is in direct view of every other human being. We are in co-presence with each other according to the similarity of our mental traits. This requirement insures the maintenance of a rational order of networking which is based on the principle that those who have a lot in common communicate with each other more directly than those who have less in common, and even less communication between those who are opposite to one another. These inner similarities did not dictate our communication network in the physical world. Both angry people and peaceful, could ride the same bus and work in the same office or service the other's car. This is because we live in an external world here on earth, with our inner loves and thoughts hidden from the view of others or even, from our own awareness.

Whom do we see when we are resuscitating? The answer is that we see whomever we want and whoever wants to see us and we feel the same. Among the heavenly inhabitants a husband and wife are always co-present, even when only one is visible to a visitor or neighbor. This is because a husband and wife in heaven are conjugial soul mates and are united as one. This cannot be separated in the spiritual world. It is noteworthy that no one can enter your house when you are not there or when you don't want to see anyone. This is because your house is an outward appearance of your inner loves and thoughts.

What's remarkable is that others can see each other's houses in heaven. Think of how utterly remarkable this is. Heaven is a state of your mind. It is your consciousness of your celestial mind, as explained above. Heaven is constructed out of your rational thoughts and feelings. How then can others who also do this in their mind, meet each other  in the heavens of the spiritual world that Swedenborg visited?

You can understand this puzzle rationally if you keep building your understanding of the fundamental formula: the anatomy of heaven in the mind = the geography of the spiritual world.

To put it in different words, the human race is united mentally so that as an individual moves higher up in consciousness others appear who are also moving up higher in their consciousness. The mind is an objective world, and this world is the spiritual world. It doesn't appear that way to us now because we are solely in the natural mind which is built up from natural concepts--corporeal, sensuous, and natural-rational abstractions. But as we move up in mental operation so that we build our consciousness and understanding more and more rationally, rather than sensuously, we begin to see others who are also building their spiritual-rational concepts or world.

It is important therefore to examine the rational aspect of human beings. As stated, the rational is the beginning of the human. But you'll note that the first rational operation we perform is in the natural mind, which is why it is called the natural-rational. For instance all our advanced systems on earth, such as science, law, and art, are natural-rational systems. They are far above the capacity of our animal level of corporeal  knowledge and sensuous observation. The natural-rational level of thinking and feeling is a noble achievement of the human mind that has given us a modern civilization and a just society. And yet it is far far below our higher rational, which is called the spiritual-rational level of intelligence or consciousness.

We need to recognize the rational, the strictly human, as the essential method for consciousness raising. What is the highest of the highest in rational consciousness? It is Divine Speech or Sacred Scripture. This issues from God's Rational Mind, which is also called Divine Love and Wisdom. In the Divine-Human infinite things make a one. The Spiritual Sun is the closest thing to God in terms of emanation or creation, and it is through the Spiritual Sun that all things in the universe are created from. In other words, if you go within anything more and more, you will find the Spiritual Sun. The inmost or first component of any created thing are substances that emanate from the Spiritual Sun. Then that thing is covered up with an intermediate structure, and finally its ultimate structure which is external and visible. This is true of every thing that exists--the inmost of it is the Spiritual Sun. This is therefore also true of the human mind which is also a created thing.

We have therefore the Spiritual Sun in the inmost level or framework of our mind. At the next level we have the celestial heaven in our mind which is the highest to which our consciousness can rise. Then below that, or external to it, is the spiritual heaven in our mind. More externally below that we have the natural heaven. Below the natural heaven is the world of spirits that serves as a birth and resuscitation state for the mind while we are on earth and immediately thereafter. The hells in our mind are below the world of spirits in descending degrees that correspond to the ascending degrees of the heavens in our mind.

We also need to think of heaven and hell in terms of operations since that's what the function of the mind is--mental operations of the affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor type. When we are acquiring evil loves in our character we are creating content for our hell. That is, connection to people in particular hells who share those evil loves with us. In fact, it is their evil loves that are active in us and we experience this as our own loves since we are unaware of their source. When we are being insensitive or insincere or abusive we are practicing loves that belong to certain hells in other people's minds. This is why popular wisdom recognizes that you are according to the company you keep.

Practicing evil traits means that we are creating direct networking lines with other people who are also practicing the same type of evil traits, and they are in the hells of their mind. Our mind is influenced by other minds and the line of influence depends on what traits we are practicing and loving. If we practice heavenly traits we are establishing communication and connection or influence with others who are also practicing heavenly traits. In fact, Swedenborg reports that when people ascend to their heaven they experience the feeling of 'deja vu' and they embrace the people already there as brothers and sisters and neighbors. Everyone seems extremely familiar even though we see them for the first time. This is because we had already been with them prior to our conscious arrival there.

In summary, we raise our consciousness all the way to heaven, or lower it all the way down to hell, by means of the character traits we practice and love. Every trait involves the mind in its threefold self structure. A trait has therefore an affective component, an associated cognitive component, and a resultant sensorimotor component.

We are now ready to examine heavenly and hellish traits.

 

12.1  Altruism or the Love of Being Useful
 

 

HH 31.

31. The Divine which inflows from the Lord and is received in the third or inmost heaven is called celestial, and in consequence, the angels there are called celestial angels. The Divine inflowing from the Lord and received in the second or middle heaven is called spiritual, and in consequence, the angels there are called spiritual angels. Whereas, the Divine inflowing from the Lord and received in the outermost or first heaven is called natural. But, because the natural of that heaven is not like the natural of the world but has in it the spiritual and the celestial, therefore that heaven is called spiritual- and celestial-natural, and in consequence, the angels there are called spiritual-natural and celestial-natural.# Those who receive influx from the middle or second heaven, which is the spiritual heaven, are called spiritual-natural, and those who receive influx from the third or inmost heaven, which is the celestial heaven, are called celestial- natural. The spiritual-natural and the celestial-natural angels are distinct from each other, but yet they constitute one heaven because they are in one degree.

# There are three heavens, the inmost, the middle, and the outermost, or the third, the second, and the first (n. 684, 9594, 10270); and the goods there follow also in a threefold order (n. 4938, 4939, 9992, 10005, 10017). The good of the inmost or third heaven is called celestial; the good of the middle or second heaven spiritual; and the good of the outermost or first heaven spiritual-natural (n. 4279, 4286, 4938, 4939, 9992, 10005, 10017, 10068).

HH 391.

391. As all the societies in the heavens are distinct in accordance with their goods (as said above, n. 41, seq.) so they are distinct in accordance with their uses, goods being goods in act, that is, goods of charity which are uses. Some societies are employed in taking care of little children; others in teaching and training them as they grow up; others in teaching and training in like manner the boys and girls that have acquired a good disposition from their education in the world, and in consequence have come into heaven. There are other societies that teach the simple good from the Christian world, and lead them into the way to heaven; there are others that in like manner teach and lead the various heathen nations. There are some societies that defend from infestations by evil spirits the newly arrived spirits that have just come from the world; there are some that attend upon the spirits that are in the lower earth; also some that attend upon spirits that are in the hells, and restrain them from tormenting each other beyond prescribed limits; and there are some that attend upon those who are being raised from the dead. In general, angels from each society are sent to men to watch over them and to lead them away from evil affections and consequent thoughts, and to inspire them with good affections so far as they will receive them in freedom; and by means of these they also direct the deeds or works of men by removing as far as possible evil intentions. When angels are with men they dwell as it were in their affections; and they are near to man just in the degree in which he is in good from truths, and are distant from him just in the degree in which his life is distant from good.# But all these employments of angels are employments of the Lord through the angels, for the angels perform them from the Lord and not from themselves. For this reason, in the Word in its internal sense "angels" mean, not angels, but something belonging to the Lord; and for the same reason angels are called "gods" in the Word.##

# Of the angels that are with little children and afterwards with boys, and thus in succession (n. 2303).

Man is raised from the dead by means of angels; from experiences (n. 168-189).

Angels are sent to those who are in hell to prevent their tormenting each other beyond measure (n. 967).

Of the services rendered by the angels to men on their coming into the other life (n. 2131).

There are spirits and angels with all men and man is led by the Lord by means of spirits and angels (n. 50, 697, 2796, 2887, 2888, 5846-5866, 5976-5993, 6209).

Angels have dominion over evil spirits (n. 1755).

## In the Word by angels something Divine from the Lord is signified (n. 1925, 2821, 3039, 4085, 6280, 8192).

In the Word angels are called "gods," because of their reception of Divine truth and good from the Lord (n. 4295, 4402, 8192, 8301).

HH 392.

392. These employments of the angels are their general employments; but each one has his particular charge; for every general use is composed of innumerable uses which are called mediate, ministering, and subservient uses, all and each coordinated and subordinated in accordance with Divine order, and taken together constituting and perfecting the general use, which is the general good.

HH 393.

393. Those are concerned with ecclesiastical affairs in heaven who in the world loved the Word and eagerly sought in it for truths, not with honor or gain as an end, but uses of life both for themselves and for others. These in heaven are in enlightenment and in the light of wisdom in the measure of their love and desire for use; and this light of wisdom they receive from the Word in heaven, which is not a natural Word, as it is in the world, but a spiritual Word (see above, n. 259.) These minister in the preaching office; and in accordance with Divine order those are in higher positions who from enlightenment excel others in wisdom. [2] Those are concerned with civil affairs who in the world loved their country, and loved its general good more than their own, and did what is just and right from a love for what is just and right. So far as these from the eagerness of love have investigated the laws of justice and have thereby become intelligent, they have the ability to perform such functions in heaven, and they perform these in that position or degree that accords with their intelligence, their intelligence being in equal degree with their love of use for the general good. [3] Furthermore, there are in heaven more functions and services and occupations than can be enumerated; while in the world there are few in comparison. But however many there may be that are so employed, they are all in the delight of their work and labor from a love of use, and no one from a love of self or of gain; and as all the necessaries of life are furnished them gratuitously they have no love of gain for the sake of a living. They are housed gratuitously, clothed gratuitously, and fed gratuitously. Evidently, then, those that have loved themselves and the world more than use have no lot in heaven; for his love or affection remains with everyone after his life in the world, and is not extirpated to eternity (see above, n. 563).

HH 394.

394. In heaven everyone comes into his own occupation in accordance with correspondence, and the correspondence is not with the occupation but with the use of each occupation (see above, n. 112); for there is a correspondence of all things (see n. 106). He that in heaven comes into the employment or occupation corresponding to his use is in much the same condition of life as when he was in the world; since what is spiritual and what is natural make one by correspondences; yet there is this difference, that he then comes into an interior delight, because into spiritual life, which is an interior life, and therefore more receptive of heavenly blessedness.

HH 395.

395. HEAVENLY JOY AND HAPPINESS.

Hardly any one at present knows what heaven is or what heavenly joy is. Those who have given any thought to these subjects have had so general and so gross an idea about them as scarcely to amount to anything. From spirits that have come from the world into the other life I have been able to learn fully what idea they had of heaven and heavenly joy; for when left to themselves, as they were in the world, they think as they then did. There is this ignorance about heavenly joy for the reason that those who have thought about it have formed their opinion from the outward joys pertaining to the natural man, and have not known what the inner and spiritual man is, nor in consequence the nature of his delight and blessedness; and therefore even if they had been told by those who are in spiritual or inward delight what heavenly joy is, would have had no comprehension of it, for it could have fallen only into an idea not yet recognized, thus into no perception; and would therefore have been among the things that the natural man rejects. Yet everyone can understand that when a man leaves his outer or natural man he comes into the inner or spiritual man, and consequently can see that heavenly delight is internal and spiritual, not external and natural; and being internal and spiritual, it is more pure and exquisite, and affects the interiors of man which pertain to his soul or spirit. From these things alone everyone may conclude that his delight is such as the delight of his spirit has previously been and that the delight of the body, which is called the delight of the flesh, is in comparison not heavenly; also that whatever is in the spirit of man when he leaves the body remains after death, since he then lives a man-spirit.

HH 399.

399. One can see how great the delight of heaven must be from the fact that it is the delight of everyone in heaven to share his delights and blessings with others; and as such is the character of all that are in the heavens it is clear how immeasurable is the delight of heaven. It has been shown above (n. 268), that in the heavens there is a sharing of all with each and of each with all. Such sharing goes forth from the two loves of heaven, which are, as has been said, love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor; and to share their delights is the very nature of these loves. Love to the Lord is such because the Lord's love is a love of sharing everything it has with all, since it wills the happiness of all. There is a like love in everyone of those who love the Lord, because the Lord is in them; and from this comes the mutual sharing of the delights of angels with one another. Love towards the neighbor is of such a nature, as will be seen in what follows. All this shows that it is the nature of these loves to share their delights. It is otherwise with the loves of self and of the world. The love of self takes away from others and robs others of all delight, and directs it to itself, for it wishes well to itself alone; while the love of the world wishes to have as its own what belongs to the neighbor. Therefore these loves are destructive of the delights of others; or if there is any disposition to share, it is for the sake of themselves and not for the sake of others. Thus in respect to others it is the nature of those loves not to share but to take away, except so far as the delights of others have some relation to self. That the loves of self and of the world, when they rule, are such I have often been permitted to perceive by living experience. Whenever the spirits that were in these loves during their life as men in the world drew near, my delight receded and vanished; and I was told that at the mere approach of such to any heavenly society the delight of those in the society diminished just in the degree of their proximity; and what is wonderful, the evil spirits are then in their delight. All this indicates the state of the spirit of such a man while he is in the body, since it is the same as it is after it is separated from the body, namely, that it longs for or lusts after the delights or goods of another, and finds delight so far as it secures them. All this makes clear that the loves of self and of the world tend to destroy the joys of heaven, and are thus direct opposites of heavenly loves, which desire to share.

HH 401.

401. One who is in the love of self and love of the world perceives while he lives in the body a sense of delight from these loves and also in the particular pleasures derived from these loves. But one who is in love to God and in love towards the neighbor does not perceive while he lives in the body any distinct sense of delight from these loves or from the good affections derived from them, but only a blessedness that is hardly perceptible, because it is hidden away in his interiors and veiled by the exteriors pertaining to the body and dulled by the cares of the world. But after death these states are entirely changed. The delights of love of self and of the world are then turned into what is painful and direful, because into such things as are called infernal fire, and by turns into things defiled and filthy corresponding to their unclean pleasures, and these, wonderful to tell, are then delightful to them. But the obscure delight and almost imperceptible blessedness of those that had been while in the world in love to God and in love to the neighbor are then turned into the delight of heaven, and become in every way perceived and felt, for the blessedness that lay hidden and unrecognized in their interiors while they lived in the world is then revealed and brought forth into evident sensation, because such had been the delight of their spirit, and they are then in the spirit.

HH 402.

402. In uses all the delights of heaven are brought together and are present, because uses are the goods of love and charity in which angels are; therefore everyone has delights that are in accord with his uses, and in the degree of his affection for use. That all the delights of heaven are delights of use can be seen by a comparison with the five bodily senses of man. There is given to each sense a delight in accordance with its use; to the sight, the hearing, the smell, the taste, and the touch, each its own delight; to the sight a delight from beauty and from forms, to the hearing from harmonious sounds, to the smell from pleasing odors, to taste from fine flavors. These uses which the senses severally perform are known to those who study them, and more fully to those who are acquainted with correspondences. Sight has such a delight because of the use it performs to the understanding, which is the inner sight; the hearing has such a delight because of the use it performs both to the understanding and to the will through giving attention; the smell has such a delight because of the use it performs to the brain, and also to the lungs; the taste has such a delight because of the use it performs to the stomach, and thus to the whole body by nourishing it. The delight of marriage, which is a purer and more exquisite delight of touch, transcends all the rest because of its use, which is the procreation of the human race and thereby of angels of heaven. These delights are in these sensories by an influx of heaven, where every delight pertains to use and is in accordance with use.

HH 402.

402. In uses all the delights of heaven are brought together and are present, because uses are the goods of love and charity in which angels are; therefore everyone has delights that are in accord with his uses, and in the degree of his affection for use. That all the delights of heaven are delights of use can be seen by a comparison with the five bodily senses of man. There is given to each sense a delight in accordance with its use; to the sight, the hearing, the smell, the taste, and the touch, each its own delight; to the sight a delight from beauty and from forms, to the hearing from harmonious sounds, to the smell from pleasing odors, to taste from fine flavors. These uses which the senses severally perform are known to those who study them, and more fully to those who are acquainted with correspondences. Sight has such a delight because of the use it performs to the understanding, which is the inner sight; the hearing has such a delight because of the use it performs both to the understanding and to the will through giving attention; the smell has such a delight because of the use it performs to the brain, and also to the lungs; the taste has such a delight because of the use it performs to the stomach, and thus to the whole body by nourishing it. The delight of marriage, which is a purer and more exquisite delight of touch, transcends all the rest because of its use, which is the procreation of the human race and thereby of angels of heaven. These delights are in these sensories by an influx of heaven, where every delight pertains to use and is in accordance with use.

 

 

12.2  Character Virtues

 

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which
difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish." (John Quincy Adams)

 

12.3  Chastity and Conjugial Love
 

 

12.4   Wisdom of Innocence
 

 

12.5  Wisdom of Old Age

 

 

12.6  Selfishness or the Love of Domineering

 

 

12.6.1  Human Freedom--Heavenly and Hellish

 

Quoting from the Writings of Swedenborg:

AC 2870. HUMAN FREEDOM
Few know what freedom is and what non-freedom is. Freedom seems to entail everything that is in keeping with any love and associated delight, and non-freedom to entail everything that is at variance with these. That which is in keeping with self-love and love of the world, and with the desires belonging to those loves, seems to man to be freedom; but that is the freedom of hell. That however which is in keeping with love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, consequently with the love of what is good and true, is true freedom, being the freedom that exists in heaven. (AC 2870)

AC 2871. Spirits in hell do not know of the existence of any other freedom than that which goes with self-love and love of the world, that is, with the desires to exercise control over others, to persecute, and to hate all who do not serve them, to torment everyone, to destroy for their own ends if they could the whole world, and to carry away and claim for themselves whatever belongs to another.

While gratifying these and similar desires they are enjoying what to them is freedom, for they are attaining what is their delight. Their life consists in that freedom to such an extent that if it is taken away from them no more life is left to them than that of a new-born child. This has also been shown to me through an actual experience. A certain evil spirit was convinced that such things could be taken away from him, and that if they were he could enter heaven, and that consequently his life could be miraculously transformed into heavenly life. His loves and the desires belonging to these were therefo