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

8.0  Learning and Cognition

This section is based on a study by George de Charms titled Imagination and Rationality (1972, see Readings). DeCharms uses the word "imagination" to refer to cognitive processes, while "rationality" refers to the syntax of cognitive processes. The purpose we need to study how the human works is that such knowledge helps us to cooperate in our regeneration. The Divine Psychologist is managing and accomplishing our regeneration, but we are given the choice to put a limit to the process. We can refuse to cooperate, in which case we remain unregenerate and our character remains evil, as inherited (see Section xx).

We can cooperate to different extents. Some of us are willing to be regenerated only as to the spiritual-natural degree of thinking and intending, in which case they end up in their First Heaven. Others, to the spiritual-rational degree, in which case they end up in their Second Heaven. And some are willing to be regenerated to the celestial-rational degree of thinking and willing, in which case they end up in their Third Heaven (see Section xx). Knowledge of the anatomy and functioning of the mind allows us to increase the extent of our cooperation with the Divine Psychologist (see Section xx).

 Human life consists in doing what one is willing by means of thinking. In other words, willing and intending is the activity of our loves or motives, while thinking is the activity of our reasoning and understanding. Willing requires thinking in order to achieve doing that which satisfies our loves or motives. We make choices by allowing our loves or motives to select the kinds of thoughts and plans that can fulfill those loves. Without thinking, we could not eat because food is not available wherever we happen to be. We must know or think where there is available food we could eat. It is the same with every other activity. See the discussion on the "threefold self" in Section xx.

The Writings of Swedenborg give us new information about the human mind that was never available to the human race. We now know about how the conscious and unconscious  zzzxx

 

8.1  Thinking From Natural Ideas vs. Thinking From Spiritual Ideas

In order to understand how learning operates we need to know the chain of events from God to the habit or behavior that has been learned. This is a simultaneous as well as a sequence of events. One of the most far reaching principles that are revealed in the scientific revelations in the Writings is this principle that all sequential events also must occur simultaneously throughout the causal chain coming down from God. The Spiritual Sun is the instrument by which God controls all things. But how? The answer is related to God's attribute of omnipresence. We need to think of this in a dualist framework. God cannot be present in space and time in the same sense that a tree or ant is present on earth, for then God could not be omnipresent, or present in every place on earth. This is rationally and scientifically impossible for God since God always acts rationally, this being God's nature. God cannot act irrationally or make the impossible happen, thus breaking all the rational rules that God created. Therefore there must another way of looking at God's omnipresence.

The Writings discuss what this means:

When an angel of heaven thinks of the Divine Omnipresence, he simply cannot think otherwise than that the Divine fills all things apart from space (DLW 71)

We are called angels when we ascend in consciousness to our highest level called "heaven." In that state of mind we are spiritual, not natural. We think and reason in our spiritual or celestial mind. Swedenborg was able to experience this high state in his mind, and when he was in that state he discovered that he was able to see and speak with the people who are permanently settled in that state of life, and hence he called them "angels of heaven." Swedenborg can therefore give us an empirical account of what it's like to function as an angel of heaven, both from what he observed about his thinking and the thinking of the angels. What does it mean that the Divine fills all things apart from space?

We read in the Writings:

THE DIVINE IS NOT IN SPACE. That the Divine, that is, God, is not in space, although omnipresent and with every man in the world, and with every angel in heaven, and with every spirit under heaven, cannot be comprehended by a merely natural idea, but it can by a spiritual idea. It cannot be comprehended by a natural idea, because in the natural idea there is space; since it is formed out of such things as are in the world, and in each and all of these, as seen by the eye, there is space. In the world, everything great and small is of space; everything long, broad, and high is of space; in short, every measure, figure and form is of space. This is why it has been said that it cannot be comprehended by a merely natural idea that the Divine is not in space, when it is said that the Divine is everywhere.

Still, by natural thought, a man may comprehend this, if only he admit into it something of spiritual light. For this reason something shall first be said about spiritual idea, and thought therefrom. Spiritual idea derives nothing from space, but it derives its all from state. State is predicated of love, of life, of wisdom, of affections, of joys therefrom; in general, of good and of truth. An idea of these things which is truly spiritual has nothing in common with space; it is higher and looks down upon the ideas of space which are under it as heaven looks down upon the earth. But since angels and spirits see with eyes, just as men in the world do, and since objects cannot be seen except in space, therefore in the spiritual world where angels and spirits are, there appear to be spaces like the spaces on earth; yet they are not spaces, but appearances; since they are not fixed and constant, as spaces are on earth; for they can be lengthened or shortened; they can be changed or varied.

Thus because they cannot be determined in that world by measure, they cannot be comprehended there by any natural idea, but only by a spiritual idea. The spiritual idea of distances of space is the same as of distances of good or distances of truth, which are affinities and likenesses according to states of goodness and truth. (DLW 7)

This revelation is of enormous significance to theistic psychology. From this we know that there are two ways in which human beings think, one natural, the other spiritual. We are in effect born into two worlds and our natural mind is built up from the experiences in the physical world, while our spiritual mind is built up from the experiences in the spiritual world. This makes dual citizens, living simultaneously in two separate but correspondential universes. This is not difficult to understand if you contrast physical places in which our bodily events occur and dream places in which our dreams take place. The house in the dream may be very spacious, but we can understand that those spaces are not physical. In the same way the places in the spiritual world are not physical spaces. Swedenborg calls them appearances of space. Dreams are real appearances. But where?

Dreams are real appearances in the spiritual world, so real that others around the dreaming person can see the dream scapes all around them. It is as if the dream occurs on a holodeck (as in Star Trek) where it is called "virtual reality." Suppose you could be present inside my dreams. You would be present everywhere in my dream, not just in one scene or one place, but in all scenes and all places. Virtually, you would be omnipresent in my dreams. This means that you would be present everywhere in my dreams but not in the space of my dream, but apart from it. If you were present in the space of my dream you would then be part of my dream and therefore be present in only some scenes or positions in a scene, say, sitting in a chair. You would not be present outside the chair or in anther room in the dream. The only way you could be present in all places in my dream is by being present in my dream apart from the dream itself or any of its parts.

In the same way God is omnipresent, present in all places but apart from space. Similarly with time, in that God is present in all time but apart from time.

The Writings explain:

It has been said that in the spiritual world, just as in the natural world, there appear to be spaces, consequently also distances, but that these are appearances according to spiritual affinities which are of love and wisdom, or of good and truth. From this it is that the Divine-Human, although everywhere in the heavens with angels, nevertheless appears high above them as a sun. Furthermore, since reception of love and wisdom causes affinity with the Divine-Human, those heavens in which the angels are, from reception, in closer affinity with Him, appear nearer to Him than those in which the affinity is more remote. From this it is also that the heavens, of which there are three, are distinct from each other, likewise the societies of each heaven; and further, that the hells under them are remote according to their rejection of love and wisdom. The same is true of men, in whom and with whom the Divine-Human is present throughout the whole earth; and this solely for the reason that the Divine-Human is not in space. (DLW 10)

In other words, the appearance of distance in a dream, as in the spiritual world, is a correspondential representation of an affective state in the mind. The reason that there are several heavens is that people vary in the degree to which they are able to raise their consciousness. We can be very near to God by receiving in our mind the love substance that emanates from the Spiritual Sun, which surrounds God and is the nearest creation to God, that is, the purest form of the substances that God creates from the infinite Love which is in God. We are nearer to God in distance when we receive love in a relatively purer form. We find ourselves distanced from God to the extent that we distort the pure form of love that emanates from the Spiritual Sun. The heat of the Spiritual Sun is called spiritual heat, which is love; and the light of the Spiritual Sun is called spiritual light or truth. The love in our affective organ and the truth in our cognitive organ are not pure substances from the Spiritual Sun, but modified in ways that depend on the unique form of every person's mind and identity. This is also true of the natural sun, whose heat and light hit various plants, and each plant absorbs them in a unique way, producing as a result fruits and flowers unique to each species, and indeed to each individual plant or leaf.

Hence it is that our vertical community with spirits is determined by the quality of the love we have. When we are immersed in our good loves we can ascend all the way to the highest heaven in our mind, depending only on our willingness to embrace the inflowing love without distorting it with our own ego. For instance, we can start thinking irrationally that the love and goodness we possess is from ourselves and not flowing in from God. This is such a distortion of the inflowing love that it forms for itself thoughts and reasonings that are false and delusional. We then live in our illusions and delusions, like schizophrenics who fabricate a world of their own, or like a habitual liar or hypocrite who deceives others and forms a hellish character in themselves filled with awful traits and habits. Human beings can therefore choose their own distance from God and reality by what they are willing to love and to think. The distance and space in the spiritual world, and therefore in the mental world, is always relative to God, representing the spiritual distance from God's Love and Truth, streaming as spiritual heat and light into their affective and cognitive receptors.

8.2  Thinking About God From Spiritual Ideas Rather Than Natural

A natural idea of God is that God is invisible, shapeless, and everywhere. This is not different from the natural idea of space or energy force. Space is everywhere and energy is everywhere, hence God is some kind of force that's everywhere. But thinking this way about God is antithetical to the fact that God has revealed that He is a human person who loves, thinks, and acts from his love through His Wisdom and Intelligence. If God thinks and loves, He must be a human person for only a human thinks and loves. Rocks don't think and feel, and while animals love things they are not capable of thinking rationally. They act from their love instinctively, not by having to figure it out, like human beings. Children are taught to be human, that is, to speak and to use their thinking to satisfy their loves and intentions. An animal that grows up to an adult in an isolated state will act normally like the other animals in that species. All its ability to survive is innate or instinctive. It doesn't need to be taught what to eat or how to get to the food. Human infants cannot grow up on their own, do not know how to think rationally or how to survive, do not know what to eat or how to get it. Every skill a human being develops must be taught. As a result human act not from instinct or innate knowledge, but from rational thinking, from a plan that leads to a goal that satisfied one's needs and wishes.

So the definition of "human" is to act from desire or motive in accordance with a rational plan that leads to the goal that satisfies the need. God acts from love according to rational intelligence and wisdom. God created the universe from a desire to share the good with human beings. God desires to make human beings happy and proceeds to achieve this goal by rational order of all things created. It is revealed in the Writings that God created the universe as a home for human beings. Every human being that is created is immortal and God intends that human beings live in a state of heaven to eternity, in which humans are in a state of endless joy endlessly increasing in intensity. To achieve this state of eternal joy human beings must be born on some earth, raised by other human beings, and prepared to die and resuscitate for heavenly life in an immortal spiritual body. Humans must have free will and rationality in order to achieve this heavenly state. It is not according to God's rational order to create human robots in heaven who are always heavenly in character. Those angel robots would not be able to act as if from themselves, in liberty and choice. Angel robots made in heaven would only act from God directly and would not have a self of their own. Without a self, there is no human being but only an organic robot activated by God as so many artificial extensions of Himself.

In the same way God would not be a human person if He did not act from free choice of love by means of rational reasoning. We need therefore to develop the spiritual idea that God is a human person in whom infinite things make one. Being human means that God must have organs like the created human beings:

That in God there are infinite things, any one may convince himself who believes that God is a Man; for, being a Man, He has a body and every thing pertaining to it, that is, a face, breast, abdomen, loins and feet; for without these He would not be a Man. And having these, He also has eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and tongue; also the parts within man, as the heart and lungs, and their dependencies, all of which, taken together, make man to be a man. In a created man these parts are many, and regarded in their details of structure are numberless; but in God-Man they are infinite, nothing whatever is lacking, and from this He has infinite perfection. This comparison holds between the uncreated Man who is God and created man, because God is a Man; and He Himself says that the man of this world was created after His image and into His likeness (Gen. 1:26, 27). (DLW 18)

Because in God-Man there are infinite things which appear in heaven, in angel, and in man, as in a mirror; and because God-Man is not in space (as was shown above, n. 7-10), it can, to some extent, be seen and comprehended how God can be Omnipresent, Omniscient, and All-providing; and how, as Man, He could create all things, and as Man can hold the things created by Himself in their order to eternity. (DLW 21)

In other words we are human because God is Human. Swedenborg uses the title the Divine-Human to refer to God. The idea that God is a Human is difficult to accept as long as you think of God as invisible and everywhere in the world, knowing all, seeing all. This is thinking about God from a natural concept, limited by restrictions of time and space and matter or energy. God is not energy or force for two reasons. First, because energy is a natural concept restricted to time and space. God creates energy, therefore God cannot be energy. Second, the idea of energy or force annihilates the Human nature of God. Energy or force does not love or think rationally. Only a human loves and thinks rationally. So, if we are willing to abandon the natural idea of God, we are then able to see God from a spiritual idea.

A spiritual idea of God is that God is infinite love and intelligence or wisdom. It is known that only humans can love and think rationally. Therefore a definition of what is human is to say that human is that which loves and thinks rationally. According to this definition therefore God is Human. And this makes good sense within the positive bias and dualism. God is the creator of everything that exists, and since God cannot change and has always been perfectly Human, every thing created by God must have an "image" or representation of God within itself. The entire universe is therefore a representation of the Divine-Human and this is true of every object in it, from molecule to galaxy, and from earthworm to human beings. his scientific principle was well known to the ancients, as reported by Swedenborg who had access to the earliest generations of humans on earth by being able to visit with them in their heavenly habitations where they have been for a long time.

Since God is Human and has a human anatomy just like ours, it is rational to talk to God and to love God, striving to come spiritually nearer to God by learning to act lovingly and rationally all the time. This greater closeness to God allows us to receive much more in terms of happiness, intelligence, and productivity. This closeness to God is not possible if God is an invisible force that cannot be understood by human minds. A love for some invisible energy is no love of God. Swedenborg proved this when he interviewed recent arrivals to the world of spirits about their idea of God. Those who came with the natural idea that God is an invisible force permeating the universe, now recanted and rejected any idea of God. When they were instructed that God is a Human, they found it preposterous and were unwilling to accept the idea. Their lifestyle in the spiritual world is unenviable and awful. This is because in this world we can be atheists and deny God, yet still be equally loving, moral, and decent as those who profess a belief in God, yet hardly live like what God wants and commands for their own sake.

It is extremely important to remember that only in this life on earth can we modify our basic loves. Once the physical body is dead and we are no longer in the natural world, we are awakened as "spirits" in a spiritual world. This is the continuation of human life for everyone, as part of being human.  When we thus begin our new life in eternity, outside time and space, the rules of living and of reality are different. For example, we can see each other's thoughts or intentions, not always in particular detail, but in a general form, as if from a distance. Still, it is enough that we can monitor features such as whether someone intends evil to us, or whether they are harmless. Also, what the other person is thinking is instantly reflected in the surrounding presence, so that all of a sudden it gets dark, or an awful smell is detected, or dangerous animals appear on the horizon, and so on. As a result only those people or "spirits" can be in each other's presence or company who are similar to one another. This means that life in eternity is within communities that are distinctly different from each other, but within each community they are similar variations of each other, even though each is completely unique.

Swedenborg observed that those who are unwilling to accept the idea or truth that God is Human with all the human body organs, sink down into the corporeal mind where they filter out all rationality and love that they receive through the Spiritual Sun which permeates every human mind there. Swedenborg proved this experimentally by asking some of these people to repeat sentences after him that were rational and true. For example, "God is a Human," which they repeated as "God is not a Human." Or, "angels are good, devils are bad" which he repeated as "Devils are good, angels are bad." And other ways, as for instance someone in the heaven of their mind wrote a sentence on a piece of paper which was then passed down to someone in the hell of their mind, who was asked to read it. And he read the opposite of what was written. This is because he filtered all incoming truth and rationality and turned it into its opposite. This is also interesting because it shows that those who keep themselves in the hell of their mind actually retain all their rationality so that they can read a sentence and say its opposite. This takes rational skills. So it is the perversion of their love that gets them to use their rationality to defeat it. Their evil loves defeat their capacity for rationality not just once and for all, but continuously, moment by moment. So fiercely do they hold on to these evil loves that no amount of suffering and agony they experience can convince them to come out of their evil loves.

You can see from these actual reports and experiments how important it is to have a spiritual idea of God, since this will be the basis of our reality to eternity. Our happiness, intelligence, and creativeness depends on this idea of God as a Human. Therefore you can see how important it is for all of us to really understand scientifically how it can be that God, as a Divine-Human Person, can be omnipresent.

This can only be understood with rational ideas put together rationally. Namely, that God is present everywhere not in space but apart from space and time. This then becomes our challenge: How do understand fully the idea of "apart from space and time."

I have struggled with it for years and I've made steady progress understanding this idea more and more fully. You can begin now, and as you read more and more of the Writings, you will develop a gradually a fuller and fuller understanding of this rational principle about God and the reality of the universe we live in.

For now you can review again what was said above about our dreams: What if you could evolve the ability to be present in my dreams, not as a character I'm dreaming about, but the real you. You will be able to see my dreams, all the landscapes and people and events. But I the dreamer will not see you or know about you. Your ability makes it possible for you to be present in all my dreams. Thus, you will be omnipresent in my dreams. We could say therefore that you are present in all my dreams everywhere, but not in my dreams but apart from them. Your omnipresence in my dreams would not be possible if you were in my dreams rather than apart from them. Here we have an inkling of the spiritual meaning of how God as Human can be omnipresent in the universe. God is present everywhere not in time and space but apart from them.

And in this way we can continue expanding our understanding of God, and how God manages the universe on a continuous "online" basis by means of rational laws of management and engineering. The more rationally we are able to develop our understanding of God and God's management techniques, the more we can receive from God the good things and the true things of life, such as the love of being useful and the wisdom to learn from the endless life of experience in eternity. But if we fail to develop this spiritual understanding of God we put a quick limit to our intelligence and humanity. This is because all intelligence and humanity comes to us from God, moment by moment. We do not possess any of it ourselves, so that if we cut off the online input or "influx," we develop into a sub-human person that immerses the individual in awful experiences that never end.

Much is at stake here, correct?

Look at the fallacies one can fall into when considering God from a natural idea. quoting from student reports:

Negative bias is a major roadblock to the study of theistic psychology. Negative bias is often a trait shared by many atheist and agnostics. Their inability to prove the existence of God leads them to the conclusion that God is an impossibility. In the article “A Christian God’s Contradictions”, God is professed to be a contradiction of ideals and therefore a universal impossibility. The article claims that a being who is Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnibenevolent, cannot possibly exist because each of these traits contradicts the other (www.anatheist.com/Articles/god_contradictions.html ). Of course the author does not explain how these things contradict each of, but merely states it as fact. The article discusses the concept of the law of non-contradiction, and how this proves the non-existence of God, since He is not composed of atoms and matter. The law of non-contradictions states that nothing can exist without matter or some form of substance, so since God is said to exist in the spirit world He must be without substance, thus fully embracing a negative bias.  ( www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s2004/clark/report1.htm )

The two main standards to deciding whether or not a theory is scientific are its testability and compatibility to natural law. In the case of a theistic approach, its spiritual nature makes it impossible to be tested and confirms its incompatibility to natural law. Furthermore, in reference to Theistic Psychology, Swedenborg’s journeys to the spiritual realm, as far as we know, cannot be repeated. Therefore, it is not a guarantee that he undeniably talked to God and interviewed spirits.  ( www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459s2004/le/report1.htm )

In the following passage from Swedenborg "the doctrine of faith" refers to the understanding of scientific revelations in sacred scripture or "the Word" which refers to the Word of God or Divine Speech. There are two approaches, one valid the other not. It is not valid to "regard the doctrine of faith from rational things" which is "not to believe in the Word." This is the negative bias. The correct approach is to "regard rational things from the doctrine of faith," and this "is first to believe in the Word, or in the doctrine therefrom." This is the positive bias, or the "affirmative principle." In other words one must first believe that sacred scripture is Divine revelation, and then one can confirm rationally that it is so. But the negative bias is first to examine sacred scripture to see if it fits our rational assumptions before we accept it as Divine truth. With this approach one remains in the negative bias or the "negative principle").

As regards man it is one thing to regard the doctrine of faith from rational things, and altogether another to regard rational things from the doctrine of faith.

To regard the doctrine of faith from rational things is not to believe in the Word, or in the doctrine thence derived, until one is persuaded from rational things that it is so; whereas to regard rational things from the doctrine of faith is first to believe in the Word, or in the doctrine therefrom, and then to confirm the same by rational things. The former is inverted order, and results in nothing being believed; whereas the latter is genuine order, and causes the man to believe the better. (...)

[3] These things are much treated of in the Word in its internal sense, especially where Asshur and Egypt are spoken of; for the reason that while the doctrine of faith is regarded from rational things, that is, while a man does not believe until he is persuaded from them that it is so, it then not only becomes null and void, but whatever is contained in it is also denied; whereas when rational things are regarded from the doctrine of faith, that is, when a man believes the Word, and afterwards the same things are confirmed by rational things, the doctrine is then living and whatever is contained in it is affirmed.

[4] There are therefore two principles; one of which leads to all folly and insanity, and the other to all intelligence and wisdom. The former principle is to deny all things, or to say in the heart that we cannot believe them until we are convinced by what we can apprehend, or perceive by the senses; this is the principle that leads to all folly and insanity, and is to be called the negative principle. The other principle is to affirm the things which are of doctrine from the Word, or to think and believe within ourselves that they are true because the Divine-Human has said them: this is the principle that leads to all intelligence and wisdom, and is to be called the affirmative principle.

[5] The more they who think from the negative principle consult things rational, the more they consult memory-knowledges, and the more they consult things philosophical, the more do they cast and precipitate themselves into darkness, until at last they deny all things. The causes of this are, that no one can apprehend higher things from lower ones, that is, spiritual and celestial things, still less Divine things, from lower ones, because they transcend all understanding, and moreover everything is then involved in negatives from that principle. On the other hand, they who think from an affirmative principle can confirm themselves by whatever things rational, by whatever memory-knowledges, and whatever things philosophic they have at command; for all these are to them things confirmatory, and give them a fuller idea of the matter.

[6] Moreover there are some who are in doubt before they deny, and there are some who are in doubt before they affirm. They who are in doubt before they deny are they who incline to a life of evil; and when this life carries them away, then insofar as they think of the matters in question they deny them. But they who are in doubt before they affirm are they who incline to a life of good; and when they suffer themselves to be bent to this by the Divine-Human, then insofar as they think about those things so far they affirm. As this subject is further treated of in the verses which follow,. it is permitted of the Divine-Human's Divine mercy to illustrate them more fully there (see n. 2588).  AC 2568.

Note especially this sentence: "The more they who think from the negative principle consult things rational, the more they consult memory-knowledges, and the more they consult things philosophical, the more do they cast and precipitate themselves into darkness, until at last they deny all things." It should be noted that "to consult the rational" refers to the rational part of the natural mind or the "natural-rational" way of thinking. This is as different from the "spiritual-rational" as the spiritual is superior or higher to the natural. What is the difference?

The natural-rational way of thinking consists of knowledge built up from the physical senses and its abstracted principles such as we find in materialistic science or monism. If we let this type of reasoning judge the truth value of sacred scripture we will always reject revelation and remain in the negative bias forever. Hence it is said that this natural-rational "ought not be consulted." But if we accept sacred scripture as Divine truth we are thinking in the mode of dualism in accordance with scientific revelations. We are thus in the positive bias. When we then examine sacred scripture we can confirm its truth rationally by thinking of how the natural events are mere effects that are caused by spiritual events. The knowledge and understanding of spiritual events described in sacred scripture builds up our spiritual-rational thinking so that it filters down and conditions the natural-rational thinking. This leads to enlightenment which is the ability to think and reason in the dualist mode of sacred scripture.

8.3   How We Learn and Develop Rationality

The foremost principle of learning in theistic psychology is that all thoughts are created by our loves. Therefore, in order to learn or acquire a new habit-skill, we must use our cognitive processes for thinking about what we are to do and how to do it. This cognitive process is an operation in the cognitive mind, which is a spiritual organ involving nerve fibers constructed from the substances streaming out from the Spiritual Sun. However, not a single cognitive operation is possible except through an impulse from the affective organ. You cannot think a single thought unless it is initiated by some love, purpose, or motive in the affective organ called "the will." All thoughts and their operations are goal-directed by an affection for the goal. The affection for the goal is called the motive. The motive is the essential cause or source of all action, behavior, or habit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8.3.1  Degrees of Truth and Levels of Mind

This chart is adapted from Kay Alden's Theology 526 paper (see Reading List ). She credits Rev. Willard Heinrichs for an earlier chart. See also Hugo Lj. Odhner's chart in The Human Mind for a related description.

Degrees of Truth	Level of Mind and Function		Part of the Person	Corresponding Level in Spiritual World
4	Interior- rational or celestial- rational	Celestial mind	Interior or rational person	Celestial  Heaven
3	Exterior- rational or spiritual- rational	Spiritual mind		Spiritual Heaven
2	Interior- natural or spiritual- natural	Interior natural mind (interior-natural, spiritual-rational, and celestial-rational correspondences)		Natural Heaven
1	Natural- rational	External natural mind  (natural correspondences, reasoning, imagination, natural or external memory)	External or natural  person	World of spirits
	Sensuous- natural
	Corporeal
BODY

The chart above represents many different passages from the Writings in which the anatomy of the human mind is discussed along with the geography of the spiritual world (see Section xx). The first two rows (1, 2) above the BODY represents our natural mind in which we are conscious on this earth. Row 1 portrays the natural mind before reformation and regeneration, while row 2 represents the natural mind that is being regenerated. During the regeneration of the natural mind by means of temptations (see Section xx), a new organic structure begins to open or develop within the external natural mind. This new organ is a degree more interior and gives conscious awareness of interior-natural, spiritual-rational, and celestial-rational correspondences. These progressively elevate the mind to the three heavens while we are still on earth thus being able to be illustrated or enlightened while reading Sacred Scripture. The progressive development of the interior-natural organ is proportional to progress in regeneration by means of natural, spiritual, and celestial temptations (see Section xx). Levels 3 and 4 continue to develop but remain unconscious until we undergo resuscitation after death (see Section xx).

For additional extensive charts on the anatomy of the human mind see Section 5.1.

Here is a related chart based on my lecture notes on Religious Behaviorism (1982) available online at:  www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/499cl97/march/f11.html

LEVEL OF RATIONALITY		OPERATION	FUNCTION
6	Spirituality	WISDOM	perception of good--evil
5	Rationality	INTELLIGENCE	understanding of true--false (higher consciousness)
4	Morality--Equity	REASONING	understanding of fair--unfair (lower consciousness)
3	Memory--Imagery	LOGIC	understanding of correct--incorrect (natural ideas)
1,2	Sensory-motor	REFLEXIVE	physiological engram (sensorimotor memory)

The chart above shows that rational operation is a skill that has progressive levels based on one another. The lowest level of rationality operates reflexively once established. I call it "sensorimotor memory" or "body memory" and depends on the establishment of neural connections through dint of cumulative repetition. Rationality cannot develop in the absence of this basic operation. Immediately above this level is "logic" or "mechanics" (level 3) and reflects the mind's inborn tendency to organize incoming sensory input into an order that is compatible with higher rationality. Level 3 rationality allows us to differentiate between correct and incorrect. Another step up is needed (level 4) in order to understand the difference between fair and unfair, which is the basis of equity and morality. This level is called "reasoning" and constitutes our lower consciousness of true rationality or spiritual consciousness.

Level 5 is rationality proper and depends on our innate ability for intelligence. This allows us to differentiate between true and false, and is therefore the first spiritual level and the beginning of being human. Hence it is called higher consciousness. Level 6 is called "wisdom" and is the genuine form of spiritual rationality or consciousness. It allows us to differentiate between good and evil.

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture regarding the development of the rational mind:

AC 1911. And she saw that she had conceived, and her mistress was despised in her eyes. That this signifies that this rational, at its conception, lightly esteemed the truth itself that was adjoined to good, is evident from the signification of the "mistress," or Sarai, as being truth adjoined to good. The rational first conceived cannot acknowledge intellectual or spiritual truth as truth, because there adhere to this rational many fallacies from the memory-knowledges drawn from the world and from nature, and many appearances from the knowledges taken from the literal sense of the Word, and these are not truths.

[2] For example: it is an intellectual truth that all life is from the Lord; but the rational first conceived does not apprehend this, and supposes that if it did not live from itself it would have no life; nay, it is indignant if the contrary is said, as has been many times perceived from the spirits who still cling to the fallacies of the senses.

[3] It is an intellectual truth that all good and truth are from the Lord; but the rational first conceived does not apprehend this, because it has the feeling that they are as from itself; and it also supposes that if good and truth were not from itself, it could have no thought of good and truth, and still less do anything good and true; and that if they are from another it should let itself go, and wait all the time for influx.

[4] It is an intellectual truth that nothing but good is from the Lord, and not even the least of evil; and this too the rational first conceived does not believe, but supposes that because the Lord governs everything, evil also is from Him; and that because He is omnipotent and omnipresent, and is good itself, and does not take away the punishments of the evil in hell, He wills the evil of punishment; when yet He does evil to no one, nor does He will that anyone should be punished.

[5] It is an intellectual truth that the celestial man has from the Lord a perception of good and truth; but the first rational either denies the existence of perception altogether, or supposes that if a man were to perceive from another, and not from himself, he would be as if inanimate, or devoid of life. In fact the more the rational thinks from memory-knowledges that originate from sensuous things and from philosophical reasonings, the less does it apprehend the foregoing and all other intellectual truths, for the fallacies therefrom are involved in so much the darker shades. Hence it is that the learned believe less than others.

[6] Since the rational first conceived is such, it is evident that it despises its mistress, that is, it lightly esteems intellectual truth. Intellectual truth does not become manifest, that is, is not acknowledged, except insofar as fallacies and appearances are dispersed, and these are not dispersed so long as the man reasons about truths themselves from things of sense and from memory-knowledges, but it for the first time becomes manifest when he believes from a simple heart that it is truth because so said by the Lord. Then the shades of fallacies are dispersed, and then nothing in him prevents him from apprehending it.

[7] In the Lord however there were no fallacies, but when His rational was first conceived there were appearances of truth that in themselves were not truths, as is evident from what has been already said (n. 1661). Hence also His rational at its first conception lightly esteemed intellectual truth; but gradually, as His rational was made Divine, the clouds of the appearances were dispersed, and intellectual truths lay open to Him in their light; and this is represented and signified by Ishmael being expelled from the house when Isaac grew up. That the Lord did not lightly esteem intellectual truth, but that He perceived and saw that His new rational did so, will be seen from what follows (n. 1914). (AC 1911)

AC 1949. That 'he will be a wild-ass man' means rational truth, which is described, is clear from the meaning of 'a wild ass' as rational truth. In the Word, horses, horsemen, mules, and asses are mentioned many times, but nobody up to now has known that they mean intellectual concepts, rational concepts, and factual knowledge. That these are meant will be abundantly confirmed, in the Lord's Divine mercy, in their separate places. Belonging to the same group is the wild-ass, for such is a mule living in the wilderness or an ass in the wild and means man's rational - not the rational in its entirety, but only rational truth. The rational is composed of good and of truth, that is, of things belonging to charity and of those belonging to faith. It is rational truth that is meant by a wild ass. This then is what Ishmael represents and is described in the present verse.

[2] How can anyone believe that rational truth separated from rational good is of such a nature? I myself would not have known if I had not been taught from actual experience. Whether you refer to it as rational truth or as the person whose rational is of that nature, it amounts to the same thing. The person whose rational is such as consists in truth alone, even though this is the truth of faith, and does not at the same time consist in the goad of charity, is altogether such. He is quick to find fault, makes no allowances, is against all, regards everyone as being in error, is instantly prepared to rebuke, to chasten, and to punish, shows no pity, does not apply himself and makes no effort to redirect people's thinking; for he views everything from the standpoint of truth, and nothing from the standpoint of good. In short, he is a hard man.

The one thing to soften his hardness is the good of charity, for good is the soul of truth, and when good draws near and implants itself in truth the latter becomes so different that it can hardly be recognized. 'Isaac' represents the Lord's Rational Man which sprang from good, not from truth separated from good. So it was that Ishmael was cast out and after that dwelt in the desert, and that his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt, Gen. 21:9-21, all of which events are representative of a person who is endowed with a rational such as that. (AC 1949)

Ac 3493. And his eyes were dim that he could not see. That this signifies when the rational desired to enlighten the natural with the Divine, is evident from the signification of "eyes," as being the interior or rational sight (see n. 2701); and from the signification of "seeing," as being to perceive and understand (n. 2150, 2325, 2807); hence when the eyes are said to be dim," it signifies that there is no longer any perception, here, no perception of those things which are in the natural; and this being the signification of these words, it is signified that the rational desired to enlighten the natural with the Divine.

How the case herein is may be seen from what has been said and shown before concerning the rational and natural in man when he is being regenerated, namely, that the rational is regenerated before the natural, for the reason that the rational is more interior and thus nearer to the Divine; and also because it is purer, and thus fitter to receive the Divine than is the natural; and further because the natural is to be regenerated through the rational, as may be seen above (n. 3286, 3288, 3321).

[2] When therefore the rational has been regenerated and not the natural, the former appears to itself to be dim-sighted, because there is not correspondence; for the rational has its sight from the light of heaven, and the natural has its sight from the light of the world; and unless there is correspondence, the rational can see nothing which is in the natural, all therein being to it as shade, or even as thick darkness. But when there is correspondence, then the things in the natural appear to the rational in light, because the things which are of the light of the world are then enlightened by those which are of the light of heaven, and thereupon become as it were translucent. But these things appear better from what has been before said and shown concerning correspondence (n. 2987, 2989, 2991, 2996, 3002, 3138, 3167, 3222, 3223, 3225, 3337, 3485).

Hence it may in some sort be apprehended that by the words, "the eyes of Isaac were dim that he could not see," is signified that the rational desired to enlighten the natural with the Divine, that is, to make it also Divine, for in the supreme sense the Lord is treated of; which may consequently be illustrated by what takes place with man when being regenerated, as before mentioned, for the regeneration of man is an image of the Lord's glorification (n. 3043, 3138, 3212, 3296, 3490). (AC 3493)

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8.3.2  Test Your Logical Thinking

 

8.3.3  Literacy: The Universal Hierarchy of Basic Skills

I made the following chart in 1983 while I was reading Conversations on Education by William H. Benade  (Bryn Athyn, PA: The Academy of the New Church Press, 1976, First Edition in 1888. Cf. pp. 135, 138, 140). I should mention that I'm using my own terms and that I'm not trying to represent the original. This represents what the original led me to think about using my usual "ennead matrix framework" to fit the information that I'm reading about (see Section xx).

The chart is meant to be read from bottom up (1 to 4). Level 1 skills are called  "corporeal" they involve the body. These are sometimes called "sensorimotor" or "psychomotor" skills in the psychology literature. Sensorimotor literacy is the lowest form of literacy upon which higher forms are based in developmental sequence. Level 2 skills are called "civil" because they involve "civics" or the performance requirements of public and social life--holding down a job or earning a living, participating in government and community life. Level 3 skills are called "moral" because they involve "moral reasoning" about justice and the assessment of guilt and responsibility for causing injurious behavior. Level 4 skills are called "spiritual" because they involve the ability to read Sacred Scripture in its universal scientific sense and to apply its knowledge to regeneration or character reformation. This is called acquiring the doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture (see Section xx).

These 4 levels are rational levels of mental operation. As the individual grows and matures, progressively higher levels of thinking need to be mastered in order to attain sufficient rationality to be able to understand the scientific meaning of Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech.

DEVELOPMENTAL LEVELS	CURRICULUM AREAS	SUBJECT MATTER	EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY
4 SPIRITUAL SKILLS	Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech Theistic Psychology Religion	Spiritual Psychobiology (organicity of mind; see Section xx) Religious Behaviorism (rational faith--see Volume 4) Regeneration (inner / outer self--see Section xx) Extracting Doctrine of Truth from Sacred Scripture (see Section xx)	Theories of Self (the proprium; the as-of self; God's Proprium -- see Section xx)
3 MORAL SKILLS	Pragmatics  Management  Philosophy  Psychology	Principles of counseling and psychotherapy (see Section xx) Equity Theory and Judicial Law (see Section xx) Socio-moral Intelligence (scenario analysis) (see Section xx) Vertical Community (spirits and angels) (see Section xx) Self-witnessing and Self-modification principles (see Section xx)	Theories of Action (influx;  ruling loves; self-regulation;  altruism;  charity;  uses;  conjugial relationship; -- see Section xx)
2 CIVIL SKILLS	Business  Government  Sociolinguistics  Sociology  History	Lifelong learning commitment Information Literacy (searching) Oral presentation skills and public speaking Conflict resolution and cooperation	Theories of Learning (see Chapter 8)
1 CORPOREAL SKILLS	Biology, etc.  Mechanics  Math & Statistics  Reading & Writing  Physical Education  Music, Art, Dance	Altruism and Compassion Etymology and Semantics Correspondences in Sacred Scripture Discipline (physical and mental)	Theories of Knowledge (see Section xx)

 

8.3.4  Religious Curriculum

I made the following chart in1984 while reading The Science of Exposition: As Drawn from the Writings of the New Church (1915) by William Frederic Pendleton (The Academy of the New Church Press: Bryn Athyn, PA. Cf. pp. 320, 323, 328ff, 369, 377, 384). Please note that I'm not trying to present the original. Rather, I used the ennead matrix of the threefold self to interpret and fit the original information that I was reading (see Section xx).

Read chart following the numbered cells--down (phase 1), up (phase 2), down (phase 3).
	Phase 1	Phase 2	Phase 3
AFFECTIVE WILL	1 Primary grades Memorable Relations New Testament Parables Ten Commandments Lord's Prayer Historical Old Testament	6 ==========> Acquiring affection of truth and good Learning to experience illustration while reading the Writings (enlightenment)	7 Becoming aware of receiving good from the Lord (self-witnessing and applying doctrine to life) (see Section xx)
COGNITIVE UNDERSTANDING	2 Intermediate grades Selections from Writings (resuscitation, Spiritual Sun, three heavens) Prophetical OT & NT Hymns OT & NT Concordances	5 Adult Doctrine of Conjugial Love Learning cooperation requirements for our regeneration by the Lord (see Section xx)	8 Acquiring truths from good (see Section xx)
SENSORIMOTOR USES	3 ========> High school Selections from Writings (inner sense of creation story and NT parables) Diagrams for Writings (levels of the mind and their opening through regeneration)	4 College Inner sense of entire Genesis and Revelation (see Section xx) Doctrine of Genuine Truth and Doctrine in Creeds (see Volume 4) Theistic Psychology (see Section xx) Online full text searching of Writings (see Section xx)	9 Old Age Loving uses for the sake of heaven and God (see Section xx)
	Phase 1 (top down)	Phase 2 (bottom up)	Phase 3  (top down)
Read chart following the numbered cells--down (phase 1), up (phase 2), down (phase 3).

The chart above uses a three-by-three matrix called the "ennead" or nine cells (see Section xx). It allows us to depict the developmental steps in a complete series. Note that the columns are to be read down for cells 1, 2, 3 (phase 1), up for cells 4, 5, 6 (phase 2), and down again for cells 7, 8, 9 (phase 3). In phase 1 the sequence of development is:

• affective development in its first phase (cell 1)

• cognitive development in its first phase (cell 2)

• sensorimotor development in its first phase (cell 3)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

• affective development in its second phase (cell 4)

• cognitive development in its second phase (cell 5)

• sensorimotor development in its second phase (cell 6)

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• affective development in its third phase (cell 7)

• cognitive development in its third phase (cell 8)

• sensorimotor development in its third phase (cell 9)

The content of the curriculum is therefore adjusted for each cell according to its type (affective or will, cognitive or understanding, sensorimotor or outward behavior) and its phase (downward or upward direction of steps). There is a cumulative effect from cell 1 to 9. The matrix allows extraction of many relations not immediately visible, and these relations can be confirmed by appropriate passages in the Writings (predictive research) (see Section xx). The content of the curriculum in each cell that is shown in this chart needs to be confirmed by appropriate passages in the Writings.

I made the following chart in 1984 while reading Values and Objectives of New Church Education (1964) by Willard D. Pendleton (A series of lectures on New Church education delivered to the Educational Council, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, PA See. pp. 19-27).

TYPE OF USES	LEARNED BEHAVIORS	INSTRUCTIONAL GOAL
SPIRITUAL	Acquiring love for being good to others "Love it!"	responsibility
SOCIAL	Performing being good to others "Do it!"	values
MORAL	Performing not being bad to others "Don't do it!"	conscience

 

8.3.5  Individual Growth Recapitulates History and Evolution

The next chart is an ennead matrix of the development of the "as-of self" which refers to the conscious appearance that we think and feel in our self from our self. Our purpose in life is to undergo regeneration by which we change our character from what it was from inheritance to what it must become to live in eternity in heaven in conjugial love. Regeneration is progressive and involves rational consciousness of higher and higher truths from Sacred Scripture.  The Writings give us many details about the development and maturation of the as-of self as it is transformed into a heavenly "proprium" or character. The chart below is my attempt to map out these details. I made in 1988 while reading De Hemelsche Leer Third Fascicle (1930) pp. 73-144.(Swedenborg Genootschap, The Hague. Available on the Web at:  www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/409ss99/thompson/mscan1.html

STAGES	DEVELOPMENT OF THE AS-OF SELF	HISTORICAL CHURCH	GUARDIAN ANGELS PRESENT	AGES
1	representatives of the innocence of infancy	Adamic interior-rational or celestial-rational mind	Third Heaven first celestial- rational	FIRST INFANCY
2	representatives of written Sacred Scripture	Noachic exterior of spiritual-rational	Second Heaven first spiritual-rational	BOYHOOD
3	representatives of interior-natural, spiritual-rational, and celestial rational correspondences to 3 heavens	Eber internal-natural or interior-natural or spiritual-natural	First Heaven spiritual-natural  or interior-natural	ADOLESCENCE
I      N      V      E      R      S      I      O      N
4	knowledge of representations of truth	Israelitish external-natural	First Heaven spiritual-natural  or interior-natural	EARLY ADULTHOOD
5	living truth	Christian (Incarnation Event) external-rational	Second Heaven second spiritual-rational	ADULTHOOD
6	innocence of the wisdom of old age	New Church interior-rational	Third Heaven second celestial- rational	OLD AGE

 

Elaborations of this chart and further explorations of the topic with other charts will be found in this article:  www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/harmonizing4.htm

 

The next two charts below represents three phases of rational spirituality discussed in my book Moses, Swedenborg, and Paul: Three Steps in Rational Spirituality (2003), available on the Web at:   www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/moses.html

 

This diagram is a basic anatomical chart of the human mind. You can see that it has three discrete levels – natural, rational, spiritual. Looking at the bottom half, you can see from the arrows that information from the natural world is captured by the sensory organs of the physical body and transmitted by corresponding effects to the natural mind. The natural mind has three sub-levels, to be shown later – corporeal, sensuous, and rational. The sensuous information is transmitted upward to the rational mind, or more accurately, the rational mind perceives the activity in the sensuous mind and creates an abstract representation of it called natural-rational correspondences.

Looking at the upper half of the chart, you can see that information from the spiritual world is captured by the spirit-body, located in the spiritual world. The spirit-body houses the mind. Information entering the spiritual mind is called celestial-rational correspondences and spiritual-rational correspondences. These are ways of thinking about Divine Truth. Note that the rational mind is pivotal and plays an intermediary role. It receives information from both the natural world in the form of natural-rational correspondences, and it receives information from the spiritual world in the form of spiritual-rational correspondences. Our enlightenment occurs when these three types of rational correspondences operate synchronously or simultaneously in our mind. This involves the celestial-rational correspondences to resonate with the spiritual- rational correspondences and the natural- rational correspondences all at once.

The Threefold Word (Sacred Scripture) is the source of natural-rational, spiritual-rational, and celestial-rational correspondences.

Without knowing and comprehending this fundamental duality between the natural and the spiritual-celestial, one cannot elevate one’s consciousness beyond the natural-rational level of non-theistic science (monism or physicalism). One’s level of understanding, of thinking, and of feeling, remain at the natural level. One is incapable of comprehending the reality of the spiritual world, hence the reality of human beings. Despite this inability, God intervenes in the minds of every individual and implants rational ideas that the individual believes is form self. This illusion is necessary to maintain the motivation for learning and survival while we are still in animal consciousness. It also insures that society can survive, for it would not, if it were left to the human natural mind to run it.

The unconscious tutelage by the Divine, just discussed, ceases or changes in operation in the afterlife, which starts immediately after the physical body becomes a corpse. We begin our life in the spiritual world with a spirit-body, the same we had all along “within” the physical body, which now drops off, leaving the immortal spirit-body intact and free to live its new life in the spiritual world. This new life is of two separate forms, heavenly and hellish. It is necessary therefore to raise our consciousness above the natural level so that we may be prepared to live a heavenly life to eternity. If we do not, our thinking and feeling remains at the natural level of operation. Upon awakening in the other life we will find that we are incapable of living a heavenly existence. Instead, we sink into the hells of our mind from which few are willing to return, where we lose any good and truth we once may have had, and begin an endless progression of evil and falsity, insanity and unimaginable misery. The stakes are therefore could not be higher – eternal heavenly happiness and wisdom vs. eternal hellish misery and insanity. Only if we rise above the natural level of thinking and feeling can our consciousness comprehend the stark reality of heaven and hell, as it has been revealed by God.

While the outside portion of the rational mind is natural, the inside of it is spiritual. This is the form and function of the human organic mind. It is created with an outside rational portion that gets its information from the physical world. Within this natural-rational mind there is formed a spiritual-rational mind that gets its information from the spiritual world through Divine revelations. In other words, we are created and born into a dual existence, natural and spiritual. This dual existence must be based in organic forms and structures, or else it would be nothing. The organ of the natural mind and the organ of the spiritual mind are both constructed physiologically out of spiritual substances from the spiritual Sun, just like the organs of the physical body are constructed physiologically out of physical substances from the natural sun. When we comprehend this dual reality and assimilate it into our normal thinking, we enjoy a new consciousness of reality that may be called rational spirituality.

We can better control our individual spiritual development by knowing how rational spirituality has developed in the history of Western civilizations since individual biography recapitulates racial evolution. The Old Testament civilizations have elevated human consciousness above the animal level by assimilating the Divine spiritual message given through Moses into their everyday thinking and feeling. The natural-rational mind is a discrete level above the natural-animal mind because of the abstract idea of God which can be formed only by means of rational thinking. Animals cannot have the idea of God since their cognitive abilities are restricted to the physical order of the natural world. God is not part of this physical order. God is absent from the physical detection systems that have been created for the animal mind. It is not possible to discover God’s presence physically or by concepts based on physical order. Such concepts are called “materialistic” and “monist” because they cannot incorporate the fundamental duality. God is an idea that originates from the spiritual world, hence any human mind that assimilates this idea into every day reality, is raised to a higher consciousness of reality, a higher understanding, a higher operational level of thinking and feeling. Spiritual-rational thoughts from revelation and spiritual-rational loves from influx, constitute the content of operation of spiritual rationality.

These spiritual-rational loves from influx enter the mind of every human being but they cannot survive in the mind without spiritual-rational truths from revelations. First we must acquire spiritual-rational truths from revelations, then we can retain spiritual-rational loves from influx. In this way we become angelic beings.

Following the civilizations of the Moses revelations came the Christian civilizations of the New Testament revelations. These elevated human consciousness to a new level of thinking and feeling. The Moses revelations were cast in a local, sectarian frame that was hostile to strangers. The New Testament revelations were cast in a universal, personalized frame that was inclusive of the entire human race. The intellectual justification of the New Testament in the form of Pauline doctrine, dissolved the earlier sectarian forms of spirituality, beginning a new life of universality and Divine personalism. God is not only Divine but Human. It is impossible to have a relationship of love with an infinite Divine force. Divine love is essentially Human, as revealed and demonstrated in the Incarnation. A giant leap forward in understanding reality takes place when the infinite God is conceptualized as a Divine-Human Person. This new idea of God cannot be formed in the natural-rational mind, but only in the spiritual mind within it. The spiritual mind is an organic form that responds to spiritual ideas from the spiritual world. By assimilating this new spiritual idea of God into our everyday thinking and feeling, we begin a new order of life immersed in rational spirituality.

But there is one more step to ascend. The intellectual justification that Paul forged out of the New Testament revelations, were contaminated with ideas from lower civilizations. Similarly, when individuals enter this phase of their spiritual development, their consciousness will remain somewhat general rather than particular, and may thus retain elements that are not genuine, leading to false ideas, even heresies that become a stumbling block to further spiritual development. Our understanding of reality takes its final step of escalation when we particularize the Divine-Human Person by knowing how and where He operates in our mind.

This ultimate level of spiritual rationality has been provided for by means of new scientific revelations given through the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), a renowned and respected scientist in Sweden. The Divine-Human Person wants a reciprocal relationship with each individual in order to become a conscious co-participant in our thinking and feeling. In order to achieve this possibility, God had make new scientific revelations never before given. These new revelations are given in the form of True Science. This makes sense since materialistic science is the ultimate achievement of the natural-rational mind. With the beginning of the modern mind in the 17^th and 18^th century, the rational understanding of civilization rose to its most abstract level so that it became capable of incorporating the new scientific revelations of God’s immediate involvement and co-participation in our thinking and willing.

Christian spirituality has undergone three phases of evolution – spiritual-natural, spiritual-rational, and celestial-rational. These three phases of spiritual rationality are embedded in the Christian view of the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Third Testament (or Writings of Swedenborg). The revelations of the Writings thus complete the creation of the human race. Now God has at last revealed all the details of His Rational Mind by which He creates and manages every detail of the universe. All the mysteries of Christian spirituality that have been invented by the human intellect can now be enlightened by the objective and clear facts of theistic science. Mysticism and spirituality have been connected in the earlier phases of the race’s spiritual development. Attempts have been made to connect materialistic science and mystical religion. This attempt was unable to elevate consciousness into its next higher level. Other attempts involve connecting Eastern philosophies with Christian mysticism. This too yields no elevation. What is fully effective however, is connecting science with scientific revelations. This transforms non-theistic science into True Science, theistic science, the science of God.

The mind is elevated in consciousness by means of Divine revelations. The human mind is created to operate in this way. These genuine spiritual ideas can be understood rationally because all spiritual ideas are from God’s Rational Mind. Christianity has received the scientific truth that God created the universe by means of Truth. Those outside of the Christian faith, like Gandhi of India, have also received this new scientific perspective and have incorporated it into their own religion and culture, as demonstrated by the life of Mahatma Gandhi who identified God with Truth. Since the universe is created out of Divine Truth in its infinite variety, it is clear that only a rational spirituality, that is, theistic science, can be the vehicle for forging our individual spiritual development. The level of our thinking and feeling can be raised to the celestial level by means of rational spirituality.

This book presents the three phases of rational spirituality that every individual needs to understand in order to elevate the consciousness to the angelic level. This is the true human level of thinking and feeling. People of all religions and philosophies can use this understanding to advance themselves in their consciousness within their culture and lifestyle. Religious traditions and practices are no barrier to consciousness raising by means of True Science. The Writings of Swedenborg appear sectarian when viewed from the surface since all Divine revelations reflect the culture and era of the revelator. But neither Jews nor Christians have an automatic entry pass to heavenly life and consciousness just because they acknowledge the Word of God as a Divine revelation. They must extract from it principles and doctrines for life and they must overcome the enormous resistance all people experience to the growth of spiritual rationality in their mind.

To the extent that these doctrines are applied to our daily thinking and feeling, they become systematic and effective techniques of self-change. God regenerates every individual through daily efforts of cooperation with Him. He provides us with specific experiences and challenges every day that are tailored to every unique individual in the form of temptations of conscience. God provides us with a conscience and doctrines of revelation, God provides the daily temptations, God provides the power for overcoming them, but we must provide the free choices by which we deny ourselves to love evil and its falsities, and compel ourselves to love good and its truths. The power is God’s but the choice is ours. He participates in setting up that choice in our mind and through the events in our environment. He gives us the power to think truth and choose good moment by moment, day by day.

Th