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A Man of the Field Forming The New Church Mind In Today’s World
Volume 1: Reformation The Struggle Against Nonduality
Volume 2: Enlightenment The Spiritual Sense of the Writings
Volume 3: Regeneration Spiritual Disciplines For Daily Life
Volume 4: Uses The New Church Mind In Old Age
Please note: This page will take about 25 to 30 seconds to load. I’ve been working on the problem but haven’t found the solution yet. Sorry for the delay!
By Leon James October 2002 (draft 17b)
Author information appears at the end. This document is in the process of being revised. Please note the draft version marked on top.
A “field” means doctrine (AC 368) A "man" signifies faith and truth (AC 427; 4823) Because 'field' means doctrine anyone receiving any seed of faith, whether the individual, the Church, or the world, is called a field. (AC 368)
Volume 2 Enlightenment: Extracting The Spiritual Sense of the Writings
Chapter 3Theistic Science Revelations in the Writings
Table of Contents
Access other Chapters and Volumes here: Theistic Science Revelations in the Writings 2. Swedenborg’s Scientific Dualism 3. The Notion That The Writings Contain Outdated Science 4. Dual Concepts in the Writings 5. Scientific Revelations in the Writings. 6. Sensuous And Rational Content In The Writings 7. A Spiritual Sensuous Consciousness 8. External And Interior Theistic Science. 9. The Writings “Are Founded” On Theistic Science 10. Diagram of “Scientifics” And “Doctrinal Matters” 11. Literal And Spiritual Senses Are Both True And Accurate 12. Spiritual Parallelism Between The Lord, The Writings, And Our Mind 13. Enlightenment By Rational Consciousness of Spiritual Correspondences 14. The Divine Rational Is Within The Divine Natural Of The Writings 15. Why The Interior-Natural Is Called Spiritual-Natural 16. Anatomy Of The External Natural Mind 17. Individual Regeneration Recapitulates Spiritual History Of The Race 18. The Use Of The Priesthood For Religious Life 19. Swedenborg's Scientific Works 20. Led By The Lord Since His Early Education. 21. Principles For The True Science 22. Overcoming Objections To Theistic Science 23. The External Rational And The Interior Rational 24. Theistic Science And Religion 25. Theistic Science And Regeneration 26. Regeneration By Sensuous Vs. Rational Consciousness 27. Evolution Of Consciousness In The Human Race 28. Diagram Of The Elevation Of Consciousness In The Human Race 29. Spiritual Psychology and History 30. Chart of Spiritual Psychology and History 32. Enlightenment Is Not Sufficient For Salvation 33. The Level Of Consciousness In Representatives And Significatives 34. Scientific Observations Of Spiritual Facts 35. The Science Of Spiritual Anatomy Titles for the Abbreviated Citations in the Book Full Text Free Online Access to All Swedenborg’s Writings:
Access other Chapters and Volumes here:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/nonduality.html
Chapter 3Theistic Science Revelations in the Writings
Every one has intelligence according to his affection for the sciences (CL 207)
There are many scientific revelations in the Writings. To mention a few:
1. There are two worlds: spiritual and natural (D. Wis. 12) 2. Every physical object is constructed from three discrete degrees (DP 32) 3. The human brain was not split in the early generations on earth (AC 607) 4. Only the father contributes to the spiritual inheritance line (TCR 103) 5. Both parents contribute to the inherited inclinations they pass on (CL 202)
6. Our thinking cannot go on without mediation from the spirits as intermediaries (DP 50) 7. Resuscitation of the spirit takes place within 36 hours of death (LJ 15) 8. The most ancient people on this planet did not have a split brain (xx) 9. The will and the understanding are organs in the mind (TCR 279) 10.All phenomena on earth are effects whose causes are in the spiritual world (D. Wis. 12)
11.All planets are formed by God to be inhabited (EU 1) 12.Space as vacuum does not exist, but is in fact made of a thin material substance called ether (xx) 13.The smallest contain the same degrees as the largest (DLW 222-229) 14.The smaller some thing or operation is examined, the greater is its perfections and the more it contains sub-parts (“the more interiorly things are viewed, the more marvelous the wonders that occur”) (DLW 201) 15.The simpler substances contain more things than the compound (DP 6). The simplest substance is that from the spiritual Sun, is perfect, and contains infinite things, so that it can be compounded into infinite other less simple substances. (DLW 226)
16.The natural degree contains within itself a representation of the discrete degrees in the spiritual world. (DLW 201) 17.Sensation is not effected by or in the brain but in the mind corresponding to brain activity (TCR 785) 18.Books written on earth appear in the spiritual world (xx) 19.Every child who dies is raised in the spiritual world and enters heaven (DP 324) 20.Jesus was born from a virgin (TCR 337)
21.There are no machines or engineering sciences on any other inhabited planet in the universe (EU 136) 22.The natural world will never end (LJ 13) 23.Human diseases are caused by different spirit societies (SE 4648) 24.The relationship between the lungs and the heart match exactly the relationship between the will and the understanding (DLW 407) 25.The micro-world is more perfect than the macro, and therefore the smaller a thing is the larger the number of parts it contains (TCR 280[6]; AC 9666[2])
26.Infinity is not that which has no end but that which has no beginning (DLW 76). Thus time and numbers may be endless, but they have a beginning, thus they’re not infinite. 27.The spiritual elements from which are constructed the physical elements are infinite and uncreate, having no beginning. They include: love, truth, light, heat, endeavor, and eternity. These spiritual substances are more and more distanced from the spiritual Sun whence they proceed, and progress by discrete degrees (not continuous) outward into the created universe. 28.The successive discrete degrees by which the world is created exist in simultaneous degrees in the created object. Thus, an atom, rock, and seed still carry within themselves the spiritual elements that created them and without which they would fall back into uncertain. The uncreate substances maintain the existence of the created elements. This is equally true of the goals in our actions through intentional plans (ISB 17) 29.People on this earth can only be regenerated by science and the sciences of faith (SE 4663) 30.Etc. etc. This is but a small sample!
This list is enough to show that some scientific revelations are far ahead of scientific knowledge in society today, and some appear to contradict the current scientific knowledge. And most importantly, note from the list that it is not possible in the Writings to separate what is scientific relating to natural things and what is theological relating to spiritual things.
For instance, is the Virgin Birth a scientific revelation or a spiritual one? What about the proposition that physical phenomena are all effects whose causes lie in the spiritual world? This is at the core of almost any other fact or principle in the Writings and is called “the Science of Correspondences.” (AC 9407; SS 9; TCR 202) Is this a scientific or spiritual revelation? Clearly we cannot separate scientific explanations from spiritual because one is actually within the other, and they are mutually interdependent—what happens to one must happen to the other in predetermined correspondential relation.
The eye sees the universe, and the mind thinks about it, first that it was created and afterwards by whom it was created. The mind that thinks from the eye thinks that it was created by nature; but the mind that does not think from the eye thinks that it is from God; while the mind that takes the middle path thinks that it is from an Entity of which it has no idea, for it perceives that something cannot exist from nothing. (D. Wis. 12)
The material monism of science is a nonduality that Swedenborg fought against in all his works prior and subsequent to Arcana Coelestia. The science that he practiced was always dualist or theistic, and the New Church mind cannot but be thoroughly dualist also. We may at first feel obliged to pick and choose our monism and dualism on the basis of professional roles and days of the week: On Sundays, or when we read the Writings, we are going to think like a dualist. But on weekdays at work we will act like a monist and nondualist, writing articles and giving lectures in a non-New Church environment.
From a practical and political standpoint we may not have an overt choice since our colleagues are dead set against dualism and our job performance may depend on not mentioning anything from the Writings in our scientific work and teaching. This I can understand. Note that this is a political issue about academic freedom and the suppression of ideas in relation to survival and one’s career. It may not hurt us to hide or to remain private in order to avoid persecution or rejection, but it does hurt the New Church mind if we confirm scientific monism as a stand in our thoughts about science. In other words, if we deny that the Writings are scientific revelations. This denial hurts the New Church mind, as will be discussed below.
2. Swedenborg’s Scientific Dualism
Regarding science and philosophy, Swedenborg gave this sad description to spirits who were not familiar with our planet:
Spirits from another earth were with me for a considerable time; and I described to them the wisdom of our globe, and told them that among the sciences pursued by the learned is that of analytics, with which they busy themselves in exploring what is of the mind and its thoughts, calling it metaphysics and logic. But I said that men have advanced little beyond terms, and certain shifting rules; and that they argue concerning these terms-as what form is; what substance; what the mind; and what the soul; and that by means of these general shifting rules they vehemently dispute about truths. I then perceived from these spirits that when men inhere in such things as terms, and think concerning these matters by artificial rules, they take away all sense and understanding of a subject. (…) [3] Learned men of our earth were present, and could not in the least comprehend these things, although in the life of the body they had discoursed much on such subjects in a philosophical way; and when the spirits just referred to in turn perceived their thoughts, in that they inhered in mere terms, and were inclined to dispute on every point as to whether it is so, they called such things feculent froth. (AC 3348)
In the New Church mind there cannot be a nonduality in science just as Swedenborg found it impossible to acknowledge or adopt materialist science from his earliest education and onward. He took the natural facts and information available through observation by scientists who worked within a materialistic orientation. But he did not take their interpretations or theories cast in the nonduality mode. He built up a theistic science to interpret their facts.
There is a danger to the New Church mind when confirming scientific nonduality, something that may occur when we think to ourselves that science is nondualist and is to remain immersed in material monism, while the Heavenly Doctrine is dualist or theistic, and is to remain separate from science. As long as we keep the two from interacting, segregating them in our mind, we experience no conflict. And yet we need to consider that the mind cannot contain opposing ideas without the two warring against each other, so that nonduality eventually destroys all duality (xx). Scientific nonduality denies the supernatural world that is affirmed by the duality of the Heavenly Doctrines. In the duality of the Writings there is no separation possible between science and theology just as it is impossible to discover the causes of natural phenomena without invoking spiritual correspondences since the spiritual is the cause of the natural (HH 567).
Swedenborg has clearly modeled for us how to understand science and theology together as one unit. He collected all facts that others obtained by scientific observations. Empirical and experimental work can be carried out by anyone, a materialist or a dualist, and the success of both are solely from Divine Providence, not from the intelligence of the monist or dualist. Swedenborg the scientist created scientific explanations for the facts obtained by other scientists. These scientific explanations are rational and verifiable as consistent with the facts or inconsistent. Also, as consistent internally or contradictory. His scientific explanations were always within a theistic framework.
Being introduced into the spiritual world, Swedenborg also presented new scientific facts that were never available to any other scientist on this earth, monist or dualist. Still, they were not subjective unverifiable facts like the religious proposals of other theological systems. The empirical facts presented by Swedenborg are actual observations he made during his spiritual “travels.” These facts are objective and shared with thousands of other people who were present and part of the experiment or interview. Swedenborg’s facts were public and verifiable to all those who were present, including spirits, angels, and devils. He also presents observational results of many experiments he was allowed to witness as a participant and observer, so that he may have no doubt as to the reality of this or that phenomenon. One type of experiment is the removal of a belief system in a spirit or angel in order to see the result on his reasoning and perception (CL 216, Mir 7).
Other experimental procedures he describes include:
q resuscitation under controlled conditions (xx) q memory probes (xx) q therapy for personality disorders (xx) q communicating from a distance (xx) q translating between natural and spiritual language (xx) q creating special effects for the education of children (xx) q recreating special effects with light and sound q noting the conditional presence of animals or objects in relation to topics being discussed on reflected on (xx) q and many more.
Not all facts in science are available to a single person which is why scientists use each other’s facts for building explanations. Some facts are unique or infrequent and cannot be observed except once. Others require elaborate instruments to which some scientists have no access. Many facts reported by Swedenborg are not available to other scientists on earth because the Lord imposes restrictions on anyone accessing the spiritual world directly, Swedenborg being a unique exception for the sake of his mission as revelator. But the facts become observable when the scientist passes on and begins life in the spiritual world. These facts were also observable by the early generations on earth (AE 739) and may be observable once more in the future (HH 250).
The New Church mind cannot be different from the mind of Swedenborg because what issued from his mind is the actual arrangement of things in the universe. This is what it means to say that the Writings are the Word of the Second Coming revealing the Divine Rational by which reality is ordered and maintained. It would be a major break in the system to take the position that scientific and doctrinal explanations are not interrelated. Clearly Swedenborg didn’t do this but commingled the science he knew from education and research, and the heavenly doctrines he was explaining rationally. In Swedenborg’s mind the two types of explanations could not be rationally separated. This was possible because Swedenborg’s science was dualist and theistic, in contrast to those who did much of the research he admired.
3. The Notion That The Writings Contain Outdated Science
The Word is not understood except by a rational man (WH 7)
The Writings provide scientists with empirical observations and data that are beyond the natural senses. This is called the “interior science” and is a systematic description of the character and quality of the spiritual world. There is no rational justification for scientists to reject the facts and observations presented in the Writings. The rejection is an automatic expression of a learned historical tradition or prejudice. It Is not made on the basis of rational justifications or objections. The benefits of science to society would be immeasurably enhanced if the simplistic and self-contradictory monist attitude were to be replaced by theistic science.
Among New Church people the reasoning is sometimes heard that the Lord leaves science for people to discover through organized knowledge acquired from the natural senses and arranged into rational propositions and consistent explanations. There is a belief that the purpose of the Writings is to make new theological revelations, and these are infallible because from the Lord as the Word. This belief includes the notion that the many illustrations Swedenborg wrote about scientific and natural things represent his attempt to make the theological ideas better understood. These scientific illustrations are not considered to be part of the theological revelations, but as part of a dated scientific outlook and limited knowledge that has no direct impact on modern science and should not be compared with it.
You can see that this type of thinking begins to carve up the Word into two parts: the part that our self-intelligence designates as “Swedenborg’s outdated science” and the part that we designate as “enlightened revelation for all times.”
But upon more reflection one can see that the Writings cannot be divided into two parts because it is the Word in full, not in part. The Writings say that the Word has an internal series of truths arranged in an infinite Divine order (AC 6620) and that not a single word or concept can be taken away from the literal without breaking the series (AC 9163, AE 545[2]). As a result we accept the awkward expressions and sometimes revolting images in the literal of the Old Testament. We can see by correspondences what spiritual truths they refer to. Similarly, with the Word of the Writings we have a fixed literal text that serves the internal meaning. The Letter of the Writings cannot be divided any more than the Lord’s garment, which were not allowed to be divided by the Roman soldiers (AC 9093; John 19:23-24, Ps 22:18).
The literal of the Writings is the Lord’s Divine Rational laid down in the Divine Natural that exists in our natural-rational mind. We behold the Lord spiritually, when we read the Writings as the Word, for the Word is the Lord Himself (LORD 2). But this spiritual is only apparent to us by correspondence, since nothing spiritual can exist in the natural-rational mind. But the Lord creates an interior-natural mind within our natural-rational understanding. What is in this mind is the operation, or reaction by correspondence, to the particular spiritual truths the Lord is implanting in our unconscious spiritual mind.
The human rational as to truth is of such a nature that it cannot understand what the Divine is, for the reason that that truth is in appearances; and therefore that which it cannot understand, it does not believe; and by that which it does not believe it is not affected. (AC 2203)
What is called the “human rational” here is the natural-rational mind. It is to be distinguished from the “spiritual-rational.” The “human rational” or natural-rational is from self-intelligence and is the result of the as-of self effort to understand and appropriate the truths of the Writings. The human rational of the natural-rational consists of natural-rational correspondences which “is of such a nature that it cannot understand what the Divine is.” But the spiritual-rational correspondences in the interior-natural mind are not from self-intelligence. They are from the Lord and heaven and they are capable of understanding the Divine.
After reformation we are granted this dual perception or consciousness of the spiritual. In our natural-rational mind, we are conscious of spiritual truths in a natural-rational way, but in our interior-natural mind, we are conscious of these truths in a spiritual way. This spiritual understanding is also by correspondence and not by direct sensuous perception, as is the case with spirits and angels. Following reformation, we know that the sentences of the Writings contain a literal meaning and a spiritual meaning, but we cannot perceive this at the beginning. We know it because we read what the Writings are saying about the Word, and we apply it to the Writings. But later when we are regenerating, we are enlightened by the Lord and we can now for the first time perceive that there is a spiritual sense.
Since we know that the spiritual meaning is arranged in Divine Rational Series (xx), it would be impossible to think that we could use our self-intelligence to break up this Divine Series and to cut out portions of the Writings by calling it “Swedenborg’s outdated science used only for illustration and not part of the theology of the Heavenly Doctrine.”
Not a single word, nor even a single iota, in its original language, can be taken from the sense of the letter of the Word, without an interruption in the internal sense (WH 11)
Instead we need to ask how we can intellectually repair the appearance that these are outdated modes of science. We must consider whether materialistic science as practiced today can really be credited for scientific and engineering achievements. Or are these achievements brought about by the Lord despite the reliance on materialistic thinking? The Writings teach that the learned who are confirmed in rejecting dualism, and rely their thinking only on material ideas, arrive handicapped in the spiritual world and are more “stupid” than the unlearned (AC 4156). Their confirmed materialism prevents them from receiving rational truths in the afterlife, as a result of which they lead themselves into insanities and a tragic life in hell.
Clearly we should be asking how to reform materialistic science into dualist science in our mind. We need not wait for the rest of society but can already make the changeover, if not professionally, then personally. In the light of this new context in our mind, how are we to understand the scientific details that appear outdated or in error from the earlier materialistic context? This kind of inquiry will lead us to theistic science.
It is most important therefore that we be prudent and withhold ourselves from breaking up the Word. We must acknowledge every word, phrase and sentence as Divine Truth, even the numbers of the paragraphs.
The ultimates of the Word are its props and supports; indeed, each word is a prop and a support to its celestial and spiritual truths. (SS 35)
A New Church reader of an earlier draft of this book made the following comment regarding this section:
Let me take a more moderate view on this. I do believe that much of the science taught in the Writings could be studied quite usefully and lead to some important breakthroughs on the natural level. For example, olive oil corresponds to celestial love, and we are discovering important medicinal uses for olive oil today. Lowering meat intake, and eating fresh fruits and vegetables (like the most ancients) also seems to improve the quality of our health. But these are secondary. Our spiritual development, and the shunning of evils as sins against God should always be primary. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
I agree that teaching correspondences from the Writings could be useful to secular scientific enterprises, including psychology, medicine, biology, physics, mathematics, history, art, and others. Swedenborg’s mind was prepared by the Lord since his early childhood (see below). He was able to acquire scientific knowledge in many fields and contribute to them his own theistic interpretation and explanations. Swedenborg was guided in his theistic interpretations by the Lord as much as he was guided in his theological books. When Swedenborg wrote out the Writings he was fully under the guidance of the Lord. It is not possible to think that some portions he wrote by himself, separate from the Lord, while others he wrote from the Lord. So it makes sense to think that Swedenborg’s theistic science was guided by the Lord since the beginning of his education. Thus Swedenborg produced a theistic science that was suitable for being included in portions of the Word he was to write later.
4. Dual Concepts in the Writings
No doubt you have noted two portions to the theistic science in the Writings: natural scientifics and spiritual scientifics, as discussed below. The theistic science about “natural truths” (ISB 20) are those facts and principles that were imported into the Writings from the Scientific Works. The theistic science about “spiritual and celestial truths” (DLW 237) are those facts and principles that were gathered by Swedenborg from his systematic observations and controlled experiments in the spiritual world. The spiritual and celestial truths are within the natural truths in simultaneous order (TCR 360). It follows from this that the literal of the Writings is composed of these two sub-types of theistic science, and future research in theistic science might succeed in extracting dual concepts, that is, integrated concepts that are natural truths within which are spiritual-celestial truths.
An example of this type of dual concept is illustrated in the following passage which also shows the experimental or scientific character of Swedenborg’s observations in the spiritual world:
As in the world it is quite unknown that there is a correspondence of heaven or the Grand Man with all things of man, and that man comes forth and subsists therefrom, so that what is said on the subject may seem paradoxical and incredible, I may here relate the things that experience has enabled me to know with certainty.
Once, when the interior heaven was opened to me, and I was conversing with the angels there, I was permitted to observe the following phenomena. Be it known that although I was in heaven, I was nevertheless not out of myself, but in the body, for heaven is within man, wherever he may be, so that when it pleases the Lord, a man may be in heaven and yet not be withdrawn from the body.
In this way it was given me to perceive the general workings of heaven as plainly as an object is perceived by any of the senses. Four workings or operations were then perceived by me. The first was into the brain at the left temple, and was a general operation as regards the organs of reason; for the left side of the brain corresponds to rational or intellectual things, but the right to the affections or things of the will.
[2] The second general operation that I perceived was into the respiration of the lungs, and it led my respiration gently, but from within, so that I had no need to draw breath or respire by any exertion of my will. The very respiration of heaven was at the time plainly perceived by me. It is internal, and for this reason is imperceptible to man; but by a wonderful correspondence it inflows into man's respiration, which is external, or of the body; and if man were deprived of this influx, he would instantly fall down dead.
[3] The third operation that I perceived was into the systole and diastole of the heart, which had then more of softness with me than I had ever experienced at any other time. The intervals of the pulse were regular, being about three within each period of respiration; yet such as to terminate in and thus direct the things belonging to the lungs. How at the close of each respiration the alternations of the heart insinuated themselves into those of the lungs, I was in some measure enabled to observe. The alternations of the pulse were so observable that I was able to count them; they were distinct and soft.
[4] The fourth general operation was into the kidneys, which also it was given me to perceive, but obscurely. From these things it was made manifest that heaven or the Grand Man has cardiac pulses, and that it has respirations; and that the cardiac pulses of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the heart and with its systolic and diastolic motions; and that the respirations of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the lungs and their respirations; but that they are both unobservable to man, being imperceptible, because internal. (AC 3884)
This passage indicates the nature of Swedenborg’s experimental observations: “I may here relate the things that experience has enabled me to know with certainty.” Swedenborg sometimes refers to the fact that he can’t go further with a topic since it is not allowed him to say more (SE 621), and at other times he mentions that he is allowed to say something for the purpose of clearing up an erroneous belief that is harmful or, uplifting our hope from pessimism (SE 228). In the above passage, he is allowed to describe his sensuous observations in order to dissipate the feeling people have about the Grand Human that it is “paradoxical and incredible.” The rational consciousness we have of the Grand Human remains obscure until we are given the sensuous consciousness of it through Swedenborg’s observations and sensations. The rational within the sensuous completes the idea of the Grand Human so that it may be seen in clear light.
The Memorable Relations have a similar function. They give us a sensuous consciousness of the spiritual world within which our rational consciousness of Doctrinal things can rest as an ultimate and be completed in our understanding. Much research lies ahead in the future of theistic science, which extends to the distant future of millennia! Cumulative theistic science research will uncover the layers of meaning in the above passage, and others like it. It stand to reason that these sensuous details are all infilled with rational principles and truths that we can extract through appropriate methods that rely on illustration from the Lord. This enlightenment is given to anyone who reads the Writings as the Word, and to the extent that one is being regenerated through it.
5. Scientific Revelations in the Writings
Today, a wicked and wily man can be equally a good scientist as a moral and sincere man. The private lives and biographies of great scientists can be filled with good and with evil. The Lord gives natural truths to the good and to the evil. These natural truths are acquired as-of self by self-intelligence and effort so that not the Lord’s Providential actions are seen in them, but our own prudence and ingenuity. But it is entirely different with the acquisition of spiritual and celestial truths, that is, with theistic science. These truths are revealed by the Lord to each individual to the extent that the Lord is acknowledged as the author and giver of the truths.
To the extent that we ascribe to the Lord our understanding of spiritual truths, and none of it to ourselves, to that extent the Lord can give us more spiritual truths, and more interior celestial truths. With these more interior rational truths we can clearly see that the earlier natural truths we acquired as-of self were also given from the Lord and not from self-intelligence. We then attribute the marvelous achievements of engineering and medicine not to the rationality or wisdom of material science but to the Lord. The success of science cannot therefore be extended to the usefulness of materialism. Abandoning materialism for dualism is not a loss to the power and utility of science, but an immeasurable gain.
The next two passages reveal that the heart beat of animals and people on earth is controlled by the cardiac pulsations of the spiritual angels, which in turn are caused by the speech of celestial angels:
I then seemed to myself to be in heaven with my head, but not with my body. In this state it was likewise given me to observe the general respiration of heaven, and what was its nature; it was interior, easy, spontaneous, and corresponding to my respiration as three to one. It was also given me to observe the reciprocations of the pulsations of the heart; and I was then informed by angels that each and every creature on the earth has pulsations of the heart and the consequent respirations; and that the reason why they take place at dissimilar moments is that both the cardiac pulsation and the pulmonary respiration which are in the heavens pass off into something continuous, and thus into endeavor, which is of such a nature as to excite these motions variously in accordance with the state of every subject. (AC 3885)
But be it known that the variations in the heavens in respect to pulsations and respirations are manifold, being as many as are the societies; for they are according to the states of thought and affection with the angels; and these are according to their states of faith and love; but the general pulsation and respiration are as above described. Once also it was given me to observe the cardiac pulsation of those who were of the province of the hinder part of the head, and to note one by one the pulsations of the celestial and those of the spiritual in that province. The pulsations of the celestial were tacit and gentle; but those of the spiritual were strong and vibratory. The intervals of the pulsation of the spiritual were to those of the celestial as five to two; for the pulsation of the celestial inflows into that of the spiritual, and thus goes forth and passes into nature.
And wonderful to say the speech of the celestial angels is not heard by the spiritual angels, but is perceived under the form of a pulsation of the heart; and this because the speech of the celestial angels is not intelligible to the spiritual angels, for it is produced by affections which are of love; whereas that of the spiritual is produced by intellectual ideas (see n. 1647, 1759, 2157, 3343); and the former belong to the province of the heart, but the latter to the province of the lungs. (AC 3886)
These passages illustrate Swedenborg’s scientific sensuous observations of which he made a record in terms of empirical measurements, such as the 3 to 1 ratio of “tacit breathing” between the natural and spiritual mind, and the 5 to 2 ratio of intervals of vibratory cardiac pulsation between celestial and spiritual levels of the mind. These theistic science facts are about spiritual-celestial truths. These breathing rhythms and cardiac pulsations in the spiritual mind were caused by the celestial mind. In other words, celestial speech causes spiritual phenomena by correspondence, and these two “go forth and pass into nature,” which means that they are the cause of all natural phenomena. To put it still another way, the phenomena of nature on earth are created by the speech of angels in the celestial heaven through the ideas of the angels in the spiritual heaven.
These facts and considerations can be applied to natural truths since these are created by the speech of celestial angels. What is created in a sequential order of discrete degrees also exists in a simultaneous order in natural events or “motions” (TCR 214). Knowing the causative sequence of action from celestial to natural allows us to inspect and analyze natural phenomena in their simultaneous order of structure and motion, or existence. Dr. Ian Thompson’s articles discuss many details of this process and has created a taxonomy that identifies the systematic of these causal sequences (see Note 12 at end).
6. Sensuous And Rational Content In The Writings
Readers of the Writings will notice two types of content in it. The accounts given from his direct observations or interactions with others, serve for the opening of sensuous consciousness in the spiritual mind. These include:
q the Memorable Relations q the experiences Swedenborg had in heaven and hell q the travels in earths in the universe q his conversations in the spiritual world with historical figures and acquaintances q his observations of people being resuscitated q his visual perception of the form of the Grand Human q his view of the spiritual Sun and the Lord appearing amidst it q the organic structure of the mind, its levels of thinking, and its parallelisms with the respiratory and circulatory systems of the body q his observation of correspondences while reading the Word in the form of environmental representations q his experiments in which he systematically introduces or removes some element from a spirit and notes the results q his drawings of spiritual regions q systematic interviews with spirits and angels to determine their knowledge on some topic q etc.
As is evident, sensuous consciousness in the spiritual mind consists of facts and data from the many observations and experiments Swedenborg made in the spiritual world. These may be called spiritual scientifics in parallel to natural scientifics. One is the scientific knowledge and research in the spiritual world; the other the scientific knowledge and research in the natural world. The New Church mind acquires a sensuous and scientific knowledge of the spiritual world by learning these facts about it, in the same way that we acquire such knowledge about the physical world. One might say that the learning about the natural world (natural scientifics) is our first education while learning about the spiritual world (spiritual scientifics) is our second education.
The New Church mind must have both inasmuch as it is a dual citizen, like Swedenborg. The celestial people of the era of the Most Ancient Church, prior to the Fall, were also dual citizens, that is, had access to facts from both the natural and the spiritual world (AC 597). Sensuous consciousness of the spiritual has been retained with the inhabitants of the other planets (see discussion below). After the Fall, sensuous consciousness of the spiritual world was closed off by the Lord with the people on this earth, the brain was split, and a new way was made for the salvation of all coming generations on this earth. This regeneration is by means of the sciences, as discussed and shown below.
Sensuous consciousness to the spiritual mind being eliminated, people had to develop a rational vision of the spiritual world, of the Lord and of heaven. This new rational consciousness is called the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is Divine truth, proceeding from the Lord, which flows in with man, both immediately from the Lord Himself and mediately through angels and spirits (AE 183)
The Holy Spirit signifies strictly the Divine truth (TCR 139)
The Divine truth which then proceeded from Him is called the "Paraclete," or "Spirit of Truth." I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Paraclete,* that he may abide with you to eternity, the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, for it seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him, for he abideth with you, and is among you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come unto you. These things have I spoken unto you while abiding with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, he shall teach you all things (John 14:16-18, 25-26). (AC 9199)
By the "Comforter," the "Spirit of Truth," and the "Holy Spirit," the Lord meant Himself … The reason why the Lord breathed on the disciples and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit," was that all the breathing of heaven is from the Lord. For angels as well as men have breathing and beating of the heart; their breathing being according to their reception of wisdom from the Lord … (LORD 51)
The word "spirit" is used in many passages in the Word, and when said of man, by his "spirit" is signified the good and truth that have been inscribed on his intellectual part, consequently there is signified the life of this part. (AC 9818)
7. A Spiritual Sensuous Consciousness
The Book of the Writings that angels behold and read is a spiritual sensuous fact before their eyes. This is through the sensuous spirit-body in which everyone awakens in the afterlife. Swedenborg lived a dual life for 27 years so that he was able to objectively describe for us the details of the spiritual sensuous life. These facts about the spiritual world are called the “interior science” (or spiritual scientifics), and constitute the sensuous consciousness of our spiritual mind. In this sensuous consciousness we behold the Divine Human in the Writings, though only by correspondence in the interior-natural mind. We behold the Divine Rational of the Divine Human when we read the literal of the Writings, but only to the extent that we understand it spiritually. We are not conscious of the spiritual mind while tied to the physical body, but we are conscious of the interior-natural mind that the Lord forms within the natural-rational understanding. We then perceive by higher correspondences, which means that we perceive spiritual topics spiritually. Prior to reformation we can only perceive spiritual topics naturally, since our interior-natural mind isn’t opened until we undergo regeneration.
The descriptions we study in the Writings serve for the opening of rational consciousness of spiritual things. These include:
q the correspondences in the Old and New Testaments q the Laws of Divine Providence and Permissions by which the Lord manages all events q the history and evolution of Churches applied to the development of the individual’s mind q identification of who the Lord is in relation to His Threefold Aspect q how infinite distinct things in the Lord make a one q the connected series of instrumental causes from the spiritual Sun down to molecules q discrete degrees in the universe and in the human mind q life disciplines needed to be reformed and regenerated through temptations q conjugial love in heaven and the spiritual biology of men and women q the vertical community and how the Lord associates every individual to spirits q explanations about infinity, chance, vacuum, color, natural language, diseases, etc. q the structure of all created objects q inheritance of psychological and spiritual traits q what is uncreate q Etc.
As a result of our Second Education, these natural-rational things in the Letter become spiritual-rational truths, as reflected in our new reasonings, understandings, and levels of thinking. They are what infills the sensuous consciousness in our spiritual mind, though this process is still unconscious. Both must be present in the spiritual mind in order to be prepared for life in the New Heavens (TCR 1). The Writings provide both for the up building of our spiritual mind. From the Writings we acquire both sensuous and rational consciousness of the spiritual world. The sensuous consciousness is not accessible in this life, but will be in the afterlife. Rational consciousness by itself would not be determined to anything real if it did not have sensuous consciousness to settle in as an ultimate (AC 1476). These two types of consciousness, or level of thinking, are in discrete duality, the rational within the sensuous and interacting only by correspondences (D. Wis. 2).
In Heaven and Hell we read:
The arcana revealed in the following pages relate to heaven and hell, and also to the life of man after death. The man of the church at this date knows scarcely anything about heaven and hell or about his life after death, although all these matters are set forth and described in the Word; and yet many of those born within the church refuse to believe in them, saying in their hearts, "Who has come from that world and told us?" Lest, therefore, such a spirit of denial, which especially prevails with those who have much worldly wisdom, should also infect and corrupt the simple in heart and the simple in faith, it has been granted me to associate with angels and to talk with them as man with man, also to see what is in the heavens and what is in the hells, and this for thirteen years; so now from what I have seen and heard it has been granted me to describe these, in the hope that ignorance may thus be enlightened and unbelief dissipated. Such immediate revelation is granted at this day because this is what is meant by the Coming of the Lord. (HH 1)
8. External And Interior Theistic Science
When the Word is opened the Lord appears (AE 612)
Swedenborg’s science published as his Scientific Works was first written in his natural mind separated from the spiritual mind. But afterwards, his science was written in dual mode, having been given direct sensuous access to both worlds. The two versions of theistic science he wrote are structurally related so that he first wrote the external theistic science of the sensuous world on earth, and later, the interior science of the sensuous aspects of the spiritual world.
The Writings contain two visible types of subject matter in its literal sentences: the external theistic science from Swedenborg’s Scientific Works, and the interior theistic science of the spiritual world. The two are intermingled. The external theistic science in the Writings are scientific revelations about the natural world that were not known before. The interior theistic science consists of revelations about the spiritual world, also not known before. Note well: the external theistic science and the interior theistic science both appear in the literal, and therefore only a natural understanding is possible from these descriptions. A spiritual understanding of them is possible only by enlightenment, as discussed in Chapter 1.
The science written in the Writings, both external and interior, contains a sensuous and a rational portion. Similarly, the natural version of science in the Scientific Works contain a sensuous and a rational portion. Swedenborg uses the facts and experiments of certain “gifted and talented” scientists to gather accurate data of natural objects and phenomena. He then analyzes this factual database by means of rational principles of reasoning, that he also describes (xx). This is the rational consciousness of the natural world, or the natural-rational level of thinking. This precise approach in the natural mind yields cumulative progress and is without the errors of conjecture or bias (xx).
The Scientific Works were composed through the natural-sensuous mind, which is the middle portion of the external natural mind. The Writings on the other hand, were composed through the natural-rational mind which is in the upper portion of the external rational mind. The Writings were written by the Lord through the conscious as-of self mind of Swedenborg. There is no other way that the Word can be written. As a result of the Writings being written by the Lord, it has infinite series of truths in its internal sense. The study and research of these infinite series in the internal sense of the Writings is called the interior theistic science.
Clearly then, the Scientific Works used by the Lord in the Writings had to be created by the Lord through Swedenborg’s unconscious mind in such a way that they later could serve as contaminants of the infinite series of the Word.
The Lord would not have included anything from the Scientific Works had these Works not also been prepared by the Lord to be appropriate vessels for writing the Word of the Writings.
The natural external scientifics of the Scientific Works are imported by the Lord and woven into the literal framework or fabric of the Letter of the Writings. At the level of the Letter of the Writings, or its literal meaning, the spiritual interior scientifics of the Memorable Relations and of the Doctrinal expositions are commingled by the Lord with the natural external scientifics of the Scientific Works. The matrix and fabric of the Letter makes these two types of scientifics an integral part of each other. One cannot subsist without the other. It is not possible to take away the natural scientifics of the Writings since it was woven by the Lord into the Letter of the Word.
It was necessary therefore that Swedenborg’s Scientific Works, in their minutest detail, be directed, selected, and actualized by the Lord independently of Swedenborg’s own will and understanding. Swedenborg went through the intellectual effort of as-of self organization and interpretation of data and the creation of theory and rational explanatory accounts. But he attributed the success of his findings or the merit of his explanations solely and entirely to the Lord (xx). The Lord was responsible for the direction and fruitfulness of his reasoning and thought sequences.
The two types of scientifics (natural and spiritual) which make up the literal meaning of the Writings are both Divine because every detail of the Word is Divine (xx). The surface words, expressions, and sentences are arranged in a perfect and infinite series so that nothing can be taken away without destroying the series that is within (xx). It’s obvious that an infinite spiritual-rational series must be present within the finite natural-rational expressions of the Letter.
The literal of the Writings in heaven is not the same as the literal of the Writings on earth. The difference is that which exists between natural languages and spiritual language (xx). Still, the inner series within the literal of both is the same because this is the Lord’s Divine Rational.
The external and interior theistic science that is written in the literal of the Writings, contain the spiritual-rational truths or correspondences that are in our spiritual mind, but we are conscious of it by correspondence in our interior-natural mind that the Lord creates within the natural-rational when we undergo and complete our reformation.
The New Church mind is first built up by the theistic science in the Writings through the details we read in its external and interior science in the Letter. If we try to understand the Scientific Works prior to our understanding of the Writings, we only get a materialistic understanding of the Scientific Works. What was written first by Swedenborg can only be understood appropriately when being studied second. This is because the natural is to be understood by infilling it with the spiritual, and not the other way round, which is compared in the Writings to “drunkenness”:
They are called "drunkards" who believe nothing but what they apprehend, and for this reason search into the mysteries of faith. And because this is done by means of sensuous things, either of memory or of philosophy, man being what he is, cannot but fall thereby into errors. For man's thought is merely earthly, corporeal, and material, because it is from earthly, corporeal, and material things, which cling constantly to it, and in which the ideas of his thought are based and terminated.
To think and reason therefore from these concerning Divine things, is to bring oneself into errors and perversions; and it is as impossible to procure faith in this way as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. The error and insanity from this source are called in the Word "drunkenness." Indeed the souls or spirits who in the other life reason about the truths of faith and against them, become like drunken men and act like them (AC 1072)
To investigate the spiritual from the perspective of the natural is not permitted and leads only to false and insane notions about the spiritual world and about the Lord. Instead, we must investigate the natural from the spiritual. To understand the Scientific Works properly, which is about the natural world, we must consider them from the spiritual-rational perspective. This perspective is the internal sense of the Writings. In other words, to investigate the meaning of the Scientific Works that forms portions of the Letter of the Writings, we must treat them as having an interior meaning since the Lord made them part of the Word. The extraction of the interior meaning of the Scientific Works in the Letter is a major area of research for theistic science. But this is true of all the portions of the Letter such as the Memorable Relations and the Doctrinal expositions which are interior scientifics. Theistic science research teaches the appropriate method of extracting the Spiritual Doctrine from these Doctrinal expositions.
In other words, sensuous consciousness of the natural world cannot be used to investigate sensuous consciousness of the spiritual world (see also Volume 1 Chapter 4 Section 5 on “near death experiences”). Similarly, the rational principles within the sensuous facts written in the Scientific Works cannot be properly understood without first knowing about the rational principles of the spiritual world written in the Writings and called the interior scientifics. Our first education in childhood is the natural-sensuous knowledge of the two worlds that we acquire through the school curriculum and religion. Our second education begins when we start reasoning from ourselves about the two worlds, thus developing our rational consciousness.
Sensuous consciousness of the natural world is at first learned from materialistic science in the school curriculum. At this point there is a clash in our mind between this materialistic sensuous and the spiritual sensuous facts and truths we learn from the Writings. We do not resolve this contradiction, we just lay it aside or ignore it. But at some point the contradiction must be resolved in order to enter heaven. There needs to be a changeover in the adult New Church mind from materialistic science to dualist science. The Scientific Works are essential for engineering this cognitive makeover or fundamental paradigm shift. When this makeover begins, then for the first time we are learning and investigating theistic science.
Prior to this, our sensuous and rational consciousness of the spiritual world from the Writings is only in a natural form. It cannot be completed until the interior-rational of the spiritual mind is opened. This opening activity is then consciously experienced by correspondence in the interior-natural mind. Then for the first time, we can behold the Divine Human in completion, even if only by correspondence. This is the deeper meaning of the Second Coming, namely, the infilling of the First Coming in the New Church mind by means of the Second Coming in the New Church mind.
Swedenborg’s Scientific Works can be called “theistic science,” but not in full. The Scientific Works are the external portion of theistic science. The internal portion is the interior science about the spiritual world, to which Swedenborg had no access while he wrote the Scientific Works . Together they complete theistic science in the same way as the First and Second Coming of the Lord together constitute the completion of the human race. Now everything has been given to the human race by which we can form theistic science as the genuine and ultimate science. I predict that as theistic science grows in recognition and participation, only those parts and aspects of the current materialistic science will be retained which have the character identified by Swedenborg in the Scientific Works (e.g., EAK Preface, xx).
Note that the Scientific Works of Swedenborg cannot be classified together with the science of any of his contemporaries. Newton’s and Swedenborg’s book by the same title, Principia, illustrate the difference. Newton’s Principia is monist or nondualist, even though he acknowledges that the mechanical laws he has described have been created by God and it is to God that one needs to pay homage for nature’s orderliness and rationality. Having made this religious confession at the outset, God then disappears from the rest of the system that he builds. Although Newton was a believer, his intellectual attitude was that natural science has its own sphere of operation and laws that must be discovered by research and God should be left out of the equations. This view has continued with modern scientists like Einstein, and contemporary scientists who are New Church members—as will be illustrated below. In contrast to this “scientific monism” Swedenborg’s Principia is a “scientific dualism” that keeps God around and puts the spiritual into every equation, if not mathematically, then rationally (xx).
Note that the Lord allowed Swedenborg to carry his theistic science into every book of the Writings, interweaving spiritual facts with natural facts, as for example when he discusses the exact parallelisms between mental organic functioning and physical, between how the will and the understanding interact and the parallel interaction between the heart and lungs. This structural integration was not merely an analogy, though they are used for “illustration” (xx). The particular scientific details of how the circulatory interacts with the respiratory are precisely parallel to the details of how the will and the understanding interact. This strict methodological operational parallelism between spiritual and natural phenomena is a structural integration in theistic science. The Science of Correspondences is such an integration. The principle that individual psychological development recapitulates racial history is also a strict parallelism that is integrated into the fabric of the Word and its three layers of internal meaning (AC 1024[2]). Also, that the regeneration of the individual on earth affects the regeneration of the Grand Human and of people on other earths—as discussed below under the Perizonius Thesis.
There was no break in Swedenborg’s relationship to the science written in the Scientific Works and the science given in the Writings. The first was the external portion of the second, as discussed above. We can note that he continued to distribute copies of The Economy of the Animal Kingdom (EAK) after his spiritual enlightenment, and after he resigned his government office as senior mining assessor on June 2, 1747. In his resignation letter to the King of Sweden, Swedenborg gave this reason for his early retirement:
But as I find myself in duty bound to complete a work which I have commenced, therefore it is my humble request that… And thus, that permission be graciously granted me to betake myself to a place abroad where I can complete the important work which I have now in hand. (The Letters and Memorials of Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated and Edited by Alfred Acton (Bryn Athyn, PA. Swedenborg Scientific Association, 1948)
This was three years after the Lord appeared to him and informed him of his mission as revelator.
The manifestation of the Lord in Person, and the introduction by the Lord into the spiritual world, both as to s |
