What's on your mind? A machine can tell us

Explanations of the Chart now follow.

1.1.1   Level 1: Materialistic Science (Monism, Negative bias in science)

According to the positive bias in science, the lowest form of  rational thinking is the denial of God or atheism, but it includes other intellectual forms and justifications such as materialism, which denies the existence of anything that isn’t physical. For instance, it asserts that there is no spiritual world; there is no creation; there is no higher power or higher intelligence that is not part of the natural universe. In addition, there are other forms of thinking that deny God such as animism, which asserts that natural objects are spirits or gods, or that a rock is really alive, and so on. Or else, the universe is alive as the "Great Spirit," which is again a denial of God as one Divine Infinite Conscious Rational Human Person from whom all things come and by whom all things are created, shaped, organized, and managed through rational laws that  operate to bring about an ultimate Divine purpose. According to this rational view of God, all things that God creates cannot have life of themselves, neither any power to grow, to act, or to think. This is a rational consequence of the concept of "omnipotence" which asserts that no other power can exist but the power of God and in God.

The rational view of God sees that human beings do not have life from themselves as their own, neither can we think anything without power. Hence God must supply the power and the intelligence. Life and rationality are God's qualities. These are uncreate and infinite. They cannot be given to human beings so that these belong to them. But God created all things in such a way as to be receptor forms or organs of all the uncreate things that are infinite in Himself. Hence plants, animals and human beings have receptor organs for life.

Human beings have receptor organs for love and truth, both of which are uncreate and infinite, and in God only. But as receptors, our finite mental organs can react by correspondence to the continuous inflow and presence of Divine love and truth in our mental organs. God wills that we receive the inflow of His love and truth as-if they were our own. His infinitely variable love substance and infinitely variable truth substance inflow into our mind through the Spiritual Sun. They then activate by correspondence a variety of thoughts and feelings that we can experience as our own. Unless we felt that the love and truth in us is our own, we could not be happy, nor function as a normal human being.

Those who reject the objectivity of rational spirituality have evolved a subjective mystical spirituality of God that depends on the idea of a "nonduality" between God and human beings. This is the idea that in our deepest and highest core, we human beings are each the Divine. The ultimate and highest evolution of a human being is to reach the consciousness of this Divine Being. In other words, what they call God or Divine is of the same basic substance as human beings. Human beings and God are the same substance and state. This is a self-realization we attain when we are able to let go of the illusion and delusion that we are each individual human beings struggling on a planet to survive. In the intellectual framework of nonduality the path to God is the path to Self (see my book on nonduality available online here:  www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/nonduality.html ).

You can see from this that mystical spirituality relies on a sensuous consciousness or experience of God while rational spirituality relies on a rational consciousness or understanding of God. This rational understanding is based on God's revelations made in Sacred Scripture. Since God and created human beings cannot be of one substance, there is a continuous duality between them that cannot be overcome to eternity. The things of God in human beings that they feel as-if their own, are not their own. We feel life and intelligence as if our own, but we know they are God's life and intelligence in us. We think of the rational analogy with the eye and light. The light enters the eye and gives us the ability to see. This light does not belong to the eye and can never be one with the eye. Similarly, the love and truth that is in us as-if our own, is actually God's love and truth inflowing into the mind's receptor organs.

Other intellectual forms of nonduality include theosophy and spiritism. These belief systems rely on materialistic ideas of God and spirit, such as the "Spirit of the Times," or, the "subtle realm" of the innate spiritual forces in the human mind, which itself is sometimes called "divine." These are anti-rational ideas of God leading to traditions and disciplines of asceticism, specialized meditation, sexual abstinence, and guru worship. "The Divine" is then defined as beyond thinking, beyond understanding, beyond rationality. It cannot be talked about. In rational spirituality based on Divine revelations, God must be talked about and understood rationally. Without this direct conscious communication by language and thought, God cannot be approached.

Another form of nonduality that denies God is magic because it attributes powers to things other than God such as devils and "dark forces" or "energies." Hence for those who believe in magic or practice sorcery, God is not the only source and cause of all power. They may talk about God as well, but their idea of God is not really God since to put any limits on God's power is the same as denial of God. This is because God, by definition, is infinite and omnipotent, which means that no other power exists. As defined in the dictionary:

God. capitalized : the supreme or ultimate reality: The Being who is perfect in power, wisdom, and goodness, and who is worshiped as creator and ruler of the universe.

The supernatural being conceived as the perfect and omnipotent and omniscient originator and ruler of the universe; the object of worship in monotheistic religions.

The denial of God's existence, or else God's Personal omnipotence, or personhood, automatically precipitates the thinker into subjective belief systems that are found to be attractive, but later are discarded in exchange for another one, and so on.  If you assume that God exists, or at least could exist (the positive bias in science), and you are looking from that perspective on the denial of God, it would seem to you that it is similar to an engineer denying that the earth is round. Or a chemist that would deny that different forms of energy exist. Whatever theories and explanations this engineer will make, will all be false and contrary to reality. By God is meant One Infinite Omnipotent Omniscient Omnipresent Person or Being who has human purposes and involvements. From this perspective of affirmation of God, it is contrary to reality to attribute power or intelligence to other sources such as other gods, other forces, other energies. In contrast to materialistic non-theistic science, theistic psychology starts with the assumption that God exists as the Infinite Person who makes scientific revelations about Himself, about creation, about our life after death, and about the rational rules God uses in managing every detail of the universe.

God communicates these revelations to humankind in order to encourage people to cooperate with Him in the process of acquiring a celestial mind. It is the celestial mind that lives in eternal conjugial joy in the immortality of our afterlife. God's love for humankind prompts Him to provide these instructional methods by which we can acquire a celestial character before we pass into the afterlife. One wonders why God doesn't instruct us orally and directly by appearing to each one of us and instructing us with the Living Voice of God. Or God can appear at an international conference or world press release and prove to the scientists and reporters present that He is indeed God. It's just that simple. Why doesn't God just do it and put an an end to all this doubt, denial, or fantasy?

God has communicated to humankind many principles He uses for governing the universe, and the rationality of those principles fully explains why God does not physically appear to us and set the record straight in a direct provable fashion. It explains why it is necessary for God to appear to us only in our rational consciousness, and to avoid the sensuous consciousness while we are still living in this life. To appear directly at the United Nations and face the scientists would take our civilization back to the days of the New Testament two thousand years ago when God appeared as a physical man born in history on this planet (see section xx). The appropriate steps of human evolution require that God manifest Himself to us in our rational consciousness so that we may develop for ourselves rational proof of His existence in our mind and life. This is the only rational process that can develop in us a celestial mind that can live in eternal conjugial heaven. For God to appear miraculously and give physical proof of His existence would destroy the growth of our celestial mind, when yet this is the very purpose for which God has created us on earth.

You can see why God would not, could not, condemn us to enter the life of immortality without the celestial mind we need to live in heaven.

The purpose of Divine scientific revelations is to have us think in accordance with these principles. When we think from these Divinely revealed facts,  principles, and truths, we think rationally and in accordance with the revelations.

Once we think from these revealed truths, we are challenged by the Divine Psychologist Present with each of us, to will according to the revealed truths which are in our mind from Sacred Scripture. We are to will what we think is good. We make hundreds of thousands of decisions each day and each decision is a situation that God brings to us so that we may have the opportunity to make a choice of that particular type or in that particular area of our character and loves. In this way, choice by choice, we either cooperate with God or not. If we cooperate, we cumulate, and soon all our choices will be in accordance with God's order. The contrary if we do not cooperate, in which case we acquire an infernal mind that can live in eternal hell.

That's the awesome significance of choice!

Do not think that hundreds of thousands of choices a day is an exaggerated number. Assume the number is correct. How can you explain it? This line of thinking will lead you to discover, perhaps for the first time in your life, that the majority of the choices you make are governed by your affections and loves that remain outside your focus of conscious awareness. And yet it is these thousands of individual choices that you make every day that are building up the mind of your immortality, that is, your spiritual mind. You can discover your choices by systematic and persistent self-witnessing (see Section xx). For instance, for a few minutes or hours after you read this, focus your persistent attention on what your eyeballs are doing. You will begin to notice that when you don't interfere, your eyes naturally move here and there as you walk or drive, or as you talk to someone, or when you read a magazine or watch the TV screen. Be aware of where your eyes are looking, where they stay longer, where they keep coming back. The movement of the eyes are directed by your affections and loves -- what you find attractive, what you are interested in, what arouses which emotion in you, and so on. these are your affections and loves. They are in charge of what your eyes are doing when you're not interfering due to some stronger purpose of the moment (e.g., avoiding an obstacle, or, hiding from others what you're really looking at).

The way your eyes are directed by your loves is the same way that the rest of your personality is put together. It is not by means of your conscious awareness that you put yourself together. You put yourself together by means of the sub-conscious loves you inherited and which shape your developing character (see Section xx). A similar useful discipline is to put mirrors around the house and to study your expressions. Also, recording your speaking and other sounds you make throughout the day (see Section xx).

From the perspective of the positive bias in science, the denial of God would be the bottom of the scale of rational thinking defined as thinking with revealed truths about reality. But those who reject the assumptions of theistic psychology will naturally reject the idea that atheism is irrational and instead, will see it as irrational and unscientific to assume God's existence and direct influence on every detail. You will no doubt be hearing these two sides echoing in your mind as you study theistic psychology. Recall the argument:

Materialistic science assumes that all phenomena are to be discovered or identified by physical measurements, or abstractions based on physical measurements. It rejects the use of God as an explanatory concept in science because such a concept is not physical and cannot be measured or abstracted from other concepts that are based on physical measurements. Instead we must assume that the natural world and physical forces have their own laws that must be discovered independently of any appeal to God or a spiritual world that cannot be detected or measured by physical instruments, or derived from other concepts based on physical measurements. Psychology today has adopted this "physicalistic" and "non-theistic" bias in science so that the mental world of thoughts and feelings are considered "epiphenomena," that is, not real. The real part, it asserts, is the brain activity, which consists of electrical and chemical events firing in certain sequences.

According to this materialistic outlook, all human behavior, including thinking and feeling, is nothing but these electrical and chemical events organized in a special way to give rise to self-conscious awareness--an "emergent phenomenon" that supposedly originates from the physical activity of the brain.  In other words, according to materialistic science, we are biological robots with limited time to exist, and at the death of the brain, the "epiphenomenon" that is based on it called consciousness or the mind, vanishes and disappears from existence. We are no longer anything except a memory in the minds of those who knew us--and this is of course just their memory, not the actual continuation of our existence.

Atheism is the tendency to develop multiple arguments to prove that God does not exist. Typically an atheist believes these arguments to be rational, but they are not -- if dualism is correct. It might be a useful exercise for you to pinpoint the rational flaws in the arguments of many atheists. I typed "if there is a God" in the google.com search engine and got thousands of sites by people who put a lot of energy developing arguments against the existence or perfection or goodness of God (see for example this Web site:   www.vexen.co.uk/religion/rm.html )

It is an important fact to consider that the majority of scientists in this country belong to a religion and attend some church. 

This segregation of thinking areas in the mind between one's religious beliefs and one's scientific premises, is often associated with the politics of "separation of Church and State." Materialistic scientists who have declared their belief in God (like Newton, Darwin, Einstein, William James, Jung, Carl Rogers, and many others), nevertheless do not include God in their scientific research or theory building, which remains strictly and solely materialistic or physicalistic. Carl Rogers and Gustav Jung have described themselves as having a religion but they do not bring God into their scientific theories about human behavior. The only major exception is Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) who wrote a book called Rational Psychology in 1742, in which he makes God and God's revelations, part of his overall theory of human behavior. A few years later Swedenborg published his 12-volume work titled Arcana Coelestia (Heavenly Secrets), in which he gives many new observational facts about the mind, its structure, its development, and its immortality in heaven or hell.

The resistance or prohibition in science to use Divine scientific revelations as a source of knowledge about reality, is an unsupportable bias in science, if indeed God exists and makes scientific revelations.

In contrast,  theistic psychology assumes that God is the source of all reality and the real cause of all events in the world today, in the past, and in the future. Since God's purpose for creating and running the universe is a Human purpose involving love, and since God uses rational methods of managing the universe, it makes sense to discover what these Divine rational laws are and to make use of them in practical daily applications to further our human potential.

Theistic psychology will enhance natural science if indeed all natural events have a spiritual cause. By knowing the spiritual cause of natural events we can control our environment better, both physical and mental. This is especially important if there is an afterlife and the quality of life there depends on the mind we form with our choices while we are in this life. This book will summarize many of the facts and proofs given by Swedenborg that God exists as the Divine Human, that we are born immortal, and that our life in heaven or hell in the afterlife, depends on the habits of choices we accumulate in this life. To reveal these things to people on earth is the purpose of God's communications with humankind in the form of Sacred Scripture. This communication is the basis of human rationality and freedom. Without Divine revelations about these things, humans make up their own materialistic ideas of them in the form of false belief systems, persuasive faiths, delusional perceptions, or irrational ways of thinking. The only source of true rationality about God and the afterlife is Divine revelation.

It has been known throughout the ages that people get inspired and are able to think more excellent thoughts and insights during these moments of inspiration. We are familiar from history with the character of the Muses who inspired ancient Greek artists, musicians, and philosophers. Swedenborg was told by Aristotle, whom he interviewed in the spiritual world, that a muse would appear to him in the form of a blue flame while he was writing, guiding him in his thought processes. The concept of the vertical community in theistic psychology (see Section xx) shows that the thoughts of every individual on earth are inspired by spirit subjects or societies to who God connects us and reconnects us moment by moment to assist us in the continuity and coherence of our thinking process moment by moment while awake, and then at night while asleep and dreaming. Without the influx into our mind from the spirits that surround us, we could not have a single thought. Our mind would be isolated and as if frozen like a statute.

Inspiration is a mutual mental influencing process. It is part of the orderly mechanisms that God uses to manage every detail in the universe.

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

CL 415. I shall add here the following account of an experience.

One morning on waking from sleep, I was meditating in the light of a fine dawn before being fully awake, when I saw through the window what looked like a flash of lightning, and soon afterwards heard what sounded like a peal of thunder. I wondered where it had come from, and heard these words from heaven: 'There are some near you who are engaged in a furious dispute about God and nature. The flash of light like lightning and the roaring in the air like thunder are correspondences, which present the appearance of a battle and a clash of arguments, with one side speaking in favour of God, the other of nature.'

This spiritual battle had started like this. There were some satans in hell who said to one another, 'If only we were allowed to talk to angels in heaven, we should prove to them fully and completely that what they call God, the source of everything, is nature, and God is nor more than an expression, unless we mean by it nature.' Since those satans deeply and whole-heartedly believed that, and were so keen to talk with the angels in heaven, they were permitted to climb out of the mud and darkness of hell, and talk with two angels who came down from heaven. They met in the world of spirits which lies midway between heaven and hell.

[2] The satans on seeing the angels rushed up to them, and shouted in a furious tone, 'Are you the angels from heaven with whom we can meet to debate God and nature? You call yourselves wise because you acknowledge God, but oh how simple you are! Who has ever seen God? Who understands what God is? Who can comprehend that God rules, and can control the universe and all its parts? Does anyone but the common people and the crowd acknowledge what they cannot see and understand? What is more obvious than that nature is the all in all? What else has the eye seen but nature? What else has the ear heard? What else has the nose smelt? What else has the tongue tasted? What else has anyone felt by the touch of his hand or body? Are not our bodily senses our only factual witnesses? It is on their evidence that anyone can swear that a thing is so. Are not your heads in nature? What do the thoughts in our heads come from but from that influence? Take away nature and you cannot think at all.' Much more was said of the same sort.

[3] On hearing this the angels replied, 'You talk like that because you are wholly under the influence of the senses. All in the hells have their mental ideas so sunk in the bodily senses that they cannot lift their minds above that level. So we forgive you. A life of evil leading to a belief in falsity has so shut off the inner levels of your minds that it is impossible for them to be lifted above the sensual level, except in a state where you are distant from the evils of your lives and your false beliefs. For a satan can understand truth just as well as an angel when he hears it, but he does not retain it, because evil obliterates truth and substitutes falsity. But we observe that you are now in that distanced state, so that you can understand the truth we are telling you. So pay attention to what we are about to say.

'You lived,' they said, 'in the natural world and there you died, and you are now in the spiritual world. Did you know anything before about life after death? Surely you denied its existence and put yourselves on a level with animals. Did you know anything before about heaven and hell, or about light and heat in this world? Or the fact that you are no longer within nature, but above it? For this world and everything in it are spiritual, and the spiritual is so far above the natural that nature cannot exert the slightest influence on this world. But you, because you believed that nature was a god or a goddess, still believe that the light and heat of this world are identical with the light and heat of the natural world. They are not in the slightest, for natural light is here darkness, and natural heat here is cold. Did you know anything about the sun of this world, the source of our light and heat? Did you know that this sun is undiluted love and the sun of the natural world is undiluted fire? That the sun of the world, being undiluted fire, is the source from which nature came into and continues in being? So nature, which you make into a god or a goddess, is completely lifeless.

[4] 'You can, if given protection, come up with us into heaven; and we can, if given protection, go down with you into hell. In heaven you will see magnificent and splendid sights, in hell foul and filthy ones. The reason for the difference is that in heaven all worship God, in the hells all worship nature. Those magnificent and splendid sights in the heavens are the correspondences of the affections for good and truth; but the foul and filthy sights in hell are the correspondences of the desires for evil and falsity. From both these facts you can now form a conclusion whether God or nature is the all in all.'

To this the satans replied, 'In our present state we can draw the conclusion from what we have heard that God is the all in all. But when the delight of evil takes hold of our minds, then we can see nothing but nature.'

[5] The two angels and the two satans were standing on the right not far from me, so I could see and hear them. Around them I suddenly saw many spirits who had been distinguished for their learning in the natural world. I was surprised to see these learned men standing at one moment next to the angels, at another next to the satans, and applauding the party they stood next to. I was told that their changes of position were changes in their mental states, as they favoured one side or the other, for they behave like weathercocks. 'And we will tell you a secret,' they said. 'We looked down to earth to see those distinguished scholars who had used their own judgment to think about God and nature, and we found six hundred out of a thousand on the side of nature, and the rest on the side of God. But we found them to be on the side of God, not because of any understanding, but because, relying on having been told that nature comes from God, they had often said so. Keeping on saying a thing from memory or recall, while not at the same time prompted by thought and intelligence, produces an appearance of belief.'

[6] After this the satans were given protection and went up with the two angels into heaven, and saw magnificent and splendid sights. On being enlightened by the light of heaven they there acknowledged that there is a God, and that nature was created to minister to life, which is in God and comes from Him; and that nature is in itself lifeless, and so does nothing of itself, but is acted upon by life. When they had seen these sights and experienced these perceptions, they went down; and as they came down, their love of evil returned and shut off their intellect above, opening it underneath. Then there appeared above what looked like a covering flashing with hellish fire. The moment their feet touched the earth, the ground yawned beneath them, and they sank back down to their own kind. (CL 415)

A current illustration of the negative bias thinking in science and popular science discussions, is the bestseller titled The God Delusion by a well known scientist in England, Richard Dawkins. Here are some selections from the popularizing online Wikipedia entry for this book. While reading it, keep in mind that 85 percent of Americans believe in God, the afterlife, and heaven. Hawkins is therefore saying that 85 percent of Americans are delusional! Also note carefully that since he does not prove his point, and he can never do so, his entire argument is based on a bias. But since he denies that it could be a bias, he engages in level 1 thinking and reasoning to try to argue that he is right and others are delusional.

[My comments are inserted in italics and square brackets.]

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Delusion

"In the book, Dawkins argues that belief in a supernatural creator qualifies as a delusion, which he defines as a persistent false belief held in the face of strong contradictory evidence. He is sympathetic to Robert Pirsig's observation that "when one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion."

[Note that the two best known psychologists of the twentieth century -- Sigmund Freud and B. F. Skinner -- also made similar points. This negative bias is entrenched also in science education today so that teachers in high school science courses don't tell their students that the anti-God stance of science is a negative bias in science, not a proof. The fact that they don't tell indicates a political attitude in education that I believe is detrimental to the public good. Now that the positive bias in science exists, there may be a change in this uncritical anti-God orientation.]

[But note this also:
The negative bias in public school science courses in the U.S. can be understood in terms of the long standing group practice in the history of this nation to separate religion from state. This explains why the court systems have struck down local laws that require biology teachers to teach the creation story in Genesis (Old Testament). But in theistic psychology we discuss God as a scientific concept, and we gather evidence from the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture. Since religion is based only on the literal sense of Sacred Scripture, and not on the correspondential sense, it is now possible therefore to discuss God in Science independently of religion. This was not possible before theistic psychology. But now it is! See also Section xx for more discussion on this.]

Continuing with the Wikipedia entry:

"Dawkins writes that The God Delusion contains four "consciousness-raising" messages:

1. Atheists can be happy, balanced, moral, and intellectually fulfilled.

2. Natural selection and similar scientific theories are superior to a "God hypothesis" — the illusion of intelligent design — in explaining the living world and the cosmos.

3. Children should not be labeled by their parents' religion. Terms like "Catholic child" or "Muslim child" should make people flinch.

4. Atheists should be proud, not apologetic, because atheism is evidence of a healthy, independent mind.^[1] "

[Commenting on the above: According to theistic psychology the characteristics mentioned here under (1) are part of the character of our inherited natural mind (see Section xx). The distinction atheist attitudes vs. religious attitudes is not inborn or inherited from parents. People who have a religion vs. people who deny God are equally capable of developing their natural mind and all its characteristics. However because atheism and morality are not opposed, which is correct, it does not follow that therefore God does not exist. This is an illogical conclusion.

Regarding point (2), it is not relevant to the "God as a scientific concept" issue whether the science in natural selection theory is superior to the science in intelligent design theory. Neither of these two are relevant to the issue of God in science since both are based on the literal sense of the Bible, and not at all on the correspondential sense. Hence Dawkins is clearly wrong in concluding that the "God hypothesis" is inferior scientifically to the natural selection hypothesis.

Regarding point (3), it is a matter of culture and socialization, not science. Certainly Dawkins is wrong if he argues that this is a scientific decision rather than cultural, political, and religious.

Regarding point (4), it is a prescription, not a proven point. This is his belief or blind faith in atheism. What if he is wrong? We know from theistic psychology that he is wrong regarding the denial of the mental world of eternity. So the question becomes: What effect does atheism have upon a person's life in eternity? This is discussed in theistic psychology in many places since it is central to the purpose of studying theistic psychology (see Section xx).

Back to the Wikipedia article on The God Delusion by Dawkins:

"The God hypothesis"

"Dawkins begins Chapter 2 by describing Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, as "arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction. Jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak, a vindictive bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidical, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."^[10]

[Others have also made this observation about the literal sense of the Old Testament Sacred Scripture. Although this description is exaggerated and vindictive, it does contain some accuracy regarding how God is portrayed in many passages (see Section xx). It is also imbalanced, because other passages present God as loving, forgiving, just, compassionate, all knowing, and omnipresent. The description by Dawkins is certainly biased, as stated, because it imputes without proof evil intentions to God, as if to suggest that God can be good, but He is also evil, as portrayed in the Old Testament Bible. This imputation of God's intentions and character is certainly illogical and unfounded.

But theistic psychology needs to explain why God appears in some passages to be angry, vengeful, or regretful of what he had done, or why God orders the massacre of women, children, and cattle in some wars. When we look at the correspondential sense of what God says in Sacred Scripture, we never find anything that God says that is not good, loving, compassionate, omnipotent, omniscient, and always involved in helping and supporting every human being from birth to endless eternity (see Section xx).]

Continuing with the article:

"Hence the inability to disprove the existence of God provides no positive reason to believe. Rather, Dawkins argues that the burden of proof is on the advocates of the existence of God."

[Note his realization of "the inability to disprove the existence of God". Dawkins knows that he is thinking within the negative bias mode of science. He realizes it is a bias. Unfortunately, science teachers in public schools do not do the same. They do not admit to the students that the denial of God is unproven in science. All they say is that God is not scientific. They have lo logical or rational warrant to say this to students. No doubt they themselves may believe it out of confusion. They would be able to change their teaching if they were informed by the science textbook writers from which they learn, that the denial of God in science is not proven, and therefore it is a negative bias in science.

Note also that Dawkins says that those who believe that God is a reality should prove the existence of God. This is illogical and unfair since he already admits that denying God's existence cannot be proven. So it follows that for the same reason, proving that Go exists is also not possible. Hence it is called the positive bias in science. Either way it is a bias and cannot be proven. It is illogical and unfair for him to require that the positive bias be proven rather than accepted as a bias -- and then it is examined for evidence, as we do in theistic psychology.]

Continuing with the article:

"In chapter 6, Dawkins turns his attention to the subject of morality, arguing that we do not need religion in order to be good. Instead, he maintains that our morality has a Darwinian explanation: altruistic genes have been selected through the process of our evolution, and we possess a natural empathy."

[Note that Dawkins is ignorant of mental anatomy (see Section xx) which shows that we are born with a natural-rational mind and a spiritual-rational mind. The natural mind serves us in this life, while the spiritual mind serves us in the afterlife of eternity. Morality in the natural mind ("altruistic genes") is possible even if the spiritual mind is denied (see Section xx). But being spiritually good is not possible if the spiritual mind is denied. People can be naturally good or moral, yet be spiritually insane and evil. After resuscitation in the afterlife of eternity we live in our spiritual mind, not the natural mind. People who are naturally good or moral in the natural mind, may be insane and evil in the spiritual mind, and in that case they select a hellish life for themselves, while people who are spiritually sane and good, select a heavenly life for themselves in eternity (see Section xx).

This raises again the important issue whether denial of God and natural morality is sufficient to develop a character that chooses heaven in eternity. Theistic psychology shows why this is not sufficient, and that it is necessary to have a theistic orientation in this life in order to develop our spiritual mind so that it is heavenly rather hellish when we are resuscitated in eternity (see Section xx).]

Continuing with the article:

"Dawkins turns to the question of why he feels so hostile towards religion in Chapter 8, arguing with examples that religion subverts science, fosters fanaticism, encourages bigotry towards homosexuals, and influences society in other negative ways. Dawkins states that Southern preachers used the Bible to justify slavery by claiming Africans were descendants of Abraham's sinful son. During the Crusades, "pagans" and "heretics" who would not convert to Christianity were murdered, and there are other similar examples."

[Note that these criticisms of religion have been voiced by many in literature and Dawkins is repeating them in his book. However they are all false because they are based, not on God and what God says in reality, but on the literal sense, which is adapted to the culture and its prejudices. Sacred Scripture would have been rejected by people if the literal sense were not expressive of how they think and what they are willing to accept (see Section xx). Also, it is illogical to attribute wars (like the Crusades, etc.) to God or to religion when clearly these wars were waged because of political ambitions and prejudices of kings and bishops. The wars and conflicts were not based on God or Sacred Scripture. In fact until the twentieth century the vast majority of people did not read Sacred Scripture. But it is rational, logical, and scientific to separate these two: God and Sacred Scripture on the one hand, and religion, culture, and politics on the other. As theistic psychology proves, the correspondential sense of all Sacred Scripture is universal, culture free, and scientific.]

Check the original article for more discussion from the perspective of people who share the negative bias mode of thinking. Also check out this review of the book that disagrees with Dawkins, but on wholly different grounds than I do above.: http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2007/002/1.21.html

 1.1.2  Level 2: Mystical Religion

 Religions are "mystical" in the sense that they do not give a rational and scientific explanation of God and the universe. Instead they give a creed that must be accepted as a belief system or faith which specifies who God is and what He demands from the members of that religion. Those faithful who live according to the doctrine of their religion are rewarded by God and receive eternal happiness in life after death. But those who do not live according to their doctrine, and all those who live according to a false faith, are punished and relegated to eternal misery in their life after death. Some faiths include the idea that this punishment is not eternal since people can change from bad to good following their phase of punishment in the afterlife. Some religions include the idea that this punishment takes place by being reincarnated in the natural world until the individual attains freedom from illusion and becomes divine.

Level 2 thinking is above level 1 thinking in rationality, if the assumption that there is God is true. In that case Level 2 thinking is a better representation of reality, more valid, more powerful, more useful, and more practical than non-theistic science is about the subject of God and how best to prepare for the afterlife. Materialistic science thinking (level 1) cannot help us at all in terms of preparing ourselves for the afterlife. This is a huge disadvantage since it's extremely important and urgent that we prepare ourselves adequately for the afterlife -- if there is such a thing. This is totally obvious if you consider it from theistic psychology which describes the life after death as either eternal happiness and sanity or eternal misery and delusion. Which it is depends on our preparation. Hence religion is a more rational and effective method of psychological preparation than non-theistic psychology. Clearly, from a practical point of view, it is important that we get this issue right, and that we remember what's at stake if we are right or wrong about God and the afterlife.

But mystical religion is not yet a fully rational and scientific perspective on God. One proof of this is that there are various religions and they not only contradict each other but sometimes want to annihilate each other. Even when they are peaceful to one another, some of them still believe that all others are false and lead their believers to eternal unhappiness in the afterlife. Obviously, if the religions were fully rational, they could not disagree with each other in such a drastic way. Rationality is the process of unifying diverse things into a coherent whole. Genuine rational faith unifies all varieties of doctrine into one overall doctrine that agrees with genuine truth and can live with genuine good. The purpose of all rational faiths (or religions) is to lead people to the good of heaven in the afterlife, and this always requires a change of character and a new way of making our daily choices. This is the truth of all religions that are based on genuine rational faith obtained from Sacred Scripture. Rational faith always leads to love and peace, for hostility and scorn cannot be associated with rational spirituality. Rational spirituality is the only genuine spirituality. It is based on Divine Speech or Divine Truth transmitted through Sacred Scripture (see Sections xx). 

But faith that is not based on rational spirituality does not put love and peace ahead of doctrinal differences. Such persuasive faiths are exclusive and hostile to one another. A notable contrast to this pattern of religion is the New Church which has been based on the Writings of Swedenborg (see Reading List). They acknowledge the idea from the Writings of Swedenborg that God accepts all religions and that eternal happiness (or "heaven") is not denied to anyone who is capable of living a heavenly life, which means capable of having altruistic feelings in the afterlife as the basis of their inner character. This inner character is what we form for ourselves by the way we live on earth through the thousands of choices we make every day. The immortal "spiritual body" we have in the afterlife is nothing else than the character we have formed with our life in the natural world. In the spiritual world, which is a mental or rational world, feelings and thoughts create what is around us, as will be explained (see Section xx).

Theistic psychology teaches people the skills they need to rebuild their character into heavenly traits with which they can have a life in heaven (see Section xx). Clearly this is of incalculable benefit to every person.

Theistic psychology assumes that there is an absolute universal standard for all human character regardless of planet, religion, culture, or personality. This is a necessary assumption since it defines good vs. evil and truth vs. falsity in terms of scientific revelations from God. Rationally, there can be only one God since God is infinite and two infinites are impossible. Since God is absolute truth and the sole source of all truth, there is an absolute standard for the human race regardless of origin or time. This absolute truth or reality is communicated to humans in two ways--externally by means of scientific revelations given by God to a particular prophet or revelator, and second, by inner voice of one's conscience by which God influences and guides the rational conscious decisions of every person, whether one denies God or not (See Section 7.0.4.1). When we deny God, we still possess a moral conscience which guides our life decisions and keeps us human. God secretly (or unconsciously) maintains the operation of moral conscience in individuals regardless of their stated belief systems.

A student reacting to some of the ideas in this book wrote:

"One statement that I disagreed with was “ Taylor says if a person or church does not understand the true god properly than all doctrine, dogma and ritual are possibly invalid.” I disagree with Taylor because I don’t understand the true God and I don’t think anyone ever could really understand him truly. Taylor believes “that God appears as “mysterious” to people and therefore god cannot truly be a part of the mind if He is not understood.” I think God is always present whether we understand him or not and mysterious is a part of our misunderstanding of God that makes him great. One of the statements that I agree with is when Elisabeth disagrees “I think there will always be mystery with God, because we have a finite mind while God has an infinite mind.” I agree with this totally I think God is beyond our comprehension."

A common idea is voiced here, namely that since God is infinite, He is incomprehensible. Therefore God and mystery are inseparable. However, Swedenborg points out two aspects of God, the one that we relate to consciously and the one that we are not conscious of. We do not ever relate in any way to God's infinity and immensity. For instance God's essence is infinite Divine Love and Truth. We cannot relate to that for it is incomprehensible. But God has created human beings with rational minds that can relate to God's ability to limit His rationality by means of correspondences to His infinite reality.  Therefore we can know and understand God by His love and intelligence which exist in our mind as-if our own love and intelligence (see Section xx). In other words, God has created human beings to be able to receive correspondential versions of His infinite Love and Intelligence. These correspondential versions feel like they are our own, and it is this ownership upon which is based our immortality. It is God's love and intelligence in us as-if our own, that makes us immortal. If we didn't feel that they are our own, we could not have a mind that lives forever. Animals cannot feel that the instinct and capacities they experience are as-if their own. This requires rational thinking ability. Therefore animals cannot be immortal, though Swedenborg has seen animals in the spiritual world (but these are not the animals from earth -- see Section xx).

We can have conscious communication and interaction with God as the Divine-Human through the love and truth that issue from Him, enter our mind, and operate there as-if they were our own love and intelligence. Love and truth in our mind are the basic spiritual substances that activate the operations of the mind and form its content, meaning, and consciousness. If God were to remove the feeling that His love and intelligence streaming into our mind are as-if our own, we would instantly cease to think, to reason, to plan, to intend, or to desire and want anything. We would no longer be human beings.

We are immortal by the fact that we can be adjoined to God through His love and truth entering our mind and operating there as-if it were our own love and truth. Nothing else but the spiritual substances of love and truth can make us human. The essence of being human is doing things we want to (=love) by planning and understanding rationally (=truth). Animals are neither immortal nor human because, though they have love and the ability to do things they want, they are not capable of pursuing their loves by planning and understanding rationally (=truth). This is why humans are responsible for their choices while animals are not -- they just follow their innate instincts or biologically-based tendencies. Only when love is combined with truth can humanity begin. And since love and truth are eternal, uncreate, immortal substances of God, humans become immortal when they can appropriate these immortal substances to be God's love and truth in them as-if their own, and make them the substances out of which the organ of their mind is constructed. This is the scientific psycho-biological explanation of our immortality (see Section xx).

We also have the ability to reject and distort the love and truth that enter the mind. In that case we cut off conscious communication with God and give up higher ways of thinking for the sake of materialism. Note carefully that God is equally in every individual regardless of the individual's religion or belief system. But there is a significant difference between the mental states in which we reject God and the mental states in which we acknowledge and honor God. When we acknowledge God's management involvement with every event in our mind and life, we are elevated in the level of our conscious operations in relation to God. In that state of conscious elevation (or "enlightenment"), God reveals meanings and understandings to us internally. The higher meaning or truth seems to just pop into our consciousness when we approach daily tasks with constant acknowledgement of God's active presence and co-participation. The more we are conscious of God's actual co-participation in every second of life, the more our consciousness is elevated, the more we can act rationally and lovingly with truth. Science would improve, society would improve, the environment would improve, in short, all that is human would improve and become of a higher quality.

This higher meaning and rational understanding of God, and how God manages us and the universe, is not available to our mind in states of denial of God or states of forgetting of God in the doing of daily tasks. In these two states of "God ignorance" we are not capable of accepting the idea of God rationally.

Progress in our spiritual development is tremendously enhanced when we make a serious effort to consider God's presence in all our actions all day long every day. By studying theistic psychology we can develop our rational understanding and explanations of how God co-participates in every thought, feeling, action, or seemingly chance event. This requires that we understand God's goals and management techniques. God has revealed them in the Writings of Swedenborg. If we maintain the positive bias in science, we will be able to investigate Swedenborg's arguments and proofs. If we stay with the negative bias in science, we cannot rationally examine his evidence--we can only reject it in advance.

Another student wrote:

"Question 2: Make up a gain-loss sheet that lists and briefly explains what you could gain or loose by adopting the negative vs. positive bias in science regarding God’s existence as a scientific reality.

Answer 2: (...) Gains and Loses

In the Negative bias in science a gain that I thought of is that one can have a strong appreciation and knowledge of the natural laws of science, namely biology, chemistry, physics, and psychology. One would have a firm grasp of this information because they do not believe in God or that He had any part in the creation of the universe or mankind. They would believe in Newton’s Laws and so forth concerning energy, and the chemical make up of all other organic compounds. Nothing in their belief systems consists of objects or ideas that cannot be scientifically tested, retested, observed by all and falling outside of these tested laws. (...)

On the other hand there are also loses when one takes on the positive bias in science and it is basically that they loose the negative bias in science. They may lose respect for the natural laws of sciences since they believe that God is what created and controls the universe and not these natural laws."

Actually, we need to avoid thinking that the positive bias in science involves attributing less importance to natural laws than the negative bias in science.

Instead, the positive bias thinking is that God manages every detail of the natural world through omnipotence and rational management techniques called Divine Laws of Providence and Permissions (see Section xx). The negative bias in science is that these laws operate on their own. The positive bias in science is that these laws are the means or the method by which God manages the natural world. They could not work on their own. Take for example the force of gravity. A force needs a continuous source. What is the source that keeps gravity force going? It is God's omnipotence applied through the substances of the Spiritual Sun (see Section xx).

Consider the diagram above. The positive bias in science conceptualizes all physical phenomena in the natural world as being effects, while their causes lie in the spiritual world of eternity, that is the mental world (see Section xx). This is because the world to time-space is created in perfect functional correspondence with the world of eternity that is not in time-space. Before time-space phenomena can come into existence there must be a spiritual stimulus that causes the natural event. This is because God creates and manages the two worlds to be functionally interconnected, and not independent. In terms of successive order of creation, Divine Speech as spiritual light and heat from the Spiritual Sun enters the mental world in successive layers, the lowest of which is the corporeal mind. Anatomically this organ is constructed to be an organic interface with physical stimuli and mental awareness of them (see Section xx). From the corporeal mind there is a discrete jump to the physical body and world of time-space.

As you can see, Divine Speech exits the Spiritual Sun, enters the mental world, goes through the layers of created existence, and exits or rests in the phenomena of time-space (see charts in Section xx). This perspective is shown in the above diagram by representing the mental world of eternity as cause (arrow), which is a discrete degree within or above, the natural world of time-space. The negative bias science is shown as containing cause-effect relations at the same level. That is, both causes and effects are considered physical phenomena in time-space-matter.

The two diagrams side by side indicate that every single physical phenomenon that negative bias scientists study is of equal relevance and importance to positive bias scientists. It's not the case that the positive bias scientists study religion or the mind, while negative bias scientists study nature.

Rather, positive bias science is a new scientific paradigm for all science. It is just a continuation and evolution of science itself. It is a new paradigm that requires new explanations and theoretical accounts for all the physical phenomena known, and those still to be discovered.

The positive bias in science does not mean believing in God and having a religious membership. The positive bias in science does not mean religion, faith, belief, philosophy. The positive bias in science is a new paradigm in science for viewing and explaining in a different way all the current data and knowledge in physics, mathematics, psychology, biology, neurophysiology, engineering, computer science, business, law, forensics, metallurgy, art, dance, music, etc. The positive bias in science affects not only the sciences but also the arts and humanities (see Section xx).

1.1.3  Level 3: Theistic Psychology

 According to the positive bias of theistic psychology,  scientific revelations have been given by God in the Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772) and these revelations make up the basic assumptions and premises for theistic psychology.

Without these scientific revelations it would be impossible to have access to these details about God's management methods, since they cannot be discovered in any other way. Whatever other authors have written in the past, necessarily represents their guesses or visions, which remain limited. By definition it is impossible for any of them to see beyond the human level. But scientific revelations are Divine and come from the level of the Divine Omniscience. They make accessible to science a database of knowledge about God and the afterlife that can never be discovered or invented by humans living in the natural world. Further, they reveal new principles that explain how scientific laws actually work by means of the "science of correspondences" (see Section xx).

These scientific revelations are not like prior revelations which were at the level of mystical thinking and understanding rather than modern scientific. The Writings Sacred Scripture contain a comprehensive, global, and integrated account of how God manages the physical world through the laws of spiritual correspondences (see Section xx).

The details of the revelations were not dictated to Swedenborg while he was in a trance or asleep or by having a vision. Instead, Swedenborg was given the unique capacity to be conscious simultaneously in the natural and the spiritual worlds, and thereby empirically observe and confirm the cause-effect action of correspondences. For 27 years on a daily basis he accessed the spiritual world mentally and kept daily notes that comprise his data, his observations, his experiences, his experiments, and his explanations. He therefore was able to compile a unique record of how the spiritual and natural worlds interact and depend on each other through the cause-effect action of correspondences.

Swedenborg discovered, confirmed, and proved that the spiritual world of the afterlife called eternity, is the mental world of each individual.

Amazingly, the mental world of all human beings overlaps with each other so that the entire human race congregates after death in this spiritual-mental environment. This was the first time in the history of science that a scientist was given the tools for the direct observation of the spiritual world of eternity.

Swedenborg was able to interview those who had lived on earth thousands of years ago, and are now living in their heaven or hell. He was also able to interview people he knew in his native Sweden who had died but recently. He was a reputed scientist who had suddenly come into possession of a new observation platform of the human mind. He could see and talk to the people who were undergoing the process of "resuscitation," which is the switching over from the physical body to the spiritual body at "death." This process takes approximately 30 hours (see Section 1.7).  He conducted controlled observations and experiments and reported what he saw and heard in the spiritual world (see these examples in Volume 18 -- Selections Keyed to Subjects, entry on [EXPERIMENTS]).

He had rational conversations and exchanges with those who inhabit the afterlife. He described their language, their thinking, their lifestyle. His rational and scientific explanations of these events are therefore to be read as science. He proved in several ways that there is a correspondential relationship between every sentence and word in Sacred Scripture and an ongoing activity in the spiritual world of eternity that he could observe. Further, all the people in the world of the afterlife could also see these relationships. Everyone one of us will be able to confirm these relationships as soon as we undergo resuscitation after death of the physical body.

This book examines whether God and Divine scientific revelations, can have a scientific role in the scientific explanations of human behavior, without invalidating psychology as a behavioral science.

We will consider the entire spectrum of human behavior, from birth to the life after death in immortality. We will also consider how the spiritual world and the natural world are interlocked by rational laws of correspondence so that the laws of feeling, thinking and acting cannot be explained without recourse to what is happening in the spiritual world simultaneously while we are acting and behaving in this world through our physical body.

The spiritual and natural worlds are connected so that we are born dual citizens --  the physical body and brain are in the natural world while the organ of the mind (or "mental body") is in the spiritual world. The two are locked into functional correspondence--what one of them does determines what the other does according to specified laws of correspondences.

These laws of correspondence are used in theistic psychology to do research about the inner mind that is within the spiritual or mental body. The inner mind of every individual is unconsciously in constant contact with the minds of individuals who are already in the afterlife. In this way there is a continuous network of interaction between all individuals of the human race, past and present. I refer to this universal  interaction network as the "vertical community" (see Section xx). The methods and procedures of this interaction process are described in the Writings Sacred Scripture. As a result, a tremendously useful new database of scientific knowledge is now available to the human race.

Here is a physicist's article in the mode of the positive bias science. Dr. Thompson has written a number of articles on theistic psychology topics, but from the perspective of a nuclear physicist who is currently (2007) still very much engaged in government funded research. Yet he sees how the Swedenborg Reports present new scientific concepts that can help physics move into still deeper topics and explanations of reality.

From: http://www.newdualism.org/papers/I.Thompson/pldi.html

The Consistency Of Physical Law With Divine ImmanenceIan Thompson Published in: Science & Christian Belief, 5 (1993) pp.19-36 Abstract: A model is presented to show how the existence of physical law could be a reasonable consequence of Divine Immanence in the world of natural phenomena. Divine Immanence is seen as the continual production of the principal causes or dispositions which enable created things to act and change. It is argued that this model is physically consistent, philosophically coherent, and theologically sound. Selections from the article: Divine Dispositional Immanence For these reasons I wish in this paper to restate an old idea, one that has been only occasionally taken up[8], and expand it using a modern philosophy of dispositions. This idea is a simple scheme for the relation of Divine and natural powers, and suggests how physical laws might be not only compatible with Divine Immanence in nature, but also a consequence of Immanence. The thesis I wish to defend may be called the hypothesis of `Divine Dispositional Immanence' (DDI for short), and is :  DDI: The dispositions of an object are those derivatives of Divine Power that accord with what is actual about that object. Here, `actuality' is defined as that which is not constituted by capacities, potentialities and/or dispositions of any kind. Exactly what is actual about a natural object depends on a detailed physics, and will be different according to Newtonian and quantum mechanics (see ref. [9]). Which actualities then correspond to which dispositions is a subject for further investigation, as is whether this is a strict one-to-one correspondence.  To explain what the DDI thesis means, consider two analogies. God provides life as the sun shines on the earth. The sun shining on the earth is constant, but the energy received by the earth varies by days and seasons. We know, however, that this variation is according to the earth's distance and orientation: according to something actual about the earth, not because of variations in the sun. A second analogy is that God provides life as we are provided with food. Consider the way animals consume food in order to live. What an animal is capable of doing after eating depends on its digestive system and how it has assimilated the food. Different species will respond quite differently to the same food, according to how they are constituted. (These analogies are discussed further in section 2.5.)  If on first sight the hypothesis seems too far-fetched or implausible, remember that it is designed to reproduce just those kinds of effects we usually see in the world around us. Remember too that I have not specified what in fact is `actual', so strictly speaking the thesis has `materialistic', `dualistic' and `idealistic' versions, depending on whether only matter is actual, or both matter and mind, or mind only. Thus, the DDI thesis defines a general framework in which these theories of nature can be discussed within a theistic context. One consequence of Immanence should be to make all things (mind and/or matter) behave as if they were active from themselves, as that is the way they appear to us. We might rightly be wary of a God with absolute and arbitrary power to act under any pretext whatsoever: the precise content of the DDI thesis is that, on the contrary, God acts in a reasonable and orderly fashion compatible with (some kind of) natural regularities.  This paper may be regarded as an exercise in the Theology of Nature, but of a kind that is hypothetico-deductive, not inductive. That is, we postulate an explanatory hypothesis such as the DDI thesis, and follow its consequences to see how well they agree with what we know already. The hypothesis can only be entertained, however, if expressed coherently, and considered logically possible. To that end, section 2 presents philosophical analyses of four constituent concepts used in the DDI thesis. Only if these ideas are not incoherent can the DDI thesis be reasonably considered. The thesis must also be shown to be consistent with physics, as physics is an existing attempt to relate the actual forms of natural objects to their dispositions and potentialities.  Finally, the DDI thesis will be considered within the framework of a theistic theology that might be considered already well established. Since the DDI thesis is a statement of what God does, and may be a restriction on arbitrary omnipotence, the thesis will have to be shown to be theologically reasonable. We should also see if it is preferable to occasionalism, whereby God is the direct and only cause of natural events, and to concurrentism, whereby God is a general cause which must cooperate with pre-existing natural powers. That is, we must show that the DDI thesis describes what would be done by God as He is understood in the western tradition, and is not opposed by other attributes the tradition believes essential to the Divine. The demonstration will be based on the argument that God, if Life Itself, cannot create natural beings that both are distinct from Him, and live from themselves (i.e. that are their own dispositions to act). What can be done is to provide the life of these beings for them to live as if from themselves. This is what appears to happen, although in this paper I will be discussing only natural dispositions, and not looking at the full range of `life'.  Continued in the original article. From: http://www.newdualism.org/papers/I.Thompson/pldi.html

See also Dr. Thompson's Web site on the New Dualism in Science: http://www.newdualism.org/ 

See also Dr. Thompson's directory of articles on the Web related to consciousness, dualism, theism, materialism, mentalism, parapsychology:  http://www.newdualism.org/online-articles.htm

1.1.4  Ten Rational Conclusions Derived From the Proposition That God Exists

The positive bias science takes an affirmative position on God's existence, while the negative bias science takes a negative position on God's existence. It is necessary to put aside the negative bias in science in order to examine fairly whether the positive bias in science is viable or not as a rational scientific methodology.

The positive bias in science begins with the proposition that God exists. This is a bias, since it cannot be proven as a conclusion. Similarly, the proposition in negative bias science that "God does not exist." cannot be proven, and must remain a bias. So, departing with the positive bias in science that "God exists." what kind of rational propositions follow logically from this one assumption? Here is an analysis. Try to memorize it enough so you can duplicate the arguments with your friends. See how far they are willing to go.

=========
God exists.
=========

This is the starting point. All the rest follows logically from this one truth.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines God as

A being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions.

(A) First Conclusion: God is a Person, at once Divine and Human.

Words for God like “being” “perfect” “ruler” indicates that God is a Person, not an impersonal energy or entity like the universe. It’s a strange thing to do to pray to the universe! But it’s perfectly logical to pray to a Person who is the Supreme Being. Because God is a Person, He can be loving and wise, or, good and rational. It makes rational sense to pray, or to have a relationship with, a Divine Human Person who is loving and wise to perfection (see Section xx).

(B) Second Conclusion: God’s Omnipotence Must Control Every Event

The word omnipotent refers to all power. Try to think of something that does not involve power. The motion of an atom or a planet requires power. For you to read this requires power to move your eyes, power to select thoughts and to sequence them into a logical order, and power to want to read that sentence. Clearly, God must be a controlling element in your reading this sentence.

At first we think that God has created the universe with its own source of power. For instance, once God has created electro-magnetic forces into a certain physical order, other phenomena then stem from this physical energy and order, not directly from God. There is a popular lyric that says “God is watching us” and sometimes we can hear someone ask in anguish “Where is God now!” Both of these ideas in our mind are consequences of the illogical background assumption that God can give away some of his power to nature or to people who are supposed to think and make decisions on their own.

But logic requires us to say that God’s power cannot be given away to nature or to people because once this is done, God is no longer omnipotent. And that’s not possible or logical. God is omnipotent necessarily means that none of God’s power can be given away, no matter how tiny. If even the tiniest power were given away by God, He would no longer be omnipotent.

(C) Third Conclusion: God is Perfect in Love and Rationality

Omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and perfection means that God is perfectly and totally loving and wise. There cannot be an exception, not even one, for then God would not be perfectly loving. There cannot be a mistake because then God would not be perfectly wise and omniscient.

At first we think that God may be perfect but He does not have perfect control over what happens because He gives people freedom to decide as part of what it means to be human. This is an illogical idea because God’s omnipotence means He controls everything, including people’s decisions. Hence, we need to create a rational explanation for the fact that people make bad decisions, are selfish, deceitful, and cruel to each other.

Since God is omnipotent, perfectly loving and wise, we can conclude logically that He must have a rational and good reason for allowing people to make bad decisions and to be cruel to each other. Why does God allow this since He can stop it?

Not only can He stop it, but God must be the power behind each step or detail. A simple example is a DUI driver who kills a mother and her baby in a head on crash. Logic tells us that since God is omnipotent it was God’s power that gave the driver the power to lift his hand and ingest the alcohol to excess, then it was God’s power that gave the two cars energy to collide, and it was the power of God that took the life of the mother and the baby. Every molecular detail of the drinking, driving, crashing, and dying was controlled by God, including the thought processes and decisions of the drunk driver and the mother.

Since God is perfect in loving and wisdom or rationality, it is logical to conclude that every feature and detail of the event was good and wise, or else God could not possibly bring it into existence. Every part of the event. There cannot logically be an exception. In this case it includes the drinking, the production of alcohol, bars, cars, mothers driving their babies, drivers making hundreds of decisions, cars functioning in all their parts, or malfunctioning. all is included in God’s omnipotence, perfection, love, and wisdom.

The above sounds logical enough, but it is not satisfying – not until we can explain rationally how these details are indeed good – innocent mother and baby being killed, alcohol industry and marketing, dangerous cars, people making selfish and cruel decisions, etc. We must be able to explain these details rationally, as the actions of a perfect omnipotent God. If we cannot explain it rationally, we reject God from the inmost of our mind, and then we are in deep trouble.

(D) Fourth Conclusion: There are Two Worlds, One in Time-Space, the Other in Eternity

God the omnipotent Divine Human with perfect love and wisdom, is the creator of the universe. It is illogical to think that God could be in the created universe. In order to create physical energy, time, space, and matter it is logically necessary that God be outside what is created. God could not create the physical universe if He is part of the universe He creates. It is rational therefore to conclude that there are two types of existence, or two types of universes, one outside time and space, and the other in time and space. This rational principle is called dualism in science.

God has always existed. This conclusion is rational because if God had not existed, than how did He get into existence? So logic requires that we think that God has always existed. We need therefore two names for existence (dualism=two). One type of existence is called eternity and is not in time and space. The other type of existence is time and space. These two types are traditionally called natural and spiritual.

Most people are confused about how to define what is spiritual. Much nonsense has been written and is being taught and believed. But spiritual is nothing else than the existence of eternity, and natural is the existence of time-space, also called the physical universe.

The physical universe is created and all things created must have a beginning in time. But God and anything that belongs to God, is not created, and therefore does not have a beginning. Everything that belongs to God as part of God has no beginning and no end in eternity. But all things that God creates as created thing has a beginning in time and in eternity. This can be fully understood rationally, and must be, or else our mind will reject it and we will be in deep trouble.

The universe of created time and space is an outside covering to the universe of eternity which does not have time and space. To understand this more clearly, consider how we create objects in our visualization or dream. If you picture yourself eating in a restaurant right now you will see in your imagination various objects like tables, chairs, people, and food, along with sounds, smells, movements, and events. These are objects created by your imagination in your thinking. They are your thoughts that you have covered over with physical looking objects. So you can see that the chair you are sitting on in that imagined restaurant is a thought that is covered over with an external physical-like shape.

This is exactly how we can understand God from eternity, being outside time or space, creating and managing events in time and space. God is omnipresent not in space but apart from space. This is a rational necessity since God could not be omnipresent in space – logical impossibility. If we think logical impossibilities about God, we cannot believe He is perfect and omnipotent. And when we stop thinking that, we are in deep trouble.

Every event in that restaurant you are dreaming up is an event created by your thinking and imagining. Your thinking and imagining must be outside your dream, or else you could not create your dream. In the same way, God creates every detail of events in time-space by covering up His thoughts and feelings with created things. Every created thing must therefore have both types of existence – one in time and the other in eternity. A rock or a pencil or the wind, must therefore have an existence in time-space and one outside of it.

A rock is therefore some idea of God in eternity covered over with some time-space-matter. Some people illogically say, “Look around the wonders of nature. This is when I see God.” This is not rational. When you look at nature all you can see is the outside time-space-matter. This is an outside covering. You cannot see the eternity that is within as its substantial framework. You cannot see it but you can think it, understand it, reason with it. You can rationally understand that it is something spiritual or eternal that makes the rock and keeps it to be what it is, second by second.

(E) Fifth Conclusion: Humans are Born Dual Citizens, In Time and in Eternity

Before we acquire rational spirituality in our understanding we are vulnerable to all sorts of misleading ideas and philosophies. People debate whether there is an eternity, whether there is an afterlife, whether heaven is on earth or in some other place, and so forth. Some popular new age gurus say that eternity is here, that it is called stillness, or peace, or whatever, and that you can have it and be in it, and then you are God looking down at yourself doing things in the world of people and time. Many scientists and intellectual leaders deny that there is God, afterlife, or eternity. These are the ways in which people get into deep trouble, because these illogical beliefs create maladaptation.

The symptoms of maladaptation characterize our life and our society, namely, unhappiness, depression, rage, destructiveness, lack of productivity and creativity, lack of health and vitality, lack of rational management systems, and so on. These are the symptoms of thinking irrationally about God, about eternity, about reality.

Since God is omnipotent and perfectly loving and wise, it is illogical to think that we are born, then die, and that’s the end of our existence. Think about you as a parent. Would you create a child that is going to die when you can create one that is going to be immortal? Obviously you would create children who continue to live forever. Now if you would do that, how can we think logically that God would not? God is omnipotent and so clearly, He can create living beings that are temporary or He can create living beings that are permanent or immortal. Since God is perfect love and wisdom, it is rational to think that He would create conscious human beings to live forever.

But we must understand how God does this, if we are going to fully accept such a principle and reason from it in our mind.

God creates our existence when we are conceived and born. Our existence starts in both worlds of time and eternity. This means that we are born dual citizens. Our soul or spiritual body is born in eternity, which is also called the spiritual world. Our physical body is conceived and born in time and space. The two bodies are interconnected and act together as long as they are connected. At death, the connection between the physical body and the spiritual body is broken. We then continue our existence in the spiritual body in eternity.

This may sound hypothetical at first. But upon more reflection you can see rationally how this works. First, consider that sensations, thoughts, and feelings are not physical objects in time and space. Thoughts and feelings have no mass, no weight, require no space, are not measurable by physical instruments. Only the brain’s electrical neural activities can be measured, but not thoughts and feelings. Thoughts and feelings are outside time and space, hence they are in eternity (see Section xx).

So if thoughts and feelings are not physical, and are not housed in the brain, where are they?

They are in the mind or spiritual body. The spiritual body and the physical body operate together, develop together. Our mental activities and development take place solely in the spiritual body in eternity outside time and space. Right now, as you are reading this, your thoughts, reactions, and feelings cannot exist in this world, as the lines and the ink and the physical light exist in this world. So right now you are operating in the physical world from the spiritual world. You are not in the physical world. You are in the spiritual world.

Right now you are temporarily connected to the physical world through your physical body which is connected to your spiritual body which is in eternity. Upon death of the physical body the connection is broken and you become conscious instantly of the spiritual world. Right now you cannot see the spiritual world of eternity and what is in it. It is necessary for our growth and development as an immortal human being to acquire knowledge and experience in our spiritual body. But this experience cannot be acquired directly in the world of eternity into which we are born. Some mechanism had to be created by God so that we can have experiences in time and space, and then begin our full life in eternity, outside time and space.

(F) Sixth Conclusion: The Eternity of the Afterlife is Our Mental World Now

This is the greatest open secret that is available to anyone who is willing to think about rational spirituality. Much nonsense has been written about where is eternity or where is the afterlife or where is heaven or where is God. Even the most popular new age gurus and authors today know absolutely nothing about this open secret that anyone could figure out with rational spirituality.

The mental world = the afterlife world of eternity.

This open secret hits you as obvious as soon as you allow yourself to think rationally about it. We have picked up so much illogical thinking from society today that it prevents us from thinking rationally and seeing the obvious. But it is obvious! Consider.

The mental world is the world of thoughts and feelings. These are non-physical objects, outside time and space. Anything that is outside time and space is in eternity. Obviously then, our mental world is the world of eternity where thoughts and feelings exist. 

We know the world of the afterlife, or eternity, very well indeed. We are so skilled at it that we are able to create dreams that contain dramatic scenery, exciting events, intense sensations of taste and touch, unlimited resources in terms of how many houses or diamonds or bottles of wine you want to have, or how famous you want to be. But also this: how scared you can get with amazingly real nightmares. All this we can expertly produce in our imagination. People illogically think that what we produce in the imagination is not real. They don’t get too excited about the idea that they can have anything they want in the dream world they create with their imagination. It’s not real to them. So what, they think.

But when we start thinking rationally about it, we can see that the objects we produce in our imagination or dream are real appearances. They cannot be nothing. It’s not logical to think that a dream is nothing. A dream is constructed, produced, created in our spiritual body called the affective organ, the cognitive organ, and the sensorimotor organ. These three organs make up our mind at various levels of operation. The affective organ’s operations are experienced as having feelings. The cognitive organ’s operations are experienced as having thoughts. The sensorimotor organ’s operations are experienced as having sensations. Thoughts, dreams, visions, etc. are actual operations in our spiritual organs. They actually become visible when we are no longer connected to the physical body at death (see Section xx).

At death we start our conscious life in eternity and lose all contact with the world of time and space. Although we lose contact with physical objects we retain contact with the people we know and love because this contact is based on thoughts and feelings, not merely physical contact. The physical contact is no longer possible, but the mental contact is uninterrupted. However, one is not conscious of this mental contact in a direct way, but in a subtle way.

(G) Seventh Conclusion: We Are Born With Heaven and Hell in Our Mind

Another way of saying this that we are receptive to both heavenly and hellish influences. Every person has good traits like being able to think and carry out required tasks. To finish a job requires persistence in motivation, and this is a heavenly trait. To have and raise children requires self-sacrifice and the love of others, and this is a heavenly trait. But to snap at someone in anger not caring in that moment, about how it makes the person feel, is a hellish trait. To cheat and lie and deceive so that we can unfairly obtain something, or so that we can take advantage of someone, is a hellish trait. To reject someone unfairly due to our prejudice, is a hellish trait. Some people are depressed and can’t work, and this is a hellish trait. Being aggressive on the road or obnoxious to a neighbor, are hellish traits, as are mistreating animals or wasting resources.

So each person grows up with a pack of heavenly traits and a pack of hellish traits in their personality and character. The hellish traits form a society together in our mind, and this society is called hell. The heavenly traits form a heavenly society in our mind. God is involved in the every detail of setting up the heaven and the hell in the mind. This is critical to our life in eternity. God does not allow heaven and hell to mix together in our mind because they mutually destroy each other, being opposites and hatreds to one another. So people alternate between heavenly states and hellish states on a periodic basis – monthly, weekly, hourly, by the minute and second. God controls the exact alternation, when, and where.

When we lose contact with the physical body, it immediately breaks down into chemical matter. This is called the first death. We suddenly become conscious in the spiritual world of eternity. But we are still the same person. We have not changed anything. So our mental world doesn’t change that much at first. We see our body just like we are used to, even though we realize it’s not a physical body. We see ourselves in a mirror and we look similar to how we looked when we passed on. We look around and things look similar to what we saw before dying. But we quickly begin to notice the differences. Now we are in a mental world, not physical. We notice things we could never notice before about others who are around. They have an aura of light around the head. One can see activity of light in the mental organs, actually seeing thoughts and feelings in the person.

We see a house in the distance and we feel like walking there. All of a sudden, we are there. We enter. At first we see people drinking at a bar, but the next instant they are brandishing swords and running at you menacingly. Suddenly you don’t see them and you are sitting with your father who passed away years ago. And so on. You discover you can eat if you want to, but you no longer have to do it to survive. Experiences come to you fast and furious, as you explore your new life with all sorts of interesting people that come around, and you notice that your face is changing. Your entire appearance is changing.

You have new feelings you never knew you had. They are so intense, so purely what they are. It frightens you. It elates you. You alternate between the heaven and the hell you came with into eternity. But things are getting more compulsive, more spontaneous, more emotional. You lose all sense of control. None of the things that held you back before are able to contain these new raw emotions, feelings, desires, compulsions, attractions. And very soon you arrive at the moment of your second death. This is it. It’s the final free choice you will be making on your own as an individual.

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

AC 5935. VASTATION. After a spirit has completed his time in the world of spirits, he at length arrives at the last [period], which is his vastation. He then appears, for the most part, such as he was in the world, and is set at liberty to go whither he pleases; and thus he reaches a place where all conjunction with anything spiritual is taken away. He thus becomes, as it were, silly, and casts himself into hell. (AC 5935)

It’s a simple choice: You must chose to give up all the hellish traits or all the heavenly traits. It is impossible for you to continue alternating. It’s completely out of your control, like the neurons in the brain when you see something, or like the expansion of the lungs when you breathe in air. Every human being is faced with this required last choice. You cannot keep a single heavenly trait if you choose the hellish traits, and vice versa. Your eternity is either in the heaven of your mind or in the hell of your mind. Once the final choice is made, you cannot change your mind because half of your mind is put the sleep forever (see Section xx).

At first we illogically think that hell is a punishment for the bad things we did and heaven is the reward for the good things we did. This is all right to think at first, while we are developing and growing. But to grow up we need to think about this rationally or else we will reject the idea in our interior mind. We then realize that since God is perfect in love it would be illogical to think that God punishes people in the afterlife for the sins they committed while attached to earth. Love cannot punish, but only emend. As parents we realize we have to help our children to learn to be mature and self-reliant. We use punishment to insure that this happens. But once we are in the afterlife, what would punishment be for? God would not retaliate for He has no such motivation.

Hence we conclude rationally that hell is not a punishment but a choice. And likewise, heaven is not a reward but a choice. What would make people want to choose hell?

We all are familiar with hell in our daily lives and experiences. By observing our own thoughts and feelings we can notice how we create a heaven and a hell in our mind. For instance, we may experience jealousy of a person at work, and we are conscious of a negative emotion when we think or see that person, like fear, resentment, annoyance. These are hellish feelings. They do not exist in the heavens of our mind. Then we notice a strong desire to be hostile to this person, to plot against the person, to try to get this person in trouble. And we can also notice that when this person is in trouble, we feel satisfied, happy, glowing. This is a scenario of how we can build up hell in our mind, until it pervades all our thinking at work, and then beyond.

We can see rationally that we are not responsible for this hell – initially. These negative emotions and hostile intentions and acts seem to tumble out of us, spontaneously. Even when we try to stop them, they won’t. So how can we be held responsible for them by God? Rationally we have to say that God does not hold us responsible for this initial experiencing of the negative emotions and intentions. It’s what we do next, that makes us guilty of hell. This means: We will choose hell at our second death. This is called being guilty, but you can see that it is free choice, the last free choice God allows us to make.

And so it goes with all our weaknesses and negativity. People experience the pleasure and delight of not having to work. But if they turn this into a lifestyle, it becomes a hell in their mind. To create a heaven in the mind is to do the opposite. People strive to please others because they feel bad when others are upset because of them – this is building a heavenly society in your mind. Some people devote tremendous care to a hobby or interest. To get better at it becomes their striving, and this is building a heaven in the mind.

Our heaven in eternity is built from our heavenly traits. But we cannot hang on to them if we are unwilling to let go of every single hellish trait. People who are unwilling to let go of some hellish trait, but desire strongly to be in the heaven of their mind, are going to be in deep trouble when they enter the afterlife. Surely this is going to mean a lot of mental anguish for them before they can let go of the hellish trait. This is sometimes subtle. For instance, some people will avoid being dishonest out of fear of getting caught, even though they would do it if the fear were not there. You can have two people, both avoiding to be dishonest, but one does it for an external reason (presence of fear), while the other does it for an internal reason (wanting to be good). In that case, one will choose hell while the other will choose heaven, even though both lived similar outward lives.

(H) Eighth Conclusion: Heaven is a State of Marriage Between Soul Mates

When we think about it rationally we can understand that God created men and a women so that they may be conjoined together, so that out of two distinct and unique individuals they may become as one distinct and unique whole. Two halves of something can become one, but two wholes cannot become one. Hence it is evident that the unit of the whole person is the man and the woman conjoined as one. Only this can create a heaven in eternity out of their mind. In the hells of people’s minds, instead of conjunction there is disjunction, and instead of friendship there is hostility to one another.

Some people think that marriage is a piece of paper. More couples today are inclined to shack up and even have children without getting married. This is because they are allowing themselves to remain in the external phase of marriage. At this level, marriage is a socio-legal contract and arrangement, and couples who don’t want to participate in that arrangement, perhaps as a form of protest and independence, do not see the purpose in getting married. However this is faulty thinking and puts them in deep trouble. The majority of those marriages end in divorce, and many of those that endure, remain external marriages in which neither partner can be fully fulfilled or happy, no longer involved in constantly growing together.

It is obvious that marriage must be part of the mechanism God has created for a man and a woman to bond together, to fulfill each other, and to raise children. Marriage is part of creation, part of how God fulfills the grand plan of creating a heaven of eternity in the mind of the human race. Our life tied to a physical body on earth is a temporary arrangement. We are born dual citizens, and we are immortal beings. Our eternity starts in the afterlife, about 36 hours after the corpse is cold or destroyed. Life then continues in eternity, outside time and place, either in the heavens or the hells of the individual’s mind. Each person makes that final choice at their second death (see Section xx).

Marriage is a union of minds (see Section xx). Consider that for two things to make a perfect whole, they must be reciprocals of each other so they may fit into one functioning unit. For example, to open a locked door or engine, we need a key and a keyhole. To light up for a smoke, you need a cigar and a flame. To shake hands with someone with the right hand, you need to face each other. An officer in the military needs underlings who carry out orders. A marriage needs a man who wants to be a husband and a woman who wants to be a wife.

Nothing in a man can be like anything in a woman. This is the principle of reciprocity through maximum differentiation. Even if one thing were the same in a man and a woman, they would no longer be able to form a perfect unity. Every person is born either a man or a woman, and since we are immortal, we remain what we were born. A woman’s physical body is a covering around her spiritual body. Her physical shape and form merely reflects the shape of her eternal and immortal spiritual body. It is the same with a man. This spiritual anatomy insures that a woman and a man remain what they are. A woman’s spiritual body reflects her mind, and so does a man’s spiritual body. Clearly, the mind of a woman is different from the mind of a man, as is evident from the body.

It is easy to see the reciprocity of man and woman when you consider how they have sexual intercourse. This physical reciprocity is actually an accurate reflection of their mental reciprocity. A woman cannot think one thing that a man thinks in the same way that he thinks it, and it is the same for a man. Similarly, a woman and a man cannot have the same feeling or emotion. Men and women are not opposites; they are reciprocals. Opposites don’t fit and cannot create a unity. But reciprocals can, and do.

Since every marriage starts with the external union, the issue becomes how a couple can move to the internal union. The external phase of marriage is adequate for producing and raising children, and for joining together as partners in a team to help each other achieve more than what we can do on our own in society. As well, many couples are polite and civil to one another most of the time, and so they can have companionship and friendship, instead of having to be alone or with people who are not committed to each other in long term relationships. External marriage is therefore a good thing, a useful thing, a necessary thing.

But it is not fulfilling!

In order for the wife and the husband to be really fulfilled, really happy, really positive and productive and vibrant, they must enter the interior marriage relationship. This is gradual and takes years, maybe decades. But the critical issue is not how long it takes, but whether the couple is moving ahead in that direction, year by year, and week by week.

Marriage is a spiritual conjunction between two minds and therefore it involves a physiological change in the mind of each partner (see Section xx). This physiological growth process involves the mental organ of the woman becoming dependent on the mental organ of the man. This happens early in the marriage phase because women are prepared since girlhood, to form themselves according to a man. When a woman meets a man whom she is considering as a possible husband, she begins the process of conjoining her mind to his mind. Women do this spontaneously and with expert skill. They drink in the man’s philosophy and they learn his sense of humor. A woman learns how to talk to the man, how to listen to him, what to say, how to think things through, what to choose, what to love – all as an effort to conjoin her mind to his. In this way, the man feels that he is attached to her.

But note carefully: The man has done nothing yet to reciprocate. He merely allows the woman to adapt her mentality to his so they can be in one house and form a partnership in daily activities. This is the external marriage that is suitable for raising a family and having a career. In all these years the wife is marking time, waiting for her romance to become reality in her husband. She is waiting for his reciprocation. She has conjoined herself mentally and physically to him. Now it is his turn to reciprocate.

He now has to do what it takes to conjoin her to himself!

The moment he starts this physiological process, both are thereby changed (see Section xx). Now they are finally taking off for their eternity. Now he can see that it is not the children or the career that is the most important for him and her. From now on he can clearly see that it is their unity together that is the purpose of the whole thing, and was the purpose all along. All else was necessary as a sort of intermediate stage for this, the real thing.

When the husband reaches this stage, he is called spiritually enlightened. What this means is discussed next.

(I) Ninth Conclusion: Divine Speech as Sacred Scripture Produces Consciousness and Enlightenment

The word enlightenment has been bandied about for centuries and more in our literature. Today’s new age gurus and authors use the word frequently. They use it to refer to something mystical that is beyond human words so they give it various symbolic names like Stillness, or Pure Consciousness, or Ego-less State, and so forth. What are these names but words we all know used in some unknown mysterious way – “beyond words to describe. You can only know it if you experience it.” This is what Diane and I call the conspiracy of the gurus (the title of one of our projected books). It’s a conspiracy of silent agreement by teachers, authors, seminar leaders, noted philosophers, etc. They did not enter into such an agreement officially or directly by talking to each other.

But they all make the same mysterious claim to would be followers and purchasers – Do what I tell you, step through these ritualistic hoops, meditate so many hours in so many ways that I tell you, purchase my books and audiotapes, believe in me like you believe in God, and at some unpredictable point, Voila! Your inner eyes will come alive and you will see this Pure Consciousness and you will feel its rational ecstasy, its bliss, its peak experience, and so forth. Some gurus add self-flagellation as a requirement, others advise against sexual contact with women. And so it goes. What are these things but entertainment for those who are not serious about eternity, about heaven and hell, about God.

The conspiracy of the gurus is centered in what is known in philosophy as nondualism or nonduality. The is the explicit justified denial of dualism or duality between God and human beings. The new age spirituality that has invaded the Western mind in the past few decades is a fundamental attack against the historical and ingrained Western rationality based on the duality of God vs. the universe, or of the Divine Human vs. created human beings. This philosophy is bent on merging the two worlds – the natural and the spiritual, the temporal and the eternal. This merger is irrational and impossible as we can realize by rational analysis (already discussed in several Conclusions above).

The reality is that the only enlightenment is the spiritual light from God which we can receive in our mind through the interior way. An example is our conscience (See Section 7.0.4.1). We do absolutely nothing to construct our conscience. It is there for every human being. We instantly know what God defines as right vs. wrong, good vs. bad, real vs. delusional. It is the same with Sacred Scripture. Both of these methods are used by God to communicate with us individually. Every individual feels that their conscience is their own. It is one to one talk between God and human beings.

It is the same with Sacred Scripture. Since the beginning of creation God formed the minds of people in three ways:

• (1) unconsciously, in the background; in the form of rationality;

• (2) consciously, in the form of conscience, insight, inspiration;

• (3) consciously, in the form of doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture.

All three methods are called true spiritual enlightenment. We have much to discuss about how these three methods actually work. To anticipate just a bit: There are two levels of reading Sacred Scripture. One is called the level of sensuous or mysterious spirituality, and the other is called the level of rationality, as discussed in these Ten Conclusions.

The lower, external, literal, historical level of reading Sacred Scripture creates religions – diversified, in conflict with each other, based on blind faith or persuasion (like so-called miracles and so-called holiness or saintliness). The higher, interior, universal, culture-free, genuine spiritual level creates theistic science, rationality, celestial thinking as in eternity. This is the level that reflects and contains Divine Speech, Divine Meaning, Divine Order. As we study this level of meaning of Divine Speech, we extract the inner hidden meaning by rational Conclusions. This is what God is talking to us about. It’s about our mind. Our eternity. Our heaven and hell. There is no other saintliness. No other holiness. No mystery. No ritual. Just this rational understanding of Divine Speech (see Section xx).

This reveals to us everything we want to know. We can understand all that we need to do and all that we can do. God is working for us because we are obeying His order. We must understand this Order to obey it, to put our mind in that Order. It is a rational Order because God is a Divine Human, has a mind, thinks, wants things, creates with purpose, loves. Divine Love is the desire God has to share what He has in His Mind, His Feelings of Bliss and Happiness, His way of loving one another. Sacred Scripture reveals at this level of reading and understanding the verses, that God creates the universe for the purpose of having endless numbers of human beings end up in the heaven of their conjugial eternity as husband and wife!! You can read that again, Steve We can prove it! this is Divine Love and this is the purpose of the universe. There is no mystery, only rationality.

(J) Tenth Conclusion: Salvation, Liberation, Peace, and Wisdom Are Attained By Spiritual Discipline

In a real sense this last Conclusion is the most important because the last and the beginning of anything contain all that is in between. The beginning of this is

God exists.

This is the starting point. All the rest follows logically from this one truth. And the ending is about salvation, liberation, peace, and wisdom, which must be obtained by spiritual discipline.

The purpose of spiritual discipline is twofold. The first is to prevent ourselves from choosing to live in the hells of our mind when we enter eternity at death. The second is to prepare ourselves to choose to live in the heavens of our mind. No other spiritual discipline is worth anything in comparison to these two steps. This is the spiritual discipline commanded by God in all Sacred Scripture and it has to do with how we can manage to enter heaven. God commands this discipline to influence us to follow it. He wants us to follow this discipline so that we may be successful in rejecting our inborn hellish loves, and in choosing our heavenly loves which are also given in our mind. The purpose of our life here on earth is to learn to reject the enjoyable hellish loves and to learn to feel attraction for the heavenly loves, which do not appear so enjoyable at first, but later, they are felt with far greater joy than anything before. Spiritual discipline leads to the death of the old corrupt self that hurts others and destroys self, to the birth of the new self, that respects others and enjoys virtuous mental states.

What is salvation? It is the acquired ability to reject hellish loves (egotism and lusts) and to accept heavenly loves (virtues and conjugial love). How do we know rationally which love is hellish and which is heavenly? How do we avoid doubt and confusion? People can be misled by teachers, writers, and prophets who promote untruth.

The only answer is from the Divine Psychologist and from Sacred Scripture when it is studied more and more at the interior spiritual level of meaning, not just at the literal historical level. The knowledge and understanding we get from this study and the consequent enlightenment, is called the Doctrine of Truth from Sacred Scripture (see Section xx).

God the Divine Psychologist in every person's mind, manages all the details of our mind, the details we are aware of consciously and the details we are not aware of because they are going on unconsciously. The mind is an immortal biological engine that stays active from birth to endless eternity. How could an engine run by itself? It could not. God creates the immortal mental engine and keeps it running in such a way that it evolves more and more towards its perfection, never quite attaining it, but getting closer and closer to it endlessly. God manages this endless and ceaseless activity. Not a single thought or sensation can enter your mind or stay there as a memory by itself. God manages this process, just as God manages the details of the molecular motions that construct the biochemistry and physiology of your physical body. Nothing can run by itself, not a molecule, not a galaxy, not a human mind. And what is true of the whole is also true of every part. In other words, no part or detail of any activity can go on without God managing its course and existence. This conclusion is a logical necessity that follows from the premise that God is omnipotent. No detail can be exempted.

How do we know all this? God has revealed the method He uses for our regeneration, which is the containment or confinement of the hells in our mind, allowing the opening of the heavens in our mind. Regeneration is effected by temptations (see Section xx). God as the Divine Psychologist, brings us through sequenced experiences and their thoughts, so that we can consciously realize as-of ourselves, where the evil trait is in us, and where the heavenly trait is, i.e., which is which. Then the Divine Psychologist brings us into the temptation event which requires of us to use the doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture that we have acquired in our thinking. This is the voice of conscience strengthened by reason. The Divine Psychologist activates our conscience in the affective organ, giving us a clear and intense feeling of right or wrong, good or bad. Then comes our turn. We reciprocate God's action by reasoning it out with the truths we have from Sacred Scripture in our mind from prior study. is reasoning process is the application of rational truth to the situation that our conscience has flagged for us. So the sequence is:

• (1) situation, temptation event (God's action)

• (2) voice of conscience (our reaction)

• (3) reasoning with spiritual truth from Sacred Scripture (joint action God and us)

• (4) resistance to and rejection of temptation, thus spiritual victory (as-of self battle and effort)

• (5) new enlightenment and heavenly peace (our reception of God's action)

• (6) new opening of our heaven (our love for virtues)

This process of God and human interactionism goes on hour by hour, every day, every year, until the passing on at death and the resuscitation in eternity. Then it continues there in our heaven, but in a different way. Those who choose to live in the hells of their mind do not regenerate any more. Hence they cannot improve. They cannot because they won’t. God never forces people against their free will choice. When a person insists on a certain choice and won't give it up no matter what, then God cooperates by giving the person the ability to carry out that choice. This is called being in the hells of your mind. God manages every detail in the hells and in the heavens. Both are details happening in the human mind of eternity. God manages all details. People who spend their eternity in the hells of their mind are managed by God so that (a) they don't get worse than they have to; (b) they don't torture others in hell beyond a certain point; and (c) they don't influence or possess the natural mind of people on earth except when they are raised into the resuscitation zone where they serve to excite temptations in people's minds (see Section xx).

There are natural temptations, spiritual temptations, and celestial temptations (see Section xx).

Exercise:
Here is an instructional story that I copied from an email discussion:

Seems there was a monk who plopped himself down in a busy marketplace in order to meditate on God. Rushing through the marketplace was a housewife. Focused on the shopping list in her mind, she bowled over the monk without realizing he was there, and hurriedly continued on her way. The monk quickly righted himself, and shouted after the woman, 'Why don't you watch where you're going? Can't you see I was meditating on God? How dare you, a lowly householder, disrespect a man of God!' The sharpness of the monk's voice having pierced her focused attention, the housewife stopped and turned. Realizing now what had happened, she said to the monk, 'I was concerned with my shopping list and didn't notice you. Had you been as concerned with God as I am with my shopping list, you wouldn't have noticed me!

What are your thoughts on this story in relation to the whole Section? Try to figure out the symbolism involved. What in our own lives is represented by the busy housewife and the uncharitable monk?

1.1.4.1  How the Idea of God Makes Us Immortal

In the following quote from the Writings Sacred Scripture "the learned" refers to the negative bias in science, while "the simple" refers to those who accept the literal sense of Sacred Scripture. If you read theistic psychology from the negative bias perspective of non-theistic psychology, you are called "the learned" because you accept the perspective of the negative bias scientists, as taught to you in your science education and professional enculturation. You are choosing by default to maintain this negative perspective on God and dualism. But when you accept what Sacred Scripture says in its literal sense, you are called "the simple" because you are not on your defensive guard when hearing about God and science in one focus. Here, Swedenborg is given to write down the content of his conversation with people who at resuscitation have arrived into the world of spirits with the negative bias perspective on dualism and the afterlife of eternity.

AC 3747. I have occasionally conversed with spirits concerning the learned of our age-that they know only the distinction of man into internal and external, and this not from any reflection on the interior things of the thoughts and affections in themselves, but from the Word of the Lord; and that still they are ignorant what the internal man is, and that many even have doubts as to whether it exists, and also deny its existence, because they do not live the life of the internal man, but that of the external; and because they are so much led astray by the appearance as regards brute animals, in their seeming like themselves in respect to organs, viscera, senses, appetites, and affections.

And it was said that the learned know less about such subjects than the simple, and that still they seem to themselves to know much more; for they dispute about the interaction of the soul and body, and even about the nature of the soul, as to what it is; when yet the simple know that the soul is the internal man, and that it is man's spirit which is to live after the death of the body; also that it is the real man which is in the body.

[2] And further it was said that more than the simple, the learned make themselves out to be like the brutes, and ascribe all things to nature, and scarcely anything to the Divine; and still further, that they do not reflect that as distinguished from brute animals man has a capacity for thinking about heaven, and about God, and thereby of being elevated above himself, consequently of being conjoined with the Lord by love; and thus that men cannot but live after death to eternity.

And it was added that they are especially ignorant that all things whatsoever belonging to man depend on the Lord through heaven, and that heaven is the Grand Man, to which correspond all things in man in both general and particular, and also all things in nature; and possibly when they shall hear and read these things they will seem to them like paradoxes, and unless experience confirms them they will reject them as a fanciful affair; as they will also do when they shall hear that there are three degrees of life in man, as there are three degrees of life in the heavens, that is, three heavens and that man so corresponds to the three heavens that when he is in the life of good and truth, and by this life an image of the Lord, he is himself in image a little heaven.

[3] I have been instructed concerning these degrees of life-that it is the last or ultimate degree of life which is called the external or natural man by which man is like animals as regards lusts and fantasies; that it is the second degree of life which is called the internal and rational man by which man is above animals, for it is through this that he is able to think and will what is good and true, and have dominion over the natural man, by restraining and also rejecting its lusts and the resultant fantasies, and also by reflecting within himself concerning heaven, nay, concerning Divine, which brute animals are altogether incapable of doing; and lastly that the third degree of life is that which is the most unknown to man, although it is that through which the Lord inflows into the rational mind, whereby man has the faculty of thinking as a man, and also has conscience, and perception of what is good and true, and also elevation by the Lord toward Himself.

But these things are remote from the ideas of the learned of this age, who merely dispute whether a thing exists; and who, so long as they do this, cannot know that it does exist, and still less what it is. (AC 3747)

In other words, when we place ourselves in a receptive perspective on God and Sacred Scripture we can know that we are eternal spirits in a temporary material body":

"the simple know that the soul is the internal man, and that it is man's spirit which is to live after the death of the body; also that it is the real man which is in the body."

What makes us immortal is not the prolongation of human life in the physical body. Our immortality must be something that we already possess in eternity.  The natural or animal mind cannot operate with concepts that are based on eternity. God and eternity are rational concepts, not physically sensuous or empirical.

[the learned] do not reflect that as distinguished from brute animals man has a capacity for thinking about heaven, and about God, and thereby of being elevated above himself, consequently of being conjoined with the Lord by love; and thus that men cannot but live after death to eternity.

Our life in eternity is possible because of our "conjunction with God by love." In other words, by having a rational concept of God, and by loving God, we are "conjoined" to God. Since God is in eternity, we are being conjoined to immortal life in eternity. Without this knowledge of God, we cannot be conjoined to eternity. All human beings have a rational level of thinking and have an idea of God and eternity. Hence all human beings are immortal. Note what the passage says about our mind being "in image a little heaven":

there are three degrees of life in man, as there are three degrees of life in the heavens, that is, three heavens and that man so corresponds to the three heavens that when he is in the life of good and truth, and by this life an image of the Lord, he is himself in image a little heaven.

We have both hell and heaven in the mind (see Section xx). This is obvious to everyone when we reflect on how we sometimes feel great and at other times we feel bad, even very very bad. When we feel bad we cannot be in our heaven, obviously, since heaven is nothing else than feeling good. If we are not in our heaven, we are in our hell. We alternate in our heavenly feelings and hellish feelings. Similarly, when we are in our heaven we not only feel good but we are being genuine, authentic, real. We are being good to others, and that's the main source of our feeling good.

• Heaven is feeling good from doing good, and feeling bad from doing bad.

• Hell is feeling good from doing bad, and feeling bad from doing good.

The feelings in the hell of our mind appear to be good but are the opposite in disguise. What creates this falsified appearance? It's critical to know this. Without knowing this we are unable to recover once we are in the hell of our mind. No one knows the answer to this except from Sacred Scripture in its scientific correspondential sense.

The reason why doing bad appears good to us when we are in the hell of our mind, is that doing bad is a sensorimotor act that follows from the conjunction or cooperative action between a prior affective act (intending bad) and a corresponding cognitive act. There must be a corresponding cognitive act to the bad intention. The cognitive act is the act of justifying the evil intention by thinking that in this case it is good despite what it looks like. This gives us permission to carry out the bad act. For example, you finally find a parking space after having to look for it a long time, and when you get there you notice that one of the adjoining cars parked over the white line in the vacant parking space. You realize there is not enough space for you to pull in and be able to open the door to get out. You feel angry against the inconsiderate driver. You get out and with your key you scratch the side of the offending car. You feel better as you drive away.

What happened here? When you realized you would not be able to park, you felt very bad. You were in the hell of your mind. That is, your consciousness descended into that portion of your mind that is the source of bad feelings and negative emotions. None of these feelings or emotions are possible when your consciousness ascends into the heaven of your mind. You are in your hell when you feel the awful explosion inside of you as you explode with anger and fury. What is this feeling? It is not a civilized feeling. It is not a rational feeling. It is a dangerous feeling. It is hostile. That feeling now activated in you, wants to continue living and enduring in you. It attaches itself to your consciousness. Now you are immersed in that feeling of rage. It surrounds you. It is like drowning.

As the evil feeling struggles to continue surviving in you, it searches your memory and your philosophy and quickly finds a situational condition, an exception clause to the general rule. The general rule is that you think of yourself as good person at least some of the time, and some people think they are good most of the time. This is the reputation a person has with himself or herself. So as you think of yourself as a good person, but you are now feeling like retaliating against the other driver, you give yourself permission to do something bad by justifying it, which means finding a rationale that would allow you to do and still you could retain the reputation of being a good person.

For example, you might think that the other driver is a really really bad person for doing this to you. He or she is a menace to everyone. Somebody ought to teach this inconsiderate person a lesson. Everybody will be benefited in the future if you teach this person a lesson. You go ahead and plan some act of hostility and retaliation. You see the opportunity as you are holding the key in your hand standing by the other car. You go ahead and key the car leaving a long scratch. You are feeling better for doing something bad but in your mind it is not bad. It is just and deserved punishment. You are unable to see that your consciousness is now rooting itself in the hell of your mind.

How do you get out of hell? We do it by rational understanding.

In order to understand ourselves we need to know that we are living mentally along three levels or degrees of operation called natural, rational, and celestial. The natural degree of our life is called the natural mind or the natural self. We share this degree of life with animals. Next, the second degree of our life is called rational. Animals do not possess this degree of life. The rational mind or self is capable of understanding the difference between God and us, and possesses the voice of conscience by which we know right from wrong and good from evil (See Section 7.0.4.1). Next, the celestial mind is unconscious while we are attached to the physical body. After resuscitation, we continue life in eternity in the conscious awareness of our celestial mind, which sometimes is also called the spiritual mind (see Section xx). In the quote above (AC 3747) these three degrees of life are described as follows:

(a) it is the last or ultimate degree of life which is called the external or natural man by which man is like animals as regards lusts and fantasies;

(b) it is the second degree of life which is called the internal and rational man by which man is above animals, for it is through this that he is able to think and will what is good and true, and have dominion over the natural man, by restraining and also rejecting its lusts and the resultant fantasies, and also by reflecting within himself concerning heaven, nay, concerning Divine, which brute animals are altogether incapable of doing;

(c) the third degree of life is that which is the most unknown to man, although it is that through which the Lord inflows into the rational mind, whereby man has the faculty of thinking as a man, and also has conscience, and perception of what is good and true, and also elevation by the Lord toward Himself.

In other words, the thoughts and feelings in our natural mind are created out of the sensorimotor experience in our daily living with the physical body. At birth our natural mind is empty of sensory or cultural content. Animals on the other hand are born with specific content that varies with each species. As a result they do not need to be educated in culture and language. Some animals are separated from parents immediately at birth so they cannot be trained, and there are species that fend for themselves from the moment of birth. Both these types of animals are able to survive and thrive. Observation shows that small animals with simple physiology, like ants and bees, engage in complex social interactions by inborn mental processing that operates in their natural mind. Nevertheless, no matter how much complexity animals are born with, their natural mind is physiologically not capable of operations that belong to the human rational mind. We may be very impressed by the intelligence demonstrated by our pets of many species, but we all know that they will never be able to vote or to plan for a wedding.

We are human not because we have a natural mind, like animals, capable of learning from experience and of adapting to changing conditions in the environment.

We are human because we have a rational mind above our natural mind.

The rational mind is the beginning of being human (see Section xx).

The quote above says that the second degree of our life is called rational and it is by this means that we are "above animals."  This means that we are able "to have dominion" over our "lusts and fantasies." To be above something physically corresponds mentally to a higher level of functioning -- being able to realize and understand what we cannot at a lower level. This brings the power to control. In human beings the rational self has a built in dominance or power over the natural self. This is the reason that civilization is able to grow from savage to modern. Our history of development or evolution clearly shows that the rational mind of the human race is gaining power over the natural mind. For example, today we have countries called democracies that have laws that protect the human rights of people and their fundamental right to due process regardless of social standing and power. Contrast this with what the attitude is in countries that are not practicing democracies. 

Contrast how people are today and how they appear to be from the Old Testament or other historical documents. Our modern mentality is elevated compared to them. They had laws in place that discriminated against people on the basis of birth and race. They had laws that allowed the abuse of women by men. Etc. We can easily see that the mentality of the human race was much more animalistic and less rational in comparison to today. These changes occurred gradually as the rational mind was able to put the natural mind under its control.

The quote above points out that the natural mind of human beings, no more than the natural mind of animals, is not capable of "reflecting within himself concerning heaven, nay, concerning Divine, which brute animals are altogether incapable of doing." The more we are rational the better we are able to reflect on God, dualism and the afterlife of eternity. These are rational ideas, rational concepts, not natural. The natural mind can learn a definition of the word "God" or the expression "the afterlife in eternity." But this would merely be rote memory, not rational understanding. The natural mind can only understand concepts or meanings that are based in the sensory experience we have through the physical body. These natural concepts contain the perspective and the assumptions of space, time, and matter. This is why the natural mind sticks with the negative bias in science. In our natural mind, there is no possibility of creating real-world concepts about no-time, no-space, no-matter. Hence God and eternity cannot be accepted as a possibility.

No rational concept can be accepted at the natural level.

The quote above says that it is not until the next higher degree of life called the celestial mind, that we become true and genuine human beings. This degree is called "the most unknown" while we are still connected to the physical body. That it is "most unknown" signifies that it is unconscious while we are connected to the physical body, thus before resuscitation (see Section xx). It is revealed that spiritual heat and spiritual light "inflow into the rational mind." from the Spiritual Sun, or God. In other words the capacity to have genuinely human feelings and to think rationally in our daily living, is a capacity that unconsciously flows into the rational mind through our celestial mind. The more we grow in rational spirituality the more we are allowing this celestial influx to influence and manage our daily thoughts and feelings. These more interior rational understandings elevate us in consciousness and operation to the celestial level of life. We can now extract spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture and live according to them (see Section xx). We thereby obtain the life of heaven here, while we are still in the physical sphere, and then afterward, in our conjugial eternity in heavenly life (see Section xx).

For views on God that appear related to theistic psychology, but are not, see:

Thomas Aquinas: Reasons in Proof of the Existence of God (1270) at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/aquinas3.html

Charles Tart: A Future for Dualism as an Empirical Science. (2006). 
http://www.newdualism.org/papers/C.Tart/Tart-Dualism.pdf

A Practical Man's Proof of God:  http://www.doesgodexist.org/Phamplets/Mansproof.html

Scientific Proof Of God:  http://www.allaboutcreation.org/scientific-proof-of-god-faq.htm

If you google "proof of God" you will get more links of this type.

1.1.4.1.1   The Incarnation Event: God Enters the World of History and Science

About two thousand years ago an extraordinary and totally unique event took place that altered the course of human evolution in a fundamental way that is only now being discovered by science. The Universal God the Divine Human, Creator and Manager of the universe, entered history and science by the Incarnation Event (see entry for Incarnation Event in the Subject Index in Volume 18).

This event had been foretold in the most ancient Sacred Scriptures (see Section xx).

The ancient prophecy was given at the beginning of a phase of human evolution called The Fall (see Section xx). Before this, the celestial human race existed on this earth (see Section xx). At the end of this phase called the Golden Period, the new spiritual phase began on this earth. We are of this race. We are called spiritual in contradistinction to the earlier race called celestial. The human mind was created in three discrete layers -- celestial, spiritual, natural (see Section xx). Hence the evolution of the race must follow the anatomical composition of the human mind. The celestial layer of the human race was evolved, developed, and completed through the lives of the individuals that lived in the early generations on this earth. When the celestial anatomical layer was complete, the celestial race was "consummated" or extinguished. A few "remnants" whose anatomical structures deviated from the norm were the carriers that insured the connection between the extinguished celestial race and the newly beginning spiritual race.

As we are part of the spiritual race we possess a functioning operational celestial layer of our mind even though nothing of its operations is conscious to us. Our celestial mind is above our spiritual mind, a discrete degree within it, and whatever is within or above, is far superior all that is below it. Our celestial mind is far superior to our spiritual mind. But even so, we only become conscious of our spiritual mind after resuscitation (see Section xx). This happens just a few hours after physical death. When we are resuscitated we at first are conscious in our natural mind, which is the layer we know ourselves in everyday life here on earth. This natural layer forms the content of who we know ourselves to be. But shortly thereafter our natural mind begins to fade like a distant memory -- our identity, profession, hobbies, knowledge of history and science -- all of this that is stored up in our natural mind, slowly begins to fade like a distant memory from childhood or some land we once visited.  See the Layers Diagram.

This happens because the natural mind is totally unsuited for life in eternity which is a mental world without time, space, matter, or sickness and death. Everything now depends on our rational feeling and thinking. What kind of people we are with and what the environment and situation is like, depends entirely on our ruling loves. Not like before on earth out of which the content of the natural mind was formed. Now in eternity the laws that govern reality are purely rational laws. To try to operate with the natural mind after resuscitation doesn't get you anywhere. You have to disregard your identity, your culture, your nominal religion, your citizenship awards, your achievements and reputation -- all of these things are formed in your natural mind and are part of the natural mind. But after resuscitation you are existing in your spiritual mind.

Swedenborg reports that some people he talked to after resuscitation insisted on not letting go of the natural mind. The only way this is possible is to act insane in the spiritual mind, pretending by fantasy that you are still in your natural mind and in your physical body on earth. The result of this spiritual inanity is very sad and frightening. People in this mental state are victims of their own emotions and feelings. In the spiritual mind the environment around you is created by correspondences of your emotions and thoughts. So if you have insane thoughts and emotions the environment you exist in are correspondences to them in the natural world. For instance the intention to rob someone by misleading them and posing as a friend, immediately causes deadly scorpions and poisonous flying snakes with an ominous darkening of the skies. So the intended victim can immediately recognize the stranger's evil intentions. Nevertheless, some victims who are also spiritually insane, fantasize something totally different that is going on. And so they fall victim to the machinations of others. And Swedenborg reports that no matter how clever someone is, there is one who is more clever in and endless series of the layer of the human mind called the hells.

Everyone is born into eternity with a permanent and immortal mental body and temporary physical body (see Section xx). After the celestial race was extinguished, as discussed above, what happened to those people who had been celestial and had lived on earth all those generations? Well, they were in the immortal heavens of their mind called the celestial heavens of the most ancient peoples (see Section xx). Swedenborg visited with them in their mental states, seeing the habitations they lived in that corresponded to their feelings and thoughts. So even though the celestial race died out on earth, the people of that race continued to evolve in their celestial heavens.

This fact is of greatest importance for us to understand because our unconscious celestial mind is made up of their celestial heavens. Whatever the mental operations they experience, these are the causes of the operations in our unconscious spiritual mind. And whatever we experience here in our conscious natural mind is a consequence of the operations going on in our spiritual mind, which are connected by correspondence to the celestial mind of those who are in that state. Hence it is that the various distinct layers of the human mind are connected by the laws and operations of correspondence (see Section xx).

The Universal God the Divine Human manages the layers of the human mind through the laws of correspondences. Divine Speech or Divine Truth issues forth from God's mind into the layers of the human mind, first into the inmost or highest layer called celestial heavens, and from there in descends or externalizes by correspondence into the spiritual layer of our mind, and from there by correspondence into the conscious natural layer of our mind where it presents itself as Sacred Scripture in a natural historical language. This process of the sequence of correspondences initiated by Divine Speech is the continuous and permanent method by which God rules the universe (see Section xx). See the Layers Diagram.

Until two thousand years ago the long history of evolution of the race on earth was managed by God the Divine Human in this way through correspondences. But there was a creeping mentality of materialism that came about as the natural mind of the human race on earth was becoming more scientific and more rational in consciousness, mentality, and civilization. In order to allow for democratic modernism to evolve on this planet it was necessary to develop the sensuous sub-layer of the natural mind as opposed to its rational layer. The sensuous layer of the natural mind tends to be submerged into materialism to such an extent that we start denying the existence of God or the afterlife of eternity. These concepts require a rational understanding and when people reject rational understanding as not important to them, they lose the ability to comprehend spiritual things like theistic psychology. See the Layers Diagram.

So materialism was strengthened while religious ideas and practices became cultural and national expressions rather than spiritual.  Once people lost their rational ability to see spiritual truths and realities, they could no longer be conscious or aware of the existence of God and the afterlife. Even those who had religious ideas and practices could not understand Sacred Scripture in a universal scientific or rational sense.

What was God going to do about this? This was a serious situation where the human race could die out so that those who were already in their eternity could also be destroyed since the created order no longer worked to keep all things into one synergistic unit. Of course God had already provided for the solution since the beginning of creation, since to God all things are united into one -- past, present, and all future. The solution had to be such that the natural mind could once more recognize that God exists.

God cannot exist for us in full strength or conjunction unless each individual reciprocates God's love for the individual. We must acknowledge God's love for us or else we cannot closely be conjoined to God. And without this there are consequences. God manages molecules, planets, animals, and all things directly by correspondences which provide for the cause-effect relation between adjacent layers of discrete degrees (see Section xx). God manages human beings in two ways. One is immediately and unconsciously across the layers of the mind. The second is mediately and consciously through the conscious layers of the mind. The celestial race is conscious at the celestial level. The spiritual race is conscious at the natural level prior to resuscitation, and afterwards at the spiritual level. When materialism took hold of the natural mind on earth, God disappeared from conscious awareness of people on earth.

The prior conscious awareness of God was replaced by a blind faith in God.

But a blind faith is not the same as a rational faith based on conscious understanding of God such as we have in theistic psychology. Blind faith only enters the natural layer of the mind. The spiritual layer requires rational faith. So while people on earth had a rational faith in their unconscious celestial and spiritual mind, they only had a blind faith at the conscious natural level.

The only way God could remedy this situation is by entering history and science.

God made Himself be born as a Divine Human Child. This Child was at first not conscious of who He was, namely the Incarnated God in the natural or physical world. God the Divine Human was always both Divine and Human. This is why He created human beings who are in His Image as the Divine Human. So God has always been in the Human Form. However, God's Human Form was a mental body that consisted of a celestial affective organ and a spiritual cognitive organ. The affective organ is in the Human Form and the cognitive organ is in the Human Form. This is therefore also true of us. Our affective and cognitive organs are both in the human form.

However, God did not have a physical body. This was completely unnecessary in the prior generations because people could see spiritually, and therefore they could see God's Human Form replicated in their own mental body. People were able to look upon the human form they had and see God's Human Form. But after the Fall, the spiritual race was no longer able to see God's Human Form in their own body and mind. Whenever God wanted people to have a communicative exchange with Him He would "possess" or take over the conscious mind of an individual in the celestial or spiritual race in their heavens. They were called "angels" when they appeared to people's natural consciousness. God spoke through the angels and everyone could see and hear that.

But once materialism crept into the mind, people were no longer able to even believe that there are angels, let alone see and hear them through their internal mind. In the past God could communicate with people's internal mind and thereby influence them and protect them. But this path of communications was destroyed by materialistic thinking which denied God and taught the negative bias in science. This is what you and I were taught in our generation. Hence we no longer had the ability to hear God, to recognize Divine Speech in Sacred Scripture.

But when God entered the physical world, this suddenly changed. The Divine Child grew into an adult male and He declared Himself to be Divine. God's life on earth as a citizen of a small mid-eastern nation created a historical biography, which makes God's presence on earth a historical fact. This was His mission, to make Himself once more visible to humankind on earth. Now people had a choice as to whether to acknowledge God or not. People did not have that choice before God's Incarnation.

Furthermore, by entering history, God entered science.

It is true that the literal sense of the New Testament Sacred Scripture is used as a religion by various groups who disagree with each other on almost everything about God and the afterlife. It is the literal sense of the New Testament Sacred Scripture that gives the historical account of God's Incarnation and its details.

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

AC 2803. (...) But the Divine Human which was born from eternity was also born in time; and what was born in time, and glorified, is the same. Hence it is that the Lord so often said that He was going to the Father who sent Him; that is, that He was returning to the Father. And in John: [New Testament Sacred Scripture]

In the beginning was the Word (the "Word" is the Divine Truth itself), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-3, 14; see also John 3:13; 6:62).

(AC 2803)

Doc. Lord 1. The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the

Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).
The light is come into the world and men loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil (John 3:19).
While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be sons of light. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth in Me should not abide in the darkness (John 12:36, 46).

From these passages [in the New Testament Sacred Scripture] it is evident that the Lord is God from eternity, and that this God is the selfsame Lord who was born in the world; for it is said that the Word was with God, and God was the Word, and also that without Him was not anything made that was made; and it is added that the Word was made flesh, and they beheld Him. (Lord 1)

TCR 3. (...) Jehovah God is Love itself and Wisdom itself, or Good itself and Truth itself. He came down in the form of Divine Truth, which is the Word and which was God with God, and took upon Himself human form, so as to reduce to order everything in heaven, in hell and in the church. For at that time the power of hell was stronger than the power of heaven, and on earth the power of evil was stronger than the power of good, so that utter damnation stood threatening at the gates. This impending damnation was removed by Jehovah God by means of His Human, which was Divine Truth, and thus angels and men were redeemed. Afterwards He united in His Human Divine Truth with Divine Good, or Divine Wisdom with Divine Love, and so returned into the Divinity which was His from eternity, together with and in His glorified Human. This is the meaning of the passage in John: [New Testament Sacred Scripture]

The Word was with God and the Word was God; and the Word was made flesh. John 1:1, 14.

(TCR 3)

Here there is an explanation about the New Testament Sacred Scripture saying that "the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh." The Word" = Divine Truth or Divine Speech = God the Divine Human. "Was made flesh" = incarnation in a physical body on earth. That this was God who incarnated is clear from the statement that "the Word was God' and that the Word was made flesh. Hence it was God who incarnated in a physical body on earth. This is the Divine Child (see Section xx).

The literal sense of Sacred Scripture is always used by religion, not science. Hence there are disagreements according to culture and interpretation. But the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture reveals its scientific sense, which is universal because it does not mention culture or anything in the natural mind, but only the spiritual and celestial mind. Theistic psychology is based only on the correspondential sense and hence cannot be identified with any religion. The Incarnation Event is therefore not only an religious event but an evolutionary scientific event.

The correspondential sense of the Old and New Testament Sacred Scripture reveals that the Divine Child created a new layer in His Natural mind that did not exist before in the human race. This new layer is called the spiritual-natural layer or the interior-natural layer. Once this layer was created in the Divine Child's mind, it became available to every human being, past, present, and future. This was the momentous new evolutionary step that was taken by the human race about two thousand years (see Section xx). See the Layers Diagram.

From then on we would be able to be consciously aware of spiritual truths. This fact then restored the race to its celestial level, though in a totally different way. Now we would be able to receive a new mind that was not contaminated by inherited evils. This new mind then could form the basis for our heavenly eternity. This new mind was constructed within our natural mind, so that we could be conscious of it. But this ability would be dependent on our regeneration. Only when we are willing to undergo character reformation, can we see anything with this new spiritual-natural capacity (see Section xx). This requires the positive bias and theistic psychology.

There remains a logical puzzle about the Incarnation Event. The New Testament Sacred Scripture records few biographical facts about God's life on earth as a citizen of the Ancient Holy Land. Almost all the facts reported about Him are external, belonging to His social and political life. Almost nothing is recorded about His state of mind, what He thought of as a Divine Man on earth, or what He was busy doing in the universe while He was growing up as a Divine Child. But these biographical facts about God's inner life while on earth are revealed in the correspondential sense of the Old Testament Sacred Scripture, written hundreds of years prior to the Incarnation Event! For instance, the Psalms of David, one of the Books of the Old Testament Sacred Scripture, records the thoughts and feelings that King David had when he was stressed under attack from his political enemies from whom he was forced to flee for awhile.

By Divine Providence David was allowed to think, compose, and write down only those thoughts and emotions, that corresponded to what the Divine Child would undergo mentally when stressed under the attack of the hells. And similarly with the histories of the the patriarchs and their families that make up a large portion of the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture. Every recorded detail fits by correspondence all the developmental stages that the Divine Child went through in order to create the new human organ called the interior-natural organ within the conscious natural mind (see Section xx). This new creation was one of the central purposes for God's Incarnation, as explained above.

So we have all these biographical details of the thoughts and feelings of the Divine Child during the Incarnation Event. So the puzzle is this: What explains the strange history of God, portrayed as a political problem to the authorities of the land and was put to death by them at age 33? What happened to God on earth so that these events could befall Him? After all He was God, and so He was still omnipotent and running all things in the universe. He was of course running the details of His Own Incarnation. He was running the minds of the authorities who tried and condemned Him, and He was running the Roman soldiers who executed Him.

After the execution and His death, He caused Himself to be resuscitated in His physical or natural body.

This was a unique event in the history of the human race. God the Divine Human was now equipped with a Natural Body, born and grown on earth in time-space, in history and science. God's relationship to the human race took a whole new turn, that was not possible before. Now God could be seen in the conscious awareness of the natural mind. It is easy to picture and see in one's mind the event of God as a Man with a Natural Body, a Face, Hands, Feet, Heart, Lungs, Liver, etc. God was always in the Human Form, as explained above, but now in addition to the mental human form, God acquired the natural human form.

Note carefully this detail: human beings do not resuscitate in the physical body.

We resuscitate in the mental body in the afterlife of  eternity (see Section xx). The physical body or corpse, disintegrates. But with Himself, God caused His resuscitation with the physical body. Swedenborg confirms that He often saw God's Natural Body in eternity , and in fact, we will all be able to confirm this with our own observation when we are resuscitated. All those who were in their heaven in eternity could also see God's Natural Body there.

God's Natural Body in eternity is not physical but substantial. This is described and explained under the topic of "glorification" (see Section xx).

Note that without the idea of God's Natural Body born on this earth it is not possible to picture God in any way since He is infinite and we cannot picture something that is not in the human form. The religions based on the Old Testament Sacred Scripture, including the Koran Sacred Scripture, created the rule that it is not permitted to picture God in human form. And this is understandable for it is not possible to picture an infinite God who is not in the human form. Now if you allow the Incarnation Event as part of theistic psychology, it is permitted to picture God in the human form. Now we know what God looks like in the Natural Form, namely like we do. And this is why it is said in Sacred Scripture that we were created in God's Image and Likeness.

So by creating a Natural Body for Himself God changed His relationship to the human race. In this way He repaired the loss suffered by the race called the Fall (see above). The race had already completed the celestial and spiritual layers of the mental world of eternity, and now it was necessary to complete the last layer called the spiritual-natural or interior-natural layer of the mental world. This required that God obtain for Himself a Natural Body on earth.

The sad and ignominious details of God's short  life on earth was constructed by God for the sake of correspondences. In Sacred Scripture God's incarnation is called "the Word made flesh" (as discussed above). He is Divine Speech, He is Divine Truth, He is Sacred Scripture or "the Word." Written Sacred Scripture had been given to people since the Fall, but with the rise of materialistic thinking people lost the spiritual meaning of Sacred Scripture and interpreted all its meanings with materialistic ideas. For instance, they pictured the afterlife as happening here in the physical world. They rejected the idea of an afterlife in mental eternity. They could not comprehend such a thing.

As a result, they reinterpreted Sacred Scripture to suit their pet philosophies and political lifestyles. Hence Sacred Scripture lost all its spiritual value and it became useless for the purpose of preparing oneself for a life in eternity. In other words, they "killed the Word."  Since God was "the Word" or Sacred Scripture, He enacted in physical life by correspondence, what people had done to Sacred Scripture over the generations. They perverted Sacred Scripture for their political gain, thus killing God in their own mind. When God incarnated, He created those details in His biography on earth that corresponded and represented the details of how Sacred Scripture was killed in the minds of people.

Henceforth people would no longer be able to kill Sacred Scripture in their mind because it is now known in history and science that God is a Man, and that His Divine Speech is Sacred Scripture. The human race is now on a permanent rise in evolution so that any individual regardless of cultural or religious background, can have a living relationship with God the Divine Human born on this earth. In theistic psychology this living relationship is called the Divine Psychologist (see Section xx).

It is important to have a rational understanding of God (see Section xx). This understanding requires knowing about correspondences, that is, knowing how God has formed all things in discrete non-overlapping layers of existence. The only connection between the layers is that they operate together by correspondences. The layers have no independent existence of functioning.  It is that the human mind, or the world of eternity, was created by God in corresponding layers so that all the layers react to each other as cause and effect. In this way the entire creation is held together as one in God's Mind.

Further, you need to remember the distinction between "God as He is in Himself" and "God as He is Outside of Himself" (see Section xx). God as He is in Himself is changeless from eternity to eternity, is infinite, incomprehensible, and cannot be approached directly. Because of this, God created the mental world of eternity, and then the physical world of time linked to it by correspondences. God's creative activities are rational and developmental. When the human mental world evolved sufficiently in the course of numerous generations, it reached a phase where God could reveal Himself in a Natural Body taken up from earth. So God made Himself be born a Divine Child in the land that had been entrusted by Him centuries before, to study and protect the Old Testament Sacred Scripture. This Sacred Scripture was a theistic psychology textbook on what the Divine Child is going to do, what thoughts He is going to have, and how He is going to change the psychobiology of the mental world in eternity. Every human being past, present, and future will therefore be directly affected by this change.

God's Natural Body is Divine because it is made of Divine substances. All the substances of earth or matter that formed His inherited physical body had been replaced by the death and resurrection process. Now God had a Divine Natural Body along with His Divine Natural Mind He constructed for Himself on earth. This is the Body that can now be seen by anyone from the spiritual and celestial layers of their mind (see Section xx).

But it is necessary to think of this Natural Body as Divine, and therefore infinite. This is a difficult idea to comprehend rationally and without the idea of space, time, or place (see Section xx).

God's Natural Body can be seen by anyone, regardless of where they are or which way they turn. Swedenborg confirmed this amazing phenomenon. He observed with the people who live in the third heaven or celestial mind, that whichever way they turn turn or face, the Spiritual Sun in which God's Natural Body appears, remains in front of them at the same altitude of height on the horizon, and, equally brilliant in light. God can now appear in this Natural Body in every individual's mind. This is why the Incarnation Event had to happen. This Divine Human Natural Body is in every place but apart from space (see Section xx). It is therefore omnipresent. That is, God the Divine Human is omnipresent and omnipotent in this Divine Human Natural Body.

1.1.4.1.1.1   Completion of the Creation of the Human Race

The Writings Sacred Scripture reveal many historical and scientific details about the earlier stage of evolution of the human race called the celestial race (or "Most Ancient Church"). We are part of the subsequent phase of evolution called the spiritual race, that started with "the Fall." Compared to the celestial human race we are called a "fall" because the spiritual character is lower than the celestial character in the human mind. When our consciousness is in the celestial mind, our human potentials are incomparably greater and more wonderful, than the potentials we have in the spiritual layer of our mind. Right now, in the consciousness of our natural mind here on earth, we function incomparably lower in potential than we do in our spiritual mind. See the Layers Diagram.

Nevertheless there is an immense difference between the natural mind when it is ordered by the celestial mind, in comparison to the natural mind when it is ordered by the spiritual mind.

 With the generations of the celestial race on earth, the natural mind was the foundation and basis for the celestial mind. When this is the case, the natural mind is angelic and the physical environment on earth is a paradise, since the physical is a reflection of the mental. In the course of time and further evolutionary changes, this celestial human race died out on earth, though not of course in their eternal habitations in heaven, where they were visited by Swedenborg in the eighteenth century. But after the Fall, the spiritual race began out of a few transitional people from the celestial race.

With the Fall, paradise earth started changing to reflect the mental character of the spiritual race. You know what that character is, since we are part of that spiritual race of humanity. We are a mixture of heaven and hell so that we alternate between heavenly traits and hellish traits. For instance, one minute we are happy and having a good time, the next minute someone insults us, and we feel like hell. Or, one minute two people are happy and nice with each other, and the next minute they start disagreeing, fighting, and injuring each other. One minute we steal something when no one is looking, the next minute we buy someone a birthday present. One minute a child is happy, agreeable, cooperative, and the next minute the child is throwing a temper tantrum and breaking things.

So we are a mixture of heaven and hell in our mind while we are here on earth. So now the question arises: How is the spiritual race being regenerated by God so that we can prepare for heaven in eternity? Since we are a mixture of heaven and hell, how do we make sure that heaven prevails, and not hell, when we are resuscitated? This is where the Incarnation Event comes in.

In the era of the celestial race on earth, the environment was a paradise in reflection of the peaceful and spiritual love they all felt for each other as human beings. After the Fall, the spiritual race had a ferocious character when hellish, and a peaceful character when heavenly. To reflect this ambivalence, the physical environment split into diverse zones and climates, some extreme, harsh, and inimical to survival, reflecting the hellish traits, and some favorable and moderate, reflecting the heavenly traits. Poisonous species of animals and plants, and natural disasters reflect the spiritual race's hellish traits. Useful animals and plants, and the beauty of nature, reflect their heavenly traits.

God manages the spiritual race's regeneration on earth by means of Sacred Scripture. Every civilization and tribe in the spiritual race has received some form of oral or written revelation. These revelations contain spiritual truths. When these are memorized and rationally understood, it elevates the mentality and consciousness of the individual. With the reasoning process based on truths from revelation, people of the spiritual race are able to look objectively at their hellish traits, to identify them, to condemn them, to resist them, and finally, to get rid of them so that the hellish traits are no longer loved and enjoyed, but the opposite. This is the sole method by which God regenerates the spiritual race.

This process worked for many generations until people began to deliberately falsify the truths in revelation. They taught the people to acquire a form of relationship to God called blind faith.  Instead of studying the sacred texts of revelation, the people turned to interpretations of revelation written by various people who wanted to exploit them for their own gain. As a result, a diverse religious culture of blind faith evolved throughout earth and the rational understanding of God was no longer honored or valued. This brought about an evolutionary crisis in the spiritual race on earth. Because the truths of Sacred Scripture were cut off from the people, they were no longer able to be regenerated by God.

At that point in time, God entered the physical world. The instant that God was born as s Divine Child and citizen of a country on earth, everything about the universe and the human race was forever altered in a most profound way.

Until that instant, no one of the human race, either in eternity or on any of the countless earths in the universe, was able to form a direct substantive idea of God, but only an indirect abstract idea. The instant that the Divine Child was born, everyone in the human race, past and future, would be able to form a direct and substantive idea of God.

Until barely two thousand years ago, when the Incarnation Event occurred on this planet, it was impossible for the human race to see God sensuously, or to form a sensuous image of God. The Writings Sacred Scripture tell us that the most ancient generations on this earth, called the celestial race (see Section xx), some of whom Swedenborg interviewed in their eternity, had from revelation, the idea of God as a Divine Human or God Man. They were unable to see this Divine Human Man, but they knew from revelation that one day they will be able to see God directly, when He incarnates, and they looked forward to that experience. At last, two thousand years ago, they suddenly were able to see the Divine Human Himself.

God does appear indirectly in all Sacred Scripture as a Divine Man since God refers to Himself by "I" and by a Name, talks about His hopes and loves for human beings, tells us He "hates sin," etc. So the omnipotent God, who is the Creator and Manager of the universe, is a Divine Person, with feelings and thoughts, thus with affective and cognitive organs. In the Old Testament Sacred Scripture written thousands of years before the Incarnation event, there are passages describing encounters between God and human beings. Each time God appears to the person, not as Himself, but through representation by another human being. People's spiritual mind was made conscious for a few minutes, and they were able to see "angels" or people who already live in their heavenly eternity. But no one could see God because God was not yet visible, that is, did not yet acquire a physical or natural body.

Since God was not visible, He had to act through the mind of intermediaries, namely "angels" which a word in Hebrew meaning "messenger of God." This worked well while people were willing to listen to and obey God through His intermediaries. Eventually, people drifted into selfishness and started thinking and enjoying acting contrary to God's order and harmony in their mind. The result was the activation of the hells in the human mind or mental world. This is called the Fall of the race on this earth (see Section xx). Once hellish traits and enjoyments were passed on by inheritance, God had to create new conditions in the mental world of humanity that would allow people to inhibit and suppress their hellish traits.

This new evolutionary condition was the direct presence of God in our conscious natural mind. The Incarnation Event accomplished this.

The construction of a new physiological organ in the natural mind of humanity gave this new ability to every human being -- namely, the ability to see God, to form a concrete picture upon which we can base our concept and knowledge and love. By loving this new presence of God in our mind as a Divine Natural Man, we are able to operationalize the new spiritual-natural organ, to make it fully functional in our mind, and thus to see God as reality. From this seeing, we derive new powers to suppress and separate from ourselves the hellish traits we inherited or acquired. This process is called regeneration (see Section xx). From now on every individual, regardless of knowledge or religion or culture, has the power to be good by opposing the bads in oneself, and thereby, effective prepare a mind that can live in an eternal conjugial heaven (see Section xx).

The immensity of this difference, achieved in one instant of existence, is somewhat like the difference between a paradisal garden and a burning inferno, or like the difference between a fleet of new cars in perfect running condition and a heap of rusted metals in a cemetery for discarded cars. This immense and incomparable difference is reflected by the human race before the Incarnation Event and the after. It is the difference caused by an indirect abstract idea of God versus a direct substantive idea of God.

How can this be explained rationally and scientifically?

Remember that there is only one mental world (see Section xx). So when God incarnated as man in a physical body, His thoughts and feelings as the Divine Child occurred in this one mental world of humanity. This Divine Child was able to go through and alternate between two mental states called "humiliation / exinanition" and "glorification / Divine." The text of the New Testament Sacred Scripture records various historical and biographical events about the Divine Man that portray these two states He went through. While the Divine Human natural man was in a state of humiliation, He was in a schizoid state, knowing He was God, but unable to feel Divine power and omniscience. While in this mental state, God Man was able to descend to the hells in Him, that He inherited through the virgin birth by an ordinary and preselected woman. This woman also inherited the hells from her parents, and passed it on in the birth of the Divine Child. Now the Divine Child was able to face these hells in Himself.

This was a most momentous event in the history of human evolution. Remember that there is only one mental world, so the hells that God Man faced and battled in Himself, were just the same hells as every individual is connected with and has to battle in order not to end up with them in eternity. What weapons did God Man use, in His states of humiliation, to fight the hells in the human mind?

He used spiritual truths from the Old Testament Sacred Scripture, which are books He was given to study as a young boy raised in the Jewish-Israeli culture. As a young Child of three or four, He was able to reveal to Himself from His Divinity and omniscience, who He was, and what His mission was. This information and knowledge lay hidden in the correspondential sense of the Old Testament Sacred Scripture and no one could decipher it except Him, from His omniscience during his states of glorification.

God could not attack the hells as God, for to do so would be to destroy those people, which He would never do. As a result, the hells were getting more and more emboldened and powerful in their enslavement of people everywhere. From birth people inherited a connection to them, and people were unwilling or unable to cut off their connection to the hells. This changed when the Divine Child ordered and contained the human hells in His mind in His states of humiliation. When He faced the hells down He did not hurt them, but only restricted them, restricted their sphere of influence on human beings who were on earth and connected to them by inheritance.

You can see now rationally why God had to incarnate in the natural world in history and reality. It was to put Himself in a state of humiliation that limits His omnipotence and omniscience. In this weakened, less than Divine state, He was able to face down the hells He inherited, thus all the hells in the human mental world of eternity. Once He did this, God Man's mission was ended. He had created a new mental organ, called the spiritual-natural organ, and this organ was now present in the mental world of humanity, thus in every individual. Now every person could see God consciously in the natural mind. With this new concrete knowledge of God, we are able to face down our own inherited connections to the hells.

Through this new creation by God Man in Himself, the human hells will never again invade the mind of every individual born in time. For instance, you and me are born with a connection to our hells in our mind. We know this from self-witnessing our feelings and thoughts all day long. We can see that we possess hatred for others and selfishness for ourselves that lead us to a life of misery -- conflict, depression, lack of motivation and energy, enslavement to hurtful pleasures and addictions, failed relationships, etc. All this human misery is caused by our connections to the hells. Then, after we are resuscitated, we are right back in the hells of our mind. All sorts of people suddenly come around and try to seduce us and incite us to go with them and explore hell. Those who do, ultimately end up there, having zero motivation to exit, hence remaining in hell forever. What a miserable fate!

But we can now fight successfully against this process of the Fall of humanity. Now we have God the Divine Human concretely in the conscious awareness of our natural mind. Now we can make use of this image and certainty of knowledge, to read Sacred Scripture and extract from it spiritual truths that we apply to our daily willing and thinking (see Section xx). So now we can go through this process of fighting and overcoming our connections to hell in our mind. This is called "being saved" since it saves us from having to live in hell forever. What a relief!

In its literal sense the Old Testament Sacred Scripture presents an indirect abstract revelation of God, while the  New Testament Sacred Scripture presents a direct substantive revelation of God. The collection of sacred books that make up the Old Testament Sacred Scripture were all written hundred of years prior to the Incarnation Event. The collection of sacred books that make up the New Testament Sacred Scripture was written after the Incarnation Event. So you can see why the Old Testament Sacred Scripture must necessarily present an indirect abstract understanding of God, while the New Testament Sacred Scripture is able to present a direct and substantive relationship with God. Even more so, the Writings Sacred Scripture are able to give a substantive view of God because it is written through the mind of Swedenborg, a modern scientist with a modern perspective on the universe. The most advanced and substantive definition of God is possible in theistic psychology, which is based on the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture.

A scientific or rational definition and explanation of God is the most concrete and particuylar relationship human beings can have with God. (See Section xx).

It took the Incarnation Event 18 centuries to complete itself -- from 1 AD to 1771 AD when the last book of the Writings Sacred Scripture was published by Swedenborg.

It takes some knowledge of mental anatomy and physiology to be able to explain rationally the evolutionary difference between BC and AD dates. The Incarnation Event marks the switch in calendar from "BC" ("Before the Christian Era") to "AD" ("After the Christian Era"). Historically, in the literal sense of the New Testament Sacred Scripture, the Incarnation Event is contextualized as a Christian religious event that occurred within the Jewish religion, which for many centuries had had historical possession of the Old Testament Sacred Scripture.

But the Writings Sacred Scripture prove that the correspondential sense of the Old Testament Sacred Scripture is theistic psychology, and likewise, that the correspondential sense of the New Testament Sacred Scripture is the same theistic psychology, continued where the other left off.

By studying theistic psychology you are in fact studying the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture given in prior centuries of revelation.

When the truths of the Old Testament Sacred Scripture were falsified, and thus rendered inoperative for regeneration, the New Testament Sacred Scripture was given. Now God was revealed in a different relationship to the human race. Prior to God's embodiment or incarnation, God did not exist on the plane of the natural world, and hence, the natural mind where we are conscious here on earth. This was equally true in the heavenly layers of eternity were countless number of humanity had congregated from the endless earths in the universe (see Section xx). No one in heaven was able to see God!

God did not exist for humanity at the sensorimotor level of perception or visualization. The closest human beings were able to imagine God is to think of God like themselves. Some people imagined that God was an immense giant. Others imagined that God was not localized in one place, so could not be a person like we are. Others were afraid to imagine God because their religious beliefs made it a taboo to try to picture God. All these imagined ideas about God are called abstract because they are not real. They are made up constructions with one's imagination.

What happens when it comes to fighting our hellish traits using as a crutch this abstract, empty conception of God?

For many generations the answer was believed to be offering animal sacrifices to this abstract God, to appease the forces of vengeance for braking the commandments. This was accompanied later with the performance of elaborate worship rituals. Sacrifices and rituals were two ways in which people tried to strengthen their idea and relationship to a silent indivisible God. This was a dangerous God, sometimes vengeful and always scary and unknown and unknowable, hence inapproachable. This was the abstract idea people have of God when it is based solely on the Old Testament Sacred Scripture in its literal sense.

In contrast, the New Testament Sacred Scripture no longer presents an abstract or general idea of an invisible and incomprehensible God, but points the fingerprints and birth certificate of a man, saying this is God. This is the furthest you can be from an abstract idea of God. This is a new reality, a new condition. God has entered history, and therefore science. That God entered history was acknowledged immediately by many h people, but that God entered science had to await the revelations of the Writings Sacred Scripture 18 centuries later. The New Testament Sacred Scripture could not exist without the Incarnation Event since it is the story and explanation of it. The Writings Sacred Scripture could not exist without the New Testament Sacred Scripture and the Old Testament Sacred Scripture since the Writings derive all their topics from the earlier two revelations. The three together, in their correspondential sense, constitute one coherent rational series called theistic psychology.

When we have a substantive idea of God as a real person in history and science, we are prepared to undergo regeneration, thus, preparation for our eternal life in conjugial heaven. God can regenerate us and prepare us for heaven only to the extent that we are willing to cooperate. The psychology of cooperation with God is the most important and critical reason for studying theistic psychology (see Section xx).

God regenerates our character from hellish to heavenly, by arranging our daily life to present particular challenges that we are to handle and overcome. In these challenges we are faced with temptations (see Section xx). People believe that God "tests" them with calamities to strengthen their character and their faith in God. This theme recurs in the literal sense of the Old Testament Sacred Scripture. However, in the correspondential sense of these themes, we are actually being informed about how temptations work.

The first step in the process is for God to bring spiritual truths to your attention, expecting you to memorize them, reflect on them, understand them, make them the basis of your thinking and reasoning. This first step is called reformation of your thinking and reasoning with regards to God's role in your daily life. Now you are equipped with spiritual truths that are in your thinking and reasoning.

The second step is for God to bring things to your attention in your willing, thinking, and doing. For instance, you may lose something you are attached to. This suddenly exposes you to the temptation of enjoying and expressing hellish traits: e.g., blaming somebody, breaking something in anger, being in a bad mood and making friends suffer, etc. These are inherited hellish traits that are called forth from your character. God arranges for these types of experiential challenges on a minute by minute basis, or a second by second basis, from your birth to your endless eternity.

The third step is for you to face the temptation with the spiritual truths already in your understanding and reasoning process from step 1. You have to talk yourself so that you are willing to inhibit the hellish reactions because they are contrary to your heaven in eternity.

The fourth step is for God to immediately remove the challenge. You suddenly realize that you have victory in your spiritual combat. God gives you a feeling of heavenly peace and closeness to Him. You are now prepared to repeat step 1. After victory God enlightens you so that now you can see deeper spiritual truths. As a result, God can now bring you to face still more spiritual and even celestial temptations. When you are resuscitated, your are immediately ready for the second death, during which you shed all contact with any remaining hellish traits. This elevates you to your conjugial heaven.

These four steps of regeneration can best work when people have a direct and substantive idea of God. In contrast, abstract or indirect ideas of God allow types of reasonings about God that are not spiritual, but natural. Our relationship to God, instead of being based on rational understanding, is based on blind faith. This means that they accept the literal sense of Sacred Scripture without inquiring into its correspondential sense. The problem with this is that various people at various times present their imaginative ideas and interpretations of what the literal sense means. This kind of confusion is possible because of the abstract idea of God. This kind of idea limits God's ability to enlighten the person. Hence there are limits to how much God can regenerate that person. But when one's idea of God is direct and substantive, that is, historical and scientific, then God's ability to regenerate us is effective and thorough.

Swedenborg reports that after resuscitation every human being is instructed in various ways about the spiritual truths in Sacred Scripture. People are are then either willing or unwilling, to receive this instruction, to examine it and understand it rationally. Those who are willing, are enlightened and they are able to see spiritual truths. Now God can elevate them to heavenly life. But those who are unwilling to examine and receive the instruction, are at liberty to go off and live their new life. Through a series of experiences they are stripped from their social and philosophical pretenses, and nothing is left except what is fully compatible to their ruling love and willing to be in its service.  The person now becomes a caricature of the former self, since anything that is heavenly is gone, and what's left is something partly human and insane.

An abstract idea of God is not real. It is empty or spurious. It does not last in eternity.

The recognition is now beginning in twenty-first century science that a substantive definition of God makes it into a scientific concept (see substantive dualism, Section xx).

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

SE 374. CONCERNING HELL AND THE CRUELTY OF THE INFERNAL CREW
What the cruelty of the infernal crew is like can never be described; they act from phantasies in the most hostile manner against others upon whom they exercise such cruelties that if they were to be described they would horrify. For if they could exercise cruelties according to their phantasies, their butcheries would be even more cruel than those of the most ferocious wild beasts. By their phantasies they as it were bring forth axes and instruments of death, and unless God Messiah subdued their savagery, those whom they intend to torment would also have the most cruel sensation. For such is the power of phantasies amongst souls that they can induce a sensation as though it were corporeal, thus likewise torments. God Messiah removes those sensations; indeed He takes away the instruments of death from the infernal crew. In a word, these cruelties are more horrifying than one can ever believe. The human race, which is worse than the most ferocious wild beasts, would have exercised such cruelties unless God Messiah had saved them and redeemed them, and thus He continually liberates them from infernal punishments. 1747, Dec. 21.

The expression "God Messiah" refers to the Incarnated Divine Human. This passage in the literal sense discusses the historical situation of human civilization on earth when people became connected by inherited genes to the hells in the mental world. These hells are made of savage and cruel feelings with which people carry out their unspeakable fantasies in torturing anyone whom they can capture with their persuasive reasonings (remember Pinocchio?). To prevent people from believing these fantasy persuasions and falling under their cruel spell, God the Divine Human had to battle them and subdue them -- without destroying them since they were human and God never abandons any human but looks after each from birth to eternal immortality. God had to present Himself as He is Outside of Himself in a state of mere human weakness, rather than as the Divine Human Himself. God removed contact between His Divine Human and His mere human on earth so that the mere human on earth no felt weak and had to rely on His own self-intelligence to combat these spirits of fantasy and cruelty in the mental world.

Nothing in the mental world can be destroyed since everything in it is immortal. But people in their spiritual body of immortality can be restricted by God the Divine Human under appropriate conditions without hurting their human freedom to remain where they are if they so choose. So people who are conscious within these feelings and fantasies of cruelty, and love them so much they refuse to back out of them, can be restricted but not by God in His Divine Infinite Power, but my the mere human born in time, history, and science two thousand years ago. This mere human is called "the Messiah" in the Old and New Testament Sacred Scriptures. Long before the birth of the Messiah occurred in history the event was foretold by revelation in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture, and in Sacred Scripture prior to that. So God revealed in Divine Speech to the human race that He would be born in time and history as a mere human who contained from within His Infinite Human. It was also foretold that He would confront the hells in the mental world of humanity and that He would restrict or confine to mental prison houses those people who live in the hellish feelings and enjoyments. In this way they would no longer be able to attack and ensnare and mislead others who now could be "saved" for life in their heavenly feelings and enjoyments.

In His lower mental states as a mere human, God Messiah could face all the human hells in their endless variety and engage them in mental combat, and defeat them at their own games. The price of God's victory is the containment of all those in the hells of their mind from being able of influencing and ensnaring the rest of humanity. From then on, once they had been imprisoned in mental hells, they were no longer able to influence anyone except those people on earth with whom God connected them under His watchful eye. God as the Divine Psychologist in every person's mind or life, connects and disconnects the hells and the heavens moment by moment as each of us lives our daily round activities every day. For example, we might be tempted to cheat even though we know it's wrong. Or, we might be tempted to discriminate unfairly against someone. Or, we might break a promise when it's convenient. Etc. It is the Divine Psychologist who engineers these events to serve as temptations. Each temptation gives us one more opportunity to reject the hellish and to choose the heavenly. The more such choices we exercise the more we are establishing our own future in eternity to be heavenly. This freedom to choose is called "salvation" in Sacred Scripture.

 We have this freedom to choose ever since the Divine Human on earth battled and confined all hellish feelings into mental prison houses where they cannot influence others except when allowed specifically by the Divine Psychologist. When we are to undergo a temptation, the Divine Psychologist releases some of the people from their hellish prison houses and they are allowed to access once more their natural mind. From this state they influence the individual on earth undergoing temptation in their natural mind. At the same time the Divine Psychologist releases people from their heaven back into their natural mind and from that state they influence the individual undergoing a temptation. The people from hell think and desire to cheat, and this state influences by correspondence what the individual in temptation is thinking and feeling (e.g., thinking that it's all right to cheat because of various reasons that occur). At the same time what the people from heaven are thinking and intending influences the individual in temptation, which by correspondence brings thoughts and feelings that cheating is wrong. In this way the Divine Psychologist keeps the individual in perfect balance between heaven and hell, thus providing the individual with a true free choice.

This process does not work when the individual is not capable of reasoning clearly due to mental impairment which might be due to ill health or injury. For instance, when people are sick they get so scared that they are ready to repent and make resolutions to be good from then on. However when they recover they forget about the resolutions and revert to their former lifestyle of enjoying hellish traits and not wanting to fight against them in temptations. When people on earth are sick or scared or fear for their life they fall under the persuasive  influence of people from hell whose way is to fake one's repentance so that they can influence God or fate, but inwardly have no intention of following it.

These temptation battles were not possible prior to the incarnation of God Messiah and His accomplishment of restricting and confining all the human hells to mental prison houses from where they could no longer mislead people on earth through their natural mind -- except under the controlled and watchful eye of the Divine Psychologist.

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

Life 63. A religious persuasion has prevailed that no one can fulfill the Law; and the Law is, not to kill, not to commit adultery, not to steal, and not to bear false witness. Every civil and moral man can fulfil these precepts of the Law from civil and moral life; but that he can fulfill them from spiritual life this religious persuasion denies. Thus it follows that his abstinence from doing these evils is merely to avoid punishments and losses in the world, and not to avoid punishments and losses after he has left the world. Hence it is that the man with whom the above-mentioned religious persuasion prevails, thinks these evils lawful in the sight of God, but unlawful in the sight of the world.

[2] On account of this thought, from this religious persuasion of his, the man is in the lust of all these evils, and only refrains from doing them on account of the world. Such a man, therefore, after death, although he had not committed murder, adultery, theft and false witness, still lusts to do them; and further, he does them when the external which he had in the world is taken away from him. Every lust remains with man after death. Hence it is that such persons act in unity with hell, and cannot but have their lot with those who are in hell.

[3] Another lot, however, awaits those who, because to do these things is against God, do not will to kill, to commit adultery, to steal and to bear false witness. After some combat against these evils they do not will them, and consequently they do not lust to do them, saying in their hearts that they are sins, in themselves infernal and diabolical. These, after death, when the external which they had for use in the world is taken away from them, act in unity with heaven; and because they are in the Lord, they also come into heaven. (Life 63)

This passage explains that we need to obey the commandments for appropriate reason or from the right motivation. If our motivation is external or instrumental, we merely inhibit the overt performance of the hellish traits -- to lie, to deceive, to steal, to hate, etc. This passage tells us that people who don't break the commandments but continue to want to break them, will break them when the external threats disappear. People will commit the crimes if they believe they won't get punished. After resuscitation people are no longer afraid to be punished for their deeds since they cannot die, cannot be threatened with physical violence. As a result they now start performing all the hellish things they were afraid to do before. But people who acquire an inner motive for being good and loving heavenly things do not commit these crimes after resuscitation because they have learned to shun evils as contrary to their heavenly life.

1.1.4.1.1.2    A Brief History of God and Humanity

See the Layers Diagram.

1         

God as He is in Himself is the Infinite Life having no beginning, in whom infinite uncreate things make one consciousness, from whom radiates, as from a Spiritual Sun, love substance united to truth substance, that is, spiritual heat united to spiritual light.

2         

God as He is outside of Himself has a beginning with the act of creation. Spiritual heat and light radiate downward and outside of God as He is in Himself. These two substances provide the infrastructure for creation. God is omnipresent, or present in all created things, as their infrastructure constructed out of spiritual heat substance (love, good) and spiritual light substance (truth, rationality).

3

At the first level of creation, good substance (or spiritual heat) and truth substance (or spiritual light) make up the mental world of eternity, layering it in three discrete degrees called the celestial-rational degree of the mind, the spiritual-rational degree of the mind, and the spiritual-natural degree of the mind. All discrete degrees are connected by the laws of correspondences which are cause-effect relations between events in the upper layer and those in the lower layer.

At each of the three degrees or layers, there are created three mental organs: (i) the affective organ for the reception of spiritual heat, which then exists in the human mind as goods, loves, virtues; (ii) the cognitive organ for the reception of spiritual light, which then exists as truth, intelligence, rationality; (iii) the sensorimotor organ for the ultimation of the united affective and cognitive organs acting as one.

4

At the second level of creation, a new discrete layer is created downward and outside and is called the natural mind (or the world of spirits). It has three discrete sub-layers called the natural-rational mind, the natural-sensuous mind, and the natural-corporeal mind.

5

At the third level of creation, a new layer is created downward and outside and is called the natural world (or physical universe) that contains time, matter, and place.

6

At birth, every human being is made up of two portions. The first portion is the spiritual body located in the mental world of eternity (see Step 2). The second portion is the physical body located in the natural world (see step 5). The physical body is connected by correspondence to the spiritual body until death when the connection ceases. The spiritual body then continues life in the mental world of eternity (see step 3).

7

Since there is only one mental world of eternity, the immortal spiritual body of every human being must co-exist with each other. An individual’s uniqueness from birth to eternity consists of the person’s unique cumulative collection of sensations, thoughts, and feelings that are accumulated every moment of life. This unique identity in eternity determines one’s life environment. Feelings and thoughts that are compatible with each other cause people to appear to each other, to be present with each other, and thus to form spiritual dwelling communities or societies. Those whose feelings are incompatible or oppositional are kept at a greater subjective or psychological distance so that communication become difficult or impossible.

Spiritual societies or collectivities create a psychological environment or intersubjectivity that is constructed out of the interactions between the individuals. Each spiritual society in eternity is distinguished by the characteristic feelings and thoughts of its inhabitants. These affective and cognitive operations produce by correspondence a sensorimotor environment of appearances that reflect the quality of the feelings and thoughts. The result is the appearance of things resembling the places and content of our natural mind, which is filled with the content of our experiences through the physical body we had on earth.

As a result, the spiritual societies made of people with feelings ordered by good and love substance in the affective organ, with corresponding thoughts ordered by truth and rationality substance in the cognitive organ, are called heavens. Their cities and habitations appear palatial, pleasant, and friendly. In contrast, the spiritual societies made of people who are distorting the inflow of spiritual heat and light in themselves, turning them into their opposites, are called hells. Their habitations appear dingy, unpleasant, and hostile.

8

The quality of feelings people have in eternity is determined by the choices they themselves make when they are resuscitated, which occurs approximately 30 hours after separation from the dead physical body. Upon resuscitation people in eternity become visible to each other, along with the external appearances that correspond to the quality of their feelings and thoughts. A series of experiences or happenings then lead each person to discover their primary inner feelings and affections (or ruling love). As they become aware more and more of their own deep-set feelings and intentions, their environment changes correspondingly, as they are led into a series of spiritual societies. In this way each individual is gradually led to abandon all feelings and thoughts that are not compatible with their ruling love. When the transition is completed (called the second death), the individual is fully embedded on a permanent basis in a spiritual society, which is either heavenly and receptive of spiritual heat and light, or is hellish and distorts the inflowing spiritual heat and light into its opposite.

The quality of life in eternity is therefore determined entirely by one’s ruling love or affections. These adhere to each person in the course of one’s daily feelings, thoughts, and actions while living on earth through the temporary physical body. The first few generations of people on earth received the inflow of good and truth without distortion. Their earthly environment was a paradise, and they were instructed by direct communication with their departed family members and teachers in heaven, whom they then joined upon their own death. Later generations however introduced into themselves feelings of selfishness and hostility towards others. They did this by distorting the inflow of good, love, and virtue. In this way evil was introduced into the mental world of humanity. When people with these feelings were resuscitated, their ruling love was contrary to heavenly influx, which allowed them to create the hellish habitations.

9

From then on with all the succeeding generations, including us today, people grew up into adults whose ruling love was hellish. Through these hellish traits people on earth made a unity with people in hell. This resulted in the deterioration of life on earth – anti-sociality, crime, wars, mental illness, unhappiness, degraded rationality and wisdom. The entire future human race was therefore in danger of becoming hellish. At that point in history, God Himself entered the natural world through the Incarnation Event. During the 33 years that God was embodied in a physical body He lived life as an ordinary citizen of a country in the Middle East, as described in the New Testament Sacred Scripture. This did not affect God’s omnipresence and omnipotence that God maintained as always. There was therefore a separation between God as He is in Himself (see step 1) and God as He is outside of Himself, and in this case, in a natural body.

While on earth with a physical body God put Himself through two distinct mental states. The first is called a state of humiliation (or exinanition) in which there was a separation. In this state the Incarnated God was called the “Son of God” rather than God. But in the

Second state, which is called a state of glorification, the Incarnated God was one with God as He is in Himself. When the Incarnated God was in a state of glorification He produced miracles, but when He was in a state of humiliation, He denied Himself the exercise of omnipotence, appearing as if He was just an ordinary man.

During His states of humiliation God connected Himself to the hells of the human race in order to create a new order for the human mind in which the hells were counterbalanced by the heavens in each individual’s mind. God could not accomplish this by retaining His omnipotence because this would have destroyed the hells, consequently the human mind and the entire race. Hence He had to incarnate and assume states of humiliation in which He limited His omnipotence, allowing the hells to attack His mind. These attacks are called temptations. By overcoming temptations with new truths He constructed, the Incarnated God created the truths that would henceforth allow every human being born on earth to also fight and defeat the hells that are inherited in the mind of every newborn. When people grow up to be adults, they are ready to face their hells through conscience and truths of Sacred Scripture.

By overcoming temptations we are able to disconnect our mind from the inherited hells. Through this we are able to hate evil traits and love heavenly traits. This will insure that at our resuscitation we will choose to retain our virtues instead of our vices.

10

At the completion of His task on earth, the Divine Human born in time was completely unified with Himself as God is in Himself. God now had a totally new presence in the created universe. Prior to this moment God did not have a sensuous presence in His creation. No one could see God or talk to God as person to person. Humanity did not have the ability to be with God directly, but only indirectly. Those times recorded in Sacred Scripture where God spoke to an individual, there was always an intermediary necessary, which was a role filled by people who were conscious in the celestial-rational mind, which is the highest awareness possible in the mental world of eternity. These individuals appeared to people in their natural mind so that those to whom they appeared became conscious of them, saw them, heard them, and called them “angels” of God. The person filling the role experienced the influx of God as a full possession of their mind or spirit, as perhaps in some celestial trance. As they spoke the words of God flowing into them, they subjectively felt like they are God Himself, but this ceased as soon as the influx ceased, at which moment they become conscious of themselves again.

This method of communication (called prophecy or visions) was constructed by God in order to retain historical and conscious contact with the human race prior to the Incarnation Event. But once this event was completed, the older method of prophecy and visions ceased in order to encourage a more direct access to God that He newly created through the acquisition of a visible or sensuous physical body in time. And yet no sooner than He acquired it, God took His Natural Body out of the physical world of time and into the mental world of eternity. Since then God is directly present in the mental world of  humanity, at all the layers, including the lowest called the natural mind. Now God is directly present in the natural mind of humanity. Every human being living on earth in a physical body, and being conscious in a natural mind, can have direct communication, communion, or conjunction with God in His Divine Human. This was not possible before. The human race’s contact with God was indirect, but now, it was direct.

11

The difference is critical in evolutionary terms because God could not complete the creation of the mental world of eternity by omnipotence and indirect communication. God could not be directly present in the mind of any human being until the completion of the Incarnation Event. This was equally true of the people who already existed in their heavens and had been born on earth since the beginning. They too now for the first time were able to see God with their eyes and speak to Him face to face. They knew from Sacred Scripture that God was a Human Divine, but now they could see with their senses that God was a Divine Human.

People now can face their inherited hellish predispositions, turn to God the Divine Human in their conscious natural mind, and ask for the power to overcome each hellish trait at a time. Direct acknowledgement of God in our conscious natural mind is therefore the spiritual weapon by which we face our selfishness and desire to rule over others. This is the ruling love that controls and maintains in us the multitude of hellish traits we enjoy so much that we refuse to abandon them --- being untruthful, being cruel or uncaring, conceited, arrogant, irrational, lazy, unhealthy, biased, misguided, and so on. We enjoy being this way, which is why people don’t want to change themselves. At the same time we don’t enjoy heavenly traits and we turn away from them --- being truthful, avoiding deceit or cheating, being responsible, hard working, caring, clean, unselfish. How is it possible to change when we love what is evil and false, and hate what is good and true? If we do not change prior to resuscitation, it is certain that we will choose to let go of our heaven and to seek out our hell.

12

Nothing less is needed therefore than a full rebirth of our character and its gradual regeneration through into a new character that no longer contains the love for evil. This cannot be done through indirect communication with God, as in the past. It cannot be done by God’s omnipotence and control over our mind, for we would then turn into spiritual robots, not human beings. It can be done only through the direct conscious presence of God the Divine Human in our natural mind.

If God made an appearance today at the Unite Nations and addressed the planet, and then appeared in various cities around the world, He would then be present to people consciously and directly, and sensuously. Not rationally. The result would be that after some time people would deny that it was God who showed up, and if He shows up again and again, people would reject Him as not God. But if God appears to our conscious natural-rational portion of the mind (see step 4), He remains permanently and can bring us to heavenly life after resuscitation.

Direct presence of God in our conscious natural-rational mind begins when we acknowledge God the Divine Human as being omnipresent and omnipotent, and one with God as He is in Himself (see step 1). This acknowledgement must be made rationally, not sensuously, not persuasively, not by authority, not by rote memory or repetition. We must acquire for ourselves an actual living and direct relationship with God the Divine Human who is present in every mind and fills the mental world of eternity with spiritual heat (love, good) and spiritual light (truth, rationality).

Once this rational acknowledgement is made with full and clear understanding of God, we have the opportunity to form a relationship, which is done day by day, hour by hour, as we proceed with our daily round of activities. We strive to think and act in the presence of God. We must keep track or monitor the flow of our thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions, and effects on others and society.  This is called self-witnessing our life. From conscience and from Sacred Scripture we have principles that allow us to judge what we feel, what we think, and what we do that affects others. Any feeling, thought, or act that is contrary to conscience or Sacred Scripture must be condemned, banished, and held in aversion as a sin against God the Divine Human who creates our heaven.

13

This cannot be done without struggle. We must fight as of self, but in the presence of God. We fight by thinking against the evil in ourselves that our self-witnessing reveals. One by one, feeling by feeling, thought by thought, we fight all our life every day and hour. God the Divine Human is present and does all the work of overpowering the hells and disconnecting our mind from it. After each combat and victory, God gives us a “Sabbath” rest or peace of mind like that of heaven. Then another fight begins. This goes on till the end of life here.

When we acknowledge the conscious direct presence of God the Divine Human in our natural-rational ideas of Him, we are kept in a state of freedom to choose good or evil, truth or falsified truth. Without this conscious acknowledgment of Him, God is still able to influence us indirectly and thus to help us develop morality of life through conscience and external education and socialization (See Section 7.0.4.1). This natural morality is an essential component of civilized life. But it is not sufficient to penetrate deeply enough to influence our ruling love. Although we may act morally all our life yet when we are resuscitated and shed off all external constraints of compliance and obedience, we are no longer motivated to act morally. In that case we are also unmotivated to acquire spiritual truths about heaven. We turn to our hellish traits and delight in them with like-minded companions.

But when we understand God rationally and acknowledge Him in our mind and life, we are able to face spiritual temptations through the truths that God reveals to us in Sacred Scripture and in conscience. As we then face our evil enjoyments, condemning them as a sin against God and heaven, we are then given victory by God through His omnipotence. We are able to withhold ourselves from continuing to love and repeat the evil acts, thoughts, and feelings. We then have spiritual freedom. Prior to that we have natural freedom, but not spiritual.

14

Theistic psychology is the science of regeneration extracted from Sacred Scripture. All Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech in correspondences. Divine Speech, which is Divine Truth (or spiritual light), flows into the celestial-rational level of the mental world. There it appears as written Sacred Scripture in the language we all speak innately when in that mental state or layer. This visible Sacred Scripture is written in celestial-rational correspondences of Divine Speech. This is the layer that humanity is wisest and is able to understand Divine rational things about good, love, truth and wisdom.

Then another version of Sacred Scripture appears in the spiritual-rational layer of the mental world. This is written in a spiritual language that we innately possess when conscious in the spiritual-rational layer of the human mind. A still different version appears in the spiritual-natural layer, and finally a still different version that appears in our natural mind here on earth as we read Sacred Scripture in one or another natural language. The four layers of Sacred Scripture exactly correspond to each other, but at successively lower levels of rationality. Theistic psychology gives us the knowledge of how to climb up this ladder of rationality with our conscious awareness. When we extract spiritual-natural correspondences and spiritual-rational correspondences form Sacred Scripture, we are in effect climbing up as to consciousness, to our natural and spiritual heavens in eternity.

15

There is a new medical field of research today called neuro-theology. It is based on initial research with a few subjects from different religions showing that when they are praying with intense focus, certain areas of their brain “light up” on the computer screen that shows color maps of their brain being monitored by digital imaging techniques. Hence there may be a correlation between mental activity and brain activity. Logically there ought to be a different brain activity configuration for every unique mental state.

From this correlation a few scientists and news reporters have drawn an amazing conclusion, namely, that certain people are biologically programmed or wired to be religious, to have faith, to pray, to believe in God. This would then explain why there are religions, why some people believe in God while others do not. This astonishing conclusion is illogical. A mere correlation between mental and brain activity is turned into a cause effect relation, and this in the wrong direction. Our mental activity in eternity are spiritual causes that act by correspondence on physical events, which are their effects in the physical world of time. When people are praying or meditating they are in a certain mental state.

This means that their affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor organs act jointly in correspondence with each other. For example, we may want something that God can give us (affective organ), we love and respect God (affective organ), we are motivated to ask God for that thing (affective organ), we construct sentences addressed to God (cognitive organ), we silently speak them to ourselves (sensorimotor organ). This is praying. It is a mental activity in eternity that we do through our spiritual body that contains our mental organs. This mental activity now activates specific regions in the neurons of the brain that correspond to the mental activity. Every mental activity has its own particular reflection in neural activity and pattern.

The idea of a biological predisposition to be religious is illogical because “to be religious” refers to faith and praying which are mental events while “biological predisposition” refers to physical events such as physical neurons and physical genes. The reason these scientists and news reporters fail to see the illogic is that they consider faith and God to be physical like neurons and genes. This negative bias in science is called materialism. This is called a negative bias in science because it is accepted and enforced even though it cannot be proven. Materialism cannot be proven, hence to maintain it and require it is a formally accepted and practiced intellectual bias.

The other option is called the positive bias in science, as in the theistic sciences that are now being created, like theistic psychology. Since theistic psychology cannot prove dualism, it is called the positive bias in science. In this mode of thinking we are born dual citizens, with a temporary physical body in time and a permanent spiritual body in eternity. All mental events are therefore located in the mental world of eternity and these are linked by functional correspondence to the events in the physical body.

Traditionally, being religious and faith in God and an afterlife were considered outside the bounds of science. But now we have an overlap in two directions. One direction is neuro-theology and the other direction is theistic psychology. Neuro-theology is the direction of reductionism, that is, reducing mental to physical, which is the same as reducing the eternal to the temporal, and also, reducing God to a human fiction or imagination. And this after all, is biological, and hence the genes are god. One is led to such illogic by the bias of materialism.

16

If God is omnipresent and omnipotent why is there a hell and why do wicked people succeed in their hurtful plans against innocent people?  And why does God maintain in existence things that hurt human beings, such as hurricanes, poisonous substances, or viruses and bacteria? If God is perfect then why is His creation not perfect? Or is it

See the Layers Diagram.

Yes, God maintains what He created in a perfect order that is designed to create a heaven in eternity out of the human race and for the human race. Heaven in eternity is the upper layer of the human mind and the more individuals join that state of life in themselves, the more it is that heaven evolves into a human perfection to endless eternity. What is life in heaven like? It is not unknown. In fact nothing can be more familiar to us than our mental states. God gives each person numerous heavenly mental states in the course of our earthly life in the natural mind so that we may learn to love them. These are called heavenly "remains" because God stashes them away in places in the mind that are not conscious. thus protecting them from corruption.

Look at babies, infants and young children. Every moment they seem to experience the fullness and beauty of life in an unselfconscious way, but being totally in the wonderment of life around them. These involve feelings of wonderment, curiosity, peace, excitement, love for parents and other infants, obedience, innocence, love of learning. These are heavenly traits that we love as children and God collects them and saves them in your heaven to be. Throughout life on earth we receive such moments of heavenly impulses and loves and enjoyments. God retains every one of them and makes them available to us in our heaven, if only we choose to raise our consciousness there and be content doing that

And so the fact that there is crime, evil, sickness, and war does not mean that these things hamper God's ability to bring the individual to a desire for heaven through cultivating a love for heavenly traits and enjoyments. This desire or love cannot be imposed by God on an individual. Every love is an individual operation. Love does not stick to you by glue or osmosis. A person's love is a subjective assimilation of spiritual heat flowing into the affective organ. If the individual does not assimilate the love from self and as-of self, it does not remain in the individual's mind but flows away. Only the enjoyment of love binds it to the person forever. Heavenly traits must be loved in order to have a heaven to go to, for heaven is in your love of good and truth from God. Without loving good and truth from God, we cannot exist in the celestial layer of our mind in eternity since that layer is constructed out of the rational love of good and truth we receive from God the Divine Human.

 God allows only that kind of evil that He can use to help people learn to love heavenly traits. That is God's highest ruling love, namely, to continuously strive to help people He creates to learn to love heavenly traits, for this alone can realize God's plan of a heaven from the human race perfecting itself forever. In this perfect evolution of perfection rests boundless and endless happiness for each human being. This is God's Passion from His Divine Love and Essence.

The history of God is the history of the human mind.

1.1.4.2  The Three Benefits of Rational Spirituality: Enlightenment, Empowerment, Rational Ecstasy 

The benefits of studying theistic psychology is the progressive evolution and development of our rational spirituality. This is what our heaven is constructed of. The benefits of rational spirituality are innumerable but they fall into three major categories called enlightenment, empowerment, and rational ecstasy.

1.1.4.2.1  Spiritual Enlightenment

Enlightenment refers to the elevation of operations in the cognitive organ of the mind. You can see that when you first start studying a subject or activity your cognitive operations are those of a novice or beginner. As you gain experience and knowledge about something, your cognitive operations become more effective and and more complex. When you reach the stage of being an expert at something -- like a supervisor or a parent -- your cognitive operations are still higher and abstract. You can understand why things happen and how to control them. So this is a kind of enlightenment, but it is natural-rational mind rather than spiritual-rational mind. Your heaven is in your spiritual-rational consciousness, while your hell is in your natural-corporeal consciousness (see Section xx).

So there is a natural-rational type of enlightenment, like expertise or being good at something from experience, and there is a spiritual-rational type of enlightenment which comes only from the doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture (see Section xx). The source of our natural-rational enlightenment is the natural mind through the physical body. The source of our spiritual-rational enlightenment is the spiritual mind through the spiritual body. It is similar with reading and understanding Sacred Scripture. At first we understand it naturally with our natural-sensuous and natural-rational mind. This is the literal sense of Sacred Scripture and provides natural enlightenment about God, salvation, and eternity. We can read Sacred Scripture in the form of the Old Testament, the New Testament, or the Writings of Swedenborg and focus on the literal sense. This will not lead to our spiritual enlightenment.

But we can achieve spiritual enlightenment from Sacred Scripture if we translate the literal sense into its universal correspondential sense (see Section xx). In this way we begin to accumulate knowledge of theistic psychology. The rational understanding of this knowledge constitutes spiritual enlightenment. Note that we can read theistic psychology, like this textbook, and understand it not rationally, but naturally. Probably most students who happen to enroll in this course are reading theistic psychology at the natural level of understanding (see student reports at:   
     www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/#part2

What is spiritual enlightenment?

It is the elevation of consciousness to the level of operation in our mind called heaven (see Section xx). What is consciousness? It is the perception of truth which forms reality. There is only one reality, one truth. This is the reality and truth of God. This reality in the form of Divine Truth is created by the spiritual substances streaming out from the Spiritual Sun and creating the rational ether out of which the human is constructed in eternity (see Section xx). Divine Speech issues from the Mind of God, the Divine Human, and since this is a an actual real substance, it forms everything real out of itself. Every object or event or feeling is constructed out of this spiritual substance called truth, within which is God's love. Divine Love substance is the operation of God's Affective Organ, which is covered over with Divine Truth substance, this being the operation of God's Cognitive Organ. This Divine Human operation is also called the marriage of good and truth, or the marriage of love and wisdom. It is called a marriage because love always conjoins with its own kind of truth when it creates reality.

Reality is created in our mind in two steps. First, there is the influx of spiritual heat into the affective organ of our unconscious spiritual mind. Simultaneously, there is an inflow of spiritual light into the cognitive organ of our unconscious spiritual mind. Reality in our mind is constructed by this inflowing operation of good and truth in our spiritual mind that is completely independent of our will and awareness. This involuntary operation of reality in our spiritual mind then activates by correspondence the events in our conscious natural mind. The result of this is the reality of rationality and conscience in our conscious natural mind (See Section 7.0.4.1).

Everyone is aware of the operation of conscience and rationality in their conscious natural mind (See Section 7.0.4.1). Conscience is the rational perception of right and wrong, good and evil, heavenly and hellish. This rational perception is available to our conscious natural mind only because it "descends" into our conscious understanding from our spiritual mind where it is received by influx from the Spiritual Sun. Now the Divine Psychologist supervises and manages every detail of these mental operations. This is often hard to understand and accept because we still tend to attribute the power of thinking to ourselves. While God wills that we appear to ourselves as thinking as-though from ourselves, we need to remember consciously and rationally that it is God who does all things in us and outside us. If we include this in our thinking, we grow in rationality, but if we forget it or deny it, our real rationality ends, and what we have instead is a kind of quasi-rationality that misleads us and instead of understanding reality, we construct a false imaginary reality. As a result we are less human, more animalistic, more hellish. God continues to exercise control over us whether we are rational or animalistic. Either way, God continues to make things happen that allow us to become more rational.

Enlightenment is the state of mind we are in when our natural thinking is re-aligned to fit our rational thinking.

We are born with a mental tendency to enjoying hellish operations. Asserting ourselves over others regardless of good and truth, is a common way in which we maintain ourselves in a hellish state of mind. We promise things we don't perform by excusing ourselves and justifying our neglects and weaknesses by which we make others suffer. We care less about how we make others suffer as much as we care about getting our way, whatever it is, even if it is unjust, unfair, irrational, cruel, uncaring, animalistic. Because we are unwilling to resist these feelings or giving them up, we remain in a mental state of hell. This is the opposite of enlightenment. When we are in the opposite state of enlightenment we go through phases of feeling bad for doing the right thing, and feeling good for doing the wrong thing. This is the state of hell and leads to disorder, injury, destruction, unhappiness, and lack of productivity and inventiveness. It may appear to us at first that we are making progress and gaining, but ultimately we set ourselves up for failure and hell.

We cannot be enlightened when our natural habits of feeling, thinking and doing are based on our inherited hellish states of mind. But at some point in adult life we experience an awakening, an intense desire to be enlightened spiritually. This is a desire for more rationality in our mind. We then begin to explore what our culture has to offer in terms of spirituality. Our first phase is to get involved with sensuous spirituality (see Section xx). This often involves an interest in new age nonduality (see Section xx). This attitude of mind is based on the idea that there is a continuity between us and God, so that as we grow in spirituality, we will be God (see Section xx). Of course this is a total denial of the rational duality as given in Sacred Scripture, which is that God must be outside the created universe in order to be able to create it. Hence it is irrational to think that this duality of creator/created can be continuous, or of the same substance and quality. New age nonduality can involve the mind endlessly, and hopelessly, getting us deeper and deeper into a mental state that is not capable or willing to receive the rational truths of Sacred Scripture.

But at one point we are ready to move on with our character reformation and preparation for heavenly eternity. This starts with our enlightenment. We begin to see that we have an eternal future based on our relationship to God. We begin to see that we alternate in our daily life between mental states of being in our heaven and in our hell. We begin to see more clearly from conscience as to what is right and what is wrong in our life, feelings, thoughts, and conduct. We begin to form in our understanding the Doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture. These now constitute the reality we identify with and that we want. We recognize the supervisory role of God in our mental life. We accept it. We begin to love it and to trust God. Now begins the phase of our temptations and regeneration (see Section xx).

1.1.4.2.2  Spiritual Empowerment

The period of enlightenment now continues to develop. The progress of our spiritual development is proportional to our willingness to endure spiritual temptations. We are already familiar with natural temptations and our battles with conscience to maintain moral conduct as a citizen, parent, spouse, and individual. We can continue to develop morally even if we are not enlightened. But no matter how much we make progress in our moral development, we cannot begin to progress in our spiritual development -- until we are enlightened, as discussed above, and then we must be willing to undergo spiritual temptations.

Natural temptations have to do with moral dilemmas like wanting to take unfair advantage of someone, wanting to cheat, wanting to make yourself feel good at the expense of someone else, wanting to be rewarded for something we don't deserve, and so on. These natural temptations must be overcome successfully through our conscience and our principles of living (See Section 7.0.4.1). Natural temptations start in childhood and go on throughout life. Spiritual temptations only start in adulthood, after we undergo enlightenment. If we are unwilling to be enlightened by rational spirituality through Sacred Scripture, we cannot undergo spiritual temptations, and therefore, we cannot regenerate our character from hellish to heavenly (see Section xx).

Spiritual temptations are brought to our conscious awareness by the Divine Psychologist who chooses the timing on the basis of what we are willing to obey. The Divine Psychologist also arranges the events in our life so that the temptations can be brought to our awareness. The Divine Psychologist has revealed in Sacred Scripture that He never brings a spiritual temptation to someone who is not ready to oppose it and fight like hell against it. We must engage in spiritual combat against the hells to which we are connected by birth. The Divine Psychologist only brings us to spiritual temptations after He has equipped us with the weapons of truths that we must possess in order to engage in spiritual combat.

These inner power tools are constructed out of the spiritual truths we obtain from translating the literal sense of Sacred Scripture into its correspondential sense (see Section xx). The correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture is called the spiritual Doctrine of Truth (see Section xx). This is the Doctrine we must construct and build up in our mind as we study Sacred Scripture. Once it is in our mind, we begin to filter everything in our daily life through that Doctrine. As the Divine Psychologist brings spiritual temptations to us we experience an attack on our understanding of Doctrine.

This spiritual attack is felt like a doubt in our spiritual truths that we have already appropriated in our reformation and regeneration. We feel intense pressure from the hells to reject or modify the rational truths of Sacred Scripture that we already possess. We want to feel, think, and do what we desire and feel we must have regardless of what our spiritual Doctrine says in our mind. We want to weaken our connection and loyalty to the spiritual truth, so that we may abandon it for now, make an exception for now. But if we do, we throw ourselves back into our natural life where we feel good for doing bad, and feel bad for doing good. we don't want to do good, to think right, to feel and intend from our heaven. We are in mortal danger at this point and this is when the Divine Psychologist, or God as the "Holy Spirit" in our mind, is the closest to us ever (see Section xx).

It doesn't feel like that though! Subjectively it feels like we are in agony. It feels like God has abandoned us to our own devices to fight the un-fightable hells in us. We do not have slightest power to overcome these hells in our spiritual temptations. We are assailed, inundated, suffocated. But we can overcome all this when we activate our rational understanding of how the Divine Psychologist is behind all this drama!

Sticking with the Divine Psychologist is called "cleaving to God" or "loving God more than anything." And the strength of this love is that it is our individual unique reciprocation to God's activity in our mind. That's all God needs to instantly wipe out the hells from contact with you. This is called "being delivered." God delivers us from our inherited connection with the hells, breaks it, makes it impossible for the hells in our mind to break out again into our consciousness and make us doubt the Doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture. The temptation is then consummated. It is over. Never again will the hells in our mind be able to attack us from that same direction, though we must know that there are many directions, many door, many connections that must be individually dismantled through this process of character reformation (see Section xx).

Now in the phase immediately following our victory in spiritual combat, we experience rational ecstasy.

1.1.4.2.3  Rational Ecstasy

Rational ecstasy refers to the feeling and perspective we have when we are in the heavens of our eternity.

Swedenborg was conscious in his spiritual mind from age 57 to 84, when he passed on never to return to earthly consciousness. But during those 27 years of dual citizenship (see Section xx), Swedenborg was able to see, hear, and talk to numerous people who are in their heavenly eternity in the afterlife. He described their mentality and life, and he called them angels or angel-people (see Section xx). They lived in constant and unceasing rational ecstasy.

Immediately following victory in spiritual combat, we are given to experience raitonal ecstasy, which is called "the sphere of heaven." It is also called "the elevation of the mind into heaven" and also "being in company with angels and in communication with them." Physiologically, the Divine Psychologist opens a channel of correspondence between some event in our unconscious spiritual mind and its corresponding conscious event in our natural mind. It is the mental state of victory in which we are after our spiritual combat, that allows the Divine Psychologist to open in us this spiritual channel of communication with our heaven. We know that the Divine Psychologist, out of His Divine Love for the universal human race, would desire to open this spiritual channel for everyone and to keep it open from here to eternity. We know from Sacred Scripture that God desires to do this because His purpose in maintaining the universe is to bring human beings into a state of mental heaven in eternity (see Section xx).

In order to accomplish this, God must find a way of getting each human being to love rationality.

God's omnipotence makes this happen. God wills that we fight for our principles when tempted to give them up. This is the only way the break or disconnect our attachment and delight in hellish traits. We are already attached to hellish delights and life, so if we were to be cut off from them, we would feel that our life is ending. Our happiness and freedom is ending. Our humanity is ending. This is so irrational that  it is impossible for us to get into the rationality of our heaven. Swedenborg saw people who were just resuscitated, demand that they be admitted to heaven on account of their religion. They were then brought into the mental state of their heaven. They literally freaked! they were not ready to endure even a few seconds in the atmosphere and mental life of their heaven. Everything within their thoughts and feelings contradicted the sphere of heaven. They felt tortured and quickly precipitated their consciousness back down into their hellish mind, whereupon they revived and were able to continue their life.

This is what would happen to us if God suddenly cut off the life of delights we have from hell.

And so we must learn gradually to be cut off from our hell. And this is done through spiritual combats against the delights of our hells and the beliefs and false principles that go with the hells in our mind. When we win in spiritual combat, our love for the Doctrine of truth from Sacred Scripture is immediately strengthened, and consequently our rational spirituality of God grows more interiorly towards the Spiritual Sun and towards Him as the Divine Human in whom infinite things make one (see Section xx).

As we approach God through our love and loyalty for His Sacred Scripture, using it in daily spiritual combats against our hellish traits, we begin to feel rational ecstasy more continuously, not just in the victory after combat.

It is important to understand that waging spiritual combat does not mean natural or social combats against others in our environment and society.

Many people have made use of Sacred Scripture to fight social combats against those whom they see as promoting evils and falsities in society. This is not what is meant here by spiritual combats. Obviously, when you fight against others in your social environment, you are engaged in natural combats in your society, also called politics and civil war. These are not spiritual wars. the only wars that allow us to regenerate are spiritual wars, and the only spiritual wars are those we fight with ourselves in our own mind.

When we are victorious and prevail against others in natural and moral battles, we may feel good, but it is not rational ecstasy. This is felt only with spiritual combats and victories. Rational ecstasy is a celestial sensation called "being in the stream of Divine Providence" and also "the peace that surpasses all understanding." It is in fact a rational feeling, or sensation, a kind of subtle vibration or tremulation (see Section xx). It is a constant conscious reminder that we are spirits in a material body, temporarily trapped, but soon to be released. It is also a feeling of trust which comes from the rational understanding of God's omnipotence and love. Even if you feel anxious, depressed, stressed out because of external natural circumstances, you do not lose the sensation of rational ecstasy. You are permanently immersed in it. It is like contained excitement on the edge of enthusiasm and energy. It is wonderful. And it helps you remain aware of the continuous presence and role of the Divine Psychologist in our mind.

1.1.4.3    How Divine Speech Descends In the Human Mind Through
                                            Discrete Layers and Keeps It Functioning                   

Our mental heaven in eternity is inborn. This heaven is already present in our mind when we are born, just as hell is present in the human mind at birth. Physiologically, our mind is constructed out of heavenly feelings and traits and out of hellish feelings and traits. In other words, heaven and hell are located within the spiritual organs of the mind. This awesome secret has been revealed thousands of years ago in the literal sense of Sacred Scripture. An example is the scientific revelation in the New Testament Sacred Scripture:

Being demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them, and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:20-21).

The phrase "cometh not with observation" means that the natural mind, which is formed by physical content, cannot be in heaven. In the literal sense it means that heaven is not in the natural world but in the spiritual world of eternity. Hence this passage, among others in the New Testament Sacred Scripture, reveals the scientific reality of dualism, that is, of the existence of this world in time-space, and the world of eternity which is snot in time-space. The phrase "the kingdom of God is within you" means that eternity is in our mind. "Within you" contrasts with the phrase "with observation" which is outward through the physical senses, while "within you" is mental and is not observable outwardly by the physical senses.

I am amazed that I did not realize the meaning of this passage the first time I read it thirty years ago (see Section xx). And I am astonished that no one until Swedenborg in the eighteenth century, took note of this amazing scientific revelation in the New Testament. It wasn't until I became an expert on Swedenborg and then read this passage again that its meaning hit me. It is the Divine revelation of scientific dualism (see Section xx). Similar scientific revelations occur in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture, as for instance the Genesis verses:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Gen. 1:1).

And the heavens and the earth were finished (Gen. 2:1).

These are the nativities of the heavens and of the earth (Gen. 2:4),

In the literal sense it plainly says that God created the spiritual world of eternity ("the heavens") and the natural world of time, space, and energy. This is the Divine confirmation of scientific dualism as a reality, not a hypothesis or theory. What is not revealed here is that the world of the heavens in eternity is the same as the mind. For thousands of years people who derived their religion from the Old Testament had a materialistic worldview, not abstracted from the senses. They were not willing to think of the heavens as being created in a separate universe, outside time, space, or region. To think of the universe of eternity, not in space, not in time, involving no material substances, and yet still supportive of human life and happiness, requires a rational spirituality, not material or sensuous. It requires a rational consciousness of God. This level of thinking had not yet developed in the human mind until the age of science and modernism starting in the 18th century (see Section xx).

This is the reason that 20 centuries of Christian scholarship and adoration of the New Testament were not able to uncover this obvious heavenly secret, namely, that "the Kingdom of God is within you." In theistic psychology I render this statement by the following formulaic expression:

the Kingdom of God = eternity and human life there = the heavens = within you = your mind = your mental organs = your feelings, thoughts, and loves = the self = immortality

Is this not an astonishing realization?

You too will be astonished as soon as you begin to reflect on this amazing rational equation. This equation shows that all human beings are born immortal! Who knew this? The vast majority of people on this planet today belong to the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist religions and practices. None of these religions give a clear and factual description of our immortality or life in eternity. None of the religions give any clear explanation of the most basic facts that Swedenborg presents in the Writings Sacred Scripture. As for instance the fact that every human being who dies is resuscitated within 36 hours and continues life in eternity as himself or herself. Which religious leader, prophet, or scholar has known this? The reason is that Sacred Scripture reveals almost nothing about life after death -- when you consider the literal meaning of the sentences of Sacred Scripture. This is why all sorts of imaginative and fantastic interpretations have been given of the Book of Revelations, which is the last book of the New Testament Sacred Scripture, and is written in a prophetic and visionary style, rather than historical narrative, as the rest of the New Testament is written.

The most popular beliefs surrounding the symbolism and interpretation of the Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, have been that its visionary scenes that John witnessed "while being in the spirit," describe symbolically the historical scenes that will take place on earth at the so-called "end of times" or when the physical planet is destroyed and instantaneously remade, while the faithful who are saved, are "caught up in the air" and kept safe during these tumultuous events that destroy earth. Then a "new earth" is created by God for those who are "resurrected from the graves," put back together again with new and immortal bodies, to enjoy forever on the new earth.

These amazingly imaginative ideas come from one source -- the practice of interpreting the literal sense of Sacred Scripture in accordance with one's own ideas, beliefs, scholarship, intelligence, or imagination. None of these approaches can yield the true spiritual meaning that is hidden within the literal sense of Sacred Scripture (see Section xx). Instead, it was necessary to wait until God reveals the appropriate method for extracting the hidden meaning from the literal sentences. This method had been revealed before by God to the most ancient peoples on this earth. Swedenborg interviewed some of these people who have been living since then in their celestial heavens. They informed him that when they were on earth they called this knowledge the Science of Correspondences (see Section xx).

This therefore is the most ancient science on the planet. It has to do with how the spiritual world of causes relate or act upon the natural world of effects. In other words, the science of correspondences was the rational revelation of scientific dualism and how the two worlds are connected by laws. Swedenborg interviewed people in eternity who were from different historical eras on earth. He was thus able to piece together a historical chart of the succeeding civilizations on this earth (see Section xx), describing the mentality and character of those people. After some generations, the most ancient civilization died out and in its place arose a series of civilizations. By the time the Old Testament Sacred Scripture was written about three thousand years ago, almost nothing was left of the knowledge of the science of correspondences. It was so well hidden that no one knew, not even the prophets who wrote the Bible, that the sentences of Sacred Scripture were written in correspondences because they represented the content of Divine Speech.

This history is necessary for us to know because of a rational principle that I would like to phrase as follows:

Individual biography recapitulates human evolution and history

In other words by knowing the details of the mental evolution of the human race on earth we are able to know details of our own mental states and how they develop in our life from birth to eternity (see Section xx).

It wasn't until the Writings of Swedenborg in the eighteenth century that the human mind was first given knowledge again of the lost science of correspondences. Now for the first time we are able to read Sacred Scripture and extract from it the Divine Speech that is hidden within it. In order for God to revive this consciousness in the human race it was necessary that He select a scientist, like Swedenborg, who was given the scientific genius, rationality, and reputation, to bring this science of dualism back into modern times and the modern person of the future. In order to succeed, it was necessary for this person to be given access to the laboratory of eternity.

This was done by making Swedenborg's spiritual mind to be conscious while he was still living on earth. At age 57, he became a dual citizen, living and interacting in both worlds simultaneously! Only a scientist who had access to both worlds simultaneously could make the necessary observations of this science of correspondences, since it is the science of how the worlds are connected by functional cause-effect laws for all phenomena. Now any person who studies these laws of correspondences can read Sacred Scripture and figure out its hidden correspondential sense. This correspondential sense is the content of Divine Speech. Theistic psychology is the knowledge extracted from the literal sense of the Writings Sacred Scripture (see Section xx).

In order to understand this more clearly, it is necessary to have a mental chart of the human mind and how it is created, ordered, and managed by God through Divine Speech. Study the following conceptual diagrams which are explained elsewhere in theistic psychology (see Volume 6):

1.1.4.3.1   Conceptual Charts of the Physiology of God and the Human Mind

Chart 1

Chart 2

Chart 3

Chart 4

Chart 5

Our consciousness is designed to travel up and down the various levels of our mind. When we are born our spiritual body has various levels of operation along which our consciousness can travel up and down. Divine Speech, or Divine Love and Truth as spiritual heat and light, streams forth from the Spiritual Sun into the universe, and enters simultaneously into every individual mind of the human race -- just as sunlight and heat from the natural sun, enter every plant, giving it the energy to grow, survive, and reproduce. In this way spiritual heat and light from the Spiritual Sun enter the human mind at its highest level called "the third heaven" (see Section xx).

If you knew how to elevate your consciousness to your third heaven right now, you would understand Divine Speech at the level called celestial-rational correspondences of Divine Speech. At this level you are nearly omniscient, because anything whatsoever you think about or are curious about, instantly appears in your awareness. You do not have to search for the answer or understanding, you do not have to discover it, study it, or ask someone else about it. The information comes to your awareness to fill the gap of wondering about it. This is why our mental state in the third heaven can be described as nearly omniscient. Of course we do not have this knowledge and understanding from ourselves, and the instant we think we do, it disappears from our mind and we become stupid. We must know rationally that this omniscient knowledge is God's knowledge that He grants to be within us, and if we forget this, we lose the knowledge because we lose that close communication with Divine Speech in which all possible knowledge is contained.

The celestial-rational correspondences of Divine Speech that we have in the third heaven of our mind causes correspondential operations to occur in our second heaven of our mind. If you were conscious of this level of operation in your mind, you would be thinking and reasoning with spiritual-rational correspondences of Divine Speech as it descends and expands into the universe. At this level of thinking you must do research and studying before you can know and understand the many rational things you are curious about. You don't just recognize truths instantly but must reflect and figure out in order to be able to confirm it.

The spiritual-rational correspondences of Divine Speech that we have in our second heaven causes correspondential operations to occur in the first heaven of our mind. Swedenborg saw the mentality of people who dwell in their first heaven. their reasoning was based on spiritual-natural correspondences of Divine Speech. This level of thinking and reasoning is most familiar to us when we gain knowledge and expertise in our activities. We do not think of these in a fully rational way because we mix what is rational with what is not rational. An example would be the knowledge possessed by artists, scientists, managers, or skilled workers. They do not think purely rationally and often confuse what they see with the senses and what they think rationally separated from the senses.

The spiritual-natural correspondences of Divine Speech that we have in the first heaven of our mind causes correspondential operations to occur in our conscious natural mind. At this level of operation in our mind, we think and reason with merely natural correspondences of Divine Speech as it descends and expands into the universe. At this level of thinking we cannot figure out what is sensuous-empirical and what is rational-spiritual. When Sacred Scripture of Divine speech is written down at this level it appears as history that reflects the mentality of the people rather than God's mentality. As a result people are able to interpret Sacred Scripture in any way they please to suit their purposes.

These purposes are selfish rather than heavenly. The more selfish and hostile are a person's purposes, the more one distorts one's rationality. Since every heavenly level of thinking and reasoning can be distorted by evil intentions and motives, there are in the human mind levels of hell, which are the contradictions and perversions of each level of heaven. Hence there is a first hell in our mind which is the contradiction of the reasoning process in our first heaven. Similarly there is a second hell and a third hell to correspond to the heavens.

Your consciousness can travel up and down these built in levels of mental operation, from the third heaven at the top of the human mind, all the way down to the third hell at the bottom of the human mind. Because Swedenborg's spiritual mind was made conscious to him at age 57, he was able to travel up and down this consciousness path, and he described them all (see Section xx). You too can see and learn what he learned if you were suddenly made conscious in your spiritual mind. As it is, this normally happens at resuscitation, 36 hours after we are cut off from the physical body by its death. Then we remain conscious in our natural mind for a short while, until our second death, at which time our natural mind is put to sleep and we are propelled by our ruling love to keep our consciousness where it is. If this ruling love is in one of the three heavens, that is the level of life we enjoy to eternity. But if the ruling love is in hell, that's where spend our eternity.

Study Questions: 1.1 to 1.1.4.3.1 (Report 3)

Week 7 Readings: Section 1.1 to 1.1.4.1

• Student 1:    1, 4, 7

• Student 2:    2, 5, 8

• Student 3:    3, 6, 9

7.1.
(a) Study the Table that begins Section 1.1  "Three Levels of Thinking About God." Explain the history of your own development regarding the idea of God.
(b) Use the Table to describe your own thinking today at each level.
(c) Can you guess about where will your thinking take you in the future?

7.2.
(a) Make up a gain-loss sheet that lists and briefly explains what you could gain or lose by adopting the negative vs. positive bias in science regarding God's existence as a scientific reality.
(b) Read the list. Comment on it from an objective point of view.

7.3.
(a) Why does God allow people to be in the negative bias in science and survive as well as those who are in the positive bias in science?
(b) Comment on this situation. Do you understand it? Do you see problems with it?

7.4.
(a) Explain the difference between religion as a mystical view of God and Sacred Scripture vs. theistic psychology as scientific view of God and Sacred Scripture.
(b) Is knowing about this difference important to you? Explain.

7.5.
(a) Summarize the ten conclusions that follow logically from the positive bias assumption that God exists in science.
(b) Does this proof make sense to you? Do you accept it as proof?
(c) Do any of your friends accept it as an adequate proof that if God exists then He must be a Divine Human Person whose creation must therefore be perfect.

7.6.
(a) Prove rationally that our mental world is the world of eternity.
(b) What will be the consequences for society when this knowledge becomes known?
(c) Check it out with your friends. Are they jumping up and down with joy when they hear you describe it?

7.7.
(a) How are humans different from animals?
(b) What makes us human? Justify the statement that we are human because we are rational.
(c) Explain why animals are not immortal.
(d) How do you react to this knowledge?

7.8.
(a) Describe the Incarnation Event from the perspective of theistic psychology.
(b) Explain what it means to say that "when God entered history He entered science."
(b) Does this makes sense to you? Does it change anything about your ideas of God?
(c) What would happen if this knowledge becomes known to the public in general?

7.9
(a) In what sense can we say that the Incarnation Event is the completion of the creation of the human race?
(b) What difference does it make to the human race? What new evolutionary abilities does it give us? How does this influence our future in eternity?

Week 8 Readings: Section 1.1.4.2 to 1.1.4.3.1 

• Student 1:    1, 4, 7

• Student 2:    2, 5, 8

• Student 3:    3, 6, 9

8.1.
(a) Explain how we become spiritually enlightened by studying theistic psychology.
(b) What is the difference between natural and spiritual enlightenment?
(c) Who do you know that is enlightened?

8.2.
(a) What are temptations? Explain how our spiritual development depends on our willingness to fight our temptations.
(b) What happens after we are victorious in a temptation?
(c) What have you observed about your own temptations in the past?

8.3.
(a) When and how did Sacred Scripture reveal that heaven in eternity is the mental world?
(b) Why do you think that this knowledge remains unknown or disbelieved?
(c) Search the Web to see if anything about this is known. What is your conclusion?

8.4.
(a) Explain the principle that "individual biography recapitulates human evolution and history."
(b) How does this influence the way you see yourself?

8.5.
(a) In your own words explain chart 1 in Section 1.1.4.3.1. Do not just guess. You will need to do some research in Volume 18 to find the explanations and clarifications: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/#Searching_for_something

8.6.
(a)  In your own words explain chart 2 in Section 1.1.4.3.1. Do not just guess. You will need to do some research in Volume 18 to find the explanations and clarifications: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/#Searching_for_something

8.7.
(a) In your own words explain chart 3 in Section 1.1.4.3.1. Do not just guess. You will need to do some research in Volume 18 to find the explanations and clarifications: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/#Searching_for_something

8.8.
(a) In your own words explain chart 4 in Section 1.1.4.3.1. Do not just guess. You will need to do some research in Volume 18 to find the explanations and clarifications: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/#Searching_for_something

8.9.
(a) In your own words explain chart 5 in Section 1.1.4.3.1. Do not just guess. You will need to do some research in Volume 18 to find the explanations and clarifications: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/#Searching_for_something

Report 3: due March 7. Answer Questions for Weeks 7 and 8.

1.1.4.3.2   Extracting the Content of Divine Speech Through Correspondences

See the Layers Diagram.

All Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech, "God's Word" or Divine Truth expressed in a natural language. God communicates with people in two ways -- conscience and Sacred Scripture. Conscience is an inner voice that only the individual can hear or feel (layers 7A, 7C), while Sacred Scripture is a physical book that has to be read or heard with physical senses (layer 12S).  God uses these two means of communication to elevate the rational understanding of a person. People refer to conscience as something intuitive and vague. But in fact we all experience conscience as definite and sometimes overwhelming. The more we are willing to listen to our conscience, the more we develop our natural-rational mind (layer 7C). This is because conscience (layer 7) is a organ that reacts by correspondence to the truths (C) and goods (A) in the spiritual layer 6 above it. The more we disregard the voice or insight of conscience, the more sensual-scientific we become (layer 8). At this layer, no spiritual-natural or spiritual-rational truths can exist, hence the layers of our heavens above cannot develop into maturity. Listening to conscience is very effective in facing temptations. Ultimately however, most people will need reinforcing their conscience with more particular knowledges and spiritual truths from Sacred Scripture.

The more we are willing to be elevated in our rational understanding (layer 7C) through conscience and Sacred Scripture, the more we can be spiritually enlightened to understand more interior truths such as spiritual-natural (layer 6C) or spiritual-rational truths (layer 5C). This raises our human potential, our ability to be intelligent and happy, loving and cooperative in social life. Ultimately, our condition and quality of life in the afterlife world of eternity will depend on our rational development. In order to live in a heaven of eternity (layers 6, 5, 4) we must be able to understand God rationally or spiritually. So God's purpose in communicating with people through Sacred Scripture  is to raise their human potential through rational correspondences of Sacred Scripture, and to bring them to their never ending conjugial happiness in eternity (see Volume 11).

From conscience every person knows in a general way what is right or wrong, good or bad (See Section 7.0.4.1). From Sacred Scripture every society and culture teaches that there is God, that there is life after death, and that our quality of life in eternity depends on whether we acquire habits of good or habits of evil. Without Sacred Scripture these essential things of living and survival would not be known. So God communicates information about our eternity. This means knowing what will happen when we die and cross onto eternity.

God gives Sacred Scripture revelations to every culture and society in all the ages, whether a small isolated tribe in the jungle, or large nations like the United States or India. Every generation in all geographic locations has had access to a Sacred Scripture from God. Sometimes the same Sacred Scripture is handed down for many generations, while at other times new Sacred Scripture is given.

From this you can see that the revelation of Divine Speech enters the mind of the prophet or revelator who has a special relationship to God in order to serve this purpose of receiving the Divine Speech in his conscious natural mind, and writing it down. What the prophet or revelator writes down is Divine Speech translated into some natural language through the conscious understanding of an ordinary person, often uneducated and inexperienced. So the sentences that the prophet writes down are limited in meaning to what the prophet can understand or transmit. And so the style of any particular Sacred Scripture can vary from prophet to prophet, and from culture to culture. You probably know some Sacred Scripture from education or literature. Most Western democracies today are familiar with the Old Testament Sacred Scripture and the New Testament Sacred Scripture ("Bible").

Remember however that the prophet does not write down Divine Speech in its celestial and spiritual meanings as these descend from his unconscious spiritual mind into his conscious natural mind. This descent changes by correspondence what the prophet "hears" or "sees." In fact the prophet can only see and hear natural correspondences of Divine Speech. Nevertheless, hidden within these natural correspondences in simultaneous order are the entire series of correspondences as Divine Speech descended in sequential order across the layers of the spiritual mind.

Different religions base themselves on different Sacred Scripture. Since all Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech, and there is only one universal God, why then do the different versions of Sacred Scripture lead to conflict among religions?

The answer is that it is not the different versions of Sacred Scripture that lead to conflict, but their literal interpretation applied the wrong way.

For example, the Name of God in different Sacred Scripture varies and yet the literal sense states that only this Name must be worshipped. When people with different versions of Sacred Scripture take this literally (layer 8C)without rational interpretation (layer 7C), then their ideas and principles come into conflict with each other. Other religions who worship God by another Name are therefore seen as false religions with teachings contrary to one's own religion, which is seen as the only true religion. So you can see how this leads to conflict, disagreement, even warfare and hatred for each other. And yet cruelty and hatred are contrary to God's instructions in every Sacred Scripture.

So it is clear that God wants people to read Sacred Scripture not just literally (layer 8C), but in its rational meaning (layer 7C), which is also its spiritual meaning (interior of the external natural). This has been done to some extent as societies advance in civilization and justice mentality. People give interpretations of Sacred Scripture that try to reconcile the differences and promote tolerance and mutual respect. And yet this is not true for people in every generation, hence conflict continues. People who undergo reformation through conscience and through truths of Sacred Scripture that they interpret rationally or spiritually, tend to back off from intolerance and conflict. For them, altruism and heavenly tolerance ("charity" or "spiritual love") takes precedence over distinctions in interpretations and doctrines ("faith").

When Swedenborg became conscious in his spiritual mind at age 57, he discovered that the people in the afterlife of eternity also read Sacred Scripture. As a scientist, he was now in a unique position to run an experiment to gather data on how Sacred Scripture creates the layers of the human mind. He had in front of him the wording of Sacred Scripture that he had on earth and was reading with his natural mind (layer 8C), which was his Bible in Swedish, Latin, Hebrew, and Greek. He also had the Sacred Scripture in the spiritual mind across its layers (6, 5, 4). He could read all versions simultaneously -- the version written in a natural language and the version written in the spiritual language across the upper layers. This is the language that all people start using spontaneously (without learning) immediately after resuscitation when they become conscious in their spiritual mind. But the versions of this spiritual language become more and more interior as you ascend the layers 6, 5, 4.

Swedenborg discovered that the natural language version of Sacred Scripture was the correspondence of the spiritual version. Every word or expression in the natural version of Sacred Scripture was a correspondence of the equivalent spiritual expression that people used in the mental world of the afterlife. None of the historical names and places appeared in the spiritual version because these are natural representations of spiritual things. Every detail mentioned in the natural version use words that refer to things on earth -- animals, mountains, the sun, rivers, cities, countries, names, places, physical objects and actions, armies of one country invading another country, famines, natural disasters, women giving birth, children, etc. This is the natural content of Sacred Scripture in its literal sense. None of this appears in the spiritual sense of Sacred Scripture.

You can now realize that Sacred Scripture is written in correspondences of natural things that represent spiritual things. There is no other way that Divine Speech can be expressed to people who are thinking at the level of 8C and 9C. When we express Sacred Scripture in rational correspondences (layer 7C) it is possible to discuss the topics of theistic psychology. Most people would not be interested in the spiritual meaning of Sacred Scripture (or theistic psychology). It is necessary therefore that Sacred Scripture be expressed at the level comprehensible to most people in their exterior-natural mind (layer 8C). The spiritual content of Divine Speech is the developmental psychobiology of the human mind. This is a scientific topic and very complex in all its parts. Hence it is that it is necessary that Sacred Scripture have both a literal historical meaning and a correspondential scientific meaning.

Theistic psychology is now possible because God has revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg what the correspondences are that are hidden in the spiritual depth of Sacred Scripture.

1.1.4.3.2.0    What are Correspondences in Sacred Scripture?

The new scientific revelation of the existence of correspondences, once this becomes known to people generally, will allow humankind to understand two important principles:

• (1) how God manages the universe by rational laws of correspondence that are spiritual (layers 6, 5, 4) but have a natural representation (layers 7, 8, 9)

• (2) how our mind works in discrete but corresponding layers from the lowest to the highest human potential of consciousness and abilities

God created the dual universe -- the natural or physical or material world of time-space-matter, and the spiritual or mental world of eternity. Anything that is something must be made of of something prior to itself. Memorize this sentence and reflect on it from to time. It is the logical proof of substantive dualism (dual citizenship), and of the idea that every human being is born with two bodies. One body is physical in the material world of time-space, while the other body is spiritual in the mental world of eternity. These two bodies (layers 12 and 10) must be made of something that comes from prior to them (layers 9 to 1)!

Our physical body (layer 12) is made of matter in time-space. Our spiritual body (layer 10) is made of substances in eternity (not in time-space).

The natural matter in time-space that composes our physical body (or natural body) comes from the planet, which comes from the sun, which is one of many stars in the physical universe that God created and is continuously creating and managing in every detail.

The substances in eternity that compose our spiritual body (and its mental layers) comes from the substances of the Spiritual Sun (layer 1), which is an aura of spiritual light and heat around God the Divine Human. Swedenborg reports that anyone who raises their human potential to their highest layer of the mind called celestial-rational (layer 4), can see the Spiritual Sun. Sometimes the Divine Human can also be seen since He now possesses a Divine Natural that is visible (see Section xx).

Material light and heat stream out of the natural sun, forming force fields, gravity, and matter. In other words, the physical sun creates a gravitational space around itself, then breaks off pieces of itself which cool off as planets of matter, and these supply the material needed for all things on earth.

Spiritual light and heat stream out of the Spiritual Sun, forming rational ether in which are constructed the layers of the human mind. The layers contain the mental organs at each level: affective (A), cognitive (C), and sensorimotor (S). The affective organ is a receptor or spiritual heat, while the cognitive organ is a receptor of spiritual light.

Note that "natural sun" is not capitalized because if is not alive or Divine, while the Spiritual Sun is always capitalized, like God and Sacred Scripture. This is because spiritual substances are alive and Divine. This is one of the most difficult rational concepts to understand in theistic psychology. The reason theistic psychology is grounded in substantive dualism is that there is no other scientific way of explaining the dual universe. If there is a dual universe created by God, as it is asserted in theistic psychology, then both worlds must be made of something -- either something like matter, which we all know well, or something like substance, which we all also know full well.

Actually, you know the world made of spiritual substances much better than the world made of matter.

How can this be? What is that world that you know so well?

Think!

That's it. It's the world of thinking (C) -- and feeling (A), and sensations (S). The threefold self. You. I. Each of us. Is there anything that we know better than our mental world? It is the most familiar thing we know. It is our very life, our very consciousness as a being. So familiar every day -- my thoughts, my sensations, my feelings in my private world called my mind.

So you are most familiar with your mental world.

What you may not know yet is that there is only one mental world of eternity just as there is only one physical space in the natural world of time and space.

In other words, this most familiar world we call "my mind, or me" is located in the mental world of eternity. Your thoughts and feelings and sensations are actually things or objects, spiritual things or mental things, and they must be made of something. Our mental organs in our spiritual body (layer 10), which we get at birth of course, are made of spiritual substances from the Spiritual Sun. This occurs when we are born, and then it never ceases to eternity. Our sensations, thoughts, and feelings are immortal because they are constructed of spiritual substances from the Spiritual Sun, and these substances are immortal, because Divine. These substances are called "uncreate" and exist in God and are from God. They do not stop being Divine outside of God in created things. This is why our infrastructure of the soul (layers 3) is not accessible to us but remains the "abode" of God in a human being. From there God activates and manages all lower layers through the built-in laws of correspondences.

So God had to create the mental world of eternity for the human race in which to develop and to exist forever. He had to construct the world eternity out of something because out of nothing there cannot come forth anything. This something out of which the mental world was constructed, is the spiritual light and the spiritual heat streaming out of the Spiritual Sun on a continuous basis in endless variety forever -- thus reflecting God's infinity. Hence it is that our mind, which is made of mental organs in our spiritual body (layer 10), is born immortal. Our mind is born in the spiritual world of eternity and stays there. We never had a mind here on earth, but only a physical body that has a brain that is responsive to our mind through the built-in laws of correspondences. The two worlds are connected by the laws of correspondences. This was unknown until it was revealed in Swedenborg's Writings in the 18th century.

The spiritual world of eternity and the natural world of time-space are functionally connected by the laws of correspondences as a built-in part of their creation. The dual universe could not possibly work separately. The physical body without the mind is just a robot that does not have a spiritual body in eternity, does not have a mind, cannot be immortal. Similarly the mind without its own spiritual body cannot exist as a functioning unit or person. Our sensations are operations in the sensorimotor organ of the mind (S). Our thoughts are operations in the cognitive organ of the mind (C), and our feelings and motivations are operations in our affective organ (A).

So from now on you need to start thinking of your sensations, thoughts, and feelings as substantive, not material like the physical brain, which contains only operations of electricity and chemistry, not psychology. Only the mind has operations of psychology, and the mind (layers 9 through 4) is not in the physical body (layer 12), but in the spiritual body (layer 10) in eternity, where it remains since birth, and continues living after it is disconnected from the physical body at death a few hours later. Swedenborg was right there as thousands of people were being resuscitated from death, just 30 hours after dying (see Section xx).

One of your jobs once you're no longer connected to earth, might be to assist in the resuscitation process of millions of people every day from countless numbers of planets in the physical universe where the human race exists.

Note that whether we say spiritual body or mental body, it is the same. Spiritual = mental = eternity. Since we are born dual citizens, in time-space and in eternity, we need two very different kind of bodies to exist in each world. So we have a temporary physical body made of physical matter, and a permanent ("immortal") spiritual body made of the substances of the Spiritual Sun. We can call this a mental body or a spiritual body. Either way, it means a human body made of organs and held together in a body that is made of spiritual substances from the Spiritual Sun.

Now why do we say that the Spiritual Sun is in the mental world of eternity? Here is the explanation.

Since God is the Divine Human Person in whom infinite things make one, God has a Rational Mind and therefore His infinite cognitive organ operates according to the order and laws of rationality (or truth), this being God's Own Nature or Being in relation to the created human race. Some people believe that to approach close to God we need to reflect deeply or to meditate, clearing the mind of worldly things, clearing the mind of everything in it, until a higher consciousness is reached, beyond human thinking, and this allows a feeling of "oneness" with the Divine, leading to ecstatic feelings and states. However, according to theistic psychology based on Sacred Scripture, Divine Truth is the same as Divine Rationality, so that to approach God we need to do it by elevating  our mind to higher and higher forms of rational understanding. We are closest to God when we can think and reason with celestial-rational correspondences of Sacred Scripture (layer 4C). The essence of being human is rationality.

But you need to realize that truth does not exist by itself, no more than sunlight can exist without heat within it that gives it energy and power to accomplish things. The operations of the cognitive organ cannot occur by themselves, no more than wood can be made to burn with a powerful flashlight. For light to exist, there must be heat in it. For spiritual light, which is truth, to enter and activate our cognitive organ at each layer, there must be spiritual heat simultaneously entering the affective organ at each layer. The affective (A) and the cognitive (C) must operate together if either is going to operate.

To be elevated in consciousness to the celestial-rational correspondences of Divine Truth (layer 4C) requires that we also have our affective organ (A) elevated at least above the natural level. This can only occur through our heavenly traits, when the enjoyment of our hellish traits has been withdrawn from our motivational system. Then our inherited and acquired hellish traits are gradually and progressively put to sleep by the Divine Psychologist. We are then able to enjoy our heavenly traits, and this love for them insures our existence in the heavenly layers (6, 5, 4) after resuscitation.

In the negative bias mode of thinking in science, called materialism or monism, it is denied that there is a dual universe without being able to provide a proof for this ("negative bias in science"). Hence there is no God, no eternity, no mental world. Just the brain and its electricity and chemistry. This cannot be proven, hence it is called a bias. In this mode of thinking, mental things like ideas or thoughts and dreams are nothing. They don't really exist -- except as electricity and chemistry. So if you still think this way (called "reductionism"), you will not understand theistic psychology at all.

So you need to switch to the positive bias in science, which is to accept the concepts introduced here as possibly true and scientific, but still remaining to be proven. This is called the positive bias mode of thinking in science because you are accepting that the Spiritual Sun might possibly exist even though no one can prove it by instruments or calculations. The point now is: What are the consequences and benefits of taking on the positive bias mode of thinking in science? You will be the judge of that as you continue your studies.

Now, since God is the Divine Human Person, He is in the human form. This means that God has a spiritual body like we do, that is a substantial mental body, and containing God's mental organs: affective organ (A), cognitive organ (C), sensorimotor organ (S), which includes face, hands, legs, torso, heart, lungs, brain, etc.. The only difference is that God's spiritual body is uncreate and infinite, while ours is created and finite. So God made us look like Him, male and female versions (see Part 2 for male and female mental anatomy). When God thinks in the cognitive organ, that thought is an actual construction made of rational substances called spiritual light.

This light now projects itself through the Spiritual Sun (layer 1) into the created universe and each object in it (layers 2 through 12). Thoughts are actual substances that flow out and into organs of reception (C), just as our physical eye is an organ of reception for physical light streaming into it from the sun millions of miles away. As this light strikes objects and then enters our physical eye, and then brain, our spiritual body then transforms the pattern of electro-chemical impulses in the brain cells into the familiar experiences we call a sensation. This familiar experience is not in the brain at all, but in the sensorimotor organ of the spiritual body in eternity that is tied to the physical brain by correspondence.

But once we "die," our spiritual body suddenly stops receiving information by correspondence from the physical body. Everything from earth, the physical world, the physical body, is now gone. Silent. We are now free from the shackles of the the time-space-matter world. You might think that now somehow you are more restricted living a life less interesting than what you had through the physical body. Right? Did you think that?

Well Swedenborg reports from direct observation that the opposite is the case. In our spiritual body, no longer attached to the physical world, we soar on the wings of the wind, like a dream world made for you. Except: there are others. Everyone who was tied to a physical body, and then lost the tie, is now in the world of eternity called the afterlife.

The mental world is much more real than the physical, as you know, when you have a nightmare or a sexual experience in a dream. When you awaken, you can still remember how vivid and intense and pure the experience was, whether heavenly or hellish. We need to ask what these dreams are they of.

Dreams are made of spiritual substances. Let us call this substance "rational ether." Think of it as the space or atmosphere that creates mental spaces when you think, imagine, or dream. What about the objects and the people in your dream? What are thy made of? You can't say that dreams are made of nothing, for this is illogical or reductionistic. The answer is: Dreams, thoughts, images, reasoning sequences, are all operations of the cognitive organ. This mental organ is made of spiritual substances from the Spiritual Sun. It is also activated by these substances as spiritual light from the Spiritual Sun streams into the mental organs (C) of every human being. This constant stream of spiritual light from the Spiritual Sun is responsible for our thoughts.

So our spiritual body and its mental organs are immersed in rational ether from the Spiritual Sun, and can see things that appear around, just as the physical eye can see physical objects from the light of the physical sun. But what are the spiritual objects we can see with the eyes of the spiritual body?

The objects in your dreams are spiritual objects, so we are already very familiar with spiritual objects. If you are dreaming of eating in a restaurant, the table, the food, and the waiter are all spiritual objects. This means that these objects are constructed out of the rational ether in the mental world created by the Spiritual Sun (see discussion above). Spiritual objects are produced by means of correspondences. Your feelings, intentions, and loves spontaneously and automatically produce these spiritual objects that make up the environment of your dream. You can understand this in a general way when you realize that dark moods and fears are feelings that produce scary spiritual objects and events, like falling off a mountain during a storm at night, or being attacked by a bear that suddenly appears out of nowhere, etc. Good moods and feelings can produce beautiful dreams of charming weather and friendly animals and people.

Quoting from a Web site explaining the concept of correspondences in Swedenborg's Writings:

A correspondence is a living link between one plane of life and another. It is the link between spiritual planes and natural planes, e.g. the feelings and the body. Smiling is a physical expression which corresponds to feelings of delight. Correspondences are so much part of our life we take them for granted. We often use them in speech. We use “seeing” to mean understanding something, or the “heart” when describing feelings, as in, “broken hearted”, “hard hearted”. The connection is more than words. We can actually feel pain in our hearts or our stomachs, when we are heart broken or fearful. Swedenborg shows how correspondences are the link between the distinct planes through which we receive our life from God. Through them God is in touch with His creation and sustains it.
http://www.spiritualwisdom.org.uk/correspondences-symbols.htm

There are two levels to the "plane of life." We are born into both levels -- into the the plane of life outside time-space known as eternity, and into the plane of life in time-space known as the natural world. The mental world is permanent since it exists in eternity since birth. In other words, human beings are born immortal beings. But the physical body is temporary since it exists in time since birth. God created these two planes of existence so that human beings could acquire a self and personality through interacting with the natural world in time-space. God could not create us directly into the world of eternity. The laws of life and existence in the world of eternity are quite different from what people know on the earths in the physical universe (see Section xx). This will be discussed further as we proceed in the study of theistic psychology.

It makes sense therefore to think that God had to create a method of correspondence between our immortal spiritual body and our temporary physical body.

And these cause-effect laws of interaction -- correspondences -- had to apply not just to the structure of human beings but to the environment of our physical body as well, hence to the entire planetary and galactic system of the natural world.

Hence the laws of correspondences are a blue print by which God creates and manages all the cause-effect events in the dual universe.

These laws were revealed to the earliest generations on this planet. When they started writing down these correspondences, science was born (see Section xx). The Science of Correspondences was known to the ancient civilizations (see Section xx). Subsequently they were lost and forgotten due to evolutionary events (see Section xx). Now for the first time in modern times, correspondences have been revealed once more in the Writings Sacred Scripture. The knowledge of these correspondences now allows us to see through the literal sense of Sacred Scripture, and extract from it the scientific revelations God wants humanity on earth to know.

 As the quote above indicates, correspondences have been preserved in the structure of natural languages. Here are common instances you will recognize:

It makes sense that our natural mind constructs these correspondential equivalents between the temporary world of our physical body and the eternal world of our mental body.

Linguists and philosophers study "figures of speech," also known as metaphor, simile, symbol, analogy, and so on (see Section xx). The basis for constructing these figures of speech are correspondences between the natural world of time and the spiritual world of eternity, also known to us as the mental world. What could be more familiar to you than eternity, since you are already so familiar with your own mental world. You did not know that your familiar everyday mental world is the world of eternity, the world of the afterlife, the world of your immortality!

The organs of the physical body are formed and shaped according to the organs in the spiritual body:

Here are a few examples from the tradition of theistic astrology or astronomica, contributed by David Chambers (see Section 6.12):

She is a hot head (Aries/Mars) She is reckless
He is stiff necked (Taurus/Venus dark side) He is stubborn
She is a chatterbox (Gemini/Mercury lower octave) She is communicative
He is crabby (Cancer/Moon) He is moody
She is lionhearted (Leo/Sun) She is courageous
He is a nit-picker (Virgo/Mercury higher octave) He is fastidious
She is a right madam (Libra/Venus light side) She is vain
He is too hot to trot (Scorpio/Pluto) He is passionate
She has a big heart (Sagittarius/Jupiter) She is generous
He is a tightwad (Capricorn/Saturn) He is frugal
She has got her head in the clouds (Aquarius/Uranus) She is absent minded
He is a slippery customer (Pisces/Neptune) He is elusive

All Sacred Scripture is composed of pure correspondences of Divine Speech and their representatives (see Section xx).

Divine Speech is the same as Divine Truth or Divine Rational Thinking. Also called spiritual light within which is spiritual heat (see Section xx).

When you arrive in the third heaven of your mind (layer 4) you will be able to see God as the Divine Human. Surrounding God the Divine Human you will see a bright aura called the Spiritual Sun (layer 1). From this Spiritual Sun stream forth spiritual light and spiritual heat in infinite variety. These two Divine Human substances are God Himself as He wills Himself to exist outside of Himself and in created eternity, as well as in the natural world of time through His Divine Physical Body that he acquired fro Himself in the Incarnation Event  (see Section xx). Spiritual light and heat are substances that create the world of eternity, which is the mental world of the human race, and they create the world of time, which are the materials of the earths in the natural world out of which our physical body is made.

So every physical stone or molecule or planet has a mental or spiritual infrastructure which creates it and maintains it in subsistence. See the simultaneous view of the layers in Part 1.

God establishes a chain of correspondences across the layers of creation. Creation and its continuous maintenance or re-creation, starts with Divine Speech, which is Divine Truth, which is the content of God's infinite cognitive organ streaming forth as spiritual light within, which is spiritual heat that issues from God's infinite affective organ. God's spiritual heat is called Divine Love or Divine Good. God's spiritual light is called Divine Truth or Divine Wisdom and Rationality.

1. Spiritual Sun -- spiritual light (Divine truth or rationality) and spiritual heat (Divine good or love)

2. Heaven of human internals

3. Soul

4. Celestial-rational layer (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor) (third heaven)

5. Spiritual-rational layer of our mind (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor) (second heaven)

6. Spiritual-natural layer of our mind (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor) (first heaven)

7. Natural-rational layer of our mind (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor)

8. Natural-sensual layer of our mind (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor)

9. Natural-corporeal layer of our mind (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor)

10. Spiritual body

11. Natural limbus

12. Physical body and planet

Try to memorize this list if you haven't already from the chart of layers in Part 1.

Note that God's infinite good and truth are spiritual or mental substances streaming out of the Spiritual Sun (layer 1). It is God's Own mental substances that are streaming out of Him, forming an aura called the Spiritual Sun. This is the first layer of the mental world of eternity. God is the First Cause,  creating all the lower layers through these substances within Himself. By causing these mental or spiritual substances (good and truth) to exist outside of Him, God starts His creation.

Note that creation must start outside of God. Creation cannot be inside God, since in that case there is not yet a creation. To create anything therefore, God must cause His Own mental substances to come out so that they exist outside of Himself. The first such an event is the Spiritual Sun or layer 1. Note that this First layer is not made of created substances. Infinite Divine Good or Love substance and infinite Divine Truth or Rationality substance have always existed in God and have no beginning. But all things that have a beginning are created. This is the definition given in Sacred Scripture of what is infinite.

Note that "infinite" does not mean without an end. It means without a beginning. Think of time or counting from 1 onward. The process of counting can go on endlessly, forever. But this this not make counting infinite because it always will have a beginning. Also, think of physical space as endless, limitless, going on without ever stopping. This does not make physical space infinite because it had a beginning at the creation of the physical world. So the only thing that can be infinite is that which does not have a beginning, always existed. This is God, including all the infinite uncreate substances in God that make a One as a Divine Human Person. God and His mental substances are the only infinite that exists. There cannot be two "infinites" for in that case neither would be infinite.

 The idea some people have that "God is the universe" is not a rational concept. I think it is easy for them to see this, but they say that it does not have to be rational, but is above the rational (e.g., beyond human understanding), and some say, below the rational (e.g., mystical). But in theistic psychology it is necessary to use only rational concepts, and only those that are extracted from Sacred Scripture. According to this source God is a Person and the source of all rationality, wisdom, or truth.

The two types of substances in God's Mind are infinite in variety and "quantity," though "quantity" is a concept that applies to physical things not mental. In the mental world we create any quantity we want and there is no limit as in the physical world. Be aware of our negative bias idea that because it's "only mental" it is not as real as physical money bills in the hand. This definition of reality only describes the physical world (layer 12) and corporeal mind (layer 9). Once you move upward across the layers from 9 to 4, things are becoming more real, more permanent and forever. In the spiritual mind our mental powers are truly awesome. Swedenborg saw magnificent palaces and architecture and art that cannot exist in the physical world. These were all created in an instant by the mental operations of the people in that state of mind. Mental substances are immortal and powerful, while things made of physical matter are inert, slow, and temporary.

God's mental substances, exiting outside of Himself through the Spiritual Sun, are powerful enough to create the layers of existence in the mental world of humanity, each person being immortal, never ending once born. Eternity is created by the substances of the Spiritual Sun. The substances of spiritual heat (= good or love) exist as God's infinite affective organ in which infinite loves and affections make a unit, an integral whole that is live or alive. Physical substance is not alive, but mental substance is alive. So our mind can have the constant experiencing of consciousness because the mental organs are constructed of live substances, namely, the mental substances of God in whom everything is live or alive. This aliveness is life itself and exists only in God and in the Spiritual Sun.

The life that we have as human beings is not our life but God's life in us through the substances of the Spiritual Sun. The substances of spiritual heat and spiritual light flow into every one of our mental layers, and as they are received by our affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor organs, these organs appear to be alive on their own. But they are not. We feel alive to ourselves because God's spiritual substances are operating in the organs and our conscious experiencing is the result of those operations. If that inflow of substances would cease, the organs would be inert, without life in them. So life is nothing but those substances from the Spiritual Sun inflowing and operating in our mental organs.

It is not simple to think of our sensations, thoughts, and feelings as substances, especially if these substances are called good or love, and truth or rationality. In our layer 8C (sensual mind) we cannot understand this because what is mental does not seem as real as what is physical. But in our interior-natural mind (layer 7C) we can think with rational concepts rather than with sensual concepts.

We can say therefore that God is in us, but it is not rational to say that God is part of us.

God's spiritual mental substances flowing into our mental organs allows our mind to react to the mental substances of God flowing in. We are not those substances, but we react to them. So we have nothing whatsoever of God that can be part of us, or ours. God's substances are the core of every created thing, as you can clearly see from the simultaneous view of the 12 layers.

You can clearly see that God through the Spiritual Sun is present as the inmost of anything created. Present -- but not "part of."

God in Himself prior to the Spiritual Sun is unknowable. God can be seen visually by those whose consciousness is at level 4 through the understanding of celestial-rational correspondences. Swedenborg and all those with whom he associated in the "third heaven" could visually observe with the eyes of their spiritual body, the substances of light from the Spiritual Sun entering their cognitive organ, and the substances of spiritual heat entering their affective organ. They had a living perception of it entering their mind and what effects it causes there in terms of their consequent sensations, thoughts and feelings. Every individual experienced this in a uniquely variable manner, and yet, they could each sense how the others experienced it, so that together as a group or society, they were able to have a more perfect love and understanding of God (see Section xx).

Through a more perfect understanding and love of God we can receive ever new and higher sensations, thoughts and feelings to endless eternity. This is called heaven (layers, 4, 5, 6).

These 12 layers of creation must be interconnected, or else God could not manage the whole as one immense rational system (see Section xx). The functional laws of interaction between the 12 layers are called the laws of correspondences. These layers are also called discrete degrees (see Section xx). Divine Speech is at level 1 and as it descends in the form of spiritual heat and light, it creates each subsequent layer below. The layers are connected by correspondence, which means cause-effect relations -- every detail at the lower layer is called the effect, and every corresponding detail at the next upper level, is called its cause.

Now look at the 12 layers again. Where in it would you place Sacred Scripture?

The answer is layer 12. Are you surprised? Remember that Sacred Scripture is a physical book or document which was caused by God to be written by an individual whose mind He prepared for it. The process was experienced by the prophet either as hearing words dictated by a "voice from heaven" or "an angel," or, by organizing the individual's mind to think in a certain way, which is then written down. Either way, what the individual writes down is God's Speech or God's Divine Truth or, what is the same, God's Rational Organ in which infinite truths and intelligences make one. Sacred Scripture is God's Word to humankind, the source of Divine Truth revealed to humankind. In Sacred Scripture infinite truths make one, that is, are integrated into rational series that comprise a whole. This whole is called heaven and it is the highest mental state in the mental world of the human race, therefore, of every individual human being (layers 4, 5, 6).

But this is only half of the process by which correspondences create the mental world of eternity and the physical world of time-space. You need to know the other half of the description.

The physical document called Sacred Scripture (layer 12) is caused by the natural mind (layers 7, 8, 9) of a particular individual with whom God initiates this process of writing down Divine Speech in a natural language. The content of our natural mind is cultural and social. Hence the content of Sacred Scripture is cultural and historical, reflecting the civilization and the geography of the individual engaged in this process with God. This historical and cultural content forms the basis of religion. This means that every religion has its own version of Sacred Scripture produced by an individual from that culture whom God chose and prepared for that purpose.

Thus far in theistic psychology the following collections of Sacred Scripture have been investigated:

• The Old Testament Sacred Scripture (Jewish religion) (see Section xx)

• The New Testament Sacred Scripture (Christian religion) (see Section xx)

• The Writings Sacred Scripture (New Church religion) (see Section xx)

• The Qu'ran Sacred Scripture (Islam religion) (see Section xx)

• The Sacred Texts of Hinduism and Buddhism (see Section xx)

Other versions of Sacred Scripture will be researched in the future.

Definition of Sacred Scripture :

Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech or Truth transformed by layers of correspondences, from the celestial-rational mind (third heaven -- layer4), to the spiritual-rational mind (second heaven -- layer 5), to the spiritual-natural mind (first heaven -- layer 6), and then, to the natural mind (layers 7, 8, 9), where we are conscious of the literal meaning of the printed sentences (layer 12).

Look at the layers again:

1. Spiritual Sun -- spiritual light (Divine truth or rationality) and spiritual heat (Divine good or love)

2. Heaven of human internals

3. Soul

4. Celestial-rational layer (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor) (third heaven)

5. Spiritual-rational layer of our mind (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor) (second heaven)

6. Spiritual-natural layer of our mind (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor) (first heaven)

7. Natural-rational layer of our mind (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor)

8. Natural-sensual layer of our mind (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor)

9. Natural-corporeal layer of our mind (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor)

10. Spiritual body

11. Natural limbus

12. Physical body and planet

Layer 1 is the source of the mental substances of Divine Speech  which is Proceeding outward into the created universe, or exteriorizing into creation. Layer 4 is the first Divine Proceeding that is actually knowable to humanity. Every individual has immortal mental layers 3 to 10. While we are still connected to the physical body (layer 12), we are conscious in the natural mind (layers 7, 8, 9). Following resuscitation, which occurs a few hours after the death of the physical body (layer 12), we are conscious in our spiritual mind (layers 6, 5, 4). Both spiritual (5) and celestial layers (4) are rational, but the celestial-rational (4) is higher than the spiritual-rational (5). The natural-rational mind (layer 7) in which we are conscious now on earth, is relatively lower still. In our spiritual mind our human potential is far greater than in our natural mind.

It is critical to realize that as the layers of correspondences descend or exteriorize from 1 to 12, the immediately preceding layer (called the cause) lodges itself a discrete degree within the next lower layer (called the effect). So layer 3 (soul) is a discrete degree within layer 4 (celestial mind), which is within layer 5 (spiritual mind), which is within layer 6 (spiritual-natural mind), which is within layer 7 (natural-rational mind). So by the time you are reading a book of Sacred Scripture here on earth (layer 12) you are looking at the literal content in a natural language and culture that has been transformed several times by correspondences. The literal verses of Sacred Scripture here on earth (layer 12) contain within them prior layers of correspondences. Swedenborg demonstrated in detail how these hidden layers can be extracted from the literal sense by means of the knowledge of correspondences. (see Section xx).

The content of Divine Speech changes from layer to layer, but all the layers remain in correspondence with each other in an unbroken rational series.

The closest we can get to the content of Divine Truth is the state of our heaven in the celestial mind (layer 4). This mental state can be reached following the mental state in which we are resuscitated. When we are in our "celestial" mental state, we can read the version of Sacred Scripture that the communities and societies of  the third heaven possess, as witnessed many times by Swedenborg over the course of 27 years of dual citizenship, being simultaneously conscious in both his natural mind and his spiritual mind (see Section xx). Swedenborg was able to observe how the content of Sacred Scripture actually varied as he was allowed to travel in consciousness across all the layers of the human mental world in eternity (layers 4 , 5, 6) (see Section xx).

This experimental situation allowed Swedenborg to compare the content of Sacred Scripture across the layers of the human mind as Divine Speech descends across the layers by correspondences. By comparing the specific changes in meaning of particular verses of Sacred Scripture between one layer of the mental world and another, Swedenborg was able to give an empirical demonstration and analysis of the Old and New Testament Sacred Scriptures in terms of correspondences (see Section xx). This has never happened before in the entire extensive literature of Bible interpretation. The reason is that no one since the spiritual race began, has had access to correspondences until they were observed by Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772).

 Religions are based on the literal sense of the Sacred Scripture they were given by God when each religion was founded. Since the literal sense is a historical and cultural document, each religion has its own history and culture. Hence religions are contrastive to each other, just like one language contrasts with all other languages. Religions do not agree with each other because the literal sense of their different Sacred Scripture varies and does not agree with the literal sense of other Sacred Scripture.

Theistic psychology is not trying to conjoin religions or make them fit together. Theistic psychology is not based on the literal sense of Sacred Scripture. Hence, theistic psychology is not directly relevant to religion and does not in any way affect religions.

However, we know from the Writings Sacred Scripture that all Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech hidden across layers of correspondences.

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

AC 5287. In the other life, especially in the heavens, all thought, and hence all speech, are carried on by means of what is abstracted from persons, and therefore thought and speech there are universal, and are relatively without limit; for so far as thought and speech are determined to persons and their specific qualities, and to names, and also to words, so far they become less universal, and are determined to the actual thing, and there abide. On the other hand, insofar as they are not determined to persons and what is connected with them, but to realities abstracted from them, so far they are determined away from the actual thing, and are extended beyond self, and the mental view becomes higher and consequently more universal.

[2] This is very apparent from man's thought, which insofar as it regards the words of one speaking, so far it does not regard his meaning; and which insofar as it regards the particular things of the memory, and dwells on them, so far it does not perceive the nature of the real things; and, still more important, insofar as it regards itself in everything, so far it narrows the thoughts and removes itself from viewing a subject in a universal manner. Hence it is that in proportion as anyone loves himself more than others, in the same proportion he is less wise. From this it is now plain why things abstracted from persons are signified in the internal sense by the things which in the sense of the letter are determined to persons (see also n. 5225). (AC 5287)

1.1.4.3.2.2    Drinking Blood and Other Examples of Correspondences in Sacred Scripture

Here is an example from the New Testament Sacred Scripture:

Except ye shall eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you (John 6:53).

What does this mean? The Incarnated Divine Human is speaking here, referring to Himself as "the Son of man," and commanding people to eat His flesh and drink His blood. He was not encouraging cannibalism! Obviously the literal contains a spiritual meaning that is hidden from the surface and must be figured out rationally by the reader. The universal explanation over the past two thousand years has been that Jesus is talking symbolically. Here is one example I found on the Web:

From: Bible Tools. Commentaries on John 6:53
http://bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Bible.show/sVerseID/26311/eVerseID/26315
Jesus Christ explains that both the eating of His flesh and the drinking of His blood are required if we are to have eternal life. As we symbolically drink His blood when we partake of the wine at Passover, we acknowledge our individual part in the shedding of His blood, and reconciliation with God occurs. But the process does not stop here. Once we are reconciled, we must also feed on His flesh, His words, to gain eternal life. Still, this is not enough—we must continually repeat this process as long as we live.

In other words people "symbolically drink His blood" when they celebrate the death on the cross of the Incarnated God who spilled His blood for the sake of humanity, that people may be able to live in the heavens of their mental eternity, rather than their hells. This is called "salvation" of the human race. According to the literal meaning of the New Testament Sacred Scripture the Incarnated God (see Section xx) dying on the cross is to be compared with the immolation or sacrifice of animals commanded by God in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture as a religious practice instituted with priests. The sins of the people were thus "laid upon the animals" as it were, like the "sacrificial lamb," or other animals including oxen, goats, pigeons, etc. The priests were commanded to sprinkle some of the blood of the sacrificed animals all around the place, and other such ceremonies, as described and commanded in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture. One of these ceremonies included the ritual eating of designated portions of the flesh of the sacrificed animals (e.g., at the "Passover meal"). However it was strictly forbidden for the people or the priests to drink any blood.

It is in this religious, national, cultural, and historical context that God incarnated as a Divine Human in a particular country in the Middle East more than two thousand years ago, offering Himself as the ultimate blood sacrifice for the sins of all humanity, since the former sacrifices of animals ceased to be effective ritual methods when people began to misuse them for insincere and commercial purposes. Such rituals were endowed with Divine power as long as they were used sincerely, but as soon as they became merely the object of religious politics and commercialism, their Divine effectiveness ceased. Now humanity had no Divinely prescribed method for saving them from these sins, which meant, going into the hells of eternity.

In the context of theistic psychology the idea of "sin" is related to the evil traits in our inherited character that we are unwilling to change because we love them and enjoy them. As a result our spiritual mind is closed and cannot be developed while we are still living in this life on earth. When we die and are resuscitated we do not have a sufficiently functional spiritual mind and are forced to function with our interior-natural mind (layer 7). This mind when it is not regenerated contains all the inherited and acquired evils and enjoyments accumulated during our lifetime on earth in the natural mind. The consequence is that we become spiritually insane and spend our eternity in delusional and beastly mental states called "hell." The animal sacrifices were a way that God had provided in ancient times for the removal of these "sins" by giving "sinners" the opportunity to focus on their injurious behaviors and repent, that is, make a resolution not to continue them. When people did this sincerely, the Divine Psychologist was able to turn off their inherited traits and provide heavenly traits. But when it was done insincerely, just using the ritual to receive "forgiveness," not really repenting, then the Divine Psychologist was unable to "save" them from their fate in hell.

Two thousand years ago God had to introduce or create a totally new method for saving people from heading towards the hells in their minds. The Incarnation (or physical birth) of God as a human being on this earth and a citizen of a particular country, was God's method of providing new ways of avoiding the hells after our resuscitation. This new method involved the creation of a new mental organ in our conscious natural mind (layer 7) (see Section xx). This organ is called the interior-natural mind (layer 7). Every human being now possesses such an organ from birth. In order to activate this organ the individual must study theistic psychology in one form or another -- from Sacred Scripture or from instruction. 

This interior-natural layer is also called the natural-rational mind. It is the direct rational consciousness of God as explained in this Volume. This conscious rational proof in our mind of God's existence and presence in our mind, was not possible prior to the Incarnation Event, prior to the evolution of the new interior-natural mind. As a result people had needed physical proof of God's existence and presence in layers 12, 9, and 8). This was provided through sacrifices, miracles, voices, interventions, visions, angels, prophets, and other experiences of sensuous spirituality (layers 9 and 8), as this was provided through the literal sense of Sacred Scripture. When sensuous spirituality ceased to be Divinely effective due to mental corruption and misuse, the new approach of rational spirituality began (also called "Holy Spirit"). In order to promote this approach God had to reveal the existence of the Science of Correspondences that had lain hidden in the spiritual sense of Sacred Scripture. The study of Theistic Psychology represents the full maturation of the new rational approach God has created for humanity.

To allow the foundation of theistic psychology as a universal science it was necessary for God to promote the development of scientific thinking, method, and knowledge so that the human race on this earth could become a modern civilization and learn scientific ideas in their education and schooling. Such a modern scientifically educated mind became possible when Swedenborg was born at the end of the 17th century when modern science and public science education became a historical reality.

To drink God's blood as a representative ritual or symbol of His Self-sacrifice on the cross, is a literal meaning even if it is called symbolic. The symbolic meaning still retains the tradition of blood sacrifice as a religious method for having one's sins forgiven or wiped away, as if the sins had never been committed. You can see that the symbolic meaning is just as natural as the literal meaning (both in layer 8). Both meanings are in the sensual and corporeal mind (layers 8, 9) and have to do with the physical sensual world and how things are done in the physical world, namely, sacrificing (killing) animals, sprinkling blood, the Incarnated God nailed to the cross as a "sacrificial Lamb," and the other historical and scientific details in the literal of the New Testament Sacred Scripture.

Contrast this sensual-corporeal approach (layers 8, 9) with the correspondential spiritual meaning (layer 7) given in the Writings Sacred Scripture as it discusses this New Testament passage:

LORD 27. That the Lord [= the Incarnated Divine Human] is called "the Son of man" when Redemption, Salvation, Reformation, and Regeneration are treated of, is evident from these passages: [from the New Testament Sacred Scripture]

The Son of man came to give His life a redemption for many (Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:5).
The Son of man is come to save, and not to destroy (Matt. 18:11; Luke 9:56).
The Son of man is come to seek and save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
The Son of man is come that the world through Him may be saved (John 3:17).
He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man (Matt. 13:37).

Redemption and salvation are here treated of, and as the Lord effects these by means of the Word, He here calls Himself "the Son of man." The Lord says,

That the Son of man has power to forgive sins (Mark 2:10; Luke 5:24) (that is, to save).

And also,

That He is the Lord of the Sabbath, because He is the Son of man (Matt. 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5)

(i.e. because He is the Word, [= the meaning of Sacred Scripture in the natural mind]
which He is Himself then teaching). [= He is the Divine Psychologist ("Holy Spirit") in the conscious natural mind of every human being]

He says, further, in John:

Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you (John 6:27).

By "meat" is meant all truth and good of doctrine from the Word [=theistic psychology], thus from the Lord; and this is also meant there by the manna, and by the bread which came down from heaven; and also by the following in the same chapter:

Except ye shall eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you (John 6:53).

"Flesh," or "bread," is the good of love from the Word; "blood," or "wine," is the good of faith from the Word, both from the Lord.  (LORD 27)

You will note that the Writings Sacred Scripture present the correspondential sense of the New Testament Sacred Scripture, not the symbolic meaning. Thousands of proposals have been advanced regarding the meaning of obscure Bible passages, all centering their focus on the symbolic interpretation. The fact is that any person who believes in God and acknowledges the Bible as the Word of God will automatically render a symbolic interpretation the literal sentences, rather than imagine such awful things about what God ordered people to do.

Besides commanding people to "drink blood," God has talked about Himself in terms that cannot be considered good or Divine. The Old Testament Sacred Scripture frequently describes God's disgusted feeling with His "chosen people" whom He was guiding to the good life. But when they disobeyed His commandments repeatedly God throws a fit of rage and cries out how He hates His people, how He regrets creating them, how He is going to take vengeance on them, and not only on them but on their children, grand children, and subsequent generations. This kind of description of God cannot possibly be taken literally if one defines God as omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Divine Love and Mercy, as He is also described repeatedly in Sacred Scripture.

Further, when He forgave His chosen people and took their children into the "Promised Land" that He gave to their ancestors, He commanded them to exterminate the inhabitants that already lived in that land. bade them to intermarry or even use their animals. He ordered them to kill men, women, children, animals, and to burn everything down, before they would be allowed to build their own cities. The mind of the average person today recoils at these horrendous things Sacred Scripture says about God. So it is obvious that we must give a symbolic interpretation, not a literal one. And many have been presented. In fact millions of people who hear Christian sermons every Sunday are presented with symbolic interpretations of the Bible passages that constitute the Lesson for that week.

Remember that symbolic interpretations of the Bible passages are mental operations of reasoning and thinking in layer 8, which is the exterior-natural mind, also called the sensual mind or scientific mind. This is below layer 7, the interior-natural mind, also called the rational mind. We need to remember that "rational" in theistic psychology refers to thinking based on spiritual truths from the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture.

According to this definition nothing spiritually rational can be thought of below layer 7, which is the layer that is in between the spiritual world of eternity and the physical world of time-place. The content and basis of thinking in the exterior-natural mind (layer 8) is materialistic by necessity since it is in the negative bias mode, which denies the existence of something that is not material in time and place. For example, when people who believe in "God's Word" think about the afterlife, since this is promised there, they think of a heaven on earth, and a resurrection of their physical body on earth, or some other planet. They do not think of the afterlife as the mental world of eternity. If Sacred Scripture were to say this and other such things as you are studying in theistic psychology, few people would be left who would be willing to be good and obey God's commandments. This is because they are thinking of the mental world of eternity idea as worthless to them. In their materialistic thinking of God they can only imagine a God who rewards you with physical goods, not just mental.

It's only when we start thinking in layer 7 that we can begin to understand substantive dualism, dual citizenship, and the resuscitation of the spiritual mind in the mental world of eternity. We can then understand rationally (not materialistically) that all our feelings, thoughts, and sensations are real in their own world, that these are never here in the physical world of the brain or the skin, which only form a covering for them (layers 11, 12). Once covering disintegrates in the dying process (layer 12) while everything else remains. Understanding these ideas requires that people inquire into the meaning of those Bible passages at a spiritual level, and this is interior or higher (layer 7) to the exterior (layer 8, materialistic spirituality). 

Symbolic interpretation is necessary for the literal of Sacred Scripture, but there are higher layers to be explored and received from God. This higher layer is the understanding of Sacred Scripture in terms of correspondences. This new understanding is progressive, starting with spiritual-natural correspondences (layer 6C), continuing with spiritual-rational correspondences (layer 5C), and finally with celestial-rational correspondences (layer 4C). Since these layers of our mind remain unconscious until our resuscitation, God supplies us with a conscious interior-natural mind that is capable of representing to itself all the layers above. Even though these are only representations of the actual higher correspondences in our upper layers, they are endowed by God with the power to connect with those layers. The more we study and develop our rational understanding of higher order correspondences in Sacred Scripture, the more these higher layers of our mind can develop. This not only insures a life of heaven in eternity, but we derive the benefits immediately in the conscious natural mind.

But there is one hitch to this wonderful cognitive ability in our conscious interior-natural mind. We construct invalid or corrupted representations, thus useless for development, unless we are engaged in spiritual combat in our regeneration. The degree of our regeneration imposes a limit on the degree of our understanding. God has built into this a growth mechanism that protects us from spiritual catastrophe. The Divine Psychologist allows us to understand only those correspondences that we are not going to misuse and corrupt for hellish purposes.

I have noticed in my years of regeneration and study of Sacred Scripture that the correspondences I understand in one year deepen in subsequent years. Even when I reread what I have written in the early days of constructing theistic psychology, I get new, higher meaning out of it. Expressions and sentences are such wonderful vehicles that they can contain an endless series of higher meanings to be discovered gradually. Consider how correspondences work by thinking of a some examples. You will discover that correspondences is a natural way of thinking for us because we normally describe mental things by physical things, and we do this in our daily thinking and speaking.

The correspondential sense of the physical activity "to eat" (layer 12) is the mental activity of "to appropriate as our own." "To drink" has a similar correspondential sense as "to eat" or "to ingest." A physical act "to eat" or "to drink" corresponds to the mental act of "to appropriate" or "to incorporate the information." "Flesh" in the physical world corresponds to "good" or "love" in the mental world. "Blood" or "wine" correspond to spiritual truths (in layers 7, 6, 5, 4, the interior layers), while "water" corresponds to natural truths (in layer 8, the exterior sensual-scientific mind).

 In other words, physical flesh or bread offered in a sacrifice to God represents the "good of love," which in the mental world is the substance of spiritual heat that streams out of the Spiritual Sun, and thence into the mind of every human being (see Section xx). Similarly, physical blood or wine in a sacrifice to God represents the "good of truth" (or rational faith). The physical act of eating or drinking represents the process of "appropriation" by which the good of love (received in our affective organ, A) is conjoined to the good of truth received (in our cognitive organ, C) in our natural mind throughout its layers. This only occurs during regeneration. And so Sacred Scripture is telling us that unless we undergo regeneration ("eating flesh and drinking blood") we cannot stop being hellish.

Note that this conclusion cannot be reached merely from the symbolic meaning of the expressions. Knowledge of correspondences must be applied.

The "truths in Sacred Scripture" are nothing but spiritual light streaming from the Spiritual Sun into our cognitive organ. Spiritual heat as a substance is called "good" or "love" when it is received by the affective organ of human beings. Spiritual light as a substance is called "truth" or "wisdom" or "rationality" when it inflows into the cognitive organ. Hence "to eat the flesh or meat of the Son of man," i.e., the "Divine Human," has nothing to do with the physical act of eating from the sacrifices of animals, which is its symbolic meaning. The correspondential meaning  of eating flesh or meat is to appropriate the spiritual heat from the Divine Human, and this means to allow love into our heart or motivational and behavioral intentions. Similarly, the correspondential meaning of drinking blood or wine is to appropriate the spiritual light from the Divine Psychologist, and this means to allow spiritual truth from Sacred Scripture in our mind or thinking. This we do first in reformation, then in regeneration (see Section xx).

The correspondential sense of "blood" is "spiritual light" or spiritual truth (rational faith), which only God can originate, coming from the Spiritual Sun. People cannot construct or think any spiritual truths in the exterior-natural layer of the mind (8), where only natural truths can operate. This is why that layer is called the sensual or scientific mind, meaning that all its contents is based on sensory input through the physical body, leading the negative bias in science and materialism in everyday thinking and reasoning. Materialism either opposes the idea of God or turns it into a materialistic concept (anti-dualism, anti-eternity, anti-spiritual mind).

Spiritual truths involve concepts that describe the reality of the mental world of eternity, and since no one has conscious access to that world until resuscitation, it is clear that these facts about our life in eternity must be revealed through Sacred Scripture. A theistic science could not make its appearance until modern civilization began in the 18th century, which is when the Writings of Swedenborg were published (see Section xx). There was no use making these scientific revelations to humanity until people had enough of a rational outlook to be able to adopt the positive bias in science. Rational proof of God can only be given in rational consciousness, not sensuous consciousness.

Once the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture was revealed, along with its scientific concepts and principles (see Section xx), it became possible for scientific thinking to access the empirical facts about the mental world of eternity, which is our afterlife of immortality. The physical matter of blood corresponds to the mental substance of spiritual truth received in the cognitive organ (layer 7C) as spiritual light substance streaming in from the Spiritual Sun, both directly into layer 7C and indirectly through the upper layers that we share with those who are already in eternity (see "Vertical Community" in Section xx). Hence, to "drink the blood of the Son of man" has nothing to do with drinking or with sacrifices (as in their literal and symbolic meaning). It has to do with appropriating spiritual-rational information to one's conscious natural mind (7C), and hence to make spiritual truths part of our thinking in daily life and in science (layer 8C). This is what God is telling us when we see in the literal of Sacred Scripture the commandment to "drink His blood and eat His flesh."

Now consider the following illustrations from the Old Testament Sacred Scripture as discussed in the Writings Sacred Scripture. It proves that "flesh" and "blood" are used as correspondences for spiritual "good" and "truth" throughout the Old Testament Sacred Scripture as well, not just in that passage. This is important because it proves that we are not just making an arbitrary interpretation of that one passage.

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

AC 3813. As regards "flesh," in the supreme sense it signifies the own of the Lord's Divine Human [= His affective organ], which is Divine good [ = spiritual heat ], and in the relative sense it signifies the own of man's will [ = affective organ ] made alive by the own of the Divine Human, that is, by His Divine good
[ = when we are resuscitated and enter our heavenly layer, our feelings are personal adaptations of God's feelings in each of us ].

This own is what is called the heavenly own [ = our personality in layers 6, 5, 4 ], which in itself is the Lord's alone appropriated to those who are in good, and thence in truth [ = our thoughts and feelings are personal adaptations to God's thoughts and feelings ]. Such an own have the angels who are in the heavens [= our mental states in layers 6, 5, 4 ], and men who as to their interiors or as to the spirit are in the Lord's kingdom [= when we are regenerating our inherited character through the truths in our conscious natural mind ]. But in the opposite sense, "flesh" signifies the own of man's will, which in itself is nothing but evil [ = from inheritance ], and not being vivified by the Lord is called "dead," and thus the man himself is said to be dead [= prior to regeneration we have our inherited character which is connected to the hells in our mind. To be in hell is called to be dead.]  (...)

[3] The same was represented in the Jewish Church [= the literal sense of the Old Testament Sacred Scripture ] by the ordinance that Aaron, his sons, and they who sacrificed, and others who were clean, might eat the flesh of the sacrifices, and that this was holy (Exod. 12:7-9; 29:30-34; Lev. 7:15-21; 8:31; Deut. 12:27; 16:4). If therefore an unclean person ate of that flesh, he was to be cut off from his people (Lev. 7:21). (That these sacrifices were called "bread," may be seen above, n. 2165.) That "flesh" was called the "flesh of holiness" (Jer. 11:15; Haggai 2:12), and the "flesh of the offering which was on the tables in the Lord's kingdom," see Ezek. 40:43, where the new temple is described, by which there is evidently signified the worship of the Lord in His kingdom. (...)

[5] (...) They who know the internal sense, know that they shall come into the other life with a body, but a purer one [ = spiritual body, layer 10 ]; for in the other life there are purer bodies [ = not made of physical matter but of immortal substances ]; for they [ = once we are resuscitated in the spiritual body ] see each other, converse together, and enjoy every sense as in the present body, but in a more exquisite degree. The body [ = physical body, layer 12 ] which man carries about here on earth is for uses on earth, and therefore consists of bones and flesh [ = from physical matter ] ; and the body which the spirit carries about in the other life is designed for uses in that life, and does not consist of bones and flesh, but of things which correspond to them [ =  bones and flesh from spiritual substances ] (n. 3726).

[6] That in the opposite sense "flesh" signifies the own of man's will, which in itself is nothing but evil, is evident from the following passages. In Isaiah:

They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm (Isa. 9:20).
I will feed their oppressors with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with new wine (Isa. 49:26).

In Jeremiah:

I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his companion (Jer. 19:9).

In Zechariah:

Let those who are left eat everyone the flesh of another (Zech. 11:9).
In Moses:
I will chastise you seven* times for your sins; and ye shall eat the flesh of your sons; and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat (Lev. 26:28-29).

The own of man's will, that is, the nature of man, is thus described, for this is nothing else than evil and the derivative falsity; thus is hatred against truths and goods, which is signified by "eating the flesh of his arm, the flesh of sons and daughters, and the flesh of a companion."

[7] In John: [New Testament Sacred Scripture]

I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a great voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together to the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all both free and bond, both small and great (Rev. 19:17-18; Ezek. 39:17-20);

that here by the "flesh of kings, of captains, of mighty men, of horses and of those that sit upon them, of all, both free and bond," are not signified such things as these, must be evident to everyone; thus that by "flesh" are signified other things which have hitherto been unknown. That evils which are from falsities, and evils from which are falsities, both from the own of man's will, are signified, is manifest from the several expressions.

[8] As in the internal sense the falsity which results from the own of man's understanding is "blood"; and as the evil which results from the own of his will is "flesh," therefore the Lord speaks as follows concerning the man who is to be regenerated:

As many as received, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe in His name; who were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13). [New Testament Sacred Scripture]

Hence it is that by "flesh" in general is meant every man (see n. 574, 1050); for whether you say man, or man's own, it is the same thing. (...)  (AC 3813)

You can see from these illustrations that correspondences are universal and fixed by creation. They do not depend on subjective or personal interpretation, as with the symbolic meaning or interpretations that various scholars have offered for these strange passages. Consequently correspondences do not change. They are the same regardless who the prophet is because they don't depend on the prophet's understanding or thinking.

The prophets who wrote pieces of Sacred Scripture received the words they wrote down purely by inspiration. They did not know what the words meant or even that they were correspondences. Nor were they familiar with what other prophets had written earlier or subsequently. Hence the fact that all these writers over several centuries independently wrote by the same correspondences, constitutes scientific proof that Sacred Scripture is Divine Speech laid down in correspondences (see Section xx). Try if you can to think of another explanation for this agreement in correspondences.

Further, correspondences are not symbolic or figurative expressions. Correspondences are laws between cause and effect. Every mental state or property has a correspondence with some specific property of a physical object or event. The mental property is the cause while the physical property or event is the effect.

With this principle you can see how Sacred Scripture contains a literal and symbolic meaning on the surface, and a spiritual or correspondential meaning hidden in its deeper layers of meaning. These hidden layers discuss a different topic than the surface layers. As indicated above in the illustrations, the surface literal meaning may be discussing sacrifices, blood, rituals, and eating flesh, while the deeper spiritual layers are discussing theistic psychology, the anatomy of the mind, character reformation, life in heaven and hell, etc. Clearly there is no hint from the natural world surface topics what are the mental eternity topics that lay hidden within. Until the laws of correspondences were revealed in the Writings Sacred Scripture in the 18th century, scholars could only speculate and hypothesize and make wild guesses as to the meaning or message in the visionary scenes described in the Old and New Testament Sacred Scriptures. It is the same with other Sacred Scriptures.

This speculative or symbolic approach is continuing today since there is not yet an interest or knowledge in the Writings of Swedenborg. Hence authors today continue to publish dozens of new books every year giving their latest theories of what the last book of the Bible means. This Book of Sacred Scripture is called The Book of Revelation and also The Apocalypse. If you google these titles you will see the amazing frenzy of intellectual activity devoted to trying to penetrate this topic.  It appears from the literal meaning and the symbolic meaning that John's Book of Revelation in the Bible is talking about the "end of times." This is the theory that the physical world will end sooner or later because that's what the Book of Revelation seems to say. Then, after the predetermined time, the physical world is recreated, but this time without the blemishes. This idea is also supported by several passages in the New Testament and Old Testament Sacred Scriptures that appear to discusses the end of times (destruction and recreation of the physical world). You can research all this very easily on the Web with google. After that you will have more of a context to contrast with theistic psychology.

All this shows definitively that no one can come up with correspondences on their own and give a coherent rational account of the Book of Revelation, as well as hundreds of other visionary passages in the Old and New Testament Sacred Scriptures. Swedenborg made a careful study of these passages and compared them to the wording of Sacred Scripture that he found in the spiritual layer (5) of the mental world, and also above that, in the celestial layer (4). If you would be able to become conscious in your spiritual mind right now, you too would be able to make that comparison, as long as you retained your conscious awareness in the natural mind, as happened to Swedenborg. But without this simultaneous dual consciousness it would not be possible to empirically discover correspondences.

For instance, Swedenborg was surprised at first to discover that people who are already conscious in their celestial layer (4) of the mind in eternity -- he called them "angels" -- are far more intelligent than we are here in our natural mind, yet they too did not know that their Sacred Scripture was written in correspondences (celestial-rational). This is because the natural mind, with all its memories of Sacred Scripture and etc., becomes unconscious when we complete the resuscitation process at our second death and enter the celestial layer of immortal conjugial life (see Section xx).

When we read Sacred Scripture in our interior-natural mind (layer 7) the meanings we are conscious of are totally different in content from the meaning of Sacred Scripture in our exterior-natural mind (layer 8). The difference is as we have discussed above, namely, that all references and topics to names of places, natural objects, numbers, natural ideas about countries, government, kings, etc., do not appear at all in the correspondential sense. Instead, their correspondences appear. Instead of "blood" or "wine" there appears "truths" of different kind, and instead of the number "10" there appears the word "remains" which refers to the heavenly mental states in our life on earth that the Divine Psychologist stores up for us to enjoy in our heavenly immortality (layers 4, 5, 6)  (see Section xx). Instead of the names of places on this earth like "Jerusalem" or "Egypt" or "Syria" there appear references to the mental states to which these names correspond, e.g., our principles of life based on Sacred Scripture ("Jerusalem"), our materialistic thinking and negative bias approach in science ("Egypt"), or positive bias approach applied to Sacred Scripture ("Syria").

You can see why no one over the centuries could come up with these correspondences on their own, especially since they don't know the details of the mental world.

It is revealed in the Writings Sacred Scripture that the names of places mentioned in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture were given to those places by a more ancient generation that inhabited that portion of the Middle East. This ancient civilization still had left over knowledge of correspondences and they assigned names to geographic places according to natural representatives to mental correspondences. As a result, when the Old Testament prophets wrote about the events of the day in relation to God, they mentioned those names of places where the historical events took place. This is how those names became part of Sacred Scripture, and by Divine foresight and management, the events and the places where they took place, corresponded to spiritual information. In this way there was an unbroken rational series in the correspondential sense of the narrative of Sacred Scripture. The organized and integrated knowledge of these rational series is what we call today "theistic psychology."

Another amazing aspect to correspondences is that they give a scientifically powerful description of mental states, and this information has been sought after since the beginning of literature and science. Think about a dictionary. It's an alphabetical listing with definitions and examples of the various mental compartments we have when we are cultured and educated. What's the difference between saying "I prefer to take this one." and "I'll take this one." They are close or synonymous, and yet there is a difference. Try to get a sense of the difference. These two sentences refer to two different mental states. The dictionary defines the words and expressions, which are nothing but references to mental states (e.g., "I am angry" vs. "I am content," or "I don't want to eat now." vs. "I'm pretending to eat."). These physical actions are expressions for mental states and when people speak this way they are interested in the mental states or meaning of what's being said.

Think of a Thesaurus. It too is an arrangement of words and expressions, but instead of an alphabetical arrangement it is hierarchical, made of categories within categories so that all the words in a language belong to some category. What are these categories? They are references to mental states. So the Thesaurus is a map of our cognitive organ where all these mental distinctions are constructed. The branch of the science of linguistics called semantics consists of theories and observations about how meanings are constructed and arranged in the cognitive organ of our natural mind. Now we know that this arrangement of mental operations in our natural mind (layers 7, 8) is a correspondence of the mental operations in our spiritual mind (layers 6, 5), and this in turn is an arrangement by correspondence in our celestial mind (layer 4), and this in turn is an arrangement by correspondence caused by the arrangement in God's Cognitive Organ, as expressed through the Spiritual Sun (layer 1) (see Section xx).

From this you can see that God creates and manages all details of the dual universe by means of a top down series of correspondences (layers 1 through 12). This is God's way of proceeding by rational science. Correspondences must be in Sacred Scripture because the physical book of Sacred Scripture and its meaning in the natural mind are both effects produced by correspondence.

You can also now see this amazing thing: that the knowledge of correspondences gives you power that you don't have without it.

Note: The topic of correspondences in Sacred Scripture continues in Section 1.8.8.1. 

1.1.4.3.2.3    Metaphors, Symbolism, Simile, Figurative Speech -- Are Not Correspondences

Metaphoric language or figurative speech is to use physical objects or properties to describe other physical objects and properties. For example, a famous metaphor that appears in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is "Juliet is the sun." Most people translate this as "Juliet is like the sun." Explanations given include the idea that to her lover, the young woman's face appears bright from love and shines like the sun. One physical object (her face) is described through another physical object (the sun). In the expression "It's raining cats and dogs" heavy rain is likened to cats and dogs falling from the sky. Here is one explanation I found for this expression:

The most favoured one in the references I have found is mythological. It seems that cats were at one time thought to have influence over storms, especially by sailors, and that dogs were symbols of storms, often accompanying images and descriptions of the Norse storm god Odin. So when some particularly violent tempest appeared, people suggested it was caused by cats (bringing the rain) and dogs (the wind).
Michael Quinion. World Wide Words at:  http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-rai1.htm

Notice that these descriptions discuss how one physical thing (heavy storm) is related to another physical thing (cats and dogs). Here are some more examples, as the subject is presented to teachers:

From: http://specialed.about.com/od/literacy/a/figurative.htm 

Figurative Speech/Language comes in many forms:

Simile (Comparisons often with as or like): As smooth as silk, as fast as the wind.
Metaphor (Implicit comparison without like or as)): You're such an airhead. It's bursting
                 with flavor.
Hyperbole (Exaggerating a statement) In order to get my assignment done, I'll have to  
                burn the midnight oil.
Personification (Giving something a human quality) The sun smiled down on me...The
                 leaves danced in the wind.

Figures of Speech Phrases:

At the drop of a hat.
Axe to grind.
Back to square one.
Bells and whistles.
Bed of roses.
Burn the midnight oil.
Clean sweep.
Chew the fat.
Cold feet.
Coast is clear.
Down in the dumps.
Ears are burning.
Forty winks.
Full of beans. Give me a break.
Give my right arm.
In a nutshell/pickle.
In the bag.
It's greek to me.
Final straw.
Let the cat out of the bag.
Long shot.
Mum's the word.
On the ball.
Out on a limb.
Pass the buck.
Pay through the nose.
Read between the lines.
Saved by the bell.
Spill the beans.
Take a rain check.
Through the grapevine.
True colors.
Under the weather.
Up my sleeve.
Upset the apple cart.
Walking on eggshells.

Figurative VS Literal Language From Sue Watson at:
http://specialed.about.com/od/literacy/a/figurative.htm

Now you can see from all this that figurative speech is not correspondence. For instance, the last entry above, Walking on eggshells, relates two physical things: (1) how we walk normally, and (2) how we walk when we are walking on egg shells and don't' want to break them. These two physical things give no clue to what people mean when they use this figure of speech. It takes awhile for children to learn figures of speech like this one. People use it to mean that they have to be very careful at what they are doing so they don't disturb or offend someone who is sensitive. Another expression above, Under the weather, is used to mean that we are sick. The expression Pass the buck, is used by people in the sense of not taking responsibility for something when it appears that they should.

Now let's consider some correspondences from Sacred Scripture. Wherever "water" is mentioned in some form -- e.g., ocean, spring rain, river, storm, flood, well, fountain -- the spiritual layer mentions some operation in the cognitive organ -- e.g., truth, intelligence, wisdom, doctrine, understanding, rationality and in their opposites senses -- falsification of truth, lack of rationality, fantasy, persuasion, dogma. You can see that a correspondence unites something physical (water) to something mental or eternal (truth, rationality).  Another instance was discussed above: whenever Sacred Scripture mentions "flesh" the correspondence referred to is good or spiritual heat in the affective organ, and whenever "blood" or "wine" is mentioned in Sacred Scripture, the correspondential meaning indicated is spiritual truth as distinguished from natural truth (water). whenever Sacred Scripture mentions "death" or "passing on" the correspondent meaning is resuscitation in eternity. Whenever a "sword" or "knife" is mentioned, the correspondential sense is the mental struggle we experience during temptation when we use some truth we know to convince ourselves not to do something bad. The sword fights against enemies, and truth fights against evil traits.

Here are some things about correspondences that are revealed in the Writings Sacred Scripture:

AC 2987.
2987. CONCERNING REPRESENTATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCES.
Few know what representations and correspondences are, nor can anyone know this unless he knows that there is a spiritual world, and this distinct from the natural world; for there exists a correspondence between spiritual things and natural things, and the things that come forth from spiritual things in natural ones are representations. They are called correspondences because they correspond, and representations because they represent.

AC 2988.
2988. That some idea may be formed of representations and correspondences, it is only necessary to reflect on the things of the mind, that is, of the thought and will. These things so beam forth from the face that they are manifest in its expression; especially is this the case with the affections, the more interior of which are seen from and in the eyes. When the things of the face act as a one with those of the mind, they are said to correspond, and are correspondences; and the very expressions of the face represent, and are representations. The case is similar with all that is expressed by the gestures of the body, and with all the acts produced by the muscles; for it is well known that all these take place according to what the man is thinking and willing. The gestures and actions themselves, which are of the body, represent the things of the mind, and are representations; and in that they are in agreement, they are correspondences.

AC 2989.
2989. It may also be known that such forms do not exist in the mind as are exhibited in the expression, but that they are merely affections which are thus effigied; also that such acts do not exist in the mind as are exhibited by the acts of the body, but that it is thoughts which are thus figured. The things which are of the mind are spiritual, but those of the body are natural. From this it is evident that there exists a correspondence between spiritual things and natural things, and that there is a representation of spiritual things in natural things; or what is the same, when the things of the internal man are effigied in the external man, then the things that appear in the external man are representative of the internal man; and the things that agree are correspondences.

AC 2990.
2990. It is also known, or may be known, that there is a spiritual world, and also a natural world. In the universal sense the spiritual world is where spirits and angels dwell; and the natural world is where men dwell. In particular, there is a spiritual world and a natural world with every man: his internal man being to him a spiritual world, and his external man being to him a natural world. The things that flow in from the spiritual world and are presented in the natural world, are in general representations; and insofar as they agree they are correspondences.

AC 2991.
2991. That natural things represent spiritual things, and that they correspond, may also be known from the fact that what is natural cannot possibly come forth except from a cause prior to itself. Its cause is from what is spiritual; and there is nothing natural which does not thence derive its cause. Natural forms are effects; nor can they appear as causes, still less as causes of causes, or beginnings; but they receive their forms according to the use in the place where they are; and yet the forms of the effects represent the things which are of the causes; and indeed these latter things represent those which are of the beginnings. Thus all natural things represent those which are of the spiritual things to which they correspond; and in fact the spiritual things also represent those which are of the celestial things from which they are.

AC 2992.
2992. It has been given me to know from much experience that in the natural world and its three kingdoms there is nothing whatever that does not represent something in the spiritual world, or that has not something there to which it corresponds. Besides many other experiences, this was made evident also from the following.

On several occasions when I was speaking of the viscera of the body, and was tracing their connection from those which are of the head to those which are of the chest, and so on to those which are of the abdomen, the angels that were above me led my thoughts through the spiritual things to which those viscera correspond, and this so that there was not the least error. They thought not at all of the viscera of the body of which I was thinking, but only of the spiritual things to which these correspond. Such is the intelligence of angels that from spiritual things they know all things in the body in general and particular, even the most secret things, such as can never come to man's knowledge; nay, they know everything there is in the universal world, without a mistake; and this because from spiritual things are the causes, and the beginnings of causes.

AC 2993.
2993. The case is similar with the things in the vegetable kingdom; for nothing whatever exists there that does not represent something in the spiritual world, and correspond thereto; as has been frequently given me to know by a like interaction with angels. The causes also have been told me, namely, that the causes of all natural things are from spiritual things, and the beginnings of these causes are from celestial things; or what is the same, all things in the natural world derive their cause from truth which is the spiritual, and their beginning from good which is the celestial; and natural things proceed thence according to all the differences of truth and of good in the Lord's kingdom; thus from the Lord Himself, from whom is all good and truth. These things must needs appear strange, especially to those who will not or cannot ascend in thought beyond nature, and who do not know what the spiritual is, and therefore do not acknowledge it.

AC 2994.
2994. So long as he lives in the body, man can feel and perceive but little of this; for the celestial and spiritual things with him fall into the natural things in his external man, and he there loses the sensation and perception of them. Moreover the representatives and correspondences in his external man are such that they do not appear like the things in the internal man to which they correspond, and which they represent; therefore neither can they come to his knowledge until he has put off those external things. When this happens, blessed is the man who is in correspondence, that is, whose external man corresponds to his internal man.

AC 2995.
2995. As the men of the Most Ancient Church (concerning whom see n. 1114-1125) in every thing of nature saw something spiritual and celestial, insomuch that natural things served them merely as objects for thought about spiritual and celestial things, they were for this reason able to speak with angels, and to be with them in the Lord's kingdom in the heavens at the same time that they were in His kingdom on earth, that is, in the church. Thus with them natural things were conjoined with spiritual things, and wholly corresponded. But it was otherwise after those times, when evil and falsity began to reign; that is, when after the golden age there commenced the iron age; for then as there was no longer any correspondence, heaven was closed; insomuch that men were scarcely willing to know that there was anything spiritual; and at last even that there is a heaven and a hell, and a life after death.

AC 2996.
2996. In this world it is a great secret, although in the other life nothing is better known to every spirit, that all things in the human body have a correspondence to those in heaven; insomuch that there is not the smallest particle in the body, to which something spiritual and celestial does not correspond; or what is the same, to which heavenly societies do not correspond, for these exist according to all the genera and species of spiritual and celestial things; and this in such an order that together they represent one man, even as to all his parts, in general and in particular, both the interior and the exterior.

Hence it is that the universal heaven is also called the Grand Man; and hence it is that it has been so often said that one society belongs to one province of the body, another to another, and so on. The reason is that the Lord is the Only Man, and heaven represents Him; and the Divine good and truth that are from Him are what make heaven; and because the angels are therein, they are said to be in the Lord. But they who are in hell are outside this Grand Man, and correspond to things unclean, and also to bodily corruptions.

AC 2997.
2997. This may also in some degree be known from the fact that the spiritual or internal man (which is man's spirit and is called his soul) has in like manner a correspondence to his natural or external man; and that this correspondence is of such a nature that the things of the internal man are spiritual and celestial, while the things of the external man are natural and corporeal; as may appear from what was said above (n. 2988, 2989) about the expressions of the face and the acts of the body. Moreover as to his internal man, man is a little heaven, because created after the Lord's image.

AC 2998.
2998. That such correspondences exist has become so familiar to me in the course of years that hardly anything can be more so; though the fact itself is such that man does not know of its existence, nor believes that he has any connection with the spiritual world; when yet all his connection is from this correspondence; and without this connection neither himself nor any part of him could subsist a moment; for all his subsistence is from it. It has also been given me to know what angelic societies belong to each province of the body, and also of what quality they are; as for instance what societies and of what quality belong to the province of the heart; what and of what quality to the province of the lungs; what and of what quality to the province of the liver; and also what and of what quality belong to the different sensories, as to the eye, to the ears, to the tongue, and the rest; concerning which, of the Lord's Divine mercy we shall speak singly.

AC 2999.
2999. Moreover nothing is possible in the created world that has not a correspondence to the things in the spiritual world, and therefore that does not in its own manner represent something in the Lord's kingdom. From this comes the existence and subsistence of all things. If man knew how these things are circumstanced, he would never as is his wont attribute all things to nature.

AC 3000.
3000. Hence it is that all things in the universe both in general and in particular represent the Lord's kingdom; insomuch that the universe with all its constellations, atmospheres, and three kingdoms, is nothing else than a kind of theater representative of the Lord's glory which is in the heavens. In the animal kingdom not only man, but also each particular animal, even the least and lowest, is representative; as for instance the little creatures that creep on the ground and feed on plants; these, when their time for wedding is at hand, become chrysalises, and presently, being supplied with wings they soar from the ground into the atmosphere, their heaven, and there enjoy their delight and their freedom, sporting together and feeding on the spoils of the flowers, laying their eggs and thus providing for a posterity; and being then in their state of heaven, they are also in their beauty. Everyone can see that these things are representative of the Lord's kingdom.

AC 3001.
3001. That there is one only life, that of the Lord, which flows in and causes man to live, whether he be good or evil, is evident from what has been said and shown above, in the explication of the Word (n. 1954, 2021, 2536, 2658, 2706, 2886-2889). To that life correspond the recipient things which are vivified by that Divine influx, and this in such a manner that they appear to themselves to live from themselves. This correspondence is that of life with the recipients of life. Such as are the recipients, so they live; those men who are in love and charity are in correspondence, for they are in agreement, and the life is received by them adequately; but those who are in things contrary to love and charity are not in correspondence, because the life itself is not received adequately; hence they have an appearance of life in accordance with their quality.

This may be illustrated by many things; as by the organs of motion and of sense in the body, into which the life flows through the soul; according to the qualities of these, such are their actions and sensations. The same may be illustrated also by the objects into which light flows from the sun; the light producing colorings according to the quality of the recipient forms. But in the spiritual world all the modifications that come into existence from the influx of life are spiritual, whence come such differences of intelligence and wisdom.

AC 3002.
3002. From this also we can see how all natural forms, both animate and inanimate, are representative of spiritual and celestial things in the Lord's kingdom; that is, that in nature all things, in both general and particular, are representative in accordance with the measure and quality of their correspondence.

AC 3213.
3213. CONTINUATION CONCERNING REPRESENTATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCES.
In the world of spirits there come forth innumerable and almost continual representatives, which are forms of actual things spiritual and celestial, not unlike those which are in the world. Whence these come it has been granted to me to know by daily interaction with spirits and angels. They inflow from heaven, and from the ideas and speech of the angels there; for the ideas of angels and their derivative speech, when they come down to spirits, are exhibited representatively in various ways. From these representations upright and well-disposed spirits are enabled to know what the angels are saying among themselves, for inwardly within the representatives there is something angelic, which, in consequence of its power to excite affection, is perceived even as to its quality.

Angelic ideas and speech cannot be exhibited before spirits in any other way; for as compared with the idea of a spirit an angelic idea contains things illimitable; and unless it were formed and exhibited representatively, and thus visibly by images, a spirit would scarcely understand anything of its contents, which are for the most part unutterable. But when the ideas are represented by forms, then insofar as the more general things are concerned they become comprehensible to spirits. And wonderful to say there is not even the smallest thing in that which is represented which does not express something spiritual and celestial that is in the idea of the angelic society from which the representative flows down.

AC 3214.
3214. Representatives of things spiritual and celestial sometimes come forth in a long series, continued for an hour or two, in such an order successively as is marvelous. There are societies in which these representatives take place; and it has been given me to be with them for many months. But these representations are of such a nature that it would take many pages to relate and describe a single one of them in its order. They are very delightful, for something new and unexpected continually follows in succession, and this until what is represented is being fully perfected; and when all things have been perfectly represented, it is possible to contemplate everything in one view; and then it is at the same time given to take note of what is signified by each detail. Moreover good spirits are in this way initiated into spiritual and celestial ideas.

AC 3215.
3215. The representatives that come forth before spirits are of an incredible variety; yet they are for the most part similar to things which exist on the earth, in its three kingdoms. (For the better understanding of their nature, see what has been related above concerning them, n. 1521, 1532, 1619-1625, 1807, 1808, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 2299, 2601, 2758.)

AC 3216.
3216. In order that it may be still better known how the case is with representatives in the other life, that is, with those things which appear in the world of spirits, take some further examples. When the angels are speaking about the doctrinal things of charity and faith, then sometimes in a lower sphere, where there is a corresponding society of spirits, there appears the form or pattern of a city or cities, with palaces therein exhibiting such skill in architecture as is amazing, so that you would say that the very art itself was there in its native home; not to mention houses of varied aspect; and wonderful to say in all these objects both in general and in particular there is not the smallest point, or visible atom, that does not represent something of the angelic idea and speech: so that it is evident what innumerable things are contained in these; and also what is signified by the cities seen by the prophets in the Word; and likewise what by the holy city or New Jerusalem; and what by the cities in the prophetic Word; namely, the doctrinal things of charity and faith (n. 402, 2449).

AC 3217.
3217. When the angels are discoursing of that which relates to the understanding, then in the world of spirits, beneath the angels, or in the corresponding societies, there appear horses; and these of a size, form, color, attitude, and varied equipment, in accordance with the ideas which the angels have concerning the understanding. There is also a place at some depth a little to the right, which is called the abode of the intelligent, where horses continually appear, and this by reason of those present being in thought about what is of the understanding; and when angels whose discourse is about this subject flow into their thoughts, there is a representation of horses. This shows what was signified by the horses seen by the prophets, and also by the horses mentioned elsewhere in the Word; namely, the things of the understanding (n. 2760-2762).

AC 3218.
3218. When the angels are in affections, and are at the same time discoursing about them, then in the lower sphere among spirits such things fall into representative species of animals. When the discourse is about good affections, there are presented beautiful, tame, and useful animals, such as were used in sacrifice in the representative Divine worship in the Jewish Church-as lambs, sheep, kids, she-goats, rams, he-goats, calves, bullocks, oxen; and then whatever appears upon the animal presents some image of their thought, which it is given to upright and well-disposed spirits to perceive. This shows what was signified by the animals that were employed in the rites of the Jewish Church; and what by the same when mentioned in the Word; namely, affections (n. 1823, 2179, 2180). But the discourse of the angels about evil affections is represented by beasts that are repulsive, fierce, and useless, such as tigers, bears, wolves, scorpions, serpents, mice, and the like; and these affections are also signified by the same beasts in the Word.

AC 3219.
3219. When the angels are conversing about knowledges, and ideas, and influx, there then appear in the world of spirits as it were birds, formed in accordance with the subject of their discourse. Hence it is that in the Word "birds" signify rational things, or those which are of thought (see n. 40, 745, 776, 991). There were once presented to my view birds, one dark and unsightly, but two noble and beautiful; and when I saw them, there then fell upon me some spirits with such violence as to strike a tremor into my nerves and bones. I imagined that then, as several times before, evil spirits were assaulting me, with intent to destroy me; but this was not the case; for when the tremor ceased, together with the emotion of the spirits who fell upon me, I spoke with them, asking what was the matter.

[2] They said that they had fallen down from a certain angelic society in which there was discourse concerning thoughts and influx; and that they had held the opinion that things relating to thought flow in from without, that is, through the external senses, according to the appearance; whereas the heavenly society in which they were, held the opinion that they inflow from within; and as they (the speakers) were in falsity, they fell down-not that they were cast down, for the angels cast no one down from them, but being in falsity they fell down of themselves; and they said that this was the cause.

[3] By this it was given to know that discourse in heaven concerning thoughts and influx is represented by birds; and that of those who are in falsity by dark and unsightly birds; but that of those who are in the truth, by birds noble and beautiful. I was at the same time instructed that all things of thought inflow from within, and not from without, although it appears so; and I was told that it is contrary to order for the posterior to flow into the prior, or the grosser into the purer; thus for the body to inflow into the soul.

AC 3220.
3220. When the angels are discoursing about things of intelligence and wisdom, and about perceptions and knowledges, the influx from them into the corresponding societies of spirits falls into representations of such things as are in the vegetable kingdom; as into representations of paradises, of vine-yards, of forests, of meadows with flowers, and into many lovely forms that surpass all human imagination. Hence it is that things which are of wisdom and intelligence are described in the Word by paradises, vineyards, forests, meadows; and that where these are mentioned, such things are signified.

AC 3221.
3221. The discourses of the angels are sometimes represented by clouds, and by their forms, colors, movements, and changes; things affirmative of truth by bright and ascending clouds; things negative by dark and descending clouds; things affirmative of falsity by dusky and black clouds; consent and dissent by the various gatherings together and partings asunder of the clouds, and these latter as in a sky like that of the heavens in the night.

AC 3222.
3222. Moreover loves and their affections are represented by flames, and this with inexpressible variation; whereas truths are represented by lights, and by innumerable modifications of light. This shows whence it is that by "flames" in the Word are signified the goods which are of love; and by "lights" the truths which are of faith.

AC 3226.
3226. Among the eminent faculties which man possesses, although he is ignorant of it, and which he carries with him into the other life when he passes thither after his liberation from the body, is that he perceives what is signified by the representatives which appear in the other life; also that he is able by the sense of his mind to express fully in a moment of time what he could not express during hours in the body; and this by ideas from those things which are of the light of heaven, assisted and given as it were wings by suitable appearances representative of the subject of discourse, which are such as cannot be described; and whereas man after death comes into these faculties, and in the other life has no need to be instructed respecting them, it is evident that he is in them (that is, that they are in him) during his life in the body, although he does not know it.

[2] The reason of this is that there is a continual influx with man through heaven from the Lord. This influx is an influx of spiritual and celestial things, which fall into his natural things and are there presented representatively. In heaven among the angels nothing else is thought of than the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom; but in the world, with man, scarcely anything else is thought of than the corporeal and natural things which belong to the kingdom in which he is, and to the necessaries of life. And since the spiritual and celestial things of heaven which flow in are presented representatively with man in his natural things, they therefore remain implanted, and when a man puts off the body and leaves the world behind, he is in them.

AC 3337.
3337. CONTINUATION CONCERNING CORRESPONDENCES AND REPRESENTATIONS.
What correspondences are, and what representations, may appear from what has been said and shown above, namely, that there are correspondences between the things which are of the light of heaven and those which are of the light of the world; and that the things which take place in those which are of the light of the world are representations (n. 3225). But what the light of heaven is and what is its quality cannot be very well known to man, because he is in the things that are of the light of the world; and insofar as he is in these, the things that are in the light of heaven appear to him as darkness, and as nothing. It is these two lights which-life flowing in-produce all the intelligence of man.

The imagination of man consists solely of the forms and appearances of such things as have been received by bodily vision wonderfully varied, and so to speak modified; but his interior imagination, or thought, consists solely of the forms and appearances of such things as have been drawn in through the mind's vision still more wonderfully varied, and so to speak modified. The things which come forth from this source are in themselves inanimate, but become animate through the influx of life from the Lord.

AC 3338.
3338. Besides these lights there are also heats, which likewise are from two fountains-the heat of heaven coming from its sun, which is the Lord; and the heat of the world from its sun, which is the luminary visible to our eyes. The heat of heaven manifests itself to the internal man under the form of spiritual loves and affections; but the heat of the world manifests itself to the external man under the form of natural loves and affections. The former heat produces the life of the internal man, but the latter that of the external man; for without love and affection man cannot live at all. Between these two heats also there are correspondences. These heats become loves and affections through the influx of the Lord's life; and hence they appear to man as if they were not heats, although they are; for unless as to both the internal and the external man, man derived heat from this source he would fall down dead in a moment.

These facts must be evident to everybody from the circumstance that in proportion as man is inflamed with love, he grows warm; and in proportion as love recedes, he grows torpid. It is this heat from which the will of man lives, and it is the light above spoken of from which comes his understanding.

AC 3339.
3339. In the other life these lights, and also these heats, appear to the life. The angels live in the light of heaven, and also in the heat above described; from the light they have intelligence, and from the heat they have the affection of good. For in their origin the lights which appear before their external sight are from the Lord's Divine wisdom; and the heats which are also perceived by them are from His Divine love; and therefore the more the spirits and angels are in the intelligence of truth and the affection of good, the nearer they are to the Lord.

AC 3340.
3340. To this light there is an opposite darkness, and to this heat there is an opposite cold; in these live the infernals. Their darkness is from the falsities in which they are, and their cold is from the evils; and the more remote they are from truths, the greater is their darkness; and the more remote they are from good, the greater is their cold. When it is permitted to look into the hells where such infernals are, there appears a dark cloud in which they have their abode; and when any exhalation flows out thence, there are perceived insanities that exhale from falsities, and hatreds that exhale from evils.

A light is indeed sometimes granted them, but it is a deceptive one; and this is extinguished with them, and becomes darkness, the moment they look at the light of truth. Heat also is sometimes granted them, but it is like that of an unclean bath; and this is changed into cold with them as soon as they observe anything of good. A certain person was let into that dark cloud where the infernals are, in order that he might know how the case is with those who are there; he being protected by the Lord by means of angels. Speaking from thence with me he said that there was there so great a rage of insanity against good and truth, and especially against the Lord, that he was amazed that it could possibly be resisted; for the infernals breathed nothing but hatred, revenge, and slaughter, with such violence that they desired to destroy all in the universe; so that unless this rage was continually repelled by the Lord, the whole human race would perish.

AC 3341.
3341. Inasmuch as the representations in the other life cannot take place except by means of differences of light and shade, be it known that all light, consequently all intelligence and wisdom, are from the Lord; and that all shade, consequently all insanity and folly, are from that which is their own in man, spirit, and angel; from these two origins flow forth and are derived all the variegations which are of light and shade in the other life.

AC 3342.
3342. All the speech of spirits and of angels is also effected by means of representatives; for by wonderful variations of light and shade they vividly present before the internal and at the same time before the external sight of him with whom they speak, all they are thinking about, and insinuate it by suitable changes of the state of the affections. The representations that come forth in such speech are not like those before described, but are quick and instantaneous, being simultaneous with the ideas that belong to their speech.

They are like something that is described in a long series, while at the same time it is exhibited in an image before the eyes, for, wonderful to say, all spiritual things themselves whatever can be representatively exhibited by forms of imagery that are incomprehensible to man, within which are things of the perception of truth, and still more interiorly those of the perception of good. Such things are also in man (for man is a spirit clothed with a body); as is evident from the fact that all speech perceived by the ear, on ascending toward the interiors, passes into forms [ideas]* not unlike those of sight, and from these into intellectual forms or ideas, and thus becomes a perception of the sense of the expressions.

Whoever rightly reflects upon these things may know from them that there is in himself a spirit which is his internal man, and also that after the separation of the body he will possess such a speech, because he is in the very same during his life in the world, although it does not appear to him that he is in it, by reason of the obscurity and darkness which earthly, bodily, and worldly things induce.

AC 3343.
3343. The speech of the angels of the interior heaven is still more beautifully and pleasantly representative; but the ideas which are representatively formed are not expressible by words, and if they should be expressed by any, they would surpass not only apprehension, but also belief. Spiritual things, which are of truth, are expressed by modifications of heavenly light, in which are affections, which are wonderfully varied in innumerable ways; and celestial things, which are of good, are expressed by variations of heavenly flame or heat; so that they move all the affections. Into this interior speech also man comes after the separation of the body, but only the man who during his life in this world is in spiritual good, that is, in the good of faith, or what is the same, in charity toward the neighbor; for he has this speech within himself, though he is unaware of it.

AC 3344.
3344. But the speech of the angels of the still more interior or third heaven, although also representative, is yet such as to be inconceivable by any idea, and consequently is indescribable. Even this perfect form of speech [idea] is also within man, but in the man who is in celestial love, that is, in love to the Lord; and after the separation of the body he comes into it as if born into it, although as before said nothing of it could be comprehended by him under any idea during his life in the body. In short, by means of representatives adjoined to ideas, speech becomes as it were alive; least of all with man, because he is in the speech of words; but more so with the angels of the first heaven; still more so with the angels of the second heaven; and most of all with the angels of the third heaven, because these are most nearly in the Lord's life. In itself whatever is from the Lord is alive.

AC 3345.
3345. From what has been said it is evident that there are kinds of speech successively more interior, but yet of such a nature that the one comes forth from the other in order, and also that the one is within the other in order. The nature of man's speech is known, and also his thought from which the speech flows, the analytics of which are of such a nature that they can never be explored. The speech of good spirits, that is, of the angels of the first heaven, together with the thought from which it flows, is more interior, and contains within it things still more wonderful and unexplorable. The speech of the angels of the second heaven together with the thought from which again this flows, is still more interior, containing within it things still more perfect and unutterable. But the speech of the angels of the third heaven together with the thought from which again this flows, is inmost, containing within it things absolutely unutterable. And although all these kinds of speech are of such a nature that they appear different from one another, nevertheless there is but one speech, because the one forms the other, and the one is within the other; moreover that which comes forth in the exterior is representative of the interior.

A man who does not think beyond worldly and bodily things cannot believe this, and therefore supposes that the interior things with him are nothing, although in fact they are everything; and the exterior things, that is, the worldly and corporeal things that he makes everything, are relatively scarcely anything.

AC 3346.
3346. In order that I might know these things, and know them with certainty, of the Lord's Divine mercy it has been granted me for several years to speak almost constantly with spirits and angels; and with spirits (that is, with the angels of the first heaven)* in their own speech; also at times with the angels of the second heaven in their speech; but the speech of the angels of the third heaven has only appeared to me as a radiation of light, in which there was perception from the flame of good within it.

AC 3347.
3347. I have heard angels speaking concerning human minds, and concerning their thought and the derivative speech. They compared them to the external form of man, which comes forth and subsists from the innumerable forms that are within-as from the brains, the medulla, the lungs, the heart, liver, pancreas, spleen, stomach, and intestines, besides many other organs, as those of generation in both sexes from the innumerable muscles encompassing these organs; and lastly from the integuments; and from all these being woven together from vessels and fibers, and indeed from vessels and fibers within vessels and fibers, from which come the ducts and lesser forms; thus that the body is composed of things innumerable; all of which nevertheless conspire, each in its own way, to the composition of the external form, in which nothing appears of the things that are within.

To this external form they compared human minds, and their thoughts and the derivative speech. But angelic minds they compared to those things which are within, which are relatively illimitable, and also incomprehensible. They also compared the faculty of thinking to the faculty that belongs to the viscera of acting according to the form of the fibers, saying that the faculty is not of the fibers, but of the life in the fibers; just as the faculty of thinking is not of the mind, but of life from the Lord flowing into it. When such comparisons are made by angels they are at the same time exhibited by means of representatives, whereby the interior forms above spoken of are presented visibly and intellectually, in respect to their smallest incomprehensible parts, and this in a moment; but comparisons made by means of spiritual and celestial things, such as take place among the celestial angels, immeasurably surpass in the beauty of wisdom those made by means of natural things.

AC 3474.
3474. A certain spirit came to me not long after he had departed this life. This I was able to deduce from the fact that he still did not know that he had entered the next life but supposed that he was living in the world. I perceived that he had been a person dedicated to scholarly pursuits, about which I spoke to him. But at that moment he was suddenly carried up on high, which amazed me. I presumed that he was one of those people who had aspired to high things, since such people are usually taken up on high; or else that he was one of those who imagined heaven to be far away up on high and who likewise are usually taken away up on high, so that from up there they may know that heaven does not exist up on high but in what is internal. But shortly after that I noticed that he was carried up to the angelic spirits who were in a forward position and slightly to the right, on the very threshold of heaven. From there he then spoke to me, saying that he saw things more exalted than human minds could ever take in. While all this was happening I was reading Deuteronomy 1, about the Jewish people - how the men were sent to explore the land of Canaan and what was in it. As I read it he said that he discerned nothing of that which occurs in the sense of the letter, only the things in the spiritual sense, and that these were marvels beyond his powers of description. This was merely at the threshold of the heaven of angelic spirits, so what must the marvels be within that heaven itself, and what must they be within the angelic heaven!

[2] Certain spirits who were with me at the time, and who had not previously believed that the Word of the Lord was of such a nature, began to repent of their unbelief. They said that in their present state they now believed because they had heard that spirit say he had heard, seen, and perceived that it was so. But other spirits continued in their unbelief, saying that it was not so but all a delusion. They also were therefore suddenly carried up, and spoke to me from where they were. They now confessed that it was anything but a delusion, for now they perceived from amid spiritual realities that it was so, their perception indeed being far keener than can possibly be imparted to any of the senses during the life of the body. Shortly afterwards others also were carried up into the same heaven. I had known one of them during his lifetime, and he bore similar witness. Among other things he also said that he was so dazed by the glory of the Word in its internal sense that he was unable to describe it. Speaking at this time with some kind of compassion he said it was remarkable that people on earth know nothing at all of such matters.

On two occasions after this I saw others who had been carried up to the second heaven among the angelic spirits, and from there they spoke to me, while I was reading Deuteronomy 3 from beginning to end. They said that they understood none but the interior sense of the Word, declaring at the same time that there was not even the smallest part of a letter which did not have a spiritual sense within it that did not link with everything else in a very beautiful way. They also said that in the interior sense the names used in the Word mean real things. Thus these people as well were confirmed in the same knowledge of such things, for they had not previously believed that every single thing in the Word has been inspired by the Lord. This they also wished to affirm before others on oath, but they were not allowed to do so.

AC 3476.
3476. From this one may now see what the situation is with the Word; for the Lord has given the Word to mankind, and also to angels, so that by means of it they may be with Him. Indeed the Word is the means by which earth is united to heaven, and heaven to the Lord, its literal sense being that which unites mankind to the first heaven. Now seeing that the literal sense holds within itself the internal sense, the subject of which is the Lord's kingdom, and the latter holds the highest sense, the subject of which is the Lord; and seeing that these senses exist in order one within the next, it is evident what the union with the Lord by means of the Word is like.

AC 3477.
3477. It has been stated that in heaven representatives are of constant occurrence, such representatives in fact as embody wisdom's deepest arcana. Those that are evident to man from the literal sense of the Word are comparatively few, as few as the waters of a tiny pond when compared to the waters of the ocean. What the representatives in heaven are like may become clear from what I have related several times already from things I have seen, and also from the following: To certain spirits, as I saw, there were represented the broad road and the narrow road mentioned in the Word - the broad road which would lead them to hell, and the narrow to heaven. The broad road was planted with trees and flowers, and other such things as in outward appearance looked beautiful and delightful. But various types of snakes and serpents which they did not see had been concealed there. The narrow road was not adorned in the same way with trees and flower-beds for the eye to see but looked sad and dreary. Yet there were along that road young angel-children adorned most attractively among very lovely tree-gardens and flower-gardens, which those spirits however did not see. They were at that point asked which road they wished to take. They said, The broad one. But all of a sudden their eyes were opened and they saw the serpents along the broad road, but the angels along the narrow one. They were then again asked which road they wished to take. This time they were at a loss and remained silent. As long as their sight was opened they said that they wished to take the narrow road; but as long as it was closed they said that they wished to take the broad one.

AC 3478.
3478. To some there was also represented the tabernacle with the ark, for to those who, when they lived in the world, have taken very great delight in the Word such things are presented to them visually. So on the occasion referred to they saw the tabernacle with all its furnishings; that is to say, they saw its courts, its curtains round about, its veils inside, the golden altar or altar of incense, the table where the loaves were placed, the lampstand, and the mercy-seat with the cherubim. At the same time these upright spirits were allowed to perceive what each particular thing meant. It was the three heavens that were represented by the tabernacle, and the Lord Himself by the testimony inside the ark, above which there was the mercy-seat. And to the extent their sight was opened they saw within those objects more heavenly and Divine things, of which they had had no knowledge at all during their lifetime. And what was amazing, every least thing there, even every hook or ring, was representative. Consider merely the bread placed on the table. Within this as within a representative and symbol they perceived the food on which angels live, and so perceived celestial and spiritual love together with all the bliss and happiness that the angels enjoy. And within that love, also that bliss and happiness, they perceived the Lord Himself as the bread or manna from heaven. They perceived more besides from the shape, position, and number of the loaves, and from the gold which was around them, and from the lampstand which lit up those things and displayed further representations of things that are indescribable. The same was so with everything else in the tabernacle. From all this one might also see that the religious observances or the representatives of the Jewish Church contained all the arcana of the Christian Church, and also that those to whom the representatives and meaningful signs of the Old Testament Word are disclosed are able, while living in the world, to know and perceive the arcana which belong to the Lord's Church on earth. And when they enter the next life they are able to know and perceive the arcana of arcana which belong to the Lord's kingdom in heaven.

Note: The topic of correspondences in Sacred Scripture continues in Section 1.8.8.1. 

See also these references you can find in the Writings Sacred Scripture with full details on correspondences:

D. Wis. 2. More about Correspondence can be seen in the work HEAVEN AND HELL, Nos. 87-102, 103-115: and about various correspondences in ARCANA CAELESTIA, namely, the correspondence of the face and its expressions with the affections of the mind, Nos. 1568, 2988-9, 3631, 4796-7, 4800, 5165, 5168, 5695, 9306: the correspondence of the body in posture and action with intellectual and voluntary things, Nos. 2988, 3632, 4215: the correspondence of the

Senses in general, Nos. 4318-30;

Eyes and sight, Nos. 4403-20;

Nose and smell, Nos. 4624-34;

Ears and hearing, Nos. 4652-60;

Tongue and taste, Nos. 4791-805;

Hands, arms, shoulders and feet, Nos. 4931-53; Loins and organs of generation, Nos. 5050-62;

Viscera inside the body, in particular the stomach, the thymus gland, and the receptacle and ducts of the chyle, Nos. 5171-89;

Spleen, No. 9698;

Peritonaeum, kidneys and bladder, Nos. 5377-96; Skin and bones, Nos. 5552-73;

Xiphoid (or ensiform) cartilage, No. 9236;

Memory of abstract things, No. 6808;

Memory of material things, No. 7253:

the correspondence of heaven with man, Nos. 911, 1900, 1928, 2996, 2998, 3634, 3636-43, 3741-5, 3884, 4041, 4279, 4523-4, 4625, 6013, 6057, 9279, 9632: the knowledge of correspondences with the ancients was the chief of knowledges, specially with the orientals, though it has at the present day become completely lost, Nos. 3021, 3419, 3472-85, 4280, 4749, 4844, 4964, 4966, 5702, 6004, 6692, 7097, 7729, 7779, 9391, 10252, 10407: without a knowledge of correspondences the Word is not understood, NOS. 2890-3, 2987-3003, 3213-27, 3472-85, 8615, 10687: all things seen in the heavens are correspondents, NOS. 1521, 1532, 1619-25, 1807-8, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980-1, 2299, 2601, 3213-26, 3348, 3350, 3475, 3485, 3745, 9481, 9575-7: all things in the natural world and its three kingdoms correspond to all things in the spiritual world, NOS. 1632, 1881, 2758, 2890-3, 2987-3003, 3213-27, 3483, 3624-49, 4044, 4053, 4116, 4366, 4939, 5116, 5377, 5428, 5477, 8211, 9280.

In addition to the above, the ARCANA COELESTIA treats of the correspondence of the natural sense of the Word, which is its literal sense, with spiritual things which are the things of love and wisdom in the heavens from the Lord, these things constituting its internal sense: this correspondence, moreover, you may see confirmed in THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE, NOS. 5-26, and further on in NOS. 27-69. To form an idea of the correspondence of the Will and Understanding, what has been said above may be consulted, NOS. 366 and 367.***

(D. Wis. 2.)

1.1.4.3.3   Three Levels of Thinking About God:  Energy, Person, Truth From Good

• (I) "God as energy" --  is a natural idea of God.

• (II) "God as Divine Person" --  is a spiritual idea of God.

• (III) "God as Truth within which is Good" is a celestial idea of God.

(I) God as energy is a natural idea of God.

Some people say that the universe is God. Some people think that God is nature and they point to a flower and say, this is God, and they point to new born puppy and a flying eagle, and say this is God. Others have said that the sun is God. Psychologists have said that God is a concept or idea that people make up in order to have a Father figure around. Some say that God created the universe but has left its running to natural laws. Others have said that the elements are so many gods and spirits, or Fate, or the Unknown, or the Mysterious, or the Devil, etc. etc.

These are all natural ideas of God. Not rational or spiritual.

 All natural ideas are based on experiences people have with the physical environment. From the physicalistic (non-rational) perspective, "God" is a logically impossible concept since God is defined as a creator who exists outside time and space. The idea of something outside time and space doesn't make sense at the natural level of thinking. It is likely that as you are reading this, you too are thinking of God with natural ideas. This can't be helped for we all start with an external time-bound and space-bound idea of God in religion, which is based on the literal sense of Sacred Scripture (see Section xx). Indeed, the literal sense of Sacred Scripture is always expressed at the natural level of thinking and with natural content from this world. Hardly anything is mentioned in the literal sense of Sacred Scripture about the mental world of eternity in the afterlife. So little is said about it, that the majority of people who call their Sacred Scripture holy and Divine, believe that the afterlife is in this world and starts after all the dead are raised to life again. Nothing at all is known about eternity.

With the publication of the Writings Sacred Scripture in the 18th century by Emanuel Swedenborg (see Section xx), there has therefore taken place a most important shift in God's management of the human race. All prior Sacred Scripture given to humankind has withheld telling about and explaining rationally the mental life of eternity. But now God has decided that "it is permitted" (Latin: Nunc Licet) to rationally investigate God through theistic science: Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

TCR 508. Afterward, when I drew nearer, I saw this inscription above the door, Nunc Licet - It is now permitted - which signified that it is now permitted to enter understandingly into the mysteries of faith. From seeing this inscription it came into my thought that it is exceedingly dangerous to enter with the understanding into dogmas of faith that are concocted out of self-intelligence, and therefore out of falsities, and still more so to confirm them from the Word; by this means the understanding is closed above, and gradually below as well, to such a degree that theology is not only despised but also obliterated from the mind, as writing on paper is by worms, or the wool of a garment by moths. Then the understanding abides only in political matters, which have regard to man's life under the government where he is, and in the civil matters pertaining to his employment, and in the domestic affairs of his own house. And in all these things he constantly kisses nature, and owing to the allurements of her pleasures, loves her as an idolater loves the golden image in his bosom. (TCR 508)

"To enter understandingly into the mysteries of faith" means to investigate God rationally and scientifically. This was not possible before the Writings Sacred Scripture were published. This collection of nearly thirty volumes is a holistic, rational, and integrated explanation of God and the afterlife based on the correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture. In other words it proves that Sacred Scripture is written at two levels of meaning, one natural, the other correspondential. When the correspondences are known, one can read the text of Sacred Scripture in their correspondential sense, as we do in theistic psychology (see Section xx). Further, Swedenborg was an empirical scientist all his life who, at age 57, was given by God a unique ability of being conscious in both this world and the world of the afterlife. At last the human race on earth had a direct scientific window into eternity! Swedenborg's reports on life in eternity are empirical and scientific confirmations of the existence of correspondences in Sacred Scripture

It turns out that the correspondential sense of all Sacred Scripture, regardless of religion, is the knowledge that we call theistic psychology (see Section xx).

In theistic psychology we have a scientific method of investigating God and eternity.

We now have rational and scientific answers to the "mysteries" of the ages such as:

How can God be everywhere at the same time (omnipresence)? Unless God is space itself, which is everywhere, or energy which is in everything. This is thinking about God with natural concepts or ideas. There is no way of breaking through this natural level of reasoning, based on only what is part of time-space-matter. Even if we are practicing members of a religion, the idea of God and eternity can only be comprehended naturally, as for example, the idea many people have that the afterlife of immortality is to take place on earth when we are supplied once more with a physical body ("physical resurrection"). This is an example of the natural idea of God. Along with this natural level of thinking, is the belief that salvation, heaven, and hell depend on specific prescribed membership rituals, declarations, or acts (see Section xx). Hence people who fail to perform these rituals or declarations cannot be saved from a life in hell. These natural ideas of God and the afterlife stem from restricting oneself to the literal sense of Sacred Scripture (or teachings and ideas based on the literal sense of it).

For instance, the literal sense of the Old Testament Sacred Scripture is phrased to be read by people who have this natural idea of God. The literal sense informs them that God is not natural because He is a Spirit (but not explaining that Spirit = mind = eternity). What happens at this natural level of thinking when we are told that God is the Divine Being or Person. In order for us to accept or believe this idea it is necessary that Sacred Scripture portray God as a stern, unforgiving but just Divine despot or king. He can love human beings, but He can also hate them, retaliate and punish them with plagues, famines, and being invaded and tortured by cruel enemies. All these events are told in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture. Not a very likable portrayal of God. And yet, this is necessary, or else God would not be believable and consequently would not be listened to. This is the why the literal sense of all Sacred Scripture must be written with natural content and reasoning.

All religions are necessarily based on the literal sense of Sacred Scripture, and this sense has a natural content and reasoning process. Natural = time-bound, space-bound, place-bound. Hence all Sacred Scripture in its literal sense is always historical -- that is, involving time, place, identity, culture, politics, events, declarations, commandments, rituals, language.

From the literal sense of the Old and New Testament Sacred Scripture we can recognize the mentality or level of thinking and reasoning about God, in the pre-modern and pre-democratic times, cultures, and philosophies, not only in the Holy Land, but in Asia Minor, Greece, and the Far East, hence on the entire globe. Today we are still going through this natural phase of understanding God, but we now possess the modern scientific mentality that gives us the ability to go on to the next level of thinking about God.

(II) God as Divine Person is a spiritual idea of God.

About two thousand years ago God entered both history and science (see Section xx). This is the event called the Incarnation. It means God's embodiment in flesh. In other words, when God created the physical universe of time, space, energy, and matter, He obviously had to be outside of it in order to create it. Think about this for awhile. When we manufacture a car, we obviously have to be apart and outside the car, in order to create it. The engineer cannot be part of the car, but the car is a product or creation of the engineering team. First God has to exist, then, from infinite substances within Himself, God can create the world of eternity for our mental organs and life, and the world of time-space-matter for our physical body. So God as He Is in Himself has to exist outside the eternity He created, and outside the material universe of time and space. But God as He is Outside of Himself, can be both in created eternity and in created time (see Section xx).

What is outside time and space? We must have a word for it in order to discuss it and study it. There is a word others have used for it, and you know it too. It is the word eternity.

Eternity means outside time and space. You can see this in your own mental world, which is the mental world of the human race, and which exists in eternity (not in time-space, see Section xx). There is no time or space or matter in eternity. What do you know that's like it? There is something with which you are very familiar every day that is just like it -- it has no time, it has no space, it has no matter. What is it?

It is your mental world of feelings, thoughts, dreams, imaginings, perceptions, and sensations! (see Section xx)

So you are a person because you have feelings, thoughts, and sensations. And these are mental activities in mental organs. They cannot exist in your brain because thoughts and feelings have no mass, no weight, no space limitations, no dependence on energy, not composed of atoms and molecules like the brain is. The mind is a mental organ constructed of mental substances that exist outside time and space in eternity. Your thoughts and feelings are real, but they are not natural. They are spiritual or rational.

You need to understand that we are dual citizens. When we are born we are born into two worlds, one in time-space, the other in eternity. Our physical body is born in the physical world of time and space and is temporary. Simultaneously, our mental body ("spiritual body") is born in the mental world, which is outside time and space, and is eternal. So we live our life "on earth" unconscious of the the fact that we are dual citizens. It becomes immediately obvious though, if you start thinking about it. The world of our thoughts and feelings is the real and actual me, rather than my liver, heart, or brain. In the negative bias non-theistic psychology that is taught today, the reality of the mental world is denied. Instead, the reductionistic method is taught, which is that thoughts and feelings = electro-chemical firings in the physical brain, and not mental or spiritual operations outside time and space.

Now in theistic psychology it is known that at the death of the physical body we undergo the 30-hour process of resuscitation, and we regain consciousness in our spiritual body, continuing our life of immortality in the world of eternity where we exist since birth as dual citizens. This proves that to be a person means to have a spiritual body, not just a physical body. Though we have a physical body at birth, it is only for awhile. Some people live just a few minutes in their physical body, die as neonates or infants, and then continue to finish becoming adult minds in their spiritual body. Swedenborg confirmed this by observation of many children who had passed on while he was conscious in both worlds simultaneously, from age 57 to 84  (see Section xx).

Quoting from the Writings Sacred Scripture:

HH 345. What the difference is between those who die in childhood and those who die in mature life will also be told. Those dying in mature life have a plane acquired from the earthly and material world, and this they carry with them. This plane is their memory and its corporeal natural affection. This remains fixed and is then quiescent, but still serves their thought after death as an outermost plane, since thought inflows into it. Consequently such as this plane is, and such as the correspondence is between the things that are in it and the rational faculty, such is the man after death. But little children who die in childhood and are educated in heaven do not have such a plane, but they have a spiritual-natural plane, since they derive nothing from the material world and the earthly body. For this reason, they cannot be in such gross affections and consequent thoughts, since they derive all things from heaven. Moreover, these little children do not know that they were born in the world, but believe that they were born in heaven. Neither do they know about any other than a spiritual birth effected through the cognitions of good and truth and through the intelligence and wisdom, from which man is a man; and as these are from the Lord they believe themselves to be the Lord's own, and love to be so. Nevertheless, it is possible for the state of men who grow up on the earth to become as perfect as the state of little children who grow up in heaven, provided they put away bodily and earthly loves, which are the loves of self and the world, and receive in their place spiritual loves. (HH 345)

To be a person means to have feelings, thoughts, and sensations. Animals also have these mental or spiritual experiences, but only at the natural level. Animals have a natural mind like we do. This does not yet mean that we are a human person. To be a human, which is to be a person, we must have a spiritual or rational mind that is immortal. When we are born, our mind contains an organic spiritual mind that is unconscious, and a natural mind that is conscious. Both minds must grow and mature together, though we are conscious of only one. Swedenborg was conscious in both, from age 57 to 84. Upon the death of the physical body, our consciousness switches from the natural mind to the spiritual mind. Our true human mind is therefore the spiritual mind within the spiritual body. This is immortal. Whereas animals are not immortal because their natural mind does not have a spiritual mind above them in which they can live in eternity (see Section xx).

Nevertheless, Swedenborg reports that animals are plentiful in the world of the afterlife. But these animals are created instantaneously by our thoughts and feelings, just like we create our surroundings for social and city life (see Section xx. But while you are no thinking of your pet or garden or house, these things disappear, only to be recreated the instant you think about them (see Section xx).

Because only immortal human beings can be called "persons", we are called "spirits" in Sacred Scripture, while animals are not. For instance, we can say that we are spirits looking out though a material body -- until death, and in the afterlife, we are spirits in a mental body forever. The mental world cannot end or disappear. It is eternity.

From all this you can see what it means to say that God is a Person. It means that God as He is Outside of Himself, is a Spirit or Divine Human Person in eternity, who has feelings, thoughts, and sensations. You have heard that we are created in the "likeness and image of God." What makes us human is that God is Human, that is, God is a Divine Human Person. Hence it is appropriate to call God "the Divine Human", as it is done in the literal sense of the Writings Sacred Scripture (written out by Swedenborg in Latin).

To think of God as a Spirit or Person, that is, to think of God as the Divine Human, requires a higher level of rational thinking and reasoning than the natural level which thinks of God as energy, the universe, or nature. For instance, when the Incarnate Divine Human ("God in flesh") arrived on the historical scene two thousand years ago (see Section xx), people could see God at the natural level of reality they could comprehend. God as He is Outside of Himself, now was in His Natural Body. Until then God was only a natural abstraction in their mind. They could not think of God as a Person. They were even forbidden by their religion to think of the infinite incomprehensible God as a human person, which was called "anthropomorphizing God". They could not love an abstraction of God, so they were given sacred power rituals that they took as physical proof of God's existence and presence with their nation. They could not love God but they could love God's physical rituals and sacred objects.

But when God entered history and science with a natural body and a socio-legal citizenship (see Section xx), everyone who is at the materialistic mentality of natural thinking can easily form an idea or picture of God. In this way they can leave the first natural level and start a new life, a new way of thinking that is entirely different and higher in rationality. This level starts with the comprehension of the idea that God as a Divine Human Person who always existed in eternity from where He created the physical universe. And we can then understand our immortality as "souls", since souls are created into the world of eternity where God is, and only temporarily do we have our consciousness trapped by a natural body.

Now for the very first time in human consciousness and evolution, human beings can start loving God in a different way. This new way in which we can reciprocate God's love for us, is the final phase in the evolution of conjunction of God with the human race (see Section xx). What makes possible this new way of loving God, is the Incarnation Event, by which God acquired for Himself a Divine Natural Body along with a Divine Natural Mind. This is therefore a new way in which God is present in the mind of every human being. Through this new creation for Himself, God as He is Outside of Himself has changed forever. In this new Divine Natural Body and Mind, God can appear in the conscious awareness of the natural mind.

This is a momentous development in the evolution of the human race because we can love God more closely when we can understand Him rationally with our conscious natural mind. Until two thousand years ago when God acquired a Divine Natural Body and Mind, human beings in both worlds were incapable of picturing in their conscious natural mind, the actual form of God. This was impossible because God did not have a natural form that one can picture. We can picture angels because they are in the human form. We cannot picture God as infinite love and wisdom except in the human form. God already had the human form in His Love and Wisdom, for these are human, that is, belonging to a person. We are in God's image, and therefore we too have love and wisdom in the human form.

God's infinite love, good, and power (omnipotence), are operations of His Affective Organ, which is constructed out of the eternal substance of good or spiritual heat. In this organ, infinite varieties of love, virtue, and power are gathered together and functioning as one affective organ. This organ is in the human form. Hence it is that our affective organ is in the human form. Hence also it is that the heart with its circulatory system extending into every inch of the physical body, is also in the human form.

God's infinite wisdom, truth, and rationality (omniscience), are operations of His Cognitive Organ, which is constructed out of the eternal substance of truth or spiritual light. In this organ, infinite varieties of truths, knowledges, and understandings are gathered together and functioning as one cognitive organ. This organ is in the human form. Hence it is that our cognitive organ is in the human form. Hence also it is that the lungs with its respiratory system extending in their effects into every inch of the body, is also in the human form.

God's infinite presence, participation, and availability (omnipresence), are operations of His Natural Body, which is constructed out of the Glorified physical body, not the original physical body prior to His death and resurrection (see Section xx). In this new Glorified Body (made Divine), which God obtained on this earth merely two thousand years ago, infinite varieties of uses, sciences, and arts are gathered together and functioning as one Divine Natural Body and Mind. This Divine Body is in the human form. Hence it is that our physical body is in the human form. Hence also it is that the musculature, skeleton, and brain with its nervous system extending into every inch of the body, are also shaped in the human form.

The conjunction between God and every human being can now be made perfect or complete. How close or perfect a conjunction we have with God, now depends solely on each individual. The closer our conjunction with God, the more God can give the person full potential in eternal happiness, conjugial love, intelligence, ability. Now that God is omnipresent in His Natural Body, we can see the Divine Human in our rational understanding. Blind faith or one that is based on mystery and little comprehension, cannot provide a clear and distinct picture of God in our natural mind. Mystical belief in God is not as close a conjunction with God as rational understanding of God (see Section xx).

What we do not understand rationally, we cannot fully believe, and what we cannot fully believe, we cannot fully love. Hence it was necessary for God to create this next step of our evolution by acquiring for Himself a Divine Natural Body in which He can be omnipresent in every person's mind -- should the person want to picture Him for the sake of loving Him more.

Until we start loving God fully from rational understanding, we are not completely human. It is our rational love for God that makes us into a "likeness and image" of God, hence fully human. The beginning of being genuinely human is the rational mind. Below that is the sensuous mind that we share in common with animals (see Section xx). This means that we can think and feel in our conscious natural mind at the level of spiritual rationality or truth. We cannot appropriate rationality as our own trait until we love God from rationally understanding Him. Rationality comes through the love we maintain for God as the Divine Human Person who creates us and maintains us from birth to eternity. While we are in the lower mentality of sensuous thinking of God we cannot love God with full conjunction and we cannot receive God's rationality as-if our own (see Section xx).

Hence the Incarnation event (God's embodiment) was the most momentous single event in human history and evolution. As a result of that event every human mind contains rational heavens and irrational hells. The Incarnation event separated the human mind into these levels which can never again be mixed (see Section xx). Since they cannot be mixed, our life in eternity is either all in one, or all in the other. When we love God as a Divine Human Person who is omnipotent and infinite, then we can receive the rational thoughts and feelings that allows us to live in the heavens.

(III) God as Truth within which is Good is a celestial idea of God.

Once we understand that God is a Divine Human Person, we are thinking rationally. The level of meaning of this rationality is called spiritual-natural and spiritual-rational correspondences of Divine Speech (see Section xx). This is also called our first and second heaven. But there is a more interior level of thinking and feeling, still higher, which is our third heaven, at is is called celestial-rational correspondences of Divine Speech. At this level of thinking we do not focus on the idea that God is a Person. We do not deny it since every time we come back to the lower level of thinking and feeling, we see this, we understand that God is a Person, and we love Him as the universal God the Divine Human and as our own Divine Psychologist. But when we ascend to the celestial-rational level of thinking about God, we put the Person idea behind us, or below us, and we love God in a different way, a higher way, a more universal way.

(1) God has revealed in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture that He is a Divine Person from eternity.

(2) God has confirmed in the New Testament Sacred Scripture that He is a Divine Human Person from eternity, and has revealed that he has acquired a Divine Natural Mind and Body in time and space, which He Glorified or made Divine substantial, expelling the inherited human corporeal through death and resurrection.

(3) God has confirmed in the Writings Sacred Scripture that He is a Divine Human Person from eternity, and has revealed that with His Divine Natural Mind and Glorified Natural Body He is omnipresent, and that thereby He is present as the Divine Psychologist in the conscious mind of every human being, providing all good and truth we need, in proportion to our willingness to undergo regeneration of our inherited character. And has also revealed the correspondential sense of all Sacred Scripture, making it possible for us to extract scientific knowledge from Divine Speech.

These three sets of revelations in historical sequence over thousands of years have formed the advance of civilization through the progressive development of rationality in the human mind. These also mark the mental states of development that every human being must go through in order to be prepared for eternal life in the heavens of the human mind. If we know these details, we can make sure that we manage the process appropriately, thus insuring for ourselves a heavenly life in immortality. It is not our merit or power that allows us to be prepared for heavenly life, since all power belongs to the omnipotent God. However, since regeneration and heavenly life occur only through the process of personal freedom of choice, God cannot force us into heaven. That would not be heaven, but a hell. Hence the Divine Psychologist in our conscious daily natural mind urges and encourages us to cooperate with Him.

The amount of good and truth He can give us depends on the degree to which we are willing to cooperate. We cooperate with God in our mind by engaging in combat as-of self, fighting our hellish traits, urges, and enjoyments, actively rejecting them because they are contrary to our heaven (see Section xx).

Our preparedness for heavenly life in eternity depends on our willingness to regenerate our inherited selfish or hellish character traits, as they are more animal than human. Acquiring rationality depends on acquiring the willingness to cooperate with the truth from love that enters our mind from God's mind through Divine Speech. It is the same whether we say truth from love, or truth from good, because love = good (see Section xx).

What does it mean to love God as Truth from Love?

We can no longer think that God is going to punish us in this world (natural level of thinking) or in the afterlife (spiritual level of thinking). God is truth from love, and this cannot punish. We can no longer think that God is angry with us because we are in sin (spiritual level of thinking). Or that God needs a sacrifice from us, or some other way, to forgive us, or to be reconciled to us. These are outward perspectives on God. But God is omnipotent and omnipresent. God is activating the content and sequence of our thoughts, and the events around us. God is not out there separated from us on account of this or that in our past, etc. At the celestial level of thinking we understand that God has already forgiven us before we even sin and that God is the one who managed the details of our sinful conduct. God cannot be turned away from us, or go away from us, etc. These are not rational ideas at the highest level of thinking.

Instead we can see that God and the individual form a functioning team or unit, managing every single particular detail of our thoughts, feelings, intentions, reasonings, etc. Once we understand this, the final step is to understand where God's truth from love is in us as part of the team we make as a person.

To love God at the celestial level of thinking and feeling means to love good and truth as God.

In other words, when you love good and truth you love God. This is totally different from loving God as a Divine Human Person. They are not incompatible of course, but one is below the other in thinking level of rationality.

For example consider the commandment that we love our neighbor. Every religion that acknowledges God from eternity as Person ("monotheism"), teaches God's commandment that we must love others rather than ourselves, if we are to live in the heavens of eternity. In the Old Testament mentality (natural thinking about God), to love the neighbor means to love your own kind. This is a racist perspective. Next in the New Testament mentality (spiritual thinking about God), to love the neighbor means to love everyone regardless of their race, background, or character. Next, in the mentality of the Writings of Swedenborg, to love the neighbor means to love the good and the true in the neighbor. We must not love everything about our neighbor. Only the good and true in any particular person. This is what we are to love because this is God's truth and love and we must love God's truth and love for this is what it means to love God.

Hence at the highest level of thinking rationally we will calibrate and make distinctions in what we love. We only want to love that which is good and true. Most people have both good and bad in their will and in their enjoyments. Our children are born with both. Our parents have both. But we must not love our children, our parents, or anyone, unconditionally. For this would mean to love the good and the bad in a person. This would be disastrous (see Section xx).

It is hard to understand at the spiritual level of thinking (God is a Divine Human Person) why we must not love a person unconditionally out of charity and love. But at the celestial level of thinking (good and truth is God), you can see that religious sectarianism is not rational. Anyone with whatever background can be prepared for a life in heaven if they love good and truth, regardless of what they also may think about God as a religion (see Section xx).

For other views on God that are not part of theistic psychology, see:
http://www.doesgodexist.org/ 

For a popular treatment, see Time magazine article on God vs. Science (2006):
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1555132,00.html 

1.2  Mystical vs. Rational Approaches to Theistic Psychology

 It's important to understand clearly the difference between mystical and rational spirituality since they have significantly different consequences through the choices we make. The basis for distinguishing mystical vs. rational spirituality is to examine how they each conceptualize our relationship to God.

The mystical approach is based on seeking sensuous consciousness of the Divine.

The sensuous consciousness of the Divine is often referred to by adherents as "sensing oneness with God" and other references to "the experience of God." This sensing and experiencing are operations of the corporeal-sensuous portion of the mind, which is very close to the natural order of the physical body, but far from the rational operations in the rational portion of the mind. Direct experience of God is therefore a "corporeal spirituality" or a sensuous spirituality grounded in non-rational experience. It will therefore be a "materialistic spirituality" whose order of operation will reflect physicalistic objects and laws, as discussed above. For instance, God will be conceptualized as a "spirit" and spirit is something that floats around or moves like the wind, or fills everything in its sphere like sunlight, or a field of energy or power. Some people claim to sense this energy field, or even to use it as "spiritual" power objects to heal a friend or kill an enemy, or just o experience ecstasy and out of body experiences.

These are the outward social psychological manifestations and culture of a mystical spirituality based in corporeal or physicalistic experience.

In contrast to this, rational spirituality is based on a rational consciousness of God as a Divine Human or Person.

The anatomy of the human mind (see Section xx) reveals that the rational portion of the organic mind lies above the corporeal-sensuous portion. Whatever meaningful and logical explanations we have of the corporeal-sensuous world around us, is a meaning constructed by the rational portion which is capable of more complex cognitive and affective operations. The anatomical charts in Section xx show that the rational portion of the human mind is exposed to two sources of stimuli. At its bottom portion, the rational mind receives stimuli from the corporeal-sensuous experiences of our physical body living in a natural universe. At its upper portion, the rational mind receives stimuli from the spiritual-celestial experiences of our spiritual body living in a spiritual universe. In other words, we are born dual citizens, with the spiritual body in the spiritual world and the physical body in the natural world.

Our two bodies are functionally connected by the laws of correspondences (see Section xx). At the death of the physical body our corporeal-sensuous experiences are no longer connected to the physical world. Instead, our spiritual body (or "mental body") is then the basis of our corporeal-sensuous experiences. We then begin an immortal life outside time and space in the spiritual universe, which is a mental universe created by rational ether emanating from the Spiritual Sun. The details of these operations were directly observed by Swedenborg for 27 years while he found himself with the unique and unprecedented capability of being conscious simultaneously in both his bodies. He could then explore the spiritual-mental universe with his spiritual body while taking notes with his physical body and publishing them. These 30 volumes are called the Writings of Swedenborg (published 1743-1771).

Since we now know the anatomy of the human organic mind we see that there are two levels of rational thinking, a physical rational, or materialistic rational level, and a spiritual rational level. The materialistic level of rational operations are abstract metaphors or analogies constructed on the basis of our corporeal-sensuous experiences -- touching, measuring, smelling, weighing, counting, localizing in space and time, contrasting, distinguishing, etc. The most abstract of advanced  theories in physics, economics, or biochemistry are based on  the physicalistic order imposed on or filtered through the senses, in other words, based on corporeal-sensuous experiences. These are operations of the lower portion of the rational mind. All its ideas and explanations will therefore be limited to the order of the physical sensory world of matter, space, and time. Hence God will also be a physicalistic idea, as for instance that God is infinite energy called Spirit, or that God is the Divine above rationality that can be only sensed, not understood and described. Or that God is a force that can be influenced by various methods -- incantations, sacrifices, obedience, anointment, rituals, etc. These are ideas of materialistic spirituality constructed by the materialistic natural portion of the mind. (See further in Section xx.)

Nevertheless its' important to realize that materialistic-rational ideas vary in severity of denial of God and the afterlife. Atheism, cultism, cynicism, spiritism, scientology, sorcery -- are severe forms of denial because an elaborate intellectual system has been built around the denial. Milder forms of denial of God include religious dogma, idol worship, adoration of sacred objects or other human beings, superstition, persuasive faith. These are less severe because there is "blind faith" involved rather than intellectual justification. As a result they are able to receive rational instruction after they are awakened in their resuscitation process. But the former group are more resistant to rational instruction and tend to hang on to their intellectual system no matter what is being shown them.

Those are most accepting of the new spiritual instruction who have lived the life of good in their daily choices and have not thought much about the dogmas of their religion. Thus they have not rationalized and internalized the anti-rational ideas contained in their mystical  religion.  Their altruistic and peaceful character allows them to understand and accept with enthusiasm the new spiritual-rational truths that are harmonious with the good in their character. But those who have made daily choices of deception, selfishness, and lack of compassion, reject the new spiritual instruction because it is not harmonious to their character. They rather continue being the way they are than changing to fit the new spiritual truths.

Rational consciousness of God never depends on direct sensuous experience but only on the understanding of scientific revelations contained in Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech.

This refers to spiritual truths or meanings that continuously stream into every individual from the upper portion of the rational mind. We are not directly conscious of these rational truths in our spiritual mind but we can benefit from their presence there if we acquire conscious rational ideas that correspond to them. When we study Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech our rational mind is elevated to the celestial level of enlightenment by means of the higher-order correspondences we acquire for ourselves (see Section xx).

The rational mind receives stimuli from the physical universe, in its lower portion, and receives stimuli from the spiritual world in its upper portion. The rational mind is "bathed" in rational ether like the physical senses are bathed in sunlight and atmospheres of air and gravity. The atmosphere of rational ether that surrounds our spiritual body in the spiritual world, is formed by the Spiritual Sun, which is a substantive emanation of God's infinite Divine Love and Wisdom in the form of spiritual heat and spiritual light (see Section xx).

While we are still connected to a physical body, our conscious awareness is located in the operations of the materialistic mind. We are therefore unconscious of the spiritual-rational ideas and operations entering the upper portion of the rational mind. Nevertheless, we can become conscious of them through learning the hierarchy of correspondences, to be discussed throughout theistic psychology (e.g., see Section xx). This built-in hierarchy of correspondences activates our consciousness, or conscious understanding, allowing it to understand rationally the Divine revelations God gives through a prophet or revelator at different times in the history of civilization on this earth. What the prophet or revelator then writes down is called Sacred Scripture. These contain all the hierarchy of correspondences by which we can raise our consciousness to the celestial-rational level called "heaven." At that level of rational spirituality we think of God in terms of higher order correspondences nearest to true reality and what it affords human beings -- eternal life in conjugial bliss that is ever growing and perfecting (see Section xx).

When our connection to the physical body is broken at "death," we begin our life of immortality in rational ether by means of our spiritual body which is the organic mind containing our feelings and thoughts, and all their operations -- our self, our personality, our memories, our identity, our ambitions and desires,  etc. None of these mental operations are located in the physical body or brain. All along they existed in the mind or mental body. Nothing is therefore lost as we lose the physical body except our ability to receive stimuli from the natural world.

This new life of immortality in rational ether is completely different from the life we experienced on earth in the physical universe. Swedenborg was able to describe it in detail as he lived in it for 27 years while he was also still doing his daily duties on earth -- being an engineer, publisher, and member of the Swedish parliament. It took him a little while, as you can imagine, to adjust to this sudden new duality of consciousness in which he had to live from age 57 to 84. Until then he was a noted scientist and public figure, but shortly after he began his dual life he resigned from his main job and managed to write 30 volumes of notes that he published himself at his own expense and then sent all the copies free to scholars and bishops all over Christian Europe. Swedenborg's reports were unanimously rejected or ignored by the clergy and science. Nevertheless, every generation since then has had a small number of dedicated Swedenborg adherents who translated his many volumes into various languages, and this process is going on today (see Readings). 

While we are still living on this earth, we cannot confirm what Swedenborg saw and heard by our own direct sensuous consciousness of the spiritual world. Swedenborg was a unique case. God prepared his mind from birth in order to be capable of living a dual consciousness life, and this not until he was mature at age 57. The reason we are not given direct sensuous and conscious awareness of the spiritual world is that such an experience would inhibit the normal development of our rational mind, which would endanger or corrupt the quality of life in our immortality. When we awaken at death in our spiritual body -- a process Swedenborg observed carefully with thousands of people -- we are no longer able to be divided in our lower and upper portions of the mind. While we are conscious in this world the two portions function separately, one conscious the other unconscious. A similar independence is replicated with our external behavior and our internal feelings and intentions. We can appear friendly and orderly on the outside, meanwhile we can be plotting in our mind to do the opposite. This kind of "divided mind" is no longer possible in the afterlife of immortality.

Hence we now begin to act on the outside exactly as we feel on the inside. Swedenborg observed for years the visible environment in the spiritual-mental world where everyone awakens after death. Remarkably, the visual environment is created by each person's thoughts and feelings. We are familiar with this idea when we consider our dreams. The visual and other sensory environment while we dream feels very real, even more intensely real than the environment we wake up to. The physical environment is fixed and stable, unaffected by our feelings and thoughts. But our dream environment is changeable and reflects our thoughts and desires. This is because dreams are in the spiritual body which lives in a mental-spiritual atmosphere that is reactive to the mental operations of every person.

Swedenborg describes some people who arrive with obsessive fantasies and don't have the rational operations by which to overrule these irrational thoughts and desires. As a result their feelings and thoughts create a spiritual environment around them called "hell" in which they interact with others who are in similar delusions. Swedenborg confirmed by multiple observations and experiments in the spiritual world that people who have a poorly developed rational mind sink their consciousness into their corporeal-sensuous experiences that they had acquired from life on earth. They live out their immortality in dire conditions and despite many efforts at re-education, they are unwilling to change (see Section xx).

You can see why no one is allowed to have direct sensuous experience of the spiritual world. It is a physiological function that is normally blocked by God to protect the individual. If we can have no physical proof of God's existence, or of the mental-spiritual world of our afterlife, then we are able to develop a rational consciousness or understanding of God and our life of immortality in rational ether.

The more rational power we have, the higher we can raise our consciousness of God, and the more perfect will be our afterlife in immortality. "Heaven" refers to this level of rational life in which we act like angels or celestial humans -- we love obedience to God, we make choices on the basis of His rational definitions of reality and truth, and we love others as much or more than ourselves. "Hell" refers to the level of corporeal-sensuous life, which is below the true human life. This lower life tends to veer downward since it acts independently of the higher rational mind, and falls prey to its own fantasies, irrationalities, obsessions, and hatreds.

The central purpose of our life on earth is therefore the growth and development of spiritual-rational ideas and thoughts of God and ourselves. Through this rational spirituality we can spend our immortality in "heaven." Without it, we spend it in "hell." Nothing therefore can be as important to us right now as to realize this difference and its consequences to us.

For every generation of people on earth God provides a powerful and effective method for growing our spiritual-rational mind. At different times God inspires the mind of selected individuals to have a vision or hear a message of Divine Speech. When this is written down it is called Sacred Scripture. The prophet or writer only understands the literal meaning of what he writes down, if that much. But hidden in this simple minded literal meaning is the hierarchy of correspondences that is like an elevator shaft, or staircase, by which our consciousness can travel upward higher and higher. The secret of how to extract these higher-order cognitions was not known by anyone until the method of correspondence was revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg (see Section xx). The knowledge we gain from this lawful extraction process is called theistic psychology.

The words and sentences of Sacred Scripture reveal Divine truths of reality, but at various levels of rationality. The lowest or most external level is the literal meaning of Sacred Scripture. This tends to be historical, cultural, religious, mystical, visionary, and poetic in style. These are the natural correspondences of Divine meanings. But anyone can think more deeply about the sentences of Sacred Scripture. This attempt remained limited and people came up with all sorts of contradictory explanations and interpretations of the spiritual meaning that lies hidden in Sacred Scripture (see Section xx). The Writings of Swedenborg now provide a full revelation and explanation of how to extract correspondences from Sacred Scripture. Theistic psychology is based on this knowledge.

Sensuous and mystical spirituality is a way of avoiding the rational application of correspondences as revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg. And yet our fate in eternity depends on the growth of our spiritual-rational mind. We develop this mind more and more by analyzing and understanding the correspondences hidden in the literal sentences of Sacred Scripture. We develop our rational understanding by problem solving with those sentences and ideas, and creating a "doctrine for life" out of them, which means making up rational rules and principles by which we conduct our daily affairs and relationships.

Our task is to live our daily life according to this doctrine of life from Sacred Scripture. It is what determines the content of our mind, what we take with us from this temporary life to the afterlife of immortality. Swedenborg has observed over and over again that people are unwilling to become more rational once they are in the afterlife. We therefore "get stuck" at the level of rationality we bring with us. Whatever rationality we bring with us gets then developed and perfected endlessly to eternity. And since people bring different qualities of rationality with them they congregate together with others of similar rationality, some higher, some much higher, and some much much higher (see Section xx). Swedenborg visited three levels of "heavenly" life and they were quite different. Similarly, he visited many layers of "hellish" life, some much worse than others (see Section xx).

It is the rational operation of the mind that is essential for understanding God through God's revelation of truth in Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech--according to the approach of rational spirituality. But in mystical spirituality, understanding of God is seen as limited while experiencing God is seen as more immediate and powerful. However, according to rational spirituality the attempt to "experience" or "sense" God directly is a delusion of corporeal spirituality. It stems from self-intelligence and makes self-intelligence or the self, equal to the Divine. This is known as "nonduality" because it assumes that God and human beings can form a one as if their consciousness were of the same substance or level. But rational spirituality creates an absolute "duality" between God and human beings since God is infinite and there cannot be a "oneness" between the infinite and the finite. Nothing from the infinite (i.e., the Divine) can be an integral part of the finite (i.e., human beings). I discuss the issue of nonduality at length in Volume 1 of A man of the Field available on the Web:  www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/volume1-nonduality.html

According to rational spirituality we can be "conjoined" with God, or "adjoined to Him,  in a reciprocal duality or relationship, where the parts always and forever remain distinct from each other, and there is never a "melding" or other "oneness" possible.

Our immortality is a result of our conjunction with God.

This is sometimes called "salvation," that is, not having to die like other natural things. It allows our consciousness and life to ascend to the highest human potential called "heaven," and in that state of mind we enjoy eternal life in the heaven of our mind. But the delusion of "oneness" with God brings falsities in one's life instead of truth, and the eventual result is the corruption of the rational mind so that the self sinks into the lowest state of human life called hell. Obviously it's crucial to be able to distinguish between these two forms of spirituality, for one leads to eternal happiness and rationality, while the other leads to eternal corruption and delusion. Of course, those who follow the mystical approach reject the premises of rational spirituality as ludicrous and they see no merit in it. Therefore people must decide carefully for themselves by examining the rationale of these two approaches to God and angelic life.

One may wonder why God doesn't show Himself sensuously so people can have direct sensuous experience of God -- seeing Him, touching Him, having a chat with Him. Then God would be just like any other real part of our lives, like our uncle, our neighbor, or the president. The answer to this puzzle is explained rationally and scientifically in the Writings of Swedenborg. Theistic psychology now understands that all human minds are born and exist as organic structures in the spiritual world, not in the natural physical world. The mind is functionally tied to the physical body as long as its temporary existence still holds. But once the physical body becomes a corpse, the connection is broken and we seem to ourselves to awaken in the spiritual world. There we continue a life of immortality. It is the mind (or "spirit")  -- not the physical brain -- that actually senses, thinks and feels, while the neurons in the brain parallel or react by correspondence to the mind's operations. We need the physical brain while we are connected to earth, but once the connection is broken, our new sensory input is from the spiritual world through our mental body (or "rational ether body").

Swedenborg had the unique opportunity in the history of humankind to receive the ability of being conscious simultaneously in the natural world and in the spiritual world, and this continuously without interruption for 27 years. His physical body gave out at age 84 in 1772 and he was no longer conscious of this world. But he left behind some 30 books about what he found out in the spiritual world. He was an experienced and respected scientist and was able to write these books in a scientific language and rational outline. Theistic psychology is the knowledge we have by studying the Writings of Swedenborg.

We now know that the mind is a spiritual organ that looks like the physical body in shape and form. The mind is not just in the brain, as passed writers have thought. The mind is in the entire body and the physical body has this shape because it parallels the mind in form.

The fibers and neurons of the mind's organs must grow in a proper manner, and if they don't, they are corrupted or impaired. Mental development must be adequate to support the proper growth of the rational mind. Negative and harmful experiences people have in childhood introduce malfunctioning in the mental organs. We also inherit many dysfunctional operations of the mind so that people have a strong tendency to be irrational, selfish, violent, or disrespectful of authority. The mind is therefore a battle ground between healthy and unhealthy tendencies. When our connection with the physical world is terminated, the mind then lives an immortal life in the spiritual world. The quality of that life depends on the state or quality of the functioning mind -- its content and habitual operations. Negative thoughts and antisocial traits cause our conscious awareness to sink into the lowest portion of the mind called "hell." We then live in that state forever in dire conditions of insanity and obsession, being unwilling to do what it takes to raise ourselves from that terrible state. Positive affectivity and rational thoughts cause our conscious awareness to be elevated into the highest portion of the human mind called "heaven." We then live in that state of mind to eternity in conjugial joy, rationality, and wisdom.

Obviously an omnipotent God must supervise and manage these operations for every individual, from birth to endless immortality. God remains out of people's direct sensuous confirmation or physical proof of Him or His existence. He does this in order that we may develop a strong rational consciousness of Him. We get closer and closer in our conjunction with God as we acquire more and more rational ideas and knowledge of Him through Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech. The more we allow God to take us closer in conjunction with Him, the more we can enjoy rationality and bliss forever in our immortality. Closeness of conjunction with God is through rational consciousness of Him, not sensuous. This is why God will not appear to people directly to our external organs or mystical experience.

It's an issue of psycho-biology. The anatomy of the mind is such that its highest portion is pure rationality. The more we have spiritual-rational concepts of God, the closer He can conjoin us to Himself, and the more we are eternally wise, happy, altruistic, and good. It is this spiritual rationality that forms the content of theistic psychology. The rational ideas from the Writings are expressed in terms of the modern science of psychology. Many people in the past two hundred years have contributed to this knowledge by studying and researching the Writings of Swedenborg (see Readings).

Since God avoids speaking to people directly or communicating mystically "one on one," He uses another method of communication called Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech. These are written in hidden rational correspondences that reveal all the ways in which people can be conjoined to God. For its content and facts, theistic psychology relies on the lawful process of extracting hidden correspondences from Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech. This is how we obtain facts about God, what we must do to be conjoined with Him, and how we must prepare adequately for life in immortality and eternity. All personal, subjective speculation or fabrication about these topics can thus be totally avoided.

All knowledge and facts of spiritual rationality are based exclusively on this revealed source. However, as will be explained later in detail, we must rely on the underlying or hidden meanings of Sacred Scripture as Divine Speech. If we rely on the surface literal meaning, we obtain mostly historical facts about a place and people, and religious injunctions for a particular cultural and racial group. These are not suitable for a science of theistic psychology. But the "method of correspondences" revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg allow us to systematically extract rational scientific knowledge and facts about God and our immortality. Details on this method will be presented throughout the following chapters.

1.2.1  Who was Swedenborg?

As a background to who was Swedenborg, I quote from an article that gives a brief but authoritative biography of Swedenborg by Dr. Jane K. Williams-Hogan. The Web address of the article is
www.glencairnmuseum.org/jkwh.html (see also the Reading List). Here are some relevant quotes:

In his study he [Swedenborg] gradually realized that the Word alone could form the experiential ground of a new revelation from God to man. Because this ground is universally available to all people and unlike a private vision, it can be challenged or confirmed by other men's rational and experiential response to it.  (...)

 As he grew to understand it, that commission required both intellectual and spiritual preparation. The need for such preparation, according to Swedenborg's own testimony, lay in the nature of the revelation he was to receive. As he stated in Arcana Coelestia, internal revelation, or revelation from perception, requires preparation of the mind and soul, in order to create a foundation for it. External revelations through dreams, visions or hearing a voice, on the other hand, such as those received by the Jewish prophets, do not require a similar foundation. Revelations of this kind are revelations without perception or understanding.  (...)

 Because Swedenborg was an instrument of an internal revelation, his spiritual mission took place in both the spiritual and natural worlds. He believed that his commission to the natural world entailed only that he should faithfully write, publish, and disseminate the heavenly truths that were revealed to him by the Divine-Human. This is all that he did during the twenty-three years of his public mission. He never put any effort into direct proselytizing or into organizing a new church, nor did he personally attempt to convert anyone to his views. Throughout this time he underwrote all of the expense necessary to fulfill this mission, and whatever income he received from the sale of these books he directed his printer to reinvest in their publication. He sold his books below cost and he also sent many copies of his works to libraries, prelates, and various other notable individuals. During this time from 1749 to 1771 he published eighteen separate theological works.  (...)

 Swedenborg's religious teachings provide a new vision of God, new insight into the nature of the relationship between the spiritual and natural worlds, and a universal and rational ethic to guide men to a useful life. It is a radical and rational Christian religion: radical because it breaks with both Catholic and Protestant traditional interpretations of the Trinity, original sin, the atonement, and imputation and justification; and rational because the focus of its theology is the penetration and clarification of the mysteries of faith, through which a new understanding of salvation emerges which grants man cooperative efficacy in spiritual things.  (...)

According to Swedenborg, the purpose of spiritual and natural creation was to form a heaven from the human race. However, this required free response on the part of man, and provision for his salvation. The spiritual world, of which heaven is a part, is the world of causes, while the natural world is that of effects. Therefore, for a new revelation to be truly new and universal, it must reveal the world of causes which was for so long hidden from man, and it must essentially address the question of order at that level; for so far as the world of causes is ordered, so will be the world of effects.

See also this  brief biography of Swedenborg and his place in the world today:
Williams-Hogan, Jane K. (2006). From Swedenborg to the New Church: Interview. Religioscope. Available at: http://religion.info/english/interviews/article_247.shtml 

 

Swedenborg and his career is discussed throughout the book and you will gain additional insight on who he was as you proceed. You can also consult the Readings for biographies of him.

Swedenborg's Writings were recently selected by the United Nations to be part of the Memory of the World Register, a collection of important books from the past that must be saved for posterity. Here is an explanation:

CENTER FOR HISTORY OF SCIENCE

The Swedenborg Collection – A World Memory

The Emanuel Swedenborg Collection, one of the largest collections of manuscripts from an individual of the 18th century, is managed by the Center for History of Science.

In June 2005, the collection was inscribed on UNESCO:s Memory of the World Register.
 Read UNESCO:s press release >>

The Collection consists of manuscripts, original editions and letters by Swedenborg (1688–1772). The collection contains documents from his years as a scientist and technician as well as from the later part of his life, when he became a prophet and a religious writer.

Some of the documents from the Swedenborg collection. © Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Read about the purpose of the Memory of the World Programme on their web-site >>

Documentary heritage reflects the diversity of languages, peoples and cultures. It is the mirror of the world and its memory. But this memory is fragile. Every day, irreplaceable parts of this memory disappear forever.

UNESCO has launched the Memory of the World Programme to guard against collective amnesia calling upon the preservation of the valuable archive holdings and library collections all over the world ensuring their wide dissemination.

Emanuel Swedenborg as prophet, holding a book about future apocalypses.
© Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Scientist and prophet
Emanuel Swedenborg was a very productive writer. After his death in 1772 his manuscripts were donated to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences by his relatives. Swedenborg had himself been a member of the academy.

Swedenborg is one of the most famous Swedes in the world and the only one whose work inspired the founding of a new church. After a successful career as a scientist and technician he went through a religious crisis in the 1740´s. This crisis culminated in a revelation in which he was given the mission to tell mankind of the Bible´s inner meaning and also reveal what the angels and other spirits told him. This divine mission resulted in many books about the deeper truths in the Bible which were written during the last 25 years of his life.

Swedenborg´s spiritual message reached all over the world and still many of his followers read his texts with deep reverence. His manuscripts are regarded as holy relics for some of them. As early as the 1870´s many of Swedenborg's religious texts were reproduced with a new innovative photolithographic technique. This technically pioneering project was conducted by American and British followers of Swedenborg.

From: http://www.center.kva.se/engelska/swedenborg_collection.htm

from:  The Works of Emanuel Swedenborg in Chronological Order

1714

Published Works

• Joyous Accolade for Charles XII’s … Arrival in His Own Pomerania.

• Heliconian Pastime, or Miscellaneous Poems that Emanuel Swedberg Composed for Various Occasions.

Documents Not Published

• Possible Draft of a Design of a Submarine Ship

• Possible Draft of a Design of a Siphon

• Possible Draft of a Design of a Hoist for Heavy Objects

• Possible Draft of a Document About Constructing Sluices

• Possible Draft of a Design of a Big Machine for Pumping Water

• Possible Draft of a Design of a Drawbridge

• Possible Draft of a Design of an Air Pump

• Possible Draft of a Design of an Air Gun

• Possible Draft of a Design of a Universal Musical Instrument

• Possible Draft of a Design for Creating Shaded Images Using Engraving

• Possible Draft of a Design of a Water Clock

• Possible Draft of a Mechanical Carriage and a Flying Carriage

• Possible Draft of a Method for Analyzing Feelings or Inclinations

• Possible Draft of a Design of Cords and Springs

1716

Published Works

• Either the Ages are Returning … (First Epigram for “Daedalus Hyperboreus” - Sweden’s First Scientific Journal (1716-1718))

• Assessor Polhem’s Instrument to Aid Hearing

• Another Similar Instrument

• On the Little Ear-Trumpet Used in England

• Assessor Polhem’s Experiments on the Quality of Sound

• Experiments That Yet Remain to Be Conducted in Our Country Sound

• On a Speaking-Tube

• First Lifting and Reversing Machine

• Second Lifting Device

• Experiments That Can Be Conducted in Winter

• Table for Converting Carolins to Copper Dalers, Silver Dalers, and Riksdalers

• Another Handy Method for Converting Carolins … into Any Type of Currency …

• Second Edition of Heleconian Pastimes

• Assessor Polhem’s Division of a Steelyard

• On an Air Pump …

• Calculation and Measurement of the Width and Height of Water and Air in Such Pumps

• A Sapphic Ode for the Birthday of My Beloved Father, Doctor Jesper Swedberg …

• Assessor Polhem’s Reliable Observations on the Air’s Resistance to Falling Weights and Surfaces

• Sketch of a Machine to Fly in the Air

• An Experiment with Round Shot and Paper

• An Experiment on the Resistance of Water and Snow to Round Shot

• A New and Reliable Method of Finding East and West Longitudes … by Means of the Moon

• The First and Easiest Way: Accurate Location by Means of the Longitude Here

• The Second Way: Find the Difference of Meridians or Longitudes of a Place by Means of the Aforementioned Stars

• Behold, Daedalus takes to the air … (Second Epigram for “Daedalus Hyperboreus”)

Documents Not Published

• On Several Types of Soils and Muds

• Possible Draft on Reflections on Perspective

• Untitled Draft of a Memorial on a Society of Sciences

• Remarks on Mussels, Snails, and So On in Limestone and on Slate

• Description of a Daedalian or Flying Machine

• A Siphoning Machine

• New Ways to Sail Against the Stream …

• Notes on Some Small Tests and Experiments

• Untitled Draft of a Design of a Screw Jack

• Stereometric Proportions and Some New Principles of Stereometry

• The Use of Water to Calculate the Amount of Lead in Medium Quality Iron of the Same Weight and Source

• Description of a Crane

• Experiment with Echoes

• Memorandum on the Improvements That Await Being Made at Carlscrona

• Youth’s Honor (possibly written by Polhem)

1717

Published Works

• … Polhem’s Ingenious Tap …

• Table for Calculating the Volumes of Cubes, Cylinders, and Spheres When One Knows the Surface Measurements in Inches

• An Easy Analytical Method of Demonstrating Both the Preceding and Other Points Geometrically

• Information about the Tinwork of Steirsund, Its Use, and Tinning

• An Easy Way of Counting Round Shot Stacked Together in a Triangular Pile

• A Proof That Our Vital Essence Consists for the Most Part of Small Vibrations, That is, of Tremulations

• On a Rounded Line or Curve Whose Dividing-Lines, That Is, Secants, Always Form Equal Angles to the Curve

1721

Published Works

• A Letter from Nobleman Emanuel Swedenborg to the Celebrated Jacob a Melle (Indications of the Earth’s Former Submersion)

• A Precursor to the Basic Principles of Nature or of New Attempts at a Geometrical Explanation of Chemistry and Experimental Physics

• New Observations and Discoveries Regarding Iron adn Fire, Especially the Elementary Nature of Fire; Also a New Furnace Design

• A New Method of Finding the Longitudes of Places on Land and at Sea with the Help of the Moon

Documents Not Published

• In the Name of the Lord: A New Method of Finding the Longitudes of Places on Land and at Sea with the Help of the Moon

1733

Documents Not Published

• On the Motion of the Elements in General

• Untitled Journal from October 1733 to March 1734

• Untitled Notes on Wolff’s “Empirical Psychology”

• Untitled Quotation from Wolff’s “Empirical Psychology”

• Untitled Extracts from Shurig 1729

• Untitled Translation of Extracts from Richter 1722

• Mechanism of the Soul and Body

from:  The Works of Emanuel Swedenborg in Chronological Order

        1.2.1.1    Swedenborg's Autobiographical Letters

1. ANSWER TO A LETTER WRITTEN TO ME BY A FRIEND. A LETTER FROM EMANUEL SWEDENBORG TO THE REV. THOMAS HARTLEY.{1}

I rejoice at the friendship which you manifest in your letter; and I thank you sincerely for both, but especially for your friendship. The praises with which you overwhelm me, I receive simply as expressions of your love for the truths contained in my writings; and I refer them, as their source, to the Lord, our Saviour, from whom is everything true, because He is the Truth Itself (John xiv. 6). I have considered chiefly the remarks you make at the close of your letter, where you express yourself as follows: "If, perchance, after your departure from England, your writings should be the subject of discussion, and occasion should arise for defending you, their author, against some malignant slanderer, who may wish to injure your reputation by a web of falsehoods--as those are in the habit of doing who hate the truth--would it not be well for you, in order to repel such slanderers, to leave with me some particulars respecting yourself, your degrees in the University, the public offices you have filled, your friends and relations, the honors which, I am told, have been conferred upon you, and anything else that might be useful in establishing your good name, so that ill-conceived prejudices may be removed; for it is our duty to use all lawful means lest the cause of truth should suffer injury."

After reflecting on this, I have been led to yield to your friendly advice, and will now communicate to you some particulars of my life, which are briefly as follows:-

I was born at Stockholm on the 29th of January in the year 1689.{2} My father's name was Jesper Swedberg, who was bishop of West-Gothland, and a man of celebrity in his time. He was also elected and enrolled as a member of the English Society, for the Propagation of the Gospel; for he had been appointed by King Charles XII Bishop over the Swedish churches in Pennsylvania, and also over the church in London. In the year 1710 I went abroad. I proceeded first to England, and afterwards to Holland, France, and Germany, and returned home in the year 1714. 1 In the year 1716, and also afterwards I had many conversations with Charles XII, King of Sweden, who greatly favored me, and in the same year appointed me to the office of Assessor in the College of Mines, which office I filled until the year 1747, when I resigned it, retaining, however, the salary of the office during my life. My sole object in resigning was that I might have more leisure to devote to the new office enjoined on me by the Lord.

A higher post of honor was then offered me, which I positively declined, lest my mind should be inspired with pride. In the year 1719, I was ennobled by Queen Ulrica Eleanora, and named Swedenborg; and from that time I have taken my seat among the nobles of the rank of knighthood, in the triennial sessions of the Diet. I am a Fellow and member, by invitation, of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm; but I have never sought admission into any literary society in any other place, because I am in an angelic society, where such things as relate to heaven and the soul are the only subjects of discourse; while in literary societies the world and the body form the only subjects of discussion. In the year 1734, I published, at Leipsic, the Regnum Minerale, in three volumes, folio. In the year 1738 I made a journey to Italy, and staid a year at Venice and Rome.

With respect to my family connections, I had four sisters. One of them was married to Eric Benzelius, who subsequently became the Archbishop of Upsal, and through him I became related to the two succeeding archbishops, who both belonged to the family of Benzelius, and were younger brothers of Eric. My second sister was married to Lars Benzelstierna, who became a provincial governor; but these two are dead. Two bishops, however, who are related to me, are still living; one of them, whose name is Filenius, and who is Bishop of East Gothland, officiates now as President of the House of the Clergy in the Diet of Stockholm, in place of the Archbishop, who is an invalid; he married my sister's daughter: the other, named Benzelstierna, is Bishop of Westmanland and Dalecarlia; he is the son of my second sister. Not to mention others of my relations who occupy stations of honor.

Moreover, all the bishops of my native country, who are ten in number, and also the sixteen senators, and the rest of those highest in office, entertain feelings of affection for me; from their affection they honor me, and I live with them on terms of familiarity, as a friend among friends; the reason of which is, that they know I am in company with angels. Even the King and the Queen, and the three princes, their sons, show me great favor: I was also invited once by the King and Queen to dine with them at their own table, which honor is generally accorded only to those who are highest in office; subsequently the Crown Prince granted me the same favor. They all desire me to return home; wherefore, I am far from apprehending, in my own country, that persecution, which you fear, and against which in your letter you desire in so friendly a manner to provide; and if they persecute me elsewhere, it can do me no harm.

But all that I have thus far related, I consider of comparatively little importance; for it is far exceeded by the circumstance, that I have been called to a holy office by the Lord Himself, who most mercifully appeared before me, His servant, in the year 1743; when He opened my sight into the spiritual world, and granted me to speak with spirits and angels, in which state I have continued up to the present day. From that time I began to print and publish the various arcana that were seen by me and revealed to me, as the arcana concerning Heaven and Hell, the state of man after death, the true worship of God, the spiritual sense of the Word, besides many other most important matters conducive to salvation and wisdom. The only reason of my journeys abroad has been the desire of making myself useful, and of making known the arcana that were entrusted to me. Moreover, I have as much of this world's wealth as I need, and I neither seek nor wish for more.

Your letter has induced me to write all these particulars, in order that as you say "ill-conceived prejudices may be removed." Farewell; and from my heart I wish you all the happiness both in this world, and the next; which I have not the least doubt you will attain, if you look and pray to our Lord. EMAN. SWEDENBORG

@1 Rev. Thomas Hartley, A.M., a friend of Swedenborg, and one of the first receivers of his doctrines, was a clergyman of the Church of England, and rector of Winwick, Northamptonshire The letter asking for particulars respecting Swedenborg's life, to which the above is a reply, was written August 2, 1769 (See Documents Concerning Swedenborg Vol. I, pp. 3-5, 6-9.--TR.$

@2 The original edition has "1689," which is probably a printer's error. Swedenborg was born January 29, 1688.--TR. 1 The original edition has "1714," but Swedenborg did not return to Sweden until after April, 1715.--TR.

2. MY EARLY YOUTH. {1}

FROM A LETTER OF SWEDENBORG TO DR. BEYER.

I will now give you an account of my first youth: From my fourth to my tenth year I was constantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual affections (passiones spirituales) of men; and several times I revealed things at which my father and mother wondered: saying, that angels must be speaking through me. From my sixth to my twelfth year I used to delight in conversing with clergymen about faith, saying that the life of faith is love, and that the love which imparts life is love to the neighbor; also that God gives faith to everyone, but that those only receive it who practice that love. I knew of no other faith at that time, than that God is the Creator and Preserver of nature, that He imparts understanding and a good disposition to men, and several other things that follow thence. I knew nothing at that time of that learned faith which teaches that God the Father imputes the righteousness of His Son to whomsoever, and at such times, as He chooses even to those who have not repented and have not reformed their lives. And had I beard of such a faith, it would have been then, as it is now, above my comprehension.

I remain, with all affection and friendship,
Your most obedient servant and friend,
EMAN. SWEDENBORG
STOCKHOLM, November 14, 1769.
To the Reverend and Most Learned Doctor and Lector
GABRIEL AND. BEYER, Gottenburg.
@1 See Documents Concerning Swedenborg, Vol. II, pp. 278-280.$
 

Autobiographical statements from Swedenborg's Writings

AC 5. That this is really the ease no one can possibly know except from the Lord. It may therefore be stated in advance that of the Lord's Divine mercy it has been granted me now for some years to be constantly and uninterruptedly in company with spirits and angels, hearing them speak and in turn speaking with them. In this way it has been given me to hear and see wonderful things in the other life which have never before come to the knowledge of any man, nor into his idea. I have been instructed in regard to the different kinds of spirits; the state of souls after death; hell, or the lamentable state of the unfaithful; heaven, or the blessed state of the faithful; and especially in regard to the doctrine of faith which is acknowledged in the universal heaven; on which subjects, of the Lord's Divine mercy, more will be said in the following pages.

AC 59. The reason why the "vegetable and the green of the herb" only are here described as food for the natural man, is this. In the course of regeneration, when man is being made spiritual, he is continually engaged in combat, on which account the church of the Lord is called "militant;" for before regeneration cupidities have the dominion, because the whole man is composed of mere cupidities and the falsities thence derived. During regeneration these cupidities and falsities cannot be instantaneously abolished, for this would be to destroy the whole man, such being the only life which he has acquired; and therefore evil spirits are suffered to continue with him for a long time, that they may excite his cupidities, and that these may thus be loosened, in innumerable ways, even to such a degree that they can be inclined by the Lord to good, and the man be thus reformed.

In the time of combat, the evil spirits, who bear the utmost hatred against all that is good and true, that is, against whatever is of love and faith toward the Lord -which things alone are good and true, because they have eternal life in them-leave the man nothing else for food but what is compared to the vegetable and the green of the herb; nevertheless the Lord gives him also a food which is compared to the herb bearing seed, and to the tree in which is fruit, which are states of tranquillity and peace, with their joys and delights and this food the Lord gives the man at intervals.

[2] Unless the Lord defended man every moment, yea, even the smallest part of every moment, he would instantly perish, in consequence of the indescribably intense and mortal hatred which prevails in the world of spirits against the things relating to love and faith toward the Lord. The certainty of this fact I can affirm, having been now for some years (notwithstanding my remaining in the body) associated with spirits in the other life, even with the worst of them, and I have sometimes been surrounded by thousands, to whom it was permitted to spit forth their venom, and infest me by all possible methods, yet without their being able to hurt a single hair of my head, so secure was I under the Lord's protection. From so many years' experience I have been thoroughly instructed concerning the world of spirits and its nature, as well as concerning the combat which those being regenerated must needs endure, in order to attain the happiness of eternal life. But as no one can be so well instructed in such subjects by a general description as to believe them with an undoubting faith, the particulars of the Lord's Divine mercy will be related in the following pages.

AC 68. I am well aware that many will say that no one can possibly speak with spirits and angels so long as he lives in the body; and many will say that it is all fancy, others that I relate such things in order to gain credence, and others will make other objections. But by all this I am not deterred, for I have seen, I have heard, I have felt.

AC 70. As it is permitted me to disclose what for several years I have heard and seen, it shall here be told, first, how the case is with man when he is being resuscitated; or how he enters from the life of the body into the life of eternity. In order that I might know that men live after death, it has been given me to speak and be in company with many who were known to me during their life in the body; and this not merely for a day or a week, but for months, and almost a year, speaking and associating with them just as in this world. They wondered exceedingly that while they lived in the body they were, and that very many others are, in such incredulity as to believe that they will not live after death; when in fact scarcely a day intervenes after the death of the body before they are in the other life; for death is a continuation of life.

AC 150. The state of man when in his Own, or when he supposes that he lives from himself, is compared to "deep sleep," and indeed by the ancients was called deep sleep; and in the Word it is said of such that they have "poured out upon them the spirit of deep sleep" (Isa. xxix. 10), and that they sleep a sleep (Jer. li. 57). That man's Own is in itself dead, and that no one has any life from himself, has been shown so clearly in the world of spirits, that evil spirits who love nothing but their Own, and obstinately insist that they live from themselves, were convinced by sensible experience, and were forced to confess that they do not live from themselves. For a number of years I have been permitted in an especial manner to know how the case is with what is man's own, and it has been granted to me to perceive clearly that I could think nothing from myself, but that every idea of thought flows in, and sometimes I could perceive how and whence it flowed in. The man who supposes that he lives from himself is therefore in what is false, and by believing that he lives from himself appropriates to himself everything evil and false, which he would never do if his belief were in accordance with the real truth of the case.

AC 227. As it is desirable that the origin of perception, internal dictate, and conscience, should be known, and as at the present day it is altogether unknown, I may relate something on the subject. It is a great truth that man is governed by the Lord by means of spirits and angels. When evil spirits begin to rule, the angels labor to avert evils and falsities, and hence arises a combat. It is this combat of which the man is rendered sensible by perception, dictate, and conscience. By these, and also by temptations, a man might clearly see that spirits and angels are with him, were he not so deeply immersed in corporeal things as to believe nothing that is said about spirits and angels. Such persons, even if they were to feel these combats hundreds of times, would still say that they are imaginary, and the effect of a disordered mind. I have been permitted to feel such combats, and to have a vivid sense of them, thousands and thousands of times, and this almost constantly for several years, as well as to know who, what, and where they were that caused them, when they came, and when they departed; and I have conversed with them.

AC 446. I have discoursed with spirits concerning the common opinion that prevails among men at the present day, that the existence of the spirit is not to be credited because they do not see it with their eyes, nor comprehend it by their memory- knowledges (scientias), and so they not only deny that the spirit has extension, but also that it is a substance, disputing as to what substance is. And as they deny that it has extension, and also dispute about substance, they also deny that the spirit is in any place, and consequently that it is in the human body; and yet the most simple might know that his soul or spirit is within his body. When I said these things, the spirits, who were some of the more simple ones, marveled that the men of the present day are so foolish. And when they heard the words that are disputed about, such as "parts without parts," and other such terms, they called them absurd, ridiculous, and farcical, which should not occupy the mind at all, because they close the way to intelligence.

AC 448. I have conversed with many who had been known to me in this life (and this I have done for a long time-for months and years), in as clear a voice, although an inward one, as with friends in this world. The subject of our conversation has sometimes been the state of man after death, and they have wondered exceedingly that during the bodily life no one knows or believes that he is so to live when the bodily life is over, when yet there is then a continuation of life, and such a continuation that the man passes from an obscure life into a clear one, and those who are in faith in the Lord into a life that is more and more clear.

They have desired me to tell their friends that they are alive, and to write and tell them what their condition is, even as I had related to themselves many things about that of their friends here. But I replied that were I to tell their friends such things, or to write to them about them, they would not believe, but would call them delusions, would scoff at them, and would ask for signs or miracles before they would believe; and I should merely expose myself to their derision. And that these things are true, perchance but few will believe. For at heart men deny the existence of spirits, and even those who do not deny it are unwilling to hear that any one can speak with spirits. In ancient times there was no such state of belief in regard to spirits, but so it is now when by crazy ratiocination men try to find out what spirits are, and by their definitions and suppositions deprive them of all the senses, and do this the more, the more learned they desire to be.

AC 449. Hitherto the nature of heaven and of heavenly joy has been known to none. Those who have thought about them have formed an idea concerning them so general and so gross as scarcely to amount to any idea at all. What notion they have conceived on the subject I have been able to learn most accurately from spirits who had recently passed from the world into the other life; for when left to themselves, as if they were in this world, they think in the same way. I may give a few examples.

AC 545. But in order that I might know the nature and quality of heaven and of heavenly joy, for long and often I have been permitted by the Lord to perceive the delights of heavenly joys, so that as I know them from actual experience I can indeed know them, but can by no means describe them. However, in order to give some idea of it I may say that heavenly joy is an affection of innumerable delights and joys that form one general simultaneous joy, in which general joy, that is, in which general affection, there are harmonies of innumerable affections that do not come distinctly to perception, but obscurely, because the perception is very general. Yet I was permitted to perceive that there are things innumerable within it, in such order as can never be described, these innumerable things being such as flow from the order of heaven.

Such order exists in every least thing of the affection, all of which together are presented and perceived as a very general one according to the capacity of him who is the subject of it. In d word, in every general joy or affection there are illimitable things ordinated in a most perfect form, and there is nothing that is not alive or that does not affect even the inmost things of our being, for heavenly joys proceed from inmost things. I perceived also that the joy and deliciousness came as if from the heart, and very softly diffused themselves through all the inmost fibers, and so into the congregated fibers, with such an inmost sense of delight that the fiber is as it were nothing but joy and deliciousness, and the whole derivative perceptive and sensitive sphere the same, being alive with happiness. In comparison with these joys the joy of bodily pleasures is like gross and pungent dust as compared with a pure and gentle breeze.

AC 548. I have sometimes spoken with spirits fresh from the world concerning the state of eternal life, telling them how important it was for them to know who is the Lord of that kingdom, and what is the nature and form of its government, just as those in this world who go into another kingdom are especially interested to know who and of what sort is the king, what is the nature of the government, and many other things that belong to the kingdom; and how much more should they be interested in this kingdom, where they are to live forever. I told them that the Lord alone rules both heaven and the universe, for He who rules the on must rule the other; and that the kingdom in which they were now is the Lord's kingdom, the laws of which are eternal truths, all of which are based on the one great law that men shall love the Lord above all things and their neighbor as themselves, and now even more than themselves, for if they would be as the angels this is what they must do.

To all this they could make no reply because in their bodily life they had heard something of the kind, but had not believed it. They marvelled that there is such love in heaven, and that it is possible for any one to love his neighbor more than himself, seeing that they had heard that they were to love their neighbor as themselves. But they were instructed that in the other life all goods are immeasurably increased, and that the life in the body is such that men can go no further than loving the neighbor as themselves because they are in the things of the body, but that when these are removed, the love becomes purer, and at last angelic, which consists in loving the neighbor more than themselves. The possibility of such love is evident from the conjugial love that exists with some persons, who would suffer death rather than let their married partner be injured; and also from the love of parents for their children, in that a mother will endure starvation rather than see her infant hunger, and this even among birds and animals and likewise from sincere friendship, in that perils will be undergone for our friends; and even from polite and feigned friendship, that would emulate real friendship in offering the better things to those to whom we wish well, making great professions even when they do not come from the heart.

And finally its possibility is evident from the very nature of love, which finds its joy in being of service to others, not for the sake of self but for the love's own sake. But all this could not be comprehended by those who loved themselves more than others, and who in the bodily life had been greedy for gain, and least of all by the avaricious.

AC 561. But what are remains? They are not only the goods and truths that a man has learned from the Lord's Word from infancy, and has thus impressed on his memory, but they are also all the states thence derived, such as states of innocence from infancy; states of love toward parents, brothers, teachers, friends; states of charity toward the neighbor, and also of pity for the poor and needy; in a word, all states of god and truth. These states together with the goods and truths impressed on the memory, are called remains, which are preserved in man by the Lord and are stored up, entirely without his knowledge, in his internal man, and are completely sept rated from the things that are proper to man, that is, from evils and falsities.

All these states are so preserved in man by the Lord that not the least of them is lost, as I have been given to know from the fact that every state of a man, from his infancy to extreme old age, not only remains in the other life, but also returns, in fact his states return exactly as they were while he lived in this world Not only do the goods and truths of memory thus remain and return, but also all states of innocence and charity. And when states of evil and falsity recur-for each and all of these, even the smallest, also remain and return-then these states are tempered by the Lord by means of the good states. From all this it is evident that if a man had no remains he must necessarily be in eternal damnation. (See what was said before at n. 468.)

AC 699. That I might witness the torment of those who are in hell, and the vastation of those who are in the lower earth, I have at different times been let down thither. To be let down into hell is not to be carried from one place to another, but to be let into some infernal society, the man remaining in the same place. But I may here relate only this experience: I plainly perceived that a kind of column surrounded me, and this column was sensibly increased, and it was intimated to me that this was the "wall of brass" spoken of in the Word. {1} The column was formed of angelic spirits in order that I might safely descend to the unhappy. When I was there I heard piteous lamentations, such as, O God! O God! take pity on us! take pity on us! and this for a long time. I was permitted to speak to those wretched ones, and this for a considerable time. They complained especially of evil spirits in that they desired and burned for nothing else than to torment them. They were in despair, saying that they believed their torment would be eternal; but I was permitted to comfort them. @1 Jer. i. 18; xv. 20.$

AC 831. There are women who have lived in the indulgence of their natural inclinations, caring only for themselves and the world, and making the whole of life and the delight of life to consist in outward decorum, in consequence of which they have been highly esteemed in polite society. They have thus, by practice and habit, acquired the talent of insinuating themselves into the desires and pleasures of others, under the pretense of what is honorable, but with the purpose of gaining control over them. Their life therefore became one of dissimulation and deceit. Like others they frequented churches, but for no other end than that they might appear virtuous and pious; and moreover they were without conscience, and very prone to shameful acts and adulteries, so far as these could be concealed. Such women think in the same way in the other life, knowing not what conscience is, and ridiculing those who speak of it. They enter into the affections of others, whatever these may be, by simulating virtue, piety, pity, and innocence, which are their means of deceiving; but whenever outward restraints are removed, they rush into things most wicked and obscene.

[2] These are the women who become enchantresses or sorceresses in the other life, some of whom are those called Sirens; and they there become expert in arts unknown in the world. They are like sponges that imbibe nefarious artifices; and are of such talent that they quickly put them in practice. The arts unknown in this world which they learn in the other are these. They can speak as though they were in another place, so that their voice is heard there as from good spirits. They can as it were be with many at the same time, thus persuading others that they are as if present everywhere. They can speak as several persons at the same time, and in several places at the same time. They can turn aside what flows in from good spirits, even what flows in from angelic spirits, and in divers ways pervert it instantly in favor of themselves. They can put on the likeness of another, by the ideas of him which they conceive and fashion. They can inspire any one with an affection for themselves, by insinuating themselves into the very state of another's affection. They can withdraw suddenly out of sight, and escape unseen. They can represent before the eyes of spirits a white flame about the head, which is an angelic sign, and this before many. They can in divers ways feign innocence, even by representing infants whom they kiss. They also excite others, whom they hate, to kill them (for they know they cannot die), and then divulge it and accuse them of murder.

[3] They have called up out of my memory whatever of evil I have thought and done, and this most skillfully. While I was asleep they have talked with others, just as if from me, so that the spirits were persuaded of it, thus of things false and obscene. And many other arts they have. Their nature is so persuasive that no room is left therein for any doubt; therefore their ideas are not communicated like those of other spirits. And their eyes are like those ascribed to serpents, seeing and paying attention every way at once. These sorceresses or sirens are grievously punished, some in Gehenna, some in a kind of court among snakes; some by wrenchings and various collisions, attended with the greatest pain and torture. In course of time they are separated from all society and become like skeletons from head to foot. A continuation of the subject follows at the end of the chapter.

AC 842. [2] It is the same with one man during temptation and when the commotions or waters of temptation cease, as it is with man in general, as I have learned by repeated experience; for evil spirits in the world of spirits sometimes band together in troops, and thereby excite disturbances until they are dispersed by other bands of spirits, coming mostly from the right, and so from the eastern quarter, who strike such fear and terror into them that they think of nothing but flight. Then those who had associated themselves are dispersed into all quarters, and thereby the societies of spirits formed for evil purposes are dissolved. The troops of spirits who thus disperse them are called the East Wind; and there are also innumerable other methods of dispersion, also called "east winds," concerning which, of the Lord's Divine mercy hereafter.

When evil spirits are thus dispersed, the state of commotion and turbulence is succeeded by serenity, or silence, as is also the case with the man who has been in temptation; for while in temptation he is in the midst of such a band of spirits, but when they are driven away or dispersed, there follows as it were a calm, which is the beginning of the disposal of all things into order.

[3] Before anything is reduced into a state of order, it is most usual that things should be reduced into a confused mass, or chaos as it were, so that those which do not well cohere together may be separated, and when they are separated, then the Lord disposes them into order. This process may be compared with what takes place in nature, where all things in general and singly are first reduced to a confused mass, before being disposed into order. Thus, for instance, unless there were storms in the atmosphere, to dissipate whatever is heterogeneous, the air could never become serene, but would become deadly by pestiferous accumulations. So in like manner in the human body, unless all things in the blood, both heterogeneous and homogeneous, did continuously and successively Sow together into one heart, to be there commingled, there would be deadly conglutinations of the liquids, and they could in no way be distinctly disposed to their respective uses. Thus also it is with man in the course of his regeneration.

AC 946. I have spoken with spirits concerning the fact that possibly few will believe in the existence of so many and such wonderful things in the other life, in consequence of the absence of any but a very general and obscure conception - amounting to none at all - of the life after death, and in which men have confirmed themselves by the consideration that they do not see a soul or spirit with their eyes. Even the learned, although they say there is a soul or spirit, so cleave to artificial words and terms - which rather obscure or even extinguish the understanding of things than assist it - and so devote themselves to self and the world, and but rarely to the general welfare and to heaven, that they believe still less than do sensuous men. The spirits to whom I spoke marveled that men should be of such a character, seeing that they are well aware of the existence in nature itself, and in each of its kingdoms, of many wonderful and varied things about which they are ignorant, as for example those in the internal human ear, concerning which a book might be filled with things amazing and unheard of, and in the existence of which every one has faith. But if anything is said about the spiritual world, from which come forth all things in the kingdoms of nature both in general and in particular, scarcely any one gives credence to it, on account - as before said - of the preconceived and confirmed opinion that because it is not seen it is nothing.

AC 968. Certain spirits had brought with them from the world the idea that they must not speak with the devil, but flee from him. But they were instructed that it would do no harm at all to those whom the Lord protects, even if they should be encompassed by all hell, both within and without. This it has been given me to know by much and by marvelous experience, so that at length I came to have no fear of even the worst of the infernal crew, to hinder my speaking with them; and this was granted in order that I might become acquainted with their character. To those who have wondered that I spoke with them, I have been permitted to say not only that this would do me no harm, but also that the devils in the other life are such as have been men, and who when they lived in the world passed their life in hatred, revenge, and adultery, some of them being then pre-eminently esteemed; nag, that among them are some I had known in the bodily life; and that the devil means nothing else than such a crew of hell. And furthermore, that men, while they live in the body, have with them at least two spirits from hell, as well as two angels from heaven; and that these infernal spirits rule with the evil, but with the good have been subjugated and are compelled to serve. Thus it is false to suppose that there has been a devil from the beginning of creation, other than such as were once men. When they heard these things they were amazed, and confessed that they had held a totally different opinion in regard to the devil and the diabolical crew.

AC 1110. Those who have assumed righteousness and merit on account of their good works, and so have attributed the efficacy of salvation to themselves, and not to the Lord and His righteousness and merit, and have confirmed themselves in this in thought and in life, in the other world have their principles of falsity turned into phantasies, so that they seem to themselves to be hewing wood: this is exactly as it appears to them. I have spoken with them. When they are engaged in their labor, and are asked whether they are not fatigued, they reply that they have not yet accomplished enough work to be able to merit heaven. When they are hewing the wood there appears to be something of the Lord under the wood, thus as if the wood were merit that they are getting. The more of the Lord there appears in the wood, the longer they remain in this condition; but when that appearance begins to cease, their vastation is drawing to an end. At length they become such that they too can be admitted into good societies, but still they long fluctuate between truth and falsity. Great care is taken of them by the Lord, because they have lived a dutiful life, and He from time to time sends angels to them. These are they who in the Jewish Church were represented by the hewers of wood (Josh. ix. 23, 27).

AC 1116. Dwellings were shown me of those who were of the second and third posterities of this Most Ancient Church. They are magnificent, extending to a great length, and diversified with beautiful colors of bright crimson and cure blue. For the angels have most magnificent dwellings, such as cannot be described, as I have often seen. To their eyes so real is their appearance that nothing can be more real. But whence such real appearances come, will be shown of the Lord's Divine mercy hereafter. They live in an aura, so to speak, of resplendent pearly and sometimes of diamond-like light. For there are wonderful auras in the other life, of inexpressible variety. They greatly err who do not believe that such things exist there, and indefinitely more than any one ever could or can conceive. They are indeed representative, like the things sometimes seen by the prophets but yet are so real that they who are in the other life hold them to be real, and the things which are in the world to be relatively unreal.

AC 1121. I have been informed by sons of the Most Ancient Church concerning the state of their perception, that they had perception of all things that belong to faith, almost as have the angels with whom they had communication; for the reason that their interior man, or spirit, by means also of the internal respiration, was joined to heaven; and that love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor are attended with this; for man is thus conjoined with angels through their veriest life, which consists in such love. They said that they had the law written upon them, because they were in love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor; and such being the case, whatever the laws prescribe was in agreement with their perception, and whatever the laws forbid was contrary to it. Nor did they doubt that all laws, human as well as Divine, are founded in love to the Lord and charity toward the neighbor, and regard these as their fundamental. Wherefore, as they had this fundamental in them, from the Lord, they could not but know all things that were from it. They believe too that those who live in the world at this day, who love the Lord and the neighbor, have also the law written upon them, and are acceptable citizens everywhere on earth, as the same are in the other life.

AC 1122. I have been further informed that the men of the Most Ancient Church had most delightful dreams, and also visions, and that it was insinuated into them at the same time what they signified. Hence their paradisal representations, and many other things. The objects of the external senses therefore, which are earthly and worldly, were nothing to them; nor had they any perception of delight in them, but only in what they signified and represented; and therefore when they looked at earthly objects they did not think about them at all, but only about the things which they signified and represented, which were most delightful to them; for they were such things as are in heaven, from which they see the Lord Himself.

AC 1270. Presently some were let out of that hell; but the Lord made such a disposition by means of intermediate spirits and angels that they could do me no harm. Out of that deep they came in front, and appeared to themselves to be working their way toward the front, as it were through caverns in the rock, and so upward. At last they appeared from above to the left, in order that from there, and thus from a distance, they might inflow into me. I was told that they were permitted to inflow into the right side of the head, but not into the left side; and from the right side of the head into the left side of the chest; but by no means into the left of the head, for if this occurred I should be destroyed, because they would then flow in with their persuasions, which are direful and deadly; whereas if they flowed into the right of the head, and thence into the left of the chest, it would be by means of cupidities. Such is the case with influx.

[2] Their persuasions are of such a nature that they extinguish all truth and good, so that those into whom they flow can perceive nothing whatever, and after that cannot think; and therefore the other spirits were removed. When they began to flow in I fell asleep. Then while I slept they flowed in by means of cupidities, and this with such violence that if awake I could not have resisted them. In my sleep I was sensible of the vehemence of it, which I cannot describe, save that I afterwards remembered that they tried to kill me by a suffocating afflatus, which was like a terrible nightmare. Then, waking, I observed that they were near me; and when they perceived that I was awake, they fled away to their own place above, and flowed in from thence.

[3] When they were there they appeared to me as if they were being wrapped up in a cloth, such as was spoken of before (n. 964). I thought they were being thus wrapped up, but it was others whom they were wrapping up. This is effected by means of phantasies; but yet the spirits against whom they thus work by phantasies know not but that they are really being wrapped up. It appeared as if those whom they thus wrapped up rolled down a certain rocky declivity. But those who were thus wrapped up were released and set at liberty. They were spirits who were unwilling to withdraw, and who were thus preserved by the Lord, for otherwise they would have been suffocated-although they would have revived again, but after great suffering. The spirits from that hell then went back by the rocky declivity; and there was heard from thence a sound of boring, as if many great boring instruments were at work; and it was perceived that it was from their intensely cruel phantasies against the Lord that such a sound came. They were afterwards cast down through dark caverns into their hell beneath the misty rock. While they were in the world of spirits, the constitution or order of the sphere there was changed. {1}
@1 See Spiritual Diary, n. 3367. [Reviser.]$

AC 1376.CONTINUATION CONCERNING SITUATION AND PLACE, AND ALSO CONCERNING DISTANCE AND TIME, IN THE OTHER LIFE. I have frequently conversed with spirits concerning the idea of place and of distance among them-that it is not anything real, but appears as if it were, being nothing else than their states of thought and of affection, which are thus varied, and are in this manner presented to view in the world of spirits; but not so much so in heaven among the angels, since these are not in the idea of place and time, but in that of states. But the spirits to whom bodily and earthly ideas adhere, do not apprehend this, for they suppose that the case is exactly as they see it to be. Such spirits can hardly be brought to believe otherwise than that they are living in the body, and are not willing to be persuaded that they are spirits; and thus scarcely that there is any appearance, or any fallacy, in relation to the matter, for they desire to live in fallacies. Thus do they preclude themselves from the apprehension and acknowledgment of truths and goods, which are as far as possible from fallacies. It has been shown them many times that change of place is nothing but an appearance, and also a fallacy of sense. For there are two kinds of mutation of place in the other life; one is that which has been spoken of before, when it is laid that all spirits and angels in the Grand Man constantly keep their own situation therein; which is an appearance. The other is that spirits appear in a place when in fact they are not there, which is a fallacy.

AC 1378. I have been informed, both by conversation with angels, and by living experience, that spirits, as spirits, in regard to the organic forms which constitute their bodies, are not in the place where they are seen, but may be far away, and yet appear there. I know that they who suffer themselves to be carried away by fallacies will not believe this, but still the case is so. This has been illustrated to those spirits who have believed nothing to be true that they did not see with their eyes - even if this were mere fallacy - by the fact that something similar is exhibited among men in the world. Take for instance the sound of a speaker's voice coming to the ear of another person: if the person who hears it did not know to the contrary, by the discriminations of sound, learned by experience from infancy, and did not see the speaker at a distance, he would have no other belief than that the speaker was close to his ear.

So with a man who sees remote objects: if be did not at the same time see intervening objects, and know from them, or judge of the distance by what he knows, he would believe a distant object to be near his eye. Much more is this the case with the speech of spirits, which is interior speech; and with their sight, which is interior sight.

[2] And the spirits were told, further, that when plain experience declares a fact, they ought not to doubt, and still less deny it, on the ground that it does not so appear to the senses, and that they do not perceive it. For even within the realm of nature there are many things that are contrary to the fallacies of the senses, but are believed because visible experience teaches them. For example, the sailing of a ship around the globe: they who suffer themselves to be carried away by the fallacies of the senses, might believe that ship and sailors would fall off when they came to the opposite side, and that the people at the antipodes could never stand upon their feet. Such also is the case with the subject before us, and with many things in the other life that are contrary to the fallacies of the senses, and yet are true, - as that man has no life of himself, but from the Lord; and very many other things. By these and other considerations, incredulous spirits could be brought to believe that the case is as we have stated it.

AC 1387. I have several times conversed about perception with those in the other life who, while they lived in the world, had regarded themselves as able to penetrate and understand all things telling them that angels perceive that they think and speak, and will and act from the Lord. But still they could not conceive what perception is, but supposed that if all things were to inflow in this way, they would be bereaved of all life; because in that case they would think nothing from themselves, or from what is their own; and in this they had made life to consist; and that in that case it would be another who was thinking, and not themselves; so that they would be mere organs devoid of life. But they were told that between having perception, and not having it, the difference of life is like that between light and darkness; and that men first begin to feel alive when they receive such perception; for then they live from the Lord, and also have what is their own, which is given together with all happiness and delight. It was also shown them by varied experience how the case is with perception, and at the time they acknowledged the possibility of it; but after a while they again did not know, doubted, and denied. From this it has been made evident how difficult it is for man to comprehend what perception is.

AC 1505. I have also been informed how these spheres, which in the other life become so perceptible to the senses, are acquired. Take as an example one who has formed a high opinion of himself and of his own pre-eminent excellence. He at last becomes imbued with such a habit, and as it were with such a nature, that wherever he goes, though he looks at others and speaks with them, he keeps himself in view; and this at first manifestly, but afterwards not manifestly, so that he is not aware of it; but still it is regnant, both in the particulars of his affection and thought, and in those of his bearing and speech. Men can see this in others. And this is the kind of thing that in the other life makes a sphere, which is perceived, but no more frequently than the Lord permits. The same is the case with other affections; and therefore there are as many spheres as there are affections and combinations of affections, which are innumerable. The sphere is as it were the man's image extended outside of himself, the image in fact of all things that are in him. In the world of spirits that which is presented to the view or perception is only something general; what the man is as to particulars, is known in heaven; but what as to the least particulars is known to none but the Lord.

AC 1523. That I might know the nature of that light, I have often been conducted into the abodes of good and of angelic spirits, and have seen both the spirits and the objects there. I have also seen infants and mothers in light of so great a brightness and resplendence that there could not possibly be anything brighter.

AC 1628. All the angels have their own dwellings in the places where they are, and they are magnificent. I have been there, and have sometimes seen and marveled at them, and have there spoken with the angels. They are so distinct and clearly seen that nothing can be more so. In comparison with these, the habitations on earth amount to scarcely anything. They also call those which are on the earth dead, and not real; but their own, living and true, because from the Lord. The architecture is such that the art itself is derived from it, with a variety that knows no limit. They have said that if all the palaces in the whole world should be given them, they would not receive them in exchange for their own. What is made of stone, clay, and wood is to them dead; but what is from the Lord, and from life itself and light itself, is living; and this is the more the case that they enjoy them with all fullness of sense. For the things that are there are perfectly adapted to the senses of spirits and angels; for spirits cannot see at all by their sight the things that are in the light of the solar world; but things of stone and wood are adapted to the senses of men in the body. Spiritual things are in correspondence with those who are spiritual, and corporeal things with those who are corporeal.

AC 1635. The speech of spirits with me has been heard and perceived as distinctly as the speech of man with man; indeed, when I have spoken with them while I have been in company with men, I observed that just in the same way as I heard the men speaking sonorously, so also did I hear the spirits; insomuch that the spirits sometimes wondered that others did not hear what they said to me; for as regards the hearing there was absolutely no difference. But as the influx into the internal organs of hearing is different from that of speech with men, it could be heard only by myself; to whom of the Lord's Divine mercy these organs have been opened. Human speech passes in through the ear, by an external way, by means of the air; but the speech of spirits does not enter through the ear, nor by means of the air; but by an internal way, into the same organs of the head or brain. Consequently the hearing is the same.

For additional autobiographical statements by Swedenborg, see the Swedenborg Compendium Selections to the Writings Sacred Scripture Keyed to Theistic Psychology Subjects for the entry [EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED BY SWEDENBORG IN SPIRITUAL WORLD] www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/#selections

       1.3  Rational Substantive Dualism

Here is a contrastive Table that will help in keeping track of the distinction between a rational or scientific view on Swedenborg, as in theistic psychology, and a mystical view of Swedenborg as in the anthology: Testimony to the Invisible: Essays on Swedenborg. Edited (1995) by James Lawrance (Swedenborg Foundation). For reviews see Generation 21 reports at www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/459f2004

The mind-body issue is one of the oldest in psychology. It may still be seen today as a key issue that impacts on all of psychology. Today the most advanced views on the mind-body issue in psychology take two main forms which can be called epiphenomenalism and mystical dualism. These two stand in contrast with the substantive dualism of theistic psychology. A review of current scientific views on consciousness and the mind can be consulted at these Web locations: 
www.newdualism.org
http://jamaica.u.arizona.edu/~chalmers/online.html 
www.klab.caltech.edu/~koch/crick-koch-cc-97.html

Epiphenomenalism is the view that the mind -- feelings, thoughts, sensations--is not a functioning organ but a subjective by-product of the operations of the brain. Sometimes the word "emergent" phenomena is used to indicate that the operations of the brain can be abstracted somehow into sensations or feelings. In other words our feelings and sensations are not as real as the brain. This view sees the operations of the brain as objective, whereas the feelings and thoughts "the brain gives rise to," are subjective, which means that they do not have an independent objective existence. This approach is not practical as it relegates the most important feature of humans to nonexistence. With this view, humans are just a more advanced form of animals. When the brain dies, so does the mind. God and immortality are not recognized as part of the reality of our life and future.

Dualism is the view that the mind is a separate and independent type of phenomenon than the physical brain. The mind has an objective existence just like the brain. It is common to suppose that the mind survives the death of the physical brain, though no one in modern psychology has given an adequate or comprehensive account of what happens when the brain dies. The ancient psychologists like Aristotle and Plato knew that the mind must be an immortal organ because it is capable of wisdom, and this is not material but spiritual and eternal. The Egyptians, the Greeks, the Hindus all had detailed accounts of what happens to the mind (or "soul") when the physical body dies. But in modern science all this was rejected.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650) is named in the history of psychology textbooks as the first modern psychology thinker who held the approach of "dualism" since he claimed that the body is a biological robot and only the mind or soul has sensations and feelings. However, since he was unable to give a rational account of what the "soul" is or how it survives without the body, his dualism has been relegated to history. Swedenborg (1688-1772) was the first modern psychologist who was able to give a completely rational and scientific account of how the mind survives at the death of the physical body. Before discussing Swedenborg's "substantive dualism" there is also a form of dualism that is different from either Descartes or Swedenborg, so I'd like to refer to it as "mystical dualism."

Mystical dualism is the approach represented by several well known authors who have had a special interest in Swedenborg. A sample of this group is represented by the articles and comments on Swedenborg that appear in a collection titled Testimony to the Invisible (see Reading List below). Both Western and Eastern philosophy and religion share this mystical view on the mind and God. It is the idea that humans have the capacity to experience the "divine in themselves," which they take to be the same as the objective Divine God. In other words human beings are of one substance with the Divine. Under the right conditions of meditation it is possible to "feel one with the Divine." The experience of "ecstasy" has been described by many authors for centuries and popular intellectual movements have been based on this kind of sensuous approach to God. It has been called mystical because the experience is subjective, difficult or impossible to describe afterwards except in words that do not do it justice. So when others read these descriptions they cannot really know what the experience was like, and certainly they cannot experience it themselves by reading the descriptions. William James also reviews this approach in his well known book Varieties of Religious Experiences (see Reading List). His views in that book have had a strong influence on the development of the other "new age" movements in psychology. As a result, non-theistic psychology has created an non-theistic psychology of religion, which sounds like quite an anomaly!

In Testimony to the Invisible Wilson Van Dusen describes himself as a mystic who has had this experience of "oneness with God" and has been trying to develop techniques of meditation that others can use to also achieve this experience. The other authors in that book are not themselves mystics but describe Swedenborg as a mystic. In other words they reject the view of "substantive dualism" as described in theistic psychology. They claim that Swedenborg was not a scientist but a visionary mystic who tried to describe his experiences in terms of an allegory of the spiritual world and the people he "visited" there, not unlike the highly regarded poetic fiction of William Blake (1757-1827), who had read Swedenborg and wrote imaginative poetry to describe the Heaven and Hell Swedenborg describes. All mystical dualists, and the transcendentalists (Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882), have rejected the idea that Swedenborg actually traveled to the spiritual world and did observations and experiments there.

Substantive dualism is based uniquely on the Writings of Swedenborg because he is the only one who had access to the spiritual world for observation and experimentation.

Theistic psychology is based on this objective approach. There are two worlds, natural and spiritual, and they are connected by the laws of correspondence. Whatever happens in the natural world is an effect whose cause is in the spiritual world. This is called "substantive" dualism because it specifies two functionally connected worlds each with its objective reality. The natural world is made of matter, energy, space, and time. All things in the natural world are temporal. The spiritual world also has its Sun but it is made not of matter, but of spiritual substances that are outside time and space. Spiritual objects are immortal or eternal. The mind is a spiritual organ that is born simultaneously with the physical body. The mind is also called the spiritual body. The shape and form of the mind is the same as the body. In other words, the mind is not just within the brain but within every cell of the body, so that the mind as a whole, has the shape of the body. More correctly, it is the physical body that is formed to correspond to the shape of the mental body or mind since spiritual things precede and cause natural things.

The mind or spiritual body is also called the "spirit" and "soul."

Because the mind has the shape of the physical body, the mental body also has hands, legs, torso, genitals, a brain, etc. Everything the physical body can do and sense, the mind-body or "spirit" can also sense and feel (in the spiritual world), but far more keenly and intensely. As the physical body grows, so does the spiritual body or mind. The experiences, memories, feelings, thoughts, choices, are all situated in the mind, not the physical brain. Feelings, thoughts, and sensations operate within the mind, each in a different sub-organ of the mind. Feelings operate in the affective organ, thoughts in the cognitive organ, sensations in the sensorimotor organ. Further, these mental organs operate together at three different non-overlapping discrete levels called natural, spiritual, and celestial. The natural mind contains the memories and experiences we obtain with the physical body, but the spiritual and celestial mind contain the "influx" or inflow of information from the spiritual world. So the content of the three mental organs are different but they are functionally interconnected  by the laws of correspondence. Upon the death of the physical body, we appear to ourselves to awaken in the spiritual body in the spiritual world, where we continue life forever.

Substantive dualism is based entirely on Swedenborg's "dual citizenship," that is, his unique ability to be conscious in the spiritual world while he was still connected to the physical body. This ability to be conscious in the spiritual world is fundamentally different from the experience described by mystical dualism.

Quoting from the Writings of Swedenborg:

TCR 793. A person is just as much a person after death, although he is then invisible to the eyes of the material body. This can be established from the cases of the angels seen by Abraham, Hagar, Gideon, Daniel and some of the prophets, from the angels seen in the Lord's tomb, And afterwards on many occasions by John, as he describes in Revelation. Above all, this is proved by the Lord Himself, who showed by touch and by eating that He was a human being, although He Vanished from their sight. Can anyone be so crazy as not to acknowledge that, although invisible, He was just as much a human being? The reason they saw Him was that the eyes of their spirit were opened; and when these are opened things in the spiritual world appear just as plain as things in the natural world. The difference between people in the natural world and those in the spiritual world is that those in the spiritual world are clothed with a substantial body, but those in the natural world are clothed with a material body. This, however, has the substantial body within it, and a substantial person can see another one just as clearly as a material person can see another one. But a substantial person cannot see a material one, nor a material person a substantial one, on account of the difference between the material and the substantial. This is capable of being described, but not briefly. (TCR 793)

Swedenborg  was not in a trance or meditating or in the throes of some mystical unition with God. He was fully conscious as a scientist, just like doing field trip research in some foreign land. He saw cities, lands, lakes, gardens, animals, people whom he called spirits, angels, and devils, depending on their state of life and personality. The mystics and visionaries have experiences that are so different from Swedenborg's travelogue approach that they reject the idea that Swedenborg actually went through those places in the spiritual world. Instead, they believe that Swedenborg chose to write in that way about his mystical experiences. But this idea completely destroys Swedenborg's objective credibility, which gives the mystics and critics freedom to re-interpret what Swedenborg is saying so that it may agree with their preferred picture of the mind. Theistic psychology would not be possible under such circumstances. We would merely fall back on a mixture of obscure descriptions of various experiences by various people, not unlike the dead end that psychology encounters in William James' Variety of Religious Experiences.

The great news about substantive dualism is that the geography of the spiritual world is identical to the anatomy of the mind.

With this astonishing discovery Swedenborg was able to describe the anatomy of the mind by means of the objective observation of the geographic features of the spiritual world (see Section xx).

For instance, he found  that the spiritual world has three regions -- heaven, the world of spirits, and hell. These three regions are therefore in the mind. Every individual has a heaven and a hell in the mind. Swedenborg observed how some people arriving into the spiritual world at death, raise themselves into their heaven while others immerse themselves into their hell. This activity depends on the content of their mind, their personality and character.

Another great news is that while we are still tied to the physical body on earth we appear alone in our mind to ourselves, but not to the others who are already fully conscious in the spiritual world. They can see our mind and its general content. They cannot see the physical body  since they lost direct contact with the natural world upon the death of their physical body. But they can see our spiritual body which actually houses our mind and its content. And we can see theirs as soon as we enter the spiritual world at the death of our physical body. Until then our conscious awareness is restricted to the natural mind and its attachment to sensory input from the physical body.

Another great news of substantive dualism is that our life of eternity in the spiritual body can be and must be prepared for. Our lot or level of life in eternity is completely determined by the content of the personality and character we have developed while living on earth. Hence any individual can make the conscious choices now that will later lead to eternal happiness and super-natural abilities.

Although we can no longer have interaction with earth we have something far greater and neater. In the state of mind called "heaven," our mind has the power to create the quality of our environment -- unimaginable treasures of architecture, art, apparel, food, knowledge, wisdom, truth, love, travel, entertainment, work opportunities, etc. Of course these things are entirely different from earth where these things are external to our mind while in "heaven" they are internal. For instance, food is not required for survival yet it appears on the table at social occasions, and their taste and quality is unimaginably superior and novel, as witnessed many times by Swedenborg. Similarly with your clothes which appear as a surprise in closets or directly on your spiritual body. Similarly with housing, which Swedenborg was unable to describe due to their un-earthly "ineffable" magnificence and architecture.

You can see from these types of observational reports by Swedenborg that most scientists of his day dismissed them as fancy. How was this received by the many famous authors and philosophers who called Swedenborg one of the greatest geniuses in history, like Emerson and the contributors to Testimony? They viewed it as Swedenborg's literary device (or trick) with which he tried to present his philosophical, poetic, and theological insights.

But theistic psychology makes sense as a science only if Swedenborg's reports are made of actual, real, empirical observations and experiments.

When I first started reading the Writings of Swedenborg in 1981 it never occurred to me to take his reports as an allegory or poetic artifact. I had been a professional scientist and psychology professor for twenty years before that and all my readings had to do with science and psychology. Reading Swedenborg was a unique experience since no one else has made such claims and justified them with evidence and rational analysis. Years later I began to discover that his Writings were actually famous in literature and that a new religion had been founded on them. To my amazement none of these sympathetic readers saw Swedenborg's reports as scientific revelations.

It appears then that I am a forerunner of the future of science in that I clearly see and understand that the Writings of Swedenborg are scientific revelations. This book on theistic psychology is therefore the first time in history that the reports from the Writings of Swedenborg are used in a seminar in psychology as science. Note however that other scientists who disagree with my approach would say that I am extending and enlarging the meaning of science in an illegitimate way that is neither rational nor productive, just personal and subjective. Let us keep this criticism in mind as we go through the evidence from the Swedenborg reports. I intend to show that they are rational, factual, and verifiable in some modified sense. Also, that these scientific revelations collected and integrated into a theistic psychology imparts knowledge of a new source of mental power by which we can engineer our eternal future and happiness.

The potential benefits of theistic psychology are quite significant. As you study theistic psychology you will have a choice between two common reactions. One is to decide that the evidence I present is insufficient in your opinion to prove the case that theistic psychology is a science. The other is that the evidence is sufficient to merit further study, and especially, reading the Writings. People making either choice will benefit from the study of theistic psychology, as long as they allowed themselves freedom from the negative bias in science while examining the evidence.

I recommend that you keep track of the progression of your thoughts as you read theistic psychology. Write them down in a notebook so that you can examine the course of your involvement and reactions. The topics of theistic psychology are inherently interesting to most people because they deal with God and the afterlife in a factual manner rather than hypothetical or subjective. For 27 years Swedenborg daily travels through the lands of the afterlife called heaven and hell and takes careful notes, then he adds his rational genius to give us a scientific explanation of what he hears and sees, to whom he talks and what they said, including God, spirits, devils, and angels. This sounds psychotic to the negative bias psychology of materialism. This is an inescapable judgment in the negative bias in science--What else but crazy is a man who talks to God, devils, and angels, and especially crazy if he is a scientist. And yet Swedenborg was a famous scientist, well respected and the opposite of crazy.

There is a legitimate reaction to hearing about the contents of Swedenborg's Writings. And this is to take into account that I am not crazy, that the other scholars and scientists referred to in the Readings are not crazy, and that the hundreds of authors in the literature who give homage to Swedenborg, are not crazy. The craziness impression comes only when one refuses to budge from the negative bias materialism of non-theistic psychology. It would be reasonable to say that in view of what I am saying and what the others have said about Swedenborg, one has the rare opportunity here to examine evidence of the afterlife in a systematic way, as presented by a practicing modern scientist like myself. All you need to do to make this examination real and objective, is to be willing to grant that the Swedenborg reports may be reliable and scientific observations rather than delusions. This is called adopting the positive bias in science. The negative bias in science would be to decide in advance that the Swedenborg reports cannot be scientific (hence he is delusional, and I am a fool for believing them).

See also:  James, William. (1898). Human Immortality. Online at:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/William-James-immortality.htm 

1.3.1   The Psychology of Religion in Nontheistic Psychology

Quoting from an article on the Web:  http://www.psywww.com/psyrelig/USA.html

Psychology of Religion in the USA

Michael E. Nielsen, Ph.D. Georgia Southern University February, 2000

The psychological study of religion in the USA illustrates tensions and opportunities that exist between psychology and religion. It also demonstrates the multifaceted views taken by psychologists as they address areas of living that have personal implications. In this article I summarize how American psychologists have dealt with religion in their profession, and characterize the psychology of religion as a field of inquiry.

(...)

Following the early period, American psychology's push toward behaviorism resulted in the neglect of spiritual matters. The reductionist methods of behaviorism left little room for matters of faith, or for any other theoretical constructs that were not measured directly. Consequently, psychology left religion for other topics that were considered to be more scientific, and several decades of neglect ensued.

Psychologists' interest in religion resumed in the 1950s. Gordon Allport's (1950) attempt to describe the role of religion in people's experience began his indelible mark on the field, and to this day his Intrinsic - Extrinsic distinction in religious motivation remains the most influential approach in psychological studies of religion in the USA. In the years since then, several developments have combined to suggest, according to the traditional view of psychology of religion, that the field is experiencing a resurgence of interest. These include the establishment of professional journals giving an outlet to psychological research on religious topics, a division of the American Psychological Association dedicated to the psychological study of religion, and the apparently increasing availability of college classes focusing on psychology of religion.

(...)

The place of religion in American psychology stems largely from methodological assumptions underlying the two fields of inquiry. Primary among these is the psychological assumption of reductionism. At its core, this view-that scientists understand something by examining the effects of its component parts-is at odds with the religious assumption that the world cannot be taken at face value. The prototypic psychological scientist emphasizes methodological rigor and considers knowledge gained by intuition or mysticism to be of little value. Dispassionate science, according to this viewpoint, offers a more sure way to understand the world than do other modes of knowledge, which are more likely to yield biased and unreliable knowledge.

In addition, as Wulff (1991) points out, psychologists who study other phenomena assume that those phenomena are real. Psychologists who study religion, however, address "an object whose reality can be received only in the state of faith" (p. 32). The act of belief is critical to religious knowledge and experience. In psychology, skepticism is an enduring value, but in religion it is an intermediate step on the pathway to belief. This sets up a tension between psychology and religion, which results in psychologists having low rates of religious activity, when compared to other scientific and academic groups (Richards & Bergin, 1997). The methods and assumptions favored by psychology have appeared to be incompatible with the more subjective and experiential methods of religion despite recent efforts to harmonize the two (Richards & Bergin, 1997).

(...)

There is some evidence of increasing interest in religion among American psychologists, or at least of increased visibility of religious issues among psychologists. For example, religion was the cover story of the August 1996 APA Monitor, the monthly news organ of the American Psychological Association. The APA also has published several books that address the role of religion in counseling or clinical psychological practice. Among these books is one by Richards and Bergin (1997) who suggest not only that therapy is more effective when it respectfully addresses clients' religious beliefs, but also that it is possible to have a "theistic" psychology that includes God.

A more encyclopedic view of religion in clinical psychology in the USA is found in Shafranske's (1996) book, which offers several different perspectives -- all basically favorable -- on the relevance of religion to therapy. In many ways, the beginning of this movement seemed to gain momentum in a debate between Allen Bergin (1980) and Albert Ellis (1980), published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Not only did this debate highlight the distinct difference in the naturalistic assumptions underlying Ellis's view, and the theistic assumptions of Bergin's view, they also coincided with an increased post-modern concern regarding values and assumptions in science more broadly. This climate of questioning scientific assumptions has made psychologists more open to the study of religion and its application to mental health issues.

(...)

Among research psychologists the tensions in assumptions will, in all likelihood, continue. As neuropsychology, evolutionary psychology, and other sub-fields continue to advance, the difference between knowledge gained by scientific and religious means will remain evident. Psychologists interested in religion may address these gaps by developing successful theory and research. For example, attachment theory can be seen in terms compatible with evolutionary psychology. Such research, however, suggests a field that focuses on psychology more than it does religion. The distinction between psychology of religion, which emphasizes how psychology enlightens our understanding of religion, and religious psychology, emphasizing religious interpretation of psychology, has been a long-standing issue in the field, and it is an issue that will not go away soon.

(...)

The above article does not include the method of theistic psychology in the positive bias approach to science. Clearly this new approach presents an entirely new course for psychology as a science -- from nontheistic to theistic, and from the negative bias to the positive bias.  Theistic psychology brings to science new assumptions and conceptual definitions.  Instead of "God" being a "belief system some people have," God now becomes a cause-effect concept for real phenomena. The scientific investigation of God is then not merely the study of someone's attitudes and beliefs, but of a real phenomenon that participates centrally in every event we can observe. 

Clearly if God is a real entity in the universe science can investigate God just as it investigates all other real phenomena.

In order to pursue this kind of investigation objectively and with a sound methodology the following conditions must hold:

(1) God as an explanatory concept must fit with other explanatory concepts to form a rational and coherent theory or set of explanations.

(2) Any scientist or researcher should be able to contribute to this investigation. No special ability or knowledge should be required such as mysticism or religious experiences.

(3) There should not be glaring gaps in the theory so that if God is given an objective definition, then it should also fit with other objective definitions of concepts that are related to God such as:

• Sacred Scripture ("the Word of God")

• the process of revelation

•  life after death

• heaven and hell

• communication with those in the afterlife

• empirical observation of the afterlife and of heaven and hell

• mental anatomy or spiritual psychobiology

• geography of life in eternity

• etc.

Unlike the psychology of religion, theistic psychology offers positive solutions to each of these requirements.

1.3.1   Substantive Dualism and Theism in Science

Quoting from

The Struggle Between Christian Theism, Metaphysical Naturalism And Relativism: How To Proceed In Science? by Jitse M. van der Meer ((Preprint: November 24, 1995)

My thesis is that Christians are mistaken in their belief that material reality can be understood without reference to non- material created causes, such as mind, or to non-material uncreated causes, such as God. The reasons I offer are that Christians know of the existence of non-material beings such as spirits and God and that ignoring this leads to a distorted view of reality or even a neglecting of empirical evidence. Broadly conceived, I suggest that materialism can be excused to be methodological only if it is open to revision, but that this is seriously hampered by the psychological and sociological power of beliefs antagonistic to theistic beliefs.

The first set of these beliefs concerns the materiality of the world. Those deeply committed to the belief that reality is nothing but matter (monistic materialists) are extremely unlikely to revise their materialism. Those who accept the existence of a realm in addition to matter (dualists), be it a mental or a supernatural realm, and also believe that this non-material realm has no effects in the material world, have a weaker but still very robust attachment to materialism. For them science is concerned only with matter. Finally, revision is unlikely among dualists who believe that God and mind have effects in material reality (interventionists and interactionists, respectively), but also believe that science ought not to be concerned with this non- material dimension.

I then argue that those who do believe the non-material is the business of science still have a hard time limiting materialism, but that this is due to a second and different set of beliefs. These beliefs do not concern the nature of reality, but the nature and purpose of explanation. I show that the ideal of the unity of scientific knowledge forces a preference for explanations in material terms even when the non-material presents itself as a possibility or when it is in conflict with empirical evidence.

I then suggest that science needs to expand its methodology beyond the current confines. This expansion consists of accepting non-material causes in scientific explanations, and using broader criteria for theory choice. Instead of explanations that use material causes only, science needs multi-dimensional explanations that admit the causal efficacy of purpose and intent. Not only is the pursuit of several different explanations more adequate for a multi-dimensional reality, but it also provides a way of limiting one-dimensional explanations including those developed in terms of matter alone. This is an hermeneutical approach to explanation in the natural sciences which emphasizes "understanding" and sees explanation in material terms as one form of it. Criteria for theory choice include not only the standard consistency with observation, internal consistency, simplicity, scope, fruitfulness, accuracy, coherence, etc., but also consistency with conceptual and religious beliefs about the nature of reality and about the nature and purpose of explanation. This creates the possibility of accounting for the historic role of beliefs in the construction of knowledge and opens the possibility of proposing rules for the interaction between religion and science. To a large extent the nature of these interactions remains to be explored.

Full article can be accessed here:  www.asa3.org/evolution/vandermeer.html

This is an interesting article from the perspective of theistic psychology. The author correctly points out that science ought not to used to enforce the negative bias in science which denies the possibility that God exists or that a world of eternity exists. This "methodological materialism" paralyzes scientific thinking, unable to recover from the materialism, unable to start incorporating additional new paradigms like dualism and theism in science. The author's proposed solution is to consider positively the ideas in religion and other areas of traditional "hermeneutical" approaches in the history of esoteric sciences. This solution is very different from that of theistic psychology which locates all scientific knowledge of God in Sacred Scripture as the only valid source. The beliefs of people regarding what Sacred Scripture says plays no part in the methodology of theistic psychology. The literal meaning of Sacred Scripture is the foundation of all religion, but the correspondential sense hidden within the literal meaning, is the foundation of theistic psychology. The literal sense of Sacred Scripture leads to beliefs called "blind faith" while the correspondential sense extracted from the literal meaning, leads to rational faith and science (see Section xx).

God has given humanity a a dual source in Sacred Scripture, one for religion and faith, the other for theistic science. But note very carefully: if the same channel of Sacred Scripture is used for both religion and science, as many have proposed, there results an artificial blend of science and religion that is filled with people's hypotheses and theories, if not hunches. Much of this may be useless or misleading because people don't know which is right and which is wrong in this blending of ideas.

But if one leaves the literal meaning to religion, and enters the hidden scientific sense within, there results a true science of God and from God (see Section xx).

See also Section 1.8.9 Theistic Science: The Scientific Alternative to Creationism and Intelligent Design:
www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/ch1.htm#intelligent-design

See also Theism on the Web compiled by Dr. Ian Thompson at
http://www.newtheism.com/webtheism.htm

God
=    the Divine Human, who is Divine Good and Divine Truth, in whom infinite things
            are one (see Section xx).
=    Divine Good and Divine Truth proceeding through the Spiritual Sun in eternity,
            as spiritual heat, which is Divine Good, and as spiritual light, which is
            Divine Truth, and give form to the two worlds out of themselves as eternal uncreate
            substances in an infinite variety (see Section xx).
=    Divine Speech, which is Divine Truth proceeding from the Divine Human,
            creating the universe and maintaining it in order by means of the laws of
            correspondences (see Section xx).
=    Divine Speech, as Divine Truth within which is Divine Good, entering the human
            mind by influx, and activating the mental organs, resulting in the experience
            of feeling, thinking, and sensating (see Section xx).
=    Divine Speech descending through the layers of the human mind, and when it
            reaches the conscious natural mind, it is expressed in a natural language
            as Sacred Scripture (see Section xx).
=    Sacred Scripture as the sole source of scientific knowledge about the laws of
            correspondences by which God creates and manages the cause-effect
            interactions for all phenomena in the universe -- but not in the literal
            sense of Sacred Scripture, but in the correspondential sense that is hidden within the
            literal sense, and which must be extracted according to the methods prescribed in
            the Writings Sacred Scripture (see Section xx).
=    Heaven in eternity within the human mind, forming the endless joyful life of an
            angel couple in conjugial love existing in an enchanted paradise, in social
            community of like-minded couples (see Section xx).

1.4  Partial List of Scientific Revelations in the Writings of Swedenborg

The following list encompasses many of the topics of theistic psychology. You can read them as a summary of what's to come in the rest of this book.

(1)  cosmology or the origin of the universe through the "two suns" and their intervening atmospheres, and the methods of its current maintenance by the Laws of Divine Providence and Permissions. Also: the character of evolution of civilizations on planets, such as the fact that our planet is the only one to have a mechanized or industrialized society.

(2)  medical science including the characteristic functions and origins of some viruses not yet identified in his lifetime.

(3)  the nature of psycho-somatic operations, such as the observation that "anxieties about the future affect the stomach more than the rest of the viscera"

(4)  the anatomy of brain structures too small to identify with the microscope

(5)  the lack of sensation and thought in the fetus

(6)  anthropology and archeology, including many unknown facts about ancient peoples, sacred scriptures, culture, religion, lifespan, death rituals, symbols, hieroglyphics, science of correspondences, the nature of unconscious motivation in human affairs, and still others

(7)  psychology and neurophysiology, especially the detailed working of the mind--body interaction, including the unobservable elements and components of brain cells, their respiration, and their initiation of activity through the will and the understanding. Also, the relation between the cerebellum and the affective domain, on the one hand, and on the other, the relation between the cerebral cortex and the cognitive domain. Also the identification of the right brain as dealing with love and affections, and the left brain as dealing with digital information or "cognitions." Also included, are many psychological revelations about relationships, marriage, and life's developmental phases, including language, thought, memory, and reasoning.

(8)  physics and chemistry, such as the impossibility of a vacuum or the description of the inner structure of objects in terms of three degrees of discontinuity analogous to the universal law that applies without exception to every single phenomenon, object, process, or functional quality:

(9)  the shape of the spiritual world or mind is not spherical but humanoid, as visually witnessed by Swedenborg when he was taken to an "outside position"  to view it, as if from a great distance.

(10)  the universe contains two suns, with the Sun of the spiritual world forming and generating all the suns or stars in the natural world on a continuous basis so that the physical universe constantly expands; further, after generating the physical suns, the spiritual Sun remains "within" them on the basis of simultaneous degree, and from that underlying causative position, acts on them from "within," and brings about lawful development and evolution.

(11)  events in the natural universe are totally constricted within limits imposed by events in the spiritual world, the latter being "within" the former as cause is "within" effect in simultaneous degrees of existence;

(12)  randomness (or chance) and evolutionary patterns such as selection and adaptation, are in reality non-random but totally determined by Divine-Human purposes involving love, good, value, wisdom, morality, truth, justice, usefulness. From these come also their opposites when they are received in the human mind and deliberately corrupted by free choice. For instance, the variety and evolution of animal forms parallel and are constrained by the variety and hierarchical structures of human affections, emotions, and sentiments. Every species and genus, every homological structure, every biochemical process is constrained by, and parallels exactly, the taxonomy of the human mind-- its affections, thoughts, and sensations built up into subjective agencies called "selves," living within cultures through personality and society. Nature is a theater of the spiritual: Swedenborg gives this principle a scientific basis.

(13)  the evolution or developmental phases of Divine revelations over history, or the history of religious "churches" from the earliest generations on this earth.

(14)  the spiritual meaning of the Bible and the method of correspondences by which this meaning can be extracted, formed into Doctrine that then serves as the basis of one's regeneration (or preparation for heavenly life).

(15)  the nature of one's life in heaven or eternity, and in hell, revealed in great detail through his journeys and conversations in the spiritual world.

(16)  the methods of regeneration we must follow in order to prepare for heavenly life, how we must live our daily lives in orderly obedience to God through religion and conscience. Thus we choose heavenly or hellish life in eternity by our cumulative choices which form our permanent inner character as an immortal "spirit". People who have a good character enter heaven regardless of their religion or belief system.

(17)  the human mind has three rational regions (natural, spiritual, and celestial), and their sub-regions. For detailed discussion on this, consult my book Moses, Paul, and Swedenborg: The Three Phases of Religious Behavior, available on the Web at: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/moses.html

(18)  every individual's mind functions in conjunction with numerous other individuals through a chain of unconscious interconnections with other individuals, from those whose state of consciousness is in the highest regions of the human mind (“Third Heaven"), to those who are in the lowest state ("hell"). I call these unconscious interconnections the "vertical community" to distinguish it from the horizontal community of our neighborhood or country on earth.

(19)  every planet is created for carrying human life and numerous planets are now inhabited and new ones are constantly being created--all in a grand Divine plan to create immortal human beings that live in eternal bliss in the heavenly regions of the mind.

(20)  animals are not immortal and their soul dissipates back into the spiritual world. Only human beings can be immortal because they are created with an upper region in the mind called rational, while animals are not so created. Thus we have freedom of the will in accordance with our understanding, and it is this freedom of decision making that forms the organic spiritual body that can be immortal. Only rational thinking operations can receive continuous spiritual influx without which we cannot be immortal. Nevertheless, the spiritual world--or higher regions of the mind, are filled with animals of all sorts, with greater variety and beauty than what exists on earths. Swedenborg has seen them thousands of times. But these are not animals born on earth who passed on to the higher regions. These are spiritually created animals and they have spiritual characteristics.

(21)  there is no vacuum. Space is not empty. We can call it ether, or dark matter, or fields, etc., but not empty nothing--an irrational concept. Here's what Newton had to say about his idea of vacuum when Swedenborg addressed him in the spiritual world.

Quoting from Swedenborg's Writings

 NEWTON. I spoke with Newton concerning a vacuum, and concerning colors. (LJP 289)

Concerning a vacuum he said, that in the world he had believed in the existence of a vacuum; but when the angels perceived that he had an idea of a vacuum, as an idea of nothing, they turned themselves away, saying that they cannot bear the idea of nothing, since when there is an idea of nothing the idea of the essence of things perishes. And when the idea of the essence of things perishes, the idea of thought, understanding, affection, love, and of will with men and angels perishes, which things are not given in nothing. They asked him whether he believed that the Divine, whence is all angelic wisdom, and all intelligence to men in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, is a vacuum, and thus that any Divine operation inflows through a vacuum into their vacuum and can present itself to perception. At that question he was disturbed.

He replied that it cannot through an absolute vacuum, which is nothing, but through an apparent vacuum, because the Divine is the Esse itself of wisdom and love with the angels in heaven and with men in the world, and it fills all things. Also Esse itself and nothing are so contrary to each other, that if one be admitted the other cannot. Therefore the angels entreated that he and all those who cherished the idea of a vacuum as of nothing would desist from it, that they might be together, knowing that nothing of their life can ever be given in nothing, but in those things which are, and which are or exist from the Esse.

They added that not anything can be said of a vacuum which is nothing, which has relation to acting, reacting, receiving, or attracting, thus to the life of their wisdom and love; in which there are so many infinite affections with their variations, perceptions, and sensations; for nothing is nothing, and of nothing we cannot predicate something.

When he had heard these things, Newton said that before this he had desisted from that idea, and he would desist from it hereafter; knowing that he is now in the spiritual world, in which, nevertheless, according to his former idea, would have been his vacuum; and that even now he is a man, and therein he thinks, feels, acts, yea breathes, and this could not take place in a vacuum which is nothing, but in something which is, and from Esse exists and subsists, and that an interstitial nothing is impossible, because that would be destructive of something, that is of essences and substances which are something. For something and nothing are altogether opposites, even so that he was horrified at the idea of nothing, and would beware of it, lest his mind fall into a swoon. (LJP 290)

What is space made of? Not of nothing. Scientists today are beginning to use the word "ether" again, which was in use in Swedenborg's time (18th century). Ether would thus be a thinner layer of matter than particles, waves, and energy fields. Thinner than energy fields? Yes, why not? Swedenborg refers to the thinnest materials of the natural world that are formed between the body and the mind as a mediating construction, partly material, partly spiritual, thus having a dual existence. The mind is built up of spiritual substances from the spiritual Sun, but also from these thinnest natural substances that contain sensorimotor information from experience. This thin layer of matter that encloses the natural mind is called "the limbus" (Latin for border). Theistic psychology research needs to investigate the nature of the limbus and whether the fabric of space is stretched out on a similar limbus that allows the two worlds to communicate through the functional laws of correspondence.

(22)  we are the only industrialized society of all the planets that Swedenborg was allowed to perceive through the minds of the local inhabitants, and it is explained why this will remain so.

(23)  the universe is maintained and created larger and larger continuously, through the operation of two suns--the Sun of the spiritual world and the suns (or stars) of the natural world. Spiritual substances called goods and truths stream out of the Sun of the spiritual world, forming the upper regions of the human mind and habitations, while physical substances stream out of the suns of the physical world, forming the lower regions of the human mind and all the physical matter of which the natural mind and the physical body are made of. These two suns act in concert through the laws of correspondences.

(24)  when we become inhabitants of the upper regions of the mind (called the Heavens) we live forever, we live as married couples (called the Conjugial Love unit), we live in a society, we operate spiritually in both spiritual body and mind, and this is totally different from how the physical body and mind operate.

(25)  the action of a virus on the physical body acts in correspondence with the function and characteristics of spiritual regions of the mind. The virus cannot act without this spiritual correspondence simultaneously going on. The spiritual correspondences are determined by particular societies in the vertical community to which we are associated as individuals. The mental characteristics of these spiritual associates (all of whom were people on earth until they passed on), determines the biochemical actions of the virus. Thus, knowing the characteristics of the associates allows us to know the viral characteristics. For a detailed description of this methodology and its implications for both theistic and materialistic science, consult this unique work The Third Source, on the Web at.  www.theisticscience.org/blomdahl/Sweden.htm

(26)  life after death begins approximately 30 hours after the death of the physical body. Resuscitation is described in detail in Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia (12 volumes). (See Section 1.7)

(27)  in all plant reproduction the materialistic appearance is that the male plant component fertilizes the female plant component. But this appearance must be contextualized in its actual operation, which is, that in the bringing forth of plants (growth), the earth is the mother (female) component to all plants, while the seed is the male component. I understand this to mean that all plants (what we call male and female) are to be considered male while the growing matter, soil, or minerals are to be considered as part of earth, it being the female womb that brings the plant forth through the action of the male seed. This action is through the genes or inmost component of the seed, and this is male. Also: seed=truth, but there are many truths--natural, spiritual, celestial.

(28)  children inherit the parents' character traits as a character tendency which becomes their own unless they undergo regeneration or character rebuilding (reformation). Those who do not undergo regeneration remain inhabitants of the lower regions of the mind, in this world, and they continue this state of mind in the afterlife to eternity. While we're still in the physical body, inhabiting the lower regions of the mind appears normal, and only once in a while delusional or insane. But once the physical body is separated, the resuscitated rational ether body (or mind) which now forms our external sensorimotor self, can no longer maintain the appearance of being normal and quickly explodes into delusion , insanity, and gross insanity such as characterizes the lowest regions of the mind called animal, beastly, and hellish.

(29)  regeneration is a necessary operation to recover from our inherited and injured character. This recovery operation proceeds in two steps repeatedly performed on a daily basis for many years. The first step is called reformation and starts the moment we feel remorse about some character trait that comes to our attention through self-examination of our acts and thoughts. The second step is to make a conscious decision to avoid that behavior or thought because it is injurious to the upper regions of our mind. If this process of reformation and regeneration is avoided or neglected, the inherited character remains, is passed on as a tendency to our children, and in the afterlife, takes us down to the lowest regions of the mind where we endure a miserable existence. This hellish existence in eternity is not a punishment for misdeeds, for this would be cruel and unreasonable punishment, irrational, contrary to God's Personal Character and order. Instead, they who pass on without regenerating their injured character, insist on being what they are, namely, wild hateful cunning beasts in human form striving to injure and torture anyone they can overpower. For such is our inherited character and this is why it must be regenerated. Here in the natural world, external laws of society and their enforcement, prevent us from breaking out into uncivilized barbaric acts--most of the time, though not always. But in the other life we cannot fake it. People in that dangerous state of mind must therefore be segregated in mental regions called "hells" where they live in company with others who share similar wild emotions and enjoyments.

(30)  character is our spiritual body and is formed of spiritual substances that are immortal and permanently part of our self. We are kept in spiritual freedom continuously. This is effected by being associated with spiritual societies on both sides of a decision-making process (our "vertical community"). Every time we make a decision, a permanent immortal substantive engram is formed in the spiritual body or the organ of the "character" in the mind. This physiological record is indelible, though it can be covered up and moved to the side during the regeneration process. The nature of the spiritual engram encompasses a variety of good tendencies and a variety of evil tendencies. Many of these decisions are tiny and automatic, like where we move our eyes and what pleasure or interest we derive from such investigation or information processing. Each eye movement is a response to some inherited love or interest and leaves a permanent record as an indelible engram in the immortal mind. Small or large, every one of these counts, cumulates, and remains permanent. While these cumulations hardly show in this life, in the spiritual body the character assumes total control--nothing can stop it for it is in total freedom to choose and express. If this character is anti-social and irrational, the individual is unable to withhold the self from injuring others. They must then be restrained and kept segregated in the lower regions of their mind called the hells.

(31)   the structural mechanics of the physical universe is formed according to the human character. Every atom or particle has a form traceable to the human character. This is true of minerals, plants, and animals, that is, all geology and biology, hence all their derivatives. The shape of the human character when well formed is that of an angelic person, but when injured, it has the shape of a monster or devil. The entire spiritual universe is in the shape of the human form. The entire human race, past and present, on all the inhabited planets, and as it continuously grows in size, is integrated in God's Perception as one human and one monster.

(32)  the upper regions of the mind are marked for the unity between one husband and a wife. However, there are variations to be taken into account. A man's character is constructed on a reciprocal basis to a woman's character so that the two may become one united person in the uppermost regions of the human mind. For this unity to be effected to its full potential perfection, it is necessary that not a single component of the man's character be like any component of the woman's character.

A general article discussing the scientific revelations in Swedenborg may be found at this address:  www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/theistic.html

Quoting from the Swedenborg Foundation:

Besides "the Writings of Swedenborg" which contain the scientific revelations about the spiritual world, Swedenborg (1688-1772) also made various contributions and inventions to natural science. He was a state employed engineer and a member of the Swedish legislative parliament. A partial list of his inventions includes:

• A Glider-Aircraft

• An Archimedean Glass

• A Water Pump

• An Ear Trumpet

• An Airtight Stove

• The Wave Motion of Light

• The Molecular Basis of Magnetism

• The Relationship between Magnetism and Electricity

• The Nebular Hypothesis

• The Function of the Endocrine Glands

• Functions of the Cerebellum

• Centers of Thinking and Memory in the Cerebral Cortex

• Formation of Cerebro-Spinal Fluid

• Integrative Action of the Nervous System

www.newchurch.org/Swedenborg/inventions.html

Quoting from Swedenborg:

From my fourth to my tenth year, I was constantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual sufferings of men, and several times I revealed that at which my father and mother wondered.... From my sixth to my twelfth year my delight was to discourse with clergymen concerning Faith -- that the life thereof is love, and the love that gives life is the love of one's neighbor.  (Swedenborg: Letters 1769)

1.5  Some of the People Who Have Acknowledged Swedenborg

I present this list to demonstrate that Swedenborg, though unknown in science, is quite well known in the history of literature. But I should indicate that these "endorsements" and opinions do not contribute to establishing the scientific status of Swedenborg's Writings. Theistic psychology has quite a different approach to Swedenborg than these non-scientific opinions.

"The most remarkable step in the religious history of recent ages is that made by the genius of Swedenborg."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I admire Swedenborg as a great scientist and a great mystic at the same time. His life and work have always been of great interest to me."  Carl Jung, Psychologist

"For you Westerners, it is Swedenborg who is your Buddha, it is he who should be read and followed!"  D. T. Suzuki, Zen Buddhist Scholar

"The correlations between what Swedenborg writes of some of his spiritual experiences and what those who have come back from close calls with death report is amazing."  Raymond Moody, author of Life After Life

"People who have had near-death experiences peek through the door of the after-life, but Swedenborg explored the whole house." Kenneth Ring, founder of International Association for Near Death Studies (I.A.N.D.S.)

"Let me explain why Swedenborg merits scrutiny. It is a fact that the greatest poets and prose writers have borrowed liberally from him. The list is long: first Blake, as his direct spiritual descendant; then Goethe, a fervent reader of Swedenborg (as was Kant followed by Edgar Allan Poe, Baudelaire, Balzac, Mickiewicz, Slowacki, Emerson, Dostoevsky...." Czeslaw Milosz, 1980 Nobel Prize, Literature

"Swedenborg's enormous work has been my companion throughout my entire life." Henry Corbin, Islamic Scholar

"Swedenborg's message has meant so much to me! It has given color and reality and unity to my thought of the life to come; it has exalted my ideas of love, truth, and usefulness; it has been my strongest incitement to overcome limitations."  Helen Keller

"I have come back to Swedenborg after vast studies of all religions... Swedenborg undoubtedly epitomizes all the religions - or rather the one religion - of humanity."  Honore de Balzac

"More truths are confessed in Swedenborg's writings than in those of any other man... One of the loftiest minds in the realm of mind... One of the spiritual suns that will shine brighter as the years go on."  Thomas Carlyle, Theologian

"Swedenborg was one of the world's greatest geniuses. With his rare intellect and deep spiritual insight he has much to contribute to our modern life."  Norman Vincent Peale

"To my mind, the only light that has been cast on the other life is found in Swedenborg's philosophy. It explains much that was incomprehensible."  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Other artists, writers, thinkers and leaders influenced by Swedenborg include:

Helen Keller

Quoting from: web.archive.org/web/20011215231651/www.swedenborg.net/arcana2000/newstuff/keller/keller.html

The Secret of Helen's Strength ----------

It is a remarkable fact that in this most remarkable of lives, little is known of the source of Helen's steadfast strength--her religion. Amid all the excitement and sensationalism surrounding the Helen Keller story, it is important to remember that she was neither a saint nor a savage, but simply one of us--frail and human, subject to fits of temper, moods of discouragement, and times of despair. Therefore, like all of us, Helen needed to rely on something deeper than sheer human will power. She needed a religion. She wrote:

No one knows--no one can know--the bitter denials of limitation better than I do. I am not deceived about my situation. It is not true that I am never sad or rebellious. But long ago I determined not to complain. The mortally wounded must strive to live out their days cheerfully for the sake of others. That is what religion is for--to keep the heart brave to fight it out to the end with a smiling face. This may not be a very lofty ambition. But it is a far cry from surrendering to fate. But to get the better of fate, even to this extent, one must have work and the solace of friendship, and an unwavering faith in God's Plan of Good.

Helen's religious sense was dependent upon a clear understanding of the afterlife, a world that would be happier and more beautiful than anything she could imagine on earth. She believed that her life in the spiritual world would be free of bodily limitations. She saw it as a place where she would be able to fulfill all the desires of her heart. Writing in a mood of sadness, she reveals the aching loneliness that she sometimes felt:

What earthly consolation is there for one like me, whom fate has denied a husband and the joy of motherhood? At the moment my loneliness seems a void that will always be immense.

But in the next breath she rises above her sorrow and writes:

Fortunately I have much work to do--more than ever before, in fact--and while doing it I shall have confidence as always that my unfulfilled longings will be gloriously satisfied in a world where eyes never grow dim nor ears dull.

The vision of a glorious afterlife was uppermost in Helen's mind, even while she strove with all her heart and soul to be a creator of good, a helper of her kind while on earth. This vision sustained her through times of despair, filled her with hope during times of sorrow, and lifted her above what sometimes seemed to be insurmountable obstacles. She had placed her trust in a seer named Emanuel Swedenborg whose vision of the other world had given her life a spiritual focus. "We who are blind," she wrote, "are often glad that another's eye finds a road for us in a wide, perplexing darkness. How much more should we rejoice when a man of vision discovers a way to the radiant outer-lands of the spirit." To her, Swedenborg's testimony about the life to come was like "a sweet breath from God's presence." She referred to his voluminous writings as the Great Message, and declared that the promise it contained gave her the strength to overcome her limitations. She wrote:

Swedenborg's message has meant so much to me! It has given color and reality and unity to my thought of the life to come; it has exalted my ideas of love, truth, and usefulness; it has been my strongest incitement to overcome limitations.

Clearly, Swedenborg's message was the secret behind Helen's strength. It was as if a gentle hand had reached out to guide her through the perplexing world of spirituality, given her a tour of heaven, and introduced her to the God of Love--the same God she already worshipped in her heart of hearts. Swedenborg, Helen's guide in the realm of spirit, was able to explain to her, in comforting tones, the reality of God's promises, and the immanence of His presence.

And yet, this secret--the power of Emanuel Swedenborg's teachings in her life--is almost never mentioned when the Helen Keller story is told. Most often, the emphasis is upon the deep bond that she had with her teacher Anne Sullivan, or the experience at the well where she learned the meaning of the word "water." Seldom, however, is any reference made to the secret of Helen Keller's strength--her religion. "I cannot imagine myself without a religion," she said. "I could as easily fancy a living body without a heart."

------------------------------------------------------- "My Religion" ---------------------------

In 1927, at the age of 47, she wrote a book that she called, very simply, My Religion. In it she opens her heart and her mind to tell of the living faith that enabled her to rise above life's crushing adversity and still find joy in useful service. In reading her words, we are encouraged to go and do likewise--to rise above our own limitations, to discover that the light still shines in the darkness, and that, whatever sorrows have crossed our path, our lives still have meaning and purpose.

She was always clear about her trust in Providence, never doubting that her severe physical limitations had been turned by the Hand of God into the greatest possible good. In June of 1956, at the age of 76, she submitted an article to Guideposts magazine in which she again referred to the tremendous impact that Swedenborg's teachings had in her life:

Swedenborg has shaken down the barriers of time and space in my life and supplied me with likenesses or correspondences between the world within and the world without, which give me courage and determination beyond my three senses.... Since my seventeenth year I have tried to live according to the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg. By "church" he did not mean an ecclesiastical organization, but a spiritual fellowship of thoughtful men and women who spend their lives for a service to mankind that outlasts them.

And she concludes her article with this great promise of hope:

There are two ways to look at destiny, one from below and the other from above. In one view we are being pushed by irresistible forces, obsessed by the fear that war, ignorance, and poverty will never be abolished. But looking up to the clock of Truth, I see that man has been civilized only a few minutes, and I rest in the assurance that out of the problems that disturb thinking minds and warm hearts, there shall break the morning star of universal peace.

In sum, Helen Keller--like all of us--was neither angel nor demon, neither saint nor savage, but rather another mortal, imperfect human being striving to become all that she could be--an immortal soul on the way to perfection, born for a specific use in the kingdom of heaven, and shaped perfectly by the circumstances of her earthly life so that she might attain it. Truly she would say, "I thank God for my handicaps, for through them I have found myself, my work, and my God." She remains, for each of us who struggle daily with our own limitations, a luminous and inspiring symbol of hope.

For a brief biography of Swedenborg and his place in the world today, see this interview:
Williams-Hogan, Jane K. (2006). From Swedenborg to the New Church: Interview. Religioscope. Available at: http://religion.info/english/interviews/article_247.shtml 

Study Questions: 1.1.4.3.2 to 1.5 (Report 4)

Week 9 Readings: Section 1.1.4.3.2 to 1.3.1

• Student 1:    1, 4, 7

• Student 2:    2, 5, 8

• Student 3:    3, 6, 9

9.1.
(a) Explain how Divine Speech descends through the three discrete degrees of our mind.
(b) How do you react to this knowledge?
(c) How do your friends react to this knowledge?
(d) What is your conclusion?

9.2.
(a) Explain correspondences in relation to Sacred Scripture.
(b) What is your reaction to this new knowledge?

9.3.
(a) Show how correspondences influence the way we think in daily life.
(b) Search the Web for what people know about correspondences and explain what you found.

9.4.
(a) Many people uncritically repeat the idea that "God is energy." Give a rational proof that this belief is illogical.
(b) Then compare the logic of the opposite idea that "God is a Person."
(c) In your opinion, why is there opposition to the view that God is a Person?

9.5.
(a) The highest idea of God is also the most rational. What is this celestial view of God in relation to the substances of good and truth?
(b) Can you imagine having this view?

9.6.
(a) How does rational consciousness of God differ from sensuous consciousness of God?
(b) How would you describe your consciousness of God?
(c) Contrast your consciousness of God with that of a friend or two. How do they differ, or how are they similar?

9.7.
(a) Explain who is Swedenborg.
(b) Contrast the rational perspective on Swedenborg with the mystical perspective that some people have.
(c) How do you relate to both of these perspectives?

9.8.
(a) Google the expression "substantive dualism" (in quotes) and then the expression "theism and science" (in quotes). Summarize your assessment of this literature indicating how it relates to theistic psychology.

9.9.
(a) Discuss the book or movie Matrix in relation to theistic psychology. See for example:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_movie    or    www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/
Alternately, you can choose the movie What Dreams May Come. See for example:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Dreams_May_Come   or   www.imdb.com/title/tt0120889/
If you prefer another choice, email the instructor or discuss it in class.

Week 10 Readings: Section 1.3.2 to 1.5

• Student 1:    1, 4, 7

• Student 2:    2, 5, 8

• Student 3:    3, 6, 9