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Berserk
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  The Father of Astral Projection
« on: Aug 11th, 2005, 8:28am »  Quote  Modify 

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I have almost finished reading one of the most fascinating books I've ever read on the afterlife:
Wilson Van Dusen's "The Presence of Other Worlds: The Psychological/ Spiritual Findings of Emanuel Swedenborg."  I am not a Swedenborgian and do not feel fully qualified to expound on his insights.  But I nevertheless hope my interaction with Van Dusen's presentation will be stimulating to some of you.  I will develop this thread very gradually with the aid of this series of topics.  As always, feel free to jump in. I only ask that you reserve your comments for the appropriate topic.

(1) Swedenborg: A Scientific Genius
(2) His Evolving Methodology 
(3) His Awesome Verifications
(4) The Nature of Heaven and Hell 
(5) The Principle of Correspondence that Unites All
the Worlds
(6) The Nature of the Self
(7) A Comparative Analysis: Hallucinations in
     Swedenborg and in Psychopathy 
(8) Existence Itself as Symbolic

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Berserk
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  Re: The Father of Astral Projection
« Reply #1 on: Aug 11th, 2005, 9:10am »  Quote  Modify 

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(1) SWEDENBORG: A SCIENTIFIC GENIUS

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772 AD) spent the first part of his life absorbing the scientific knowledge of his era and wrote over 100 scientific works.  He also mastered a repertoire of technical trades.  His primary occupation was that of mining engineer and inspector of mines.  But he was a  ground-breaking thinker in physics, chemistry, mathematics, and astronomy For example, he is particulary famous his nebular hypothesis.   He also made major contributions in anatomy and the neurosciences.  For example, he was the first to discover the functions of the brain's cerebellum.  He recognized a special funtion of the pituitary gland two centuries before modern endocrinology.  He was a metallurgist and is credited with founding the science of crystallography.  He also directed a project that moved ships over 14 miles of mountains and valleys.  He designed stoves, an ear trumpet, pumps and fire extinguishers, and a flying machine.  The list goes on and on. 

At age 56 in the 1740s, he shifted his focus to the nature of the pysche or  soul.  ln 36 volumes he recorded and interpreted his dreams and, in the process, anticipated many modern psychoanalytic insights.  He quickly realized that anatomical and neurological would not be very helpful in this new quest.  His former scientific approach was inadequate for such elusive matters.  This realization catapulted him down the road to mysticism and he was soon to merit the title 'the father of astral projection."  That is my judgment, not the judgment of Swedenborg or his followers.
My next post will focus on his evolving methodology that honed his unique spiritual gift. 
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  Re: The Father of Astral Projection
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(2) SWEDENBORG'S EVOLVING METHODOLOGY

Without knowing it, ES engaged from childhood in a meditation akin to Yogic and Buddhist practices.  He would relax, close his eyes, and focus in with total concentration on a scientific problem.  At the same time, his breathing would nearly stop and his awareness of the outer world and even bodily sensation would diminish to the point of vanishing.  He whole existence would focus on the one issue he wanted to understand.

What began as an intensely intellectual form of meditation ultimately progressed to an exploration of his dreams, the hypnogogic state, and later, trances.  The hypnogogic sate is experienced twice a day as one goes into and out of sleep.  Few people have the discipline and focus to explore the spontaneous wellsprings of mind that bubble up from this state.  ES learned to converse with its symbolic inner processes.  Those who really explore this state can linger for hours watching scenes and hearing things said.  For some reason, some people are primarily visual during this state, and others, like myself, are primarily  auditory.

When I awaken, I often hear a whirring sound like a washing machine completing its cycle and also hallucinatory voices, both known and unknown.  I wonder if the whirring sound signals recent astral travel erased from my memory.  During his hypnogogic state, David Fontana often experienced a combination of waking paralysis and a sense of a menacing alien presence.  Upon further experimentation, he discovered that the alien presence was in fact a dim memory of his soul returning from a forgotten OBE state!

In the hypnogogic state, something is said or seen  before there is any possibility of grasping its meaning.  For example, in this state ES gains this insight: "As to pleasure, wealth, and rank, which I had pursued, I perceived that all was vanity and that he is the happier who is devoid of such things. ..I seemed to hear a hen cackling, as she does when she has laid an egg."  ES later realizes that chickens are not very bright.  Symbolically, his mind is warning him that his insight is nothing to be proud of and must be only the prelude to far more profound insights.

The sphere which most people rule within their minds is relatively small.  Unlike ES, the average person would find it very hard to hold one thought, image, or intention in mind for even one minute.  In the hypnogogic state, one can watch thoughts form and be spoken without one's behest.  Further, the inner processes think faster and more cleverly than the meditator and the symbolic language spoken may not even be understood.  By inspecting feelings, associations, and the situation being symbolized, it is possible to penetrate the symbol.   

For ES these inner states suggest the presence of other spiritual beings interacting with our lives.  Those who scoff at this suggestion have rarely shared ES's determination to  use the hypnogogic state as a springboard for more vivid waking trance states and ultimately for visits to the World of Spirits, the Hells, and the Heavens.  By contrast, we generally experience such inner states merely as pieces of the unconscious self bubbling to the surface.  ES's communal notion of of the earthly self would embrace both perspectives as valid!

SWEDENBORG'S DISCERNMENT OF THE GENUINENESS OF HIS PARANORMAL ENCOUNTERS

As his consciousness expands from dreams and hypnogogic states to waking trances, conversations with demons and angels, and visits to the afterlife territories, ES actively seeks out ways of validating his experiences.  In all these psychic states, he begins to experience the little-known phenomenon called photism or orbs of light.   The meditator seeking guidance finds a signal system to guide him.  ES sees an affirming flame.  He observes: "Such a flame appeared to me so often, and indeed, in different sizes in a diversity of color and splendor, that during some months when I was writing a certain work, hardly a day passed in which a flame did not appear as vividly as the flame of a household hearth."    Most people who experience orbs are puzzled by by their significance.  ES tested the validity of his flame and soon discovered that it was "a sign of approval."  He could, for example, correlate it with his scientific breakthroughs.  Both by its color and warmth, his flame symbolizes love and feeling.  During his expanded awareness, ES begins experiencing his guiding flame during his daytime trances and visions as well.

Too many modern astral adepts tend to accept the entities they encounter at face value without rigorously discerning their positive or negative ambience.  ES's passion to encounter the divine reinforces his discipline and resolve to test the spirits by sorting out their quality and usefulness.  He even experiences automatic writing.  He'd feel his hand being seized by lower-order spirits and forced to write things about biblical figures that he didn't even approve of.  But his most impressive verifications derive from evidence that he can truly contact the dead and gain from angels information that at times cannot be gleaned from the minds of incarnate humans.  This evidence will be discussed in my next planned post.

Don 
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Very interesting stuff, Berserk.  It makes me wonder why Robert Monroe didn't stumble onto his writings during his early experiences when he thought he was going nuts, and thought he was alone.

Just one question about your subject headings (as per Spooky2's recovery of your posting.)  Item #7 reads A Comparitive Analysis:  Hallucinations in Swedenborg and in Psychopathy?  Do you mean to say "psychosis"?  Two different things.

Thanks, Sheila

(4) ES's VERIFICATIONS OF HIS CONVERSATIONS
     WITH ANGELS

ES claims that everyone has both angels from Heaven and spirits from Hell with them all the time, normally two of each.  He applies the term "angel" to discarnate humans in Heaven as opposed to Hell and the intermediary realm he calls "The World of Spirits."  His practiced mastery of discernment allows him to distinguish angels from the deceptive hellbound spirits.  Lower-order spirits like to pretend that they can predict and even control the future, but they cannot.  Modern astral adepts have seldom penetrated the heavens, and so, are often deceived by hallucinatory encounters with lower-order spirits.  But the Lord, Heaven, and angels essentially transcend time.  So anyone in contact with them can potentially read the past, present, and future, and even verify their contacts with the dead.

At first sight, some of ES's clairvoyant revelations might be due to ESP gleaned from the minds of eyewitnesses.  Condider these 2 cases: (1) Chris Springer was a Swedish politician and a close friend of ES.  Springer had been a major player in the secret negotiations between Sweden and Prussia.  After ES's death, Springer revealed that ES had psychically gleaned detailed knowledge of these negotiations.  ES discerned such details as who was present, what money was offered, what Springer had done, and why he had done it.  (2) In the middle of a conversation at an Amsterdam party, ES lost his awareness of those around him and entered a deep trance.  When he recovered, his dismayed associates asked him what had happened, but he initially refused to say.  But after much coaxing, he soberly described how Emperor Peter III of Russia had just been strangled in a prison in Kopsha, Russia.  He advised partygoers to note the date and his description, so they could later verify it from newspaper accounts.  A few days later, the local papers confirmed his report.

Skeptics challenged his ability to receive such premonitions.  His sister had died without his knowing it.  When chided about this, he explained that he was emotionally distant from her at the time of her death and, in any case, had not asked his angels about her.  When he did ask his angels to reveal when someone would die, he received accurate clairvoyance.  Two episodes illustrate this:

(1) At a Stockholm gathering, ES was challenged by skeptics to a test: he was asked to identify who of those present would die first.  ES immediately entered a profound state of meditation.  After a while, he shared the angels' reply: "Olof Olofsohn will die tomorrow morning at 4;45 AM."  This confident prediction transformed the mood of those present to one of anxious expectation.  One of Olofsohn's friends went to his house the next morning to test the prediction.  En route, he met one of Olofsohn's servants who informed him that his master had just died from a fit of apoplexy.  The clock in his home had stopped at the very moment he had expired and the hand pointed to 4:45!

This episode reminds me of 3 deaths in the Long family.  Nick Long died suddenly from a heart attack while a young man.  His son, Nick, Jr., was later distraught over a failed marriage and hung himself while his mother, Eleanor, was attending a funeral at my church.  Eleanor herself was killed in a fiery car crash a year later.  Eleanor's death hit me very hard because she was always very kind to me.  A week prior to her death, she had a dream in which several deceased relatives visited her home.  Her late husband came downstairs and asked her, "Honey, do you want to dance?"  Eleanor would ordinarily never turn down her husband's offer to dance, but she sensed that dancing was a symbol for her imminent passing.  So she replied, "Oh no, I'm not ready yet!"  These 3 deaths in the Long family had one thing in common with Ofofsohn's death: the clock in teir living room stopped at the time of death for all 3 of the Longs! 

(2) ES's ability to receive accurate death premonitions from angels is dramatically corroborated by an exchange of letters with John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.  ES wrote Wesley an unexpected letter, saying, "I have been informed in the world of spirits that you have a strong desire to converse with me; I shall be happy to see you if you will favor me with a visit."  Wesley received the letter in an English drawing room just as he and his followers were preparing for an extended speaking tour.  Wesley told those present that he was indeed eager to meet ES, but had told no one about this.  He wrote ES that their meeting would have to be postponed for 6 months until the completion of his speaking tour.  ES wrote back, apologizing that he could not meet him at that time because he was to die on the 29th of the next month, which, of course, he did. 

My Dad's friend Helmut can attest that ES's premonition about the exact date of his passing is not unprecedented.  Helmut's Dad always said he would die on his 91st birthday.  When that day arrived, he had no obvious health problems and no one dared comment of the fateful date.  He had a good breakfast and cheerfully announced he was going to take a nap.  He passed away peacefully durng the nap just as he'd always predicted.   

ES receives angelic clairvoyance of 3 accidents or acts of Nature, none of which can satisfactorily be explained in terms of ESP tapping the minds of eyewitnesses.  (1) In ES's day the uncertainties of wind and weather made it impossible to predetermine how many days a long sailing trip might take.  Sea captains generally took his presence on a ship as a sign that the journey would be safe and swift.  ES claimed he never feared these journeys because he had angels with him.  Those angels demonstrated their presence in a conversation ES had with a Captain Dixon as they embarked on a trip from London to Stockholm.  ES accurately predicted that the ship would arrive in Stockholm at 2 PM in exactly a week.   

(2) On July 17, 1750, he and 15 others were guests of the prominent merchant William Castel in Gothenberg at his fine home on Canal St.  At 6 PM, ES suddenly turned pale.  When asked what was wrong, he described a fire burning out of control at that moment in distant Stockholm.  in principle, he moght have acquired this information by ESP gleaned from the minds of Stockholm's residents.  But the ESP explanation cannot satisfactorily account for his detailed knowledge of the fire's course.  He described where it had started and where it was burning, including the inceration of a friend's house and the fact that the fire burned itself out just before it arrived at ES's home.  The next day the governor summoned ES and sought and received his report on the fire which was confirmed in detail the following day.

(3) In 1770, ES attended a social event in his honor in Gothenberg.  he sat beside Bolander, the owner of extensive cloth-mills.  During dinner, ES abruptly turned to Bolander and sharply instructed him: "Sir, you had better go to your mills!"  Bolander was taken aback at his rudeness, but nevertheless left the table and hurried to his mills.  A large piece of cloth had just fallen near the furnace and had begun to burn.  He arrived just in time to prevent his property from being reduced to ashes.  When he returned, he thanked ES.  ES smiled and explained that he had spoken so abruptly because he had "seen" that the danger was imminent.

Don

(5) THREE INITIAL STATES AFTER DEATH

I take seriously what ES's astral explorations have revealed on this subject because of his many awesome verifications of his conversations with angels and other discarnate humans.  My source here is ES's classic book "Heaven and Hell" (= HH) from which I will now quote extensively:

"When we die, we are still alive and just as human as ever.  To convince me of this, [the Lord] has allowed me to talk with almost all the people I have ever met during their physical lives, with some for a few hours, with some for weeks and months, and some for years.  This was primarily so that I could be convinced and bear witness (437)."

"There are three states that we pass through after death before we arrive at either heaven or hell.  The first state is one of more outward concerns.  The second is one of more inward concerns, and the third is one of preparation.  We go through all three states in the world of spirits.  Some people do not go through these states, but are either raised into heaven or cast into hell immediately after their death (HH 491)." 

The "world of spirits" is a transitional state between the heavens and hells and seems to be the equivalent of Focus 25 and 26 in the Monroe-Moen nomenclature.  The highest level of the world of spirits seems to be the equivalent of Focus 27.  In biblical terms, the world of spirits embraces Hades (not to be confused with Hell) in its lower planes and Paradise, an old Persian term for "park", in its upper planes. 

(1) OUR FIRST STATE AFTER DEATH

"We use the outward aspects of our spirit to adapt our bodies in the world--especially our faces, our speech, and behavior--to our interactions with other people.  The more inward aspects of our spirit are the ones proper to our intentions and consequent thought, which rarely show in faces, speech, and behavior.  We are trained from infancy to present ourselves as friendly, benevolent, and honest, and to conceal the thoughts of our own intentions.  As a result, of this habitual behavior, we scarely know our inner natures and pay no attention to them (HH 492)."

"Our first state after death is like our state in the world, since we are then similarly involved in outward concerns. We have similar faces, voices, and character; we lead similar moral and civic lives.  That is why it still seems to us as though we were in this world unless we notice things that are out of the ordinary (HH 493)."

Most NDEs are marvelous experiences.  But ES chillingly insists that the initial postmortem state is normally wonderful even for people who will ultimately find their way to a hell.  ES's mention of their trips to gorgeous gardens and parks in the first state recalls descriptions of Focus 27:

"Their friends...take them around to various places, into the company of different people.  They go to different cities, to gardens and parks, often to gorgeous ones because things like that appeal to the outward concerns they are involved in.  Many of them think they will make it into heaven because they led moral and civic lives in the world, not reflecting that both good and evil people lead similar outward lives (HH 495)."

ES adds that "the first state after death...rarely lasts more than a year for anyone (HH 498)."   This fits neatly with modern research on contacts received by the recently bereaved from deceased loved ones.  One study indicated that 50% of Americans and 48% of the British report convincing contacts with their deceased loved ones within the first year since their death.  After that, the number of such contacts dramatically dwindles. Making such contacts is much harder for those who have moved on from the world of spirits to a heaven or a hell.

(2) OUR SECOND STATE AFTER DEATH

"Our second state after death is called a state of our deeper interests because then we are given access to the deeper reaches of our minds, or of our intentions and thoughts, while the more outward interests that engaged us in the first state become dormant (HH 499)."  "We as spirits are brought...into the state of those deeper intentions and consequent thoughts we engaged in when we were left to ourselves in the world and our thinking was free and unfettered (502)."

At this stage we shed aspects of self that were shaped by social expectations, peer pressure, and the need to present an acceptable presenting self that can mask our inner self.  As a result, "people who were inwardly devoted to the good...then behave..more wisely than when they were living in the world...In contrast, people who were focused on evil...then behave more insanely then when they were in the world (HH 505)."  It now becomes impossible to act one way and inwardly be another.  The person pauses at this threshold world long enough to become one with her own nature. 

"Once people like this are in the second state, they are let back into the state of their more outward concerns for brief periods of time.  They then retain a memory of how they behaved when they were in the state of their more inward concerns.  Some of them are embarrassed and admit they were insane.  Some of them are not embarrassed at all.  Some of them resent the fact that they are not allowed to be in the state of their more outward concerns all the time, but they are shown what they would be like if they were continually in this state.  They would constantly be trying to do the same things covertly, misleading people of simple heart and faith with simulations of goodness, honesty, and fairness.  They would destroy themselves completely because eventually their outer natures would be ablaze with the same fire as their inner natures (HH  506)."

"The things they [evil people] had done and said in secret are now made public, too, because now,  since outward factors are not constraining them, they say the same things openly, and they keep trying to the same things without any fear for the reputations they had in the world...They [visually] look to angels and good spirits like the [evil] people they really are (HH 507)."

(3) OUR THIRD STATE AFTER DEATH

Our third state after death is one of instruction.  This state is for people who are entering heaven and becoming angels and not for people who are entering hell, because the latter cannot be taught
(HH 512)."  Their close-mindedness prevents them from sensing the vast heavenly world beyond the world of spirits.  "As a result, their second state... ends in their turning straight toward...the hellish community that is engaged in a love like their own."  The general intention of the hells is to ignore God and vault the interests of self above all others. 

Heaven is not just reserved for Christians.  On the one hand, ES casually mentions bishops he has encountered in hell.  On the other hand, humble and teachable agnostics who have lived the equivalent of a loving Christian life will then be "taught things like that God exists, that heaven and hell exist, that there is a life after death, that God is to be loved above all, and our neighbor as ourselves, and that we are to believe what is said in the Word because the Word is divine (HH 512)." 

 

(7a) THE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN SPACE OR
       DISTANCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL REALITIES

This is the first in a series of posts on ES's discovery of how the principle of correspondence determines the structure of spiritual reality.  ES learns that there is no space in heaven.  What corresponds to distance are the feelings we have for each other.  To quote ES's "Heaven and Hell:" 

"People who are nearby are the ones in a similar state and the ones who are far away are in dissimilar states.  This is why space in heaven is nothing but the outward states that correspond to the inner ones.  This is the only reason why the heavens are differentiated from each other; as are the communities in each heaven and the individuals in each community. It is also why the hells are completely separate from the heavens.  They are in an opposite state."

"This is also why in the spiritual world one individual is present to another only if that presence is intensely desired.  This is because one person sees another in thought in this way and identifies with that individual's state.  Conversely, one person moves away from another to the extent that there is any sense of reluctance.  Whenever people move from one place to another, whether it is in their town, their courtyards, in their gardens, or to people outside their own community, tbey go there more quickly if they are eager to and more slowly if they are not.  The path itself is lengthened or shortened depending on their desire, even though it is the same path.  We can illustrate this by our own thoughts. . .for whatever we focus on intently in our thought is seemingly present (HH #193-96)."

This psychological equivalence to earthly spacial relationships among heavenly communities raises interesting questions.   Most of us have multi-faceted loves and tastes.  Assume for the sake of argument that I wind up in heaven.  I enjoy the company of men who make me laugh, men who love sports, and men who stimuate me intellectually.  I enjoy the company of women who have the gift of empathy, women who charm me, and women who balance me because they are very different from me, etc.    Let us assume that people of each type enjoy my company equally and are equally evolved in their spirituality.  How will the "geography" of these personality types be worked out?  What combination of strengths, interests, and quirks would bring my "type" together into a heavenly community?  Would I be with comedians who make me laugh, with men who stimulate me intellectually, with women who charm me, but are very different from me, etc.?  How can love be quantified?  Does God have some hierarchy of values that elevates some loving personality types to a higher level than others?  If so, what are they?  Perhaps, it is simply a matter of the purity and frequency of a soul's vibration.  So many questions, so few answers!

Don   

Roger,

I appreciate your humility in passing yourself off as a "newbie."     Buddhism stresses the importance of seeking enlightenment with a beginner's mind.  Of course you are practically a founding member of this site!  In any case, it's good to see you back.

Yes, ES discouraged others from trying to satisfy their curiosity through astral exploration.  He learned the hard way that the lower astral is a realm of illusion and deceptive spirits.  He devoted much time and meditative practice to honing his skill in discerning the difference between spirits from higher and lower vibrations.   Even so, he was once possessed by an evil spirit and sometimes experienced attacks from the lower planes during normal consciousness.  Some here would protest that Bruce's method is safe and that they have never encountered destructive "negs."  In my view, their safety is best explained by the simple fact that Bruce's method (focused imagination) often fails to propel the wannabe astral adept beyond mere imagination.  Robert Bruce has recently written a book about the spiritual dangers of astral exploration and the need to learn ways of protecting oneself during OBEs. 


ES explains in detail why he dismisses the reality of reincarnation of the "I".   The question is whether he substitutes an alternative perspective that roughly corresponds with eastern religious views of "nonegoic" reincarnation.  His alternative seems to be tied in with his views on physical and spiritual evolution, which in turn builds on his insights into the role of correspondences in creation's fabric.

To give you my best answer, I first need to plan another post on correspondences, a post on ES's anticipation of evolutionary theory a century before Darwin, and a post on how ES fills in the logical gaps created by a purely materialistic view of evolution.   I have just E-mailed Howard Storm about a possible contradiction between his NDE and ES.  I'd like to see if he replies and then incorporate his response into my responses to you.
So please be patient.  I want to give you my best answer and I am currently rethinking these issues.

Don

 

EVOLUTI0N AND CORRESPONDENCE

ES discovers that in both the spiritual and natural worlds each person, animal, plant, and mineral is encompassed by its spiritual replica, an energy sphere which continually emanates from it.  ""Thus the natural world derives from the spiritual, and the spiritual from the Divine (DLW 283)."  This insight is independently confirmed by channeled material from deceased Oxford professor F. W. Myers.  Myers confirms the truth of the widely espoused "as above, so below" principle.  Myers reveals that dinosaurs existed in the spirit world before they became physical and that their prior existence as spirits was essential to their emergence on Earth.    If ES  had known about dinosaurs, he would no doubt agree.  He reports: 

"This whole natural world is responsive to the spiritual world--the natural not just in general but in detail.   So whatever arises in the natural world is called `something that corresponds'.  It must be realized that the natural world arises  from and is sustained in beng by the spiritual world exactly the way an effect relates to an efficient cause (HH 89)."

"Now because every single thing remains in being from the Divine,...and every single thing from that source is inevitably a representative of the real thing by means of which it has come into being, the whole visible universe is therefore nothing else than a theatre that is representative of the Lord's kingdom.  And this in turn is a theatre representative of the Lord Himself (AC 483)," 

So ES does not simply believe that God spoke and "Poof!" life appeared.  For ES, Nature provides a mechanism whereby the Lord's life reaches down to ultimates [evolved states] and returns to Himself through higher and higher "uses" (DLW 180, 316).  Both evolution and some form of reincarnation are at least consistent with this scheme of things. 

ES reveres biblical truth but insists that the Genesis creation story cannot be taken literally.  He precedes Darwin by almost a century and inevitably makes mistakes in his speculations about the development of life forms.  But he anticipates the general drift of modern evolutionary theory.  He recognizes the tiny lichen on a rock as a  developmental prelude to emerging forests.  He believes that each order of plants gives birth to a corresponding order of animals (WLG 30).  He traces the modern human species back to a primordial prehuman stage (SD 3390). 

In my view, he anticipates and corrects a flaw in the evolutionary principle of natural selection.  Natural selection assumes that chance variations create genetic advantages that improve the chances of survival.  ES accepts the role of randomness in creation, but insists that the Lord controls chance or probabiliity distributions (AC 5508).  His anticipation of evolutionary theory a century before Darwin is yet another confirmation of the validity of his gift of astral projection.

In my next planned post, I will discuss how his views on the origin and development of life forms find confirmation in modern scientific experiments.

Don