Don:
First of all, I'll respond to your post before reading Dude's post. It'll be interesting to see if we come up with something similar.
Regarding how disk members can be one and many at the same time, I believe the same is true for every soul that exists. We are all many and one at the same time. We started as one and them became many without "truly" doing so. When a soul gets to the point where it doesn't want to shut other souls out for whatever reasons, it will be able to experience how we are one an many at the same time. This happens when we live completely according to love.
What about what Swedenborg says about how male and female spirits marry each other? They merge as one, the female's intellect becomes inactive because the male's intellect takes over, and the male's volition becomes inactive, because the female's volition takes over. Are they one and separate at the same time? Perhaps I should not of used this example, because I find it hard to believe. First of all, I don't believe that our spirits have male and female genders. If anything we have both masculine and feminine qualities, without physical gender traits having anything to do with it. When we reach a higher level of being, we are all one, and marriage as Swedenborg portrays doesn't seem necessary. Do women really have the fate of having to give up their intellects some day? Sounds kind of chauvanistic to me.
Swedenborg also talks about soul groups that are united as one as if they are one being. If I remember right, this is what he said Archangel Michael is about. How can they be one and many at the same time?
I believe it is a mistake to conclude who's information is more accurate according to how many verifications have been made. There are other factors. Some people aren't here in order to prove things to other people. They are here to take care of whatever spirit work they need to take care of. When it came to information I received about disks and such, it came in a way where it is hard to doubt. I figure the same is true for other people who have done the same. Our experiences don't get invalidated simply because Swedenborg didn't have the same experiences. Perhaps it wasn't appropriate for him to learn about disks. Perhaps people from his time period weren't ready for such information. Information was provided to him that people would accept. Because it wasn't appropriate to tell him about disks, he couldn't be told about reincarnation, because it couldn't be explained how precisely it works.
I say the above with the belief that when the spirit World tries to help us out, our limited belief systems present a problem. Therefore, they sometimes have to present information that doesn't represent the entire truth, whether they like it or not. They aren't at fault, we are.
Berserk2 wrote on Apr 22nd, 2009 at 1:30am:Albert,
You and Dude act as if personal experience with no compelling verifications entitles you to dismiss personal experience with awesome verfications (Swedenborg and the best of mediumship).
You distort my position and make no attempt to explain ES's later disillusionment with his astral experiences of what he mistook for his own reincarnation memories. In my view, your persistence in ducking a plausible counter view just shows that you are imposing a New Age doctrinal overlay on to a misunderstood experience. And as Albert knows very well, I am not rejecting the Group Soul doctrine; I am merely challenging your interpretation of it, given the alternative view that comes from a more credible adept and is metaphysically coherent in a way that you have failed to explain for your perspective. Let me try again: What is your perspective on how multiple selves can be independently conscious as individuals, and at the same time, conscious as one Overself? What do these soul fragments actually do in their sequential activities?
Roger, I find "soul pre-existence," but no reincarnation concept in "Lighted Passage." But I cannot find your quote on page 215. Would you please check it and see if you have cited the wrong page?
Don