I guess one would have to see what he said. I wonder if Emanuel realized that places like the moon don't have an atmosphere. How did people from the 1700's view such things?

I looked around and one source stated that Emanuel contended that every planet God created has life. This premise is worth questioning.

recoverer wrote on Nov 9^th, 2009 at 8:40pm:


Probably the life they are talking about on these planets are not necessarily physical but astral in nature... but, individual entities hang around these locales and even build communities there... this is only an opinion of course

Below is what I wrote on another thread.

I'd like to add that I stopped reading Swendenborg's heaven and hell because even though he has some good things to say, on more than one occassion he stated that some people end up in hell "forever."

In one paragraph he wrote that some people are cast into hell right after death head first with their feet sticking out.

When he spoke of people going to hell he made no mention of why many people develop in a negative way. There are so many negative influences in this World. Many people are likely to be influenced in a negative way.

One of the reasons we incarnate into this World is so we can learn to live according to love and choose wisely. It isn't reasonable to expect people to be done with the lesson plan before they have a chance to complete it.

Therefore, when I listen to my heart and common sense, Swedenborg is too indifferent to souls who supposedly end up in hell forever.

I doubt souls would choose to incarnate into lives that have negative influences if they understood there is a good chance they might end up in hell for all of eternity, or as Swedenborg says, forever.

Life in this World is a means to a greater end, not a way to get many souls stuck in hell for all of eternity.

Since Swedenborg lived in the 1700's, perhaps he wrote what was relevant to the time period. Perhaps today a more enlightened and less accusatory approach (they get what they deserve) is required.

Perhaps it is possible to set up a system where all souls find their way back to the light, especially those who took on the more challenging lifetimes.

Dude:

The thing is, I don't have time to read everything I want to read, so sometimes I move onto something else.

Doc-

ES does in fact hint at what Recoverer says.

On pg 111 of Van Dusen's book The Presence of Other Worlds, ES is quoted as follows: "Everything about us comes from the primary tendency of our life......If we are good we make our heaven according to it, and if we are bad we make our hell according to it.  It is our basic motivation, our personality, and our character, since it is the reality of our life.  It cannot be changed after death because it is our essential self." 

From Heavenly Doctrine S57

Elsewhere in the book it's clear that ES believes (or more accurately was informed) that this essential character is with us since birth.  Not only can't we change it after death, it sounds as if we can't change it during life.

I know ES exhorts us to good behavior, but it also seems that unless that behavior flows from a good essential character, it may not necessarily be of much value. 

R

Also, Albert and Dude, from an ES forum there are two examples of ES speaking of people being raised up of or out of hells:

Two examples of them are from Spiritual Experiences:
"I desire to state this fact, for I know it to be true, for I have perceived it, that many … [in hell] have been raised from hell and torments into heaven where they now live … [Spiritual Experiences #228]"

"[In a large vat in hell] there are none of those there who perished in the time of the Flood, but they have been brought out … and there are those who have been created anew." SE 286

Also, SE 1497, read in light of SE 1928, indicates that certain spirits remain in a dungeon in hell “for centuries, until their former life is altered … Thus their former life dies, although it still remains.” After this, they were enabled by a “superadded gift” to live among angels. Whether you read this as complementary or contradictory to Heaven and Hell 480, is a subjective judgment, not an objective one."

Matthew

Again, I think ES may have been vague and/or possibly conflicted himself on this issue.  On the one hand, he wanted to emphasize that our inner love drives us to hells or heavens.  That all pretense falls off some time after death, so we willingly pursue our inner love.  For ES, those in hellish realms express a love for the materialistic or the sadistic or hedonistic without the primal love of others or God.

That the stay in the hellish realms is forever I do not think he actually says.  In parts of his writing, such as what I pulled from the ES forum, he implies that a part of the person is altered in the hell and then they are in a heaven.

I must also add that ES was an extremely logical coherent thinker, and though I think many of his ideas came as suggested by his astral travels, it appears to me that he uses a socratic like dialogue to show logically how one thing leads to another in heaven.  This makes one wonder how much came from his brilliant and logical mind and how much came from direct revelation from talks with deceased people (angels). 


M