One interesting aspect of Swedenborg's experiences is that he claims to have had elaborate conversations with angels, some which apparently lasted for long spans of time, during his normal waking life. This is something I'd like to learn more about.

One question that comes to mind in this regard is how he was able to discern whether these beings were Godly angels rather than deceptive spirits.

I plan on reading all of his works on his spiritual revelations, but I'd also be interested in hearing what others know about it.

Alan, I'd appreciate if you did not contribute any further to this thread. Doesn't seem like you'd take it in the direction I intend for it to go.

I read Heaven and Hell, and found it to be impressive, but also much of what he wrote felt "true" to me.  The stages of man/woman after death, initially where the ego is still attached, then the fading of the memory of the physical world and the "second stage" where the person pursued their true loves, without the need to pretend or wear a mask as people do in the real world.   It is often said that spirits of a similar mindset gravitate toward a similar afterlife plane, without being condemned there.  Yet who would willingly choose a hellish plane?  Well, according to ES, those who turn away from God (that which is true, and which is good) do so again in the second stage of death, when they don't have to pretend to be something else.  So if they enjoyed hurting others, or getting their ego stroked, etc., they sought out others who felt the same way.  From ES's point of view, these spirits turned away from God/heaven and willingly flung themselves into a hell, not out of atonement or a punishment, but it is where they truly wanted to be. 

On reading and rereading some text, I found that ES wanted to take the bible so literally, that he had to make up a spiritual meaning or equivalent for literally every word in the NT and old T.  Some of his spiritual meanings were beautiful, and others appeared forced.  He reasoned that if the text were divinely inspired, than every word must have a spiritual meaning. 

Keep in mind, ES had a brilliant mind, as a scientist, and scholar.  In some ways, he was on par with Davinci, and other geniuses in terms of his intelligence. 

His paranormal documented experiences (knowing that a fire was burning on the other side of Europe, and his relating conversations from the deceased back with accuracy) was  fascinating to say the least. 

Also, keep in mind that much of ES's experiences in heaven went against church doctrine at the time.  So much so that many considered his expositions to be heretical. 

I believe that much of what he wrote about was a cosmology which made sense/rang true.  But some of the writings strike me as an attempt to perfectly match scripture to spirit and so I am forced to wonder how much of his writings is his genuine experience, and how much was his amazing intellect extrapolating the way he thought things should be?

M

DocM wrote on Mar 12^th, 2017 at 7:18pm:


Ten years ago I doubted everything he wrote because of my aversion to religion. Now I see things quite differently.

What strikes me is the frequency of his mystical experiences. Even when he wasn't "out of body," a good amount of the time a portion of his consciousness was exploring spiritual reality, like an OBE while still in the body, or aware of angels conversing with him. I think he received so much experience and information through these experiences, there was probably little room for him to invent things. I do think that his religious belief system had some influence on his experience, possibly limiting it in some areas and expanding it in others, as well as influencing his interpretation to an extent. Regarding his language, I feel he used the language he knew but in a more expanded way, going beyond the common meanings of otherwise strictly religious words and bridging the gap between fundamental interpretations and the more expanded spiritual understanding that he attained.

Hi Vince,

I read Heaven and Hell several years ago when Don was discussing Swedenborg, as well as a book recommended by Don, "The Presence of Other Worlds" by psychologist, Wilson Van Dusen, which I also recommend along with Van Dusen's "The Natural Depth in Man" and "Beauty, Wonder, and the Mystical Mind" if anyone's interested.  Van Dusen wrote extensively on ES and presents his work from both a mystical and psychological perspective that I found fascinating. 

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Considering that we are never not connected to our source, and that we are a part of the whole of consciousness, I think it is neither surprising, nor unusual for us to have the ability to communicate with the non-physical realms on a regular basis while remaining in a normal waking state of consciousness.  What we do is essentially split our awareness while in a very relaxed state where our brain frequencies range from Alpha to Theta.  I also think we are all a collection of souls (or soul consciousness) performing individualized work as collective groups where the group consciousness appears as a singularity, such as ES's perception of Michael.

We all have individualized beliefs and bias that dictates the ways in which we think, feel and act.  I'm sure ES was no exception.  It's good to be skeptical, yet open minded enough to learn new things, but if we simply adopt someone else's experience as ultimate truth, we are only creating yet another belief system rather than discerning our own truth from our own experience.

Kathy

Dude, thank you for the explanation.

Hey dude,

I'd be interested to know if your interest in the bible is with both the old and new testaments.  See, ES felt that both were divine works, and that every line had spiritual meaning.  I could definitely relate to that from the gospels, but the OT has long passages of stories which, however useful seem more informational.  This person begat that person and lived 130 years, etc.   ES meticulously went through scripture, often in hebrew or aramaic, and assigned a spiritual meaning to each sentence.  An incredible tour de force for sure. 

The gospels of the NT are very much in line with most New Age thought.  The two greatest laws are to love God and love your neighbor as yourself.  Much of the lessons in the NT are based in love, acceptance, acting selflessly, moving mountains by deep belief, etc.

M

Dude:

Yes deceptive beings exist, remember though, it is possible to find out about God's truth without fear interfering with the inquiry.

There are some new-age like sources that go overboard with their anti-bible business.  This is one extreme. Another extreme is being afraid to question some of the things the Bible says.

A while back you mentioned that you found some negative things with channeled source. Would you be interested in sharing some of what you learned?


I Am Dude wrote on Mar 16^th, 2017 at 9:35pm: