Emanuel Swedenborg

Other work throughout time.

Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist, made Christian mystic from the 1700s.

He spent 27 years writing down his visions of the afterlife.

He described three men three days after dying who were shocked to hear their bodies were buried, being buried because they felt so alive.

And what we would learn is that when you begin to initiate, you do not know but that you are communicating with an angel of light, a demonic spirit who is impersonating an angel of God.

Look at Swedenborg, great spiritist of a previous day.

Swedenborg believed that God had given him the ability to distinguish good spirits from bad spirits, just like that woman on the plane with whom I was riding some time ago, who said that she could tell the difference because she received only those spirits, she said, that came to her in light, and she abhorred all the spirits that came to her in darkness.

Swedenborg thought that he had that ability too.

You know what he said near the end of his life? He said, I realize the demons are so deceptive that I now recognize that even I have been deceived and there is no way to tell the difference between the good ones and the bad ones.

If you're the initiator, you do not know what angel is going to show up for communication, fellowship, and to do you some good deed so that you'll be deceived.

Spiritualist newspapers were increasing their circulation daily.

New spiritualist philosophers were publishing books and iterating on the revelations of Swedenborg and Andrew Jackson Davis.

By 1851, many spiritualists were becoming deeply entrenched in their beliefs.

For many, the reality of spirit communication was becoming a matter of faith.

Pythagoras, the great Greek mathematician who did similar methods of fasting and meditation and exercises, was able to experience the same thing.

Emanuel Swedenborg, the Swedish mystic, described the same thing.

He actually described going to Venus, which is what he deemed as the third or highest heaven he had ever visited.

And in the third heaven, Swedenborg found that everyone was perfectly beautiful.

Everyone was naked who lived there because it was like a Garden of Eden planet.

But they were not living on the physical dimension that we call the physical dimension.

As a new heaven is begun, and it is now thirty-three years since its advent, the eternal hell revives.

And lo, Swedenborg is the angel sitting at the tomb, his writings of the linen clothes folded up.

Now is the dominion of Edom and the return of Adam into paradise.

See Isaiah chapter 34 and 35.

I by force suddenly caught him by the arms and flew westerly through the night till we were elevated above the earth's shadow.

Then I flung myself with him directly into the body of the sun.

Here I clothed myself in white, and taking in my hand Swedenborg's volumes, sunk from the glorious clime and passed all the planets till we came to Saturn.

Here I stayed to rest, and then leaped into the void between Saturn and the fixed stars.

And to that end, some of the key questions we will answer in this episode.

What is spiritualism? How did it originate? To answer that, we'll look more closely at the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg.

and Franz Mesmer.

What are these names? We'll also talk about the story of the Fox sisters.

christian mysticism of the 18th and 19th centuries if you look at christian mystics a lot of them are engaging with the work of swedenborg and swedenborgian churches persist to this day

swedenborgian churches can we go to

one you can there's one i know the headquarters are in cambridge like the sort of home church swedenborgianism is in cambridge mass But in 1758, Swedenborg writes this book called Heaven and Its Wonders and Hell from Things Heard and Seen.

And it describes a spiritual reality that exists after death.

And you didn't even have to have a famous theologian father either.

He was a Swedenborgian, which we discussed before.

They are one.

You're thinking of the Borg from Star

What was it again? Toxic Positivity Episodes 1 or 2.

Okay.

When we first mentioned Swedenborgianism.

Oh, by the way, thanks to the amazing efforts of Esme, all the episodes, going back to number one, are now available through streaming and platforms and so

Whenever you think of yourself or of your advancing condition, give thanks to the great intelligent substance for the perfect health you are enjoying.

Remember that, as Swedenborg taught, there is a continual inflow of life from the Supreme, which is received by all created things according to their forms, and by man according to his faith.

Health from God is continually being urged upon you, and when you think of this, lift up your mind reverently to Him and give thanks that you have been led to the truth and into perfect health of mind and body.

Be, all the time, in a grateful frame of mind and let gratitude be evident in your speech.

End of chapter 6 Health from God I will give a chapter here to explaining how man may receive health from the Supreme.

by the supreme i mean the thinking substance from which all things are made and which is in all and through all seeking more complete expression and fuller life this intelligent substance in a perfectly fluid state permeates and penetrates all things and is in touch with all minds.

It is the source of all energy and power, and constitutes the inflow of life which Swedenborg saw, vitalizing all things.

It is working to one definite end, and for the fulfillment of one purpose, and that purpose is the advancement of life toward the complete expression of mind.