Emmanuel Swedenborg - the noble intellectual with a special dispensation to witness Heaven and Hell

Hi folks,

My last thread went down like a lead balloon, so I figured strike while the iron's hot & add in another controversial subject which has been on my mind recently. Many of you will know that I'm a Christian, I like to think I'm not outspoken in an aggressive way, but I'll surely stand up for my faith, and in times past I've been quite vocal in some circumstances to express clear & unambiguousv commentary on the practice of that faith. I've also expressed on occasion some comments related to my own direct spiritual/otherworldly experience, and in some cases the prophetic content of my dreams has proven accurate beyond a reasonable doubt. So I hope people can more or less trust me to make statements according to my beliefs, by a standard which demands honesty in dealing with truth - with regards to justice, mercy & humility.

I'd like to introduce you to Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). He was an exceptionally gifted intellectual, in one of his main focii he was a mining engineer appointed by decree to serve in the name of the Swedish royal court. His faith was in the background of his remarkable professional life up to the age of his early fifties, when he had a religious crisis leading him to become a mystic. I highly recommend you read up on him, because my efforts here will not do the great man the justice he deserves. In short, he was an incredibly knowledgable, highly practical polymath, mastering all sorts of disciplines whilst holding his main position as a mining engineer, and he was well respected & well liked as a result of his exceptional purity of character (as far as a person can be described as having pure character - we're all fallen, after all)

The man's life changed markedly when he was 53, as suddenly he bagn to have the most extraordinary spiritual experiences. As noted, he was a committed Christian, and there was nothing paprticularly unusual from his first 40 odd years of Christian faith.. But on one fateful day, he began to experience what are known as 'open visions', events in which the person is either transported into another realm (usually the Heavens) and then sees angels & spirits who impart guidance or announce a mission, that sort of thing. Sometimes, the vision seems to be bodily, as though the whole person has been translated into another realm - other times the person stays bodily on the Earth, yet is perceiving what we would consider an augmented reality, they are seeing & experiencing a pastiche overlay of sights, sounds, fragrancecs & so on, even while they stand, sit or walk around safely on the Earth beneath their feet. In these first few visions, Swedenborg was told that he had been granted a special dispensation - a gift of extremely unusual nature, which ordinarily would not be afforded to humans on Earth, even if they were especially holy & devout personages. However, regardless of his perceived character on Earth (which, as noted was rather eceptional), God had judged him worthy to prepare & spread a message of pragmatic value to the worldwide human community, and by gosh, God really meant it.

Swedenborg thereafter began conversing with angelic beings at great length, in great detail regarding the spiritual dynamics of the universe we occupy, in terms of how & why souls ascend & descend to other worlds after their life on this Earth is completed - they taught him all the nooks & crannies of the subject, and Swedenborg was granted a universal 'backstage pass', whereby he was permitted to enter the Heavens, where mortally bound man had never before been - also to the Netherworld, the realm of shadows, the realm we commonly know as 'Hell'. Swedenborg saw both alternative worlds, and prepared material in great, inexorably great detail regarding the quirks of spiritual blessing, perfectibility, and grace, as well as the risks of evil conduct & the ways in which men & women could be corrupted beyond all hope of repair, except for the grace of God, which was entirely God's prerogative, in terms of saving the souls of all who were blessed in that way.

Without going into great detail, the Heavens are glorious.. Each person is established in a community of people whose character & interests most closely harmonise with their own "Life's Love", that thing that one's heart is most intrigued by, the passion of one's life before, and developing those interests & passions over time is a natural byproduct of having eternity to spend in exploration of all the millions of good pleasures that God has created us to enjoy, and so on.. Aside from that central 'location' in the Heavens, you are basically free to travel to see anyone you desire to see, simply by thinking of them, you are translated into their presence, if the moment is expediently coordinated for that to happen without disruption to the other person. God is accessible in various ways, one can learn from the angels & receive their support in various ways... The landscapes are infinitely varied, and any pleasant activity one can think of one is permitted to do freely, anything which does not hurt or corrupt another being.. The sensations, sights & sounds, the colours, the aura of all living things, the very spirit of the cosmos is accessible to one's consciousness, and it is a true fact to say that no written word can do it justice, it is a symphonic experience of joy, colour, music, love beyond measure, grace & the highest truths of life - everything is truly wonderful. There are different levels of the Heavens also, with the 'lower' Heaven being denoted the 'spiritual heaven', and the 'upper' Heaven being named the 'celestial heaven' - the nature of life in each is slightly different, the nature & activities of the angels of each is slightly different, and access to the Almighty Being of God is slightly different in each place - but both are exceedingly blessed, wonderful places to be.

Conversely, the Hells are different, as you might imagine. There is no open flame, there is no conscious eternal torment, in a physical sense - but other spirits can & will do harm to each other, basically for entertainment, because all who end up there are cut off to some degree from universal goodness, truth, purity & grace, due to the way they have allowed their human character to degrade & devolve into sometimes the worst of devils while they have lived upon the Earth plane. They manipulate, mock, torture & destroy the weaker members of the collectives, and the torments suffered are proportional to the evils done whilst living in a human society on Earth. The landscape is dark, dreary, depressing, but nothing is more depressing than being cut off from the common grace of God (which is the spiritual infusion we all experience day by day for our whole lives, it is what enables us to be happy in a fallen world - if for any reason you are temporarily cut off from the grace of God, as once happened to me, briefly, for reasons I won't discuss here, I can tell you is is horrendous, terrifying, staggeringly bleak & dire in the extreme). To be cut off from the common grace of God is to enter a state of being which is equivalent to Hell, even while you live in the body on the Earth plane. I was subject to it for exactly eight months in the years 2011-2012, and to say I was overjoyed when the depression spontaneously lifted after eight months is the understatement of the Cosmos.

I now saw the miraculous beauty of everything around me, I felt joy in all relationships, life became an adventure again, I found myself living & learning about God in a new way, experiencing His grace & presence in a deeper, more complete way than ever before. To be without that grace, that 'joie de vivre' is to enter the Underworld in your mind, heart & soul, and I swear by all that is holy, I wish it on nobody - not even Stalin, Hitler or the worst of the worst. Instead I would wish that all came to repentance, to avoid that separation from God & the goodness of the Creation. Apparently, in the Hells, it is such that the people there believe they look normal in terms of their appearance, and to themselves & each other this is indeed the case; however, to ovservers not from that place, to the angels, and in this case to Swedenborg, they had the appearance of vile & monstrous demons, the deeds they had committed in life & in the grave had corrupted their souls so badly that they became malformed, misshapen, destroying all the light & wonder of their original essence.

After Swedenborg died, having left a literal library full of books written regarding his adventures in the realm of Spirit, a group of his 'fans' basically created a church in his honour - the Church of the New Jerusalem, known as the Swedenborgians - but personally, after reading his writings I cannot see him as the sort of person who would have condoned this. Absolutely, he had a special dispensation to investigate the immaterial realities of the hereafter (which are very much material to those who live there), God hada blessed him in a wonderful way, and through his writings & experiences God has blessed us with all sorts of works to investigate & test against the scriptures (Swedenborg was very particular about trying to make sure that what he saw & heard was always in accord with the Word of God, the Bible) - but the man himself would have shunned the 'glory' of having a church named after him. What's more, the Church of Swedenborg practiced activities which are generally not permitted in the Christian or Jewish faith, such as channeling spirits & seeking contact with spirits in the afterlife. It is perhaps understandable that they tried these things, in light of Swedenborg's personal experiences - but they did not realise their error, not understanding that what Swedenborg had been gifted with was purely a special dispensation, he had been selected for a singular purpose, to spread correct information regarding the states of life in the afterlife arena. They tried to emulate him, seeking contact with those other worlds, not realising that they were treading in forbidden, even dangerous territory. It strikes me that there must have been some who understood & were aware that those activities were forbidden for good reason, and that it had been a 'one-off' in terms of Swedenborg's access - but they either wimped out or were shouted down, for the modern Church of Swedenborg practices the same activitiesx, and is basically an offshoot of spiritualism & New Age thinking - entirely opposite to what Swedenborg hada intended, he would have been horrified to learn of this, being such a formally raised traditional Christian man in the eighteenth century.

I want to recommend that you have a go at reading some of his work - the phenomenally dense, yet rewarding if you can stick with it, treatise named 'Heaven & Its Wonder & Hell, from things heard & seen' is an excellent place to start (though there are a couple of concepts that you'll need to read along with & they will become clearer as you progress, otherwise you have to read a whole other book to get the total lowdown on them..) I think you will find his writings to be a grand revelation which explains a huge amount regarding the spiritual dynamics of the cosmos, and the most accurate summation of the nature of the afterlife - particularly on the nature of Hells, in terms of realities which are made far more easily understood than the tiny amount of data written in the Bible regarding the matter. I firmly believe that Swedenborg fulfilled a dvine edict to elucidate the matter of Heaven & Hell for all people who would be born into the world after him. I believe this was in the divine timing of God, and that Swedenborg was the perfect emissary for the task. Firstly because the industrial revolution got underway in his lifetime, and he was a fine example of an intellectual professional of exceptional general character & comportment, a man of the world who fit in wonderfully to the complex evolving society in Sweden at that time. He was selected precisely because of his professional standing, reputation, and experience - a man who could most certainly NEVER have been accused of being a deluded simpleton. His emissary role didn't begin until he was in his partial retirement, his professional record stood open to appraisal by anyone who cared to look into the matter. He was not a kook, he was an effective professional intellectual, a perfect man for the job. In terms of why he was needed in this role - the world was branching out into a new era of mechanisation & trade at a scale never before witnessed. I believe that the LORD determined that the world needed an exposition of the spiritual dynamics of human existence, a record that would stand the test of time for the reasons I have stated, a reminder of the need for compassion, love, grace, mercy, justice, truth.. The world needed to know that there were consequences for abusing those around you, that merchants & titans of industry would be held to account for how they balanced their books & treated their workforce, and the faithful needed a new treatise on the worlds to come, to help them to persist in working for the good of all Mankind, knowning that there is indeed a reward for living in such a manner, a reassurance that God was in the details, and cared about the lives of His children, providing information to boost & support the understanding of the gospel of peace. I believe God sent Swedenborg on a mission, the fruits of which should be analysed & understood in this day & agae as we enter the fourth industrial revolution - the self-style 'overlords' need to observe their actions & behaviour carefully, in the knowledge that those who seek harm for Mankind, purposely, will be held to account, far omre now than ever before, with the fact that this knowledge has been around for centuries, yet we have abundant evidence in our recent history that ever more people need to be aware of the spiritual dynamics of the universe - hopefully, a refresher on Swedenborg's adventures will do us all some good by proxy, if those overlords become truly aware of what is contained in Swedenborg's writings.

Thanks & godspeed.


FITO.

I shall just add that I was inspired to write this thread after watching the new film 'The Case for Heaven', which I found to be generally very good, a great discussion of the sorts of evidence for the existence of Heaven (and also, a form of Hell), largely from the testimony of people who have had near death experiences, a topic I'm very fond of researching.

I have to say that there is a vast array of literature & video interviews recording the incredible accounts of millions of near death experiences which are had each year (though only a fraction are reported on scientifically - most cases are known of anecdotally, including those where the experiencer decides not to share the details). I also have a great interest in the cases of reincarnation which are reported by children each year, though again, most of these go unheard of because when the child is explaining a past life at the age of three, the parents will often pass it off as just a kid's imagination. Thanknfully, there's enough evidence to suggest that these are NOT accounts of childish imagination games, but in fact are the loose memories of that child in a life previous to the current one, though there is often religious opposition to these claims in the West. I don't know why, because Jesus even referred to John the Baptist being Elijah come again, IE reincarnated!

Incidentally, I myself have had some very suggestive dreams which lead me to believe I have lived before as a human, at least several times, I usually am remembering the death I experienced in each previous life. Once I was shot by a fifty calibre gun mounted on an Apache-type helicopter, a second time I was killed when the bunke rin which I was addressing troops (in the first world war) was bombed from above, and a third time I was a gypsy teenager who was shot to death by an angry farmer from whom I had tried to steal food. There are many more examples of the relived experiences of one particular life, but I won't include it here as it's a bit weird..!!

Anyway, the reason I'm drawn to the experiences & writings of Swedenborg, and the reason I was inspired by watching that movie the other day, is because in addition to memories from apparent previous human lives, I also remember time spent between lives, an inter-incarnational state of being, or an alternative state of being, in which I led a different sort of life altogether. Alongside these dreams of former existence, I have numerous contacts with angels in dreams, I have witnessed angelic actiity here on Earth, and relatives & friends of mine who have died have visited me in dreams also. I live a fulfilling spiritual life, which I believe is God's gift to me, in a way enhancing my spiritual senses to compensate for the physical disability which keeps me mostly stuck in a room staring at four walls/ the TV or a laptop screen for almost all of each day, frequently in severe pain because of my condition. I see it as being similar to how a blind person will find their sense of hearing has improved markedly, after they lost their sight.. As I am trapped in a body which won't permit me to go out in the world to experience things like anyone else can do, I travel in my sleep & experience vistas of great beauty & intrigue in my visions of the night. And so, Swedenborg's writings appeal to me in the sense that his experience closely matches my own in many striking ways, and my Christian theology has developed along almost exactly the same lines, being slightly different from truly orthodox (permitted) thinking. I maintain that God is blessing me with a signal line through which information flows, for the betterment of my character & hopefully for the benefit of those around me..

Cheers,


FITO.

Thanks for sharing that. I belive what you have expressed here and I too have experiences in dream time of other worlds and with other beings which operate in 5D. I know that the sliver of life that we experience here as humans is a very small slice of the spectrum. Kind of makes it hard to take this reality very seriously.

So…Jesus is/was not enough as a final revelation of how to come me to GOD the Father and be justified before Him through faith/faithfulness in Christ the atonement of our sin and justifier of our faith?
You bring something else to the table?
According to Paul, that makes you anathema. reply to: FlyInTheOintment

originally posted by: Lucius Driftwood
So…Jesus is/was not enough as a final revelation of how to come me to GOD the Father and be justified before Him through faith/faithfulness in Christ the atonement of our sin and justifier of our faith?
You bring something else to the table?
According to Paul, that makes you anathema. reply to: FlyInTheOintment

How in the world did you extrapolate that?

Thank you for sharing FlyInTheOintment. I do like reading the inside goss from the mystics but I am thinking lately that knowledge of such things might actually be detrimental to spiritual growth. Rather than seeing things as they are we can trap ourselves in the conceptualizations of the minds imaginations. Giving praise to mental abstracts rather than the one true God. This is why I suspect religions like Judiasm warn about effigies etc. To try keep the minds imaginations at bay.

I did skim through his writings though. Clearly, trinitarian's will reject his writings (98% of church denominations accept the trinity). The remainder might wonder who these angels were that shared that information. To this day, Buddhist communicate with entities on the other side of the curtain. They warn that extreme caution is needed as many entities on the other side are deluded in themselves. The Buddhist have long associated entities that will check the truthfulness of any new entities etc. Even then, any communications is only used as advice, never accepted in itself, as gospel.

I do believe you need continue with your research. Just be mindful of what the Buddhist warn.

a reply to: Lucius Driftwood

Of course Jesus in & of Himself is enough, but there is ever new material being preached & taught in the church, the Scriptures say that the Holy Spirit will "..lead you into all truth". That statement implies that all truth was not known at the time of the crucifixion & resureection/ascension, that there is more to learn. And the point of a special dispensation is such that particular truths are revealed that were not known beforehand.

As for the apparent rejection of the trinity, the way I read his words on the subject is seems more like a mystic clarification, or even perhaps a personal take on what he experienced & was taught. But again, as user glend asserts, it is important to test the spirits, and by appearances it seems that all the spirits he interacted with did indeed confirm that Jesus is Lord, and so they were not by definition antichrist according to the scriptures. Now Swedenborg was human, and so he erred, there is no doubt that at least some of his interpretations were a bit wide of the mark, though I wouldn't yet want to speculate on precisely what went wrong, but my research & my own experience as a pretty orthodox Christian in most regards suggests to me that we should take his writings seriously. One thing which adds to their veracity is the plethora of near death experiences which provide overlapping corroboration of his material, and corroboration of other people's near death experiences. We have a totality of evidence which is quite compelling, in terms of the general thrust of his theology, and the realities beyond this world which exist after death/ between lifetimes.

Thanks for the responses, I hope people will have a go at reading Swedenborg's material, and the associated near death experience research, so that they can see how all of it mirrors perfectly the test of whether Christ is considered to be Lord, and whether the truths asserted match with the indications in scripture & much of orthodox teaching. As noted, some of his scriptural interpretation material is undoubtedly likely to contain error - but the visionary material & derivative works I believe can be almost entirely trusted to give us a true picture of life after death/ between lifetimes.

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask

Thank you. I was pretty surprised at his interpretation of my OP as well. I'm a committed Christian, I have written extensively on the subject of my faith, and in terms of my church, it is evangelical, my faith is blessed with gifts of the Holy Spirit, but I believe we should not be afraid to look at slightly 'alternative' ideas & theories, particularly in areas which are obscured or under-researched as regards the mysteries of life, and the world/s around us/ beyond this world. We have a brain, we should not be afraid to use it in exploring the universe God has gifted to us.