Swedenborg, Emanuel
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688â1772) was a Swedish mystic and medium who became renowned for his visions of and travels to the spiritual planes, where he saw the Afterlife of Souls of the dead.
Swedenborgâs mystical experiences came late in life. Professionally, he was a scientist and a scholar. He worked as the special assessor to the Royal College of Mines under Charles XII. Other than holding a belief in the existence of the SOUL, Swedenborg gave little thought to spiritual matters. He was 56 in 1743 when he had his first vision of the spiritual world in a DREAM. He then began having a series of dreams, ecstatic visions, trances, and illuminations in which he visited heaven and hell, talked with Jesus and God, communicated with the spirits of the dead (he called them âangelsâ), and was shown the order and nature of the universe. These revelations were radically different from the teachings of the Christian Church. Swedenborg also began experiencing Clairvoyance of events on earth, perhaps in Out-of-Body Experiences, including a famous incident in 1759 in which he âsawâ a great fire in Stockholm some 300 miles away.
Swedenborg believed himself to be a divine messenger and began to disseminate his revelations to others. He quit his job and became a recluse and semi-vegetarian so that he could devote himself exclusively to his visions. He became an instrument of Automatic Writing for the angels. Sometimes his trances would go on for days, and his catatonic state would alarm his housekeeper. He learned how to induce trances rather than wait for them to happen spontaneously. In his otherworldly visits, he claimed to converse with some of the great figures of history, including Plato, Aristotle, and Napoleon and other historical luminaries.
Many of Swedenborgâs peers believed he suddenly went insane. The church actively opposed him. For most, his writings were too advanced, and it was not until after his death that a Swedenborgian movement took hold. He died in 1772 at age 84 in London, where he spent many of his later years. Swedenborgianism along with mesmerism paved the way for the advent of Spiritualism in the mid- 19th century.
Swedenborg said that God created man to exist simultaneously in the physical and spiritual worlds. The spiritual world is an inner domain that influences humankind, though most persons have lost their awareness of it. The inner world survives death with its own eternal memory of every thought, emotion and action accumulated over a lifetime. The memory influences the soulsâ fate of heaven or hell.
Swedenborg said that after death, souls enter an earth like transition plane where they are met by dead relatives and friends. After a period of self-evaluation, they choose their heaven or hell. The afterworlds are products of the mind created during life on earth; Swedenborg did not believe that Jesusâ crucifixion absolved the sins of humankind. Hell is frightening, with souls with monstrous faces (called âDemonsâ), but has no Satan. Heaven is a replication of earth with souls who are âangels.â In both spheres, souls carry on life with work, leisure, marriage, war and crime. Both spheres have societal structures and governments. It is possible for souls to advance in the afterlife, but never to leave heaven or hell, which are permanent states. Swedenborg did not believe in Reincarnation.
Spiritualists adopted many of Swedenborgâs views but rejected his concept of hell and divided his heaven into seven spheres through which the soul passes after death.
Swedenborgianism became a religion and is still practiced by a small number of followers around the world. The first churches were established in England in 1778 and in America in 1792. The Swedenborg Society was established in 1810 to publish and disseminate Swedenborgâs prolific works. His most widely read work is Heaven and Hell, which describes the afterlife.
FURTHER READING:
- Brown, Slater. The Heyday of Spiritualism. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1970.
- Douglas, Alfred. Extrasensory Powers: A Century of Psychical Research. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1976.
- Swedenborg, Emanuel. Divine Love and Wisdom. New York: American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, 1904. First published 1763.
- Swedenborg, Emanuel. Divine Providence. New York: The Swedenborg Foundation, 1972. First published 1764.
- Swedenborg, Emanuel. The Four Doctrines. New York: The Swedenborg Foundation, 1976. First published 1763.
- Wilson, Colin. The Occult. New York: Vintage Books, 1973.
SOURCE:
The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits – Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley â September 1, 2007