Comments on the film 'I am' by Tom Shadyac

This extraordinary documentary chronicles Tom's journey of awakening as he travels around the world asking leading teachers and thinkers, such as Desmond Tutu, David Suzuki, Noam Chomsky, Lynne McTaggart ‘What’s wrong with the world?’ and ‘What can we do about it ?’ This is an excellent film.
Other questions he asks are:
Is there a problem that causes all the other problems?

Are we basically just greedy, aggressive, and violent creatures wreaking havoc on the planet and each other? What about love, compassion, kindness, empathy? It seems to me the most important question, so I asked it – What is human kind’s basic nature?

Is it possible that we have been looking at the world, each other, reality incorrectly? That things are really connected and not separate. If that is the case how do we change things? Can we change things?

In response to these questions the following is helpful and adds to the discussion.

Nothing unconnected ever occurs, for anything unconnected would instantly perish. Emanuel Swedenborg, Heavenly Secrets 2556.

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Swedenborg’s view of the individual

Swedenborg regards the individual as a degenerate being who can easily make the mistake of hoping for salvation by faith alone. Even the highest knowledge of Divine things cannot save a man: until he wills into action the truths he has acquired through knowledge, his essential being does not change. And when he learns to use his will correctly, the change takes place in stages and not all at once. It is because considerable patience and long-suffering is required, that the Lord declared:

“In patience possess you your souls” (Luke 21:19)

A literal translation of the Greek text reads:

“In your endurance you will gain your soul.”

Transformation or rebirth is a very big process. In essence it is the birth of a new life, spiritual life, in the individual. Unregenerate men and women of all types have before them a tremendous and pleasing destiny if they will but apply themselves to

· self-analysis,

· self-correction, and

· regeneration with the help of God.

Every individual has a vital part to play in the building and expansion of heavenly life. The individual must wisely and lovingly devote himself to this supreme end of the creative process for it to become real for him. Without the constant caring action of the Lord God inside a person, not a single thing of regeneration could possibly take place. But the Divine activity must be acknowledged, received, and also reinforced by the individual’s will to reject all that is false and evil. The individual is the locus where the astonishing process of rebirth takes place. It is an exquisitely personal process that requires the joint activity of God and man, and the man always has the complete freedom to choose this as his way of life.

Dr Philip Groves, Swedenborg’s Mighty Contribution: Swedenborg’s view of the individual.

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What would a Swedenborgian response be to these 2 questions?

« What’s wrong with the world?

« What can we do about it?

These are the responses from people who are very familiar with Swedenborg’s Writings.

What’s wrong with the world?

The pervasive atmosphere is a spirit of living life for oneself, which arises out of the appearance that one is an autonomous independent being. There is something deep within that seeks to preserve this at all costs (which is from the Lord) however when the Lord is not acknowledged this is misinterpreted and leads to behaviours and a willingness to sacrifice the happiness and well-being of others – if that’s what it takes (fully justified of course). Without a sense of connection to the source of all life we create an illusionary world in with we can exercise a false sense of control and effectively make our self a god of our own little world. David Millar

What can we do about it?

Acknowledge the illusion we live in, look to the source, and attend to the quality of our own belief structures and patterns of being in view of our understanding of truths. We cannot change the world or others, what we can do is be willing to have the Lord change us. The Lord provides for this – work on ourselves (examine ourselves in an attitude open to seeing and responding to what’s revealed) - which is the most effective way to bring a change into the world. David Millar

When we go through regeneration we become completely different and altogether new because we have been born again. Even though our face and speech hasn't changed, our mind certainly has; it is now open towards heaven, and love to the Lord, love for others and faith all live together in it. Such a changed mind makes us completely different from before and in fact makes us new. Swedenborg ‘Heavenly Secrets’ 3212 (selected by Julian Duckworth)

Dedicate - or re-dedicate - ourselves to a life of service.

Teach it to and nurture it in our children.

Refuse to accede to the appearance that the ‘What's in it for me’, ‘Must look after number one’ philosophies are all that there is. The appearance, however, is not the reality. Countless people are dedicated to service and usefulness. Ian Arnold

Strong influence of Emanuel Swedenborg on Theosophists, Christian Scientists, Transcendentalists, and New Thoughters.

There's a very interesting review of the book American Veda by Philip Goldberg. The book tells the story of a new American tradition, derived from both the practices of yoga, and the philosophy of Vedanta. The reviewer, Michael J Altman, acknowledges that while Theosophists, Christian Scientists, Transcendentalists, and New Thoughters were influenced by Vedic texts, Emanuel Swedenborg and Franz Anton Mesmer has much if not more influence on these groups as Vedic texts.

New Swedenborg Information Website: 'Spiritual Questions'

Visit this new website to find out more about Swedenborg, associated ideas and institutions. The site is fully interactive, offering a real forum for discussion among those interested in the spiritual side of Swedenborg studies. http://spiritualquestions.org.uk/

International Swedenborg Symposium - Stockholm

On 7th - 9th June 2010, experts and students of Swedenborg studies assembled in Stockholm for a symposium on 'Emanuel Swedenborg: A World Memory, Context, Content, Contribution'. The event was organized by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in celebration of the completion of a new catalogue of their Swedenborg archive.

Tortoises in Swedenborg's writings

Apocalypse Revealed 463

To this I will add this Relation. I looked forth to the seacoast in the spiritual world, and saw there a magnificent dock. I drew near, and looked at it; and, behold, there were vessels there great and small, and merchandise in them of every kind; and upon the decks were boys and girls distributing it to those that wished. And they said, "We are waiting to see our beautiful tortoises, which now and then rise up to us out of the sea." And, behold, I saw tortoises great and small, upon whose shells and scales young tortoises were sitting, which were looking at the islands around. The father tortoises had two heads, the one large, covered over with a shell similar to the shell of their body, whence they had a reddish glow; and the other small, such as tortoises have, which they drew back into the front parts of the body, and also to insert in an unobserved manner in the larger head. But I kept my eyes on the great reddish head; and I saw that this had a face like a man, and spoke with the boys and girls upon the decks, and licked their hands. And the boys and girls then stroked them, and gave them eatables and dainties, and also costly things, as pure silk for garments, thyine wood for tablets, purple for decorations, and scarlet for paints. [2] Seeing these things, I desired to know what they represented; as I knew that all the things that appear in the world of spirits are correspondences, and represent something spiritual coming down from heaven. And they then spoke with me out of heaven, and said, "You yourself know what the dock represents, also what the ships, and the boys and the girls upon the decks; but you do not know what the tortoises represent." And they said, "The tortoises represent those of the clergy there, who altogether separate faith from charity and its good works, affirming in themselves that there is plainly no conjunction between them; but that the Holy Spirit, through faith in God the Father for the sake of the Son's merit, enters into a man, and purifies his interiors even to his own will, out of which they make as it were an oval plane; and that when the operation of the Holy Spirit approaches this plane, it bends itself around it on the left side, and does not at all touch it: and thus that the interior or higher part of a man's nature is for God, and that the exterior or lower is for man; and that thus nothing that the man does, neither good nor evil, appears before God: not the good, because this is meritorious; and not the evil, because this is evil; since, if these appeared before God, the man would perish from both; and since it is so, that man is permitted to will, think, speak, and do whatever he pleases, provided he is careful before the world."


True Christian Religion 443

...from the morality of the external man, no one can form any conclusion as to the morality of the internal, since this may be turned in an opposite direction, and may hide itself as a tortoise hides its head within its shell, or as a serpent hides its head in its coil.

Henry James Snr. & Swedenborg

Martin E. Marty, in his introduction to William James' iconic book The Varieties of Religious Experience, has this to say about Henry Snr., father of William and Henry:

"Henry Senior found resources for making his break from old-style Calvinism in the writings of the mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, who was then enjoying a vogue in the United States. With the aid of Swedenborg and his own instinctive talent, the elder James fused old religion and new into a private blend..."

The roots of the New Age

From Peter Clarke's fascinating book New Religions in Global Perspective (2006):

"The writings of Emanuel Swedenborg...are among the principle sources of New Age thinking, in particular his metaphysical theology, which is an attempt to unravel the inner sense or spiritual sense of the scriptures."