Conclusion of the Swedenborg Association of Australia and the handing over of the management of the Blog to the Swedenborg Centre

The Swedenborg Association of Australia (SAA) officially ceases operations at the end of May 2026. The members approved the winding up of the Association and in conjunction with NSW Fair Trading and their prescribed process, the SAA officially ceases to be a registered organisation from the 29th of May 2026. This marks the conclusion of many years of service, fellowship and support shared through the Association. The good news is that many of its activities will now be continued by the Swedenborg Centre, such as this Blog and the Candela quarterly Newsletter.

AI is Advancing Fast — Here’s a big picture view to keep things in perspective.

Artificial intelligence is changing how we work, write, diagnose illness, compose music, even how we converse. It can feel exciting. It can also feel unsettling, especially when you need to look for another job. If you’ve felt anxiety about where this is heading, you’re not alone. But there is a Swedenborgian perspective that brings steadiness, clarity, and hope. And it begins with a profound truth: Life belongs to the Lord alone. 

The nature of Life 

AI systems today can: 

• Write essays 
• Generate art
• Draft legal arguments
• Diagnose disease patterns
• Simulate conversation. 

To many, this looks like intelligence at work. To some, it looks like the beginnings of consciousness. But Swedenborg makes a crucial distinction between apparent intelligence and life. He teaches that God alone is Life, and all created beings are recipients of life. Your thoughts, affections, insights, and spiritual awakenings do not originate from neurons. They are the result of inflow — the reception of Divine love and wisdom. 

This teaching reframes the AI discussion. No matter how complex an electronic network becomes, no matter how sophisticated quantum processing grows, natural mechanisms do not generate life. They can simulate patterns. They can replicate behaviour. But they do not cross into the realm of the mind. 

Swedenborg’s doctrine of discrete degrees explains why. Human beings are structured as body, mind and soul. These are distinct orders of reality. No accumulation of natural complexity can generate what occurs at the mind (love of truth) or soul (love of good) level. 

Intelligence is not the Highest Human Quality 

Our culture admires and rewards academic achievement, analytic skill, rapid information processing. AI systems excel in these things. They can retrieve and synthesise information in seconds, producing outputs that are impressive. But Swedenborg shifts what is to be valued. Love is primary. He also values wisdom which he describes as love and truth working together. He sees the heavenly realm as ordered by affection for good — not IQ. Angels are not described as beings of superior cognitive abilities. They are described as beings of use — joyful service, mutual love, alignment with Divine order. Let’s remember what humans can do: 

• Choose good for its own sake
• Experience conscience
• Love selflessly
• Perceive spiritual meaning
• Turn freely toward the Lord 

What Love Drives the Tool? 

Swedenborg teaches that every person acts from a ruling love. That love shapes everything we build. AI is not neutral in its effects. It amplifies the intentions behind it. 

If driven by: 

• Control
• Surveillance
• Maximise Profit at any cost
• Manipulation of attention 

Then those loves become magnified. 

But if guided by: 

• Love of use
• Healing
• Education
• Protection of dignity
• Preservation of freedom 

Then AI becomes an instrument aligned with the common good. 

The developers of AI are responsible for the outcomes of their software. It is a moral and spiritual responsibility. Some of the crucial questions are: 

• Does this technology preserve human freedom?
• Does it support rational thought rather than bypass it?
• Does it strengthen empathy or deepen fragmentation?
• Does it protect the dignity of persons? 

When tools undermine conscience or exploit weakness, they are spiritually harmful. When tools empower informed choice and meaningful service, they participate in Divine purpose. Your voice in these conversations matters. 

Freedom is Sacred

Divine Providence works continually to preserve two gifts: 

• Freedom
• Rationality 

Without these, spiritual life cannot exist. Modern algorithmic systems already test this boundary—personalised feeds, behavioural nudging, attention-maximising design. When technology bypasses deliberate choice, it threatens something sacred within us. From a Swedenborgian standpoint, any system that weakens conscience or manipulates choice undermines our spiritual potentials coming into fruition. Conversely, technologies that inform, clarify, and strengthen thoughtful decision-making supports the Lord’s ends. The issue is whether AI strengthens or diminishes freedom. And that is something we can actively influence. 

 

Providence is not Absent 

Major technological revolutions carry dual potentials: 

• Fire
• The printing press
• Electricity
• The internet 

All are capable of immense harm and immense good. All unfolded within Divine Providence. As computer processing becomes more capable of providing impressive outputs, we are invited to put it to good use. As tools display more “apparent intelligence,” we are called to become wise in directing their application. The challenge is not only technological, but spiritual. AI is a mirror. It forces us to clarify what we value. It exposes our assumptions about intelligence and control. It asks us to examine our ruling loves.

Becoming More Fully Human 

The future will be shaped by: 

• The loves we cultivate
• The freedom we protect
• The uses we prioritise
• The spiritual vision we affirm 

Swedenborg’s writings equip us to approach this era calmly and thoughtfully. In an age of powerful tools, we are continually being challenged to become more fully human, more loving, more discerning, more conscious of the Divine inflow that sustains every moment of our life. If we do that, then the tools of our hands—however advanced—will serve Divine purposes rather than oppose them.

Spiritual Rays of Light

Spiritual Rays of Light presents concepts based on the writings of scientist and seer Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjHC206cVd0

Ten stages of mystical insight.

There is one account of stages with which I do feel in full accord: the Zen ox-herding pictures (From THE THREE PILLARS OF ZEN, by Philip Kapleau.)These pictures don't come out of speculation but rather out of the experience of many mystics. They depict ten stages of mystical insight in a series of paintings of a person and an ox. The person is the spiritual seeker; the ox is the Divine in a wild, unknown, untamed form. Some may find it surprising that the Lord is represented here as an ox.

Well, at first it is as though you are in the woods (1), and now and then you find the footprints of some heavy beast (2). You would like to see it, so you track it. Finally you catch a glimpse of it (3). Many are at this stage, having caught only a glimpse of the beast! Finally you catch him but he's a tough one (4). He once stepped on me and I can testify he is heavy. Finally the ox starts to work with you (5). Finally you two are in accord and you can ride the ox home (6).

This whole book is about the first six stages, in which one reaches friendship with the Divine; one can contact the Divine and learn from it. But there is still some dualism, that of the rider versus the ox, though now there is enough friendship and understanding that there is no longer opposition.

   

I have felt little need to describe the last four stages because the person who has reached stage six is well on their way, and will be shown the last four stages in time. In the seventh picture the ox is forgotten. The monk came to realize he could reflect on the very Life in himself. Ox and self are now the same thing. There is no other. The life one sees and feels within is the One life. The cut-off self never existed. There always was only Life. The repeated experience of the eternal, of coming back to the Divine, gradually weakens the ego sense of "I am a separate entity." Finding the One in so many people and contexts overcomes the sense of separateness. Finally we experience separateness and ego as illusion (Maya). Just as we repeatedly stepped from time to the eternal and back, we can also step from separateness to no separation and back again. Let us look at the last three stages, but realize that only direct experience makes these stages real. In the eighth picture we see just a circle drawn on the page. Even the seeker has vanished. This is the ultimate illumination. There is only this unity. In the ninth picture the world and all its beauty returns, but this is the world transfigured, permeated with the One. There is nothing to seek. It is obvious the One is everywhere. In the tenth picture the adept returns to the marketplace with helping hands, doing what he/she can. What was given is multiplied by being shared. The Zen ox-herding series represents the experience of many, and they are in a nearly universal language. You may have some sense of where you are in this series.

Wilson van Dusen, Returning to the Source, Ch14 Some Questions Answered

Swedenborg’s influence on Sibelius

Sibelius, the famous Finnish composer, wrote ‘Finlandia’ and seven symphonies and so much else. He was married to a lady called Aino, who was very much into everything spiritual and supernatural.

His recent biographer wrote a three-volume in-depth life of Sibelius and mentions that Sibelius bought a copy of Martin Lamm’s ‘Life of Swedenborg’ and said that he completely devoured it. And he (Sibelius) went on to say that Swedenborg’s idea of everything being in divine harmony helped him to complete the writing of his 5th Symphony which he had been struggling with.

THINGS WE ALL SHARE

By Julian Duckworth

Today, care for the world around us comes high on everybody’s list. This is something we all share and must take responsibility for. We’re learning fast that the world’s resources are not endless and we must clean up the planet and conserve our use of virtually everything.

This stark fact can help to remind us of a number of important things. One is that the human race lives in one community around the globe and none of us can afford to live in isolation or stay unaware of the effect we may have on everybody else. Today it is becoming possible to ‘seed’ rain clouds above heavily populated cities to provide water, but the effect is to lessen the amount of rainfall in the surrounding region.

We have been – and still are to some extent – greedy in terms of consuming resources and taking so much for granted. We are slowly realising that the world works in a very balanced way and to take too much not only deprives others from having enough to survive on but harms the overall harmony of the planet.

At the beginning of the Bible there is the story of the Garden of Eden, obviously a statement about a world that is functional as well as beautiful. It says that God put human beings in the garden to tend it and take care of it. This is how we need to be viewing the world around us, basically as a garden in need of tending.

The present generation are not the ones primarily affected by the longer-term consequences. We need to conserve and sustain the living planet so that our children and their children can look at green trees and blue skies and live safely and healthily in this world which is still a remarkably beautiful and richly-resourced world in which to live. 

LOSING A LOVED ONE

By Julian Duckworth

How unbelievably hard it is to lose someone you love because they have died. You are still here but they are no longer with you, at least not physically. It feels like you have lost part of yourself. At such times, words are not very helpful to us, yet when words say the right thing they can be very powerful and healing.

When someone loses someone they love – which is almost certainly going to happen to all of us in our life – it is very hard for the people who love you to know how they can best help or when to be around. But it is very important not to be too much or too long on your own in your loss. It is important to allow your loving friends to be there with you even without much to say to you. It is also very important to make sure you have your own time alone.

A common experience when you lose someone you love is to find yourself moving through all kinds of different feelings. You may feel anger, or emptiness, or a strange sense of peace, or such things as guilt or blame on yourself or others. These will come and they will go, because they are the way in which your mind is managing this shock to your system. It is running through and trying out every emotion. Let it do that and don’t be troubled by it all.

It’s often said that time is a great healer when death happens. That is really the case but you can’t set the timetable. It will in all probability take a full year to begin to get back into being yourself which surely is what the person you love would want you to do. And don’t be surprised at a number of personal changes that come to the fore, because life is going to be different from what it used to be.

Many people believe in life after death. Let them help you in their way at the right time for you. This belief is universally shared by all religions across the world. Let it help you.

LAUGHTER

By Julian Duckworth

Sometimes, when people laugh, it’s at someone else’s expense. That’s a rather cruel kind of laughter, though. A nicer laughter is to be able to laugh at some of the foibles of life and not to take it all too seriously. Being able to laugh like that eases everything and it’s a good place to be. Perhaps we could stretch this idea even further and say that seeing and sharing the funny side of life is the normal way we’re meant to be because it is healthy and healing. It immediately dissolves tricky moments and tensions that come along.

It’s lovely watching a group of people, perhaps over a meal, being together, and noticing the relaxed friendly laughter coming from among them as a group. They are right into it and nobody seems at all self-conscious but catching everyone’s fun. Laughter is contagious of course. They say it even does our body good, lowering blood pressure, letting off steam and having a good chuckle. There are even groups of people who get together, say in a park, simply to be together to laugh.

Jesus talked about having joy. This isn’t exactly the same as laughter, but it still suggests a lightness of being, a feeling of well-being through having joy in yourself.

One telling statistic that has emerged is that little children laugh (with that wonderful open children’s way of laughing) about 300 times a day, but adults on average only laugh about 15 times a day. Something got lost in the business of growing up and we’ve forgotten the therapy and spontaneity of this precious gift of laughter.

So let’s aim to reverse that dreadful statistic and allow ourselves, more and more, to be caught up in letting laughter do us good.

DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE

By Julian Duckworth

This is a situation we all have to cope with from time to time. What is the best way to deal with someone who, for example, gets angry or is rude to you? Or it may be as simple as someone who never gets around to doing what they said they would do.

Perhaps it will help to appreciate that in some way we are probably all a bit difficult to deal with at times. You may be habitually unpunctual and always turn up late – how annoying that can be. I may be someone who never puts things back where they go. That can be maddening! These situations just need a bit more courage and clear communication, to let the other person know that their habit is something you aren’t prepared to accept. Say it and then get over it. If it still happens, say it the same again. But don’t smoulder over it or else everything about that other person will submerge under one grievance, which is a great pity.

But some situations can be more full-on, and be almost a direct attack, or feel like one to us on the receiving end. There are some techniques that can help when it’s like that. Having an opening phrase perhaps – Excuse me, can you tell me exactly what your problem is? Or, Look, if I’ve upset you, it certainly wasn’t intended.

You have every right to stand your ground and be assertive against unwarranted aggression.

Jesus said, Love your enemies. He did not mean be soft with those who oppose you. He meant something quite simple. When we do not retaliate but keep love as our energy towards every other person, this takes away the energy coming to us and makes it truly powerless. Anger feeds on anger but it can’t cope with love.

ARE YOU CONTENTED?

by Julian Duckworth

Maybe asking yourself if you are contented is better than wondering if you are happy. Being happy implies being cheerful and bright, and nobody can be like that all the time. But we can be basically contented even though easy times and hard times come their way, as they do.

Contentment is about being glad to be who you are; it’s about accepting yourself and feeling satisfied with what you are like, what you are able to do, and your overall circumstances in life. It helps us to make the most of everything and it keeps us away from all those niggling comparisons and envies. It can lead us to be very thankful for what we do have, and make us more compassionate and generous towards people who have less than we do. We can then start to help other people towards their own contentment and acceptance of their life.

God makes each person completely unique and different from any other person around. God knows that each of us is a special person and he loves us as if he only had each one of us to love.

When you come to know yourself reasonably well, and find out what you are good at doing and also what you can’t do very well, then you’re in a position to find your best niche in life. Then you can throw yourself into life, enjoy being yourself, make your contribution to what’s happening around you, and trust the whole process.

And perhaps in the end the question we first asked ‘Are you contented?’ starts to disappear because you’re no longer needing to ask it or to wonder if you are. Getting on with life leads on to contentment so that if someone asked you the question, you’d stop, pause and think, ‘Well, yes. I guess I am contented.’ And that is a good place to be.

ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST

 by Julian Duckworth

It may sound obvious of course that we should always try and do our best. But it doesn’t hurt to be reminded about this from time to time. It gives us a personal standard to set ourselves and if we adopt this it can also bring us a real peace of mind. I did my best – who can argue with that?

You might well ask, though, how do we ever know what our best possible is? Perhaps we don’t nor ever will. But doing our best is not asking us to be perfect or superhuman; it’s simply asking us to be sincere and well-intentioned. We can’t guarantee how others will feel about the way we do things; that will vary from person to person, and even though we do our best we might find that some people don’t like what we did. We need to leave that problem largely with them, and, if we feel that we did our best, it allows us to avoid feeling guilty or blaming ourselves for the way things turned out.

The only person we have full responsibility over is of course ourself. We need to be true to ourself. It will help too if we adopt the idea that other people are probably doing their best because that stops us from blaming them.

In the Bible, Jesus talks about new beginnings. It is a marvellous thought that whatever has happened in the past, any moment can become a brand new beginning based on our decision to do our best.

And more: if we do our best rather than accepting our second-best, we become a good example to people round us who feel that we have integrity and mean what we say. They might not ever tell us to our face how good we are, but they, just like us too, gain so much from being with people who can be relied on and trusted to do the best they can.

No one can ask for anything more!

Book Review of The Map of Heaven

By Julian Duckworth

Many of you may already be familiar with Eben Alexander’s first and best-selling book “Proof of Heaven” in which he describes in great detail his personal experiences of continuing consciousness after the incontrovertible death of his brain.

Dr Alexander began as a dedicated neurosurgeon after years of training and preparation. He became highly thought of and an expert in his field of surgery. He had no thought that consciousness could or would continue on if the brain has stopped living or functioning, and he would have argued, he says, vehemently against the whole idea.

Until it happened to him during a sudden severe illness which shook him to the core because he saw, met and experienced events and beings after his brain died. This had such a profound effect on him that he could not deny the evidence of it and the certainty, for him, that consciousness continues on in powerful, new and beautiful ways after death.

This is all written about in his first book “Proof of Heaven” which has been a long best-seller. He has done many talks and tours on this subject in recent years.

The second book “The Map of Heaven” has just been published. It ranges far and wide – like any ‘map’ should – of very many people from antiquity to modern times who have put forward the idea of continuing consciousness. He introduces Swedenborg in roughly the middle of the book and later refers to him again several times, very positively.

It is probably best to give a short extract on Dr Alexander’s summary of Swedenborg and the afterlife. If you get the book, it is round about p62 onwards.

“Swedenborg had a particular interest in the brain and spent many years trying to isolate the seat of consciousness – the physical location of what, back in his time, was still called the soul. Then in the middle of his life, Swedenborg discovered (as the psychologist and Swedenborg scholar Wilson Van Dusen put it) that he had been ‘looking in the wrong place’. Swedenborg underwent a spiritual crisis. A series of terrifyingly vivid dreams finally led to a moment in which the heavens themselves seemed to open. Swedenborg’s old world cracked, buckled, and collapsed. A new one grew up in its place.

“Swedenborg devoted the rest of his life to studying and cataloguing the spiritual worlds he had discovered, with the rigour that he had previously devoted to studying the physical world.”

Then Dr Alexander goes on to outline Swedenborg’s understanding of these worlds and what they are, and where they are in relation to our sense of ourselves. He describes the familiarity of objects in the afterlife – there are trees! – and then he covers the all-important point that the laws of spiritual world life work rather differently than here. “The one rule we need to remember from here, however, is that we end up, in the end, where we belong, and we are led by the amount of love we have in us, for love is the essence of heaven. It is what it is made of.”

By all means, go and get yourself a copy of the book. It covers the afterlife extensively and shows the remarkable similarity of different peoples’ experiences and understanding of it. It is … a map of heaven.

Julian Duckworth

Religion Means Nothing if You're Still a Jerk.

By Curtis Childs

"A life of religious devotion without kindness is not a spiritual life."

- Emanuel Swedenborg

The lyrics to the video Religion Means Nothing if You're Still a Jerk

Lyrics:

Peace, please believe, that there's a lot of human need

And a lot of hungry bellies that could do without human greed
And a lot of people packing churches looking for a seed

hoping for a higher love to patch up where we all bleed

they're there to learn, it's a perfect opportunity to say

hey we're all God's children and pump love and aid into the community
but what they get is politics, us and them, and judgement of the sick
and then we use God to hit each other, like God's some kind of stick

religion means nothing if you've got it, but you're still a jerk
for me, you, and the planet, buddy it doesn't work

religion means nothing if you've got it, but you're still a jerk
for me you and the planet, buddy it doesn't work

Exhibit A: human ego, selfishness, and it strives to subjugate, manipulate, and

criticize other people and their lives
it's got territory in each of us and it's looking to rule and if it's in charge,

religious concepts are just another tool
the way religions go to war, is the way countries go to war
it's the way people go to war, for whatever they want a war for
the mentality and the method here are all the same, isn't that odd?
it's cause it's the ego driving all of it, the religious covering is just a facade

religion means nothing if you've got it, but you're still a jerk
for me, you, and the planet, buddy it doesn't work

religion means nothing if you've got it, but you're still a jerk
for me you and the planet, buddy it doesn't work

you took faith over love, and that sticking to your interpretation of the plan
was higher on God's priority list than the agony of your fellow man
why's there so much anti-religion stuff on the message boards,
cause there's a lot of really mean people out there saying "I know the Lord"
you say belonging to a club is the way, but love is the way
it's not a ritual you do, it's not a prayer that you say

the world has open hands, looking to you for wisdom, but they find none
let me remind you in a few lines, just how far you've fallen from
you were meant to tell us:
that there is meaning in experience, an antidote for the cold
healing from our flaws, marriage of body and soul, a higher purpose,

a message in the weather,
and a divine protector who can string these hearts and moments together
and how love in the eyes holds the potential, and eternity
the still small voice say take, come and learn from me and

yes, you'll see them in a while again, they were never just the flesh
and I'll hold and you’ll smile again, as we watch the death of death
and kindness is not a weakness, it's the holy core of life
blood and competition too will pass, as epiphanies grow from strife
and you were no accident, you are precious, and you'll be fine
in short, the most beautiful things that you can tell a conscious mind
it's not about doctrinal boxes or what you say or how you appear
but this: when you walk in do people say "oh thank God you're here"

religion means nothing if you've got it, but you're still a jerk
for me, you, and the planet, buddy it doesn't work
religion means nothing if you've got it, but you're still a jerk
for me you and the planet, buddy it doesn't work

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.

oooOOOooo

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.

oooOOOooo

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."