Spiritual Correspondences

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Quoting from Swedenborg:

AC 2987.

2987. CONCERNING REPRESENTATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCES.

Few know what representations and correspondences are, nor can anyone know this unless he knows that there is a spiritual world, and this distinct from the natural world; for there exists a correspondence between spiritual things and natural things, and the things that come forth from spiritual things in natural ones are representations. They are called correspondences because they correspond, and representations because they represent.

AC 2988.

2988. That some idea may be formed of representations and correspondences, it is only necessary to reflect on the things of the mind, that is, of the thought and will. These things so beam forth from the face that they are manifest in its expression; especially is this the case with the affections, the more interior of which are seen from and in the eyes. When the things of the face act as a one with those of the mind, they are said to correspond, and are correspondences; and the very expressions of the face represent, and are representations. The case is similar with all that is expressed by the gestures of the body, and with all the acts produced by the muscles; for it is well known that all these take place according to what the man is thinking and willing. The gestures and actions themselves, which are of the body, represent the things of the mind, and are representations; and in that they are in agreement, they are correspondences.

AC 2989.

2989. It may also be known that such forms do not exist in the mind as are exhibited in the expression, but that they are merely affections which are thus effigied; also that such acts do not exist in the mind as are exhibited by the acts of the body, but that it is thoughts which are thus figured. The things which are of the mind are spiritual, but those of the body are natural. From this it is evident that there exists a correspondence between spiritual things and natural things, and that there is a representation of spiritual things in natural things; or what is the same, when the things of the internal man are effigied in the external man, then the things that appear in the external man are representative of the internal man; and the things that agree are correspondences.

AC 2990.

2990. It is also known, or may be known, that there is a spiritual world, and also a natural world. In the universal sense the spiritual world is where spirits and angels dwell; and the natural world is where men dwell. In particular, there is a spiritual world and a natural world with every man: his internal man being to him a spiritual world, and his external man being to him a natural world. The things that flow in from the spiritual world and are presented in the natural world, are in general representations; and insofar as they agree they are correspondences.

AC 2991.

2991. That natural things represent spiritual things, and that they correspond, may also be known from the fact that what is natural cannot possibly come forth except from a cause prior to itself. Its cause is from what is spiritual; and there is nothing natural which does not thence derive its cause. Natural forms are effects; nor can they appear as causes, still less as causes of causes, or beginnings; but they receive their forms according to the use in the place where they are; and yet the forms of the effects represent the things which are of the causes; and indeed these latter things represent those which are of the beginnings. Thus all

natural things represent those which are of the spiritual things to which they correspond; and in fact the spiritual things also represent those which are of the celestial things from which they are.

AC 2992.

2992. It has been given me to know from much experience that in the natural world and its three kingdoms there is nothing whatever that does not represent something in the spiritual world, or that has not something there to which it corresponds. Besides many other experiences, this was made evident also from the following. On several occasions when I was speaking of the viscera of the body, and was tracing their connection from those which are of the head to those which are of the chest, and so on to those which are of the abdomen, the angels that were above me led my thoughts through the spiritual things to which those viscera correspond, and this so that there was not the least error. They thought not at all of the viscera of the body of which I was thinking, but only of the spiritual things to which these correspond. Such is the intelligence of angels that from spiritual things they know all things in the body in general and particular, even the most secret things, such as can never come to man's knowledge; nay, they know everything there is in the universal world, without a mistake; and this because from spiritual things are the causes, and the beginnings of causes.

AC 2993.

2993. The case is similar with the things in the vegetable kingdom; for nothing whatever exists there that does not represent something in the spiritual world, and correspond thereto; as has been frequently given me to know by a like interaction with angels. The causes also have been told me, namely, that the causes of all natural things are from spiritual things, and the beginnings of these causes are from celestial things; or what is the same, all things in the natural world derive their cause from truth which is the spiritual, and their beginning from good which is the celestial; and natural things proceed thence according to all the differences of truth and of good in the Lord's kingdom; thus from the Lord Himself, from whom is all good and truth. These things must needs appear strange, especially to those who will not or cannot ascend in thought beyond nature, and who do not know what the spiritual is, and therefore do not acknowledge it.

AC 2994.

2994. So long as he lives in the body, man can feel and perceive but little of this; for the celestial and spiritual things with him fall into the natural things in his external man, and he there loses the sensation and perception of them. Moreover the representatives and correspondences in his external man are such that they do not appear like the things in the internal man to which they correspond, and which they represent; therefore neither can they come to his knowledge until he has put off those external things. When this happens, blessed is the man who is in correspondence, that is, whose external man corresponds to his internal man.

AC 2995.

2995. As the men of the Most Ancient Church (concerning whom see n. 1114-1125) in every thing of nature saw something spiritual and celestial, insomuch that natural things served them merely as objects for thought about spiritual and celestial things, they were for this reason able to speak with angels, and to be with them in the Lord's kingdom in the heavens at the same time that they were in His kingdom on earth, that is, in the church. Thus with them natural things were conjoined with spiritual things, and wholly corresponded. But it was otherwise after those times, when evil and falsity began to reign; that is, when after the golden age there commenced the iron age; for then as there was no longer any correspondence, heaven was closed; insomuch that men were scarcely willing to know that there was anything spiritual; and at last even that there is a heaven and a hell, and a life after death.

AC 2996.

2996. In this world it is a great secret, although in the other life nothing is better known to every spirit, that all things in the human body have a correspondence to those in heaven; insomuch that there is not the smallest particle in the body, to which something spiritual and celestial does not correspond; or what is the same, to which heavenly societies do not correspond, for these exist according to all the genera and species of spiritual and celestial things; and this in such an order that together they represent one man, even as to all

his parts, in general and in particular, both the interior and the exterior. Hence it is that the universal heaven is also called the Grand Man; and hence it is that it has been so often said that one society belongs to one province of the body, another to another, and so on. The reason is that the Lord is the Only Man, and heaven represents Him; and the Divine good and truth that are from Him are what make heaven; and because the angels are therein, they are said to be in the Lord. But they who are in hell are outside this Grand Man, and correspond to things unclean, and also to bodily corruptions.

AC 2997.

2997. This may also in some degree be known from the fact that the spiritual or internal man (which is man's spirit and is called his soul) has in like manner a correspondence to his natural or external man; and that this correspondence is of such a nature that the things of the internal man are spiritual and celestial, while the things of the external man are natural and corporeal; as may appear from what was said above (n. 2988, 2989) about the expressions of the face and the acts of the body. Moreover as to his internal man, man is a little heaven, because created after the Lord's image.

AC 2998.

2998. That such correspondences exist has become so familiar to me in the course of years that hardly anything can be more so; though the fact itself is such that man does not know of its existence, nor believes that he has any connection with the spiritual world; when yet all his connection is from this correspondence; and without this connection neither himself nor any part of him could subsist a moment; for all his subsistence is from it. It has also been given me to know what angelic societies belong to each province of the body, and also of what quality they are; as for instance what societies and of what quality belong to the province of the heart; what and of what quality to the province of the lungs; what and of what quality to the province of the liver; and also what and of what quality belong to the different sensories, as to the eye, to the ears, to the tongue, and the rest; concerning which, of the Lord's Divine mercy we shall speak singly.

AC 2999.

2999. Moreover nothing is possible in the created world that has not a correspondence to the things in the spiritual world, and therefore that does not in its own manner represent something in the Lord's kingdom. From this comes the existence and subsistence of all things. If man knew how these things are circumstanced, he would never as is his wont attribute all things to nature.

AC 3000.

3000. Hence it is that all things in the universe both in general and in particular represent the Lord's kingdom; insomuch that the universe with all its constellations, atmospheres, and three kingdoms, is nothing else than a kind of theater representative of the Lord's glory which is in the heavens. In the animal kingdom not only man, but also each particular animal, even the least and lowest, is representative; as for instance the little creatures that creep on the ground and feed on plants; these, when their time for wedding is at hand, become chrysalises, and presently, being supplied with wings they soar from the ground into the atmosphere, their heaven, and there enjoy their delight and their freedom, sporting together and feeding on the spoils of the flowers, laying their eggs and thus providing for a posterity; and being then in their state of heaven, they are also in their beauty. Everyone can see that these things are representative of the Lord's kingdom.

AC 3001.

3001. That there is one only life, that of the Lord, which flows in and causes man to live, whether he be good or evil, is evident from what has been said and shown above, in the explication of the Word (n. 1954, 2021, 2536, 2658, 2706, 2886-2889). To that life correspond the recipient things which are vivified by that Divine influx, and this in such a manner that they appear to themselves to live from themselves. This correspondence is that of life with the recipients of life. Such as are the recipients, so they live; those men who are in love and charity are in correspondence, for they are in agreement, and the life is received by them adequately; but those who are in things contrary to love and charity are not in correspondence, because the life itself is not received adequately; hence they have an appearance of life in accordance with their quality.

This may be illustrated by many things; as by the organs of motion and of sense in the body, into which the life flows through the soul; according to the qualities of these, such are their actions and sensations. The same may be illustrated also by the objects into which light flows from the sun; the light producing colorings according to the quality of the recipient forms. But in the spiritual world all the modifications that come into existence from the influx of life are spiritual, whence come such differences of intelligence and wisdom.

AC 3002.

3002. From this also we can see how all natural forms, both animate and inanimate, are representative of spiritual and celestial things in the Lord's kingdom; that is, that in nature all things, in both general and particular, are representative in accordance with the measure and quality of their correspondence.

AC 3213.

3213. CONTINUATION CONCERNING REPRESENTATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCES.

In the world of spirits there come forth innumerable and almost continual representatives, which are forms of actual things spiritual and celestial, not unlike those which are in the world. Whence these come it has been granted to me to know by daily interaction with spirits and angels. They inflow from heaven, and from the ideas and speech of the angels there; for the ideas of angels and their derivative speech, when they come down to spirits, are exhibited representatively in various ways. From these representations upright and well-disposed spirits are enabled to know what the angels are saying among themselves, for inwardly within the representatives there is something angelic, which, in consequence of its power to excite affection, is perceived even as to its quality. Angelic ideas and speech cannot be exhibited before spirits in any other way; for as compared with the idea of a spirit an angelic idea contains things illimitable; and unless it were formed and exhibited representatively, and thus visibly by images, a spirit would scarcely understand anything of its contents, which are for the most part unutterable. But when the ideas are represented by forms, then insofar as the more general things are concerned they become comprehensible to spirits. And wonderful to say there is not even the smallest thing in that which is represented which does not express something spiritual and celestial that is in the idea of the angelic society from which the representative flows down.

AC 3214.

3214. Representatives of things spiritual and celestial sometimes come forth in a long series, continued for an hour or two, in such an order successively as is marvelous. There are societies in which these representatives take place; and it has been given me to be with them for many months. But these representations are of such a nature that it would take many pages to relate and describe a single one of them in its order. They are very delightful, for something new and unexpected continually follows in succession, and this until what is represented is being fully perfected; and when all things have been perfectly represented, it is possible to contemplate everything in one view; and then it is at the same time given to take note of what is signified by each detail. Moreover good spirits are in this way initiated into spiritual and celestial ideas.

AC 3215.

3215. The representatives that come forth before spirits are of an incredible variety; yet they are for the most part similar to things which exist on the earth, in its three kingdoms. (For the better understanding of their nature, see what has been related above concerning them, n. 1521, 1532, 1619-1625, 1807, 1808, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 2299, 2601, 2758.)

AC 3216.

3216. In order that it may be still better known how the case is with representatives in the other life, that is, with those things which appear in the world of spirits, take some further examples. When the angels are speaking about the doctrinal things of charity and faith, then sometimes in a lower sphere, where there is a corresponding society of spirits, there appears the form or pattern of a city or cities, with palaces therein exhibiting such skill in architecture as is amazing, so that you would say that the very art itself was there in

its native home; not to mention houses of varied aspect; and wonderful to say in all these objects both in general and in particular there is not the smallest point, or visible atom, that does not represent something of the angelic idea and speech: so that it is evident what innumerable things are contained in these; and also what is signified by the cities seen by the prophets in the Word; and likewise what by the holy city or New Jerusalem; and what by the cities in the prophetic Word; namely, the doctrinal things of charity and faith (n. 402, 2449).

AC 3217.

3217. When the angels are discoursing of that which relates to the understanding, then in the world of spirits, beneath the angels, or in the corresponding societies, there appear horses; and these of a size, form, color, attitude, and varied equipment, in accordance with the ideas which the angels have concerning the understanding. There is also a place at some depth a little to the right, which is called the abode of the intelligent, where horses continually appear, and this by reason of those present being in thought about what is of the understanding; and when angels whose discourse is about this subject flow into their thoughts, there is a representation of horses. This shows what was signified by the horses seen by the prophets, and also by the horses mentioned elsewhere in the Word; namely, the things of the understanding (n. 2760-2762).

AC 3218.

3218. When the angels are in affections, and are at the same time discoursing about them, then in the lower sphere among spirits such things fall into representative species of animals. When the discourse is about good affections, there are presented beautiful, tame, and useful animals, such as were used in sacrifice in the representative Divine worship in the Jewish Church-as lambs, sheep, kids, she-goats, rams, he-goats, calves, bullocks, oxen; and then whatever appears upon the animal presents some image of their thought, which it is given to upright and well-disposed spirits to perceive. This shows what was signified by the animals that were employed in the rites of the Jewish Church; and what by the same when mentioned in the Word; namely, affections (n. 1823, 2179, 2180). But the discourse of the angels about evil affections is represented by beasts that are repulsive, fierce, and useless, such as tigers, bears, wolves, scorpions, serpents, mice, and the like; and these affections are also signified by the same beasts in the Word.

AC 3219.

3219. When the angels are conversing about knowledges, and ideas, and influx, there then appear in the world of spirits as it were birds, formed in accordance with the subject of their discourse. Hence it is that in the Word "birds" signify rational things, or those which are of thought (see n. 40, 745, 776, 991). There were once presented to my view birds, one dark and unsightly, but two noble and beautiful; and when I saw them, there then fell upon me some spirits with such violence as to strike a tremor into my nerves and bones. I imagined that then, as several times before, evil spirits were assaulting me, with intent to destroy me; but this was not the case; for when the tremor ceased, together with the emotion of the spirits who fell upon me, I spoke with them, asking what was the matter.

[2] They said that they had fallen down from a certain angelic society in which there was discourse concerning thoughts and influx; and that they had held the opinion that things relating to thought flow in from without, that is, through the external senses, according to the appearance; whereas the heavenly society in which they were, held the opinion that they inflow from within; and as they (the speakers) were in falsity, they fell down-not that they were cast down, for the angels cast no one down from them, but being in falsity they fell down of themselves; and they said that this was the cause.

[3] By this it was given to know that discourse in heaven concerning thoughts and influx is represented by birds; and that of those who are in falsity by dark and unsightly birds; but that of those who are in the truth, by birds noble and beautiful. I was at the same time instructed that all things of thought inflow from within, and not from without, although it appears so; and I was told that it is contrary to order for the posterior to flow into the prior, or the grosser into the purer; thus for the body to inflow into the soul.

AC 3220.

3220. When the angels are discoursing about things of intelligence and wisdom, and about perceptions and knowledges, the influx from them into the corresponding societies of spirits falls into representations of

such things as are in the vegetable kingdom; as into representations of paradises, of vine-yards, of forests, of meadows with flowers, and into many lovely forms that surpass all human imagination. Hence it is that things which are of wisdom and intelligence are described in the Word by paradises, vineyards, forests, meadows; and that where these are mentioned, such things are signified.

AC 3221.

3221. The discourses of the angels are sometimes represented by clouds, and by their forms, colors, movements, and changes; things affirmative of truth by bright and ascending clouds; things negative by dark and descending clouds; things affirmative of falsity by dusky and black clouds; consent and dissent by the various gatherings together and partings asunder of the clouds, and these latter as in a sky like that of the heavens in the night.

AC 3222.

3222. Moreover loves and their affections are represented by flames, and this with inexpressible variation; whereas truths are represented by lights, and by innumerable modifications of light. This shows whence it is that by "flames" in the Word are signified the goods which are of love; and by "lights" the truths which are of faith.

AC 3223.

3223. There are two lights whereby man is enlightened-the light of the world, and the light of heaven. The light of the world is from the sun; the light of heaven is from the Lord. The light of the world is for the natural or external man, thus for those things which are in him, and although the things which are therein do not appear to be of this light, they nevertheless are so; for nothing can be comprehended by the natural man except by such things as come forth and appear in the solar world, thus except they have somewhat of form from the light and shade therein. All ideas of time and ideas of space, which are of so much account in the natural man that he cannot think without them, are also of the light of the world. But the light of heaven is for the spiritual or internal man. Man's interior mind, in which are his intellectual ideas that are called immaterial, is in this light. Man is unaware of this, although he calls his intellect sight, and ascribes light to it; the reason is that so long as he is in worldly and corporeal things he has a perception only of such things as are of the light of the world, but not of such things as are of the light of heaven; the light of heaven is from the Lord alone, and the universal heaven is in this light.

[2] This light (namely, that of heaven) is immensely more perfect than the light of the world; the things which in the light of the world make one ray, in the light of heaven make myriads; within the light of heaven there are intelligence and wisdom. This light is that which flows into the light of the world which is in the external or natural man, and causes him to perceive sensuously the objects of actual things; and unless this light flowed in, man could not have any perception, for the things which are of the light of the world derive from it their life. Between these lights, or between the things which are in the light of heaven and those in the light of the world, there exists a correspondence when the external or natural man makes one with the internal or spiritual man, that is, when the former is subservient to the latter; and the things which then come forth in the light of the world are representative of such things as come forth in the light of heaven.

AC 3224.

3224. It is surprising that man does not as yet know that his intellectual mind is in a certain light that is altogether different from the light of the world; but such is the condition that to those who are in the light of the world the light of heaven is as it were darkness, and to those who are in the light of heaven the light of the world is as it were darkness. This arises principally from the loves, which are the heats of the light. They who are in the loves of self and of the world, thus only in the heat of the light of the world, are affected solely by evils and falsities, and these are the things which extinguish truths, which are of the light of heaven. But they who are in love to the Lord and in love toward the neighbor, thus in spiritual heat, which is of the light of heaven, are affected with goods and truths, which extinguish falsities; but still with these persons there exists a correspondence.

[2] Spirits who are only in the things which are of the light of the world, and are thence in falsities derived from evils, have indeed light from heaven in the other life, but such a light as is fatuous, or as that which

issues from a lighted coal or firebrand; but on the approach of the light of heaven this light is at once extinguished, and becomes thick darkness. They who are in this light are in phantasies, and the things which they see in phantasies they believe to be truths, nor to them is anything else truth. Their phantasies are also closely bound to filthy and obscene objects, with which they are most especially delighted; thus they think like persons who are insane and delirious. In regard to falsities, they do not reason whether these be so or not, but they instantly affirm them; whereas in regard to goods and truths they carry on a continual ratiocination, which terminates in what is negative.

[3] For truths and goods, which are from the light of heaven, flow into the interior mind, which with them is closed; wherefore the light flows in around and outside of this mind, and becomes such that it is modified solely by the falsities which appear to them as truths. Truths and goods cannot be acknowledged, except with those whose interior mind is open, into which the light from the Lord may inflow; and so far as this mind is open, truths and goods are acknowledged. This mind is open only with those who are in innocence, in love to the Lord, and in charity toward their neighbor; but not with those who are in the truths of faith, unless they are at the same time in the good of life.

AC 3225.

3225. From all this then it is evident what correspondence is and whence it is, also what representation is and whence; namely, that there is correspondence between those things which are of the light of heaven and those which are of the light of the world, that is, between those things which are of the internal or spiritual man and those which are of the external or natural man; and that there is representation in regard to whatever comes forth in the things which are of the light of the world (that is, in regard to whatever comes forth in the external or natural man), relatively to those which are of the light of heaven, that is, which are from the internal or spiritual man.

AC 3226.

3226. Among the eminent faculties which man possesses, although he is ignorant of it, and which he carries with him into the other life when he passes thither after his liberation from the body, is that he perceives what is signified by the representatives which appear in the other life; also that he is able by the sense of his mind to express fully in a moment of time what he could not express during hours in the body; and this by ideas from those things which are of the light of heaven, assisted and given as it were wings by suitable appearances representative of the subject of discourse, which are such as cannot be described; and whereas man after death comes into these faculties, and in the other life has no need to be instructed respecting them, it is evident that he is in them (that is, that they are in him) during his life in the body, although he does not know it.

[2] The reason of this is that there is a continual influx with man through heaven from the Lord. This influx is an influx of spiritual and celestial things, which fall into his natural things and are there presented representatively. In heaven among the angels nothing else is thought of than the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom; but in the world, with man, scarcely anything else is thought of than the corporeal and natural things which belong to the kingdom in which he is, and to the necessaries of life. And since the spiritual and celestial things of heaven which flow in are presented representatively with man in his natural things, they therefore remain implanted, and when a man puts off the body and leaves the world behind, he is in them.

AC 3227.

3227. The subject of Representations and Correspondences is continued at the end of the next chapter.

AC 3337.

3337. CONTINUATION CONCERNING CORRESPONDENCES AND REPRESENTATIONS.

What correspondences are, and what representations, may appear from what has been said and shown above, namely, that there are correspondences between the things which are of the light of heaven and those which are of the light of the world; and that the things which take place in those which are of the light of the

world are representations (n. 3225). But what the light of heaven is and what is its quality cannot be very well known to man, because he is in the things that are of the light of the world; and insofar as he is in these, the things that are in the light of heaven appear to him as darkness, and as nothing. It is these two lights which-life flowing in-produce all the intelligence of man. The imagination of man consists solely of the forms and appearances of such things as have been received by bodily vision wonderfully varied, and so to speak modified; but his interior imagination, or thought, consists solely of the forms and appearances of such things as have been drawn in through the mind's vision still more wonderfully varied, and so to speak modified. The things which come forth from this source are in themselves inanimate, but become animate through the influx of life from the Lord.

AC 3338.

3338. Besides these lights there are also heats, which likewise are from two fountains-the heat of heaven coming from its sun, which is the Lord; and the heat of the world from its sun, which is the luminary visible to our eyes. The heat of heaven manifests itself to the internal man under the form of spiritual loves and affections; but the heat of the world manifests itself to the external man under the form of natural loves and affections. The former heat produces the life of the internal man, but the latter that of the external man; for without love and affection man cannot live at all. Between these two heats also there are correspondences. These heats become loves and affections through the influx of the Lord's life; and hence they appear to man as if they were not heats, although they are; for unless as to both the internal and the external man, man derived heat from this source he would fall down dead in a moment. These facts must be evident to everybody from the circumstance that in proportion as man is inflamed with love, he grows warm; and in proportion as love recedes, he grows torpid. It is this heat from which the will of man lives, and it is the light above spoken of from which comes his understanding.

AC 3339.

3339. In the other life these lights, and also these heats, appear to the life. The angels live in the light of heaven, and also in the heat above described; from the light they have intelligence, and from the heat they have the affection of good. For in their origin the lights which appear before their external sight are from the Lord's Divine wisdom; and the heats which are also perceived by them are from His Divine love; and therefore the more the spirits and angels are in the intelligence of truth and the affection of good, the nearer they are to the Lord.

AC 3340.

3340. To this light there is an opposite darkness, and to this heat there is an opposite cold; in these live the infernals. Their darkness is from the falsities in which they are, and their cold is from the evils; and the more remote they are from truths, the greater is their darkness; and the more remote they are from good, the greater is their cold. When it is permitted to look into the hells where such infernals are, there appears a dark cloud in which they have their abode; and when any exhalation flows out thence, there are perceived insanities that exhale from falsities, and hatreds that exhale from evils. A light is indeed sometimes granted them, but it is a deceptive one; and this is extinguished with them, and becomes darkness, the moment they look at the light of truth. Heat also is sometimes granted them, but it is like that of an unclean bath; and this is changed into cold with them as soon as they observe anything of good. A certain person was let into that dark cloud where the infernals are, in order that he might know how the case is with those who are there; he being protected by the Lord by means of angels. Speaking from thence with me he said that there was there so great a rage of insanity against good and truth, and especially against the Lord, that he was amazed that it could possibly be resisted; for the infernals breathed nothing but hatred, revenge, and slaughter, with such violence that they desired to destroy all in the universe; so that unless this rage was continually repelled by the Lord, the whole human race would perish.

AC 3341.

3341. Inasmuch as the representations in the other life cannot take place except by means of differences of light and shade, be it known that all light, consequently all intelligence and wisdom, are from the Lord; and that all shade, consequently all insanity and folly, are from that which is their own in man, spirit, and angel; from these two origins flow forth and are derived all the variegations which are of light and shade in the other life.

AC 3342.

3342. All the speech of spirits and of angels is also effected by means of representatives; for by wonderful variations of light and shade they vividly present before the internal and at the same time before the external sight of him with whom they speak, all they are thinking about, and insinuate it by suitable changes of the state of the affections. The representations that come forth in such speech are not like those before described, but are quick and instantaneous, being simultaneous with the ideas that belong to their speech. They are like something that is described in a long series, while at the same time it is exhibited in an image before the eyes, for, wonderful to say, all spiritual things themselves whatever can be representatively exhibited by forms of imagery that are incomprehensible to man, within which are things of the perception of truth, and still more interiorly those of the perception of good. Such things are also in man (for man is a spirit clothed with a body); as is evident from the fact that all speech perceived by the ear, on ascending toward the interiors, passes into forms [ideas]* not unlike those of sight, and from these into intellectual forms or ideas, and thus becomes a perception of the sense of the expressions. Whoever rightly reflects upon these things may know from them that there is in himself a spirit which is his internal man, and also that after the separation of the body he will possess such a speech, because he is in the very same during his life in the world, although it does not appear to him that he is in it, by reason of the obscurity and darkness which earthly, bodily, and worldly things induce.

* Here Swedenborg uses the term idea in its original Greek sense of form. Compare Doctrine of Faith n. 34 with True Christian Religion n. 2; and see also the note to n. 1013:4 of the present work, and n. 3216.

AC 3343.

3343. The speech of the angels of the interior heaven is still more beautifully and pleasantly representative; but the ideas which are representatively formed are not expressible by words, and if they should be expressed by any, they would surpass not only apprehension, but also belief. Spiritual things, which are of truth, are expressed by modifications of heavenly light, in which are affections, which are wonderfully varied in innumerable ways; and celestial things, which are of good, are expressed by variations of heavenly flame or heat; so that they move all the affections. Into this interior speech also man comes after the separation of the body, but only the man who during his life in this world is in spiritual good, that is, in the good of faith, or what is the same, in charity toward the neighbor; for he has this speech within himself, though he is unaware of it.

AC 3344.

3344. But the speech of the angels of the still more interior or third heaven, although also representative, is yet such as to be inconceivable by any idea, and consequently is indescribable. Even this perfect form of speech [idea] is also within man, but in the man who is in celestial love, that is, in love to the Lord; and after the separation of the body he comes into it as if born into it, although as before said nothing of it could be comprehended by him under any idea during his life in the body. In short, by means of representatives adjoined to ideas, speech becomes as it were alive; least of all with man, because he is in the speech of words; but more so with the angels of the first heaven; still more so with the angels of the second heaven; and most of all with the angels of the third heaven, because these are most nearly in the Lord's life. In itself whatever is from the Lord is alive.

AC 3345.

3345. From what has been said it is evident that there are kinds of speech successively more interior, but yet of such a nature that the one comes forth from the other in order, and also that the one is within the other in order. The nature of man's speech is known, and also his thought from which the speech flows, the analytics of which are of such a nature that they can never be explored. The speech of good spirits, that is, of the angels of the first heaven, together with the thought from which it flows, is more interior, and contains within it things still more wonderful and unexplorable. The speech of the angels of the second heaven together with the thought from which again this flows, is still more interior, containing within it things still more perfect and unutterable. But the speech of the angels of the third heaven together with the thought from which again this flows, is inmost, containing within it things absolutely unutterable. And although all these kinds of speech are of such a nature that they appear different from one another, nevertheless there is but one

speech, because the one forms the other, and the one is within the other; moreover that which comes forth in the exterior is representative of the interior.

A man who does not think beyond worldly and bodily things cannot believe this, and therefore supposes that the interior things with him are nothing, although in fact they are everything; and the exterior things, that is, the worldly and corporeal things that he makes everything, are relatively scarcely anything.

AC 3346.

3346. In order that I might know these things, and know them with certainty, of the Lord's Divine mercy it has been granted me for several years to speak almost constantly with spirits and angels; and with spirits (that is, with the angels of the first heaven)* in their own speech; also at times with the angels of the second heaven in their speech; but the speech of the angels of the third heaven has only appeared to me as a radiation of light, in which there was perception from the flame of good within it.

* The "Heaven of Good Spirits" is a term used by Swedenborg for the First Heaven. The expression is found (or is indicated) in the early volumes of the Arcana Coelestia, as for instance in n. 459, 684, 925, 978, 1642, 1752. The reader should remember in this connection that the Arcana Coelestia was written and published before the Last Judgment of 1757.

AC 3347.

3347. I have heard angels speaking concerning human minds, and concerning their thought and the derivative speech. They compared them to the external form of man, which comes forth and subsists from the innumerable forms that are within-as from the brains, the medulla, the lungs, the heart, liver, pancreas, spleen, stomach, and intestines, besides many other organs, as those of generation in both sexes from the innumerable muscles encompassing these organs; and lastly from the integuments; and from all these being woven together from vessels and fibers, and indeed from vessels and fibers within vessels and fibers, from which come the ducts and lesser forms; thus that the body is composed of things innumerable; all of which nevertheless conspire, each in its own way, to the composition of the external form, in which nothing appears of the things that are within. To this external form they compared human minds, and their thoughts and the derivative speech. But angelic minds they compared to those things which are within, which are relatively illimitable, and also incomprehensible. They also compared the faculty of thinking to the faculty that belongs to the viscera of acting according to the form of the fibers, saying that the faculty is not of the fibers, but of the life in the fibers; just as the faculty of thinking is not of the mind, but of life from the Lord flowing into it. When such comparisons are made by angels they are at the same time exhibited by means of representatives, whereby the interior forms above spoken of are presented visibly and intellectually, in respect to their smallest incomprehensible parts, and this in a moment; but comparisons made by means of spiritual and celestial things, such as take place among the celestial angels, immeasurably surpass in the beauty of wisdom those made by means of natural things.

AC 3348.

3348. Spirits from another earth were with me for a considerable time; and I described to them the wisdom of our globe, and told them that among the sciences pursued by the learned is that of analytics, with which they busy themselves in exploring what is of the mind and its thoughts, calling it metaphysics and logic. But I said that men have advanced little beyond terms, and certain shifting rules; and that they argue concerning these terms-as what form is; what substance; what the mind; and what the soul; and that by means of these general shifting rules they vehemently dispute about truths. I then perceived from these spirits that when men inhere in such things as terms, and think concerning these matters by artificial rules, they take away all sense and understanding of a subject.

[2] They said that such things are merely little black clouds interposed before the intellectual sight; and that they drag down the understanding into the dust. They added that with them it is not so, but that they have clearer ideas of things in consequence of being unacquainted with such analytics. I was also permitted to see how wise they are. They represented the human mind in a marvelous manner as a heavenly form; and its affections as spheres of activity in agreement with it; and this so skillfully that they were commended by the angels. They represented also in what manner the Lord bends those affections which in themselves are not delightful, into such as are delightful.

[3] Learned men of our earth were present, and could not in the least comprehend these things, although in the life of the body they had discoursed much on such subjects in a philosophical way; and when the spirits just referred to in turn perceived their thoughts, in that they inhered in mere terms, and were inclined to dispute on every point as to whether it is so, they called such things feculent froth.

AC 3349.

3349. From what has been said thus far it may be seen what correspondences are, and what representatives; but in addition to what has been said and shown at the end of the preceding chapters (n. 2987-3003, and n. 3213-3227), see also what is said of them elsewhere; namely, That all things in the sense of the letter of the Word are representative and significative of what is in the internal sense (n. 1404, 1408, 1409, 2763): That the Word through Moses and the prophets was written by means of representatives and significatives, and that in order to possess an internal sense by which there might be communication of heaven and earth it could not be written in any other style (n. 2899): That the Lord Himself for this reason spoke by representatives, as well as for the reason that He spoke from the Divine Itself (n. 2900): What has been the source of the representatives and significatives in the Word and in rituals (n. 2179): That representatives originated from the significatives of the Ancient Church, and these from the things perceived by the Most Ancient Church (n. 920, 1409, 2896,2897): That the most ancient people had their representatives from dreams also (n. 1977): That Enoch denotes those who collected the perceptive matters of the most ancient people (n. 2896): That continually in heaven there are representatives of the Lord and His kingdom (n. 1619): That the heavens are full of representatives (n. 1521, 1532): That the ideas of the angels are changed in the world of spirits into various representatives (n. 1971, 1980, 1981): Representatives by means of which children are introduced into intelligence (n. 2299): That the representatives in nature are from the Lord's influx (n. 1632, 1881): That in universal nature there are representatives of the Lord's kingdom (n. 2758): That in the external man there are things which correspond to what is internal, and things which do not correspond (n. 1563, 1568).

AC 3350.

3350. In order to show more plainly the nature of representatives, I may adduce one additional instance. I heard a host of angels of the interior heaven who together or in consort were forming a representative. The spirits about me could not perceive it, except from a certain influx of interior affection. It was a choir, in which many angels together thought the same thing, and spoke the same thing. By representations they formed a golden crown gemmed with diamonds around the Lord's head; which was effected all at once by means of a rapid series of representations, such as are those of thought and speech spoken of above (n. 3342-3344); and wonderful to say, although there were a host they nevertheless all thought and spoke as a one, thus they all represented as a one; and this because no one was desirous to do anything from himself, still less to preside over the rest and lead the choir; for whoever does this is of himself instantly dissociated. But they suffered themselves to be led mutually by each other, thus all individually and collectively by the Lord. All the good who come into the other life are brought into such harmonious agreements.

[2] Afterwards there were heard many choirs, which exhibited various things representatively, and although there were many choirs, and many in each choir, still they acted as a one; for from the form of various things there resulted a one, in which was heavenly beauty. Thus the universal heaven, which consists of myriads of myriads, can act as a one by being in mutual love; for thereby they suffer themselves to be led by the Lord; and wonderful to say the greater their numbers, that is, the greater the number of the myriads who constitute heaven, so much the more distinctly and perfectly are things done in general and in particular; and the more also in proportion as the angels are of a more interior heaven; for all perfection increases toward the interiors.

AC 3351.

3351. They who formed the choirs on this occasion belonged to the province of the lungs, thus to the Lord's spiritual kingdom, for they inflowed gently into the respiration; but the choirs were distinct, some pertaining to the voluntary respiration, and some to the involuntary.

AC 3352.

3352. A continuation concerning correspondences and representatives, especially those in the Word, will be found at the close of the following chapter.

AC 3472.

3472. CONTINUATION CONCERNING CORRESPONDENCES AND REPRESENTATIONS, ESPECIALLY THOSE IN THE WORD.

That the things in the literal sense of the Word are each and all representative of the spiritual and celestial things of the Lord's kingdom in the heavens, and in the supreme sense are representative of the Lord Himself, may be seen from what has been thus far shown, and from what of the Lord's Divine mercy is still to be shown. But as man has removed himself so far from heaven, and has immersed himself in lowest nature, and even in what is earthly, it is altogether repugnant to him to hear that the Word contains deeper things than he apprehends from the letter; and this is still more the case when it is said that it contains things incomprehensible, which are adapted solely to the wisdom of angels; and this is even still more so when it is said that it contains Divine things themselves, which infinitely transcend the understanding of angels. The Christian world does indeed acknowledge that the Word is Divine, yet that it is Divine in this manner it denies at heart, if not with the lips; nor is this to be wondered at, inasmuch as the earthly thought in which man is at this day does not apprehend things of a sublime character; and is not willing to apprehend them.

AC 3473.

3473. That the Word in the letter stores up such things within it, is often presented to the sight of the spirits or souls who come into the other life; and it has sometimes been granted me to be present when this was done, as may be seen from the experiences adduced in the first part of this work concerning the Holy Scripture or Word, as containing things Divine which are manifest to good spirits and angels (n. 1767-1776, and 1869-1879); from which experiences I may for the sake of confirmation again relate what now follows.

AC 3474.

3474. A certain spirit came to me not long after his departure from the body, as I was able to infer from the fact that he did not yet know that he was in the other life, but supposed that he was living in the world. It was perceived that he had been devoted to studies, concerning which I spoke with him. But he was suddenly taken up on high; and, surprised at this, I imagined that he was of those who have aspired to high things, for such are wont to be carried up on high; or else that he had placed heaven on high, for such likewise are often taken up on high, in order that they may know from experience that heaven is not in what is high, but in what is internal. But I soon perceived that he was carried up to the angelic spirits who are in front a little to the right at the first entrance into heaven. He then spoke with me from thence, saying that he saw things more sublime than human minds could possibly apprehend.

While this was taking place I was reading the first chapter of Deuteronomy, concerning the Jewish people, in that men were sent to explore the land of Canaan and what was in it. While I was reading this, he said that he perceived nothing of the sense of the letter, but the things in the spiritual sense; and that these were wonders that he could not describe. This was in the first entrance to the heaven of angelic spirits. What wonders then would be perceived in that heaven itself! And what in the angelic heaven!

[2] Certain spirits who were with me, and who before had not believed that the Word of the Lord is of such a nature, then began to repent of their unbelief; and in this state they said that they believed because they heard that spirit say that he heard, saw, and perceived it to be so. But other spirits still persisted in their unbelief, and said that it was not so, but that these things were fancies; and therefore they too were suddenly taken up, and spoke with me from thence; and they confessed that it was anything but fancy, because they really perceived it to be so, and this by a perception more exquisite than can ever be given to any sense during the life of the body.

[3] Soon others also were taken up into the same heaven, and among them one whom I had known in the life of his body, who testified to the same effect, saying also, among other things, that he was too much amazed to be able to describe the glory of the Word in its internal sense. Then, speaking from a kind of pity, he said that it was strange that men know nothing at all of such things.

[4] On two occasions after this I saw others taken up into the second heaven among the angelic spirits, and they spoke with me thence while I was reading the third chapter of Deuteronomy from beginning to end. They said that they were only in the interior sense of the Word, at the same time asserting that there was not even

a point in which there was not something spiritual that coheres most beautifully with all the rest and further that the names signify actual things. Thus they too were confirmed, for they had not believed before that each and all things in the Word have been inspired by the Lord; and this they desired to confirm before other, by an oath, but it was not permitted.

AC 3475.

3475. That in the heavens there come forth continual representatives such as are in the Word, has already been several times stated and shown. These representatives are of such a nature that spirits and angels see them in a much clearer light than that of this world at noonday; and they are also of such a nature that when seen in their external form the spirits and angels perceive what they signify in their internal form; and therein things still more interior. For there are three heavens: in the first heaven these representatives appear in an external form, with a perception of what they signify in the internal form; in the second heaven they appear such as they are in their internal form, with a perception of what they are in a more interior form; in the third heaven they appear in this more interior form, which is their inmost form.

The representatives that appear in the first heaven are the generals of those things which appear in the second; and these are the generals of those which appear in the third; thus within those which appear in the first heaven are those which appear in the second; and within these are those which appear in the third. And as they are thus presented according to degrees, it may be seen how perfect and full of wisdom, and at the same time how happy, are the representatives in the inmost heaven; and that they are utterly unspeakable; for myriads of myriads of them present only one single particular of the general representative. In both general and particular these representatives involve such things as are of the Lord's kingdom; and these such as are of the Lord Himself. They who are in the first heaven, in their representatives see such things as come forth in the interior sphere of that kingdom; and within these such things as come forth in the sphere still more interior; and thus see representatives of the Lord, but remotely. They who are in the second heaven, in their representatives see such things as come forth in the inmost sphere of that kingdom, and within these see representatives of the Lord more nearly. But they who are in the third heaven see the Lord Himself.

AC 3476.

3476. From all this men may know how the case is with the Word; for the Word has been given by the Lord to man and also to the angels in order that by it they may be with Him; for the Word is the medium that unites earth with heaven, and through heaven with the Lord. Its literal sense is that which unites man with the first heaven; and as within the literal there is an internal sense which treats of the Lord's kingdom, and within this a supreme sense which treats of the Lord; and as these senses are in order one within another, it is evident what is the nature of the union with the Lord that is effected by means of the Word.

AC 3477.

3477. It has been said that there are continual representatives in the heavens, and indeed such as involve the deepest arcana of wisdom. Those which are manifest to man from the literal sense of the Word are relatively as few as are the waters of a small pool as compared with those of the ocean. The nature of representatives in the heavens may be seen from what has been occasionally related above from things seen, and likewise from the following. There were represented before certain spirits, as I myself saw, a broad way and a narrow way such as are described in the Word; a broad way which led to hell, and a narrow way which led to heaven. The broad way was planted with trees, flowers, and the like that in outward form appeared beautiful and delightful, but unseen snakes and serpents of various kinds were hidden there. The narrow way did not seem to be so much adorned with trees and flowers, but appeared sad and dark; and yet there were in it angel infants most beautifully adorned, in delightful paradises and flower-gardens, which the spirits did not see. They were then asked which way they wished to go. They said, The broad way; when suddenly their eyes were opened, and in the broad way they saw the serpents, but in the narrow way the angels. They were then again asked which way they wished to go, whereupon they remained silent; and so far as their sight was opened, they said that they wished to go the narrow way; and so far as their sight was closed, that they wished to go the broad way.

AC 3478.

3478. There was also represented before certain spirits the tabernacle with the ark; for they who during their abode in the world have been greatly delighted with the Word, have such things actually presented to view. Such was the case with the tabernacle, together with all its appurtenances, its courts, its curtains round about, its veils within, the golden altar, or altar of incense, the table with the loaves upon it, the lampstand, the mercy-seat with the cherubim. At the same time it was given to the well-disposed spirits to perceive what each thing signified: that the three heavens were represented by the tabernacle, and the Lord Himself by the Testimony in the ark on which was the mercy-seat; and in proportion as their sight was opened, they saw therein things more and more heavenly and Divine, of which they had no knowledge in the life of the body; and wonderful to say there was not the smallest thing there that was not representative, even to the hooks and rings.

[2] For instance, the bread that was on the table-in this as in a representative and symbol they perceived that food by which angels live, thus celestial and spiritual love together with their joys and felicities; and in these loves and joys they perceived the Lord Himself, as the bread or manna from heaven; besides many particulars from the form, position, and number of the loaves; and from the gold encompassing the table, and from the lampstand, by which these things when illuminated exhibited still further representations of things unspeakable; and the same with everything else; from all which it might also appear that the rituals or representatives of the Jewish Church contained within them all the arcana of the Christian Church; and likewise that they to whom the representatives and significatives of the Word of the Old Testament are opened may know and perceive the arcana of the Lord's Church on earth while they live in the world; and the arcana of arcana which are in the Lord's kingdom in the heavens when they come into the other life.

AC 3479.

3479. The Jews who lived before the coming of the Lord, as well as those who lived afterwards, had no other opinion concerning the rituals of their church than that Divine worship consisted solely in external things, and cared naught for what these represented and signified. For they did not know, and were not willing to know, that there was anything internal in worship and in the Word, thus that there was any life after death, nor consequently that there was any heaven, for they were altogether sensuous and corporeal; and inasmuch as they were in externals separate from things internal, relatively to these externals their worship was merely idolatrous, and therefore they were very prone to worship any gods whatsoever, provided only they were persuaded that such gods could cause them to prosper.

[2] But as that nation was of such a nature that they could be in a holy external, and thus could have holy rituals by which the heavenly things of the Lord's kingdom were represented, and could have a holy veneration for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and also for Moses and Aaron, and afterwards for David; by all of whom the Lord was represented; and especially could have a holy reverence for the Word, in which each and all things are representative and significative of Divine things, therefore in that nation a representative church was instituted. If however that nation had known internal things so far as to acknowledge them, they would have profaned them, and thereby when in a holy external would have been at the same time in a profane internal, so that there could have been through them no communication of representatives with heaven; and for this reason interior things were not disclosed to them, not even that the Lord was within, in order that He might save their souls.

[3] Inasmuch as the tribe of Judah was of this character more than the other tribes, and at this day just as in former times regard as holy the rituals which can be observed outside Jerusalem, and as they have a holy veneration for their fathers, especially as they regard the Word of the Old Testament as holy, and inasmuch as it was foreseen that Christians would almost reject this Word, and would likewise defile its internal things with things profane, therefore that nation has been preserved until this time, according to the words of the Lord in Matt. 24:34. It would have been otherwise if Christians, being acquainted with internal things, had also lived as internal men; in this case that nation, like other nations, would before many generations have been cut off.

[4] But the case with that nation is that their holy external or holy of worship cannot at all affect their internals, because these are unclean from the base love of self and from the unclean love of the world; and also from the idolatry of worshiping external things separate from internal; and thus because they have not anything of heaven in them, neither can they carry anything of heaven with them into the other life, except a few who live in mutual love, and thus do not despise others in comparison with themselves.

AC 3480.

3480. It was also shown how the unclean things with that nation did not prevent the interiors of the Word, or its spiritual and celestial things, from being nevertheless presented in heaven; for the unclean things were removed so as not to be perceived, and evils were turned to good, so that the mere external holiness served as a plane, and thus the internal things of the Word were presented before the angels, without the interposition of any hindrances. From this it was made manifest how that people, interiorly idolatrous, could represent things holy, and even the Lord Himself; and thus how the Lord could dwell in the midst of their uncleanness (Lev. 16:16); consequently how there could be something like a church there; for a church merely representative is a semblance of a church, and not a church.

[2] With Christians this cannot be the case, because they are acquainted with the interior things of worship, but do not believe them; thus they cannot be in a holy external separate from its internal. Moreover with those who are in the life of faith, communication is effected by the goods pertaining to them, evils and falsities being in the meantime removed; and it is a remarkable fact that all things of the Word, when being read by them, lie open to the angels, and this even though they who read do not attend to its meaning (as has been shown me by much experience); for the internal in them, which is not so perceptible, serves as a plane.

AC 3481.

3481. I have very frequently spoken with the Jews in the other life. They appear in front, in the lower earth, beneath the plane of the left foot. I once spoke to them concerning the Word, the land of Canaan, and the Lord: concerning the Word, that there are in it deepest arcana which are not manifest to men; and this they affirmed; then, that all the arcana which are therein treat of the Messiah and His kingdom which also they were willing to allow: but when I said that Messiah in the Hebrew tongue is the same as Christ in the Greek, they were not willing to hear. Again, when I said that the Messiah is most holy, and that Jehovah is in Him, and that no other is meant by the Holy One of Israel and by the God of Jacob; and that because He is most holy, none can be in His kingdom but those who are holy, not in external form but internal, thus who are not in the unclean love of the world, and in the exaltation of themselves against other nations, and in hatred among themselves, this they could not hear.

[2] Afterwards when I told them that according to the prophecies the Messiah's kingdom must be eternal, and that they who are with Him will also inherit the earth forever; and that if His kingdom were of this world, and they were to be introduced into the land of Canaan, it would only be for the few years which are of a man's life; besides that all those who died after they were driven out of the land of Canaan would not enjoy such blessedness and that from this they might know that by the land of Canaan is represented and signified the heavenly kingdom; and especially as they now know that they are in the other life, and are to live forever, so that it is manifest that the Messiah has His kingdom there; and that if it were given them to speak with angels they might know that the universal angelic heaven is His kingdom; and moreover that by the new earth, the New Jerusalem, and the new temple in Ezekiel, nothing can be signified but such a kingdom of the Messiah-to these things they could make no reply, except merely that they who were to be introduced into the land of Canaan by the Messiah, and were to die after so few years and leave the blessedness which they were to enjoy there, would weep bitterly.

AC 3482.

3482. Although the language used in the Word to man appears simple, and in some passages unpolished, it is the angelic language itself, but in its lowest form; for when the angelic speech, which is spiritual, falls into human words, it cannot fall into any other speech than such as this; every single thing therein being representative, and every single word being significative. As the ancients had interaction with spirits and angels, they had no other speech than this, which was full of representatives, and in every expression of which there was a spiritual sense. The books of the ancients were also written in this way; for it was the study of their wisdom so to speak and so to write. From this also it is evident how far man afterwards removed himself from heaven. At this day he does not even know that there is in the Word anything else than that which appears in the letter; not even that there is a spiritual sense within; and whatever is said beyond the literal sense is called mystical, and is rejected merely on this account. Hence also it is that communication with heaven is at this day intercepted, insomuch that few believe there is any heaven, and wonderful to say, among the learned and erudite much fewer than among the simple.

AC 3483.

3483. Whatever is seen anywhere in the universe is representative of the Lord's kingdom, insomuch that there is not anything in the atmospheric and starry universe, or in the earth and its three kingdoms, which is not in its own manner representative. All things in nature, in both general and particular, are ultimate images, inasmuch as from the Divine are celestial things which are of good, from celestial things spiritual things which are of truth, and from both celestial and spiritual things are natural things. From this it is evident how gross, nay, how earthly and also inverted is that human intelligence which ascribes everything to nature separate or exempt from an influx prior to itself, or from an efficient cause. Moreover they who so think and speak seem to themselves to be wiser than others; that is, in attributing all things to nature, when yet on the contrary angelic intelligence consists in ascribing nothing to nature, but all and everything to the Divine of the Lord, thus to life, and not to anything dead. The learned know that subsistence is a perpetual coming forth; but still it is contrary to the affection of falsity and thence to a reputation for learning to say that nature continually subsists, as it originally came into existence, from the Divine of the Lord. Inasmuch therefore as each and all things subsist, that is, continually come forth, from the Divine, and as each and all things thence derived must needs be representative of those things whereby they came into existence, it follows that the visible universe is nothing else than a theater representative of the Lord's kingdom; and that this kingdom is a theater representative of the Lord Himself.

AC 3484.

3484. From very much experience I have been instructed that there is but one only life, which is that of the Lord, and which flows in and causes man to live, nay, causes both the good and the evil to live. To this life correspond forms which are substances, and which by continual Divine influx are so vivified that they appear to themselves to live from themselves. This correspondence is that of the organs with their life; but such as are the recipient organs, such is the life which they live. Those men who are in love and charity are in correspondence, for the life itself is received by them fitly; but they who are in what is contrary to love and charity are not in correspondence, because the life itself is not received fitly; hence such a life comes forth as is in accordance with their quality. This may be illustrated by natural forms into which the light of the sun flows; such as are the recipient forms, such are the modifications of light in connection with them. In the spiritual world the modifications are spiritual; and therefore in that world such as are the recipient forms, such is their intelligence and such their wisdom. Hence good spirits and angels appear as the very forms of charity, while wicked spirits and infernals appear as forms of hatred.

AC 3485.

3485. The representations that come forth in the other life are appearances, but living ones, because they are from the light of life. The light of life is the Divine wisdom, which is from the Lord alone. Hence all things that come forth from this light are real; and are not like those things that come forth from the light of the world. Wherefore they who are in the other life have sometimes said that the things they see there are real things, and the things which man sees are in comparison not real; because the former things live, and thus immediately affect their life, while the latter things do not live, thus do not immediately affect the life, except insofar and in such a manner as the things in their minds which are of this world's light conjoin themselves fitly and correspondently with the things of the light of heaven. From all this it is now evident what representations are, and what correspondences.

TCR 199. That the Lord when in the world spoke by correspondences, that is, when He spoke naturally He also spoke spiritually, can be seen from His parables, in each word of which there is a spiritual meaning. Take for example the parable of the ten virgins. He said:

The kingdom of heaven is like ten virgins, who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were wise, but five were foolish. They that were foolish taking their lamps took no oil; but the wise took oil in their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. But the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered saying Peradventure, there will not be enough for us and you; go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. But while they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with Him to the wedding, and

the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not (Matt. 25:1-12).

That in all these particulars there is a spiritual sense and therefore a Divine holiness, no one sees except he who knows that the Word has a spiritual sense and who knows what that sense is. In the spiritual sense "the kingdom of the heavens" means heaven and the church; "the bridegroom" means the Lord; "the wedding" means the marriage of the Lord with heaven and the church, through good of love and truth of faith; "the virgins" mean those who constitute the church; "ten" means all; "five" some portion; "lamps" things pertaining to faith; "oil" things pertaining to good of love; "to sleep" and "to arise" means man's life in the world which is natural, and his life after death which is spiritual; "to buy" means to procure for oneself; "going to those who sell and buying oil" means to procure for oneself good of love from others after death; and because good of love is then no longer to be procured, although they came to the door where the wedding feast was with their lamps and the oil they had bought, still the bridegroom said to them, "I know you not;" this is because man, after his life in the world, remains such as he had lived in the world. From all this it is clear that the Lord spoke solely by correspondences, and this because He spoke from the Divine that was in Him and was His. As "virgins" signify those who constitute the church, so the terms virgin and daughter of Zion, of Jerusalem, of Judah, and of Israel, are frequently used in the prophetic Word. And because "oil" signifies good of love, all the sacred things of the church were anointed with oil. It is the same with the other parables, and with all the words spoken by the Lord. This is why the Lord says that His words are spirit and are life (John 6:63).

TCR 200. (3) It is because of its Spiritual Sense that the Word is Divinely inspired, and holy in every word. In the church it is said that the Word is holy for the reason that Jehovah the Lord spoke it; but inasmuch as its holiness is not apparent in the mere sense of the letter, whoever is once led on that account to doubt its holiness confirms his doubts when he subsequently reads the Word by many things therein; for he says to himself, Can this be holy? Can this be Divine? Lest, therefore, such thoughts should enter the minds of many, and afterwards grow stronger, and in consequence the Word should be rejected as a worthless writing, and by this means the conjunction of the Lord with man be destroyed, it has pleased the Lord to reveal now its spiritual sense, that it may be known where in the Word the Divine holiness lies concealed. But let examples illustrate. The Word treats sometimes of Egypt, sometimes of Assyria, and again of Edom, of Moab, of the sons of Ammon, of the Philistines, of Tyre and Sidon, and of Gog. He who does not know that these names signify things pertaining to heaven and the church may be led into the error that the Word has much to say about peoples and nations and but little about heaven and the church, thus much about worldly things and but little about heavenly things. But when he knows what those nations and their names signify he may be led back from error to the truth.

[2] Likewise when he sees that gardens, groves, forests, and their trees, as the olive, the vine, the cedar, the poplar, the oak, are so frequently mentioned in the Word, also the lamb, the sheep, the goat, the calf, the ox; also mountains, hills, and valleys, and their fountains, rivers, and waters, and many other such things, one who knows nothing about the spiritual sense of the Word cannot but believe that these objects alone are meant; for he does not know that "a garden," "a grove," and "a forest," mean wisdom, intelligence and knowledge; that "the olive," "the vine," "the cedar," "the poplar," and "the oak," mean the good and truth of the church, celestial, spiritual, rational, natural, and sensual; that "a lamb," "a sheep," "a goat," "a calf," and "an ox," mean innocence, charity, and natural affection; and that "mountains," "hills," and "valleys," mean the higher, the lower, and the lowest things of the church. [3] Also be does not know that "Egypt" signifies the scientific, "Assyria" the rational, "Edom" the natural, "Moab" the adulteration of good, "the sons of Ammon" the adulteration of truth, "the Philistines" faith separate from charity, "Tyre and Sidon" knowledges

of good and truth, and "Gog" external worship apart from internal. In general "Jacob" means in the Word the natural church, "Israel" the spiritual church, and "Judah" the celestial church. When man knows all this he is able to see that the Word treats of nothing but heavenly things, and that these worldly things are merely the subjects which contain the heavenly. Let this be illustrated by an example from the Word. [4] We read in Isaiah:

In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, that Assyria may come into Egypt and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians may serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land; whom Jehovah of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be My people Egypt, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel Mine inheritance (19:23-25).

In the spiritual sense this means that at the time of the Lord's coming the scientific, the rational and the spiritual will make one, and that the scientific will then serve the rational, and both the spiritual; for, as said before, "Egypt" signifies the scientific, "Assyria" the rational, and "Israel" the spiritual. "That day" twice mentioned, means the first and the second coming of the Lord.

TCR 201. (4) Heretofore the spiritual sense of the Word has been unknown. That each thing and all things in nature correspond to spiritual things, and in like manner each and all things in the human body, has been shown in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 87-105). But heretofore it has not been known what correspondence is; yet in most ancient times it was very well known; for to those who then lived, the knowledge of correspondences was the knowledge of knowledges, and was so universal that all their manuscripts and books were written by correspondences. The book of Job, which is a book of the Ancient Church, is full of correspondences. The hieroglyphics of the Egyptians, as well as the fables of most ancient times, were nothing, but correspondences. All the ancient churches were churches representative of spiritual things; their rites and the statutes according to which their worship was established, consisted of pure correspondences; as did all things of the church among the children of Israel. The burnt offerings, the sacrifices, the meat offerings, and the drink offerings, with all their particulars, were correspondences; likewise the tabernacle and all things in it; also their feast, as the feast of unleavened bread, the feast of tabernacles, and the feast of the first-fruits; also the priesthood of Aaron and the Levites, and their garments or holiness. What the spiritual things are to which all these things corresponded has been shown in the Arcana Coelestia, published at London. Furthermore all the statutes and judgments relating to their worship and life were correspondences. Since then, Divine things present themselves in the world in correspondences, the Word was written by pure correspondences; and because the Lord spoke from the Divine He spoke by means of correspondences for whatever is from the Divine falls into such things in nature as correspond to Divine things, and these then store up in their bosom Divine things, which are called celestial and spiritual.

TCR 202. I have been informed that the men of the Most Ancient Church which existed before the flood, were of a genius so celestial that they talked with the angels of heaven, and were able to talk with them by means of correspondences, and in consequence the state of their wisdom was such that whatever they saw on earth, they thought of not only naturally, but at the same time spiritually, thus conjointly with the angels of heaven. Furthermore, I have been informed that Enoch (who is mentioned in Gen. 5:21-24) and those associated with him collected correspondences from the lips of these men, and transmitted this knowledge to their posterity; and that from this it came to pass that in many of the kingdoms of Asia the knowledge of correspondences both existed and was cultivated, especially in the land of Canaan, in Egypt, Assyria, Chaldea, Syria, Arabia, Tyre, Sidon, and Nineveh, and that it was thence carried into Greece; but was there turned into myths, as can be seen from the writings of the ancient Greeks.

TCR 203. To show that a knowledge of correspondences was long preserved among the nations of Asia, although among those called diviners and sages, and by some Magi, I will present one example from 1 Sam. 5 and 6. It is there recorded that the ark containing the two tables on which the Decalogue was written was captured by the Philistines and placed in the temple of Dagon at Ashdod, and that Dagon fell to the ground before it, and afterwards his head and the palms of his hands, severed from his body, lay upon the threshold of the temple; also that on account of the ark the men of Ashdod and Ekron were smitten by thousands with tumors and their land laid waste by mice, and that therefore the Philistines called together their lords and diviners; and to stay this destruction they determined to make five tumors of gold and five golden mice and a new cart, and upon the cart to place the ark, and beside it the golden tumors and mice; and by two cows, which lowed on the way before the cart, to send it back to the children of Israel, by whom the cows and the cart were offered in sacrifice; and thus the God of Israel was propitiated. That all these things studied out by the diviners of the Philistines were correspondences is evident from their signification, which is as follows:

"The Philistines" themselves signified those who are in faith separate from charity; "Dagon" represented that religion; "the tumors" with which they were smitten, signified natural loves, which when separated from spiritual love are unclean; "the mice" signified the devastation of the church by falsifications of truth; "the new cart" signified natural doctrine of the church (as doctrine from spiritual truths is signified in the Word by "a chariot"); "the cows" signified good natural affections; "the golden tumors" signified natural loves purified and made good; "the golden mice" signified the vastation of the church removed by means of good ("gold" in the Word signifying good); "the lowing of the cows in the way" signified the difficult conversion of the natural man's lust of evil to good affections; the offering of the cows together with the cart as a burnt offering, signified that thus the God of Israel was propitiated. All these things which the Philistines did by the advice of their diviners were correspondences from which it is clear that that knowledge was long preserved among the nations.

TCR 204. Because the representative rites of the church, which were correspondences, in the course of time began to be turned into idolatries, and also into magic, that knowledge, by the Lord's Divine Providence, gradually perished, and with the Israelitish and Jewish nation was totally obliterated. The worship of that nation did indeed consist solely of correspondences, and was therefore representative of heavenly things, but not a single thing did they know the significance of, for they were wholly natural men, and consequently were neither willing nor able to know anything about things spiritual and celestial, nor therefore about correspondences; for correspondences are representations of things spiritual and celestial in things natural.

TCR 205. The idolatries of nations in ancient times originated in a knowledge of correspondences, since all things visible on earth correspond; thus not only trees, but all kind of beasts and birds, also fishes, and all other things. The ancients, who had a knowledge of correspondences, made for themselves images corresponding to heavenly things, and took delight in them because they signified such things as belong to heaven and the church; consequently they placed these images not only in their temples but also in their houses, not for worship but to call to mind the heavenly things they signified. So in Egypt and elsewhere there were images of calves, oxen, and serpents, also of boys, old men, and virgins; because calves and oxen signified the affections and powers of the natural man; serpents the prudence and the cunning of the sensual man; boys innocence and charity; old men wisdom, and virgins affections for truth; and so on. When the knowledge of correspondences had perished, their posterity, because these images and figures had been placed by the ancients in and near their temples, began to worship these as holy, and finally as deities. For the same reason the ancients worshiped in gardens and groves, according to the different kinds of

trees in them; also on mountains and hills; for gardens and groves signified wisdom and intelligence, and each tree signified something pertaining thereto; thus the olive signified the good of love; the vine truth from that good; the cedar rational good and truth; a mountain the highest heaven; and a hill the heaven below it. That the knowledge of correspondences remained with many of the people of the East even till the advent of the Lord can be seen also in the coming of the wise men of the East to the Lord when He was born:

Therefore a star went before them, and they brought with them gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt. 2:1, 2, 9-11);

for "the star" that went before signified knowledge from heaven; "gold" signified celestial good; "frankincense" spiritual good; and "myrrh" natural good; from which three all worship proceeds. Nevertheless, with the Israelitish and Jewish nation there was no knowledge whatever of correspondences, although every thing pertaining to their worship, and all the statutes and judgments given them by Moses, and all things in the Word, were pure correspondences. This was because in heart the Jews were idolaters, and therefore such that they were not even willing to know that anything in their worship signified what is heavenly and spiritual; for they believed that all things of their worship were holy in themselves; and therefore if things heavenly and spiritual had been disclosed to them they would not only have rejected them but also have profaned them. For this reason heaven was so closed to them that they scarcely knew that there was any eternal life. The truth of this is plainly evident from the fact that they did not acknowledge the Lord, although the whole Sacred Scripture prophesied of Him and foretold His coming. They rejected Him solely for the reason that He taught them of a heavenly instead of an earthly kingdom; for they wanted a Messiah who would exalt them above all the nations in the whole world, and not a Messiah who would have regard to their eternal salvation.

TCR 206. After these times the knowledge of correspondences, whereby the spiritual sense of the Word is communicated, was not disclosed, for the reason that the Christians of the primitive church were too simple to have it disclosed to them, and if it had been it would neither have been of any use to them nor would have been understood. After those times darkness settled upon the whole Christian world, first because of the spread of many heresies, and soon after by the deliberations and decrees of the Council of Nice respecting three Divine persons from eternity, and respecting the person of Christ as being the Son of Mary and not the Son of Jehovah God. From this springs the modern belief in justification, which teaches that three Gods are to be approached in their order, on which faith each and all things of the present church depend as the members of the body depend on the head. And because all things of the Word have been applied to confirm that erroneous belief, the spiritual sense could not be disclosed, for if it had been they would have applied that sense also to the same purpose, and thereby have profaned the very holiness of the Word, and thus have completely closed up heaven against themselves, and have separated the Lord from the church.

TCR 207. The knowledge of correspondences, whereby the spiritual sense of the Word is communicated, has been at this day revealed because the Divine truths of the church are now being brought to light, and these are the truths of which the spiritual sense of the Word consists; and when these truths are in man the sense of the letter of the Word cannot be perverted. For the sense of the letter of the Word may be turned in any direction. If it is turned to what is false its internal holiness perishes, and with it its external holiness; but if turned to what is true its holiness remains. But of all this more shall be said in what follows. That the spiritual sense would be opened at this time is meant by John's seeing heaven opened, and then seeing a white horse; also by his seeing and hearing an angel standing in the sun calling all to the great supper (on which see Rev.

19:11-18). But that this sense would not for a long time be acknowledged is meant by the beast and the kings of the earth being about to make war with Him who sat upon the white horse (Rev. 19:19); also by the dragon's persecuting the woman who brought forth the man-child, even to the wilderness, where he cast out of his mouth water as a flood, that he might overwhelm her (Rev. 12:13-17).

TCR 208. (5) Henceforth the spiritual sense of the Word will be given only to such as are in genuine truths from the Lord. This is because the spiritual sense can be seen by no one except from the Lord alone, and unless he be in Divine truths from the Lord; for the spiritual sense of the Word treats of the Lord alone and His kingdom; and in that sense are His angels in heaven, for that sense is His Divine truth in heaven. That truth man can do violence to when he possesses a knowledge of correspondences, and by means of it seeks to explore the spiritual sense of the Word from his own intelligence; since by a few correspondences known to him he is able to pervert that sense, and wrest it to confirm even what is false; thus he would do violence to Divine truth, and also to heaven in which that truth resides. Therefore if anyone seeks to open that sense, not from the Lord but from himself, heaven is closed; and when heaven is closed man either sees nothing of truth or is spiritually insane. A further reason is that the Lord teaches everyone by means of the Word, and teaches from those knowledges that a man has, and does not pour in new knowledges directly. Unless, therefore, a man is in Divine truths, or if he is in a few truths only and at the same time in falsities, he may by these falsities falsify the truths, as is done by every heretic in respect to the sense of the letter of the Word. So, in order that no one may enter into the spiritual sense and pervert the genuine truth which belongs to that sense, guards are set by the Lord, which are meant in the Word by "cherubim."

TCR 209. (6) Wonderful things in regard to the Word arising from its spiritual sense. In the natural world no wonderful things arise from the Word, because the spiritual sense is not there apparent, and such as it is in itself is not inwardly received by man. But in the spiritual world wonderful things from the Word appear, because all there are spiritual beings, and a spiritual man is affected by spiritual things as a natural man is by natural things. The wonderful things arising from the Word in the spiritual world are many, a few of which I will here mention. In the shrines of the temples there the Word itself shines before the eyes of the angels like a great star, sometimes like a sun; and also from the bright radiance round about it there are seen as it were most beautiful rainbows. This happens as soon as the shrine is opened.

[2] That each truth and all truths of the Word shine has been made evident to me by the fact that when any least sentence from it is written out upon paper, and this is thrown into the air, the very paper shines in the form in which it has been cut. Thus by means of the Word spirits can produce a variety of shining forms, also the forms of birds and fishes. Again, what is still more wonderful, when anyone rubs his face, his hands, or the clothing he has on, with the open Word, touching them with the writing, the face itself, the hands, and the clothing shine as though he were standing in a star encompassed by its light. This I have seen very often, and wondered at it. Thus it was made clear to me how it was that Moses' face shone when he brought the tables of the covenant down from Mount Sinai. [3] Besides these there are many other wonderful things there which are from the Word; for instance, if anyone who is in falsities looks towards the Word as it lies in its holy place a darkness comes over his eyes, and in consequence the Word appears to him to be black, and sometimes as if covered with soot; and if he likewise touches the Word an explosion follows with a crash, and he is thrown to a corner of the room, and lies there for a brief hour as if dead. If something from the Word is written on a paper by one who is in falsities, and the paper is thrown up toward heaven, a like explosion follows in the air between his eyes and heaven, and the paper is

torn to shreds and vanishes; the same thing happens if the paper is thrown towards an angel standing near. This I have often seen.

[4] It has thus been made clear to me that those who are in falsities of doctrine have no communication with heaven through the Word, but their reading of it is dissipated on the way and is lost, like gunpowder wrapped in paper when ignited and thrown into the air. The opposite occurs with those who are in truths of doctrine from the Lord through the Word; their reading of the Word penetrates even into heaven and effects conjunction with the angels there. The angels themselves, when they descend from heaven to discharge any duty below, appear surrounded with little stars, especially about the head; which is a sign that Divine truths from the Word are in them. [5] Furthermore, in the spiritual world things exist similar to those on earth; but there each thing and all things are from a spiritual origin. Thus gold and silver exist there, and all kinds of precious stones, and the spiritual origin of these is the sense of the letter of the Word; and on this account in the Apocalypse the foundations of the wall of the New Jerusalem are described by twelve precious stones. The reason of this is that the foundations of its wall signify the doctrinals of the New Church, which are derived from the sense of the letter of the Word. For the same reason there were twelve precious stones called Urim and Thummim in Aaron's ephod, by means of which responses were given from heaven. There are many other wonderful things proceeding from the Word that have relation to the power of the truth within it. This power is so great that if described it would surpass all belief; for it is such that it overturns mountains and hills there, and removes them afar off, and hurls them into the sea; and many things besides. In short the power of the Lord proceeding from the Word is infinite.

AC 643. But as regards the signification itself of the words: that "gopher wood" signifies concupiscences, and the "mansions" the two parts of man, is evident from the Word. Gopher wood is a wood abounding in sulphur,* like the fir, and others of its kind. On account of its sulphur it is said that it signifies concupiscences, because it easily takes fire. The most ancient people compared things in man (and regarded them as having a likeness) to gold, silver, brass, iron, stone, and wood-his inmost celestial to gold, his lower celestial to brass, and what was lowest, or the corporeal therefrom, to wood. But his inmost spiritual they compared (and regarded as having a likeness) to silver, his lower spiritual to iron, and his lowest to stone. And such in the internal sense is the signification of these things when they are mentioned in the Word, as in Isaiah:

For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron; I will also make thine officers peace, and thine exactors righteousness (Isa. 60:17).

Here the Lord's kingdom is treated of, in which there are not such metals, but spiritual and celestial things; and that these are signified is very evident from the mention of "peace" and "righteousness." "Gold" "brass" and "wood" here correspond to each other, and signify things celestial or of the will, as before said; and "silver" "iron" and "stone" correspond to each other, and signify things spiritual or of the understanding.

[2] In Ezekiel:

They shall make a spoil of thy riches and make a prey of thy merchandise; thy stones, and thy wood (Ezek. 26:12).

It is very manifest that by "riches" and "merchandise" are not meant worldly riches and merchandise, but celestial and spiritual; and the same by the "stones" and "wood"-the "stones"

being those things which are of the understanding, and the "wood" those which are of the will. In Habakkuk:

The stone crieth out of the wall, and the beam out of the wood answereth (Hab. 2:11).

The "stone" denotes the lowest degree of the understanding; and the "wood" the lowest of the will, which "answers" when anything is drawn from sensuous knowledge [scientifico sensuali]. Again:

Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; and to the dumb stone, Arise, this shall teach. Behold it is fastened with gold and silver, and there is no breath in the midst of it. But Jehovah is in the temple of His holiness (Hab. 2:19-20).

Here also "wood" denotes cupidity; "stone" denotes the lowest of the understanding, and therefore to be "dumb" and to "teach" are predicated of it; "there is no breath in the midst of it" signifies that it represents nothing celestial and spiritual, just as a temple wherein are stone and wood, and these bound together with gold and silver, is to those who think nothing of what they represent.

[3] In Jeremiah:

We drink our waters for silver; our wood cometh for price (Lam. 5:4).

Here "waters" and "silver" signify the things of the understanding; and "wood" those of the will. Again:

Saying to wood, Thou art my father; and to the stone, Thou hast brought us forth (Jer. 2:27).

Here "wood" denotes cupidity, which is of the will, whence is the conception; and "stone" the sensuous knowledge [scientifico sensuali], from which is the "bringing forth." Hence, in different places in the Prophets, "serving wood and stone" is put for worshiping graven images of wood and stone, by which is signified that they served cupidities and phantasies; and also "committing adultery with wood and stone" as in Jeremiah (3:9). In Hosea: My people inquire of their wood, and the staff thereof declareth unto them; because the spirit of whoredoms hath led them away (Hos. 4:12),

meaning that they make inquiry of graven images of wood, or of cupidities.

[4] In Isaiah:

Topheth is prepared from yesterday, the pile thereof is fire and mulch wood, the breath of Jehovah is like a stream of burning sulphur* (Isa. 30:33). Here "fire" "sulphur" and "wood" stand for foul cupidities. In general, "wood" signifies the things of the will which are lowest; the precious woods, such as cedar and the like, those which are good, as for example the cedar wood in the temple, and the cedar wood employed in the cleansing of leprosy (Lev. 14:4, 6-7); also the wood cast into the bitter waters at Marah, whereby the waters became sweet (Exod. 15:25), concerning which, of the Lord's Divine mercy in those places. But woods that were not precious, and those which were made into graven images, as well as those used for funeral piles and the like, signify cupidities; as in this place does the gopher wood, on account of its sulphur. So in Isaiah:

The day of vengeance of Jehovah; the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into sulphur,* and the land thereof shall become burning pitch (Isa. 34:9).

"Pitch" stands for dreadful phantasies; "sulphur" for abominable cupidities.

* The word "sulphur" was formerly used not exclusively as the name of brimstone, but also as a general term for inflammable substance. The classification of gopher here with the fir (abies), which is a turpentine tree, would seem to imply that the inflammable constituent of the gopher also was turpentine, and that this is what is meant here by "sulphur." See Lord Bacon's "History of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt." [Note in the Rotch edition.]

AC 644. That by the "mansions" are signified the two parts of man, which are the will and the understanding, is evident from what has been stated before: that these two parts, the will and the understanding, are most distinct from each other, and that for this reason, as before said, the human brain is divided into two parts, called hemispheres. To its left hemisphere pertain the intellectual faculties, and to the right those of the will. This is the most general distinction. Besides this, both the will and the understanding are distinguished into innumerable parts, for so many are the divisions of the intellectual things of man, and so many those of the will, that they can never be described or enumerated even as to the universal genera, still less as to their species. A man is a kind of least heaven, corresponding to the world of spirits and to heaven, wherein all the genera and all the species of the things of the understanding and of the will are distinguished by the Lord in the most perfect order, so that not even the least of them is undistinguished, concerning which, of the Lord's Divine mercy hereafter. In heaven these divisions are called Societies, in the Word "habitations" and by the Lord "mansions" (John 14:2). Here also they are called "mansions" because they are predicated of the ark, which signifies the man of the church.

AC 645. That to "pitch it within and without with pitch" signifies preservation from an inundation of cupidities, is evident from what has been said before. For the man of this church was first to be reformed as to the things of his understanding, and therefore he was preserved from an inundation of cupidities, which would destroy all the work of reformation. In the original text it is not indeed said that it was to be "pitched with pitch" but a word is used which denotes "protection" derived from "expiate" or "propitiate" and therefore it involves the same. The expiation or propitiation of the Lord is protection from the inundation of evil.

AC 646. Verse 15. And thus shalt thou make it: three hundred cubits the length of the ark, fifty cubits its breadth, and thirty, cubits its height. By the numbers here as before are signified remains, that they were few; the "length" is their holiness, the "breadth" their truth, and the "height" their good.

AC 647. That these particulars have such a signification, as that the numbers "three hundred" "fifty" and "thirty" signify remains, and that they are few; and that "length" "breadth" and "height" signify holiness, truth, and good, cannot but appear strange to everyone, and very remote from the letter. But in addition to what was said and shown above concerning numbers (at verse 3 of this chapter, that a "hundred and twenty" there signify remains of faith), it may be evident to everyone also from the fact that they who are in the internal sense, as are good spirits and angels, are beyond all such things as are earthly, corporeal, and merely of the world, and thus are beyond all matters of number and measure, and yet it is given them by the Lord to perceive the Word fully, and this entirely apart from such things. And this being true, it may therefore be very evident that these

particulars involve things celestial and spiritual which are so remote from the sense of the letter that it cannot even appear that there are such things.

Such are celestial and spiritual things both in general and in particular. And from this a man may know how insane it is to desire to search into those things which are matters of faith, by means of the things of sense and knowledge [sensualia et scientifica]; and to be unwilling to believe unless he apprehends them in this way.

AC 648. That in the Word numbers and measures signify things celestial and spiritual, is very evident from the measurement of the New Jerusalem and of the Temple, in John, and in Ezekiel. Anyone may see that by the "New Jerusalem" and the "new Temple" is signified the kingdom of the Lord in the heavens and on earth, and that the kingdom of the Lord in the heavens and on earth is not subject to earthly measurement; and yet its dimensions as to length, breadth, and height are designated by numbers. From this anyone may conclude that by the numbers and measures are signified holy things, as in John:

There was given me a reed like unto a rod; and the angel stood, and said unto me, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein (Rev. 11:1).

And concerning the New Jerusalem:

The wall of the New Jerusalem was great and high, having twelve gates, and over the gates twelve angels, and names written, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel; on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, on the west three gates. The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. He that talked with me had a golden reed, to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. The city lieth four square, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs; the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal. He measured the wall thereof, a hundred and forty and four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, of an angel (Rev. 21:12-17).

[2] The number "twelve" occurs here throughout, which is a very holy number because it signifies the holy things of faith (as said above, at verse 3 of this chapter, and as will be shown, of the Lord's Divine mercy, at the twenty-ninth and thirtieth, chapters of Genesis). And therefore it is added that this measure is the "measure of a man, that is, of an angel." It is the same with the new Temple and new Jerusalem in Ezekiel which are also described as to their measures (40:3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13-14, 22, 25, 30, 36, 42, 47; 41:1 to the end; 42:5-15; Zech. 2:1-2). Here too regarded in themselves the numbers signify nothing but the holy celestial and spiritual abstractedly from the numbers. So with all the numbers of the dimensions of the ark (Exod. 25:10); of the mercy seat; of the golden table; of the tabernacle; and of the altar (Exod. 25:10, 17, 23; 26, and 27:1); and all the numbers and dimensions of the temple (1 Kings 6:2-3), and many others.

AC 650. That "length" signifies the holiness, "breadth" the truth, and "height" the good of whatever things are described by the numbers, cannot so well be confirmed from the Word, because they are each and all predicated according to the subject or thing treated of. Thus "length" as applied to time signifies perpetuity and eternity, as "length of days" in Ps. 23:6, and 21:4; but as applied to space it denotes holiness, as follows therefrom. And the same is the case with "breadth" and "height." There is a trinal dimension of all earthly things, but such dimensions cannot be predicated of celestial and spiritual things. When they are predicated, greater or less perfection is meant, apart

from the dimensions, and also the quality and quantity; thus here the quality, that they were remains; and the quantity, that they were few.

Go to Part 2: Correspondences in the Bible Illustrated

See also related link her

Bible Concepts :  "Temptations" 12 Years = Childhood 13th year = the end of childhood and beginning of temptations 14th year = first temptation

1 week2 weeks40 days

States of Temptations

Temptation

-State in which the evil with us cease their serving & begin their rebelling, after which the Lord subdues them & liberates the good who were infested by them.

-AC 1670

Bible Chronology => K- 3 AdaptationMEMORIZE SEQUENCE

1. Creation, Adam & Eve 2. The Fall & The Flood 3. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob 4. Joseph 5. The Ten Plagues 6. The Ten Commands 7. Manna in the Desert 8. Fall of Jericho 9. Samson 10. Gideon 11. Deborah 12. Samuel 13. Saul, David, & Solomon 14. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel 15. Elijah, Elisha 16. John the Baptist 17. The Evangelists & Apocalypse

18. Lord's Second Coming

Bible ConceptsHebrew

My           Shall Become     Yah

Jesus

Exodus 15:2

"The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation." (Song of Moses)

Old Testament Names of God

Yah Jehovah Elohim El Jehovih Adonai

My God God of My Father God of Israel God of Most High Man of War

Bible ConceptsHebrew

Jehova                                                   The Right Hand

The Enemy                                             Dashes in Pieces

Exodus 15:6

"Thy right hand, O Lord, dasheth in pieces the enemy."

Right Hand

= The Omnipotent Divine Truth

Enemy

= Falsities

In combats of temptation, though which we are separated from our evils, it is the Lord's Truth that fights & conquers, not our own strength.

-AC 1664

Bible ConceptsHebrew

Jehova                                                   The Right Hand

The Enemy                                             Dashes in Pieces

Exodus 15:6

"Thy right hand, O Lord, dasheth in pieces the enemy."

Right Hand

= The Omnipotent Divine Truth

Enemy

= Falsities

In combats of temptation, though which we are separated from our evils, it is the Lord's Truth that fights & conquers, not our own strength.

-AC 1664

The ABC Triconcentric SystemA-Words B-Words C-Words

Intention Thought Word or Deed

Affect Cognition Behavior

Love Wisdom Religion

\attachment Justification buying

Aptitude Reasoning Intelligence

Inclination Attitude Choice

Impulse Intellect Execution

Good Truth Uses

Goals Means Effects

Will Understanding Action

Judgment Evaluation Attribution

Perception Assessment Response

Context Conventions Utterances

Inner Stimulus Moral Reflection Dictates of Conscience

Motivation Cognition Performance

Reward Connection Expectation

Origin Cause Effect

Universal Common Unique

Spiritual Moral/Civil Scientific

Love of Truth Wisdom Knowledge

Inmost Intermediate Outermost

Striving Planning Mapping

Celestial Spiritual Natural

Innate Potentials Habits & Role Models Personality Style

Bible ConceptsHebrew

Man                                               Jehovah

Jehovah is a ManExodus 15:3

"The Lord is a man of war. . ."

A Few of the Many Names of God in the Word Jehovah Lord Divine Man Jesus God

I Am Divine Itself Jehovih Rider of Bozrah Root of Jesse

Son of God Son of Man The Word The Way the Prophet

Divine Human the Lamb Father Son Child Prince King Servant

Annointed One Messiah Christ Savior Redeemer Deliverer Glory Love

Melchizedek Counsellor Comforter Shaddai Holy Spirit Life Itself Omnipotence Truth

Bible Names. . .People. . .Places. . .the LordPeople. . . Places. . . the Lord. . .

Hebrews Judah King

Amalekites Negeb Child

Christines Gaza Wonderful Counselor

Rechab Hebrom Almighty God

Gad Beersheba Father of Eternity

Elijah Mount Carmel The Lord your God

Elisha Mount Horeb O Lord my God

Benhadad Syria God of Israel

Jezebel Jezreel Pachad

Gehazi Samaria The word of the Lord

Hezekiah Assyria God of our Salvation

Hadadezer Damascus Israel's God

Rehoboam Zorah The House of the Lord

Ethiopians Mount Zemaraim The God of Glory

  Zion A Rock of Refuge

Ishmael Bashan O Lord our Shield

Aaron Tabor God of Jacob

Levi Hermon God our Strength

Bible Names. . .People. . .Places. . .the LordPeople. . . Places. . . the Lord. . .

Moabites Canaan God

Jews Israel Jehovah

Adam & Eve Garden of Eden Elohim

Noah Babel Shaddai

Abraham PadanAram The Most High

Isaac   The Lord

Jacob Beth El The God of my Fathers

Joseph Egypt The God of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob

Moses Sinai Lord God

Joshua Jericho The Angel of the Lord

Samson Timnah The Almighty

Gideon Midian The Angel of God

Deborah Mount Tabor The Lord his God

Samuel Shiloh The Lord of Hosts

Saul Gibeah King of Israel

David Jerusalem The Great Prophet

Jonathan Mickmash Lord God of Israel

Solomon Bethlehem El

Isaiah Lebanon Jehovih

Ezekiel Tarshish The Son of Man

Daniel Babylon El Shaddai

Bible PrinciplesDuality:

1.  Worldly & Heavenly

[Caesar & God][External Self & Internal Self]

[Natural & Spiritual][Earth & Heaven][Devil & Angel][Hell & Heaven][Body & Spirit][Sin & Sanctity]

[Selfish & Altruistic][Birth & Rebirth]

[Fall & Regeneration][Judgment & Advent]

[Punishment & Reward][The Wicked & The Elect]

[Goats & Sheep][Egypt & Israel]

[Death & Resurrection][Plagues & Blessings]

[Wickedness & Righteousness][Dammed & Saved]

[Hypocrites & The Poor]

etc. etc.

Bible Quotes on "Father""Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father, our Redeemer."

          -Isaiah 63:16

"Behold the Lord Jehovah will come in strength. . .He shall feed His flock like a shepherd."

          -Isaiah 40:10,11

"They saw the God of Israel."

          -Exodus 24:10

Bible Quotes"He who is greatest among you shall be your servant."

          -Matthew 23:11

"Servant"=being helpful to others for the sake of the Lord

Bible Quotes"Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!  woe to you."

          -Matthew 23:24,25

Bible Quotes"Serpents, brood of vipers!  How can you escape the condemnation of hell?"

          -Matthew 23:33

(This the Lord said to those in the church who appear outwardly righteous in their behavior but are hiding within their hatred and disdain of others.)

Bible Quotes"But now, O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and all we are the work of Your hand."

          -Isaiah 64:8

Bible Correspondences(Spiritual Meaning)

Spice

= Trying to be good by obeying the Word (Charity)

Precious Stones

= Knowing the Word and its secrets of wisdom

Merchandise

= Riches & goods one acquires from the Word = knowledges

Sheba

= Knowledges of secrets from the Word (Celestial Things)

Tyre

= Traders of merchandise in spices & stones= knowledges of faith in which charity descends

AC 1171:4

Bible Symbols

The States of Persons

Bible Verses"Make me walk in the path of Your commandments, for I delight in it."

          -Psalms 119:35

WALK/PATH = obey DELIGHT = love COMMANDMENTS = the Lord's will

Bible Verses

"Blessed in the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.  Wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever."

          -Psalms 112:1,3

BLESSED = being prepared for heaven. FEAR LORD = fears to injure Him DELIGHT IN COMMANDMENTS = to desire to do the right thing WEALTH & RICHES = intellectual skills HOUSE = memory & understanding RIGHTEOUSNESS = orderly evolution ENDURES = is assured by Lord

Bible Verses"When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me."

          -Micah 7:8

DARKNESS = lacking truth LIGHT = truth from the Word

Bible Verses"Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the number of them was ten thousand times then thousand, and thousands of thousands.  The the four living creatures said, "Amen!"  And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshipped Him who lives forever and ever."

          -Revelation 5:11,14

LIVING CREATURES = Cherubim o (good affections from the Lord) o (inner meaning of the Word)

Bible Verses"Remove from me the way of lying.  And grant me Your law graciously.  I have chosen the way of truth.  I cling to your testimonies.  I will run in the way of your

commandments."

          -Psalms 119:29-32

To choose. . .To cling to. . .To run in the way of. . .

 = to obey from love

LawWayTruthTestimoniesCommandments

 =  knowing what rules & principles to follow

Bible Verses"Thy word have I hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee."

          -Psalms 119:11

WORD = doctrine or teaching from Lord HEART = will/love/intention/goal SIN = delight of evil

Shunning evils in ourselves as sins against the Lord is the first of regeneration, and is accomplished through internalizing the Commandments, i.e., striving to do them out of desire to please the Lord.

Without this, we cannot stop sinning, hence, we cannot be saved from falsities & evils.

Bible Verses"I create the increase of the lips, peace, peace, to him that is far off, and to him that is near saith Jehovah; and I heal him."

          -Isaiah 57:19

LIPS = doctrine/adoration/inner worship

Bible Verses"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore prudent as serpents, and harmless as doves."

          -Matthew 10:16

WOLVES = those in the church who try to mislead others as to doctrine for their own gain.

SHEEP = those who are in good & truth. SERPENTS = natural desirous prudence of truth DOVES = natural desire for good

Bible Verses"Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness."

          -Psalms 112:4

LIGHT = Diving Truth from the Word DARKNESS = not knowing difference between good/evil & true/false UPRIGHT = striving to obey the commandments in spirit & letter

When we constantly strive to obey the commandments of the Lord in the Word. . .

We are changed from a state of not-knowing truth to a state of knowing truth.

 

Bible Verses"Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law."

          -Psalms 119:18

EYES/SEE = to understand LAW = the Word; Bible; Commandments

Bible Verses"And they shall build houses and shall not inhabit them, and they shall plant vineyards but shall not drink the wine thereof."

          -Zephaniah 1:12,13

BUILD HOUSES = construct knowledge, to understand reality. NOT INHABIT = of no spiritual use (eternal life) PLANT VINEYARDS = build accounts & explanations NOT DRINK = useless; not serviceable for salvation WINE = truth & understanding

This is said of those who do not shun evils as sins but misuse knowledge.

Bible Verses"Philip said, Show us the Father.  Jesus said, . . .He that seeth Me seeth the Father."

          -John 14:8,9

GOD-WITH-US = Emmanuel GOD-IN-FLESH = Son of God ("Truth") GOD-SAVIOR = Jesus GOD INVISIBLE = The Father ("Love") GOD INVISIBLE made one with GOD VISIBLE = Love and Truth United

o Jesus saying, "I and the Father are One (and the same)." SON OF MAN = God visible as Divine-Man (=Jesus glorified)

Christian ConceptsHeaven & Hell

1. We are born in Hell on earth & we are blocked from receiving goodwill & truethink. 2. For awhile it's ok, but after death it's terrible, forever. 3. Therefore we need to be saved before we die. 4. We are saved by Jesus Christ of Nazareth as follows:

A. From the Bible, through daily study, the Word gradually tells us what to do to change (repent).

B. We must give up our violations of the commandments every day, every minute by Self-observation.

C. To that extent we enter into Heaven.

Christian ConceptsThe Works of Repentance Get us to Heaven

1. Because we are born into the strong inclination to violate the Commandments, 2. We must labor at self-discipline so as to oppose our inborn inclinations for hell. 3. The violations we must stop doing are:

A. DISHONESTY Lying / cheating / giving false impressions / omitting & ignoring /

forgetting / being / unfair / taking advantage / etc.B. LAZINESS

not studying / not being ambitious / giving excuses / giving up on Bible study / not listening to parents & legitimate authority figures / hiding / etc.

Christian Symbolism EAST = the Lord & His Divine Love & Wisdom in clear reception WEST = the same in obscure reception BETHEL = the House of God = knowing about heavenly things TENT = the holy things of faith ALTAR = worship of the Lord (external) MOUNTAIN = the Lord & heaven CALLING ON THE NAME OF JEHOVAH = internal worship to the Lord PROPHET = one who teaches truths of faith

The Clinical Categories of Human Behavior Phase Severity Etiology

Horizontal Dimension (Successive Degrees)

Ten CommandmentsGeneral:

     The "Decalogue" (=10 words) was given by God on Sinai in 1450 B.C. to the children of Israel to indicate that they must be obeyed from religion (from thoughts about heaven & hell) and not merely from natural legal, philosophical, or moral reasons.  This is called

the DOCTRINE OF SHUNNING ONE'S EVILS AS SINS AGAINST JESUS.

Ten CommandmentsThe First Commandment:

Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

               -Exodus 20:3               -Deuteronomy 5:7

LITERAL SENSE(Historical)

SPIRITUAL SENSE(Our Mind)

CELESTIAL SENSE(Our Love to Lord)

Don't worship idols, magic, cults, strange religions,

science, astrology, gurus, popes, saints, priests,

charms & bracelets, etc.

Don't worship as God any other image, concept, or

idea but that of Jesus Christ, the Savior of

mankind.

The Soul and Spirit of Jesus is infinite & Eternal; it is Divine

Love & Wisdom creating, redeeming, & regenerating

every human being.

Ten CommandmentsThe Second Commandment:

Thou shalt not take the Name of Jehovah Thy God in vain.

            

NATURAL / LITERALSPIRITUAL

(Church)CELESTIAL

(Lord)

Don't use the names of God without reverence as in

swearing or jest.  Also for the Word, the Bible and the things

in church.

Don't use any event or idea from the Bible in a non-religious way for profit or popularity or any other

motive.

The Human of Jesus is also Divine--the Divine

Human.  from this comes all good & truth in us.

Ten CommandmentsThe Third Commandment:

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.

               -Exodus 20:8-10               -Deuteronomy 5:12,13

LITERAL / NATURAL / HISTORICAL

SPIRITUAL(One's Mind)

CELESTIAL(One's Love to Lord)

Sabbath Day caps the week long combats & is holy

because it marks the Lord's rest from labors on our

behalf

Each person is regenerated by the Lord through

temptations that allow us to voluntarily give up delights

from evil.

After regeneration has begun we begin to feel the Peace of Sabbath, which is life security without fear & doubt with joy &

zest/

Ten CommandmentsThe Fourth Commandment:

Honor thy Father and thy Mother.

               -Exodus 20:12               -Deuteronomy 5:16

LITERAL / NATURAL / HISTORICAL

SPIRITUAL(One's Mind)

CELESTIAL(One's Love to Lord)

Be obedient to your parents, teachers, and government officials by following their

orders & being grateful for their help & services.

Venerate & love God as your Father & the

Church as your Mother, for these feed our

minds.

The Lord Jesus is our Heavenly Father and the universal church, or all

believers & doers of good, is our Mother or communion of

saints.

Ten CommandmentsThe Fifth Commandment:

Thou shalt not kill.

NATURAL / LITERAL / HISTORICAL

SPIRITUAL (One's Mind)

CELESTIAL (One's Love to Lord)

Do not kill, wound, mutilate, injure another's body, mind, reputation, honor, status, &

Do not cause others to belittle God, the Bible, the

church, and all topic relating

Do not crucify Jesus by feeling resentment against

God, hatefulness against the

don't wish any of these.to the salvation of their

souls.church & ridicule of the Bible.

Ten CommandmentsThe Sixth Commandment:

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

LITERAL / NATURAL / HISTORICAL

SPIRITUAL(One's Mind)

CELESTIAL(One's Love to Lord)

Do not be unchaste in will, thought, or act, or obscene in mind or words or interest &

approval.

Do not falsify the truths of the Word or defile the goods of the church, or support such

views in any way.

Do not deny the holiness of the Word nor profane it by mixing it with deceptions &

lusts.

Ten CommandmentsThe Seventh Commandment:

Thou shalt not steal.

LITERAL / NATURAL / HISTORICAL

SPIRITUAL(One's Mind)

CELESTIAL(One's Love to Lord)

Do not take away the goods of others, cheat at taxes or due payments, or perform a

job badly & carelessly.

Do not teach deliberately & for personal gain that which is

false thus robbing others of the truths of religion &

salvation.

Do not rob God His omnipotence by feeling merit for what good you accomplish or truth you

discover.

Ten CommandmentsThe Eighth Commandment:

Thou shalt not bear false witness against your neighbor

NATURAL / HISTORICALSPIRITUALINTERIOR

CELESTIALINMOST

To accuse others falsely is To try to persuade others To speak out against the

forbidden, or to be hypocritical, or to gossip, or to

plot evil, or lie, or give false impressions.

that good is bad, bad is good, truth is false, or false is truth is forbidden to do

deliberately.

Lord or Divine Truth is blasphemy or to simulate an interest in religion when it's

not truly there.

Conceptual Movement, thus:

Innermost Circle

Love Reason Intellect Truth

Outermost Circle

Memory-know Use

Intellect is thus interior while memory-hm. is exterior, with reason in between.

Representatively:

Innermost Circle

Lamb Asses Mules

Outermost Circle

Horses

 

Logos--add to application 1

"In the Word there is frequent mention of horses, horsemen, mules, and asses;  and as yet no one intellect, of the reason, and of memory-knowledge."

-AC 1949

**Note that to grasp the meaning of this, it is important to know the direction.

Conceptualization

Religion Is:

Conceptualization

Striving

= In every act, thought, plan, experience, etc.

Conceptualization "Influx" & "Mind"Children & Adults

Celestial

Celestial - Spiritual

Spiritual

Spiritual - RationalRational

Memory-Knowledges (National - Rational)Natural

**Instruction with memory-knowledges prepares vessels ("opens the mind") into which influx occurs

The "Natural-Rational"--Cognitive operations precede; (Egypt & Pharaoh)

Into these "opened vessels" then flow "spiritual-rational" cognitive operations. . .

& into them flow celestial cognitive operations (Wife/Sirai)

-AC 1495

Graphic Bible Concordance

Innermost Circle

Beasts of the Fields

Mountains Goods

Drink Rivers Reason of

Truths Wild-Asses

 

Outermost Circle

Egypt Springs Knowledges

"Jehovah god shall send forth springs into rivers, they shall run among the mountains; they shall supply drink to every beast of the fields; the wild-asses shall quench their thirst

(Ps. civ. 10, 11). "Springs" denote knowleges; the "Beasts of the Fields", goods; the "wild-asses", the truths of reason. [AC 1949 (4)]

Graphic Concept Map of Bible Concordance

Innermost Circle

Abram Celestial Beasts Affection Good Love Charity Interior Man

Temptations Faith Truth Spiritual Desert Intellect Intelligence Reason Assyria Wild-Ass Ishmael Isaac Havilah

 

Outermost Circle

Egypt Memory-knowledges Hagar Natural Exterior Man Jacob Springs

(AC 1950-1955)

Some Bible Concordance in Graphic form

CorrespondencesAges of Man Infancy Youth Adult Age Old Age

States of the Year Spring Summer Autumn Winter

States of the Day Morning Noon Evening Night

States of the Church Golden Age Silver Age Bronze Age Iron Age

 1

Celestial2

Spiritual3

Natural4

Corporeal

TIMES / DAYS / AGE = STATES

Correspondences Memory-knowledges [natural]

         "Pharaoh;" "Egypt"         "He-Asses;" "Menservants"

Possessions (in the service of spirit)         "Flock & Herd"

Skills & Tools (of use to rational)         "Camels"

Delights of Memory-Knowledges         "She-Asses & Maid-Servants"

 

When the Lord was a child (Abram & Sarai in Egypt) He was captivated by the delights of truth in memory-knowledges.  But these were destroyed or subordinated to uses (or service to spiritual).  Memory-knowledges accumulate as a constuction of reality through sensory input (called one's "house"), (bed, room, closet, chamber).

Correspondences BED (Couch) = doctrine we procure for ourselves HOUSE = Our knowledge & intelligence which we accumulate PICKUP BED & GO = to meditate or think from our doctrines LIE DOWN IN. . .(SLEEP) = we think automatically and unconsciously from our

doctrines and principles

 

Quotables of Christianity"As the body lies down in its bed, so the mind, in its doctrine."

          -E. Swedenborg, Apocalypse Revealed (M.137)

Commentary on Mark 2:11, "I say unto you, Arise, and take up your bed, and go to your house."

Correspondences LIPS = (doctrine) inner worship (adoration) CLOSET = inner worship (prayer) EARTH = the church (good & truth with people on earth BABEL = falsification & adulteration of inner worship (while external appears

holy.) SHOULDER = to serve the Lord

Three Ancient Churches:  Good, Adulterated, and representative (Jewish). (Gen. 11:1-9) Tower of Babel Story.

Correspondences GOLD = love / good SILVER = faith / truth IRON =  knowledges SHIPS = knowledges BREAD = love / good WINE =  faith / truth WATER = knowledges SILVER = intelligence GOLD = wisdom (good of. . .) PURIFIED SILVER = divine truth GARMENTS = knowledges GODS OF GOLD =  evils / cupidities GODS OF SILVER = falsities SOUTH = intelligence BETHEL = wisdom JOURNEYS = learnings TENT = faith / truths

ALTAR = worship / faith

The spectrum in U.S. Today 5-8-80

Discourse

=Verbal behavior at three levels of abstraction or organizations

I.  Particular Facts

 

II.  Specific FactsIII.  General Facts

I.  Outermost/Lowest Level of Discourse

Verbal behavior in the form of sensorimotor habits, e.g. labeling objects or feelings and describing the memory of an event (assertive discourse) selecting elements from one's knowledge to construct communicative messages under appropriate audience control (implicative discourse); constructing messages in applied meta-languages (charts, tests, application forms, catalogue, etc.) (Presuppositional Discourse)

Low Discourse ---Particular Facts:  What things are.

II.  First Internal/Intermediate Level of Discourse

Verbal behavior in the form of cognitive habits, e.g. assertive discourse:  explaining something known; defining or paraphrasing; quoting in context; abstracting; referencing;

Implicative Discourse:  constructing balanced arguments; performing standard rhetorical routines;

Presuppositional Discourse:  Justifying judgments and evaluations Intermediate Discourse ---Specific facts:  how things are.

III.  Second Internal/High Discourse Level

Verbal behavior in the form of affective habits, e.g. assertive discourse = why something was done, the motives of the protagonists. Constructing "human interest" stories; writing drama or fiction; composing poems & songs; writing pieces of one's "autobiography;" entertaining listeners with topics;

Implicative Discourse = why something should be done or believed the ideals to be upheld.  Reading religious writings; talking about a book; planning & writing up research; recognizing styles & standards in discourse.

Presuppositional Discourse = why something exists, wisdom.  Constitutions & preambles; legislative bills; book reviews; commentaries on another's work;

assessment. High Discourse --- General facts:  why things are.

DiscussionTHE BIBLE teaches us how

TO LIVE so that we can

TAKE THE WAY TO OUR HEAVENLY MANSIONS WITH JESUS.

Cain & Abel

-Dole, Vol. 1

Questions

1. What was Cain's Occupation? 2. What was Abel's? 3. Why didn't the Lord accept Cain's offering? 4. What do Cain and Abel represent?

Answers

1. Cain was a farmer. 2. Abel was a sheperd. 3. The Lord knew Cain didn't really love Him.  He knew Cain was just looking for

honor. 4. Cain represents faith, Abel represents charity.

Jacob & Esau

-Dole, Vol. 1

Questions

1. What do Esau and Jacob represent? 2. Why did the Lord let Jacob take advantage of Esau?

3. What is our birthright?

Answers

1. Esau represents our natural will.  Jacob represents natural understanding. 2. To show that we must not be led by our selfish will. 3. Our birthright is the right to know and love the Lord!

Domain of Disturbanc

eFunction of Disturbance

  A.  Assertive B.  Implicational C. Presuppositioned

III. Affectivei)  Willii)  The Subconsciousiii)  The Spiritual Selfiv)  Religion; motivationv)  Paralinguistics

High Attribution Error

Slips of the Tongue

Semantic Differential

7, IIIA

 Ego Strength Self-Confidence Trust

8, IIIB

Psychosis Schizophrenia Hallucinations Stability Stress Mental

Retardation

9, IIIC

II. Cognitivei)  Understandingii)  The Consciousiii)  The Rational Selfiv)  Morality; Rationalityv)  Semantics

Speech Impairment

Aphasia Intelligence Rebellious

4, IIA

Self-disclosure Conformity Repression Psychoanalysis

5, IIB

Logotherapy Violence Aggression Alcoholism Geriatrics

6, IIC

I.  Sensorimotori)  Uses & Delightsii)  The Natural Mindiii)  The Automatic Selfiv)  Logic; Memoryv)  Lexical Networks

Anxiety Syndrome

Anxious Oversensitive Sociable Extrovert Introvert

1, IA

Fear Syndrome Phobic Shy Critical Behavior Model

2, IB

Excitement Syndrome

Excited Enthusiastic Energetic Inventive Inhibited Drugs

3, IC

Vertical Dimension (Simultaneous Theoretical Approaches

Degrees) (Internalization Depth)

 

Legend

i) = Humanistic Theoriesii) =  Psychiatric Theoriesiii) = Existential Theoriesiv) = Psychological Theoriesv) = Psycholinguistic Theories

The Evolution of Judeo-Christian DivinityHist. Period Identify Name Physical Manifestation in the Bible

Pre-ExistentGod & Messiah

ASpirit & Word ("Wisdom")

Paradise (Eden)Elohim (El)

B

Adam, Angels, God-Man all in Spirit Bodies and visible all the time

East of Eden (Noah) (Pre & Post Flood)

Shaddai, God, Almighty, Lord

C

God-Man visible during the day, or day-manifestation the the few Just.

Canaan (Promised Land) [Patriarchs & Israelites)

Jehovah, Night Wisdom (Moon)

D

God-Man visible to the Just at night only

Mosaic Period & Judges

Jehovah, Day Wisdom (Sun)

E

Routine manifestations in day-time but no direct vision of God-Man

Prophets & KingsLord God of Israel

F

Jehovah no longer routinely visible at any time

Jesus (Trinity)

Father & Son & Spirit

G

Incarnation of Jehovah

Messiah H Spirit Bodies

Hebrew WordsSHEKEL (Ancient Israeli coin) (Found in fish's mouth. Mat 17:27)

Knowing Definitions Hebrew WordsSHALOM

= peace= wholeness= good & truth conjoined in innocence= heavenly delights

AMEN

= Verity= Holy= Divine Truth= Height= the Lord Christ God= I believe it's true

HALELU-IAH

= Praise Jehovah= Worship

RACA

= You fool= Leads to hell to not forgive

BETH - EL

= Temple, (house-God) church, house of worship

ADAM

= ground; man & woman

EVE

= Life; love delights

HOSA - NA

= Salvation (help - please)

JESUS

= God saves= Iah-shu) = Savior

Hebrew Lesson

[Ha-Kevess] The Lamb

[Ya-Yin] Wine

[Jehovah]

Abram Passed through the land, even unto the place Shechem.

-Gen 12:6 (AC 1440)

Shechem

= First light=Advent Jehovah appeared to Abram (Lord) for the first time as celestial love in Himself (as an infant or child)

First He attained this state then it appeared to Him (Awareness comes after attainment)

Graphic Bible Concordance

Literal vs. Inner Meaning Illumination

"And Hagar bare Abram a son;. . .Ishmael

-Gen. 16:15 (AC 1959)

What Angels Understand

Innermost Circle

Good of Love, Affection

Rational Truth: "son"

Outermost Circle

Memory-knowledges

What People Understand

Innermost Circle

 

Abram

 

Ishmael

Outermost Circle

Hagar

"The life of the affection of memory knowledges brought forth the rational" [AC 1964]

"It was stated above that by Abram is represented the Lord's internal man, or what is the name, His Divine celestial and spiritual; by Isaac the Lord's interior man, or His Divine rational, and by Jacob the Lord's exterior man, or His Divine natural." (AC 1950)

Innermost Circle

Abram Internal Man Divine Celestial

Isaac Interior Man Divine Rational

Outermost Circle

Jacob Exterior Man Divine Natural

AC 5620

Innermost Circle Outermost Circle

Butter Gold Oil Fat Wheat Bread Mountain Wood

 

Bitter Fish Fine flower Barley Fountain Wine River Water Linen Silver Spicy odors Milk Stone Fig

Valley Nuts Fruits Sweet Honey Bronze Iron Hair

"Man is a Bethel,--when he is in the celestial things of knowledges."

-AC 1453:2

"The New Jerusalem is on the south."

-AC 1458:3

South

= in good and truth(meridies = noon)(summer)

"The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Cush, and with the sabeans,. . .shall be there."

-Isaiah 45:14 (AC 1164:5)

Memory-knowledges & knowledge of spiritual things are serviceable to you who acknowledge the Lord.

MEANING OF NAMESJESUS OF NAZARETH

JESUS o Savior o Divine Love & Wisdom o Divine Man o Regeneration o Our heaven

Nazareth (Nazarene) Nazarites/Nazariteship o Hair o Divine Natural in ultimates (external Divine Human)

Jesus of Nazareth o The Savior of all mankind appearing in Divine ultimates as a Man on earth. 

(AC 6437) Jesus of Nazareth

o Divine Love & Wisdom receivable by each person for all times & without which a person is and remains in hell for all times.

Memorization"He who has MY commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. . .He who does not love Me does not keep My Word. . ."

          -John 14:21,24

to LOVE JESUS = to do His commandments

e.g.

1. Don't be selfish 2. Be nice 3. Tell the truth 4. Do your best 5. Help others 6. Don't be lazy 7. Read the Bible 8. Be faithful to Church

Memorization"For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of."

          -Luke 6:45

= Goodwill (Bad) [Heart]

Truethink (False) [Mind} Rightspeak (Wrong) [Strength]

 

IRREVERENCE FOR GOD = Swearing LOVE OF SELF COWARDICE = Lying LOVE OF DOMINATING = Teasing LOVE OF OBEYING COMMANDMENTS = Praising the Lord

Memorization Practice"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  And He said to him:  "You shall love with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.  this is the great and first commandment.  and a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."

          -Matthew 22:36-40

QUIZ

Matthew Teacher The Great & First Commandment in the Law To love with the

o Heart o Soul o Mind

The Law & The Prophets

Memorization". . .whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the son of man came not to the served but to serve. . ."

          -Matthew 20:26-28

To be a servant/slave

= to serve others= to be good & useful to others & society= to learn & do useful skills= to acquire talents by effort (e.g. homework, cleaning jobs, remembering promises, being generous/kind, etc.)

 

Memorization"Truth is made good by a life according to it."

          - AR 378          - Apocalypse Revealed by Emanuel Swedenborg (1668-1771)

Memorization"I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."

          -John 15:5

FRUIT = Good uses He that bears much fruit = He that learns to do things

o Rightly o Faithfully o Sincerely o & Justly

PERSON = Tree

 

Memorization:  Verses & Discussion"For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them."

          - Matthew 18:20

2 or 3

Good & Truth Love & Faith 2 = Love (Conjoining) 3 = Faith (Truth; Rational; Conceptualizing)

Gathered Together

= Worship= Bible Study

In MY Name

= in the name of Jesus Christ= for the sake of good & truth

There am I

= that's the way we get conjoined to God= solution= heaven

Memorization:  Verses & Discussions"Ye shall go after Jehovah your God and ye shall fear Him, that ye may keep His commandments and hear His voice and serve Him and cleave unto Him."

          - Deuteronomy 13:4

To Fear God

= To be afraid to injure Him by sinning= To obey His Commandments

Hear His Voice

          = To do what He commands

Serve Him

          = To be good to others for His sake

Cleave unto Him

          = To do all things because of Him, without exceptions

JEHOVAH = Invisible Loving Savior GOD =  Divine Truth LORD = Loving Father

CHRIST = God = Divine Man JESUS = Visible Loving Savior

Haman

Gideon

Gabriel

Goliath

Darius 

--- Daniel

Dalila

Dagon

Cleopas

Keturah

-Abraham's wife after Sarah

Jonathan

-David

Jesse

Job

-Uz

John

-James/Zebedee

Cyrus

-Persia/Babylonian Exile

Asher

-8th Son of J.

Mephibosheth

-Jonathan's lame son

Phinehas

-Grandson of Aaron, son of Eliere

Phope

-Deaconess

Potiphar

-Captain of Guards

Hannah

-Wife of Elkanah, mother of Samuel

Ham

Paraclete Spirit of Truth 47357 Divine Proceeding Holy Spirit Spirit of God Divine Truth from Divine Love Spirit of Jehova Angel of the Lord

Trinity within the Lord

Divine Love (Father) OT Divine Truth (Son)NT TT -- Divine Proceeding (H.S.)

The Divine Human with each personThe writings cannot be the Divine Word unless they have a hidden inner sense.  This is evident from the observation that there are errors or "slips of the pen" in them, as well as outdated scientific illustrations.  Since the writings were given for all times, the outdated examples & errors are appearances that contain a spiritual & eternal sense.  This is analogous to the Old & New Testaments.

Numbers in the Bible (Game) 1  God of Heaven & Earth 1  Eldest son (Coin & Able) (Ishmael & Isaac) (Esau & Jacob) 2  Great Commandments (Love the Lord & Neighbour)

2  Tablets of the Hour (One for Lord, One for Neighbour) 2  Witnesses 2  Sisters waiting upon Jesus (Martha & Mary) 3  Days journey from Jerusalem 3  Angels visiting Abraham bye the tent in desert 3rd day of the Resurrection 3  Kings of Sodom 3  Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) 4  Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Jake, John) 5  Loaves of bread fed the thousands 5  Fishes (ditto) 6  Days of creation 7th day of rest (Sabbath, Sunday) 7  Churches addressed by the Lord 8th day of circumcision

Numbers in the Bible (Game) 28 Cubits; length of each curtain in tabernacle (Ex 26:2) 50 Loops in tabernacle curtain (Ex 26:5) 50 Claps of Gold (Ditto) (Ex 26:6) 10 Cubits shall be the length of a frame (Acacia wood; for the tabernacle upright)

(Ex 26:16) 4 Pillars of acacia overlaid with gold upon which the veil of the tabernacle was

hung; "veil of blue & purple & scarlet stuff & fine twined linen." (Ex 26:31-32) 12 (Precious) stones in the "breast plate of judgment) (Ex 28:21)

Numbers in the Bible (Game) 9 10 Commandments 10 Plagues of Egypt 10th Part of an Ephah 10th of ti thing 12 Tribes of Israel (Children of Jacob) 40 Years in the desert 40 Days of temptation 70 Disciples sent out by the Lord 144,000 in Heavenly Procession 600,000 Jesus, men leaving Egypt

Countless = "as the dust of the earth" (descendents of Abram, Gen 13:16)

 

The Organization of Discourse Genetic Culture through Influx Dual Citizenship Technology of Discourse for Human Elevation Horizontal, Successive, Developmental States

 

Vertical, Simultane

ous Domains

IExternal Self,

Natural States, General Facts,

Assertions

IIRational Self,

Spiritual States, Specific Facts,

Implications

IIISpiritual Self,

Celestial States, Particular Facts, Presuppositions

Themes of Discourse

A.  Will, Right Brain Affective, Domain of Human Affairs (Origin of Behavior)

1.  Control of Dialog (Dramatic or Relationship Content of Discourse)

Impulse Value:  

Loves Affections Ideals Strivings Purposes Motives Intentions Cathexes Attractions

Religious Perspective:

Unquestioned

Assumptions o About

Good & truth

o About Eschatology

o About Generativity

Harmony/Disharmony

Dominance/Altruism

B.  Understanding, Left Brain Cognitive, Domain of Human Affairs

2.  Control of Prose (Intellectual Content of Discourse)

Rational Structure:

Understandings

Rationality Reasoning

s

  Variety Dissonance Reform Cooperation

(Cause of Behavior)

Justifyings Explaining

s

C.  Uses Sensorimotor, Domain of Human Affairs (Effect in Behavior)

3.  Control of Expressive Style (Emotional Content of Discourse)

   

Happiness Standard of

Living Competencies

A---B---C

Literal Meaning 

Surface Level

Historical-Legal Logic

Foundation

Spiritual Meaning

Underlying Level

Symbolic Logic

First Floor

Celestial Meaning

Deep Level Theology Top Floor

 

Comprehensive Discourse AnalysisHorizontal Dimension:  Successive Degrees

Function Development Analysis

Domain of Discourse

Function of Discourse

  A.  Assertion B.  Implication C.  Presupportion

III.Paralinguisticsi)  Grammarsii)  Cognitive Behavioriii)  Goal Organization

Situation; extra linguistic features

Motivation; affect

Affective Library Skills

Psychodynamics; Personality; Attitude; Perception; Communication

8, IIIB

Ethnicity; Sociodynamics Social Class Minority group; Assimilation; Whorl;

9, IIIC

7, IIIA

II.Semantici)  Grammarsii)  Cognitive Behavioriii) Technical Procedures or Processing Steps

Neurolinguistics; Structure; Context; Definition;  Denotation; Cognitive

Literary Skills; Search Behavior

4, IIA

Rationality Case Grammer; Implications; Inferences; General

Semantics

5, IIB

Morphophonemic; Etymology; Applied

Psycholinguistics; Theory of

Prompts

6, IIC

I. Lexicali)  Registersii)  Sensorimotor Behavioriii)  Content Characteristics

dialectology Styles; Paraphrase Memory; Vocabulary Catalogues; Fields

1, IA

Parsing; Trees; Outlines; Indices; Descriptors; Subject Headers; Abstracts

2, IB

 Interviewing; Language

Teaching Content Analysis Conversational

Analysis

3, IC

Vertical Dimension:  Simultaneous Degrees

Domain Depth Topic Synthesis

Legend

i) = Linguistic Theoryii) = Psycholinguistic Theoryiii) = Information Theory

A Parallel Cross-Denominational Glossary of Spiritual Concepts

Spiritual Concepts

Cross-Denominational EquivalentsSpiritual Science

  Judaism ChristianityMohammedanis

mBuddhism  

Identity of Spiritual God

Lord God Jehovah,

Lord God Jehovah,

Lord God Jehovah, Elohim,

Buddha Lord Taxonomic Hierarchy of

head who establishes

Covenant with Humankind

Elohim, Wisdom

Elohim, Christ

Allah, Lord of the Words

Beings

Chief Prophets & Human

Presenters, & Scriptures

Abraham-I-J Moses,

Isaiah, Hillel, Holy Bible

(OT)

Abraham-I-J Moses, Isaiah,

Jesus Holy Bible

Abraham, I-J Moses, Ishmael,

Mohammed Pentateuch &

Koran

Buddha, Amida

Numerous Scriptures

Each historical

figure has his own special revelation.

Resurrection of the Dead,

Day of Judgment, and the Kingdom

of God

Resurrection, Day of

Judgment, Kingdom, World to Come

Resurrection, Day of

Judgment, Kingdom,

Apocalypse

Resurrection, Day of Judgment,

World to Come

Pure Land, Other Shore, Enlightenmen

t

Evolutionary Historical Survey

through the Akashic Record

Fate of the Souls of

unrepenting Evil-doers,

Non-believers

Gehenem, Place of

Darkness Satan

Hell, Fires, Pit of

Darkness, Satan, Devil

Torment of the fire

Suffering, Self-delusion,

Karma, Samsara

Kamaloka & New Karma,

Lucifer, Ahriman

Prayer & Public

Worship; Denominational & Historical

Symbols; Spiritual

communion & Communicatio

n

Offerings, Synagogues, Temples, Festivals, Menorah,

David's Star, Jerusalem, Inspiration, Prophesy,

Angel Apparitions

Offerings, Church, Festival, Cross,

Eucharyst, Jerusalem, Inspiration, Prophesy,

Angel Apparitions

Offerings, Pilgrimage,

Minaret, Mecha, Prayer Beads,

Spiritual Apparitions &

Beings

Offerings, Brotherhood,

Buddha's Statue, Lotus

Position, Meditation,

Prayer Beads, Spiritual

Apparitions & Beings

Meditation; Study of

Religious; Supersensible Perception; Intercourse with Spirit Beings; Intuition Freedom

People in the WordOld Testament

Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph Moses Aaron Joshua

Samuel Saul David Solomon Isaiah Daniel Elijah

New Testament

John the Baptist Virgin Mary Matthew Mark Luke John Peter Lazarus Zaccheas Nicodemus Martha & Mary Mary Magdalene Herod & Pilate

Places in the Word Jerusalem

o Worship & Doctrine of the Church Canaan

o The Lord's Kingdom on earth or the church Judah/Judea

o see Canaan Jordan

o Repentance & Initiation Egypt

o Memory-knowledges of the Word Bethlehem

o House of Bread or the Lord as to Divine Good Sodom & Gomorrah

o Evils & falses or trues adulterated Babylon

o Falsified trues of the Word

Gehenna/Sheol/Hades/Great Lake of Fire o The Hells

Prayer/WorshipFill in the blank. . .

"Let us pray.  Our heavenly _______________, we ask that ________________.  Amen."

"Lord Jesus, we thank You for _____________.  Amen."

Principal Duties of the Faithful:  A Cross-Denomination Chart

Judaism Christianity Mohammedanism BuddhismSpiritual Science

Continuous affirmation of the unity of Lord God & the worship of his Name

Love of Lord God & His worship through His son, Christ

Resignation & Surrender [="Muslim"] to Lord God

Attainment of Enlightenment through the practice of Buddha's Dharma (Techniques)

Anthroposophical study & Practice

Doing God's Commandments & Waiting for the Messiah & the Kingdom

Love of People & Waiting for the Kingdom

Belief in God's Messengers ("Sent"):

Abraham Ishmael Isaac Jacob Moses Jesus the Prophets

Working for the Brotherhood & Universal Enlightenment

Reading Akashic Record & Interact with Spirit Beings

Study of Old Testament Bible & Belief in it

Study of Old & New Testament Bible & Belief in it

Study of Koran & Belief in it

Study of Scriptures relating to Buddha's Teaching & Belief in it

C-B:  Education, Science & Art

 

Seeking & Finding Grace in Christ Jesus

     

Prior Period

I.  Pre-Existent:  Messiah, Torah, Holy SpiritII.  Existent:  The Deep, Water, Darkness, Chaos, Wind 

Days of Creation Objects of Creation

1.  Sunday Angels, Souls, Light, Day, Night

2.  Monday Firmament, Heaven

3.  Tuesday Earth, Seas, Vegetation

4.  Wednesday Stars, Sun, Moon, Seasons

5.  Thursday Water Life, Air Life (non-carnivorous)

6.  Friday Earth Life (Land animals, Insects), Man & Woman (Vegetarians)

7.  Sabbath Spiritual communion with God (Holy Spirit)

Proverbs"Idleness is the devil's pillow."

-Emanuel Swedenborg in The Divine Wisdom, XI (p. 452), 17

The mind devoted to work from the love of uses (love of being occupied or useful) (rightly, faithfully, sincerely, & justly) is withheld from the delight of fraud & malice, idle conversation & feasting, & there the Lord can dwell.

   

Quotable Christians"Pessimism is essentially a religious disease."

-William James     Is Life Worth Living. (p.39)(1985)

"[Pessimism} consists in nothing but a religious demand to which there comes no normal religious reply." (ditto)

Quotable Christians"Riches with every one have a quality, according to the uses to which they are applied."

- E. Swedenborg     Arcana Coelestia, N.771

Riches

= the knowledges of good and truth from doctrine

Vessels of Silver and Gold   

External Knowledge   Truth   Good

RICHES

Adulterated & perverted to evil uses by the wickedApplied to life & Made one's own by

the good

Quotable Christians"Man is not in heaven until he doeth truths from willing them."

-E. Swedenborg     Arcana Coelestia, n 9227

Being in Heaven = Lawful or innocent uses & wisdom Doing truths from willing them = Love of doing good

Doing Good

That only appears good That is interiorly good

Out of gain, honour, reputation, life Out of love of doing the Lord's truth

Quotable Christians"The understanding is man's internal right."

-E. Swedenborg     Arcana Coelestia, n. 9227

N.B.

All truths are from the Word or, revelation Before our Bible there was another Word & Church, from which people received

truths If the Bible disappeared, all truths would perish & civilization would cease

Sight Light Lamp Sun Moon Stars

All symbolize:  Truths of faith from theWord [Church Doctrinals]

". . .I will raise unto David a righteous offshoot. . . and this is His name. . .Jehovah our Righteousness"

"Is Meshiach name Hashem?" Rex Jakobovits (as a child)

AC 1736 Q. Jer. 23:5,6

Reading-Drama The sheep on right The goats on left Heaven & Hell Mutual love & charity Begets heaven & eternal bliss/life Selfishness & cruelty begets punishment in hell

- Matthew 25:31-46

Reformation/Regeneration = Getting

7.  Zion (Illustrations) Celestial Things (Inmost Sense)

6.  Israel (Correspondences) Spiritual Things (Inner Sense)

5.  Assyria (Doctrinses Rational Things (Moral Sense)

4.  Egypt (Memory-know) Natural Things (Historical Sense)

"all of which succeed one another."

-AC 1462:3

"In that day shall Israel be third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the land." 

-(Isa. 19:23) AC 1462:3

Prior to regeneration, the interior of our natural is occupied by evil and falses inherited from the mother.

After regeneration, this evil is dispersed by the Lord (Conquest of Canaan)

However the Father's inherited side remains to eternity.

-AC 1444

And the Canaanite was then in the lamb.  --Genesis 12:6

And into the land of Canaan they came.

Religious Concepts:  DiscussionWho is the greatest in heaven?

He or She who is more willing than others to serve & obey the commandments of the Word.

Raise your hand if you might be willing to serve & obey more than others

To Serve & Obey the Law:

Evidence -- Witness Observe Letting others go first, if they want to Letting others win, if they want to Refusing to lie Being thorough in jobs Studying Bible everyday Caring about others' wishes Refusing to sneak

etc. etc.  NO NO to Devil

 

Similarity Index = C/N x 100C = Number of overlapping items (Correspondences)N = Number of items of comparison

J & C = 99% J & B = 60% C & B = 55% J & M = 80% C & M = 80% M & B = 20%

  J C M BTrumpets X X X -

Soul & Sin X X X X

Hell - Fire X X X -

Feeding the Poor X X X X

Life after Death X X X X

Inspiration by Holy Spirit X X - X

Praise the Name X X X X

Covenant with Abraham X X X -

Buddha - - - X

Jesus Christ - X - -

Moses X X X -

Covenant X X X -

Creating Story by Lord God X X X -

Apostles X X X X

Prophets X X X -

Resurrection X X X -

Day of Judgment X X X -

Messiah/Son X X - -

Public & Private Worship X X X X

Jehovah God X X X -

Holy Scriptures from God (Denominational)

X X X X

Non-believers are wicked (Denominational)

X X X X

Do good works X X X X

Guardian Angels & Spirit Beings of God's Host

X X - -

Forgive others X X X X

God's will only (pleasure) X X X X

Solvable Temptations to Believers X X X -

Everlasting life X X X X

Social justice (no cheating X X X X

Offspring reunited at Resurrection X- X- X- -

Spirit possession X X X X

The righteous will be justified X X X  

God Creates through the Word X X X -

GOD'S ATTRIBUTES J C M BMerciful X X X X

Mighty X X X X

Wise X X X X

Omniscient X X X X

Omnipresent X X X X

Compassionate X X   X

2/5/80

The concept of the "collective evolution" [and at times, that of "the Kingdom come"] tends to veil over the aspirations to perfection [and indeed, the perfection itself!] of (the single) generational cohort (and, as well, of the single person). . .

According to Swedenborg . . .. . . to love is to will that what is one's own be another's.

. . . to love the self is to desire that what is another's be one's own.

..... hell is not punishment for evil deeds, and heaven is not a reward for good works; instead, they are both habits of life we delight in.

      we are as-of self automatons, vessels into which goods and truths from the Lord flow in and appear as our own.

According to Swedenborg . . .. . . to "love the neighbour" does not mean to love the person, but rather, to love the person's sincerity, wisdom, and goodwill; for when we love these things in the person, we love the things of the Lord in and with the person.  This also means that we must not

love the things in a person that are insincere, wrong, and selfish.

According to Swedenborg . . .. . . to "love the Lord" means to love the things that are from the Lord with every person; these things are:

sincerety wisdom goodwill

Thus, when we try to be sincere, try to obey His Commandments, and try to wish well and will well to others, then we love the Lord, and only then.

(1168-1773)Swedenborg's Structure of "The

Human Mind"

(Contemporary)Corresponding Behavioral Indicator of

the Human Mind

Divine-Spiritual

Affective DomainReligion vs. Humanism/Morality

HUMAN MOTIVATION

Influx (Internal Environment)

Human-Rational

Cognitive DomainPositive vs. Negative Bias

HUMAN COGNITION

Sensory Input (External

Environment) 

Animal-Natural

Sensorimotor DomainLove of Uses vs. Gain & Equity

HUMAN EXPRESSION

Symbols of the Church The SNAKE = To love & pursue delights from evil acts

The DRAGON = False beliefs in the church due to  one's refusal to give up delights from evil acts

WHITE = Truth & Innocent obedience to the Lord BLACK = Mourning & grief or fear & evil DARKNESS = When we have all trues falsified & all goods misused. MORNING = When we are near to the Lord through obeying His commandments

also:  Day (Morning) vs. Night (Darkness)

Symbols of the Church The LAMB = the Divinity of Jesus The CROSS = the conquest of death through resurrection of each believer The DOVE = the giving of the Holy Spirit so that we many know what is Diving

Truth The PRIEST = the work of Divine Salvation whereby we are regenerated The ALTAR = the Lord's Body which is the same of all our goods & true as we

worship Him The GARMENTS of the PRIEST = the teachings of the church taken from the

Bible The BREAD & WINE of Communion

Bread -- Body of Christ -- Divine Love -- The Word

Wine -- Blood of Christ -- Divine Truth -- The Word

Back to Directory of Leon James Articles || e-mail Leon James

Back to Swedenborg Glossary

 

 

 

RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY

A Guide to Spiritual Developmentpart 1

 

by Leon James and Diane Nahl(c) 1984Based on Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772)

For an updated version of this article see the online Textbook of Theistic Psychology Volume 13, Section 13.12 by Leon James (2004) on the Web at:            www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/ch13.htm#psychohistory

Table of Contents

ForewordPrefaceThe External and Internal ChurchDevelopmental phasesConfirmation theoryHistory of the Churches on EarthThe first phaseThe second phaseThe third phaseThe Positive BiasThe Subject Matter of the WordSeeing Through the WordThe Secret Code in the BibleRevelation About the Affective and the CognitiveTwenty Propositions of Religious PsychologyRevelation About the Affective and the CognitiveStudying the Psychology of Inner LifeThe Content and Dynamics of Inner LifeReligious Affections are InheritedShunning Evils as Sins through the Practice of Religious Self-InspectionDiscovering the Steps of Regeneration through Microdescriptions of our Inner LifeThe Threefold Order of the World and of HeavenThe Ninefold Self and the Ninefold WordThe Simple but Basic States of Our Religion in ChildhoodThe Psychology of TemptationsOverview and Summary-OutlineApplied Religious Psychology

Foreword

Please note that you can find explanations for many concepts mentioned here by clicking on the word links in the text (they are always underlined text).  These linked documents have many quotations from Swedenborg's Writings that are relevant to

these concepts.  We recommend that you read through the essay once, then go back and click on the links, or else it will be difficult to keep track of the main argument.

Preface

Religious Psychology is not at all the same as the Psychology of Religion.  The latter is a well established academic program and a long standing Division of the American Psychological Association.  It is the study of religion from the point of view of monism, which is part of the materialistic science that dominated the twentieth century.  In contrast, religious psychology is the study of human development from the perspective of dualist science, as exemplified in the Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772).  Our argument for dualism in science are presented in these articles:

Substantive Dualism -- The New Paradigm for Science Overcoming Objections to Swedenborg's Writings Through the Development of Scientific

Dualism Swedenborg's Theory of Tri-substantivism as a Basis for the Science of Human

Behavior

A science of religious psychology must be universal and cannot be pre-empted by any sectarian belief system or doctrine.  Science is the product of pan-human logic and rationality as we attempt to make sense of reality.  There is only one reality, one logic, one rationality, namely truth or trues, which are universal, absolute, uncreate, eternal, and Divine.  Religious psychology has two basic premises.  One is dualism; the other is revelation.  Dualism in science is the premise that there are two universes, one natural, the other spiritual.  We are dual citizens, since our physical body is material,  natural, and temporal, while the mind or self, is substantive,  spiritual, and immortal.  The relation or contrast between material and substantive was known and accepted by all the major Western philosophers and scientists up to the twentieth century, when the substantive was no longer seen as the basis for the material.  This gave rise to a materialistic science that denies the possibility, the relevance, the reality and the rationality of God, revelation, and the spiritual world.  Dualism in science restores the knowledge and perspective that science has evolved for thousands of years, and restores the imbalance and excesses of ideological materialism.  In our view, dualism in science and religious psychology will prevail in the next millennium as it gradually replaces the old paradigm of anti-theistic ideological materialism.

This essay is an attempt to translate the ideas in Swedenborg's Writings into the language of modern science and psychology.  To the extent that we succeed, the effort should make it easier for others to see how a positive science can view their cherished religious certainties:  God, the Word, the Lord, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Messiah, evil, sin, regeneration, Holy Communion, Heaven, hell, eternal life.  It is awkward, perhaps even schizoid, for all of us to be educated in a science that denies these realities.  Church is for Sunday, and science is for weekdays, has been a denigrating alternative we are supposed to accept and be quiet about.   Praying is superstition, according to Skinner, and those who are the experts in the psychology of religion look for God, like Freud, Jung, Sartre, and Karl Marx, in the depths of the human psyche

rather than in the idea of the Creator for the universe.  We hope to show that science has the intellectual tools for dualism and religious psychology.  Sin is real.  Heaven is real.  Hell is real.  Regeneration is real.  Love is real.  Wisdom is real.  Baptism is real.  Praying is real.  Revelation is real. And so on.

But beyond asserting their reality, our task is to show how they can have empirical meaning in a scientific system. But this no one can do without the knowledge given in revelation since the external natural senses cannot access the requisite data.  So we must first show the existence of the inner senses that do have access to the relevant data through revelation, but not without it.  This inner sense is the true human rational that can see spiritual reality and fact.  This interior rational is far above the external rational that is built up through the external senses.   This interior rational can be developed until it becomes so commonplace that one wonders how it used to be before its opening to consciousness.  This we have achieved through the application of Swedenborg's Writings to our daily moment by moment life transactions.  This achievement does not make us superior or special, but the vision it affords us is superior and special, and it never fails us.  Anyone can do what we have, and we hope that this record of our journey, painstakingly kept track of and digested, will make it useful to your journey.   We could not have done this without our daily study of the Writings of Swedenborg.

The second premise of revelation is that spiritual knowledge, that is, knowledge about the spiritual world of the mind, cannot be obtained directly by the natural senses, and therefore the mechanism of revelation exists.  A modern and favorable examination of this issue in relation to Swedenborg's access to revelation, may be found in Christen Blom Dahl's book The Third Source:  Swedenborg: A Physical & Metaphysical Revelation (available here full text).   Also of relevance to the issue of revelation and Swedenborg's scientific empiricism and behaviorism, is the article quoted above:  Overcoming Objections.

Religious psychology is non-sectarian, universal, and dualist.   One issue that may trouble some is reflected in this question:  How can you have a religious psychology that is scientific when each religion claims to have its own God and its own revelation, while denying the God and the revelation of other religions?   This crucial issue is dealt with in the first section specifically, and throughout the essay.  Your comments are welcome.

e-mail Dr. Leon James   |  e-mail Dr. Diane Nahl

The external and internal Church

Jesus, Sun of Life, my Splendour,Jesus, Thou my Friend most tender,Jesus, Joy of my desiring,Fount of Life, my soul inspiring,At Thy feet I cry my Maker.Let me be a fit partaker

Of this blessed food from Heaven,For our good Thy glory given.

17th Century Hymn (Brockes Passion)(Concordia Publishing House)

    Religious psychology is the study of how the Church grows within us.  The Church is the operation itself of religion. All religions operate through a church.  There are many external churches but only one internal Church.  External churches are cultural institutions, hence they are variegated and contrastive. External churches on this earth are related by history and ideology (or theology) .  Every external church operates through Sacred Writings from which religious doctrines are drawn as guides to religious practices, traditions, laws, norms, rituals, worship, and commandments of living. 

    Because the external churches bicker among each other they give an appearance of disagreement, antagonism, enmity, and strife.  The Writings they hold as sacred vary and the history of the world they give (or their eschatology) often contradict each other.  Many believers hold that their version only is correct and genuine and doubt the salvation of others.  This external appearance of varieties of religions and their doctrinaire contradictions vanishes in the internal operation of the Church within every person on this earth.  The inner Church is universal and absolute though it grows and develops in stages within each person.  All human beings belong to the internal Church and there are no human beings who are devoid of it irrespective of their beliefs or awareness.  Individuals of all denominations and individuals who deny any religious affiliation all belong to the inner Church by Divine order.  The inner Church grows within each person under the careful and constant supervision of God.  It is an organic relationship of the spirit of each person.  Religious psychology explores this universal inner Church.

DEVELOPMENTAL PHASES

    There are three stages of growth of the Church within each person.  We may refer to them in order as first, the Old Church state of mind, second, the New Church state of mind, and third, the Ultimate Church state of mind.  The three Churches develop within us in that order.  The Old Church is the basis and containant of the internal Church upon which the other two rest.  The Old Church is born within each child when the child is told about God, sin, and the life after death.  The New Church is added when the individual returns to religious life as an adult.  This happens because adolescence and early maturity turns off the operation of the Church within us.  When we return to religious life as an adult we do so from our own reason and free will, from rational decision and personal confirmation of the importance of God in our life.  While the Old Church state of mind appears to us severe and restrictive in its Commandments, the New Church state of mind is experienced with positive affections and freedom; its New

Commandment is more rational and inviting, more to our liking and philosophical inclinations.  We fear the Old Church while we love the New Church. 

After the New Church state of mind is established within us on top of the Old Church, the Third Church then develops and grows on top of the other two.  This is the crown of all Churches and brings wisdom.  This happens in maturity and old age. 

   To grasp these ideas better we may illustrate them by reviewing the historical development of the Judeo-Christian religion.  The Jewish or Israelitish Church was established around 3,500 B.C.  with the life of Abraham in Asia Minor. Its sacred Writings are known as the Old Testament and are made up of books written by prophets from about 1,500 B.C. to about 400 B.C.  The Christian Church was established in the first century A.D.  and is based on Sacred Writings called the New Testament.

     This second Testament was added on top of the Old Testament and the two together make up the Holy Bible of the Christian Church. In the eighteenth century A.D. the Church of the New Jerusalem, or New Church, came into existence.  Its Sacred Writings are the Old Testament and the New Testament in conjunction with the theological Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772), the Swedish revelator.  Around the middle of the twentieth century A.D. the Lord's New Church which is Nova Hierosolyma came into existence.  This third Christian church added the Writings of Swedenborg to the Old and New Testaments considering them as the Third Testament.  The Three Testaments acknowledge each other in series:  the New Testament quotes and upholds the Old Testament;  the Third Testament quotes and upholds the Old and New Testaments. 

    This relationship of the Three Testaments may not appear as clearly in all religious Writings.  Still, since the Sacred Writings always deal with regeneration, the members of all religions undergo the three stages represented by the Three Testaments.  This is because the inner Church is universal and not dependent upon the details of the external cultural churches. Without this proviso people would be prevented from being regenerated  in all churches but one, a situation clearly not allowable by a fair and universal God.  This book will appeal to those of any religion who are interested in knowing about the growth of the three Churches within themselves.  The following diagram summarizes what has been presented:

Diagram  (a)

 

CONFIRMATION THEORY

    We may inquire as to what determines the growth of the Church within us.  We will discuss the answer in terms of what may be called confirmation theory, which is the idea that the successive Churches are established within us when we confirm the trues of religion in our life.  Thus, after the doctrines drawn from the Old Testament state of mind are confirmed in our life, the spiritual concepts of the New Testament state present themselves to our mind; then, when we succeed in confirming these doctrines, the spiritual concepts of the Third Testament state present themselves to the mind.  When trues of the Third Testament state can be confirmed in our life, the Church within us is in its completed stage, though not complete in that ultimate stage.  Indeed, the completion of the ultimate Church within us proceeds to eternity.  In this third state we come into the image and likeness of God, an eternal and endless progression.  This is the Angelic state of the mind.

    We need to examine how doctrines drawn from the Three Testaments are confirmed in our life.  This may be illustrated by considering the successive doctrines of the Three Testaments.  The chief doctrine of the Old Testament is that God reveals Himself to us as a Human Divine Person Who created us and Who requires us to obey His Commandments under penalty of death and all sorts of inescapable punishments.  His Divine omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence are absolute, infinite, and incomprehensible to us.  As children we accept this doctrine with innocence and perfect faith.  The Old Church then grows within us and produces thoughts, intentions, and feelings that harmonize with this doctrine.  For instance, though we rather lie, steal, and commit adultery we strive not to do these things out of fear of God and a hope of reward.  When we mess up and violate these Commandments, we feel guilty and uneasy; our happiness vanishes. But as soon as we repent and sincerely resolve not to continue in our sin, we can be happy again.  This is the operation of the Old Church

within us.  Our living conscience, built up by the Old Church within us, is the confirmation in our life of the doctrine of the Old Testament.

    As this operation is well established within us we come to the doctrine of the New Testament which is that God is present with each individual in an intimate relation and Personally labors to bring us to eternal happiness and fruition in His Kingdom of the afterlife.  This New doctrine is more difficult to confirm in our life than the Old doctrine and requires many years to be completed.  For example, whereas the Old Testament requires us to love our neighbor, the New Testament commands that we love our enemy as well.  Or, while the Old Testament commands us to not commit adultery, the New Testament informs us that even the mental enjoyment of unchaste thoughts and emotions is a damnable sin, if confirmed.  However, as we strive to live according to this New doctrine we find that we begin to think and feel more purely towards others.  What seemed impossible before now is accomplished on a regular or routine basis.  We discover that we can love the good part of our enemy, and we find that we no longer enjoy thoughts of revenge or emotions that are unchaste, but find them repulsive and aversive.  We have then confirmed the doctrine of the New Testament in our life.

    We then come to the doctrine of the Third Testament which says that God is the Divine Human Who alone is alive within us.  This is even more difficult to confirm in our life and takes all of eternity.  The reason this third doctrine is so difficult to confirm is that it takes away our selfhood.  With the New Testament doctrine we are still partly in charge of our lives though we depend on God for victory and success in overcoming the selfish nature we are born with.  But with the Third Testament doctrine we have totally lost our selfhood: we are not in charge of ourselves any more; in fact we are dead, we have never had life, and never will have.  We are merely a vessel for God's Life within us. This is the most difficult doctrine to confirm in our life since it is difficult for us to rid ourselves of the delusional appearance that we have life of our own.  We appear to think, and feel, and decide; it looks to us that God can influence us rather than being us.  Yet the Third Testament informs us that our thoughts are not our thoughts but the thoughts of spirits with us, and the thoughts of spirits are not their thoughts but the reception of God's thoughts.  Individual vessels receive God's thoughts, intentions, and feelings in accordance with the state of the Church in their mind or spirit, hence there is an appearance of individual variety or personality.  But this variety is due to the variation in vessels as God Himself is One, Unchanging and Absolute.

    It may seem at first that the doctrine of the Third Testament is abstract and impossible to confirm in one's life.  Yet as we strive to observe our inner life through the study and application of the Third Testament, we begin to see how it is true.  Our thoughts and feelings are not our own.  They are inspired into us. They enter by an inner route from the soul and spirit and come out into our mind's awareness where we can see them.  Our life is as-if our own.  In this realization we suddenly feel very close to God, the Divine Human.  We see that all along there was no other life but His Life.  God has become the Divine Human, the only Human Who is the Very Human Itself

pulsating in us.  We are human vessels to His Divine Human Life.  This realization becomes love into God from God, and leads to all true wisdom and blessedness.

    Religious psychology attempts to uncover these steps of the growth of the Church within us.  It is a discipline of study based on the successive doctrines of the Three Testaments in our mind. This book will appeal to those who want to reach in this life on earth the state of blessedness and wisdom which is promised through the Third Testament.  We may gain a better comprehension of the development of the Church within us by reviewing some details of the developmental steps in the historical (external) churches.

HISTORY OF THE CHURCHES ON EARTH

    After the Fall of the human race on this earth the process of being regenerated by the Lord evolved in three successive phases or epochs.  The history of the external church is the same as the history of the internal Church within each individual. By reviewing the epochs of the external church we gain a view of the three phases of our own regeneration.  The interior Church within each of us is built up by the Lord in three phases, that is in three successive degrees.  The interior sense of the successive historical churches is the representation of the successive stages of evolution of the inner Church within us.  This relation is pictured in the following table:

EXTERNAL CHURCH The First Period

(3,500 B.C. - 1,757 A.D.)

The Second Period(1,757 A.D. - 1,938 A.D.)

The Third Period(1,938 A.D. - onward)

The Old Church The New Church The Ultimate Church

The Old Testament The New Testament The Third Testament

Judao-Christian New Christian True Christian

Human Divine Divine Truth Divine Human

Invisible God  Visible God  God Man

etc. etc. etc.

INTERNAL CHURCH 

The First Degree(birth to adulthood)

The Second Degree(maturity to old age)

The Third Degree(old age to eternity)

The Natural Self The Rational Self The Celestial Self

Sinfulness (Evil) Reformation Regeneration

Worship from Fear Worship from Reason Worship from Love

etc. etc. etc.

   The upper part of the table reviews some features of the history of the external church since the spiritual Fall of the human race on this earth.  The bottom part views the corresponding interior sense of this history.  By studying and meditating upon the relation between these two, many additional entries or illustrations might be given.

THE FIRST PHASE

    We may examine this correspondence by considering first the progression of the periods of the church.  Insight into the Old Church may be gained through a review of the Judeo-Christian commentaries to the Holy Bible.  In this view, the Old Testament and the New Testament present the literal sense of the Word, and in this sense the God of the Old Testament is invisible and incomprehensible.  In order to have contact with people on earth this unreachable God is transformed in the external sense of the Word into a Divine Personality called by various Names: Jehovah, I AM, Heavenly Father, the Most High, King of Kings, and many others.  The character of this Divine Personality is not the character of God since this is impossible for people to understand.  The character of this Divine Personality is only a gross and imperfect appearance.  It is human in its nature since Jehovah in the Old Testament talks as a human does about His anger, His frustration, His gladness, His changing His mind, and so on.  So we may refer to the Old Testament God as the God in human character, that is, as the Human Divine.

    The Human Divine, called by the Name of Jehovah, is not God per Se, but God as initially presentable to humans who are in the state of the Fall.  The child is in such a state when first instructed about God, sin, and the afterlife.  The modern scientists are in this state when they separate their science from religion. The philosophers and secular humanists are in this state when they acknowledge the existence of God but insist that humans are to work out their own destiny.  The Jews are in this state as they deny the Coming of the Messiah.  The Christians are in this state as they pray to the Father in the Name of His Son.

    In this state of the Old Church,   worshippers address an invisible God out of fear.  Though they believe that God is infinitely merciful, yet they also ascribe to Him the role of Judge, and Punisher.  Their image of God is mixed.  They accept contradictions as Divine paradoxes that will remain forever incomprehensible to the human mind.   Faith is mystical and blind, not rational and crystal clear.

    There are many varieties within this Old Church mentality.  For example, the New Testament divides Christian from Jew.  To the Jew, God remains distant and

incomprehensible and He leaves us to fend for ourselves as best we can.  To the Christian, God is  incomprehensible in one way but comprehensible in another way.  In effect, God becomes two Divine Persons (or three Divine Persons). The idea of One God Who is Two (or Three) Persons is not an idea that can be rationally grasped.  Therefore this is a blind faith, not rational.

THE SECOND PHASE

    This then is the first period of the external church and the first degree of the internal Church.  The second period called the New Church was born historically (that is, externally), when people became capable of gaining a rational understanding of the New Testament in relation to the Old Testament.  This occurred in the eighteenth century when some Christians began to read the Third Testament, that is,  the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.  In this second phase, the doctrines of the Church explain and clarify the relation between the invisible and visible God.  In this state, called the New Church, the One-God-in-Two-Persons (or in Three Persons) is seen to be an irrational formula.  There is no prayer or worship offered to "the Father in the Name of the Son."  Rather, the Son is the visible Heavenly Father, Who is invisible as He is in Himself. He therefore has to present Himself in a visible form called the Son of God.  This is not meant in the sense of a biological offspring, but a spiritual manifestation. There are thus not two Divine Persons (or Three Persons), but only One Person.  And this One Person, called the Father in His invisible state, makes Himself visible as the Son.   The Father and the Son are One Person in two states, one invisible as He is in Himself, and the other visible, as the Son.  The Father made Himself visible as the Son by the process of Incarnation.  There is not a blind faith in this but a rational one.

    When we have the New Church within us, our sinful nature can at last be conquered.  In this New Church state within us we proceed into mature life with a rational character and conscience by which we can learn to hate our own nature and love the Divine Truth. At last this exalted human-rational frees us from the bondage of sin.  Yet the transformation is not complete.  Again and again we fail in our attempt to banish selfish thoughts and wicked feelings.  The ideal of purity still escapes us and we continue to suffer from anger, impatience, prejudice, harshness, and guilt.  It appears to us in this state that as long as we live in this sinful body and world, we are not going to taste of the paradise of Eden.  Conjugial love becomes an ideal for the future life.

THE THIRD PHASE

    However this is only an appearance to the rational self which still holds on to the actuality of self-life though it recognizes in theory that the self has no true life of its own. But when we are ultimately willing to step up to the bullock, and slay it, we eradicate the natural remnant of our former life of the flesh.  Thus we enter into the Third and Ultimate Church within us.  We are now willing to call the Writings by a new Name; they become the Works of the Third Testament. Now the visible Divine Human enters into intimate relations with our daily transactions. This is the crown of the inner Church. 

It is the true activity of regeneration that begins on this earth and continues to eternity.  It is the marriage feast to which we are invited by the Lord Who clothes us in sumptuous garments fit for angelic life on earth.

    The three external churches now exist on earth.  Every individual irrespective of the external church one belongs to must needs undergo the steps of the Three Churches within.  Whether we are born Christian, Jew, Moslem, Buddhist, agnostic, or New Church, we still must undergo the same development of the inner Church in its three successive degrees.  At some point in adulthood we are reborn from the Old Church within us into the New Church, and after that we are initiated by the Lord into the Third or Ultimate Church.  Throughout this process the individual may retain membership in the external church of the family.  Life circumstances may seem to determine whether we also change external churches as the inner Church develops but it is clear that all external churches will have members who are at different stages of development with regards to the inner Church.  Our inner state may not be visible to others but to ourselves the change is always visible.  An individual who is in the third degree of life in the inner Church may worship together with co-religionists who are in the second and in the first degree without necessary strife or disharmony.  Of course the actual experience of their communal worship is going to be very different depending on their different inner states.  But at the external level there need be no antagonism between them.

    The transformation from the New Church to the Ultimate Church occurs when we have applied sufficiently the Divine Truth we come to love in the New Church state of mind.  We apply the Divine Truth to our daily life, in our transactions with others, and see it confirmed there.  This happens within our efforts at repentance during religious self-inspection.  In this state we begin to perceive the interior sense of the Third Testament.  This sense is mirrored in our inner life, our approval or disapproval of the transactions we are given to perform by the Lord.  After death we can see this interior sense mirrored in our external environment as well, as our Heaven brings forth the fruits of our regeneration.

    In the state of the Old Church within us we are sinful and evil in our transactions but we do not perceive this.  To ourselves in that state we appear good when we act out of obedience to the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament or to the dictates of our conscience.  When we act badly in this state we recognize our sinfulness, but if we act well out of conscience we are convinced that we are good.  It is a delusional state since our acting well is not from the Lord but from ourselves, and is meritorious. In this state of the Old Church within us God necessarily appears as distant, invisible, and severe.  Without a punishing omnipotent and omniscient God, whether Jehovah, Allah, or Buddha-Karma, the individual degenerates into libertinage, cruelty, and irrationality. In this state the individual recognizes One God in Two or more Divine Persons.  When God became flesh, the Christians and Jews insisted on Two Divine Persons in the "Godhead"; this made them feel secure, sane, and happy.  The Lord's Jewish apostles in the world had to see Him as the Son of God even though they were

compelled by external miracles to recognize that the Father and the Son were equal in Divinity, though not yet in their mind, One in Personhood.

    But so that our conscience may evolve from fear to reason, this Old Church state within us is succeeded by a New Church state in which God is restored to the status of One Divine Person.  The Son is now the external, visible life of the Father.  God is One and He loves us: His external (visible to us) part is called the Son and His internal part (not visible to us) is called the Father.  In this New Church state within us the miracles and parables of the New Testament are comprehended in their interior sense through the doctrines drawn from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.  However, in this second phase of our Church development, only the literal sense of the Writings are perceived, hence acknowledged.  The interior sense is not perceived, hence it is denied or doubted.

    But when we enter the Third Church within us we acknowledge-ledge the interior sense of the Writings and call them the Third Testament because we can perceive it.  Though we knew from before that the Lord is the visible Divine Human we did not perceive this directly but accepted it on faith.  Now in the ultimate Church within us we perceive the interior sense of this Name.  We see it in ourselves, in our daily transactions where this Name dwells in a living and immediate way.  In this state we worship the visible Divine Human from love; that is, we are given to have love into Him from Him. A little later in this text, we will discuss the practical details of how we can confirm the Divine Human in our daily living choices and acts of conscience that we bring to our thoughts, feelings, and actions, moment by moment through every day, and without letup.

    Those who study the Writings of Swedenborg as the Word of the Lord sense strongly the attraction in the ideal of Conjugial Love given there.  This attraction comes from their love of knowledge and truth.  This is the affection of the rational self.  Our rational self experiences great inner delight when we apprehend the meaning of a sentence or number in the Writings. We feel illuminated and we see an aspect of life which is helpful to our living.  The sense of the letter of the Writings of Swedenborg has that quality of satisfying our desire to know and understand. Therefore it has the greatest of spiritual value.

    We may now inquire about how this happens.  In what way do the explanations in the Writings provide us with such delight? To answer this question we need to go to a second degree of meaning contained within these Writings.  The only way available to this interior sense is through the Third Testament state of mind.  Therefore in order to make the inquiry we must enter the third or Ultimate Church within us.  After the realization occurs, for which we are supremely grateful, there is provided perception of this inner sense within the Word and illustration of their actuality in daily living.  This perception is called the spiritual sense of the Third Testament.

    With this preparation we may now inquire as to the interior sense of this conjugial love to whose literal sense we feel such a strong attraction.

    Our daily living consists of transactions with others. Each day brings thousands of individual transactions.  A look is a transaction.  A smile, or being late, or keeping a person in one's mind, or a name -- all these are transactions.  These transactions are provided by the Lord.  There is no transaction which is random or fortuitous or pre-determined; each and every transaction is provided for a specific good.  It may astonish the rational self to think of this operation, of its gigantic size, of its improbability, etc., but the external rational is not to be consulted in spiritual meanings, because it is natural, not spiritual.  We must rely on the interior rational, which is purely spiritual and celestial.  The external rational excludes any information that is not natural.  So it is obvious that it excludes the spiritual and the celestial.   But the interior rational is built up not by ideas based on the natural senses, but by ideas based on spiritual senses.  These are the senses of the mind or spirit and can receive or detect information that flow in from the spiritual world.

    The interior sense of conjugial love relates to these transactions of daily living. Thus in order to perceive the interior sense of the Third Testament we must see it in relation to our transactions in every day life.  However there may be several ways of doing this task of relating trues of the Word to daily situations.  For example, in the Old Church state we also attempt to apply the Bible to our lives but without success since what we did came from the natural self and not the spiritual self. Similarly, in the New Church state we attempt to apply the Writings to our daily living with others, to our education and counseling, and to our science.  But this too lead to no ultimate success since we did it with the rational self of its own; like mighty mountains, our puny attempts were dwarfed by the stars of heaven.  It's never quite enough.  We're never quite there.  We sense a veil, a glass ceiling of unattainable saintlihood.  But as we enter the third Church within us, our rational holds still and listens with reverence to the spiritual perception that is unfolded to it from above.

THE POSITIVE BIAS

    With this sense or approach to the meaning of conjugial love we can begin to perceive through illustrations the Lord provides in these daily transactions.  Religious psychology is the study for better managing our transactions from our perspective of the Word.  The practice of religious psychology involves a constant striving to understand and discipline ourselves. The diagrams and methods used in this book represent aids or tools in better self-management in accordance with each concept of the Word.  These intellectual tools may be used by a person from any religious denomination as long as the person is willing to accept the premiss that the Word is Divine and that it has an interior spiritual sense.  We may call this approach, adopting a positive bias.   Note carefully:  we are not saying that people have to give up their native or adopted religion before they can practice religious psychology.  People of all religion can read the Three Testaments in their native language, as God has provided for their universal translation and dissemination.  If they read these Three Testaments thinking that they are or may be Divine Works, because they say so about themselves, then they can enter fully in all three states of development of their inner Church, without having to convert to another religion.

    If we thus adopt a positive bias towards the concept of conjugial love in its interior sense, we may begin to perceive in this new mode, the mode of perception characteristic of the Third or Ultimate Church. To make this living experience clearer to our external rational (which is natural, not spiritual), we may consider illustrations.  Illustrations are case histories viewed in relation to doctrine from the Word.  In this case, conjugial love in its inner sense is a doctrine we want to view in relation to our daily transactions.  Every person is born for heaven with a unique and specific angelic character to be attained.  This character to be attained corresponds exactly to our geographic location in Heaven.  Of course we will remember that "geographic location" in the spiritual world is according to our goods and trues, hence we call it spiritual geography.

    The Lord supervises our transactions in order to govern our way to this angelic status.  This is called regeneration. Religious self-inspection is a tool to help us discipline our daily transactions so that we may co-operate with our regeneration by the Lord.  Self-management is thus a necessary activity in the state of the Third Church.  The interior sense of conjugial love provides us with definitive guides to our temptations.  The Lord uncovers deeper and wider areas of our evil by illustrating the meaning of the Word in these transactions.  How we choose rationales to justify ourselves, for instance.  How we are totally blind to trues except when immediately illustrated by the Lord. How the Lord repeatedly takes us to the top of the world with promises and then plummets us down to our shame and horror. How we are bestial except under direct and continual enlightenment and encouragement from Him.  The concept of conjugial love is given us in the sense of the letter of the Third Testament so that we may, if we will, enter into its interior sense and thereby perceive our marriage. In our own case, Leon's marital confessions as a husband has been documented here.

    Marital transactions are representatives of spiritual realities.  By witnessing these transactions we perceive the Lord's labor with us.  We perceive God's Creation itself.  The entire universe is merely for this purpose that God can turn our marital transactions into conjugial love.  This is the interior sense of the doctrine of conjugial love.  Religious self-inspection allows us to become more adept at perceiving the Lord's work within us, of seeing the way by which we are led to our Heavenly Society.  It ought not to be thought that conjugial love is a doctrine only for those who are married since preparation for marital relations goes on since birth.  Individuals are born men or women, with specific spiritual genes that represent the angelic character we become.  The external rational (which is not yet spiritual) ought not to be consulted here since it evokes the detested idea of predestination. Rather, we wait patiently to be illustrated with further temptations.  The Lord arranges our transactions in wonderful ways to bring us together as marital partners.  Marital partners may perceive such similarities in their childhood affections that it is wonderful to contemplate the way the Lord managed our experiences to yield this similarity.  And it is wonderful to behold how the Lord leads us from the perception of similarity to mutuality through an identity of thoughts, intentions and reasonings.  In other words, we first perceive that we apparently think alike, and under this impress, we are led to feel alike; at last, when we feel alike, we are led to mutuality, where we truly think alike as a result of feeling alike.. 

This is the state of conjugial love. 

    This process may be apprehended by our external rational self. The activity goes on above the external rational, in our spiritual self, which is also our internal rational,  but the external rational self can perceive it through immediate and direct illustration by the Lord of our daily transactions with others.  Pre-marital transactions are not perceived since most of us are not willing to enter our Third Church until long after we’ve been married. 

    The subject matter of temptations in marriage is treated of in Conjugial Love when studied in the inner sense and applied to our daily transactions with others.  The Work also throws light on pre-marital transactions since it explains the origin and development of scortatory loves within us. All the loves of the natural self and of the rational self prior to regeneration are scortatory or unchaste and delusional. There is no part of us, no thought, intention, or sentiment, that is good.  Whatever good there is in us is exclusively the Lord's Own with us.  The good is not our own. 

    We co-operate in our regeneration when we perceive how the Lord manages and governs our transactions.  This perception is our own.  It is a magnificent gift from the Lord for which we are supremely grateful.  It is our very consciousness, our very awareness as a human self, without which we are inanimate as a stone. When we perceive one of our transactions as a temptation we are given to see an element of our evil.  It is the greatest of all opportunities because we are given thereby another chance to be redeemed: we can approve or disapprove of the representation in our deed.  As we approve when the Lord gives us to act well we are illustrated from doctrine. We experience our heavenly calling.

    In preparation for our willingness to enter the interior sense of the doctrine of conjugial love we may consider and discuss the developmental steps we underwent as the Three Churches were established in us by the Lord through the Word.

 The Subject Matter of the Word

  OLD TESTAMENT NEW TESTAMENTTHIRD

TESTAMENT

INMOST SENSE (CELESTIAL)

A description of the Lord's glorification and of the Heavens;taught through correspondences, doctrines, &

A description of the workings out of Divine Providence & Love; taught through as yet unknown ways. 

An explanation of how to confirm the marriage of good & truth within us; taught through as yet unknown ways. 

memorable relations.  (PARTIALLY OPENED)

(UNOPENED) (UNOPENED)

INTERMEDIATE SENSE

(SPIRITUAL)

A description of the rise & fall of the successive external churches on earth; taught through a knowledge of correspondences, doctrines, & memorable relations.  (OPENED)

An explanation of what is Divine Truth; taught through the order & series of miracles & parables.  (UNOPENED)

A description of how the inner Church develops within us (regeneration); taught through perception & illustration during religious self-inspection.  (PARTIALLY OPENED)

EXTERNAL LITERAL SENSE 

(NATURAL)

A description of the delights & uses (and their adulteration ) of external life; taught through historicals, allegories, & hymns.

An explanation of the morality of human relationships; taught through the content of mircales & parables. 

A description of how our thoughts & feelings originate from the spiritual world;taught through rational exposition of the subject matter.

This table summarizes certain features of what we may have perceived in the Word thus far.  Naturally there are going to be individual differences and peculiar obscurities to each one of us.  Nevertheless a communal grasping of the doctrine is possible through our rational self.  The chart may be read for greater comprehension from bottom up. The following discussion illustrates specifics which may be related to the chart in order to see the representatives of doctrine in our life.

    Upon reflection and instruction we become aware that the Three Testaments contain a progressively more ideal religious ethics that govern our daily transactions.  The Old Testament's Ten Commandments are blunt and proscriptive:  only a barbarous nation would allow its citizens to murder, rob, libel, and commit adultery.  Only individuals in a grossly degenerate state would try to justify violations of the Ten Commandments as good and decent. The New Testament's Commandment is infinitely more sophisticated, civilized, subtle: only a few individuals have been able to adhere to it in a consistent way -- the angelic spirits among us, the saints and heroes, the genuine altruists.  Even so, the Third Testament's Commandments appear infinitely more radical and subtle than the New Testament Commandment for few people can stand to even read them!  The Commandments of the Word are thus arranged in three successive degrees of apparent

difficulty so that the Second appears infinitely more difficult to obey than the First, and the Third is infinitely more difficult to obey than the Second. This is an external appearance of the Word and represents the impossibility of fulfilling the commandments of the Word of our own efforts.

A person who appears to be fulfilling the Commandments of the Old Testament is yet infinitely far from fulfilling the Commandment of the New Testament, which is that we have love and goodwill towards others.  We all know the truth that our intentions and emotional reactions come and go within us at their pleasure: our understanding and reasoning has merely a veto power over them so that they do not break out in overt deeds.  Yet the New Commandment asserts in its literal sense that we are evil and damnable because of these involuntary impulses within us.  Our will is helpless to prevent evil thoughts and emotions and yet we are guilty for them.  If our external rational be consulted here it would say that this is unfair; but the rational is not to be consulted.  Rather we must wait patiently for illustration from the Lord.  Then we can see that far from being unfair, it is Divine Love and Wisdom having us in sight and providence.  You may like to read Rev. Ray Silverman's application of the Ten Commandments to one's daily interactions with others.   Please click back to continue here. 

    When we consider all Three Testaments together, in a series, so that after our journey from Old, to New, to Third, we now are given to journey back from Third, to New, to Old, we at last are given to fulfill the Commandments of the Word to its fullest. In order to prepare ourselves for this holy journey, back to the East, as it were, it is necessary to study the sense of the letter of the Third Testament so as to draw out spiritual doctrines to guide us in our approval or disapproval of our daily transactions.  Afterwards, we need to strive to understand the interior sense of these doctrines by confirming them in our religious self-inspection. Then at last we will have fulfilled the Commandments of the Word. In this journey we reproduce, as in an image, the Lord's Own glorification.  His Journey as the Word of God, and as the Word made flesh, and as the Word transfigured and uplifted, is the pattern we are given to follow in our own regeneration by the Lord. The arena for our journey of regeneration is our mind -- our changing thoughts, reasonings, reactions, emotions, strivings, affections, and perceptions, in short, our daily transactional exchanges with others.

    Religious ethics is a branch of religious psychology that helps us become objective and practical about our inner life with the motive to judge our transactions.  It requires the method of self-exploration and self-investigation.  Forensic tools must be used to unmask our pretenses and catch our deceits.  We are helped by the knowledge in faith that we are guilty in every case that comes up!  Our task is to prove it, to confirm it as-if of our own free will.  We may prepare for this task by studying the methodology of religious ethics given us in the sense of the letter of the Third Testament.

    We may illustrate this process by considering the manner in which the will and the understanding relate to each other. This topic is treated of everywhere in the Third

Testament.  For this example we may consider Numbers 478-500 in Conjugial Love where we are given a spiritual-psychological analysis of the kinds and degrees of adulteries we perform.  As we study these numbers we are not only given a list of the adulteries but also a method of reasoning by which to identify them in us.  It is required that we strive to understand this legalese language even so far as to be able to use it against ourselves so as to better convict.  Under the impulse of this motivation we can learn to understand this language and experience the delights attendant to the acquisition of such mastery.  To aid in this task we may use models and diagrams, lists, tables, and charts.

    By way of illustration we may take Number 490 which reveals some of the operations of the will and understanding in the domain of our adulteries.  It is written:

"Now, as the marriage of good and truth has been treated of in the First Part of this work, and as many things were there adduced respecting the will and the understanding, and respecting the various attributes and predicates of each, which as I think are perceived even by those who had not thought distinctly about the understanding and the will (for human reason is such that it understands truths from the light of them, even though it has not distinguished them before), therefore, in order that the distinctions of the understanding and of the will may be more clearly perceived I will here present some truths, to the end that it may be known of what quality adulteries of the reason or the understanding are, and after that of what quality adulteries of the will are. The following may serve for the cognizance of them." (Conjugial Love, 490)

There follows a list of four things, but this Number is marked as the tenth in a series of eighteen things.  We may first draw an outline of the eighteen propositions and sub-propositions, as is given in the Table of Contents to Conjugal Love drawn up by the translator or editor.  A related activity for study is to extract propositions wherever they can be noticed and to transform them into a language of our own thinking and reasoning, so as to better to insure that we understand them with our own intelligence and are able to instruct others concerning them.  As an illustration of this activity let us take up the four sub-propositions presented in Number 490 which regard the nature of the interaction between our will and our understanding.  In this exercise it is helpful to remember that the will represents the affective domain:   that is, the good of love and its attendant affections, strivings, and motives, while the understanding represents the cognitive domain:   that is, the truth of faith and its attendant thoughts, reasonings, principles, and value ideals.

Seeing Through the Word

    The external, physical body of the Word is finite and appears to us today in the form of ordinary printed books. As we read a chapter, verse, or phrase in the positive bias attitude, we are presented with a natural-historical content that we can picture with material ideas in our natural imagination or automatic self. For instance, a verse in the New Testament says that "He send the rain upon the just and the unjust" (Matthew 5:45). From the physical content of this verse we can derive material ideas such as: that

God is a He; that He is the Giver of rain; that there is rain; that we get rain because He sends it; that we all get rain from Him even when we are unjust in our dealings with others; that we can be either just or unjust. These are material ideas or implications drawn from the physical sense of the verse. Through the method of correspondence revealed and taught in the Third Testaments (that is, the Writings of Swedenborg) our rational is empowered to see through the external-natural sense of the verse, and into its spiritual interiors. This occurs when we are told what the spiritual meaning is of "rain," "God sending rain," and "the unjust and the just."

    When we read the Word our natural, automatic self sees its historical, physical things; but our rational-spiritual self sees its spiritual things. Whenever water is mentioned in the Word (and there are hundreds of passages) it is mentioned in some particular form: rain, river, ocean, ice, flood, spring rain, autumn rain, well, fountain, and so on, as well as specific activities in connection with water: drinking it, washing with it, not having enough of it, changing it into wine, gathering it into one place, and so on. In all these passages the Word is actually discussing Divine Truth and the influx of Divine Truth into people where it shows as understanding, intelligence, thinking, reasoning, and all the other cognitive operations of our mind. Each specific reference to water in some form and associated with some specific activity, signifies some specific intellectual operation. By collecting all the passages of the Word that discuss water, and interpreting them in accordance with revealed correspondences, we are gaining many details regarding the true but hidden operations of our intellectual apparatus. The verse we are considering thus means, spiritually, that God is the source of all truth in our understanding, in our ability to reason, and that all people receive this ability, both those who have religion and those who deny it.

    We shall quote from a number of passages illustrating this principle of analysis. The passages were culled from Potts' well known Concordance of the Writings of Swedenborg: (the numbers refer to the location of the paragraphs in the Arcana Coelestia, a 12 vol. work by Swedenborg)

(24) "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it distinguish between the waters and the waters" (Genesis 1:6) ... The knowledges in the internal man are called 'the waters above the expanse'; and the scientifics of the external man, 'the waters under the expanse!"

(27) "These knowledges (in the external memory) are 'the waters gathered together in one place,' and 'are called seas' (vers. 9,10).

(28) 'Waters' in the Word=Knowledges and scientifics.

(57) 'The waters going out of the sanctuary' (Ezekiel 47:12) =the life and memory of the Lord. (=the truths which confer intelligence).

(382) 'To wander to drink waters' (Amos 4:8) = to seek for what is true.

(680) 'Water' (John 4) = the spiritual things of faith.

(847) 'The waters had receded from upon the earth, in going

and returning' (Genesis 8:3) = fluctuations between truth and falsity.

(2240) 'They found no waters' (Jeremiah 14:3) = no knowledges of truth.

(2702) 'The afflicted and the needy seek waters, and there are none' (Isaiah 41:17) = the desolation of truth (= those who long for the knowledges of good and truth. 10227).

(4926) 'The waters of the lower fish-pool' (Isaiah 22:9) = the traditions by means of which they have made breaches in the truths of the Word.

(7322) 'Stretch thy hand over the waters of Egypt' (Exodus 7:19) = the exercise of spiritual power over the falsities which are infesting.

(8368) 'There were twelve springs of water' (Exodus 15:27) = truths in all abundance.

(9468) 'The waters of separation and expiation' (Numbers 19:6) = purification and withdrawal from evils and falsities by means of truths and goods from the Word.

(10242) 'When entering the Tent... they shall wash with waters' (Exodus 30:20) = (when in) worship (there must be) purification by means of the truths of faith.

"These passages are only a few of the many listed and it is not possible to fully understand them without reading the explanations that go with them; nevertheless, the reader may have an idea from these as to the amazing details that the method of correspondences allows us to extract from the Word on any one subject. It is evident to anyone who studies the Writings of Swedenborg that in the Word is to be found an unlimited source of information concerning the self in our dual citizenship, that is, our external-natural self and our internal-spiritual self-. It is also evident that these correspondences are not arbitrary but derive from the organic connection between the two worlds of our citizenship. The Writings of Swedenborg teach a method of rational picturing so that phrases and words of the Old and New Testaments can be seen in their interiors. Through this method the phrases and words of the Word become windows and doors into the other world we also live in. The interiors we see in the Word are also the interiors of ourselves. The de tails we see there constitute the science and knowledge of of ourselves and our life situation.

    Religious psychology is the psychology in the positive bias which the Writings of Swedenborg unfold for our rational understanding. The religious psychologist acknowledges that though we must be empiricists, yet we cannot discover the spiritual facts about ourselves by ourselves. Instead, we must revive them through revelation in the Word. Swedenborg reports that Through his spiritual communications he was able to discover that the most ancient cultures on this planet were in conscious

communication with their departed ancestors who came to them as angels in their meditations and dreams. Their ancestors from the afterlife appeared to them in their spiritual bodies, which resembled their former physical bodies in outward appearance. In this way they were instructed by them regarding their ideas of nature, God, heaven, hell, and the inner life of memory, morality, and feeling. These ancient wise people were thus able to read in natural events their spiritual significance and origin. They did this through a perception of correspondences which came to them by intuition. They thus had the law inscribed in their hearts; that is, they did not have to accumulate knowledges by education and science. Instead, they knew by instinct anything they wanted to know. Subsequent cultures gradually lost this inner ability as people insisted more and more to know from the external senses alone. Eventually all direct, conscious connection with the other world was lost. As a result, a written Word had to be given to humankind and all knowledges had to be learned through education and the accumulation of scientific discoveries. Nevertheless, the science of correspondences was retained in shredded form in many subsequent religions, Sacred Scriptures, and mythologies. Today, some of this knowledge is still evident in poetic and metaphoric language.

    Religious psychology offers the possibility of a partial return to that state in which we can once again understand the natural in terms of the spiritual. This return is now possible because the Writings of Swedenborg give us a complete rational system of correspondences of the Word. The religious psychologist now has the new ability of investigating and researching the facts of our dual citizenship. Because we acknowledge that we cannot discover these facts by   ourselves, we need to be given a method by which these facts can be discovered and applied to human welfare. Yet we must remain empiricists: we cannot merely accept the authority of a "seer" or "prophet." We need to confirm every fact through our own confirmations.

This is Good News, indeed, for the scientist!  See our work on Scientific Dualism.

The Secret Code in the Bible

    Religious psychology works through the methodology the positive bias. This approach was meticulously practiced by Emanuel Swedenborg in all his scientific, philosophic, theological, and personal literature. These are available in English translation of his many published and unpublished writings, including letters, drafts, and personal diaries not meant for publication by the author. We estimate from public libraries records in the United States that he must be among the top five all time writers in the history of the world with several hundred titles to his name. His books, though not in entirety, appear in the holdings of most public libraries in the English speaking world. These books for the most part have been published and sold or donated to the libraries by the Swedenborg Foundation of New York, established in 1850 by a few people who felt strongly that Swedenborg's books ought to be made available to anyone who was willing to accept them as serious scientific and theological writings by an enlightened man. The Foundation also produces multi-media works in films, television productions, art, and so on) which strive to bring to the public's attention that in Swedenborg's ideas

the world may draw influences which are positive, creative, and altruistic. The Foundation has gathered historical documents and literature extracts from many famous literary and political figures who have declared to be greatly influenced by Swedenborg's writings. Selecting from that list, we may mention here the following: Honore de Balzac, Charles Baudelaaire, Hector Berlioz, Hon. John Bigelow, William Blake, Robert Browning, Elisabeth Browning, Thomas Carlyle, Andrew Carnegie, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir. A. Conan Doyle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, Johann Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Elbert Hubbard, Victor Hugo, all three James's, Abraham Lincoln, J. Ramsay MacDonald, Maurice Maeterlinck, Horace Mann, Czeslaw Milosz, John Frederick Oberlin, Sir Isaac Pitman, Edgar Allen Poe, Ezra Pound, George Sand, Friedrich Schelling, George Bernard Shaw, Sundar Singh, August Sdrindberg, Daisetz Suzuki, Henry D. Thoreau, H.G. Wells, John Wesley, William Butler Yeats.

    This partial list is sufficient to show that the documentation of Swedenborgian biographers and scholars establish the fact that the positive bias in scientific and literary thinking has been steadily forming within the rational of the English speaking peoples since 1757, the year identified by Swedenborg as marking a new beginning for humankind. This was the year during which he was given by Divine intervention to be the wit ness from earth to this mind-shattering event. In that year took place the long awaited Christian hope of the Second Coming of Christ. Only, it was missed by everybody on this planet -except Baron Swedenborg, Swedish Nobleman and reputed European Scientist-Engineer.

    Swedenborg then took down on paper everything he witnessed. Being an impeccably honest and intellectually meticulous genius, Swedenborg produced several hundred titles, or about 50 volumes in modern English print, telling of what he saw and experienced during 27 years of conscious dual citizenship; that is, he was living simultaneously in both this world and the world of the afterlife. These volumes demonstrate to the rationally inquisitive person that the Second Coming of Christ was meant to be in the rational of each human being on earth. The Second Advent begins a new organic evolution in the consciousness of the human race. This new organic growth of the mind will undoubtedly be discovered by future researchers in neurosciences. A similar new beginning had occurred before in the history of civilization, when the separation of the organ of the will and the organ of the understanding took place: this spiritual event in the formation of the human mind was followed by the growth of a new brain called the cortex, which in humans, now outweighs the old brain called the cerebellum. The cortex is the new seat for human rationality and freedom. Since the Second Coming of Christ is a rational new organ of the mind, it is likely that the changes in the human brain will not be as gross as before, but will take biochemical and genetic forms that adequately represent the subtlety and mathematical complexity of this new spiritual organ in our mind.

    Whatever the case may be as to its physical symptoms, the psychological significance of this new era is immediately obvious and capable of being utilized for creative and altruistic purposes. Because our human destiny was carried out by this

eminent ambassador, the writings of Swedenborg constitute a common property to all mankind. The historical and intellectual preparation has now been going on for more than two centuries. Many of our most influential thinkers have confessed being tremendously influenced by these writings and have used the ideas contained in them for personal understanding, creativity, and hope. Their ideas have filtered down and across the echelons of society. And so it is inevitable that ideas from the writings of this man are bringing about a complete and total revolution in all fields and departments of human endeavor.

    Religious psychology is another instance of the effect of this new rational self which each of us is given by the infinite grace of God. Until this rational was granted, there was no possible way of forging a unity between science and religion in the modern world. This modern world was made possible through the First Coming of Christ which liberated humankind from spiritual infestations or disease. As history instructs, the nations of the world at the time of the Roman Empire were moral barbarians. Civilization was destroying itself through the capacity of men to make greater wars. This cruelty and materialistic outlook were the result of spiritual insanity caused by possessions and ii stations from the hells. The Bible is a record of such possessions, though this was not known except for a few openly mentioned cases in the New Testament. But in fact, once the secret code of "correspondences" is revealed in the new rational, it becomes apparent that the Bible for the most part was written in a double language: one for the natural intelligence, and another for the new rational. In other words, the historical events and sceneries depicted in the Bible were inspired and preserved by Divine intervention; this minute selection or Divine editing, was accomplished for the specific purpose of creating a written-historical record of spiritual events.

    This could not be believed logically if it had been an arbitrary code revealed to or by one person. Such personal revelations have been advanced by many people and will no doubt continue to be. These personal claims at revelation are believed only by those who are willing to be persuaded by something less than one's own authority Swedenborg explains that we cannot use anything that has not been personally acquired for oneself. The only ideas and ideals that we appropriate internally are those which serve our loves or affections. This means that whatever we experience as a result of external stimulus is not our own, does not penetrate, will be lost; external stimulus means that we do things out of gain, reputation, or fear; internal stimulus means that we do things out of desire, love, worship, adoration, affection, striving, and so on.

    The self-actualized people are those who live mostly from inner stimulus; hence they report that their lives are full, worth-while, happy, hopeful, and successful. By contrast, in their earlier stages of maturity they were anxious, worried, insecure, and conformist. Through normal mental growth, we act and experience more and more from inner impulse. What has been merely surface style and family habit now become personal expression. We come to discard many old beliefs, many old ways of doing things; but as well, we come to like more and more of the old things that we do retain. And so, these old things, which at first were external, now become inner impulse, inner habit, inner life.

More and more of the unique genetic pattern of every individual comes outward and is expressed. Life in us bubbles with ever increasing force and wonderment.

    When we accept a revelation or life perspective out of another's authority we cannot really honor it. We are just false witnesses and eventually we will go whoring after someone else's authority and cult. But when we accept some new idea from our own authority we can confirm it over and over again: we can prove it, we can support it, we don't have hesitancies about it, we can teach it to others, we can discover new places it applies to, and so on. This in other words, is the approach of science, engineering, and arts and crafts. From apprentice we must evolve into master; we have our own authority to rely on on matters of decision. The Christian Church established by the First Coming of Christ nurtured a belief system that has been called "blind faith." But this blind faith has now been healed through the Second Coming of Christ in the rational, so that we may have a rational faith rather than merely a blind one.

    In the positive bias we admit that without this new rational we cannot break out from this world and must continue to be ignorant of our dual citizenship. However, with the positive bias freely adopted as a good method of procedure, we can experience and witness the birth and growth of rational faith, with its many benefits for individuals and communities. This rational faith is yet rational; that is, it proceeds like a scientist and scholar, on its own authority relying on logic, research, and evidence. From this cumulative perspective we easily discard false prophets and falsities that come to our attention. And so, this is the significance of the writings of Swedenborg, that they teach a system of ideas that turns everyone into a scientist-scholar-engineer-practitioner. There is no cultism or blind faith permitted.

    Rational faith, as found in the writings of Swedenborg, is therefore the unification of science, morality, and religion. It is thus a faith universal, for all humankind, such as there once existed on this planet, and still exists on other "earths in the universe." It is satisfying to those who are in rational faith that the Bible is the source of it, rather than some entirely new and alien system. Besides its harmony with our moral and aesthetic sensibilities and standards, the Bible is an old familiar object to many many generations. Its histories and allegories, its poems and aphorisms, its proverbs and drama, are all familiar to numerous people over thousands of years. And so we have evolved complex affections that tie us to the Bible, each of us in slightly different ways. So it is satisfying now to discover that these familiar people, places, and events are allegoric representatives of the great immensity of our own mind. We have a Land of Canaan in our mind. We have a river Jordan. We have deserts and cities in our mind. We are at one time Abraham, at one time Ishmael, at one time Joseph sold into slavery and at another time Joseph made king. We are also Nicodemus, and Thomas, and Peter, and Gabriel, and the Devil. We are all these things because these things are really about the spiritual world. The historical events that have been-recorded in the-Bible occurred and were historicalized so that they can serve as a source of authority for our new rational, a new organ foreseen by God Who prepared for its reception.

    One may wonder at such a grandioze drama: God preparing daily, historical events for many centuries in far away lands so that prophets may be inspired to record them * so that blind faith can develop, so that later, rational faith could be built upon it by opening up the secret code in which it was written all along, unbeknownst to the prophets or the believers! Yes, one may wonder at the fantastic nature of this. Yet after we study the matter and develop our new rational a little bit, the matter no longer looks improbable or fantastic. Consider how improbable and fantastic moonwalks, television, and hot showers would be to ancient philosophers and scientists. We can see that these artifacts are not improbable and fantastic, suddenly come upon, like in a fairy story. We can see that our technical advances have been "advances" and we can confidently retrace the steps of our discoveries. There is no hocus pocus or denus ex machine: by the sweat of our brow did we arrive at them, communally. So we feel that we own our technologies: they were not given to us by revelators, magicians, and ells. This feeling of ownership is essential for our freedom and rationality, for our very humanness. And so this is precisely what God is again accomplishing in our new growth, our new powers: we need to feel that they are ours, that we developed them cumulatively and communally.

    It is not fantastic and improbable that the Bible be the foundation for the new rational intellect since the Bible is unique in that so many of us are tied to it through our inner affections, our standards for what is good and true and desirable. As well, we soon begin to realize that this secret code in which the Bible was written is not an arbitrary code God picked to give us as a strange new system of thought, feeling, and reasoning. Rather, this secret code is in actuality the origin and source of our long derived system of thinking throughout the nations on this planet. When this secret, universal code is not known the Bible cannot be acceptable to all peoples. Every people has its own culture and system of ideas and traditions. Those who have evolved from a cousin stock feel themselves independently secure; they don't wish to be told that God selected some other set of traditions and truths and their own is to be discarded, having been a fake all along. This is both unfair and irrational. And so, the Bible has not become universal, only international and cross-cultural. Those who hope from blind faith that the Bible be accepted by all, do so from ignorance of its secret code. Those who have studied this secret code through the writings of Swedenhorg can see clearly that the code it is written in is universal, not historical and national. The importance of the Bible is not that there was a people called Israel, that Abraham was its patriarch, that they had a land and kings, that they were dispersed among the nations, and so on. This is merely local history. But it becomes universal science when it is discovered that the "people of Israel" is a secret name for the "Church within us", that "Abraham" is a secret name for "our inner self", that "patriarch" is a secret name for "religion", that "land" is a secret name for "doctrines" or "teachings" or "knowledge", that "king" is a secret name for "truths", that "being dispersed among the nations" is a secret name for "having false religious beliefs", and so on. Viewed from this perspective the Bible is not at all sectarian, not even religious, if by that one means some denomination. Rather, the Bible is now a source of knowledge, a source of facts about the inner world of every human being, without ever an exception.

    The Bible along with the writings of Swedenborg constitute the textbooks of religious psychology. It is not possible to discover a single fact about the inner world of the afterlife except from these sources. This is not a matter of authority. We are not elevating the authority of the Bible or of Swedenborg over some other person such as the prophets of Islam or the sages of Buddhism. It's just that no other books in the history of the world exist that were written in this secret code. This is a matter that can easily be proven once the code is known. This secret code is called "correspondences" because it is the code that the most ancient cultures on this planet were given when learning the ancient science of correspondences. This code and knowledge was subsequently forgotten or taken away by Divine intervention for reasons that can be made clear and are made clear in the writings of Swedenborg.

    Through his specialty given travels in the afterlife, Swedenborg was able to converse with those in the afterlife. He discovered that all those in the afterlife are the people who depart from their physical bodies upon death`: end find themselves resuscitated a few hours later in the spirit world, possessing to their surprise, a spiritual body that appears externally to be very similar to the physical body. The resuscitated people then undergo various growth experiences which by the law and order of the spirit world takes them eventually to a final residence in a society of happiness called Heaven or a society of bestiality called hell. Those who end up in one of the many heavenly societies do so by discarding all things of falsity and evil; this discarding process is slow and painful and involves much personal struggle in the company of others. However, when the process is complete, there remains in the individual personality only those loves and pleasures that are permitted by law in the heavenly societies. Those who end up in the hellish societies do so by willingly and insistently discarding heavenly pleasures and powers, and willingly and insistently confirming as desirable only those pleasures and powers that are in accordance to the law of the hellish societies. These two loves and pleasures are antagonistic to each other, hence they are separated in our final development. God provides for the law and reality on both sides. These matters are clearly and precisely explained in all the Writings of Swedenborg.

    The most ancient peoples had a conscious relation to the heavenly inhabitants through their ancestors who appeared to them in their dreams, their meditations, and their observations of nature through the secret code of correspondences. This code allowed the ancients to observe a natural event in their environment and see the spiritual or real cause of it. If a bird suddenly appeared, they could tell from the flight and from the type of bird what was happening in the spiritual regions of their own minds. They thus saw a unity between the external world and their inner world of thoughts and feelings. They instantly knew what anything meant through this code. Swedenborg reports that this code is a practical reality for everyone in the afterlife. For instance, the inhabitants of heaven do not have to labor in the fields, grow food, build houses, invent transportation devices. These things are instantaneously there whenever they feel a need or desire for it. The inhabitants of hell cannot make or invent anything on their own: no matter how hard they labor on their own they cannot build a single house or make a wearable garment. This is not because they have no intelligence but because intelligence cannot be used materially in the afterlife. People in the hellish societies use

their intelligence in spiritual or irrational ways. For instance, they may plot, they may harangue, they may travel, they may discuss, they may seduce, persuade, mentally torture, fantasize, and so and so on. These are their actual occupations and daily strivings and pleasures; the external world around them then grows automatically into the correspondences of whatever moral, psychological, spiritual acts they perform on the inside. If they stop to plot revenge in their mind against someone they hate, suddenly they find themselves in dark caves with others who have a similar desire; bats and snakes and disgusting crawling things appear and form the external world. If then they stop plotting and feel they want to raise an army, they find themselves in some vaguely familiar city, with some vaguely familiar people, or strangers, sitting in some dark, dirty room and engaging in disgusting activities. This is the science of correspondences in the afterlife: it is the creation of one's external world through the confirmed loves of our heart and imagination. Similarly, the inhabitants of heaven are surrounded by gorgeous natural correspondences to their pure moral altruistic loves for the whole human race. As they are engaged in pleasing one another, they find themselves in pleasant gardens, in fabulous jeweled cities, in horseless carriages that take them quickly to where they want to see others. When they study the Word, which is the inner meaning of-the Bible (not the historical events), they experience great revelations, wonderful discoveries, new perspectives; these types of feelings instantly transform their external environment into lush gardens, sumptuously set tables with delicious foods harmonious performances of song and dance, new books and schools, non-competitive games and exhibits, new techniques and sciences, and many many more, to infinity.

    This is then the truly great significance of the fact that the Bible was written in the language of correspondences. This knowledge is now newly made available once again to-humankind on this earth. That is the birth of the new rational faith which is available to all in the Writings of Swedenborg.

    Now we may wonder, first, why did the human race lose the knowledge of correspondences, and second, what can we-do with it now. The answer as to why we lost correspondences is told through the code in the story of the Fall in the Old Testament, through the story of the Flood, through the story of the dispersion of Israel, through the story of Daniel's visions and adventures, through the story of John's visions in the New Testament, and through many more events described in the Bible. The secret code taught in the Writings of Swedenborg allows us to decode and interpret exactly what each element in the stories indicate about the evolution of our mind, that is, the state of our dual citizenship. The Fall, the Flood, the Dispersion, the destructions -- these are natural correspondences or resultants of inner spiritual events. The-natural events occurred by Divine law and order since they signified the spiritual reality; nothing ever happened except what represented and corresponded with the people's inner reality of thoughts and feelings.

   The disclosures to be found in the Writings of Swedenborg are thus not religious disclosures but rational-scientific. The new rational in the positive bias method may

discover the real nature of the universe. God is not a religion but a fact; God's Will and Power is not a philosophy but the truths of actuality in nature, and in mind.

    How can we make use of this new knowledge? Religious psychology is the study of how this new rational understanding and knowledge may be harnessed in accordance with God's law and order. Its promise is infinite.

REVELATION ABOUT THE AFFECTIVE AND THE COGNITIVE

The first sub-proposition can be paraphrased as follows:    

(1) The will acts only through the understanding.

Now we may give a few related transformations each of which express a similar meaning in the sense of the letter:

(1a) The affective acts only through the cognitive, and cannot act on its own.

(b)  Our intentions act only through our thoughts.

(c) Good purposes act only through true reasonings.

(id)  Bad motives act only through false assumptions.

(le)  Charitable deeds act only through trues of faith.

etc.

The second sub-proposition can be paraphrased as follows:

(2) The understanding acts only from the will.

Some paraphrastic transformations of this in the sense of the letter are as follows:

(2a)  The cognitive acts from the affective, that is, the affective is primary.

(2b)  All our thoughts come from our affections.

(2c)  How we reason is governed by how we feel.

(2d)  What we uphold as true is decided by our loves.

(2e)  Our principles reflect our intentions.

(2f)  Our value ideals come from our desires.

etc.

The third sub-proposition may be paraphrased in the sense of the letter as follows:

(3) The will inflows into the understanding.

Alternate ways we can phrase this:

(3a)  The affective inflows into the cognitive, that is, the affective selects its appropriate cognitive response.

(3b)  Our love controls our reasoning, and not the other way around.

(3c)  Our affections rule our thoughts, but not the reverse.

(3d)  Our desires determine our methods, but not the other way round.

(3e)  Our cupidities rule our false beliefs, not the reverse.

etc.

The fourth sub-proposition can be given the following paraphrase in its literal sense:

(4) Will and understanding conjoin in two ways: will within the understanding is more interior than understanding within the will.

Now for some paraphrases of this:

(4a)  The affective and the cognitive are connected in two modes:  affective within the cognitive, which is higher in the control hierarchy than the secondary mode, namely, the cognitive within the affective.

(4b)  Intentions and justifications have two relations:  the stronger relation occurs when intentions rule the justifications;  a weaker relation occurs when justifications appear to rule the intentions.

(4c)  When our desires govern our methods we are more confirmed in that way than when our methods appear to govern our desires.

(4d)  When our ends govern the means we are more committed than when our means appear to govern our ends.

(4e)  (The relation may also be represented by a diagram: 

(4f) If our motives seduce our reason we are more confirmed in our guilt than if our reason seduces our motives.

(4g) If our intention leads us to compromise our principle we are more guilty than if our principle leads us to compromise our intention.

(4h)   If our goods lead to our trues we are in a more advanced state of regeneration than the reverse situation.

(4i) It is more confirming to adjust our principles to our loves than the other way round.

etc.

Additional study of these and other relations may be found in these two documents:

The Will and the Understanding:  Quotations from Swedenborg Comprehensive Discourse Analysis and Its Applications Comprehensive Discourse Analysis: The Levels and Qualities of Human Affairs

    As we are undergoing regeneration by the Lord we repeatedly enter into and regress from more advanced states.  Hence our vision or perception is at times relatively elevated and sublime and at other times it is uninspired and obscure.  These are appearances provided by the Lord in which we may learn to confirm matters in the interior sense of the Third Testament.

    This activity of confirming the inner senses of the Word is carried out during religious self-inspection.  In our marital transactions we perceive our distance from conjugial love.  The size of this distance informs us in a specific way what our temptations are so that we may disapprove of them and thereby perceive ourselves as freely co-operating with the Lord.  Herein lie our rationality and our freedom. 

    Religious self-inspection in marital transactions provides illustrations of the meaning of the matters which the Third Testament deals with in its inner senses.  As an example let us take the concept of marriage and the idea we have of it in the three successive degrees of the Church within us.  In the state of the Old Church we are affected by the Word of the Lord declaring that the twain shall be one flesh.  We see this as an instruction to be loyal partners to one another and a promise of happiness together.

This ideal spurns us on to resist infidelity and to expect the benefits of a lifelong association with each other.  We see ourselves as pulling together for the same goals and, in hours of anger or disappointment with each other, we pray to the Lord to have mercy upon us.  This is the marital condition in the state of the Old Church within us and the sense of the letter of the Old Testament confirms this view.

    Now as we are given by the Lord to enter the state of the New Church within our marital transactions, we experience a different view. We now know about the concepts of conjugial and scortatory love. We strive to dissociate ourselves from quarrels and disharmonies, attributing them to evil spirits that haunt us. We long for the day when the Lord will deliver us of spirit infestations so that we may no longer have to suffer strife and discord. With the knowledge of correspondences, and memorable relations, we search out the meaning of marriage the Lord gave when He was on earth as it is recorded in the New Testament. We now see that "the twain shall be one flesh" in a new sense and we have full confidence that the Lord will manage us to conjugial love when we get to our Heaven.

    We strengthen ourselves in this expectation and resolve not to complain about imperfections down here below. Eventually we receive an altogether different view from the Lord when we are ready to enter the third degree of the Ultimate church within us. There is no longer a distance between the Lord and us so that He ceases to be in our mind a Busybody governing a gigantic estate, and we see Him instead working our marriage transactions in an interior way. He is the One, not us, to improve our marriage. He it is Who labors and fights discords; He is the General and the Soldiers on both sides of the apparent conflict. He manages our guardian angles from Heaven and our evil spirits from hell. There is not a single transaction which He does not initiate and complete. We are self-witnessing puppets affected with the delusion of Self. But note: not mere puppets, but self-witnessing puppets. We are called upon to approve or disapprove of the appearances in the Works. Each approval or disapproval is to be purified by the Word. This is the state in which we can perceive the sense of conjugial love. This sense regards the appearances that are given by the Lord in our daily marital transaction as a representation of the Lord's Grand Master Plan, that He operates. It is a blueprint of how the Lord intends the universe to be, how angels from Heaven and spirits from Hell play out the serious drama in our marital transactions, and how our marital transactions fit into God's Plan.  This is a vision of the endless song which the universe signifies.

    Without specific illustrations the character of this endless song remains in obscurity, embedded in generalities that are quite theoretical and insubstantial.  But with the perception of actual cases in our own transactions, the interior sense and life of these generalities shine through.  This is not a retrospective perception such as that we have when we are in the New Church state.  Rather, it is an ongoing self-witnessing during religious self-inspection. When we are together as marital partners we observe with our external rational self that, within the time span of an hour, we exchange thousands of transactions.  Thoughts, gestures, emotions, expectations, habitual sequences -- all succeed one another at a rate too fast to record in our external

memory.  Yet not one of them in all eternity is without some specific significance, brought about by the Lord to represent to us some aspect of our actuality, our being, and the way to our future angelic character and placement in the Grand Human. 

    The sequence of our transactions represents an Order into which we are uniquely created; each married pair is unique, and is being created to eternity for a unique and particular locus or spot in the Grand Human.  In our transactions there is reproduced a spiritual geography, our unique road to Heaven.  By witnessing our daily transactions with others we perceive the map of Heaven and our way to it as long as our self-witnessing is a religious self-inspection based on doctrine from the Word.  Any other motive for self-observation and self-exploration would not uncover this map.  Instead, unbeknownst to the person, one would construct fantastic maps that serve to represent the dreamer’s associations with the Hells rather than the way to the Heaven for which we were created.  And so, by the Lord's infinite Love and Wisdom, the Cheruvim now guard the entrance to the interior sense of the Third Testament as they once guarded the interior sense of the Old Testament.

 Studying the Psychology of Inner Life

 Sound the trumpet!  Praise Him!Praise Him, Lord AlmightyVoices lifted, praise Him, praise Him,Shout forever.Sun and moon both join the swelling song,Lord of Heaven, hear the song.Sound the trumpet!  Praise Him!Praise Him, praise our God.Join the shout of angels,Sing we, "Holy, Holy, Holy."Every land and every tongue uniteTo sing the endless song.All the honor, all the honor,All the praise forever.

(from St. Anthony's Chorale) (Coronet Press)

     Our intention in this essay is to outline the psychology of religious life as viewed from self-inspection.  These contain observations of the inner life of self as viewed through the light of the Word.  All of us have an inner life which is personal, intimate, familiar; yet it is not as readily available to observation as the interpersonal environment is.  Think of the objects around us we can all see and the sounds we can all hear entering us through our external senses.  These we can easily describe or communicate or agree upon.  Even some rational things which cannot be seen with the external senses are

easily communicable and discussible.  Think of our many exchanges on abstract topics like politics, or sports, or literary criticism, or scientific writings, or relationship stages in the biography of a couple: none of these is physical or material that can penetrate through the external senses.  They are beliefs, opinions, roles, expectations, approval and disapproval.  These are rational things and they make up part of the interpersonal world.  Though they are abstract, non-physical, or rational, we readily observe them and can discuss them.  Language allows us to discuss rational ideas not observable through the external senses, because they are not physical.

    But there is also a category of rational things that is not easily observable or discussible.  These are not from the inter-personal world, but from the personal and intimate world of the individual's inner life.  This inner life is made up of our sensations, emotions, thoughts, reasonings, ideas, feelings, desires, attractions, affections, and loves.  This inner life has content and it has dynamics.

THE CONTENT AND DYNAMICS OF INNER LIFE

    The content of inner life is describable or knowable through titles we readily give to any event in our experience, or to any quality we observe.  Think of what you are doing now, or were doing a few seconds ago.  One might say, for instance, that "I was writing," or that “I was listening to the sound of cars going by outside," or that "I was readjusting my body position on the chair," or that "I was wondering where this line of reasoning will lead me," and so on.  One may intuitively grasp this idea of the content of inner life by thinking of a library.  It is not only stacked with books and periodicals but it is also arranged in a certain order.  This order is describable or knowable through a catalogue.  As we search through the catalogue of a modern academic library we are faced with a definite order of topics and their interconnections or cross-references.  By getting to know this order, or cataloguing system, we can find any book or periodical we want;  we can find any article on any topic, and thus we come into contact with the intellectual history and culture of our nation and of the human race. 

    We can say therefore that in order to get to know our inner life we need to study the available information, that is, its content.  But this content may not be available in the books or periodicals of a library.  To get to know the content of our own intentions, reasonings, and emotions, we need to observe them directly.  This is an empirical scientific issue of methodology, objectivity and validity.  In the language of modern psychology, we need to observe our motives (affective behavior), our thoughts (cognitive behavior), and our sensations and motor actions (sensorimotor behavior) in everyday living.  By observing and taxonomizing, or cataloguing, this living information on our inner life we can construct theories and models that can explain the interconnections in this inner life.  For example, a theory can show that the thoughts we have are aroused and guided by the feelings we have, and it can further investigate the origins of these feelings, perhaps relating the feelings to deeper affections of character or personality.  At this point, with the help of theory, we begin to perceive a new content not seen before.  This is a higher content, still more rational, yet

real and perhaps more crucial.  We may think of this deeper content of inner life as the dynamics of it, pictured as follows: 

 

    On the left, the content of inner life is held together by its dynamics.  The deeper part of content, namely dynamics, plays a more crucial function in the sense of. control or self-management. This primacy is pictured on the right of the diagram by placing dynamics above content.  The two parts of the diagram together portray the idea that there is a depth or height to inner life. What is deeper is also higher and more interior, while what is external is also lower.  (For more discussion on the "height" and "breath" of discourse, consult this article:   Ethnographic Discourse Methodology)

    As we begin to observe the content of our motivational life, cognitive life, and sensorimotor life we develop theories or explanations for this life, and through these theories we can see the dynamics of this life.  This greater understanding of our inner life leads to new rational insights, new visions of ourselves, which then come back down to us as creative solutions to problems or a more effective conduct of our external life.  Here, inner study pays off not only in greater inner contentment and enjoyment but in outer gain as well.  We not only become better to ourselves but more useful to others.  This double gain makes the study of inner life useful to society and may eventually develop in the future as a science and field of community service. (For a description of this rational society and how to build it, see our efforts in creating a  community-classroom in social psychology.)

     It may be pointed out that modern psychology is still in its beginning phase from the point of view of history.  Think of what the science of psychology may be like five or ten thousand years from now!  The experimental science of psychology has greatly advanced in the first two or three centuries since its inception. But this gain has occurred mainly in the field of inter-personal environment.  There are now hundreds of sub-fields in psychology each specializing in the knowledge and control of some area of the interpersonal environment.  For example, there is a "social psychology" which

studies family and city life; there is "educational psychology" which tries to advance our ability to teach in public schools; there is "psychopharmacology" which investigates how drugs affect people;  there is "sports psychology" and so on.

    All these modern "psychologies" share the method of interpersonal observation as the sole source of information for their theories.  In "clinical psychology," for instance, which studies how a therapist might best  influence our thoughts and behaviors, the source of all information is the therapist or the experimenter.  Various methods are employed by the clinical psychologist to attempt to see or infer the thoughts and feelings of clients and subjects.  Note that in this approach it is not permitted for the experimenter or therapist to offer their own inner life as the source of the data.  Within such a restriction, good or effective theories of inner life have not yet emerged in modern psychology.  This is plainly evidenced by the fact that clinical psychologists are not capable to readily modify the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of their clients.  Whatever influence they may have is slight and of uncertain duration and extent.  The reason is that clinical, social, and educational psychologists are faced with individuals who refuse to change and resist or oppose attempts at changing them. As modern psychology continues to evolve, we predict that it will be able to incorporate other methods of gathering information on the inner life.  In particular, think of the information psychologists can gain from observing their own inner life, and building theories of the self based directly on these data.  It's curious that psychologists have rejected this approach, believing it to be unreliable.  But perhaps the real reason behind that is that they have a distaste for it.  This claim may be better ascertained as you proceed through this essay.

    There have been earlier attempts to study the mental operations of individuals known as the method of introspection.  This approach has gone out of style in American psychology at around the turn of this century and there is virtually no legitimate outlet for it anymore.  A psychologist who would build a theory of the self based on introspection may not have a place to publish it or teach it.  An example in our case has been the persistent refusal of journal editors in psychology and psychiatry to publish our paper  The Private World of the Driver: Affective, Cognitive, and Sensorimotor on the grounds that the data are not acceptable.  This attitude contrasts of course with the humanities where self-witnessing experiences become of chief interest in literature, biography, art, poetry, drama, and even philosophy.  We predict that the future will bring more and more successful attempts at constructing theories based on self-witnessing, with useful applications to community life.  (You may consult one of our attempts at this in a paper called Workbook for the Study of Social Psychology.)

     This essay is concerned with religious psychology, which is a scientific field as yet in its very infancy.  It is not even recognized as a scientific field by the majority of American psychologists.  There is a Division of the American Psychological Association called "Psychologists Interested in Religious Issues," of which I have become a member.  However, this aspect of psychology is engaged in the study of religious issues to others, but not yet the religious experiences of the psychologist.  Once again, the method of approach is inter-personal rather than intra-personal.  One may look upon

this essay as our attempt to build toward a truly objective religious psychology in which the data are directly observed from one's own source of inner life.  (We may mention here the well-received  books of contemporary psychologist Dr. Wilson Van Dusen (published by the Swedenborg Foundation), an avid reader and enthusiastic writer about Swedenborg.  However, we make a distinction between his approach which we call "secular Swedenborgianism" and ours, which we call "religious Swedenborgianism."  See this article.)

In the future we expect that psychology as a science will evolve theories and methods that will allow one's own inner life to be the source of data.  Under such a method psychology and religion can intersect without one harming the integrity of the other.  Religion offers ethnic and cultural content, while religious psychology is above ethnicity at a level where ethnicity does not reach in the depth of the mind.  Religion is sectarian and divisive, though it need not be.  Religious psychology is universal and unifying.  This essay is an attempt to share with readers the results of our self-witnessings in the area of inner religious life.  By elaborating the content and dynamics of religious affections and reasonings we hope to contribute to the development of a methodology for the science of religious psychology.  What made this effort possible was our discovery in 1981 of the methodology to be found in the Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772).  This intellectual giant of the Age of Reason has left behind an imposing legacy of Writings on the psychology of inner religious life.  It is known that these Writings have influenced a great many figures of British and American literature including Coleridge, Blake, Emerson and the three James', especially Henry James, Sr. who wrote several treatises on Swedenborg and tried to defend his system from attack and ridicule.  Swedenborg's theological and psychological Works in modern English translation comprise a set of 30 volumes.  After studying them intensely for several years we are convinced that we can find in them a useful methodology for establishing a science of religious psychology.  The burden of this essay will be to establish this claim upon solid foundations.

    We must also state that we could not have accomplished this endeavor without the help of a Swedenborgian scholar whose lifelong study and love of the Writings benefited our own recent progress in this study.  He is the late Rt. Rev. Philip N. Odhner of the Lord's New Church which is Hierosolyma, of Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. We have greatly profited from his series of written lectures dated variously from 1968 to 1983 and published in the form of General Doctrinal Classes, sermons, and tracts.  Those who are familiar with Bishop Odhner's lectures will recognize the great extent of his influence in this essay.

    There are three categories of readers in relation to the Writings of Swedenborg.  First, there are those who have not studied them; second, those who actively study them; and third, those who innocently believe that the Writings of Swedenborg constitute the Third and final Testament of the Bible.  We trust that readers from all three categories may find these ideas useful.  As for us we are fortunate to have been greatly compensated for our efforts by the extreme delight we experience when we write about these topics.  We are convinced that anyone who so inclines may also experience

this delight through continual study.  Later, you might like to see how college students reacted when Leon tried to interest some of them in Swedenborg's psychology:

Human Behavior and Human Spirit:  Quest for the Good and TruthFunction Without StructureA Personal View on Swedenborg's Divine Love and WisdomRationalism:    Do We have Free WillHeaven Is A Place On Earth:  A Religious Self-Examination ExperimentLively Swedenborg BBS Debate and DiscussionsPsychology Student Reactions to SwedenborgIs Personality Forever?

    The subject matter of this essay is the study of one’s own inner life.  It presents a perspective which views the religious life of the person as all pervasive.  It shows how the inner life of thoughts and feelings is a spiritual life.  Leon used to think, like so many in this generation, that the spiritual is something rare that one must look for in special places, or that the spiritual is something we experience when in a brief moment of ecstasy, and many other such nonsense.  One of the students asked one day, "Dr. James, you mentioned the spiritual.  What is spiritual?"  And in the middle of Leon's long-winded lecture-answer, he suddenly and desperately realized that he did not know.  As a psychologist that is.  And all he had to do is to say simply:   The spiritual is the same as the psychological.  Mind is spirit.   "Psyche" means mind, hence psychology concerns itself with the spiritual.   The mind-body problem  is one of the oldest and best debated topics in psychology textbooks, and in the historical literature before us.  You can say mind-body problem or natural-spiritual problem, and they would be essentially equivalent.   The body is natural or, material and physical, while the mind is spiritual or, immortal and substantive, as in the following Table:

BODY MIND

material substantive

physical spiritual

temporary eternal

effect cause

subsequent prior

    The orientation of religious psychology is rational, scientific and pragmatic. The theories it presents are rationally to be evaluated by others, and errors of fact and prediction can be uncovered in them and corrected progressively.  It is empirical in method in that systematic data are to be gathered for confirming principles and propositions. Its theories are to be progressively elaborated by researchers, students,

and scholars.  As well, it has direct applications to society, particularly in self-help psychology, in educational institutions and in child rearing practices.

    Religious Psychology may thus be viewed as a developing scientific field or a perhaps a science of the future.  It ought to be clearly distinguished from both Religion and Psychology. Religions are necessarily denominational, cultural, sectarian, and proselytizing.  They are ethnic, cultural, historical institutions that guard specific norms and rituals through which each religion remains distinctively different from others and survives across generations. This process appears to be necessary to maintain an experiential environment that is suitable to the genetic varieties of spiritual genes.

Psychology in its current state appears inalienably wedded to the negative bias of materialistic monism by which it excludes the phenomena of spiritual life.  Psychology maintains an orientation and a methodology that specifically deny and exclude any personal methods for confirming the propositions of revealed Sacred Scriptures or Writings.  Sacred Scripture specifically asserts that no science, scholarship, or knowledge are possible without the revelations and propositions contained in them as Divine Truth.

Psychology does not allow us to first assume that Sacred Scriptures are absolute truths about the world, its origin and relation to God, sin, and life after death,  Second, psychology does not allow us to try to confirm these truths through observation, scholarship, and theory.  Instead, the method of materialistic psychology requires that we first assume that Sacred Scriptures are not necessarily true in their propositions about the world and people.   This is essentially similar to the Null Hypothesis approach of proof in statistics.   This involves that we assume that a relationship does not exist, when we know that it does, because we already looked at the data.  It's a kind of logic game or ritual.   For instance, if you want prove that a drug is effective, you first assume that it is not, and then point to the data to argue that it would be unreasonable to suppose that there is no relationship.  Therefore there undoubtedly is one (or, at least with little doubt).  Well, this strange ritual stands in the way of spiritual investigation, which is not possible when you deny it.  This is because denial is spiritual, and spiritual acts on spiritual.  The denial causes it to disappear.  It is obvious and crystal clear, therefore, that religious psychology must operate by the positive bias methodology.

Religious psychology is in the positive bias orientation:  it first assumes that all of Sacred Scriptures are composed of valid and true propositions, and then looks for methods by which to  confirm these truths with our own observation and theory. 

In this approach not a single proposition of Sacred Scriptures may be doubted or excluded from this blanket approval and positive bias. Why would you want to, knowing that this divine revelation created for your mind's ears?  If something is puzzling or

weird, it's much easier to think that we don't yet understand that part.   This is especially true when we begin to see that all Sacred Scriptures are written in a symbolic code that lies hidden beneath the surface of the historical and natural descriptions and propositions.  This is crucial to keep in mind.  Religious psychology would not be possible if the language of all revelation were not written in this double code, one historical and natural, called the surface meaning or literal sense, and the other code, symbolic and spiritual, called the underlying meaning or inner sense.   This inner sense is identical with religious psychology.  It is information in the ancient code of correspondences that cements all natural languages through the symbolism of the sensory organs.   Scholars have investigated these cross-sensory modalities under such topics as cross-modality transfer, synesthisia, synechdoche, metaphor, simile, and the like.   (If this interests you, you may later want to check out a paper Leon wrote on the subject:  The Affect of Symbols: Towards the Development of a Cross-Cultural Graphic Differential)

Interestingly, one's progress in the study and understanding of religious psychology is not determined  by a knowing a body of knowledge that has accumulated through many researchers over time.  In fact, the entire future knowledge is already available and accumulated by Divine creation.  Think of it as mental library accessible conditionally through specified mental states.  If you can put yourself into that mental state, you gain access to a sector of the spiritual library, depending on your motive, your curiosity, your current knowledge, and above all, your planned use of that information:  is it for good, altruistic, or is it for evil, egotistical?  Only positive socially beneficial motives for study allow access, while selfish motives deny access.

Also of interest is that religious psychology needs no special laboratory since its subject matter is life as it happens, the real world.  If you're an actor, your play is the real world of economic gain for you, and social reputation, of course.  If you're driving on a road, the real world is made of your decisions and choices as things happen, second by second.  A parent disciplines a child; a parent hugs and comforts a child.  The real world of experience and human choice is the laboratory for religious psychology.

It is clear then that Psychology and Religious Psychology are distinct from each other.  As well, Religious Psychology is distinct from Religion in that Religious Psychology is non-denominational, non-sectarian, non-proselytizing, non-historical.  It is cross-cultural, pan-human, and universal.  It is a science in the positive bias method.

    Religious Psychology is a scholarly discipline that is relevant to all religions, philosophies, and academic fields.  In the future one may anticipate such new sciences in the positive bias method like “Religious Sociology," "Religious Engineering," "Religious Business & Management," Religious Biology," "Religious Crystallography," and so on.  These religious sciences and disciplines are in the positive bias method in that they accept by premiss the truth of all propositions in genuine Sacred Scriptures.  (You can later explore the relation we see between cyberspace and the spiritual world in this article on Spiritual Psychology

Some of the assumptions of Religious Psychology may be listed:

TWENTY PROPOSITIONS OF RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY 

(1)  All nations and ethnic groups inherit particular religious affections (or tendencies) by heredity and tradition; 

(2)  Religious affections are organic spiritual phenomena and can be scientifically confirmed; 

(3)  Religious affections are the source of all rational and intellectual operations or capacities; 

(4)  Religious Commandments and Doctrines (or teachings) are specific techniques and guides for betterspiritual health and development, hence for better intellectual and emotional growth; 

(5)  False or adulterated religious beliefs degenerate intellectual and moral capacities and gradually wear down and destroy life and civilization; 

(6)  Religious affections and ideals govern societal goals and priorities; 

(7)  A genuine and effective religious life promotes intelligence, creativity, and societal and individual efficiency; 

(8) Intellectual growth and health is totally dependent upon true religious concepts and ideas from SacredScriptures; 

(9) Human rationality and freedom are not possible without concepts and ideas from Sacred Scriptures learned in childhood and adulthood; 

(10) True or genuine Sacred Scriptures exist for all cultures and ethnic groups even if they appear to each other as contradictory and oppositional; 

(11) The concepts, ideas, and propositions of Sacred Scriptures can be falsified or adulterated through interpretations that serve selfish or maniacal purposes;  yet the true and genuine ideas remain in all Sacred Scriptures unchanged and may be rediscovered again; 

(12) All genuine Sacred Scriptures are written in a secret code; these codes are transmitted from generation to generation through religious instruction; the codes may be forgotten or falsified so that the genuine truths in Sacred Scriptures may no longer be known; however, these codes may be revealed again to particular individuals and taught to others, in which case the truths of Sacred Scriptures may once again be seen and known; these secret codes cannot be discovered or found out by any means but must be directly revealed to some person through Divine intervention;

(13) Truths about reality and self found in Sacred Scriptures can be rationally confirmed and scientifically explained through data, observation, and theories; 

(14) Confirmed truths from Sacred Scriptures are societal resources since they are effective in combating social strife, ignorance, inequality; confirmed truths form the basis of better educational systems, better methods for strengthening good character, and for inventing better ways of managing society and solving its problems; 

(15) All Sacred Scriptures contain three types of revealed truths; these are revealed through secret codes in successive order; the first type or degree of revelation may be called the Old Testament; the second degree of revelation may be called the New Testament; and the third or highest may be called the Third Testament; 

(16)  The quality of the inner life of a person is dependent upon the degree of revelation the person understands and lives by; the first state is called the Old Church within us and is informed by the Old Testament revelations;  the second state is called the New Church within us and is informed by the New Testament revelations; the third and highest (deepest) state is called the Ultimate Church within us and is informed by the revelations in the Third Testament; 

(17)  Each successive degree of revelation or state of the Church within us is brought about by our willingness and readiness to conform in thought, feeling, and deed to the truths revealed to us as we study the Three Testaments and are instructed in them by others; 

(18)  We can have a theoretical knowledge of all three states, but only an orderly progress allows us to confirm or apply this knowledge to our life, and hence, derive its

benefits in deeper understanding, greater wisdom, and enlarged perception; 

(19)  Progress in the state of the Church within us alters our inner life of thoughts and feelings, and hence, of deeds and delights or uses;  in the Old Church state we experience a life that is a mixture of suffering and pleasure, of knowledge and ignorance, of truths and falsehoods;  in the New Church state we experience a life of commitment and hope, of progressive rationality and a greater capacity to fulfill our strivings and to serve society and people;  at last, in the Ultimate Church state we experience true understanding, wisdom, unbounded creativity, and genuine altruism towards others; 

(20)  Practical methods of study and research exist for extracting from each of the Three Testaments, theories and models that constitute the subject matter of Religious Psychology.   Some topics of Religious Psychology are these:

Who is God;  What is sin and evil;  How do we obey the Commandments of Sacred Scriptures;  What is our condition in the afterlife;  How do we become regenerated by the Lord;  What is the function of temptations;  When are our creative faculties unlocked;  How do we achieve happiness;  How do we live a life of love and truth;  What is our responsibility towards others;  How do we learn to understand Sacred Scriptures; and many others.

RELIGIOUS AFFECTIONS ARE INHERITED

    It may be seen from our discussion thus far that Religious Psychology is an academic discipline that is relevant to all aspects of human growth and community development.  Study and research allow us to confirm these principles and to adduce new ones from Sacred Scriptures.  Religious Psychology is thus the study of what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.  Answers to these questions cannot exclude the religious affections or ideals a person has.  No individual is born into a society that has no stance on the issue of who is God, what is sin or evil, and what is the afterlife.  Our stance on these issues gives a clue to our religious affections.  These religious affections externalize and show themselves in our topics, opinions, views, attitudes, ideals, priorities, and especially, our judgments, such as our approval vs. disapproval of something.  The role of religious affections is portrayed in the accompanying diagram: 

 

    Thus it is clear that we cannot have an inner life which is free of religion.  When we feel distant from religious involvement it appears that we have no religion or that religion is relatively unimportant in our lives; but this is only an external appearance. This illusion adheres to the body, to the external behavior, to one’s speech and declarations of opinion and belief, and even to one's own external thoughts and memory.  However, at a more interior level of our life, that is, at the level of feelings, strivings, and other inner actions, it is clear that we cannot make any judgments or decisions without involving our ideas of good, right, and truth.  These ideas are religious ideas and originate from our inherited religion and religious proclivities.

    We may ask the question how we justify calling the things in the diagram "religious affections."  On the surface these things appear to be merely social norms, the type one can find in any culture.  Surely we learn these norms as we get socialized, and then as adults, we are guided by them in our judgments, goals, preferences, choices.  Perhaps our emotions are conditioned to them by exposure, reward, and habit.  All this is true.  Yet we are not to think that acquired social norms and cultural beliefs are nothing but manifestations of our external life.  Norms develop and evolve within the climate of religious life in both technological and primitive societies. Religion restricts and guides external freedom through tradition, ritual, and accumulated knowledge.  Violation of religious laws are punished by death, imprisonment, ostracism, and reduced access to goods, services, and friendships.  Secular law upholds the religious Commandments of its people in every society.   This is by Divine intervention or providence.

    Thus, people’s norms and habits reflect their religious affections even if they are not explicitly aware of this.  People undergo an organic, inner development relative to their religious affections.

The first state of development in our religious affections can be called the Old Church state within us.  It is based on religious affections for external compliance to the Commandments given in Sacred Scriptures or to societal laws based on them.  For instance the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament are incorporated in our civil laws: we swear by the Bible in courts of law, we are punished if we are caught stealing, libeling, murdering, and so on.

The second state of development is called the New Church State within us.  It is marked by religious affections for identifying with the Commandments (as in the New Testament) out of rational conviction rather than mere external compliance.

The third state of development of our religious affections, that is, of the Ultimate Church within us, is marked by religious affections for internalizing the Commandments through direct spiritual perception.

Thus, as the development of our religious affections proceeds from Old Church, to New Church, to Ultimate Church, we become progressively more aware of how our religious affections enter into our thoughts, judgments, emotions, and actions.  At the stage of external compliance we are but dimly aware of this process and we believe that religion is separate from the rest of our life. At the stage of internalization or identification we gain awareness of the all-pervasive nature of religion in our inner and external live.  Finally, at the stage of direct spiritual perception we can directly confirm the religious thesis that not a single thought, feeling, emotion, or act is independent of our religion. These states of a progressively more advanced awareness of our inner selves are produced in us by Divine intervention and supervision.

Each state of the Church within us brings its own degree of temptations into our life.  A temptation is an organic process of spiritual growth through which our awareness is expanded.  Temptations have two phases: the temptation itself, which is marked by suffering, doubt, and imperfection; then follows the resolution phase which is marked by awareness, delight, and perfection.  We shall study this process in greater detail as it is central to an understanding of Religious Psychology. 

Shunning Evils as Sins through the Practice of Religious Self-Inspection

Awake, my heart, and render to GodThy sure defender, thy Maker, thy Preserver,A song of Love and fervor.My heart shall be Thy dwelling,With joy and gladness swelling.Thy Word, my nurture,Thy Word, my nurture given

To bring me on toward Heaven. 

17th Century Anthem(H.W. Gray Co., Inc.)

We know from the teaching of the Third Testament that there isn't any detail in the world which is not directly under the supervision of the Lord's Divine Providence.  This arcanum has been revealed before by the Lord Himself in His teaching that not a bird nor a hair can fall without the Divine intervention (Luke 12:6,7; see also Arcana Coelestia 2694:3; 6494).  But now it is given us, by the Lord's graciousness, to begin perceiving the interior sense of His message to us.  In the sense of the letter of the Third Testament the correspondence for bird in general relates to our mental organization during the process of our regeneration, and for hair in general the correspondence relates to our willingness to examine this mental organization for the purpose of separating in it what is true and what is false (see Arcana Coelestia 6963:3,4). 

    The interior sense of bird and hair as used in the Third Testament is perceivable when their literal significance is related to the Lord's visible Divine Human at work in us. 

That is, our mental organization is to be examined in every single detail for the purpose of relating that detail to the Lord's Divine Human.  This type of self-inspection is enjoined upon us as the first or chief concern in the life of the regenerating person.  It may justly be regarded as the sine qua non of the existence and growth of the Church in the individual, hence the key that unlocks the floodgates of Heavenly life on earth.

    The purpose of this section is to discuss the scientifics or, practicalities, of self-inspection whose end is to judge or, adjudicate, every detail of our mental organization as to whether it is proper or improper, that is, whether it is offensive to the Lord Himself. We shall for convenience refer to this activity as religious self-inspection.  Related words are familiar:

self-exploration; self-examination; reflection; meditation; self-observation; self-witnessing; self-awareness; self-knowledge; s

elf-consciousness; self-presence; and perhaps others.

We leave out “introspection" because of its negative history in American psychology.  Also, "self-analysis" suggests that perhaps a pre-requisite of specialized knowledge may be necessary.  The title 'self-inspection" does not presuppose any specialized knowledge or training, yet it implies that it be systematic, and thus excludes remembering from the past.

There exists of course another kind of activity which involves reviewing in memory some past event and deciding in retrospect whether it was proper or not.  This is what we call "self-evaluation" after the fact. However, self-inspection is on-going and systematic, therefore it ranks with other types of scientific observation such as we have in interpersonal psychology or in physics and physiology. Religious self-inspection is a variety of self-inspection, namely whose function it is to witness an on-going activity of the self in order to note its potential offensiveness to God. 

Since every religion (excluding cults) consists of God and the proprieties of our acts relative to the Divine Omnipresence, everyone on earth may practice religious self-inspection.  All religions (excluding cults) lead to God and Heavenly life after death through self-discipline on earth in obedience to the law and order set forth, through Divine authority, by society.

    The reason that religious self-inspection is of such great importance is that it is the only practical method available to the individual to shun evils as sins against God.  Yet we are plainly told in the letter of the Third Testament that without shunning evils as sins we cannot ever be regenerated; hence Heavenly life, which is promised by religion, remains outside our reach irrespective of the amount of knowledge of Scripture we may accumulate.

It becomes therefore critical for each one of us to develop as-if of ourselves the facility of religious self-inspection.  We can do this by resolutely striving to become better and better "religious self-inspectors," that is, more and more accurately to see the operation of the visible Divine Human in our mental organization.  This is the signification of all correspondences when viewed in a more interior light.  In Apocalypse Explained 419:20 we are told that hair signifies the ultimates of truth in the Church.  This correspondence is in the sense of the letter of the Third Testament.  By relating this rational fact to the visible Divine Human in the very operation of our mental organization, we can perceive a more interior sense of hair.  Indeed, within our thoughts and intentions, as revealed by religious self-inspection, we perceive the work of regeneration going on as-if of ourselves.  This new awareness comes about through the act of judgment we pronounce on what we find going on within ourselves in daily living.  Without this religiously motivated witnessing of our thoughts and intentions in everyday living we cannot be regenerated no matter what else we also do in terms of worship and conscience.  In Divine Providence 159 we are told that the Lord's reference to our white

hair (in Matthew 5:36) is in the context of His explaining that we cannot of ourselves do even the least thing.  Certainly thinking and intending are included in this Doctrine.

    It is therefore to be presupposed that the Lord works through our acts of thinking and intending, and this without a single exception to eternity!  What an intimate life a person has with the Lord!  Surely there is no human relationship comparable to this no matter how close two people may get; this relationship is then Divine and is the true meaning of religion, namely, a tying to God or conjunction with Him.  The very place of religion therefore must be in our thoughts and intentions; they are the only true temple where God can dwell inmostly with us.  This bond with the Divine is possible only through our love into the visible Divine Human of the Lord.  This love to the Lord, which He commands, enjoins it upon us as a duty of highest worship to strive to become better and better religious self-inspectors.

    There is a contrast drawn for us in the Third Testament between our own hair and the Lord's white hair in Revelations 1:14, which is the white hair of the visible Divine Human in our mental operation as revealed in religious self-inspection. Apocalypse Explained 66 tells us that the Lord's white hair signifies the Divine in first and last things, that is, Divine Providence in primes and ultimates.  Where are we to find Him in ultimates?  Surely not in the beauty of nature or the accomplishments of technology.  These are His creations, and surely we must not confuse God with His creation!  Neither can we find God in the church buildings, altars, crosses, or images; neither in the paper and ink of Bibles.  The only place is within.  But where?  The Lord is quoted in the New Testament on this issue, and He indicates that "the Kingdom of God is within you":

Quoting from the Writings: Arcana Coelestia:

In the universal sense, 'the kingdom of God' is used to mean the whole of heaven, in the less universal sense the Lord's true Church, and in particular every individual who has true faith, that is, who has been regenerated by means of the life that inheres in faith. For that reason the individual is also called 'heaven', for heaven is within him, and 'the kingdom of God', since that too is within him. This the Lord Himself teaches through Luke,

Jesus was asked by the Pharisees, When is the kingdom of God coming? He answered them and said, The kingdom of God is not coming with observation, nor will people say, Behold, here it is! or, Behold, there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:20, 21.

This is the third stage of a person's regeneration, a state when he is repentant. It is like passing from shadow into the light, or from evening to morning, and

this is why it is said in Verse 13, And there was

evening, and there was morning, a third day. AC 29

We are given the direction by our love for the truths in the Lord's Second Advent. This Divine Coming is within our thoughts and intentions.  It is available to anyone who is willing to practice religious self-inspection or active repentance in daily living.  Our thoughts and intentions operate in the spiritual world, outside time and space.  They are connected to time and space by definite laws of correspondence, but they are not in time and space, or of time and space.  They are made up of spiritual substances just as the brain is made up of material substances from the sun and planets.  The spiritual Sun and its many earths form thoughts and intentions through its spiritual heat and light.  It is revealed in the Writings that spiritual heat is Divine Love and spiritual light is Divine Wisdom.  Thus, Divine Love, which appears as heat as heat from that Sun, spreads into the spiritual world and cools down  as it journeys down towards the outward universe,  to become affective substance in the form of intentions and desires on earth within human minds, and thence through correspondence, in human brains.  Similarly, the light which goes forth from this spiritual heat organizes the cognitive substances into a particular order and its usable functions in the mind.  This light is Divine Wisdom or Divine Truth.  It is the light we have through the Word on earth.

Those who don't know the Word, or don't read it, or read it but don't see anything Divine in it, are still subject to the same mechanism of inflow from the spiritual Sun, though they attribute it to a different source, such as their own intelligence, or science and transmitted culture.  They don't consider the fact that science, knowledge, and culture in every society and tribe, is imbued with and originates from the spiritual Sun through the spiritual societies.  As proof of this, consider the fact that all societies and tribes have religion, and that all religions enjoin its followers to love God and live by God's commandments or else they will pay for it in much suffering.

    Thus our thoughts and intentions must be consciously related as-if of ourselves to God's Love and Wisdom.  This only is the true life of religion and is available to anyone through religious self-inspection or repentance.  Prior to repentance, or the act of judging our thoughts and emotions, we cannot receive the full value of spiritual heat and light.  Like a dried out plant we slowly die spiritually and become insane.  Religious self-inspection waters this starved plant whereby we revive.

    That method of religious self-inspection will be good or, efficient, which succeeds in replacing or exchanging our own single hair we cannot make white with the abundant white hair of the Lord in His visible Divine Human, white hair which is white like wool.  In other words, religious self-inspection succeeds when it yields judgments against ourselves and for the Lord.  Not a single inhabitant of the heathen Land of Canaan is to be left alive in our mental organization.  This love into the Lord will insure that we may avoid the deed of Achan related in Joshua 7 and whose significance we are told in

Arcana Coelestia 5135:6.  The commixing of truths and falsities of worship, which was the deed of Achan, threatens each one of us if we do not continually strive to become better religious self-inspectors.  In every single detail of our own thoughts and intentions what is of our own origin from the external world must be found out, judged, and destroyed. Then, only then, can we continue the conquest of Canaan within ourselves. 

    Prior to our judging a thought or intention it is unclean. We are told this in Arcana Coelestia 3301:7 in connection with the removal of all natural trues, even the most external, signified by the hair of the feet in Isaiah 7:20 (see Apocalypse Explained 569:17).  No aspect of our mental organization prior to regeneration has any spiritual truths but only the apparent truths mixed with falsities in worldly traditions and scientifics.  Nothing of the earthly can know anything of the spiritual.  This Doctrine guides us to a state of innocence in receiving the trues of the Heavenly Doctrine.  By contrast, after a thought or intention has been judged in self-inspection as-if of ourselves, there remains an emptiness into which spiritual light can enter and we begin to perceive genuine trues.  As each successive thought and intention is found out, judged, and cast out, there is left behind a clean vessel or temple into which holy things of the Church can enter. In that measure the Church can be within us, and therefrom Heavenly life on earth.  This activity must be continual, never ending in one's daily living activities.  Then the Church can gradually grow more and more within us, thus transforming us.

    Birds signify thoughts in general (see Arcana Coelestia 3901:6; 5149:4).  These include truths of every kind.  Speckled birds or birds of prey signify trues in the understanding mixed with falsities (Arcana Coelestia 3993: 5,7).  Thoughts we have are either in harmony with truths we have or they are in disharmony. In everyday living we continually make use of thoughts and intentions in our decision making; these thoughts and intentions form our reasonings, and they are in harmony or in disharmony with truths we have and receive from our study of Scripture.  There is not a single moment of life (including sleeping) during which the operation of thinking, reasoning, or intending ceases, and in every case the thought or idea is either proper or improper in relation to the truth we receive from the Word.  By judging each thought or intention we bring this relationship to light, we make its relation to truth explicit. 

    When the operation of our thinking and intending is observed by our rational faculty we acquire useful knowledge regarding the scientifics of thoughts.  This psychology of the self is to be employed as a theory about the operation of our interior organs of mind.  The table below pictures this activity (follow the numbered boxes):

THEORY or PSYCHOLOGY OF SELF

2.  we identify patterns in and influences on our thoughts

3.  we judge each one in relation to the Lord's visible Divine Human (This is repentance)

METHOD OF SELF-INSPECTION

1.  we observe our own external thinking activity with our interior rational faculty 

4.  we strive to modify the disharmonious activity as if of ourselves but knowing that it is from the Lord(This is reformation)

   This diagram illustrates the practice of religious self-inspection in four steps.  Through our self-examination in the external thoughts (step 1) we arrive at informed views regarding our more interior thoughts such as our reasonings, intentions, and affections (step 2). Then as we judge each thought and intention in relation to the visible Divine Human (step 3), we succeed in cooperating with His Divine Providence in the very operation of our mind; we then become reformed (step 4).  This activity recycles over and over again, thousands of times a day in our earthly life, and thus is our regeneration accomplished by the Lord.  It is the Lord's work in us, His labor of love.  Thus the Church grows in us more and more and thus are we more and more introduced into the heat and light of Heavenly life on earth.  This is Divine Wisdom in us. 

Repentance as the Gateway to the Interior Sense of the Third Testament

Open our eyes, O loving and compassionate Jesus,That we may behold Thee,That we may behold Thee,Walking beside us,Walking beside us in our sorrow.Thou hast made death glorious and triumphant,Thou hast made death glorious and triumphant.For through its portals we enterInto the presence of the Living God.Open our eyes, 0 loving and compassionate Jesus,That we may see to follow Thee, Jesus,Jesus, Jesus, our Saviour,Jesus our Saviour and Redeemer. 

Anthem.(G. Schirmer, Inc.)

We have discussed the practice of a constantly vigilant and watchful religious self-inspection whose function it is to separate that which is our own worldly and earthly inclination, which is unclean, from that which is clean and holy and is with us from spirit and heaven.  We are in the Ultimate Church within by virtue of our active repentance

through which the regenerating person develops spiritually and advances deeper and deeper, or higher and higher, into the interior of the Word, that is, the mind, which is the spirit.

    Let us recall that the Three Testaments of the Word differ from each other in both the sense of the letter and in the interior senses according to the following Order:  We should note here that we are not excluding any Sacred Scripture that was given as revelation to various nations and ethnic groups.  Though all our examples and illustrations involve the Bible (Old and New Testament) and Swedenborg's Writings (Third Testament) this is because these are the revealed Scriptures we were born into and have formed our lives from birth onward. 

Table III. a OLD

TESTAMENT NEW

TESTAMENTTHIRD TESTAMENT

INTERIOR SENSE

the omnipotent Human Divine of the Lord

Divine Truth in ultimates 

the visible Divine Human of the Lord

LITERAL SENSE

history & allegorymiracles & parables 

correspondences, doctrines, & memorable relations

Divine Names

Jehovah; I AM  Christ; Son of GodJesus; the Lamb; Divine Man

The table above shows that our relationship to the Word is various as to its different parts.  In this section we are particularly concerned with our relationship to the interior senses of the Third Testament since the practice of religious self-inspection requires us to judge each mental process we observe in ourselves in relation to the visible Divine Human of the Lord, this being the interior sense of the Third Testament.  We have already discussed the case with bird and hair with the following observations:

case with bird and hair with the following observations:  

Table III. b LITERAL SENSE

(correspondences)INTERIOR SENSES

(life with faith)

Hair in the Third Testament

Self-examination with the view to separate true from false

Our activity of undergoing regeneration by the Lord

Bird in the Third Testament

The unexamined thoughts and intentions of daily living

Our own states of hell in infernal light

The question arises as to how we are to cooperate with the Lord in His work of regenerating us?  We need to gain an understanding of the activity of repentance since it is the only method available to us for entering the life of the true Church.  In this study and practice of religious self-inspection we gain knowledge of the content and dynamics of inner life, that is, we learn the psychology of the self.  This message is given us in the Threefold Word as follows:   

Table III. c OLD TESTAMENT NEW TESTAMENT THIRD TESTAMENT

BIRD & HAIR (INTERIOR

SENSE)

that all things in heaven and on earth are subject to Divine omipotence  

(THE HUMAN DIVINE OF THE LORD)

that we are to lead our daily lives trusting in Divine Providence  

(THE SON OF GOD)

that we are to shun evils as sins through repentance 

(THE DIVINE HUMAN OF THE LORD)

The question may now be considered as to how we are to cooperate with the Lord in His Work of regenerating us.  We need to gain an understanding of the activity of repentance since it is the only method available to us for entering the life of the true Church.  In this studying we need to practice religious self-inspection which is the same as getting to know the psychology of the self.  To accomplish this we need to refrain from "consulting the rational," that is, the external rational built up through the physical senses, even as the Lord had to when He was a young Boy on earth (see Arcana Coelestia 2511).

    One error we can easily fall into is to assume that we already know what repentance is and that the problem is only to muster the self-discipline in order to accomplish the repentance. This error, if confirmed in practice, would "sew up the womb of Abimelech and all his household" in our inner life (Genesis 20:18). The result would be the impossibility of our entering heavenly life on earth and the consequent death of the Church within us.

    We can desist from this grave error when we reflect upon and confirm a distinction in degrees between the sense of the letter of the Third Testament, which is external rational, and the interior sense of the Third Testament, which is interior rational, which is spiritual and celestial.  The external rational is not spiritual at all, but an abstracted natural, which is an intellectual process not yet free of the temporal and the local.

This distinction can be understood only by reference to the distinction between our abstract knowledge of repentance and our observed activity of repentance. 

Only the constant practice of religious self-inspection in daily living can give us the information needed to undergo the activity of repentance, to empower it from mere abstract knowledge to confirmed, lived activity.

    And so as we study the Writings we need to draw out from its literal sense Doctrines of Faith that may be characterized as "spiritual-psychological" in content because these Doctrines deal with the self and the influences upon the self.  These spiritual-psychological Doctrines of Faith, as applied to the actual self by each person, constitute the interior senses of the Third Testament.  We should note here that we have greatly benefited from a publication called De Hemelsche Leer, written in the 1930s by a Dutch group of men through whose minds the Lord brought forth what we consider to be the Epistles for the New Church.   Their central focus was to prove that the Work of the Writings called Doctrine Concerning the Sacred Scripture.applies equally to the Writings themselves, and not just to the Old and New Testaments.  Without their insight and devotion, this essay and its content would still not exist on this earth.

    By way of illustration we may draw up lists of sub-activities within the general activity of repentance in daily living situations.  To do this we need to follow general psychological principles, not the kind we make up from our external knowledge and rational understanding, but the kind that are patterned after the sense of the letter of the Third Testament.  We may begin by considering where in our activity of repentance we are to locate the three degrees of Life as defined in the Word.  To guide us in our studying we shall refer to a type of diagram represented by three concentric circles, as follows:  (For more on this type of diagram as a scientific methodology, you later can consult these two reports:

Comprehensive Discourse Analysis: The Levels and Qualities of Human Affairs The Coming Swedenborgian Revolution in the Social Sciences and Humanities

 

The above diagram pictures the doctrinal principle that Life proceeds from the inmost degree (SUBSISTENCE -- level III), through the intermediate degree

(EXISTENCE -- level II) , and out to the ultimate degree (MANIFESTATION -- level I).

A connected idea is that the inmost degree is Celestial (level III), the intermediate degree is Spiritual (level II) , and the ultimate degree is Natural (level I). This connectedness may be extended to a whole series of such trines to be found in the sense of the letter of the Third Testament, as illustrated in the following Table:  

LEVEL III(inmost)

Subsistence  Celestial Love  Will Intentions etc.

LEVEL II(intermed)

Existence Spiritual Wisdom Understanding Thoughts etc.

LEVEL I(external)

Manifestation Natural Uses Delights Deeds etc.

This type of tri-grammatic table (read from bottom up) may be extended indefinitely the more we study the Word. Each vertical trine constitutes three simultaneous degrees and represents a spiritual-psychological principle about the self as imaged in the Lord's visible Divine Human.  This kind of table may be used as a guide or map to help us gain illustration from the Lord in the Word regarding our activity of being regenerated by the Lord. We may similarly focus on the trines of successive degrees, as follows:

 OLD

TESTAMENTNEW TESTAMENT THIRD TESTAMENT

  Civic Conscience Moral Conscience Spritual Conscience

LEVEL III(Celestial)

(WILL)

Needs Affections Loves

etc. etc. etc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Knowledge Intelligence  Wisdom

LEVEL II(Spirtual)

(UNDERSTANDING)

Memories Understandings Perception

etc. etc. etc.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Pleasures Happiness Tranquility

LEVEL I(Natural)(USES)

Sensations  Observations Confirmations

etc. etc. etc.

The table above indicates successive psychological states of development in the regenerating person (read from bottom up).  For instance, in the domain of our loves or will (affective domain) (LEVEL III), we begin early adulthood with a civic conscience and with all sorts of needs;  these give us the volition to obey the law, order, and mores of our culture from our external self.  As we move into adulthood we begin to strengthen a moral conscience and other social affections which look out to what is fair and equitable in human relations for the sake of society.  At last in maturity we evolve a spiritual conscience and religious loves whereby the Lord may regenerate us through our cooperative reformation and repentance.

    A similar picture may be seen in the domain of our cognitions (LEVEL II).  Knowledge and memories constitute our earliest spiritual life.  This is followed by intelligence and understandings, and at last, our cognitions come into wisdom and perception.  In the domain of our delights (LEVEL I) we at first  experience pleasures and all sorts of sensations;  this is followed by the capacity to feel happiness and more complex observations within our natural life;  at last we come into tranquility (Sabbath Rest) and the confirmations of sensory life.  This image of development of the self in three successive degrees represents the order in which the Lord glorified His Human and uplifted it even to His Divine Sensuous (see Arcana Coelestia 8624).

 Discovering the Steps of Regeneration

through Microdescriptions of our Inner Life

 

O Lord, in Thee we put our trust;Source of peace and joy for ever more.In days of trial be our stay.Be our refuge, our hope.We acknowledge that Thou only art God.Thou art God.In Thee we put our trust,Source of peace and joy. 

Hymn.(Harold Flammer, Inc.)

To the regenerating person, religious self-inspection, self-examination, and self-exploration are the necessary activities through which reformation of character is accomplished within us by the Lord.  We are enjoined by the Lord to cooperate freely, as-if of ourselves, in this task of His.  In the sense of the letter of the New Testament He refers to this activity as knocking on our door where He stands waiting to be admitted (Revelations 3:20).  The interior sense of the New Testament treats of Divine Truth separated from Divine Good, even as the edge of the sword is separated from its flat side when used as a weapon.  Our relationship to this part of the Word is in regards to the activity of hair-splitting with our rationalizations.  We are to use the cutting edge of the sword of Divine Truth to splice apart our Pharisaic excuses in the face of self-incriminating evidence.  The spiritual meaning of the New Testament is to be used to effectively convict ourselves.

November 1986:  Leon's Notes on CL 293-4: 

The Doctrine of the Wife is this, that the regenerating husband "Hearkens unto Sarah" that is, acts according to his moral wisdom.  A husband has this wisdom from the study of the Word.  This gives him spiritual rationality to the extent that he wills himself to apply it to life, that is, in interactions with his wife.  In these conjugial interactions, the wife acts from conjugial love from the Lord, and the husband receives perception through wisdom, and then reacts with conjugial heat.  Applying the Third Testament trues to receive the wife's loving actions, is his moral wisdom that delights and satisfies the wife.

When we husbands are in the unregenerate state of mind, we hate conjugial love, which is the sexual love of the wife alone or only, because we love "meretricious" sex, which is "crude sex with harlots", and we turn cold, that is, impotent, in the sphere of conjugial sex.

Therefore, the wife, sensing this about her husband, hides her conjugial sex love, which are her inward bosom delights, and instead, fakes or simulates crude sex, that is, lacking in sincerity, to keep him from impotence with her.   She also acts less interested and hard to get for this reason, that is, angry, quarrelsome, vehement, and insistent.

    Every person who strives to cast out their character evils, loves God.  To those who do not know of the Three Testaments externally yet strive to cast out character evils they find within themselves, God is known by whatever traditional Name they were given, which involves the internal idea of God as a Person or Divine Human. 

They may not be conscious of this because of their received beliefs, but they act within themselves towards God as-if He was a Person--talking to Him, praying to Him, feeling His love, and so forth.  And one can have these things only from a Person,  not from an unapproachable infinite force in the universe.

Those of the Church who are actively cooperating with their regeneration by the Lord, do so by repentance and a change of life according to their rational understanding of the visible Divine Human, that is, of the Lord's operation within our thoughts, intentions, and affections.  Religious self-inspection with the end of judging ourselves in every single particular, when practiced continually, constitutes the work of regeneration.  We are then opening the door, as-if of ourselves, so that the Lord may dwell in His visible Divine Human with us.

    It is crucial therefore that we strive ever more intensely to practice religious self-inspection with zeal and constancy, yea, with burning love.  For this is the very love we have with the Lord, and our veriest life, wisdom, and happiness.  When we read the New Testament, its interior sense arouses in us this burning love for the Lord.  Scientifics is a tool from the Lord to help our regeneration.  The principles of the psychology of self are to be Doctrines drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word.  They are come by when we live our faith.  Every act of judgment in our religious self-inspection becomes a piece of datum for the theory of ourselves.  Scientific data are systematic observations of facts organized by a theory. If we are to be scientists ourselves, as we must be if we strive to become better self-inspectors and self-modifiers, then we are not to shun the tools that are useful and readily available for this task.

    Those who have access to the interior sense of the Third Testament (as anyone may have who but accepts the idea) have available an extraordinarily effective psychology of the self with which they strive ever more intensely to search out in themselves their interior areas of evil.  This work is the work of the true faithful of the Church of the Lord; these He loves especially, and they are especially near to Him, even as the beloved disciple.  These are the works of charity through faith.  This work is what leads to the genuine love of the neighbor for the sake of the Lord.  It is possible through the interior sense of the Word, and especially if all Three Testaments are included in the Doctrine Concerning the Sacred Scripture. 

    It ought not to be thought that this especially helpful tool of regeneration is reserved for a few only.  It is available to any person of common sense and learning who is willing to study the Three Testaments together as the Word of the Lord, and to which three he or she applies the Doctrine Concerning the Sacred Scripture in equal measure.  If this be done, the spiritual-psychological order of the self is laid bare by the Lord in His Word.  We then contemplate before our eyes the Divine Human Proprium in ultimates with us.

    It ought not be thought that this work is only possible to those who have a lot of free time off from their occupations and duties, for this work is to be performed conjointly with anything else we are also doing.  Religious self-inspection is not a competing task, but a super-imposed task.  It is a particular attitude of life, a set of mind, a bend of the character, an inclination of the heart.

    Every single decision or focus of attention constitutes an interior act and is a candidate for self-inspection and judgment.  Let us illustrate this view by citing common situations of everyday living.  Let us say we are walking or driving somewhere.  Other people are constantly appearing and disappearing in our view.  We detect various things within ourselves to which we react.  We may look upon someone's face, semiconsciously roam our focus upon a nose, an arm, a shirt. We are surprised by this or that.  We smile to ourselves.  We are curious.  We free associate, mingling our thoughts and memories of people and situations.  We are puzzled by something we see.  It makes us laugh.  We examine their clothes, what they are carrying.  We conjecture about where they are going or what they are thinking.  We approve or disapprove.  We are curious.  We investigate further.  And so on.  (You may want to look at this long list of confessions for husbands!)

    Or let us say we are talking to someone.  We try to give this or that kind of an impression.  We think of other things.  Our attention lapses.  We pretend to have heard or understood.  We smile even though we didn't catch the humor.  We plan ahead to say something.  We intend this or that regarding this person.  We pretend not to notice something.  And so on.   (Later, you might like to see Leon's report on how he discovered Sudden Memory by using the technique of "mere witnessing.")

    From these microdescriptions of our moment by moment behaviors, both external and internal, we can enter into the scientifics of the self, of our own proprial life.  We gain knowledge of ourselves through the facts of self-inspection, of self-witnessing.  If at the same time we have judgment as an end in self-inspection, then these mental facts will be seen ordered in the interior sense of the Three Testaments.  In other words, the interior sense of the Three Testaments, each distinctly, will fall into the facts we uncover about ourselves.  Then are we in the position of confirming the interior sense of the Word. 

    When the part is judged, the whole is better.  There is a change of state in that part, a change of function in the self, in our thoughts, intentions, and emotions.  The instant we judge ourselves in some part, repentance has begun.  This new beginning is occupied by the Lord Who all along stood knocking at the door, waiting to be admitted by us, freely, as if of our own, from our love into Him.  Now, after He is invited in, He can do much more for us.  And this is an exchange that must recur daily, or even, minute by minute.  We cannot merely invite Him once and that's it.   This is because we repeatedly shut the door again, after we opened it.

    It is the Lord's Proprium in the visible Divine Human that occupies or dwells in the part of ourselves that we judged.  The Lord's indwelling is made possible by repentance of an act, thought, or intention, and henceforth He battles for us when we are in the throes of temptation.  This occurs when we are subsequently faced once again with the knowledge of some related evil in us, and which the Lord tries to bring to our attention relentlessly, zealously, on account of His Great Love for us, and His concern to keep us from sliding into eternal hell, to which we are taken by our inherited and acquired inclinations like a ship is imperceptibly dragged along by the current.  Each part that we judged returns to 'haunt' us: this is the labor of temptation and purification thereby.  But let it be always remembered that it is not our own strength that conquers but the strong arm of the Lord Who occupies that part of our mind and indwells through the Word in its three senses.  Forget this, and your repentance is as nothing.

    Following conquest in temptation there is joy and exhilaration.  There is renewal.  There is a direct perception of conjunction with the Lord's presence, a concrete understanding of His concrete presence, and a host of attendant affections into Him such as:

warmth, closeness, security, clarity, tranquility, vision, love toward others because love unto Him in others, love toward angels who live in His Proprium, understanding of the Doctrine of Faith, and many other like things.

These benefits of religious self-inspection are easily observable, when they arrive.

    The Lord regenerates through liberty and understanding. What we choose in freedom, this we love.  What we love, we do in liberty.  Our understanding is first attracted by certain appearances.  Later we are attracted by rational truths; these shape our conscience and our ideals;  they influence our character and our life goals.  Still later we receive with joy the trues of religion.  Then come the battles against our enslaved will.  We wage these battles actively, as-if of ourselves, flashing the sword of Divine Truth, willing to choose the way of the Commandments even against our own desires and preferences.  As we conquer more and more this inner Land of Canaan within ourselves, there enter Heavenly affections.  Where our liberty was in chains, now we are free, delivered out of the enchantment of selfishness and wickedness.

    We begin to apply the Trues of the Third Testament to our own psychological states of development.  The journey down to Egypt is now seen as our state prior to the present. We now feel a spiritual difference in the quality of our hourly living.  Heaven is present. 

We no longer have to rationalize this, as before, when we were still in Egypt and were engaged in the labor of rationally convincing ourselves that the Spirit is, and that it is here now.  Now we see ourselves already in the conquest of Canaan.  Our heathen reasonings and ideals are systematically uncovered and destroyed.  Nothing whatsoever from the old way of thinking, and planning, and reacting is to be left.  All of the previous self must be found out, judged, and cast out with horror. Then at last we begin to feel a genuine longing for contact with the Lord.  We feel awe and reverence, yet friendliness and camaraderie with Him.  The Lord now becomes our Shining Humanoid Hero as we begin to realize more and more how good and delightful is the Grand Plan He has in store for us.  We begin to love Him with ever more confidence as we realize that all along He has been the Boss in our life.  We begin to perceive that there is no chance event in the universe.  We are astounded to find that in every event in our life, in every decision we've ever made, in every thought or idea we've ever had, in every feeling or longing, He was there!  He was never absent.  He was an intimate co-participant in our external and our inner life. 

And now He continues as before, but we are also given the opportunity to cooperate out of love into Him from Him.  In this cooperation, as-if of ourselves, lie all the Heavenly states.  Thus are we blessed.

For more on microdescriptions, consult this report:   Taxonomy of Microdescriptions on the Daily Round: Part 1

 The Threefold Order of the World and of Heaven

Sent from Heaven,Thy rays were givenOn great and small to shine,O Light Divine!Thou blessing to all creationLead us to our salvation.Oh, shine from above,Divine Light of Love!Show us the way unto our God, we pray!Thou our beacon and guide shalt be!Light Divine, we praise Thee!

Hymn(Carl Fischer, Inc.)

The Word has three senses, one within the other.  The sense of the letter is compared to a ruby or diamond; the spiritual sense within that is compared to light that enlightens; and the inmost sense within that is compared to heat that enkindles (see Doctrine Concerning the Sacred Scripture., 42).  This threefold relationship may be expressed in

a diagram for clearer comprehension, as follows: 

  The six steps joined by arrows indicate a cycle of study to be repeated endlessly in the life of men and women and angels.  Step 1 constitutes the external study of the Word such as becoming familiar with its historicals and scientifics.  Step 2 constitutes the study of the first internal of the Word such as the doctrinal drawn from the sense of the letter.  Through this sense light is given by the Lord so that spiritual things regarding the goods and trues may be seen translucent and shining forth from the historicals, representatives, and scientifics in the literal sense of the Word.  Step 3 constitutes the study of the second internal of the Word such as the recognition in oneself of the states of the Church or of the states of glorification the Lord underwent in all its series and order.  These three steps are joined in the diagram by broken arrows to distinguish them from the last three steps.

    Steps 4, 5, and 6 are in the opposite direction from steps 1, 2, and 3.  This relation is to indicate that the uses of Divine Truth by us is dependent upon adequate study and preparation in everyday living situations.  As we regularly and continually practice religious self-inspection we are in fact performing steps 1,2, and 3 relative to the Word.  Only to the extent that is done, can we perform steps 4, 5, and 6 which constitute the genuine uses of Divine Truth.

    At step 4 we are placed into the sphere of Heaven through angelic affections.  In this state of the Church in us we experience the enkindling heat of love from the Lord into the Lord and toward the neighbor.  At step 3 we have gained an understanding of charity in life, or the good of faith.  From this practical understanding of Divine Truth in our living situations we are enkindled with zeal to act from celestial affections.  Step 5 is thus the externalization of angelic affections; it is the descent of the Heavenly Doctrine within us into our perceptions or intuitions.  Step 6 is the ultimate externalization (or descent) of Divine Truth in our deeds and delights as heavenly uses on earth. 

    Now let us examine the way in which this 6-step process operates constantly as we study the Threefold Testament of the Word. We are not to think that these steps are advanced by stages of life exclusively.  Rather, all of us as regenerating persons through the Lord's Second Advent, undergo the 6 steps constantly in the various departments of our social, psychological, and spiritual living. 

     In this next table the Threefold Testament is drawn to correspond to the Threefold Heaven.  As there are three senses to each of the three Testaments the diagram constitutes an "ennead matrix," which is to say, a "ninefold" relation.  We thus have nine varieties of relationship to the Word as there are nine types of degrees into which the societies of the Grand Human are organized.

Diagram V. b OLD TESTAMENT

NEW TESTAMENT

THIRD TESTAMENT

CELESTIAL SENSE (inmost)

THIRD HEAVEN(III)

The Lord as the Human Divine

Omnipotent

(7)

The Lord as Divine Truth separated in

ultimates

(8)

The Lord in His visible Divine

Human glorified

(9)

SPIRITUAL SENSE 

(intermediate)SECOND HEAVEN

(II)

Believing in the operation of the Holy Spirit within

us 

(4)

Studying the message in the

Lord's Life, Miracles, and

Parables

(5)

Studying states of the Church within

ourselves 

(6)

LITERAL OR NATURAL

SENSE (external) 

FIRST HEAVEN(I)

Obeying the Ten Commandments

 

(1)

Obeying the Lord's New

Commandment 

(2)

Studying correspondences,

doctrines, and memorable relations

(3)

There are 9 zones in this ennead matrix reflecting the three senses of the three Testaments.  As well, each of the three Heavens has three regions: an outer region, an intermediate region, and an inmost region; these three regions correspond to the three Testaments.  The 9 zones correspond to our states of relationship to Divine Truth in the activity of being regenerated by the Lord through His Second Advent.  The first level (I) is represented by steps 1,2, and 3, which are the literal sense of the three Testaments.  The second level (II) is represented by steps 4, 5, and 6, which are the spiritual sense of the three Testaments.  The third level (III) is represented by the inmost or celestial sense of the three Testaments. The three levels (I, II, and III) correspond to ever more

interior journeys into the three Heavens, or the Word.  The inmost relationship we can have with Divine Truth, or the Word, is pictured in zone 9, a state in which we perceive the celestial sense of the Third Testament.  This highest sense of the Word deals with the arcana of the Lord in His visible Divine Human, the very source of all Divine Love, Wisdom, and Power in the universe and in the soul of the human race.

Later, you may wish to study this notion of the ennead matrix and its applications in life:  The Ennead Matrix of the Threefold Self:  Affective, Cognitive, Sensorimotor.

 The Ninefold Self and the Ninefold Word

 

Jesus, Bread of Life, I pray Thee,Let me gladly here obey Thee.By Thy Love I am invited.Be Thy Love with love requited.From this Supper let me measure,Lord, how vas and deep Love's treasure.Through the gifts Thou dost give meAs Thy guest in Heaven receive me. 

17th Century Hymn, (Brockes Passion) (Concordia Publishing House)

    We have discussed the thesis that we have a ninefold or enneadic relationship to the Word, and that the regenerating person from the Lord undergoes these nine varieties of spiritual states. The method through which we can cooperate, as-if of ourselves, in this reformation of our character has been described as a particular type of religious self-inspection whose purpose is to judge ourselves in every single act, thought, or intention of our will and understanding.  We are continually to explore and examine our thoughts, intentions, and reactions in order to observe and identify the many varieties of our own proprial evils, and thereupon to cast out each one of them by shunning further voluntary contact with them as sins against the Lord.  If this be done as a constant daily practice our movement through the 9 zones becomes visible so that we may cooperate with the Lord freely, as-if of ourselves. 

    In order to obtain a still clearer comprehension of how we are to perform religious self-inspection, we may consider an ennead matrix: called the "ninefold self" which is patterned exactly upon the ninefold relationship we have to the Word, as outlined before.  This ninefold relationship stems from the order of degrees in which the Heavens are and which correspond exactly to the three senses of the three Testaments.  It ought not to be thought that in these holy matters regarding our

relationship to Divine Truth we are at liberty to invent or theorize whatever seems reasonable to us, as is the case in the various branches of science, philosophy, and theology.  Instead we must always proceed from illustration given by the Lord when we study the Word for the purpose of learning the scientifics of our own regeneration that we may better cooperate with the Lord as-if of ourselves.

The ninefold self to be now presented originates from the pattern given to us by the organization of the three Testaments and their three senses as revealed in the Heavenly Doctrine.  Since by Divine Order there are nine types of relationships we can have to the Word, we are to think of the self as also being constructed of these nine types of organic structure.  The following diagram helps us gain a clearer comprehension of the self's nine organic parts:  

Diagram VI. a NATURAL SELF(Old Testament)

RATIONAL SELF (New Testament)

CELESTIAL SELF(Third Testament)

AFFECTIONS(III)(Celestial Sense)("Love")("End")

Natural Goods(e.g., abilities, capacities, & aptitudes)

Rational Goods(e.g., the social viirtues & conscience)

Spiritual Goods (e.g., love into the Lord) 

CONGNITIONS(II)(Spritual Sense)("Wisdom")("Cause")

Natural Truths(e.g., memory-knowledges & scientifics)

Rational Truths(e.g., understanding of correspondences)

Spiritual Truths (e.g., perception & illustration) 

DELIGHTS & PRODUCTS(I)("Natural Sense")("Uses")("Effects")

Natural Uses(e.g., enjoyments & products of science & arts)

Rational Uses(e.g., production & use of doctrines)

Spiritual Uses(e.g., works of charity & states of conjugial love)

READ FROM BOTTOM UP

This table pictures a ninefold relation between the three parts of the self in successive degrees (horizontal dimension on the diagram) and in simultaneous degrees (vertical dimension) The three successive parts of the self correspond to the three successive states of the external church as portrayed in the Old Testament, New Testament, and Third Testament, respectively. The Old Testament corresponds to our Natural Self.  The New Testament corresponds to the Rational Self.  The Third Testament corresponds to the Celestial Self.  The simultaneous degrees are ordered from inmost (Affections) , through intermediates (Cognitions) to externals (Sensorimotor Delights & Products).

    It should be understood that the purpose of this and other diagrams is to help us make more explicit and clearer the knowledge we acquire when we study the Word from a reverend sense of duty and love into the Lord.  It would not be possible to acquire an understanding of the holy things portrayed through these diagrams solely by reading these explanations.  Rather, an understanding of the interior and real sense of these holy things can be gained only from a direct study of the Word while striving to enact them in our daily decisions and choices and attitudes.  As an adjunct to this study, the reader may peruse these diagrams to summarize and perhaps confirm the holy things from the Word.  Eventually every person may profit by constructing their own diagrams.  These are the memory-knowledges or scientifics we receive from the Lord through the Word. 

    But the real and important use of the diagrams come when they are internalized as maps of one's own progression in the regenerating life.  Then, as we study the Word in the context of our daily living situations, maps or diagrams spontaneously form in our understanding making the truths received to appear in a clearer light.  As we perform religious self-inspection, the internalized maps or system of degrees help us recognize the spiritual states behind our natural acts.  This identification or localization contributes significantly to our efforts in shunning our evils as sins against the Lord. 

Only to the extent that this work of purification and reformation is grounded in active repentance of all our evils can we cooperate in our regeneration by the Lord, in freedom and as-if of ourself.  Our state of external blessedness in conjunction with the Lord is attained in proportion to our success in this holy endeavor.

The Simple but Basic States of Our Religion in Childhood

    Every human being is a child of God.  Every religion that strengthens people's conscience for the good and the true reveres God and saves society from falling into bestiality and destruction.  All religions are united in the ideal that there is no good and true apart from God.  Every true religion teaches that God is One.  All religious peoples of the world have Sacred Scriptures or Writings which are held to be Divinely inspired, hence Divine and Holy.  In their essence all Sacred Scriptures reflect God because they are from God.  These truths and realities need to be taught to every generation as rules of living.  Religious feelings calm the mind and strengthen character.  It is only politicking about religion that stirs disagreement, dispute, and prejudice.  But when the desire is to find agreements about God, all religions have a wealth to offer.  These are the varieties of good and truth, the beauty and glory of our common Divine Father.

    Number 5135:3,4 in the Arcana Coelestia summarizes a number of truths which all external religions share.  We may reword them as a list:

(1) There is a God Who is everywhere.

(2) God is one Divine Being, as each human being is one individual.

(3) God creates everything and controls whatever happens.

(4) God rewards those who will well, think well, and act well. But those who will, think, or act badly lose everything that is good and true with them.

(5) When we die we live in Heaven forever if we like to be good. But those who like to be bad live in Hell forever.

(6) God wants us to pray to Him every day.  We need to ask Him to please show us how to be good.

(7) God wants us to study Sacred Scriptures because it is His Word and from that we can know what is good and true.

(8) God wants us to keep a day of the week holy for worship.

(9) God wants us to honor our parents, to respect the church of our religion, to love our country, and to do our duty at all times.

(10) God wants us to stop lying, and stealing, and making fun of people.

(11) God wants us to stop hurting people and He wants us to stop being unchaste.

(12) The more you try to be good according to Sacred Scriptures the more you feel free, and hence, the more you are happy and satisfied.

(13) When you try to be good you are loving the Lord God and He in turn is happy with you.  But when you hurt someone and do not try to make up for it you are not loving the Lord and He is sad.  The Lord keeps waiting for you to change your mind and be good again.

(14) Those who try to be good are our friends, but those who insist on being bad no matter what, are not our friends.

(15) To be good is to try to do what the Lord wants you to do. To be bad is to do what you want to do.

(16) The Lord wants you to be like Him: obedient, honest, and religious.

(17) To be religious means to watch out for God in every single act, thought, and desire.

(18) There are two ways to watch out for God in everything: first, always to listen to our conscience; second, every day to study Sacred Scriptures or the Word of God.

(19) Good angels from Heaven lead us when we follow our conscience; bad spirits from Hell lead us when we disobey our conscience.

(20) Our conscience tells us to share with our friends everything we like and enjoy.

(21) There is a good and proper way to share and a bad and improper way.  We know the difference when we follow the example of parents, elders, and officials.

(22) The more you enjoy something the more you owe thanks to the Lord your God.  But when you are sad or in suffering, the Lord weeps with you and looks to changing your state so that you can be happy again.

(23) When you are afraid, sad, or unhappy, remind yourself that the Lord your God is in charge and your job is to trust Him at all times no matter what happens.  Keep thinking about what Sacred Scriptures teach, which is that the Lord turns every event, no matter how bad, into something good.

(24) When you feel antsy, agitated, bored, go get yourself something good to eat while you study your favorite parts of Sacred Scriptures until you are content again.

(25) When you feel sad or depressed read passages of Sacred Scriptures which tell of the Lord's grief for the human race.  Let yourself cry.  Then the Lord will uplift your spirit and instead of sadness you'll feel joy.

 The Psychology of Temptations

    The phenomenon of temptations is central to the study of Religious Psychology though it is unknown in Psychology where the word is used to refer to lapses in our duty or morality and is not viewed as a process of organic spiritual development.  It is well known in religious doctrines and the subject of temptations is explicitly discussed in all Sacred Scriptures, each in their own tradition.  For example, the New Testament tells us that Jesus underwent temptations.  As well, we are taught in Sacred Scriptures that our thoughts and intentions are evil and it is required that we purify them through resisting temptations.  In the Old Testament we are told how Job was severely tempted by Satan.  In the Third Testament we read that temptations are the very means by which the Lord regenerates everyone.  A person may therefore ask, Where are my temptations?  This surely ought to be an important subject in Religious Psychology since temptations are the means by which we are regenerated, and to be regenerated is the goal and love of all.

    Where are my temptations?  This inquiry is indeed to be taken very seriously by every individual.  The state of the Church within us determines the nature and severity

of our temptations at any time and in any area of life.  When we are in the state of the Old Church within us we are given by the Lord to experience first degree temptations;  these are at a relatively low but basic level of the self.  We may think of them as natural temptations, or temptations of the Natural Self.  These temptations are grouped and identified, as in the Ten Commandments: we must not give in to the temptations of

religiouslessness, theft, libel, adultery, murder. 

These are temptations that all socialized human beings must learn to overcome or control within their thoughts or impulses.  The Lord manages every temptation so as to bring about the individual's spiritual growth.  Not a single exception ever occurs as temptations follow a fixed and unchangeable Order governed by the Lord.

    In Religious Psychology we may view temptations as the study of spiritual growth and development.  How does the individual grow spiritually?  Where can we look so as to observe this operation? To home in on this area we may consider the examples in the accompanying chart:

domain IIIAFFECTIONAL DISTURBANCES

(Will; Love; Good)(Spiritual Temptations)

Spiritual Self(religion)

(i) It's not up to me to do it.(ii) You didn't do it, did you.(iii) Oh that, it's awful.(iv) I don't deserve this kind of treatment.(v) I don't feel like, so I don't have to.(vi) etc.

domain IICOGNITIVE DISTURBANCES(Understanding; Truth; Faith)

(Moral Tempations)

Rational Self(morality)

(i) It does look bad.(ii) It's not my responsibility(iii) I'll do it some other time.(iv) Don't bother me now.(v) Why should I do it?(vi) etc.

domain I SENSORIMOTOR DISTURBANCES(Delights; Uses)

(Corporeal Temptaions)

Natural Self(logic)

(i) I'm too tired to do it now(ii) I'm too busy to remember it.(iii) I'm too nervous to try it.(iv) I'm enjoying it too much to stop.(v) I can't really believe that it's bad for me.(vi) etc.

READ FROM BOTTOM UP

 Self-justification is a second degree temptation that hinges on our reasonings whereby we appropriate rights to ourself and against others in the areas of duty, responsibility, and propriety.  We need to observe how we make our reasoning come out with permission to do something even though we suspect it is self-serving; the reasoning we come up with appears to justify us in our stance.  Deep down we know otherwise.  Our higher will to be good instructs us, as it were, concerning what's right or wrong.  This battle of reasonings is the visible manifestation of the temptation we are experiencing.   Later, you can check these documents we have on matters related to temptations, which also contain relevant quotations from the Writings.

Temptations Moses, Paul, and Swedenborg Male Prerogatives to be Discarded The Psychology of Regeneration Character Weaknesses Religious Morality Conscience Therapy

    Within the second degree, temptations can be classified in relation to the three domains of the human mind: the will (III) the understanding (II), and sensorimotor uses of external life (I). The chart lists specific cases that occur to us when we are in the New Church state and arranges them in the three domains of the self: spiritual temptations for the Spiritual Self, moral temptations for the Rational Self, and corporeal temptations for the Natural Self.

    In the external domain of life, called the Natural Self, we may focus and inspect our errors of logic.  For example, we look at an excuse or complaint we just made in a situation, either to others or to ourself.  We said out loud, or thought to ourself, "I'm too tired to do it now." or “I'm too nervous to try it.” and by saying this we feel absolved of responsibility.  This feeling of guiltlessness results from the severity of our temptation.  In this state we experience spiritual, moral, and logical obscurity or "darkness."  This feeling of guiltlessness becomes oppressive. Deep down we know we are wrong yet we feel guiltless!  It is a state of Godlessness; it hardens our heart and stiffens our neck;  it strengthens our resolve to be right even if bad!  It is a state of suffering and labor.  We are aware that we are disturbed in our uses and in our delights.  We experience a lack of delight in our dark victory.  We experience negative emotions towards ourselves and others.  We observe ourselves in callous behavior.  We feel impure.  This outlook colors everything dark blue or black.  Or else we act in a manic style, too loud, too fast, too insistent, too ticklish, too defensive, too sure of ourselves, and so on.  Our rhythm is off; we do not co-ordinate with others.  We long for a change.  We fall into further temptations as if in an unending chain.  We feel ourselves out of control. We are in trouble!

    This is the character and quality of corporeal temptations in the New Church state within us.  They are provided for our spiritual growth in the second degree of regeneration. The New Testament gives a precise record of corporeal

temptations in the New Church state.  Some of these are given in the sense of the letter, but others are hidden in the interior sense of doctrines, miracles, and parables taught by the Lord in the Gospels and require a revealed code to be known.  This code has been revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772), an event that constitutes the Second Advent of Christ in Spirit, the very one foretold by the Lord Himself when He was in the world.  This idea is central to the Writings and well documented and proven in numerous places there.

    When we are thus in trouble in the New Church state within us we must wait in a patient and prayerful attitude until the Lord provides us with weapons of defense by which we may change our miserable state.  We continue to transact with others and to carry out our daily activities.  We will ourselves not to make things worse out of already a bad situation.  This process may go on for a few moments or hours or days or for longer periods of time. In His infinite mercy and wisdom the Lord supervises this growth process most keenly as would a most loving and kindly nurse in some temporary sickness we have.  He is gentle but firm, yielding just a bit in one moment but insistent again the next moment. He works through our own will and understanding making sure that we lose neither our rationality nor our freedom.  Thus we experience the combat as if it were our own.  We feel that we are pulled and pushed by our own will and reasoning.  Though we see ourself act from uncontrollable impulse, yet we claim this impulse as our own, as our deeper and higher self.

    At one moment, all of a sudden and without warning, a new and fresh idea enters our reasoning and conscious thought. Our will becomes empowered with a new impulse.  This new idea is now able to conquer all our previous reasonings that now try to stand up in its way, but to no avail.  It is the terrible swift sword of our King and Savior, the conquering Christ, Divine Truth itself, the Holy Spirit, the Angel of the Lord!  This new idea conquers all the old enemies of the land.  It chases away all the old worries and anxieties.  It sees through our errors in logic; it can choose between available alternatives without bogging down in technicalities.  We are saved!  We conquer, we overcome.  We are empowered to think new thoughts, to feel new feelings, and to break forth into new actions.  The period of temptation is at an end.  We feel it was worth it.  We have clean garments, a new house.  We are pure where we were impure.  Our leprosy is healed. We feel gratitude and love toward the Lord.  A new closeness with Him is inaugurated.  We feel and we are blessed.  Contentment, happiness, and a new competence are our rewards.  Truly it is then the Sabbath.

    Let us now consider the nature and quality of moral temptations.  These occur in our cognitive disturbances, in the understandings of our Rational Self rather than in the sensorimotor activities of our Natural Self.  Cognitive disturbances are about truth and faith rather than external emotions and acts.  For example, suppose we excuse our forgetting something by thinking "Oh, well, I'm too busy to remember it." meaning, "I'm not to be blamed for it given the attenuating circumstances."  This is a moral temptation: it challenges the Rational Self.  Our rational is overcome. We are incapable of coming up with something our rational self can use to make us feel guilty for insufficient care.  We ought to feel guilty for forgetting our duty

and responsibility, for not thinking it important enough to keep in the forefront of our focus and attention, yet we feel guiltless.  We are acting like a moral pariah!  Like a psychopath without a conscience.  But we are helpless to change our state.  We are unable to convict ourself, to convince ourself that we are guilty of neglect:.  We feel self-justified and in the right.  We are unable to acknowledge our wrong or feel remorse for it.  Instead we feel righteous, deserving. We are in trouble once again! 

    When we experience moral temptations we are to persist in our attempts to get free by invoking the Commandments of the New Testament.  We are to remind ourselves that we do love the Lord.  We remind ourselves that the Lord can and will deliver us with His Divine Truth, His Spirit of counsel and comfort.

When the process is at an end, the cognitive disturbance dissipates. All of a sudden we see through the contradictions; we now can resolve the paradoxes.  Whereas in the state of moral temptation we said, “It's not my responsibility.  It really isn't.  That's all there is to it.  That's the truth. etc." now we say, "Yes, but that's bringing in a non-essential element.  It may be true, but it's also an excuse.  And surely that takes precedence." And we really feel that it does take precedence, that the fact we were held fascinated by was merely a self-serving excuse, that though it appeared true, yet it was not good.  And by this thought and feeling we are liberated from the combat. 

Genuine truth, which is the servant of good, is now restored to us.  Our faith becomes more beautiful and more powerful than before.  We really understand things now in this new light and new warmth. We are renewed in our resolve to battle ourselves, to purify ourselves, to be healed from blindness, and deafness, and paralysis. We feel more responsible for our effects on others.  We write things down to make sure we won't forget.  We rehearse it in our mind many times a day to make sure we won't forget this time. We are reformed in our character.  That particular weakness is no longer going to trouble us.  Praise be to the Lord!  Such is the character and progress of moral temptations.

    We may now consider spiritual temptations which are affectional disturbances. These are the inmost and most grievous of temptations.  In the New Church state spiritual temptations are about one's religious life.  We experience a change in our religious affections.  Our highest ideals and deepest motives are affected.  It's not just that our logic is faulty (as in the corporeal temptations); neither is it merely that our rationality or morality is obscured (as in moral temptations).  Here a deeper source is weakened and turned off, as it were: our will to love and be good is replaced by a will to be bad, to punish, and to taste sweetness in vengeance or rebellion.  We feel that we deserve a break; we feel a kind of strength in our commitment to assert our rebellion; we feel it's our turn now, our chance that we ought to seize, our opportunity to grab.  We take and we are not afraid.  We reject and we feel justified.  We judge and we feel privileged.  These are the acts we perform within ourselves.

    This state of temptation called spiritual, is an onslaught against our inner temple of worship.  Hordes of enemies assail us yet we feel confident and secure.  We lose the capacity to feel horror or shame. We are a god unto ourself!  We say to ourself, "I don't have to do it."  We say to another, "I don't deserve this kind of treatment." We feel free to criticize, to point out errors, to give advice, to choose between others according to our personal likes.  We use our intelligence and competence to convict others of their faults and to pressure them into directions we select.  We turn cold inside.  We are no longer truly human.  No one can reach us with their love or honesty or kindness or need.  It is all over with us as nice and decent folk.  It is finished with us! 

    Then all of a sudden the sun breaks over our horizon and it is morning and summertime.  Heat melts the coldness away and our spiritual organs revive.  How beautiful and vast and wonderful are the steps of Him Who walks on water, turns water into wine, and feeds the five-thousand with one loaf of bread. His strong arm is felt lifting us out of our misery.  His Sheppard's voice brings tears of happiness.  There is an aura of flowers, an aroma of spices, a sphere of freshness.  Peace settles in, an impregnable fortress.  We walk like a giant oak; we extend our influence as a giant ocean.  We are blessed with perception and illustration and wisdom.  Praise be to the Lord! Such is the character and progression of spiritual temptations. 

    We may now inquire concerning the mechanism by which spiritual growth is accomplished by the Lord through temptations. The workings of the human mind are detailed in the explanations found in the Third Testament.  After reviewing what is told therein we may ask how we might confirm these truths about ourselves. It is taught that we are born into two orders of community life. Our membership in a cultural-historical group such as "American," dawns on us at around puberty and, as we grow older, we more and more realize that we owe our way of life and our values and goals to fellow Americans who labored and thought and discovered things before us.   It dawns on us that we merely inherited and acquired these things from them.  As well, we realize that our daily survival depends on the community we live in; our food, our shelter, our security, our entertainment and happiness.  This extensive relationship with fellow nationals, past and contemporary, may be called our horizontal community.  Such is the will of the Lord that we may know our ties to others for no one lives alone.

    Later in life, as we enter the New Church state within us, we come to marvel and wonder about our intimate life with spirits and guardian angels.  Though we are not directly aware of them, we yet know theoretically from the sense of the letter of the Writings that they are constantly with us, that we cannot think a thought or experience an emotion without their direct involvement with us, with our cognitions and our affections and our bodily functions.  This intimate relation with spirits and angels, and our dependence on them, may be called our vertical community. You may

want take a few minutes to explore this notion in more detail in these two documents, but don't forget to click back here, so you can continue.

Spiritual Associations or The Vertical Community The Vertical Community

    Our spiritual growth, brought about by the Lord through temptations He provides for us, is a growth in which the vertical community participates in a direct way.  We are told that our mind is always in intimate consociation with the minds of many others simultaneously.  Hence when we are in a temptation state our activities are by no means of neutral significance to the spirits and angels who are consociated with us at the time.  In fact, every temptation we undergo is of momentous import to myriad of human beings in the vertical community.  There is an interdependence of fate, a joint victory or defeat, a communal celebration or mourning. When we win, they also win, but when we lose, they also lose. 

    Neither the spirits nor the angels know of these interconnections in specific detail as they are occurring.  We all only know that their thoughts draw upon our memories and that their strivings are fulfilled by our affections; but we and they do not have a direct perception of this in the way Swedenborg had during his years of illustration and twin-life in the two worlds.  Nevertheless the Lord gives us a perception of the contingencies between their thoughts and our memories, and between their loves and our affections. 

    We may inform ourselves concerning this by studying the spiritual geography and history given us in the Three Testaments. For example, the Land of Canaan in the Old Testament contains the geography and history of our own regeneration as effected by the Lord. The inhabitants thereof identify for us the temptations we must undergo to be regenerated and to complete our spiritual growth. The accompanying diagram illustrates aspects of this relationship:

STATE OF TEMPTATION STATE OF RESOLUTIONJoseph carried into slavery Joseph as ruler and benefactor

Absence of Benjamin Presence of Benjamin

Jacob's sons fearing Joseph Jacob's sons reconciled to Joseph

This subject continues in this article:  Moses, Paul, and Swedenborg

OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY-OUTLINE

Throughout this essay we highlighted in blue ink some propositions to be focused on, remembered, considered, and understood by way of an overview and summary-outline. 

We have collected these selections in this last section in order to help those who want a convenient summary or outline  to relate to.  If you want to retrace the paragraph each came from, use the Find Command under the Edit Menu:  Highlight the passage, give the Copy Command, then give the Find Command, then the Paste Command, then hit return.

1. Our life is as-if our own. 2. Our thoughts and feelings are not our own.  They are inspired into us. 3. People receive God's thoughts, intentions, and feelings in accordance with the state of

the Church in their mind. 4. We are not in charge of ourselves any more; in fact we are dead, we have never had life,

and never will haveit takes away our selfhood.

5. God is the Divine Human Who alone is alive within us. 6. God is present with each individual in an intimate relation and Personally labors to bring

us to eternal happiness and fruition in His Kingdom of the afterlife.  7. Our living conscience, built up by the Old Church within us, is the confirmation in our life

of the doctrine of the Old Testament. 8. God reveals Himself to us as a Human Divine Person. 9. Confirmation theory is the idea that the successive Churches are established within us

when we confirm the trues of religion in our life. 10. The members of all religions undergo the three stages represented by the Three

Testaments. 11. Religious psychology explores this universal inner Church. 12. Religious psychology is the study of how the Church grows within us. 13. But beyond asserting their reality, our task is to show how they can have empirical

meaning in a scientific system. 14. Religious psychology has two basic premises.  One is dualism; the other is revelation. 15. This perception is called the spiritual sense of the Third Testament. 16. Our rational self experiences great inner delight when we apprehend the meaning of a

sentence or number in the Writings. 17. We see it in ourselves, in our daily transactions where this Name dwells in a living and

immediate way. 18. However, in this second phase of our Church development, only the literal sense of the

Writings are perceived, hence acknowledged.  The interior sense is not perceived, hence it is denied or doubted.

19. The New Church state in which God is restored to the status of One Divine Person. 20. It is a delusional state since our acting well is not from the Lord but from ourselves, and

is meritorious. 21. But at the external level there need be no antagonism between them. 22. Our inner state may not be visible to others but to ourselves the change is always

visible. 23. Now the visible Divine Human enters into intimate relations with our daily transactions. 24. In this New Church state within us we proceed into mature life with a rational character

and conscience by which we can learn to hate our own nature and love the Divine Truth. 25. In this second phase, the doctrines of the Church explain and clarify the relation

between the invisible and visible God. 26. The modern scientists are in this state when they separate their science from religion. 27. So we may refer to the Old Testament God as the God in human character, that is, as

the Human Divine.

28. By reviewing the epochs of the external church we gain a view of the three phases of our own regeneration.

29. This is not a retrospective perception such as that we have when we are in the New Church state.  Rather, it is an ongoing self-witnessing during religious self-inspection.

30. There is not a single transaction which He does not initiate and complete. We are self-witnessing puppets affected with the delusion of Self. But note: not mere puppets, but self-witnessing puppets.

31. Will and understanding conjoin in two ways: will within the understanding is more interior than understanding within the will.

32. Will and understanding conjoin in two ways: will within the understanding is more interior than understanding within the will.

33. The will inflows into the understanding. 34. The understanding acts only from the will. 35. The will acts only through the understanding. 36. Forensic tools must be used to unmask our pretenses and catch our deceits. 37. It is necessary to study the sense of the letter of the Third Testament so as to draw out

spiritual doctrines to guide us in our approval or disapproval of our daily transactions. 38. Our will is helpless to prevent evil thoughts and emotions and yet we are guilty for them. 39. When we perceive one of our transactions as a temptation we are given to see an

element of our evil. 40. The entire universe is merely for this purpose that God can turn our marital transactions

into conjugial love.  This is the interior sense of the doctrine of conjugial love. 41. The Lord supervises our transactions in order to govern our way to this angelic status. 

This is called regeneration. 42. Note carefully:  we are not saying that people have to give up their native or adopted

religion before they can practice religious psychology. 43. The practice of religious psychology involves a constant striving to understand and

discipline ourselves. 44. A temptation is an organic process of spiritual growth through which our awareness is

expanded.  45. People undergo an organic, inner development relative to their religious affections. 46. Secular law upholds the religious Commandments of its people in every society.   This is

by Divine intervention or providence. 47. Thus it is clear that we cannot have an inner life which is free of religion.  48. Religious Psychology is thus the study of what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.  49. In the future one may anticipate such new sciences in the positive bias method like

“Religious Sociology," "Religious Engineering," "Religious Business & Management," Religious Biology," "Religious Crystallography," and so on. 

50. This inner sense is identical with religious psychology.  It is information in the ancient code of correspondences that cements all natural languages through the symbolism of the sensory organs.  

51. Religious psychology is in the positive bias orientation:  it first assumes that all of Sacred Scriptures are composed of valid and true propositions, and then looks for methods by which to  confirm these truths with our own observation and theory.

52. The denial causes it to disappear.  It is obvious and crystal clear, therefore, that religious psychology must operate by the positive bias methodology.

53. the method of materialistic psychology requires that we first assume that Sacred Scriptures are not necessarily true in their propositions about the world and people.  

54. Sacred Scripture specifically asserts that no science, scholarship, or knowledge are possible without the revelations and propositions contained in them as Divine Truth.

55. By elaborating the content and dynamics of religious affections and reasonings we hope to contribute to the development of a methodology for the science of religious psychology. 

56. All these modern "psychologies" share the method of interpersonal observation as the sole source of information for their theories. 

57. This double gain makes the study of inner life useful to society and may eventually develop in the future as a science and field of community service.

58. We need to observe our motives (affective behavior), our thoughts (cognitive behavior), and our sensations and motor actions (sensorimotor behavior) in everyday living.  By observing and taxonomizing, or cataloguing, this living information on our inner life we can construct theories and models that can explain the interconnections in this inner life. 

59. It is therefore to be presupposed that the Lord works through our acts of thinking and intending, and this without a single exception to eternity!  What an intimate life a person has with the Lord!

60. It becomes therefore critical for each one of us to develop as-if of ourselves the facility of religious self-inspection. 

61. The reason that religious self-inspection is of such great importance is that it is the only practical method available to the individual to shun evils as sins against God.

62. Religious self-inspection is a variety of self-inspection, namely whose function it is to witness an on-going activity of the self in order to note its potential offensiveness to God. 

63. Our mental organization is to be examined in every single detail for the purpose of relating that detail to the Lord's Divine Human.  This type of self-inspection is enjoined upon us as the first or chief concern in the life of the regenerating person. 

64. It is therefore to be presupposed that the Lord works through our acts of thinking and intending, and this without a single exception to eternity!  What an intimate life a person has with the Lord!

65. It becomes therefore critical for each one of us to develop as-if of ourselves the facility of religious self-inspection. 

66. The reason that religious self-inspection is of such great importance is that it is the only practical method available to the individual to shun evils as sins against God. 

67. Religious self-inspection is a variety of self-inspection, namely whose function it is to witness an on-going activity of the self in order to note its potential offensiveness to God. 

68. The above diagram pictures the doctrinal principle that Life proceeds from the inmost degree (SUBSISTENCE -- level III), through the intermediate degree (EXISTENCE -- level II) , and out to the ultimate degree (MANIFESTATION -- level I).

69. This distinction can be understood only by reference to the distinction between our abstract knowledge of repentance and our observed activity of repentance.  Only the constant practice of religious self-inspection in daily living can give us the information needed to undergo the activity of repentance, to empower it from mere abstract knowledge to confirmed, lived activity.

70. We should note here that we are not excluding any Sacred Scripture that was given as revelation to various nations and ethnic groups. Though all our examples and illustrations involve the Bible (Old and New Testament) and Swedenborg's Writings (Third Testament) this is because these are the revealed Scriptures we were born into and have formed our lives from birth onward.

71. This diagram illustrates the practice of religious self-inspection in four steps.  Through our self-examination in the external thoughts (step 1) we arrive at informed views regarding our more interior thoughts such as our reasonings, intentions, and affections (step 2). Then as we judge each thought and intention in relation to the visible Divine

Human (step 3), we succeed in cooperating with His Divine Providence in the very operation of our mind; we then become reformed (step 4). 

72. these thoughts and intentions form our reasonings, and they are in harmony or in disharmony with truths we have and receive from our study of Scripture.

73. Nothing of the earthly can know anything of the spiritual.  This Doctrine guides us to a state of innocence in receiving the trues of the Heavenly Doctrine.

74. The commixing of truths and falsities of worship, which was the deed of Achan, threatens each one of us if we do not continually strive to become better religious self-inspectors.  In every single detail of our own thoughts and intentions what is of our own origin from the external world must be found out, judged, and destroyed. Then, only then, can we continue the conquest of Canaan within ourselves.

Thus our thoughts and intentions must be consciously related as-if of ourselves to God's Love and Wisdom.  This only is the true life of religion and is available to anyone through religious self-inspection or repentance.  Prior to repentance, or the act of judging our thoughts and emotions, we cannot receive the full value of spiritual heat and light.  Like a dried out plant we slowly die spiritually and become insane.  Religious self-inspection waters this starved plant whereby we revive.

75. All societies and tribes have religion, and that all religions enjoin its followers to love God and live by God's commandments or else they will pay for it in much suffering.

76. The spiritual Sun and its many earths form thoughts and intentions through its spiritual heat and light.  It is revealed in the Writings that spiritual heat is Divine Love and spiritual light is Divine Wisdom.  Thus, Divine Love, which appears as heat as heat from that Sun, spreads into the spiritual world and cools down as it journeys down towards the outward universe, to become affective substance in the form of intentions and desires on earth within human minds, and thence through correspondence, in human brains.

77. We are given the direction by our love for the truths in the Lord's Second Advent. This Divine Coming is within our thoughts and intentions.  It is available to anyone who is willing to practice religious self-inspection or active repentance in daily living.

78. Where are we to find Him in ultimates?  Surely not in the beauty of nature or the accomplishments of technology.  These are His creations, and surely we must not confuse God with His creation!

79. We begin to perceive that there is no chance event in the universe.  We are astounded to find that in every event in our life, in every decision we've ever made, in every thought or idea we've ever had, in every feeling or longing, He was there! 

80. Now we see ourselves already in the conquest of Canaan.  Our heathen reasonings and ideals are systematically uncovered and destroyed.  Nothing whatsoever from the old way of thinking, and planning, and reacting is to be left.  All of the previous self must be found out, judged, and cast out with horror.

81. We begin to apply the Trues of the Third Testament to our own psychological states of development.  The journey down to Egypt is now seen as our state prior to the present. We now feel a spiritual difference in the quality of our hourly living.  Heaven is present. 

82. The Lord regenerates through liberty and understanding. What we choose in freedom, this we love.  What we love, we do in liberty. 

83. But let it be always remembered that it is not our own strength that conquers but the strong arm of the Lord Who occupies that part of our mind and indwells through the Word in its three senses. Forget this, and your repentance is as nothing.

84. The Lord's indwelling is made possible by repentance of an act, thought, or intention, and henceforth He battles for us when we are in the throes of temptation.

85. When the part is judged, the whole is better. 

86. From these microdescriptions of our moment by moment behaviors, both external and internal, we can enter into the scientifics of the self, of our own proprial life.  We gain knowledge of ourselves through the facts of self-inspection, of self-witnessing. 

87. Religious self-inspection is not a competing task, but a super-imposed task.  It is a particular attitude of life, a set of mind, a bend of the character, an inclination of the heart.

88. If this be done, the spiritual-psychological order of the self is laid bare by the Lord in His Word.  We then contemplate before our eyes the Divine Human Proprium in ultimates with us.

89. We may inform ourselves concerning this by studying the spiritual geography and history given us in the Three Testaments. For example, the Land of Canaan in the Old Testament contains the geography and history of our own regeneration as effected by the Lord. The inhabitants thereof identify for us the temptations we must undergo to be regenerated and to complete our spiritual growth. The accompanying diagram illustrates aspects of this relationship:

90. Hence when we are in a temptation state our activities are by no means of neutral significance to the spirits and angels who are consociated with us at the time.  In fact, every temptation we undergo is of momentous import to myriad of human beings in the vertical community.  There is an interdependence of fate, a joint victory or defeat, a communal celebration or mourning. When we win, they also win, but when we lose, they also lose.

91. This intimate relation with spirits and angels, and our dependence on them, may be called our vertical community.As well, we realize that our daily survival depends on the community we live in; our food, our shelter, our security, our entertainment and happiness.  This extensive relationship with fellow nationals, past and contemporary, may be called our horizontal community.  Such is the will of the Lord that we may know our ties to others for no one lives alone.

92. This state of temptation called spiritual, is an onslaught against our inner temple of worship.  Hordes of enemies assail us yet we feel confident and secure.  We lose the capacity to feel horror or shame. We are a god unto ourself!  We say to ourself, "I don't have to do it."  We say to another, "I don't deserve this kind of treatment." We feel free to criticize, to point out errors, to give advice, to choose between others according to our personal likes.  We use our intelligence and competence to convict others of their faults and to pressure them into directions we select.  We turn cold inside.  We are no longer truly human.  No one can reach us with their love or honesty or kindness or need.  It is all over with us as nice and decent folk.  It is finished with us!

93. We may now consider spiritual temptations which are affectional disturbances. These are the inmost and most grievous of temptations.  In the New Church state spiritual temptations are about one's religious life.  We experience a change in our religious affections.  Our highest ideals and deepest motives are affected.When we experience moral temptations we are to persist in our attempts to get free by invoking the Commandments of the New Testament.  We are to remind ourselves that we do love the Lord.  We remind ourselves that the Lord can and will deliver us with His Divine Truth, His Spirit of counsel and comfort.

94. For example, suppose we excuse our forgetting something by thinking "Oh, well, I'm too busy to remember it." meaning, "I'm not to be blamed for it given the attenuating circumstances."  This is a moral temptation: it challenges the Rational Self.  Our rational is overcome. We are incapable of coming up with something our rational self can use to make us feel guilty for insufficient care.  We ought to feel guilty for forgetting our duty and responsibility, for not thinking it important enough to keep in the forefront of our focus and attention, yet we feel guiltless.

95. We are saved!  We conquer, we overcome.  We are empowered to think new thoughts, to feel new feelings, and to break forth into new actions.  The period of temptation is at an end.  We feel it was worth it. 

96. This is the character and quality of corporeal temptations in the New Church state within us.  They are provided for our spiritual growth in the second degree of regeneration. The New Testament gives a precise record of corporeal temptations in the New Church state. 

97. This feeling of guiltlessness results from the severity of our temptation.  In this state we experience spiritual, moral, and logical obscurity or "darkness."  This feeling of guiltlessness becomes oppressive. Deep down we know we are wrong yet we feel guiltless! 

98. The Lord manages every temptation so as to bring about the individual's spiritual growth.  Not a single exception ever occurs as temptations follow a fixed and unchangeable Order governed by the Lord.In the Third Testament we read that temptations are the very means by which the Lord regenerates everyone.  A person may therefore ask, Where are my temptations?  This surely ought to be an important subject in Religious Psychology since temptations are the means by which we are regenerated, and to be regenerated is the goal and love of all.

99. Religious feelings calm the mind and strengthen character.  It is only politicking about religion that stirs disagreement, dispute, and prejudice.

100. In their essence all Sacred Scriptures reflect God because they are from God.  101. Only to the extent that this work of purification and reformation is grounded in

active repentance of all our evils can we cooperate in our regeneration by the Lord, in freedom and as-if of ourself.  Our state of external blessedness in conjunction with the Lord is attained in proportion to our success in this holy endeavor.t the real and important use of the diagrams come when they are internalized as maps of one's own progression in the regenerating life.

102. It would not be possible to acquire an understanding of the holy things portrayed through these diagrams solely by reading these explanations.  Rather, an understanding of the interior and real sense of these holy things can be gained only from a direct study of the Word while striving to enact them in our daily decisions and choices and attitudes.

103. It ought not to be thought that in these holy matters regarding our relationship to Divine Truth we are at liberty to invent or theorize whatever seems reasonable to us, as is the case in the various branches of science, philosophy, and theology.  Instead we must always proceed from illustration given by the Lord when we study the Word for the purpose of learning the scientifics of our own regeneration that we may better cooperate with the Lord as-if of ourselves.

104. We have discussed the thesis that we have a ninefold or enneadic relationship to the Word, and that the regenerating person from the Lord undergoes these nine varieties of spiritual states. The method through which we can cooperate, as-if of ourselves, in this reformation of our character has been described as a particular type of religious self-inspection whose purpose is to judge ourselves in every single act, thought, or intention of our will and understanding.

Applied Religious Psychology

    Psychology espouses the negative bias approach while religious psychology is wedded to the positive bias method. Though they are distinct in method their goals overlap to a significant extent. This overlap is not total in that religious psychology has

both natural and spiritual objectives, while psychology has only natural and moral goals. In the sense of the Writings of Swedenborg, both psychologies are "scientifics," yet natural psychology in the negative bias is quite a different scientific than religious psychology in the positive bias. The difference that is crucial is the positive vs. the negative method regarding our dual citizenship. In religious psychology we proceed with the spiritual facts as given in the Three Testaments; namely, that we have dual citizenship -- one temporal-natural, the other eternal-spiritual. Having accepted this reality as a rational reality, we are freed from the bounds of natural explanations for psychological phenomena. Instead, we now can use spiritual explanations for natural behaviors, just as the most ancient people of this planet were able to do through the science of correspondences. This knowledge was subsequently lost and the advent of the negative bias in science subsequently blotted out all rational evidence of this reality. It was doubted, then denied, that such a science could exist. This denial of our dual citizenship greatly weakened the power of psychology to apply itself to the ills of society. Consequently these ills have multiplied and intensified to the extent that it is common nowadays for everyone to experience a negative life marked by some positive moments.

    Psychology in the negative bias has spent a great deal of effort in naturalistic work; that is, the work of isolating, identifying, and explaining a large number of facts about our physical, mental, and interpersonal life. Many psychologists express satisfaction at the fact that psychology as a field of knowledge has accumulated a stable degree of knowledge about human nature. This satisfaction of psychology's success is confirmed by not only coherent and ingenious theories, but as well numerous applications to society's needs in psychotherapy, counseling, neurophysiology and medicine, educational testing and instructional programming, in industrial work settings, and even in religious pastoral work. All of this success is attributed to the scientific research of psychologists in their laboratory and field observations using the rigors of statistical manipulation.

    The issue that concerns us is that society continues to have vast human problems that seem to get worse despite what we all, in all the fields of science and government, can do about it. This is of concern to us, and we strongly feel that religious psychology has a significant part to contribute to this vast human suffering. Those who acknowledge the tenets of their religion proceed in their scientific work as if in the negative bias. In other words our dual citizenship is never called upon to be acknowledged in our science, medicine, engineering, business, education, the government. This separation of state and church, as it is called, is a constitutional feeling of patriotism with many. Prayer in school is opposed not because of atheism of the parents but because people feel that freedom of religious practices is thereby protected. And we agree.

    The political freedom of religious practice applies to the external church, by necessity, since government does not make laws about our inner world of thoughts and feelings. The external religious behaviors include overt prayer, church attendance, monetary contributions, sacraments, rituals, publishings, schools, special foods, and the like. All

these external religious behaviors are protected by the constitution and our collective love for freedom and the ideals of democracy. Within this cultural context, then, we see it desirable to separate our spiritual reality from the natural.

    Religious psychology has a different vantage point on this issue of separation of our outer self or citizenship from our inner self or citizenship. Outer and inner citizenship are integrated in the same sense as an explanation integrates cause and effect. The assumption and acknowledgment of religious psychology is that we are the way the Word of God has revealed it to us in the Three Testaments (the Bible and Swedenborg's Writings). From this departure point, religious psychology evolves methods, theories, and applications. We are informed in the Word that we have dual citizenship; that is, our body lives on earth but our spirit lives in the spiritual world. The spiritual world we are told is the place of the afterlife. In the Third Testament these general facts are exploded into thousands of specific facts regarding the details of the mind, the societies of the spiritual world, and the specific mechanisms through which the interconnection between our body and spirit is accomplished. This interconnection is scientifically called cause-effect. In this case, the spiritual phenomenon is prior, precedes, and determines the natural phenomenon which is thus its result or consequence. Further, nothing in the natural world can exist without a corresponding thing in the spiritual world; if something in the spiritual world were to vanish, a corresponding counterpart in the natural world would also vanish. Finally, all natural laws are dependent on spiritual laws; if a spiritual law is changed there is an instantaneous corresponding change in a natural law; a natural law cannot be changed except by changing a corresponding spiritual law first.

    These facts make it imperative that we consult the Word regarding the nature and source of society's problems. Surely it is to be expected that knowledge about the causes of effects would allow us to control the effects better. So if human problems and suffering are natural effects of spiritual causes then we may expect to solve these problems better if we study their causes. This is a principal objective of religious psychology, and in this respect we may label this interest as applied religious psychology.

    We need to make a list of the problems we encounter as human communities on this planet. The information is readily available in public libraries and in the daily news. Perhaps we ought to begin with the categories now in use, much of which is the system of theory and research in psychology with the negative bias. Here is a brief selection of library subject headings that categorize much university research and government regulations in the area of human problems of major importance:

-alcoholism             -illiteracy

-geriatrics               -malnutrition

-accidents              -excessive dependence

-violence                 -low morale

These are general labels for a multitude of physical and mental ills that beset all societies including the most advanced. These are our government's top priorities in granting research moneys to researchers in the behavioral and biomedical disciplines in the negative bias. These problems have no definite solutions though psychologists and social workers and public health practitioners all have had some recognizable degree of success in their limited endeavors. As a whole, however, they do not possess the knowledge and know how to stop the deteriorating conditions of life in crowded cities.

    Religious psychologists would approach these problems from the distinct vantage point of our knowledge of the details of dual citizenship as given in the Word of the Three Testaments. For example, New Church practitioners in mental health and education have altered their practice from the theories of the negative bias to the spiritual facts disclosed in the Writings of Swedenborg. Much of this material is available from the General Church of the New Jerusalem at Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. This Philadelphia neighborhood of around fifty thousand people supports its own publishings, sound recordings, libraries, schools, and cathedral. They are known as New Church people or "Swedenborgians." This means that they are committed to living their life in accordance with the facts revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg, which they hold to be Divinely inspired Sacred Scripture, and call it the Word along with the Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible. Because they are intellectually isolated within the American scene, New Church educators, scientists, and artists have had to design totally new explanations and procedures for their research and educational program. Knowing of the reality of our dual citizenship we can no longer look upon history or biography in the same way as it is presented everywhere. New Church educators have designed curricula that fit the stages of the growth of the mind as revealed in the Word. For instance, the Old Testament describes the steps of creation; in the Writings of Swedenborg it is explained that these steps of creation were accounts written down by ancient people who still knew of the science of correspondences. And so, through this knowledge, they knew a lot about the growth of the mind and what affects it. They wrote these correspondences not as a chart or list, as we might do it today, but wove them into a dramatic narrative such as we are given in the first eleven chapters of the Book of Genesis. We are informed that Moses copied these chapters from the Ancient Word, of which fragments still existed in his time. The Ancient Word was a genuine Bible given by Divine revelation. The New Church educator and mental health practitioner know this and accept it as true. There is therefore a felt religious and rational obligation to make use of these facts in one's occupation and profession.

    New Church educators advise New Church parents to keep reminding their children of our dual citizenship. For example, New Church children in Bryn Athyn (and other General Church communities) are told that when they are being bad they are just doing what evil spirits put them up to; similarly, when they are being good they are to be told that they are just doing what the angels put them up to. To the average American this practice would sound dangerous; psychology and common sense seem to suggest that telling children spirits make them do things is flirting with mental trouble and emotional

disturbance. Some extreme reactions might even be that the government shouldn't license schools where such things are taught to children there. These reactions stem from our common experience with emotional disturbance and mental illness which are so prevalent in our society. We read in psychology books that many mental patients hear voices from spirits, see ghosts, talk to God, claim to be given Divine rights to do what they please, and other such disturbing insanities. So right away we might think that telling children they have spirits within them would make it more likely that they would grow up to be less stable or even prone to mental illness.

    However after we reflect some more and examine a number of considerations, we might not feel the same way at all. First, it is possible that society's vast problems are caused by denying that spirits are within us. Second, the Bryn Athyn community has raised many generations of dual citizens, some of whom can be found in all the branches of science, professions, and government. They have served in the military with all the distinctions of other individuals, they are indistinguishable from others in external appearance, capacity, and mental health. Third, the so called "voices" of the schizophrenic, the drug user, the mystic, the medium, may indeed be aberrations of our dual citizenship. These individuals have found ways to go against the normal spiritual order in our dual citizenship which prevents conscious connection between the two worlds. Much light is shed on this in the Writings of Swedenborg and is used in the work of New Church educators and mental health practitioners.

    The perspective of New Church practitioners on the problems of society may now be explored using the subject headings previously given.

    Alcoholic Anonymous has a religious creed, though it is nondenominational within the American scene. The medical and psychological programs in alcoholism are in the negative bias. Pastoral counseling includes prayer and Bible study for the spirit but uses psychology in the negative bias for mental health. Thus' wherever they turn to, alcoholics are not informed that it is spirits within them that make them drink. Recovery from alcoholism is uncertain and very slow, taking decades or a whole lifetime. Most alcoholics destroy their social life and body before they are even willing to admit they have a serious problem. There is thus an apparent helplessness we observe in alcoholism. This type of helplessness is characteristic of physical and mental addictions. In the Third Testament we are given many facts that relate to this state of helplessness. New Church writers explain that all physical and mental diseases are caused by spirits inflowing into our thoughts and feelings where they cause obsession and compulsions that lead to mental and physical illness.

    This fact by itself might not be sufficient for an applied religious psychology in the positive bias. How do we use this fact in our practice? Why do the New Church practitioners not have a great deal more success than the others? Why aren't New Church Americans way above average in success, mental health, and physical strength? The reason we offer is that the facts of the Word we are given represent trues that are still to be applied to life. Bishop Philip N. Odhner, of the Lord's New Church which is Nova Hieorosolyma at Bryn Athyn, has taught for many years that New Church

people, or followers of Swedenborg, need to evolve deeper stages of understanding dual citizenship before they will become substantially superior in their approach to solving human ills. This is however an individual struggle, and the community can expect to derive benefits from it only to the extent that there are individuals within it who evolve in themselves a deeper understanding of the facts given us in the Word of the Three Testaments.

    Bishop Odhner's insight is open for confirmation by anyone who is willing to make the effort of actualizing dual citizenship in their everyday transactions. To the extent that New Church people live like others in their thoughts and feelings all day long, to that extent they will be harassed by the same problems and weaknesses as everybody else. But to the extent that they have their dual citizenship in front of their daily transactions, to that extent they will exhibit a superior growth and self control. This would be the principle to follow in attacking the problems of society, including alcoholism.

    The Word does not specify explicitly how we should design a program of re-training alcoholics, though study of the Word's interior senses may reveal unexpected things. In the meantime, we may wonder what procedure an alcoholic should follow to get rid of haunting spirits that make them drink. In the absence of such a program that we know of, we may venture to design one on theoretical grounds as based on whatever facts we can glean from the Word. Whatever programs we design will be a reflection of the understanding we've been granted. We all receive enlightenment on issues from the spiritual world in accordance with our willingness to prepare for it in accordance with the Word's injunctions as to how we ought to conduct our lives. Then, we are told, that within our good strivings there will inflow from the spiritual world trues and wisdom and understanding.

    First, alcoholics need to be taught the facts of dual citizenship. Regarding the physical body, they need to study and acquire a great deal of details about physiology and nutrition. This knowledge is equivalent to the knowledge of health food enthusiasts who altered their lifestyles in eating, exercise, and medicine,based on their self-education efforts and practices. So, the alcoholic needs to be taught those facts. Regarding the spiritual body, they need to study and acquire a great deal of details about religious psychology. This knowledge is equivalent to the knowledge of New Church people who take seriously the daily study of the Bible and the Writings of Swedenborg. Thus, the first step to rehabilitate alcoholics is to teach them the facts of their dual citizenship.

    Second, alcoholics need to apply these newly acquired knowledges to their daily situations. Religious psychology teaches the practice of religious sell-inspection. This involves a type of meditation or reflection at the very time the activity is being carried out. For alcoholics this will be especially salient when they are thinking about drinking or taking actions relating to their drinking. This method is not effective unless it is practiced on a continuous basis, day in and day out. Slowly, we begin to gain a deeper insight or, a rational understanding, of what it really is like to have dual citizenship. We begin to observe how we exercise our inner freedom in thoughts and feelings and what the

consequences are of such free choices. We begin to see that we are not possessed by spirits bodily, as was the case in ancient times. We are free to reach for a glass or not to reach for it, enter a store or not enter it, digest our food calmly or get all worked up over something, and so on. We are free agents of our own will. Yet we begin to see that though we are totally free we do not exercise this freedom. We typically rely, not on freedom moment to moment, but on good old habits as supported by the social and physical environment. We are conformists in our lifestyles, imaginings, reasonings, attitudes, ideals. The fact that people of one culture do, think, and feel alike, is an outcome of each person giving up a great deal of freedom for the sake of tradition and familiarity. Of course, this is necessary for communal life on earth; nevertheless, it also means that we do not exercise a great deal of our actual freedom in our deeds, thoughts, and emotions.

    Cultural and family habits of doing, thinking, and feeling thus exert strong constraints against the use of freedom. This makes us vulnerable to evils and falsities by inheritance or transference across generations. The reason we see so many ills besetting society on earth is that bad habits of thought and feeling are cumulatively transmitted to every generation. By spiritual law and order, evil spirits from the hells, who delight in the harm and destruction of society, are allowed to inflow into evil habits and false reasonings. Alcoholics, seniles, malnutrition cases, helpless and ignorant people, overzealous people, cruel and violent people, and so on, are actually victims of their inherited habits of thought and feeling. Each specific disease or weakness is caused by the association with some specific hell society. There are as many ills of society as there are evil spirit societies that specialize in some form of motivational aberration. The human mind can harbor countless spiritual associations through our dual citizenship. When our spirit comes into association with one of these hell societies, our mental and bodily functions are attacked in specific ways that correspond to the nature of the attacking societies.

    We always have the freedom to change our spiritual associations. The Word explains that we are kept in these associations by the spirits who exploit our affections for specific things. For example, a person may notice his or her strong affinity or affection for the thoughts and feelings they experience when taking a drink of alcohol, or some other addictive drug. This is also the case with malnutrition that is caus~by overeating some kinds of foods and not eating enough of some other kinds of foods; these bad eating habits are due to an excessive attachment of the person to the delights one feels in their taste and their other sensory effects upon us. The person is literally starving because unwilling to give up certain tastes and sensations. The person has the freedom to give them up, but is unwilling. This attachment to a destructive habit is exploited by the evil spirits. As long as people ~ unwilling to liberate themselves from this habit, they are kept within the destructive obsessions and compulsions brought on by the malicious work of the evil spirits. This is the nexus of the alcoholic's problem: how to give up thoughts, feelings, emotions, sensations, pleasures, states of mind, which they enjoy too much to give up; or which they are afraid to give up for various imagined reasons.

    As long as alcoholics attempt to do this from the perspective of the negative bias they will have a great deal of difficulty regain their freedom from the compulsive habit. They have no leverage; they feel to themselves as if they are being required to lift themselves up by their bootstraps. But this impotence is rectified when they are given the facts of dual citizenship. This new frame of reference for their actions empowers them to regain their freedom from the paralysis of the will. Rational understanding gives this power. The Second Coming of Christ has created the potential of a spiritual-rational self within us. This organic change can be activated through the sincere study of the Writings of Swedenborg.

    A similar approach can be employed in geriatrics, in driver's education, in nutritional reforms, in wholistic medicine, in crime and violence, and the other ills of society.

Part 2 continues here under the title:The Horizontal and Vertical Communities of our Dual Citizenship

Part 1 starts here under the title:Religious Psychology:   A Guide to Spiritual Self-examination

Some related articles are available here:

Spiritual Associations or The Vertical Community  ||  The Vertical Community  ||  Spiritual Psychology  ||  Cyberpsychology:   Cyberspace and the Spiritual World  ||  The Postmodern Paradigm Shift in Psychology  ||  Swedenborg's Status and Significance: A Great Paradox  ||  Elements of Biological Theology

You may like to explore many of the concepts you encountered in this essay by looking at our Swedenborg Glossary. 

You can see the outline for our book called Christ Against Road Rage if yo like.

Back to Leon James Articles ||  Back to Swedenborg Hawaii Page || Back to Leon James Home Page

e-mail Leon James  || e-mail Diane NahlSPIRITUAL GEOGRAPHY

The Horizontal and Vertical Communitiesof our Dual Citizenship

This is part 2.

Part 1 is to be found here:RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGY--A Guide to Spiritual Self-examination

by Leon James and Diane Nahl(c) 1984Based on Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772)

Contents

The Threefold Organization of Mind and SpiritWhat's in a DaydreamRepentance, Change and PurificationSuccessive and Simultaneous Degrees: The Growth of the Self The Ennead Matrix or Nine Zones of Life or Self The Method of Reflection The Method of Spiritual GeographyThe Regions of the MindThe Interior Meaning of "Thomas" or, The Old Church State Within UsResistance to the Development of the Church Within UsThe Clinical Issues in Religious Psychology

The Threefold Organization of Mind and Spirit   

The spiritual is the cause of the natural; therefore, the two are in correspondence.  In order to gain a better grasp of what is the spiritual, we may study the correspondence between the outer and inner worlds we live in.  We may call the outer world relative to us our horizontal community, and the internal world relative to us, our vertical community.  These two are in correspondence: the horizontal community is the effect, while the vertical community is the cause.  In Swedenborg's terms, what is prior is the cause of what is posterior, which then is the effect.  Let us attempt to analytically draw the relations between our two communities in case that might give us a better and more rational comprehension of the spiritual. 

    The essential quality of our horizontal community is the interconnectivity that shows everywhere.  Take for instance the interconnectivity of events and people implicated in a street sign.  First there had to be a city; then people; then development of specialties such as realtors, financiers, lawyers, local government, sales outlets, workmen, and so on and so on, not to mention schools, the alphabet system invented and perfected, and

so on, so that the list of people, events, and epochs that have been involved in putting up that sign, as an ordinary street sign we recognize, is a vast number.  This is an illustration of interconnectivity, which is an essential quality of community life.  The word "community" is listed in the dictionary with two roots; one is “co-" meaning "together with" and the other, "-muni" meaning "striving."  Hence community is a striving together, which thus is manifested in the quality of interconnectivity. 

    We know from revealed principles in the Third Testament, that is, Swedenborg's Writings, that the spiritual world our mind lives in is characterized by a most orderly appearance of geography, government, and justice.  From this we may see that the interconnectivity of the horizontal community we live in is a resultant effect that is caused by the interconnectivity that characterizes the spiritual world in which we also live.  There is thus a correspondence or, harmonious order, between our outer world and our inner world. By studying what the Word teaches about our vertical community we are enabled to see the outer world from the perspective of the inner world.  This is indeed a desirable perspective because coming from the Word it gives only trues to behold.  Thus, our external world is then seen by us in a true perspective. 

    The Third Testament teaches us that the vertical community we belong to has a threefold organization of people in the afterlife.  In the Third Testament, the people in the other world, that is, the world we go to when we die, are called from top down, angels, spirits, and devils.  The higher angels are called celestial angels, the lower, spiritual angels. Spirits are recent arrivals being on their way to becoming angels in heaven or devils in hell.  The latter are divided into satans and, the lowest, which are genii. These five categories of people constitute our vertical community.  The Third Testament informs us that these people are constantly in communication with our thoughts and feelings, though neither them nor us can perceive this relationship.  They, as well as us now, know of this inter-connection through the revelations of Swedenborg in both worlds. Perhaps society and civilization as we know it today will come to an end and a new civilization based on a conscious recognition of our dual community citizenship will come into being.  This may be the historical consequences of the Lord's Second Advent. 

    At this point in time it is given us to think from an entirely new perspective on ourselves and on the horizontal community, of which we are quite consciously aware: of our family, our neighborhood, our nation, our external historical church.  This new perspective is that of seeing ourselves as dual citizens and looking upon the horizontal external one from the vantage point of the vertical, internal one.  That is, we examine what we observe in our external environment from the vantage point of our inner environment, just as we examine effects in the light of causes.  This is a synthetic view and was greatly preferred by Swedenborg over the analytic view (such as that of Bacon or Kant). 

In fact, Swedenborg traced the excesses of the analytic view to the spiritual insanity of his contemporaries who were bent on developing a science that excluded the spiritual world.  This negative bias was introduced into the allowable methods of gathering data for theories and applications; it was made into a scientific creed that functioned to maintain the negative bias as a matter of high scientific standards.  This specific exclusionary standard was so successful that it effectively kept nonconformists from a chance to make a name for themselves in the literature, which went along with earning a living.  The pressure on publishers and journals is sufficient to keep nonconformists out of libraries, the literature, and history.

Swedenborg’s refusal to go along with the negative bias kept him out of all three: he had to pay for the publication of the Third Testament, his supporters were blackmailed and ostracized, his admirers thought it best not to mention the connection, his name is not in any of the textbooks or classics of history of science, his name is not known by college graduates, the scientific or philosophical literature does not cite him, he ahs to be defended against psychiatrists who see him as a psychotic. Please see this article:

Overcoming Objections to Swedenborg's Writings Through the Development of Scientific Dualism

There is thus a feeling of amazement that we experience when we go from the Old Church state within us to the New Church State within us.  This happens when we discover the Writings of Swedenborg in a library or New Church institution and receive its message literally as the Word of God in His Second Coming through the Third Testament. 

    By receiving this new perspective as Divine truth on earth, the New Church state begins to be opened and grow.  From this new perspective we can observe our external world and see the events there as natural effects from spiritual causes. Religious psychology helps us study and understand the specifics of this correspondence, and hence we gain a deeper knowledge of ourselves and of the real reasons we do the things we observe ourselves to be doing. We then a see a contrast between the negative and positive bias because we are looking from our New Church state) out and down, into our Old Church state.  The latter is the cause of the former; that is, the change in state in the Church within causes a corresponding change in the state in our external self.  Our external self is seen as an effect of our internal self. 

    By studying the Third Testament we come to know the map of our internal self; from this map we look down on our external self and see there the natural images of the map, and this in as great detail as we wish to strive to obtain it.

We may come to know the nine zones of the spiritual community as described in the Third Testament: the three simultaneous degrees and the three successive degrees forming a matrix or interconnecting grid of nine zones of life. After that we may look out from this knowledge to see where we may confirm them in life so that we may rationally see what they are and not from faith only.  This indeed is the difference when we go

from the Old to the New Church state: our blind faith is transformed into rational faith, and this new faith is more our own, it is more of love, hence more of the Lord.  This new faith empowers us with a new will, and thence, a new understanding.  Our new will shows in our daily activities and transactions: the more the New Church state grows within us the more others can see our virtues -- more compassion, more patience, more generosity, more peacemaking, more altruism; and from all these, they can see more communication, more creativity, more usefulness to society, more happiness in life, and more wisdom and understanding. 

    The added power of the New Church state within us comes from more light coming in from our vertical community. As we become consciously aware of our dual citizenship in every one of our transactional exchanges, we are empowered to use our new will and understanding.  We begin to be aware of the effects our actions have in both worlds., and this new awareness affects us greatly in our motives and styles.  When we are apparently alone in a room or place outdoors, we know with some reflection that we are not really alone: there are people next-door or some physical distance away.  We can never be completely alone in our horizontal external community on earth.  Similarly, we can never be alone in our vertical community:  every single thought or feeling we have is mediated by angelic and spiritual societies, hence   millions of people in the afterlife.  There is no such thing as being alone in our dual citizenship. 

    Of course privacy is retained otherwise we would not feel ourselves as genuine individuals, and we would not have genuine freedom and rationality; this is not tolerated in the Lord's order anywhere anytime for it would destroy true religion and there would not be the Church within us, and life eternal would be impossible.  Hence the Lord insures that we retain spiritual freedom and rationality to decide in religious matters of good and evil, true and adulterated.  From this freedom and rationality we can be regenerated as of ourselves and become angels, unique in our history and indidual particularity to eternity.  Thus privacy is retained in both worlds. 

    However we are taught in the Third Testament that the vertical community communicates through a type of telepathic speech which we automatically possess upon resuscitation in the spiritual body.  As well, distance is always determined by inner feelings, those in similar feelings being close and those with incompatible feelings being far.  Communication is good at close distance and similarity, but it is impossible when large distance is caused by dissimilarity in affections. And dissimilarity in affections always produces cognitive clashes and disagreements. 

Because privacy is to be retained, our interconnection with spirits, angels, and devils is subconscious. 

We may all know it as a true of revelation and accept it as blind faith at first, then as rational faith, when we later begin to confirm the trues. But even so, we are not permitted to perceive directly and externally the intimate details and particulars of our inter-connection, or else we would lose privacy of thought and feeling.

Nevertheless there is great benefit to be derived from   the rational understanding of the laws of order that govern our thoughts and feelings. This new understanding is possible after we give up the Old Church state idea that we are alone in our thoughts and feelings. 

What’s in a Daydream

    We all have daydreams all the time though we are aware of only some of them, those that tend to be rather long, when we sit quietly.  But self-observation will reveal that we daydream a great deal more than we at first suspect.  In general, daydreams are made up of a dramatic sequence of standardized imaginings.  In other words, we imagine scenes mostly with ourselves in them, though not always.  Each person may examine their daydreams and see their content: is it the sort of thing you'd rather not publicize?  In that case we need to disapprove of that particular daydream and not just let it pass by as if having no consequences. 

    We are taught through the sense of the letter of the Third Testament that every single thought and every single affection is mediated through spirits and angels who are in our spiritual sphere.  Our minds are populated by them.  They are real people, and we will join them at death.  They mediate our thinking, our dreaming, our poetry, our drama, our arts, our architecture, our science, our crime rate, our President's decisions, the earthquakes, the accidents, the bad turns at fortune - in sum everything of this world and this body we carry. 

    From this perspective of the Third Testament we may look down and out, and see our external self and its physical environment.  It is similar to the personages and characters of the Old Testament: like them, the external self in us is fearful yet disobedient, greedy and sensuous, lonely and generous, intertwined with others in emotional needs and interdependent in a horizontal community wherein the external self -- through its body -- grows up, gets married, works, acts as a citizen, and fulfills the roles of parenthood.  That which accomplishes all of that is our external self: it is our automatic habits and skills and pleasures of daily living, as well as the sufferings, fears, and pains. 

    The Third Testament teaches that Jacob's ladder in Genesis (28: 12-15; see Arcana Coelestia, 3697) represents the focus of our conscious attention: the steps Jacob saw in his visionary dream served for angels to ascend from earth to heaven and for angels to

descend from heaven to earth.  Each step up or down represents a development in our self-awareness.  In the Old Church state we are angels-to-be) ascending the steps of self-consciousness from earthly focus to heavenly focus; that is, from the external self to the internal self.  This growth may occur as early as post-adolescence or as late as old age, or else, after death in the spiritual world. 

    The study of the Old Testament, through the childhood remains the Lord makes available to us, is a powerful developer of this external religious domain within ourselves, within our thoughts and affections.  This is an important reason why religious education and denominational life have been preserved in the institutions of Christian democracies, Jewish homes, Islamic communities, Hindu sects, and so on, in every location of our globe.  As adults we return to the study of the given Sacred Writings with a vast new understanding in comparison to our childhood days.  But we do not possess the right affections. We try all sorts of tricks to make ourselves study the Sacred Writings, but we end up not studying them enough, or else we end up with merely commentaries by all sorts of people who have many opinions on matters of Sacred Scripture. 

    However, when our strivings for genuineness begins to evolve fruits in our daily transactions, we receive from the Lord a gift of remains returned.  Little by little we are given back our childhood affections regarding Sacred Scripture, God, the afterlife, angels, devils, and commandments.  These are the ideas that captivated us in our childhood state of innocence; we did not doubt them, we did not reason about them whether they are true or false, probable or improbable. So now as adults we return to these religious ideas with a vast new understanding -- the rational self, educated, literate, experienced, and self confident. We are assured in the Third Testament that if our effort is sincere and steadfast we will create the conditions in our mind for receiving back some of our old childhood affections regarding religious ideas. We begin to experience them while we study or consciously apply the Word to our life.  Trues from Sacred Scripture begin to be infield by spiritual and celestial affections, and we begin to experience a new feeling, a new life. 

    This new life is concrete.  We have reached the top of Jacob's ladder and enjoy a vast new perspective in the Land of Canaan before us.  We are angels-to-be who are ready to descend from the heaven of Jacob's ladder to the earth which is the footstool.  We are looking, down and out, from the trues of faith in our rational understanding and see our feet standing on earth intermeshed with our horizontal community of everyday living. 

    As we descend Jacob's ladder step by step we are growing in the New Church state.  Each step is a self-discovery. A new perception enters; a new understanding; a new will; a new intention;  a new plan;  a new style;  a new enjoyment; a new success   Our

road to old age becomes a road back to childhood states of delight and affections regarding our life of religion.  We are excited about our religion.  We are imbued with the desire to go give it also to others.  We see ourselves visibly vanquishing such old enemies as anger, rudeness, complaining, dishonesty, lack of compassion, prejudice, and so forth.  We are experiencing the successes of maturity and we are exhibiting this gain in our performances. 

    When we reach the bottom of Jacob's ladder we have arrived on the Lord's Kingdom on earth.  The Ultimate Church is born within us.  We begin to understand that the Sacred Writings contain an infinite of trues; all thirst for knowledge we have, all hunger for delights we have, are all to be found in the Sacred Scriptures and nowhere else. 

    Religious psychology helps us to embark upon this Journey up and down Jacob's ladder.  Through experiences we have, and reflect upon, we each acquire explanations for life's events.  We can share the fruits of this self-witnessing, and, religious psychology represents this public and mutual sharing. We will now consider the significance of daydreams as we go up and down Jacob's ladder. 

    Our daydreams are dramatic imaginings of short or long duration in which we picture scenes that express some inner involvement.  This picturing is plastic or organic: not just a television screen with superb audio, but also the smells, feelings, tastes, pleasures, fears, etc., that lie in entertainment we enjoy.  Daydreams and dreams differ only in wakefulness of conscious thought: dreams feel like real; daydreams feel like short trips to another place, another part of ourselves that is equally real and conscious.  Daydreams need not be analyzed like dreams since we are witnessing them and can see directly into them.  In daydreams there is no veiled over symbolism to hide the obviousness of our selfishness, our grossness, our immorality, and so on.  In daydreams we can see in clear light what is the content of our affections. 

    Knowing the content of our affections offers a high vantage point on ourselves.  We are in the position to judge. This was not nice.  That was selfish.  This is meritorious. That is unfair.  This is lazy.  That is fatalistic.  This is a cop out.  That is a hidden striving for revenge. This is the right thing to do.  That is the good thing to do.  This is what generosity dictates   That is the guide of righteousness   This is most wonderful.  That is holy.  And so on; we make judgments on our daydreams, our flashbacks, our flash forwards, our expectations, our planning, our interpretations, our justifications, and presentations, and so on -- we judge them all as to the affections contained in them, whether they are in keeping with the letter and the spirit of the Commandments. 

    All this judging activity is the life of our religion. This is what activates the growth of the Church within us.  It is the work of repentance and the shunning of evils as sins and

insults against the Lord.  It is the process of reformation and regeneration.  It is the life of worship of the Word. 

    When we examine the nature of our daydreams for the purpose of judging them, we gain a new beneficial perspective on ourselves and society.  We notice that every daydream has a surface content and an inner motive.  The external content is dramatic: things happen, feelings and emotions are experienced.  In this external content, the daydream is like a TV docudrama, or an autobiographical book.  Historical and personal events, opinions, and emotions occur.  People are characters in our daydreams and, places are exchanged in significant ways. Outcomes are altered, alternatives happen. 

    In the internal of the daydream we have, we can notice what's behind the events; that is, why do they occur.  We understand rationally why we are putting that content into the daydream: we are getting a good look at our strivings, our loves, our real purposes, our intimate affections, the delights of our enjoyments, the real nature of our spiritual state. Ordinarily we are not given to know our spiritual states so that we may not come to adulterate them.  However, to the extent that we are regenerated the Lord trusts us with our remains so that we may feel ourselves masters of our house.  By seeing and perceiving our loves in our daydreams we are presented with our temptations, and hence opportunities for spiritual growth. 

    Spirits and angels are closely involved with our daydreams.  Not that they can see out daydreams and say, Look there is one of their daydreams; but rather, they are sub-consciously affected by the content and affect of our daydreams. When our daydream is against the letter or spirit of the Commandments we know of from the Word, our spiritual self is being invaded by hordes of devils who suddenly experience a new freedom for their evil machinations and pleasures. They do not see us; or even know of us; they live in their own fantasies and hells, yet unbeknownst to them, the daydreams we have correspond to momentous events in their lives and environment.  As we ignore or approve of revenge, hatred, untruth, unchastely, in our daydreams, thus is their fate suddenly aggrandized: thus do they experience a new field for their endeavors; thus are they empowered to enjoy themselves in filthy ways.  Unbeknownst to us, and unbeknownst to them, our daydreams and their daily fate are interconnected.  It is the vertical community to which our daydreams are windows, and in which we can see the concreteness of spiritual life. Spiritual life is here now, real, concrete, immortal, eternal, holy. 

    It is revealed in the Third Testament that when we read the Word or apply it consciously in our daily transactions, we are having a very strong effect upon the fate of spirits and angels.  When we are sincere and innocent in our attitude toward the holiness of the Word, the highest angels of heaven draw near us and see, in the internal sense of the verses we read, all sorts of marvelous arcane which delight them.  In turn,

they can communicate their delight and wisdom to us through our rational ideas.  Those are the moments of our highest vision and understanding, of deepest perception and feeling. By reading the Word and applying it to our daily transactions and daydreams, we enter into regular communication with the angels of heaven that are within the affectional sphere of our spiritual self.  Thereupon we experience a new life, a new creativity, a new opportunity.  The Church within us then grows and brings us to heavenly life on earth. We begin also to understand more interior things of the Word. 

    Daydreams change in content and motive in accordance with the state of the Church within us.  In the Old Church state within us, daydreams reveal our natural temptations; in the New Church state our daydreams reveal our spiritual temptations; and in the Ultimate Church state within us, they reveal our celestial temptations.  Old Church daydreams are crude and obvious; New Church daydreams are sophisticated and subtle; Ultimate Church daydreams are innocent and charitable. 

    Daydreaming is a type of spiritual flashback in our biography.  They will composes a scene through the understanding. Motives get expressed through events to which we react. In this sequence we can trace back the motive, the love associated to the intention behind the daydream and which gets fulfilled in it.  In the fulfillment of our loves in the events of the daydream, we experience the emotional and sensuous delights of fulfilled strivings, of desires finding their end and resting point. There is peace in the resolution of a daydream -- either genuine peace or adulterated peace. Even the delights of infernal genie are experienced within us like forbidden pleasures and horrendous fantasies.  Our religious victories in daydreams are experienced within us as sweet victories, harmonious expressions, wholesome content, pure pleasures, wonderful sights and marvelous visions.  Angelic love and wisdom stream into us through the daydreams we have purified and glorified through our battles of self-discipline, self-inspection, self-examination, self-judgment.  Behind all this is the work of the Lord, yet, because of His love He wills that it appear to us that it is our own work; we are therefore to know and remember that it is not our work but His within us.

Repentance, Change and Purification 

    From the perspective of the Ultimate Church within us we can survey our earlier successive states in the light of the interior sense of the Third Testament.  This new perspective is reachable by all who are willing to receive the idea that the Writings of Swedenborg constitute the Third Testament of the Word, and like the rest of the Word, has an interior sense.  Having acknowledged this as a positive bias, and for the sake of the love of trues, we enter this new perspective called the Ultimate Church within us, and can begin to see this interior sense. 

    For the sake of the rational in us, we may attempt to describe by illustration, what is it we see when we perceive the interior sense of the Third Testament.  Surely it is useful to share and compare, as in a community of spirits, and besides, it is irresistible and inevitable that the Lord's Kingdom on earth is growing as a direct consequence of His Second Coming in the rational of humankind on earth. 

    Religious psychology includes an applied aspect which may be called “applied religious psychology" and deals with the means by which individual discoveries about the Word may be communicated to others in our horizontal community.  For example, there are such issues to solve: How do we achieve repentance? or How do we shun evils as sins? and, What follows repentance? and, How do we explore ourselves for purification?  How do we cooperate fully with the Lord's work of regeneration in us? How do we communicate our findings to one another so as to confirm that we are a vertical community of spirits? 

    This mutual and reciprocal confirmation of our discoveries about the Word will enhance the status of the Church within us. The focus of this Church within us is the attempt to manifest the love of the Word in ultimates of life on this earth. This means that we make it foremost in our daily transactions. That is, we strive continually all day and night to confirm the trues of the Word in what we do in our role behaviors with others in the horizontal community our bodies live in -- our family, our neighbor, our nation, the world and the external church we belong to.  In all these categories of citizenship we hold specific responsibilities, duties, and promissory relations with a host of others, all together forming the horizontal or ethnic-historical communities on this globe.  We are a united nations, united by our denominational religions and common origin in civilization. 

    We are thus to recognize that no single transaction, thought, or desire of the heart is exempt from inspection from above, from the heavenly angels through whom the Lord governs our lives and communities.  Recognizing thus the limits of our inmost privacy we need to confirm it through proof in our own life.  This is the work of repentance; we cannot avoid it. We are journeying up and down Jacob's ladder; that means that our conscious perspective varies from state to state -- it goes higher and deeper into understanding at times, but at other times it goes lower and is more obscure.  In other terms relating to the diagram system, we can say that our conscious awareness travels from zone to zone in the ennead matrix of mind.  In each zone our individual self, or conscious awareness, experiences a unique reception of feelings and thoughts from the sphere of the spiritual world we are in.  We thus view the Word in like light of understanding: each zone has its specific spiritual sphere as defined by the organization of heaven.  This is described in great detail in the pages of the Third Testament. 

    Applied religious psychology is the joint effort of members of a church to define the conditions of salvation so that it may be attained by those who aspire to it.  Considering now the Ultimate Church state within us, we may wish to define; for practice as it were, what are the conditions of salvation that we enjoy from this perspective.  This amounts to describing how "Faith and life walk with equal steps" (Doctrine of Life 52). 

    Speaking about a paper entitled “Principles and Plan of Order for the International Government of the Church" (March 1947) Bishop Philip N. Odhner wrote as follows:  

    "Thus the principle there expressed is that for every genuine advance in the Doctrine of the Church there must be a corresponding advance in the seeing and living of new trues of life in the sense of the letter of the Word.  A circle of life thus comes into existence whereby through the living of the trues of life, through repentance and change of the natural life, the mind is opened to see the goods and trues of the internal sense of the Word; and then through such a reception of those internal things, there takes place a descending again to the sense of the letter in which new trues of life become visible, making possible a more interior and more extensive repentance and purification of the natural mind." (Philip N. Odhner, The Trues of Life for the Lord's New church, March 22, 1984, Bryn Athyn, Pa. General Doctrinal Classes)

    We must focus on our reluctance at first to accept this view.  Where does it originate?  Perhaps we are afraid; perhaps we are too tired; perhaps too busy; perhaps too idle; perhaps too preoccupied.  Whatever the source, it can be found through the regular practice of religious self-inspection. Every transaction counts; every thought and every desire of the heart.  We are taught in the Third Testament that thoughts and desires are the means by which the Lord is regenerating us, that is, through the temptations in them. We are commanded in all three Testaments to love the Lord above all else; above all this is the one focus we must adopt and strive to attain.  We may feel that this is not realistically human; that it is a view too demanding.  Or we may feel that it is too neat and pat; there is insufficient evidence, it smacks too much of delusion.  Or we may reason that we need not make such a big deal out of it; couldn't we just leave such matters to individual conscience.  After we run out of ready excuses, we decide to turn; and immediately the perspective is switched -- our conscious mind shifts to another zone of the ennead matrix and the interior meaning of verses of the Word suddenly appears to us in shining light to illustrate the situation we're in, our life and what matters to it. 

    To see what we are and what we have to do -- this indeed is the prayerful striving we have in the Ultimate Church state within us.  We invoke the Lord's blessing that He may cast His light upon our lives.  In the words of Bishop Odhner, "The Third Testament places great importance on self-exploration. It is taught that a man must repent of his evils, in order that the Lord may save him.  And it is taught that actual repentance is to

explore one self, to see one's own evils, to acknowledge them, confess them, and to desist from them.  This is called the Christian Religion itself in the Divine Providence 278.  As stated in the True Christian Religion 528, "Actual repentance is to explore self, to cognize and acknowledge one's sins, to make supplication to the Lord, and to begin a new life."  Self-exploration is the beginning of repentance.  From the Word, and from the Doctrine of the Church out of the Word, man knows what evils are, and that they are sins against the Lord, preventing the reception of the Lord's life, the life of Heaven, with man.  The whole purpose of man's knowing and understanding these things is that he might see them in himself and shun them as sins against the Lord. In this class we will treat of the teachings of the Word and of the Doctrine of the Church (out of the Word) about the seeing of evils in oneself which is by self exploration."  (Rt. Rev. Philip N. Odhner, "Self-Exploration", General Doctrinal Class, October 20, 1983, Bryn Athyn, Pa.) (emphases added). 

    As the heavens are distinguished by general, specific, and particular characteristics thus is also our mind distinguished into general facts about ourselves, specific facts about us, and particular facts about ourselves.  The general facts, we receive from the Word and, from Doctrine drawn out of the Word. Specific facts are obtained through doctrinal classes and exercises.  Particular facts about ourselves are to be found in our self-exploration. 

    We may take up some examples of facts about ourselves. In the Old Church state we learn from the Ten Commandments that we ought not to do evil to the neighbor, despite our wish to do so, on many occasions.  This doctrine gives us a general fact about us: that we wish to do evil to others but are prevented by Divine taboo.  It is a general fact in that it applies generally to all of us; no one is exempt.  In the New Church state within us we are taught, in the sense of the letter of the New Testament, that the Commandments against doing evil to others also applies to our wishes.  If we condone a deplorable wish, or desire, we are as guilty before God as if we acted out the deplorable act.  The key word here is "condone:" we are guilty not for having the desire but for condoning it; that is, for not treating it as an enemy to be cast out.  In the New Church state, through the help of the literal sense of the Writings of Swedenborg, we begin to accept that all our thoughts and affections are evil; this is a specific fact about ourselves.  Each of us can say "I am that man" and feel judged: I lie; I steal; I offend others; I ridicule holy things; I am unchaste; I enjoy lower things; I fear for tomorrow; and many such things.  We thus view the specific facts about us in the light of the general facts given by doctrine in the earlier state of the Church within us. 

    In the Ultimate Church state within us we are given particular facts about ourselves through illustration from the interior sense of the Word.  Not only do we know that we wish to harm others, and that we wish to harm others all the time, even when it appears that we are acting out of decency; we also know that the interior sense of the Third Testament illustrates the particular confirmations in our own biography.  This knowledge

is the ultimate we can have about ourselves, the inmost facts regarding the source of our intentions and ends.  Within the particular facts of our individual and unique lives we can see the specific facts of our state in which are the general facts of our humanity.  The general can now descend through the specific into the particular.  We are individuals in whom doctrine from the Word ultimates in external particulars -- the particulars of each and every unique thought and desire we experience. 

    We may better comprehend the process of regeneration by studying doctrine from the Word.  We are told that there are general, specific, and particular facts about heaven and mind. We are also told that there are affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor domains in mind: affections are extensions of love, cognitions are extensions of understanding, and sensorimotor facts are extensions of uses.  We are also told that these three are in simultaneous order, like that of the Three Testaments with the literal sense, the spiritual sense, and the celestial sense.  We may summarize these relations in the following diagram: 

SIMULTANEOUS DEGREES

-------SUCCESSIVE DEGREES------->

Old Churchstate

Naturaltemptations

New Churchstate

Spiritualtemptations

Ultimate Churchstate

Celestialtemptations

Celestial ZonesDomain A: Affections

General factsInmost sense

we are such as to wish to harm others 

                           7            

we always act out of selfish ends when we act from ourselves                                                              8

we only act from angelic mediation and their affections

                                 9

Spiritual ZonesDomain B:  Cognitions

Specific factsFirst internal

sense

we are meritorious in our apparent good 

4

we cannot know our spiritual state but the Word tells of nations, churches

5

all our states of life are described in the interior sense of the Word

6

Natural ZonesDomain C:

Sensorimotor uses

Particular factsLiteral sense

we are punished for evil acts and rewarded for good acts

                              

we suffer because of inherited evil and for the sake of others' freedom

2

every one of our acts are temptations for our instruction & reformation

   13

    This diagram makes use of the idea of the ennead matrix as a model for the zones of mind.  Each zone is defined by an intersection of a simultaneous degree (A, B, C) and a successive degree (Old, New, Ultimate).  An example is supplied for each of the nine zones; each represents the particular state of conscious awareness or perspective we experience when in that state.  As we oscillate throughout the nine zones all the time we are given to reconstruct the whole through reflection and self-exploration. Reading the chart from bottom up and) left to right we can notice that in the Old Church state we experience natural temptations in particular, specific, and general forms.  When we are in the New Church state we experience spiritual temptations in their particular, specific, and general forms.  When we are in the Ultimate Church state we experience celestial temptations in their particular, specific, and general forms.  For instance, a general celestial temptation is the knowledge about our affections that we only act from angelic mediation.  Or, a particular spiritual temptation is the knowledge that we suffer because of inherited evil and for the sake of the freedom of others.  And so on) for the other zones. Note that all particular facts about ourselves, covering all three states of the Church within us, are to be seen in the light of the literal sense of the Word and doctrine drawn out of the literal sense.  Note also that all specific facts about ourselves are to be seen in the light of the first internal sense of the Word, in all three states of the Church within us.  Finally, note that all general facts about ourselves in all three states of the Church within us are to be seen in the light of the inmost sense of the Word. 

    The perspective we are offered on ourselves is dependent upon the way we receive the Word.  When we first read or study the Third Testament we do not as yet know why it is called the Third Testament, or if we know, we do not as yet understand it in clear light.  Take, for example, what we read in the Third Testament about men, spirits, and angels) and devils.  We see these categories of people from the New Church state perspective; that is, we see that we are given information about us and what our states of life are to be in general and specific details; we think to ourselves that when we die we shall be a spirit, and after that we shall be angels of one of the three heavens.  But as we become conscious of the interior sense of the Third Testament we begin to see that the Word is also telling us about ourselves in the present; so we begin to look around in our mind and ask, Where am I a spirit?  Where, an angel?  Where, a devil?  And it is given us to confirm that, here I am a spirit, and over here I am a devil, and over here I am an angel, in accordance with my thoughts and affections relating to the Lord's Divine Human. 

    We are men and women in our sensorimotor uses; we are spirits in our cognitions; and we are angels in our affections.  In particulars we are men and women; in specifics we are spirits; and in generals we are angels. When the Third Testament speaks of angels we are seeing our affections; when it speaks of spirits we are seeing our cognitions; when it speaks of uses we are seeing our life of body sensations and

memory of experiences. 

    In the Old Church state within us all three Testaments of the Word are seen to discuss natural temptations: we are punished; we are rewarded; we are deserving; we must exercise self-discipline.  Though we know that there is a natural zone, a spiritual zone, and a celestial zone, yet, in actual practice, we act as if there were only a natural zone.  In the New Church state within us all three Testaments of the Word are seen to discuss spiritual temptations: we suffer; we accept; we wait patiently; we study; we strive to feel humbly.  Though we know that there is a celestial zone and a natural zone, in actual practice we act as if there were only a spiritual zone.  In the Ultimate Church state within us all three Testaments of the Word are seen to discuss celestial temptations: we are instructed; we are given to confirm; we are illustrated; we are regenerated. Though we know that there is a spiritual zone and a natural zone, in actual practice we are always concerned with our inner development, our life of affections, its purity and degree of interiorness.  Thus, our states within determine the kind of temptations that preoccupy us.

Successive and Simultaneous Degrees:  The Growth of the Self

    The Writings of Swedenborg teach that the Order of God’s creation is retained in every created object or pheno-phenomenon.  Consider the chain of magnitude in physical objects. Every object is made of small particles called molecules; these in turn are made up of smaller atoms, which themselves are made of sub-atomic particles; these smallest parts of matter are themselves nothing but whirling patterns of motion or energy fields.  According Swedenborg all motion in the universe can be distinguished into two basic types: vertical and horizontal, and their mixture, such as spirals.  We are taught in the Writings that all existence has only two basic varieties: the existence that is called simultaneous in degrees and the existence that is called successive in degrees.  These two are entirely distinct so that each gives rise to entirely different forms of power and quality.  Hence we may say that all forms of vertical motion are from simultaneous degrees and all forms of horizontal motion are from successive degrees.  That they are simultaneous means that all its varieties are one within the other -- like concentric circles, each circle distinct from each other yet those on the inside being within those on the outside.  That they are successive means that they succeed one another in a complementary fashion--like a chain sequence in which the earlier parts are distinct from the later parts, but the latter complement the former. 

The following diagram illustrates the three distinct simultaneous orders (vertical motion): 

 

Note that there is an outermost or external circle, an intermediate or middle circle, and an inmost or inner circle.  The three are simultaneously present but differ in depth: the inmost is the deepest, and the outermost is the external surface.  Now if we flatten the circles we obtain a vertical hierarchy thus:

------------------------------------------------------------------------A.         inmost or highest [ends]

B.         middle degree (intermediate) [causes]

C.         outermost or lowest (external) [effects]------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Note that what is inmost is also highest and, what is outermost is also lowest.  This schema is applicable to the self: our deepest values and qualities are also the highest) in that they govern the shallower, external qualities which may be said to lie in the periphery and external parts of ourselves. 

Now let us represent three successive orders:

external interior inmost

I II III

DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES

This successive order is sequential and complementary, such as we have generally in stages of growth or development.  For instance, to obtain a fruit (which is then our "end") we first need a seedling plant (I), which grows into a tree or vine with branches and leaves (II), and this then yields flowers and fruits (III). The last state called the "end" is also the "origin" just as fruits and seeds belong to the same ultimate state; the first state is called external "effects" because they issue from the fruit-seed state, so that the

seedling (I) is but a consequence of the seed and fruit (III). The intermediate stage is called the "cause" or the “means” because it is nothing but the instrument by which the end is brought about.  We can say then that in successive stages, the end (in the future -- III) creates the current effects (I) through the intermediate means (II). 

    This relationship also exists in simultaneous order when viewed analytically: the inmost (A) brings about the outmost (C) through the intermediate (B).  For example, the heart (A) rules the body (C) through the mind (B).  Or, the ruling love (A) in our inmost, governs the external activities (C), in our acts, through our intelligence and planning (B), in the intermediate. 

    Since all created things of the self and the world are based on simultaneous (vertical) and successive (horizontal) orders or degrees, we may wish to represent these two types in any object or quality by placing them in an intersecting grid or matrix, as follows:

SIMULTANEOUS DEGREES

------SUCCESSIVE DEGREES------->

(external)I. effect

(assertion)

(middle)II. cause

(implication)

(inmost)III. end-origin

(presupposition)

A. inmost(originating)

inmost effect(originating)

IA 7

inmost cause(originating)

IIA 8

inmost end(originating)

IIIA 9

B. middle(instrumental)

middle effect(instrumental)

IB 4

middle cause(instrumental)

IIB 5

middle end(instrumental)

IIIB 6

C. external(ultimate)

external effect(ultimate)

IC 1

external cause (ultimate)

IIC 2

external end(ultimate)

IIIC 3

Note that the three simultaneous degrees (A, B, C) intersect with the three successive degrees (I, II, III) to yield a 3x3 grid called an ennead matrix ("ennead" = nine).  The nine zones of the ennead matrix exhaust all possibilities in created motions, qualities,

and conditions or states.  Each specific zone of existence creates its own specific set of quality, state, or form and use.  Thus, when we know the zone location of an object, phenomenon, or state we can specify its essential characteristics by reference to the marginals of the ennead matrix -- that is, whether it is composed of A, B, C, in the vertical dimension, and I, II, III in the horizontal dimension. Each zone creates qualities and forms defined by the intersecting marginals of the matrix.  There is thus a zone of "inmost effects” (IA), a zone of" middle causes” (IIB), a zone of "external ends" (IIC), and so on. The full span of qualities and shapes of created existence goes from "inmost ends" (IIIA) (9) to outmost or "external effects" (IC) (a). The ennead matrix is a visual model we've constructed of the Divine Order of Degrees in creation2as outlined in the Writings of Swedenborg. 

    Further, the Writings of Swedenborg identify the zone location of thousands of things about our body, the world, the mind, and holy things such as heaven and the things of the Church and the Word. Here are some examples from the Word which the Writings define as to their quality and interconnections relative to the degrees of simultaneous and successive orders: 

A. Inmost Zones: IA, IIA, IIIA. (7, 8, 9)

AffectionsWill LoveGoodSunHeatLengthDaughters

AnimalsFleshEndsFirst UsesRight eyeWives-WomenPriestsFine linen

Red colorHouse of woodRoof of a houseThird floor ForeheadFatherInnocenceHouse of God

PowerVirginFood Fire SacrificesBread Children Righteousness

CattleHillsRocksPurple colorMountainsSummit Sucklings

B. Middle Zones: IB, IIB, IIIB. (4, 5, 6) 

CognitionsUnderstanding TruthFaithLight SonsMoon

IntellectFlying creaturesLifting up the eyeBloodWater WinePrecious stones

EyesLeft eyeGarmentsWhite ColorsTemple Men

House of stoneFoundationTreesPlantsGardensStarsIntelligence

C. External Zones: IC, IIC, IIIC. (1, 2, 3) 

JusticeFruitsWorks Uses

Camel Serving the LordUltimate effectsArms

Hands FeetKeysEgypt

Memory-knowledgesSerpentSense impressionsCivil life

These examples are taken from the Word.  Now we may add other examples that are used in religious psychology but derive by inference from those in the Word: 

OBJECT, ENTITY, QUALITYZONE LOCATION

(SUCCESSIVE)

-the domain of religion-the will or ruling love-good and evil-spiritual conscience (righteousness)-inherited inclinations-spiritual inclinations (acquired)-celestial inclinations (received)

IA, IIA, IIIA (7, 8, 9)IA, IIA, IIIAIA, IIA, IIIAIA, IIA, IIIAIA, --- , ------ , IIA, ---

--- , --- , IIIA

-the domain of cognitions-understanding-trues and falsities-morality-reasonings-intelligence-wisdom

IB, IIB, IIIB (4, 5, 6)IB, IIB, IIIBIB, IIB, IIIBIB, IIB, IIIBIB, --- , ------ , IIB, ------, --- , IIIB

-the domain of sensorimotor uses-civil life-pleasures and happiness-sense impressions-knowledges of the memory-competence and skills

IC, IIC, IIIC (1, 2, 3)IC, IIC, IIICIC, IIC, IIICIC, --- , ------ , IIC, ------ , --- , IIIC

These zone location charts may be read in conjunction with the ennead matrix presented above.  For instance, reasonings (lB) is a subtype of "understanding" (IB, IIB, IIIB) and are of a "middle end" (IB).  Memory-knowledges (IIC) is a subtype of “civil life" (IC, IIC, IIIC) and are of an "external cause" (IIC) Celestial inclinations (lIlA) cc. a

subtype of "good and evil" (IA, IIA, IIIA) and belong to "inmost effects" (IIIA).  And so on. 

We can now look at some examples from simultaneous order (vertical):

OBJECT, ENTITY, QUALITYZONE LOCATION (SIMULTANEOUS)

-the celestial degreeIIIA (9)IIIB (6)IIIC (3)

-the spiritual selfIIIAIIIBIIIC

-the Third TestamentIIIAIIIBIIIC

-the Ultimate Church stateIIIAIIIBIIIC

-presuppositions (why things are)IIIAIIIBIIIC

-ends and originsIIIAIIIBIIIC

-the spiritual degreeIIA (8)IIB (5)IIC (2)

-the rational selfIIAIIBIIC

-the New TestamentIIAIIBIIC

-the New Church state IIA

IIBIIC

-implications (how things are)IIAIIBIIC

-causes and meansIIAIIBIIC

-the natural degreeIA (7)IB (4)IC (1)

-the natural (automatic) selfIAIBIC

-the Old TestamentIAIBIC

-the Old Church stateIAIBIC

-assertions (what things are)IAIBIC

-effects and consequencesIAIBIC

We may now put the two charts together to form an ennead matrix of simultaneous and successive degrees (see diagram on next page). This ennead matrix allows us to summarize many of the facts about the self and the world which are taught in the Writings of Swedenborg.  The numbers in each zone indicate a possible growth pattern for the self.  We can review the experiences involved in each zone so as to gain some practice with this method of notation.

The Ennead Matrix or Nine Zones of Life or Self

1. Zone 1c

We may think of this zone of life as sensorimotor in domain (C} and natural in degree (I) thus, natural uses involving the senses and movements of the body (IC).  This zone of life or the self encompasses external effects such as the sensory impressions of the automatic self.  The literal sense of the Old Testament is in this zone of life: it deals with the natural assertions of the Old Church state within us, identifying them as to what they are. Particular examples are such things as our pleasures, our body movements, our awareness of the physical surround, our artifacts and products, our historical and biographical identities, and all

 

SIMULTANEOUS DEGREES

          -------SUCCESSIVE DEGREES--------->

I. Effects II. Causes III. Ends

OLD TESTAMENT

Old Churchstate within

NEW TESTAMENT

New Churchstate within

THIRD TESTAMENT

Ultimate Churchstate within

A. CELESTIAL SENSE

(inmost)AFFECTIONS

Natural assertions about celestial affections (inmost effects)

7

Spiritual implications about celestial affections(inmost causes)

8

Celestial presuppositions about celestial affections

(inmost ends)

9

B. SPIRITUAL SENSE

(first internal)COGNITIONS

Natural assertions about spiritual cognitions(middle effects)

4

Spiritual implications about spiritual cognitions(middle causes)

5

Celestial presuppositions about celestial affections

(middle ends)

6

C. LITERAL SENSE

(external)SENSORIMOTOR

USES

Natural assertions about literal sensorimotor uses(external effects)

1

Spiritual implications about literal sensorimotor uses(external causes)

2

Celestial presuppositions about literal sensorimotor uses(external ends)

3

Note:   read from bottom up and follow the

numbered boxes

NATURAL DEGREE

AssertionsNatural Self

SPIRITUAL DEGREE

ImplicationsRational Self

CELESTIAL DEGREE

PresuppositionsSpiritual Self

things that pertain to the external effects of sensuous life in a civic cultural community.  Regarding the Church within us, this outermost zone of the Old Church state within us involves all the objects and rituals of the external church to which we belong: going to church and sitting in the pews, kneeling, saying the prayers and singing hymns, receiving the sacraments from an ordained priest, paying a portion of the tithe, shaking hands with the other members, and so on.  In this zone denominational distinctions are most apparent.

2. Zone IIC

(to be continued)

The Method of Reflection

    We ascend and descend Jacob's ladder; that means that we journey across the zones of the ennead matrix of mind.  This is a vertical journey -- the body remains on earth but one's conscious awareness, or self, travels across the spaces and spheres of the mind zones.  There we encounter inner experiences.  Religious psychology studies these inner experiences. 

    Inner experiences, like outer experiences, may be observed or witnessed by the conscious self.  There is a duality of existence in such self-witnessing.  This experience of the inner self is a spiritual experience: it is knowable, describable in concrete terms. Inner experiences that are vivid are easily remembered, like a dream, or like having a scare in a near accident situation.  The self-witnessing of inner experience is at first startling.  When we seek such awareness for the sake of religious self-inspection it is given us to observe ourselves ascending and descending Jacob's ladder. 

    Every one may develop the skill of self-witnessing.  The learning of this technique requires a variety of approaches which we may try out for- their suitability according to one's individual judgment.  We shall consider here the approach called reflection or meditation upon the Word.  The conditions for successful reflection may be stringent; thus, we need to be able to relax or unwind from our role obligations; we need to have several hours of protected time so that there are no frequent interruptions; we need to be untried and undepressed;  we need to be adequately prepared in our holy attitude toward the Word and in our prior knowledge of the Word through adequate and serious study habits. We need to be able to slow down the pace of our day, almost to the point

of being still.  One begins to relax and feel more secure, more protected.  One begins to notice the physical surrounds --body tension and pain, sounds and harmoniousness, shapes and colors, tastes, odors, textures.  This extra awareness is a sign that we are relaxing.  We discover that the body is immersed in an ocean of feeling. 

    Next we move deeper; we are unwilling to stop at the merely sensuous experience.  The Word teaches that the depth of mind is as the height of heaven.  The deeper we go within ourselves the higher into our heaven we ascend.  It is an interior journey, the journey to the East, where our true love lies. 

    Once relaxed in the ocean of feeling, and still feeling confident of the religious purpose of our inward journey, we press on to the lessons of the Word.  This is our true love.  We rejoice in owning its holy externals: we can read the Word from book to book until all of it is read, and we can begin again, over and over again, to eternity.  The Word is the source of all our affections.  It is by far the most precious of all our possessions. So, with this sincere attitude, and still relaxed in the ocean of feeling, we begin the study of the Word. 

    This study is the meditative reflection.  This study is the journey inward.  The Word is the map and the vehicle.  We mentally follow what the Word says in its literal sense, chapter after chapter, verse by verse, we are taken to a spiritual journey: our conscious self begins to experience, to see, the inner world of our dual citizenship -- the one natural and external, the other spiritual and internal. It is the power of the Word that accomplishes this. 

    When we read and study the Word in this external frame of mind, relaxed and untried, prepared with prior study habits, with plenty of protected time before us, we come more and more into the sphere of angelic spirits and angels who are in the same general affective sphere that our spiritual self is in.  And we suddenly begin to receive some of their affections in general terms.  The deeper we go in our relaxation and follow our loves inside, the more significant will be the height of our perspective in what we uncover in the arcane of the Word. 

    The Word will suddenly become alive.  No longer just physical substance, printer's ink and paper, phrases in our preferred language and version.  We will have the concrete, super-natural experience of the Word as a living object of holiness. This is a startling and vivid experience never to be forgotten.  What a luxury to have such an easily available sure method of travelling inward and discovering a new universe within us -- our dual citizenship. 

    The wonderful discovery that the Word is living, that it is in reality spiritual substance from eternity, is possible for every one who is willing to prepare for it out of love of truth and sincere desire to do well according to one's religion.  One expresses this sentiment by making the Word foremost in our lives: by daily systematic study of the Word using all our intellectual skills and study habits from school and personal experience. We are to read and re-read the Sacred Writings of our religion. We are to use their verses to pray and sing hymns to God.  We read commentaries by others that help us to be better students and develop better study methods.  We are to attempt teaching its content to children, friends, and neighbors.  We are to take notes and even write some pages on our thoughts and feelings about it. We are to use whatever methods are available to us individually to get to know the Word, to make it familiar, to befriend it.  We become imbued with its stories, parables, commandments, doctrines. We are to reason about its parts so as to see its reflection in clearer light;  we never criticize it or suspect its details, but always strive to confirm its perfection.  We learn its lessons of honest virtues and spiritual explanations.  It is our food for survival -- that is how we feel about it. 

    With this background preparation we can enter, relaxed and protected, into the sphere of the Word.  The vision and perspective that the Word gives us on our life is delightful and useful.  The sphere of the angels with us affect us more strongly in our state of well-prepared meditative reflection.  We receive easy but profound answers to our puzzlements, questions, and conflicts within ourselves.  We come to experience the concrete proof of our dual life -- natural and spiritual. 

    This is not a one time experience.  We can enter this sphere of ourselves with each succeeding period of meditative reflection on the Word.  There is a visible progression of greater depth, towards more interior meanings of the Word.  During the period of reflective study in a relaxed and protected environment, we use our imagination and memory to relate to the Word, to explore our relationship to it. 

    For example, we can mentally rehearse telling someone we know, about what we see in the Word.  We want to tell the person that the Word is living; that it answers questions by revealing superior perspectives; that it is loving and Divine.  As we are thus engaged in the mental rehearsal of telling this person about the Word, we experience spontaneous creativity flowing through us from the inner world and coming out into the external world in the form of the phrases and sentences we mentally utter to this person.  We listen to our own utterances reflect upon their meaning, and marvel at the trues we see in them, at the beauty in them, and how interiorly we are affected by them, in our heart. 

    Or else, we imagine that we are in a court of law somewhere where the Word has been put on trial by doubters and scoffers.  And we hear ourselves deliver an impassioned defense of its genuineness, its truth, its holiness.  O what heat, what zeal,

what love then flows in our veins; we enjoy our speech immensely; we find it truly eloquent and capable.  We wonder at the wisdom we exhibit in our speech -- we seem so erudite and rational.  We did not suspect such scholarship and showmanship in ourselves.  We are delighted. We are instructed.  We are vindicated in our loyalty to the Word and its inner universe. 

    This kind of relaxed and well-prepared reflective study of the Word will produce flashbacks during other parts of the day, when we are not relaxed but busy and pressured by external contingencies -.  A flashback is a momentary recall of some vivid moments from our meditative reflections on the Word.  We may be driving, or walking, or having a conversation, and for a few seconds or a couple of minutes, we again see and experience that the Word is living; that we are dual citizens; that a verse or story in Scripture is a loving message and explanation addressed to us personally.  We thus re-experience for a few moments the vision and feeling we had during the reflective study period, but now in a different atmosphere, on the road, in a hallway, or in the midst of a conversation.  And this living, concrete reality within us lifts up our mood and our outlook.  We feel more confident; more satisfied with the explanations we have for our life situation. 

    How wonderful it is to read the Word and experience it as the living, Divine Truth.  God is the Divine Person Who is present with each one of us through the Word.  That is why the Word was given, so that God could be present in our conscious self as we put up the effort to read, study, and understand it.  What a wonderful mystery: how can this be; how is this so?  The Word reveals this mystery to us, it teaches us the unity of all, the Oneness of inner life.  We discover that our inner citizenship is in a universe in which the environment is the reflection, the concrete embodiment, of our thoughts and feelings.  Place and time in this natural world, is state and quality in the spiritual world.  Our dual citizenship correspond.  The outside universe, which is natural, tends to restrict us, our movements and desires: we often find ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong things.  But the inside universe, which is spiritual, gives us more freedom: we always find ourselves in the place and time where we can do precisely what we intend and desire.  The Word thus reveals to us the reality of our life and actual condition; it does this through our mental effort to study it, to reason about it for confirmation, and to conform to it in habit, deed, thought, and desire. 

    Because of our inherited and acquired traits and habits, we often experience a resistance to placing the Word to the foreground of our daily life activities.  We may have difficulty devoting enough time for its study and reflection.  Or we may spend time in daily study, yet we feel impatient and unrewarded.  Or we may be led into all sorts of enthusiastic and spurious methods which end up letting us down.  Or we may feel resigned to a less than sublime and perfect relationship to it here on earth.  Or, we may experience doubt, confusion, lassitude.  By all this we will not be deterred because our love is sincere and therefore steadfast.  We always find ways of explaining our situation

through what the Word continues to reveal to our inquiring mind. 

    Resistance to the study of the Word is a general temptation that we are to overcome successively in all three states of the Church within us.  In the Old Church state this resistance will exhibit itself in natural form: we don't have enough time; we have other worthwhile things to read; it might be enough to hear sermons and Christian songs; we need more training -- it's too difficult; we'll do more of it as we get older; we've already done it; we don't get that much out of it; and so on.  These are excuses presented by the natural temptations involved, each person according to their individual and unique make up. 

    In the New Church state the resistance to the Word will exhibit itself in Spiritual form: I try to apply it in this way, through my uses over here; it is for the clergy who can spend full time on it; the Word is everywhere; we don't need it as much now; we need to publicize it; we need to establish its relation to science; and so on.  These are preoccupations which are presented by the spiritual temptations involved according to one's occupation and family situation. 

    In the Ultimate Church state the resistance to the Word will also manifest in celestial temptations we are given to overcome in our deep affections: do I do it sufficiently?  am I seeing it accurately?  why do I keep forgetting about it;  when will this process end?  and so on.  These are expressive of affections we need to lay aside. 

    Thus we journey through the development of the Church within us.  The Church within us is our spiritual self -- that is, the zones of the ennead matrix which govern our affective life, our life of religious purposes and ideals.  This area of the mind is built up through the study of the Word as a form of daily worship and application.  To the extent that we overcome our natural temptations to that extent the Old Church within us will grow and prosper as the basis and contaminant of the other two. The more the Old Church state within continues to grow throughout life, the more it will be brilliant as it is influxed by the other two Church states within us.  This brilliance of the Old Church state within us will shine for all to see; for we shall be like David, competent in our occupation and duties, yet given to the adoration of the Word in scholarship, poetry, and dance. 

    Temptations are particular facts about ourselves. They are tailor made and individualized -- just what we need to see our self as it is in its spiritual company.  Temptations reveal to us from above what we need to cast out in order to progress forward and upward to our true love.  The Word reveals to each person what is his or her temptation.  This revelation occurs when the person studies the Word out of love for it.  From this sincere love and attraction one discovers in oneself, the person derives great rewards and the power to pursue its study with deep enjoyment.  Anything short of

a feeling of perfection in one s relationship to the Word is a temptation.  Affections we hold interfere with its reception; we need to know what these affections are in order to willingly cast them out.  As we overcome these celestial temptations we are descending Jacob's ladder within the Ultimate Church.  Here we are given to purify our inmost selves, to ostracize and banish lifelong habits of the heart, those that we imbued during our adolescent enthusiasm for the things of the self and the world.  This purification of the will gives warmth and brilliance to our external character and appearance; truly we are angels walking on earth, the Lord's Kingdom restored. The restoration of the Lord's Kingdom on earth refers to this warmth and brilliance of our external personality which comes from the Church within us.

The Method of Spiritual Geography

    Religious psychology must have methods whereby we may use the study of the Word to be applied to our life and to confirm there what we have learned from the Word. Thus, the Word becomes a sort of a Holy tool given us by the Lord in His regeneration of us. This Holy use of the Word is personal and belongs to the Church within us. But because the Church within is universal, that is, the same internal Church of the Lord is within everyone, therefore what is personal must also be universal. This may appear startling to our natural self: how can the personal be universal? Yet, it being so since it is taught us in the Word, we are led to inquire how this is true: how is the personal also universal and, what makes it so?

    The Word teaches that God is with everyone. In the Word of the Third Testament, we are given to understand that the Lord governs all our affections and thoughts; also, that He does this through spirits and angels as intermediaries. What a wonderful mystery -- yet we need to enter into it rationally, and this requires a method. We propose to call this method spiritual geography. It derives from the sense of the letter of the Third Testament. It involves the idea of correspondences, namely that what the natural self can observe through the external senses and reasonings, is always representative and significative of the spiritual self. In other words, referring to the diagrams we've been studying, zones of the mind 1,2,3 contain events that are caused by (significative) events in the spiritual self (zones 4,5,6), and as well, the two sets of events are symbolically related (representative). In these terms we can say that the historical events related in the Word's literal sense are representative of spiritual events and, caused by them. When we attempt to discover this true in ourselves, that is, to confirm it, we are engaged in the method of spiritual geography.

    For example, we may ask ourselves such questions: "Where is my Noah?" or "When is my flood?" or "Why do I crucify Jesus on the cross?" and so on. This is the inquiry of spiritual geography. This idea is well known in the New Church communities who study the Writings of Swedenborg as the Word of the Lord. Many sermons and commentaries are explicit applications of this idea; one might even say that this is the very basis of worship services in the New Church. The service revolves around three readings, each reading for one of the successive inner Church states we undergo in our regeneration. The first reading is a lesson from the Old Testament, the second reading is a passage

from the New Testament, and the third reading is from the Third Testament. The readings are chosen so as to allow the sermon to interconnect them through their correspondences as revealed in the Third Testament (called, in the New Church '"the Writings"). We might say then that the New Church clergy practices a method of exegesis similar to what we are calling here spiritual geography.

    A particular case may be cited here. It is a talk delivered by Rev. Alfred Acton, II, at a workshop of the Mental Health Symposium he Id in Glenview, November 29, 1980, and titled "A New Church Perspective on Personality Development." This tape is available from the Catalogue of the Sound Recording Library of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. A method is presented that involves a step by step comparison of the correspondences in the Genesis and Exodus commentaries found in Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia, with the steps of development of the embryo and of the human maturation stages after birth. Several more talks on this subject by Rev. Acton may be found in the Sound Recording Library as this is a specialty area that has taken many years of study and theoretical development. In this particular tape, the eight stages of human development defined by psychologist   Erikson is being compared to the historical steps of the first two books of the Old Testament.

    This appears to be an application of the method of spiritual geography. However we want to point out a danger here. Since Erikson did not derive the eight steps of his model from the Word it is questionable whether we can then successfully reverse the process and go from Erikson's eight steps to the correspondences in Genesis and Exodus. It may be possible to show similarities between Erikson's steps and the steps derived from the Word. But this does not serve to confirm the Word, and therefore, those who employ this approach are still in need of confirming the Word.

   The method of spiritual geography as described in religious psychology always starts from steps in the Word and ends with steps in ourselves, our individual daily lives. Only this can serve to confirm the Word, and hence, to love it. As we read the Word we may ask ourselves, "Where is this in me?" and then find it through religious self-inspection. It is not enough to know that the Word applies to oneself; it is not enough to know which correspondences in the Word refer to which things we do in the course of our life. We need to localize the events, to make a chart of them, to map them unto the known areas of mind. Even if we agree with the tenets of this approach it is not enough; we must practice it. That is, we must figure it all out.

    The diagrams we draw in religious psychology are technical tools to help us figure ourselves out. We are enjoined to "Know thyself," and so we need to become spiritual geographers of the mind so as to better confirm the Word in ourselves, and thus to enable the Church within us to develop and grow in all its zones. There will be a variety of individual applications within this method; each of us may invent ways to help confirm the Word within our lives. The Lord surely provides for the specific needs of every unique human being; He it is Who leads us, Who gives the energy, Who chooses the propitious time for each discovery, Who holds up the discovery before our eyes and gives the ability to comprehend it and make use of it for our further growth.

    The operation of regeneration is a psychiatric process; the Lord heals our insane spirit and delivers it from nasty infestations. We know how detailed the psychiatric process is as practiced by psychoanalysts and many psychodynamic psychologists. Surely this represents in external form the Lord's detailed and intimate work with our spirit. Those who go through the work with a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist are given a theory of the self to learn. They learn new ways of interpreting their own behavior and the behavior of others. This new perspective allows them to discard the older one which caused them personal problems and emotional upset. With this new theory of the self and human behavior, the patient can continue after therapy to improve and develop a more effective personality and habits. In this case the new personality may be more effective but the theory is still based on concepts from the Old Church state within us. Several New Church clergy and lay professionals in education and mental health have presented their attempts to compare things from the Word with scientific things from the world of psychology, psychiatry, and physiology. The motivation to do this comparison is a natural one: to attempt to bridge the gap between New Church and Old Church or, science art, history, and so forth. This may be a useful enterprise in some ways. However, it is important to know that such an exercise still leaves one with the requirement of confirming the Word in ourselves, a task which must be accomplished by direct observation in our own transactions with others. We may ask the question, "Where is the flood in me?" but we still need to confirm it, to localize the flood in our own mind and our own experiences in daily life.

    In the Old Church state within us we do not as yet know the method of spiritual geography. Upon reception of the Lord's Second Advent, we enter the New Church state within us, during which we accumulate much knowledge of correspondences in the Word and their representations in human minds. Afterward, when we so will it, we receive the interior sense of the Third Testament and thus we are enabled to confirm the Word.

    The practice of spiritual geography takes place as we are willing to enter into the Ultimate Church state within us through the interior sense of the Third Testament. We retain all the earlier states of the Church within us since the Old Church state is the basis and containant of the other two, and in which the other two attain their full splendor. Thus, the state of Moses within us (zone 1) becomes purified and Holy as it receives within itself the spiritual cognitions (zone 4) and celestial affections (zone 7). Similarly, the New Church state we begin with (zone 2) becomes purified and receives within itself spiritual cognitions of the intermediate degree from the Second Heaven (zone 5); and celestial affections from the intermediate region of the Third Heaven (zone 8). Similarly also in the case of the Ultimate Church within us: zone 3 is the basis and containant of zones 6 and 9. We may better remember this relation by studying the following diagram containing mnemonic devices:

   

 

 

 

 

More diagrams of spiritual geography are given in the following pages. We may study these at first, but afterwards each one of us must make our own, and in so doing we become enabled to better confirm the Word in our lives. Only then does the Ultimate Church continue to grow within us. It is the Lord's Kingdom on earth.

See diagrams in a related article here:  Spiritual Gegoraphy

The Regions of the Mind

    To comprehend the relation between the Word and our mind we need to consider the chain of being relating to life. We know from reading the Word that all things issue from God the Creator Who also maintains His Creation and governs it to eternity. In the Lord's Second Advent through the Third Testament, it is given us to reconstruct conceptually the nature and dynamics of this Creation of which we are part of. That is, we are given to deduce from the Third Testament the answers to such age old issues to humankind: Who is God? What is our relationship to Him? What is the purpose of life? Where are we headed from this earth? What is eternal life? and many others that regard each of us in a direct and personal way.

    We may now draw a rational line of our spiritual descendent from God. We believe that we are God's children as we are told this in childhood when the Old Church state is established within us. As descendants of God we wish to know what is the line of descendent? Perhaps it might help to think of some line of descendent one could make up; to illustrate:

1. GOD WHO IS THE 

ORIGIN OF LIFE OR BEING

         

====== 2. THE WORD        

  ====== 3. HEAVEN      

    ======4. THESOUL

   

      ======5. THE 

AFFECTIONS AND IDEAS

 

        ======

6. THOUGHTS, WORDS, & ACTS 

& THINGS OF THE WORLD

          =======

This schema conceptualizes our genetic or organic line to God. It shows six stepping zones for our removal from Him. Of course many more could be given, or different ones; what matters is that one can see the line of descent from God to us and our immediate surrounds. Note that our most familiar zone of life is zone 6, at the very bottom. This is the environment in which our Natural Self exists and grows. It is the familiar three dimensional world of earthly existence in time, space, and matter.

    Thoughts are motions of the physical brain which is made of the elements of earth. Scientific Psychology in the Negative Bias studies this world of events in which our natural mind is embedded. This includes our memories built up through experiences, also called "the external memory" in the Third Testament. Of course our actions are also in this three dimensional world. Scientific Psychology studies our actions as "behavior." This includes our job activities, our mental abilities, our opinions, and the visible aspects of our relationships called "interpersonal relationships" in Social Psychology. As well, the most modern and recent techniques of the neuroscience include the capacity to affect a patent's thoughts through drugs. It is clear then that our actions, memories of experiences, knowledges or scientifics, and all conclusions and decisions based on them are all natural belonging to this world, and consequently not of the spiritual world in which the other five zones are. Thus Zone 6 of life is purely an external appearance, because temporal' or vanishing from existence. By contrast, the other five Zones of life depicted in the diagram are eternal and never vanishing, that is, they have real existence.

    Realizing that our thoughts, knowledges, and decisions are but appearances we are impelled to inquire what we are in reality. That is, what lies in the other Zones of life and how are we a part of it right now, and how later. The answer to this crucial question for everyone on earth lies in the study of the Church within us. By knowing what the Church is that is within us unbeknownst to us, we will know the part of us that is real, that is not of this world.

    Through the books and writings of the Third Testament it has now been given us to understand the real structure of the mind, the part of us that is eternal, that part we will know ourselves as, after death in the afterlife. This part is pictured in the diagram above as consisting of five zones. After death we arise in a spiritual world with a spiritual body that resembles the body on earth but is constituted solely of substances from the spiritual world. As we wake up in this spiritual body, we appear to ourselves to be in Zone 5, which is our external spiritual state. Ideas and affections are spiritual substances; they have external forms we call 'bodies' here on earth. In the spiritual world ideas are embodied in the environment. An analogy we can recognize is a dream: the external environment in the dream world is made of dream materials-unbound by the laws of time, matter, or logic. Thus also the world of spirits in which we then live, spiritually embodied or "materialized." Time

and space are only appearances in the spiritual world, hence our ideas and feelings are also unbound by time and space. This is known to common sense here on earth since we do not think of having a lot of ideas as increasing our weight! Thus we know that ideas and feelings exist in the spiritual world, not in this world.

    Zone 5 is comprehensible to our common sense right now, and so serves as a bridge of evidence to the fact that our line of descent is spiritual. As well, zone 5 gives us a definite, concrete, here-now comprehension of what is the spiritual. Scientific psychologists deny the reality of the spiritual part of ourselves because it is not concrete to them. To them, behavior is more concrete than ideas and feelings; some explicitly exclude the latter from the study of humans. This dilemma of the negative bias is familiar to us when we leave the uncritical character of childhood and take on our own made convictions; we then depart from our religion and either go through the motions of it or reject it altogether for alternative and foreign beliefs and creeds. In that state of the Old Church within us we are in a spiritual desert, through which the Lord is leading us toward the Church within us. When we, later in life, begin once again to recognize the reality of ideas and feelings, their concreteness and timelessness, then we enter Zone 5 in our consciousness. The way has then been prepared to discover the Word for oneself. We can then read the Word and believe, feel, its living reality. We have escaped from the constraints of Zone 6. We now believe and know that we are immortal. We have found a part of our real experience, real caring, real involvement in the other world to which we know we are going. No matter what happens from now on, no matter when we happen to die, we know that our individual life will continue to eternity. This is the discovery we make when we return to the Word as adults, out of our own needs, our own seeking and love.

    Now we begin the self-conscious process of reformation, of the effort and self-discipline we must muster to reform our character, our habits, our thoughts. Zone 6 must be reformed, reshaped, redone all over again. This is the purpose of studying religious psychology -- to enable us to better reform ourselves here on earth. This is the work of faith, the growth of the Church within us through our own effort and with the Lord's energy and leading through the Word. That is, the Lord gives us the energy to exert the effort and He gives us the direction through our study of the Word. The more we study the Word on a daily basis and make it central to our daily hours and minutes, the more the Church grows within us, and the more we experience the wonders of life here on earth. This new experience shows itself plainly in our affections, our ideas, our reasonings, our transactions with others, and throughout all aspects of life which has now become richer and more abundant.

    This rebirth we experience in these very concrete results, is managed and governed through our soul, Zone 4, of which we know nothing about since it has not been revealed in the sense of the letter of the Third Testament. However we have been given a description of Zone 3, which is Heaven. When we are in Heaven we exist in our inmost plane. That is, our external environment, our bodies and houses and mountains, are made of celestial substances, all of which are affections. This is difficult at first to conceptualize but one can do it with some practice. For example, consider the dream analogy again: the stuff of people and houses in our dreams is dream stuff -- we can see with our external eyes what is in reality deep in our own fancy or imagination. Similarly in Heaven: we can see with our external eyes as angels, the other angels and the houses and mountains -- yet this visual external scene is or reflects our inmost affections. The angels we see are our affections, the houses and objects we touch are our affections, the mountains and chariots are our affections, the animals and clouds and colors are our affections, and so on. Here on earth, when we appeal and make use of our artistic capacities, we embody our affections or feelings with artifacts we make, called 'objets d'art' or works of art. Each work of art is an affection which was externalized by the artist. Now consider a world you can live in where the people, houses, objects, and events are all works of art, that is, affections that get externalized and form the shape and quality of objects. As you consider or reflect upon this idea you will be looking upon your Heaven, in all its concrete reality and beauty and Holiness.

    Now we can comprehend our relationship to angels and spirits: our concrete ideas are spirits and our concrete feelings are angels within us, or with us. We are also told in the Third Testament that we study the Word in Heaven; that the Word is the Lord; that Heaven is the Lord, the Divine Man; that Heaven is within us or with us, as our affections which are celestial substances; that each person is a little Heaven. From these trues or facts about reality we can deduce that to know the form of our mind we need to know the form of Heaven as it is given in the Word. Thus we must study the Word to discover the mind, its real concrete quality and form.

    We have discussed the doctrine of degrees which we are taught in the Third Testament. This tells us that all things created are created in the quality and form of God, and that this Divine quality and form descend from God in a line of genetic transformation along three simultaneous degrees and three successive degrees. Any

object or event on earth that we can possibly encounter will have this quality and form. Our mind has this quality and form; our life history or biography has this quality and form; our country and city and house have this quality and form.

    This is difficult at first to comprehend in a concrete way but it is possible with some practice. For example, consider the meaning and designation of "American": a person can be an American, a custom or habit or style can be American, a house or car or satellite can be American, a victory at the Olympics can be American, and so on. What is American that it should give its quality and form to all these things? Whatever we answer here is not so crucial as the fact that there is such a thing, that American is indeed something concrete and real. Similarly, all objects and events in the created universe will have the quality and form of God. It is evident therefore what boon to humankind it is to now have the Word in its Three Testaments so that we can study the quality and form of it. Since the Word is the Lord, and the Lord's quality and form is visible in the Word, therefore we can now study and discover the quality and form of Heaven, the mind, human speech, actions, and affairs. At last we can enter the Ultimate Church within us, from which we can study and know reality, and this to eternity, without ever coming up to God's ineffable and infinite quality of One Being. Yet v-dewed and experienced from our end we get nearer and nearer to eternity and infinity, and that is all that really matters.

    We can learn from the sense of the letter of the Third Testament that the Heavens are ordered in zones of three simultaneous degrees and three successive degrees. We can deduce from this that the mind will also have this organization, and since there are nine distinct zones of Heaven there must be nine distinct zones of mind. We all possess these nine zones of mind though we differ and change regarding the degree of development or maturity of each zone. Maturity of zone means perception or conscious awareness. Though we all have nine zones of mind all the time, we are only partially conscious of them. Some zones of mind are completely underdeveloped and hence we have absolutely no awareness of them; they are inactive elements in our constitution ion. The more developed the zones of mind in us, the richer our experience or life is. We are more creative, more talented, more competent, more happy, the more the zones of mind grow in us and become an active element in our living. It is not possible to look at a person we know and assess the maturity of the zones of mind within that person -- hence we are forbidden to pass spiritual judgment on others. But this also applies to the self: we are not to pass spiritual judgment on ourselves since the parts of ourselves lying in the zones of mind above us cannot be perceived. Only a study of the Word and its quality and form can instruct us regarding the zones of our mind that lie deeper or higher than our current awareness or perception.

    The Word in the Second Advent through the Third Testament now appears to us unfolded into three simultaneous degrees and three successive degrees, as the Heavens are. We may picture this ninefold or "enneadic organization as follows:

SIMULTANEOUS DEGREE 

(downward)

======= SUCCESSIVE DEGREES ======= >

OLD TESTAMENT

NEW TESTAMENT

THIRD TESTAMENT

INMOST SENSE OF THE WORD 

(Celestial)7 8 9

FIRST INTERNAL SENSE OF THE 

WORD (spiritual)

4 5 6

EXTERNAL LITERAL SENSE OF THE WORD 

(natural)

1 2 3

    The nine zones in the diagram constitute an ennead matrix (or ninefold grid). This enneadic form is organic, just as the Heavens are organic, just as the mind is organic, just as the body is organic, just as the atom is organic. By saying that something is organic we imply that it is concrete and genetically related to other things in a line of descent. Thus the mind is organic because it is an organ made up of nine parts, each part having its own organic form and function distinct from the other parts, yet all parts working together through a common purpose or end. The brain is organic, the government is organic, the economy is organic, and so is your house and furniture. Thoughts and plans and decisions are organic: they originate from matter and atoms; ideas and affections are organic: they originate from spiritual and celestial substances.

It is clear then that our zones of the mind are organic regions of our experience. Each zone represents an area of the Church within us. We may diagram this as follows:

 

SIMULTANEOUS DEGREE 

(downward)

SUCCESSIVE degrees of mind 

============================>

 OLD CHURCHSTATE WITHIN 

US

NEW CHURCHSTATE 

WITHIN US

ULTIMATE CHURCH

STATE WITHINUS

OUR AFFECTIONS

7 8 9

OUR COGNITIONS

4 5 6

OUR SENSORIMOTOR 

USES1 2 3

   The nine zones of mind correspond to the nine zones of the Word, and hence also, the nine zones of the Church within us. regions 1,4,7 the Old Testament unfolds for us in its three senses; in regions 2,5,8 the New Testament unfolds in its three senses; in regions 3,6,9 the Third Testament unfolds in its three senses. Each region of the Church within us corresponds to its zone of Heaven, as pictured earlier. Since the Third Testament gives us explicit descriptions of the nine zones of Heaven we can know and locate the nine corresponding zones of mind. The Third Heaven corresponds to affections, hence zones 7,8,9; the Second Heaven corresponds to cognitions, hence zones 4,5,6; the First Heaven corresponds to sensorimotor uses (or delights), hence zones 1,2,3. The First Heaven is natural, hence our sensorimotor life is natural; the Second Heaven is spiritual, hence our cognitive life is spiritual; the Third Heaven is celestial, hence our affective life is celestial. In other words, our feelings are in the Third Heaven; our ideas are in the Second Heaven; our thoughts and sensations are in the First Heaven. Thus, through the zones of the Church within us we live in the three Heavens. Though we all live in the three Heavens all the time we are only aware of some of the zones most of the time; our life and creativity and happiness increase the more we gain awareness of the zones of our Heaven, and this to eternity.

    By looking at the diagram above it is clear that our life of affections is distinguished into three successive degrees corresponding to the external, intermediate, and inmost degrees of the Third Heaven. The external region of the Third Heaven corresponds to the Old Church state within us (zone 7); the intermediate region of the Third Heaven corresponds to the affections of the New Church state within us (zone 8); the inmost region of the Third Heaven corresponds to our affections of the Ultimate Church state within us (zone 9). The life of

affections constitutes our ruling love and is received in the will. It is the life of religion in us. It is our relation to good, or the good of love. It is the life of our freedom.

    Similarly, the diagram shows that our life of cognitions is also distinguished into the three zones of the successive degrees of the Second Heaven. This is our life of morality, rationality, or understanding. It is the life of the trues with us, our rational faith. The external region of the Second Heaven corresponds to our cognitions of the Old Church state within us (zone 4). The intermediate region of the Second Heaven corresponds to our cognitions of the New Church state within us (zone 5). The inmost region of the Second Heaven corresponds to our cognitions of the Ultimate Church state within us (zone 6). For example, the Word sometimes refers to our life of cognitions as "knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom;" knowledge refers to zone 4, intelligence refers to zone 5, and wisdom refers to zone 6.

    Finally, our life of sensorimotor uses also has three successive degrees corresponding to the First Heaven: its external corresponds to the sensorimotor uses of the Old Church state within us (zone 1); its intermediate corresponds to the sensorimotor uses of the New Church State within us (zone 2); and its inmost corresponds to the sensorimotor uses of the Ultimate Church within us (zone 3). This is our life of natural sensations, delights, and actions, including our thoughts and speech. This is what the Third Testament calls "civic" life and refers to our competence and effectiveness in daily activities in society and family.

    By studying these diagrams and seeing how they relate to the Word and are patterned on it, we may gain a fuller comprehension of the regions of our mind, of the development and growth of the Church within us. After these ideas are familiar through study and practice we are in a position to begin observing our daily transactions and how they fit into their respective zones. This allows us to practice religious self-inspection for the purpose of judging ourselves, our sins, so that we may shun them as insults against the Lord. Only then are we placed in a position to confirm the doctrines of the Word, and hence, to understand the interior sense of verses of Scripture. To the extent that we are successful and persevere in this task, to that extent we are being regenerate, that is, we can receive the indwelling of Heaven and the Lord within us. That is the new birth, the new will, the new life, the new wine we shall drink, and the new song we shall sing for ever and ever.

The Interior Meaning of "Thomas" or,The Old Church State Within Us

    Religious psychology is the study of how the Church develops within us. Those who study the Third Testament with a view to teach its Doctrines to others have a good vantage point from which to identify and order temptations. These are the means by which the Lord regenerates a person and hence, the study of what they are and how they are organized, is going to be helpful to whomever wishes to cooperate in this process. To better illustrate how we may study the structure and function of temptations we shall refer to a sermon by Rev. Peter M. Buss, of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. This sermon is entitled "Thomas: An Eastern Sermon" and was delivered at Easter in 1984. It is available from the General Church sermon distribution channel.

    The readings relating to the sermon are John 20: 27-29; Luke 24: 39; Arcana Coelestia n. 1676. The beginning says, "Amid the wondrous events of Easter time there is the account of doubting Thomas, a story which must surely touch responsive chords in each one of us." Later, after describing in some useful detail what the character is of people called "Thomas", we are reminded that "There are countless people in this and every other generation who are like Thomas, and there is that in every single person which prompts him or her along similar lines." And still later, it is justly pointed out that "Each one of us knows many people who fit this description, or parts of it, and probably we will recognize a lot of ourselves in it too." Thus it is plain that the sermon is teaching us that we are doubting Thomases at times.

    At the same time the sermon spends most of its focus in a description of "the people who are like Thomas." This description illustrates the work of those who are engaged in identifying and ordering temptations. For example, the following observations are offered regarding them: that they "have not had the opportunity to see the Lord risen from the dead;" that "they are the doubters, like Thomas, the people whose faith is uncertain;" that "they may be men who are willing to believe, or are somewhat committed to a faith, yet waver, vacillate; not between faith and doubt, but between faith and the promptings of the sensuous;" that "they are negative,

not because of the absence of testimony, but because that is the way they feel;" and other such things that are useful because they shed some light on temptations in general.

    Furthermore, the sermon presents additional observations of a general sort "in order to get a picture of a potentially good sensuous man" one who is "potentially of the Lord's church" and may thus come to change ways and be reformed. Thus, "He would be be a man of strong feelings, ... capable of great warmth and would be easily touched by those whom he loved but he could also give in to anger towards them as well. He would ... look down on other races, other nationalities, political parties... His opinion might be formed on his own experience ... He would be a man who worked fairly hard at his job, but made no pretense at preferring work to his vacation and free time. He would do his duty by his wife and family, would know that he was attracted to other women, but remain faithful."

    After this the sermon assures us that "Each one of us knows many people who fit this description, or parts of it, and probably we will recognize a lot of ourselves in it too." We wish now to raise the question of how might we more fully actualize this assurance that indeed all of us are partly the way those people are who are designated collectively by "Thomas." That is, how do we go about recognizing this in ourselves? What does it mean that we are "partly" Thomas: are we Thomas at times, or are we fully Thomas at times, or are we party Thomas all the time, etc. This is indeed an issue we want to deal with if we desire to cooperate with the Lord's regeneration of us.

    To help us understand this issue better we may try the exercise of replacing the pronoun "they" or "he" with the pronoun "we" or "I". By doing this, and then considering its meaning, we are gaining a new perspective on the interior meaning of "Thomas." Just as King David gained a new perspective on himself when Samuel informed him that "Thou art the man!" we can gain a new perspective on ourselves when we say to ourselves that "I am Thomas!"

    For instance, altering the pronouns in the sermon, we can see that when we are in the state of "a sensuous man" we' "even if we are well-disposed, stand very close to hell. Our feelings are from the earth, and we are very prone to temptation, and many times will come when we are tempted, greatly tempted, to seek a delight which is wrong. Then, because of our nature we are in danger of being swept away into evil, of giving ourselves up to it, and using a wealth of confusing arguments to justify ourselves. We (in the sensuous state) are more in danger than (in) any other (state), because our delights so easily turn to excess." The underlined words have been added for the purpose of the exercise.

    As we turn our focus of attention from other people to ourselves we are entering the Church within us and this puts us in a position to confirm the doctrines in the sense of the letter of the Three Testaments. The sermon identifies Thomas as the sensuous faith and points to details of this state when others are in it, as well as when we are in it. This state may be called the Old Church state within us. Since all develop through the states of the Church within us, we are all Thomas when we are in the Old Church state and we do those things which Thomas did.

    After we realize that Thomas is the Old Church state within us, we need to confirm this doctrine by applying it to our daily transactions with others. We are required to witness ourselves getting angry with our neighbor, doubting the doctrines drawn from the Word, wondering whether the Lord's Omnipotence can save us from accidents, getting bogged down with the idea of 'permissions' and feeling the fear overtake us, as formulated in our thought,"what if circumstances force the Lord to permit our demise and suffering for the sake of the freedom of others'' and other like thoughts which tempt us to justify, by our reasoning, the validity of our fear or anxiety about tomorrow. And after we thus identify the acts which we perform in the Old Church state regarding our neighbor and the Lord, we are then required to disapprove of them, to repent, to feel sorrow for them on account that they are sins against the Lord. Then, and only then, can the Lord draw near' and we feel His reassuring presence.

    This drawing near of the Lord is what He refers to when saying that He knocks on the door and at last we admit Him. This, His entrance into us, is from within ourselves outward; that is, from our soul into our mind. The Lord comes from Heaven, which is in our inmost, to our rational, which is in our intermediate degree, so that this is a coming out from the interior into our exterior. The Lord's coming out into our conscious is made possible after the temptation, after we found out our doubts, and disapproved of them as sins against the Lord.

Our act, of disapproving the doubts we exhibit, opens the door through which the Lord can come out into our mind. His presence then indicates and constitutes the New Church state within us. We are thus reformed in such a way that doubts cannot occur. Yet this is a process of growth since other doubts, doubts of a different species, then are opened and uncovered to our sight for further disapproval. There are as many varieties of doubts within us as there are inherited and acquired affections of our ruling love.

As an example, we may consider a doubt mentioned in the sermon as follows: "Perhaps in the terms of the New Church, such a person (or: we, in the Old Church state) might be one who wonders if the Writings themselves can be trusted completely." The Third Testament always comes to us first as "the Writings of Swedenborg, when we are still mostly in the Old Church state. And in this state we want to know who was Swedenborg, how did he come to be a revelator, and could he have been wrong on some things he wrote about. However, at some point 1ater, we are given to see the Writings as the Third Testament; this reformation occurs when we begin more and more to confirm doctrines in our day to day transactions. We thus enter that state of the Church within us which may be called the New Church state. Eventually this developmental process culminates in our regeneration and we are given to enter into the Ultimate Church state within us. This is the Heavenly Marriage to which the Lord invites us and in this state we continue to develop to eternity. It is the marriage of good and truth in our daily uses. To this marriage banquet we are invited when we put on the garments of repentance. Religious psychology is the study and practice that help us make these garments for ourselves so that we may be worthy to remain at the Lord's banquet.

    The sermon ends with the assurance that, as the Lord strengthens Thomas in his sensuous faith, so He also strengthens us: "And this the Lord does to each of us, leading through His glorified Human even our most sensuous states towards the blessedness of true confidence in Him." It is important to ask how does the Lord strengthen our faith through His glorified Human? The better we understand this the more we can cooperate with His regeneration of us. We may consider what it might mean in the interior sense that the Lord invites Thomas and the other disciples to "reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing." (John 20: 27). What are we to look for, here and now in our lives, so that our sensuous faith be strengthened, so that we may develop from the the Old Church state to the New Church state?

    Religious psychology helps us obtain this sensuous and sensible evidence of the Lord's Divinity or Divine Omnipotence and Goodness. Our fear vanishes when we confirm His presence within us, when we open the door so that He can come out into our rational understanding of His Divine Providence in our least transactions. As we first look for and find our sins against Him, then shun them through our disapproval and become reformed, we enter the state of the Church within us in which we can sensibly, concretely, evidentially confirm His Divine operation in our every transactions. Then we behold His hands and His feet, as it were, and we see that it is Him, Himself.

Resistance to the Development of the Church Within Us

    The mind is an organ of perception which informs us of the quality of the states we undergo in life. The sense of the letter of the Third Testament teaches that the mind has three regions of depth or height: the lowest or external region, the intermediate region, and the inmost or highest region. These regions of the mind correspond to the three Heavens in the Lord's Kingdom. The lowest or outermost region of the mind corresponds to the first or Natural Heaven; we may call this region of the mind by the name of "the Natural Self." The second or intermediate Heaven is the Spiritual Heaven and the region of the mind corresponding to it may be called "the Rational Self." Finally, the third or inmost Heaven is Celestial and the region of the mind corresponding to it may be called "the Spiritual Self." The following diagram summarizes this relationship between the Heavens and the regions of the mind:

REGIONS OF THE MIND

 REGIONS OF THE 

HEAVENSSIMULTANEOUS 

DEGREE 

(downward)Spiritual Self (inmost; highest) Celestial Heaven

Rational Self (Intermediate) Spiritual Heaven

Natural Self (outermost) Natural Heaven

    To those who accept the Heavenly Doctrine given in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg it is given to know a great deal about the Self and its regions through the study of the Word and its three senses. The Word also corresponds to the three Heavens in that its literal sense derives from the Natural Heaven, its first internal or spiritual sense derives from the Spiritual Heaven, and its second internal or celestial sense derives from the Celestial Heaven. These relations may be schematized as follows:

REGIONS OF THE MIND

REGIONS OF THE HEAVENS

THE SENSES OF THE WORD

Spiritual Self Celestial HeavenInmost/Celestial

Sense

Rational Self Spiritual Heaven Spiritual Sense

Natural Self Natural HeavenNatural/Historical

Sense

    To those who accept the Writings of Swedenborg as constituting the Third Testament it is given to discover a great deal regarding the development of the Church within us. The study of how our mind develops is called Psychology. As there are three regions of the mind a distinct kind of psychology is appropriate for each of the three selves that correspond to the mind's three regions. The study of the Natural Self may be called Scientific Psychology. The study of the Rational Self may be called Rational Psychology. The study of the Spiritual Self may be called Religious Psychology. Each type of psychology has its own content and method. Scientific psychology uses the method of experimentation and statistics; we investigate hypotheses about our sensorimotor behaviors by assuming that all hypotheses are wrong until proven right. Hence we may call this method "the Negative Bias" approach. Rational psychology uses the method of correspondences; we investigate hypotheses about our cognitive behaviors by assuming that all correspondences are correct as given in our reasoning' and the task is to accurately map out the relations between the spiritual and the natural world. Religious psychology uses the method of confirmation of doctrines drawn from the Word; we investigate hypotheses about our affective behaviors by perceiving the operation of doctrines in our lives, and for this we are dependent upon illustration provided by the Lord through Heaven.

We may summarize these relations in an overall diagram such as the following:

Type of Psychology

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS

CONTENT BEING STUDIED

METHOD OF STUDY

CORRESPONDENCE TO THE WORD & HEAVEN

Religious Psychology (Spiritual Self)

P.N. Odhner 

T. Pitcairn

Spiritual Biography (Ruling love; affections;

Perception; Illustration; Confirmation of revelation

Inmost/Celestial sense; Third Heaven

will; purpose; ends; etc.) (Religion)

INNER RESISTANCE: consulting the rational; denying the inner sense of the Third Testament

Rational Psychology (Rational Self)

E. Swedenborg 

G. DeCharms

Rational Biography (Understanding; cognitions; reasonings; trues; etc.) (Morality)

Positive Bias through study of correspondences

Intermediate-Spiritual sense; Second Heaven

OUTER RESISTANCE: consulting the sensual knowledges and logic; denying the spiritual world and correspondences

Scientific Psychology (Natural Self

S. Freud 

B.F. Skinner

Historical Biography (sense; motor acts; uses; etc.) (Civics)

Negative Bias through experiment & statistics

External-Literal sense; First Heaven

    The diagram or chart may best be studied from bottom up and from left to right. Scientific psychology is the study of the Natural Self; Freud and Skinner are two of its most influential proponents; its content focuses on the sensorimotor domain of human behavior, or what may be called the "historical" dimension of a person's life, also "civics" as it covers interpersonal life in society; its method is the negative bias approach of experimental proof and statistics; it corresponds to the historical or literal sense of the Word which comes down from the First or Natural Heaven.

    At this point there is an outer resistance to the study of the Rational Self since scientific psychology in the negative bias is not capable of accepting the idea of correspondences. This idea cannot be proven through the senses only as the senses remain in the dark regarding the spiritual world. Swedenborg was a religious scientist and never limited himself by the negative bias of sensual methods of science. His theories of the mind or the self always assumed the existence of the spiritual world. This positive bias led him to the discovery of correspondences as a method by which the rational or intermediate dimension can be investigated. , His works such as Rational Psychology and The Economy of the Animal kingdom (and many others) systematically map out the interior spiritual and rational regions of the mind, and how these interconnect with the external sensorimotor aspects of our behavior and sensations. G. DeCharms is a twentieth century educator who has based on Swedenborg's method a theory of the development of the mind from childhood onward (see his The Growth of the Mind).

    At this point there is a second and inner resistance to the study of religious psychology by the method of confirming in our lives the doctrines drawn from the Word, especially regarding the Third Testament. Those who consult the rational regarding this issue deny that the Writings of Swedenborg have an internal sense, and

thus, though they acknowledge them as the Word, they refuse to acknowledge an interior sense in it. The works of Philip N. Odhner and Theodore Pitcairn illustrate how the inner sense of the Third Testament may be perceived when the person is willing to first acknowledge this fact. This then leads to the study of religious psychology which investigates our own spiritual biography through the revelations provided by the Lord when we adopt this point of view out of love of truth.

    The three psychology exist in a simultaneous order when their proper relation to the Heavens is acknowledged. This relation may be portrayed as follows:

 

   

 

 

 

It may be seen from the correspondences in the diagram that the three psychology are within each other just as the three senses of the Word are within each other, and both are thus because of the exact corresponding relation of the three Heavens. Those who desire to study religious psychology out of a motive to better cooperate with the Lord in His regeneration of us may enter into an investigation of the resistance we experience in moving from an external region to a more interior region of the mind, the Word, and Heaven. This resistance is experienced in all three states of the developing Church within us.

    We may begin by listing some principles we may use to identify and overcome the elements of this resistance within us. The first or outer resistance is experienced when we move from t\C lower region to an upper region. To overcome this resistance we need to acknowledge these facts as true:

(1) Sacred Scriptures, or the Word, exist through Divine revelation.

(2) The Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Writings of Swedenborg are Sacred Scriptures.

(3) The rational self is a region above or inside the natural, logical, and scientific self.

(4) Correspondences are universal relations between the natural world of external life and the spiritual world of inner life.

(5) There is no blind chance or randomness in anything but only the operation of Divine Providence in every single thing.

(6) We constitute both a horizontal community (cultural group) and a vertical community (spirits with men on earth).

    We may now list some principles we may use to identify and overcome the second or inner resistance within us as we move from region to region. We need to acknowledge these facts as true:

(1) The Word in its structure and function corresponds to the structure and function of the three Heavens.

(2) The Writings of Swedenborg are the Third Testament.

(3) The inner meaning of the Word describes us as we are and as the Church develops within us according to Order.

(4) All doctrines drawn from the Word need to be confirmed in our daily transactions; this is the work of regeneration.

(5) We need to confirm the historical events of the Three Testaments as events and regions within our mind; e.g., we need to ask; these questions: Where is the Tower of Babel in me? When am I Jacob? When Joseph? Where is my Egypt? My Assyria? What in me is the dragon? The Fall of Jericho? The fountain of the chaste wives? etc. etc.

(6) Religious self-inspection with the end of judging ourselves is the method available to us for shunning evils as sins against the Lord.

We may now proceed to a discussion of these points.

The Clinical Issues in Religious Psychology

    Religious psychology is the study of the growth and development of the Church within us. Every individual has the Church within the Spiritual Self and through it receives the capacity to be altruistic, to have a conscience, and to act honestly and competently in everyday life. There are three successive states of development of the Church within us. The y are the Old Church state, the New Church state, and the Ultimate Church state. Each state of the Church within us is founded on its own Testament of Sacred Scripture. Each of the Three Testaments has three senses: the literal, the spiritual, and the celestial. The literal sense of the Word for all Three Testaments instructs us regarding the external aspects of the Church within is: such as the external denominations and their worship rituals and creeds. The spiritual sense of the Three Testaments instructs us regarding our temptations and how we can cooperate with the Lord so that we may become reformed, that is reborn from the spirit. Finally, the celestial sense of the Three Testaments instructs regarding the inmost matters of the Lord's Church with us: how we can confirm the infinite qualities of the Divine Human with us to eternity.

    This ninefold or "enneadic" order of the Church's development within us continually encounters external and internal resistance within us due to our inherited and acquired weaknesses, that is, our earthly or fallen nature. It is important for us to inquire into the details of this resistance to the growth of the Church within us. When we are given to love the truth, to love the trues of the Word for the sake of the Lord, then we want to cooperate with the Lord in His regeneration of us, and hence, we want to know how to cooperate. This know how is provided by the study of religious psychology and especially its clinical aspects which deal with the varieties and cures of spiritual insanity and celestial disturbances.

    The Third Testament in its letter tells us that we are all spiritually insane to begin with and that we are to seek self-therapy through repentance and study of the Word. The Lord makes use of our temptations to cure our spiritual insanity, and thence, our celestial disturbances. Unconscious resistance on our part increases the

severity of our insanity and illness. These activities are put into operation by the Lord through spirits and angels who themselves derive therapeutic value from their involvement with us.

    In order to understand the clinical features of religious psychology we can examine the issue of "heresies" from the perspective of insanity and derangement. We are told in the Third Testament that heresies do not harm us as long as we do not confirm them in our lives:

"That heresies can be taken out of the sense of the Letter of the Word, but that to confirm them is very harmful."

(Doctrine Concerning the Sacred Scripture 91)

In a commentary on this passage of Scripture, Bishop Philip Odhner writes:

"The confirming of the appearances of the true which makes them harmful heresies is the confirming of them to the destruction of the genuine trues which lie within these appearances. This is done by those who believe themselves to be wiser than others when yet they are not wise at all, and who are in the pride of their own intelligence. (91) Especially they confirm apparent trues to the destruction of genuine trues who seize upon the common trues of the sense of the letter of the Word because they confirm some love of self and the world. They use it to confirm some love of the world in themselves against the loves of Heaven. (96) It is not that they twist the Word to excuse some external evil that is against the commandments in their literal sense, but that some interior evil out of their own pride and glory of self uses the common trues of the Word to build itself up." (Sermons and Doctrinal Classes on The Doctrine Concerning Sacred Scripture, Bryn Athyn, 1978, p. 57)

    If we substitute the pronoun we wherever it says they in this passage, we will be given a useful perspective on the resistance we offer to the growth of the Church within us. We may say for instance that "when we believe ourselves to be wiser than others when yet we are not wise at all, but are in the pride of our own intelligence, we confirm apparent trues to the destruction of genuine trues; then we seize upon the common trues of the sense of the letter of the Word because we are confirming some love of self and the world. We use it to confirm some love of the world in ourselves against the loves of Heaven. It is not that we twist the Word to excuse some external evil that is against the commandments in their literal sense, but that some interior evil of our own pride and glory of self uses the common trues of the Word to build itself up."

    We may identify the elements of our spiritual and celestial disturbances by listing the items mentioned here:

(1) to believe that we are wise when yet we are not wise at all;

(2) to be in the pride of our own intelligence;

(3) to confirm a verse of Scripture for the purpose of a selfish motive, thus adulterating the Word in us;

(4) to confirm Scripture overtly to hide unholy desires;

(5) to confirm Scripture in order to gain power or advantage over others.

These are general syndromes to which are attached innumerable disturbances in our cognitions and in our affections. The understanding and the will are weakened and darkened in this fashion leading to a continuation of our state of insanity and degeneration. In order to better understand these disturbances to our spiritual life on earth we may review some things about ourselves, or our mind, which we learn from the Word in its Three Testaments. The Third Testament in its literal sense is especially valuable in such a study where we are told in many places that the Heavens are distinguished into groupings according to three simultaneous degrees and three successive degrees. This three by three arrangement constitutes a grid or matrix, having nine zones. The following diagram is such an "enneadic" or ninefold matrix in schematic form:

   ========= SUCCESSIVE DEGREE

======= >

   FIRST

HEAVENSECOND HEAVEN

THIRD HEAVEN

SIMULTANEOUS DEGREE 

(upward)

INMOST HEAVEN 

(Celestial) (Second 

interior sense of the Word)

7 8 9

INTERMEDIATE HEAVEN 

(Spiritual) (First interior sense of the Word)

4 5 6

EXTERNAL HEAVEN (Natural) 

(Literal sense of the Word)

1 2 3

    These nine Heavenly zones are distinct though they are in orderly communication with each other. We are also told that the mind is a little Heaven. From this we can deduce that the mind too has nine distinct zones, and further, that the nine zones of the mind will each have qualities that are distinct and corresponding to the qualities of the nine zones in Heaven. In addition, we are told that the Word descends from Heaven. From this we may deduce that the Word also has nine zones corresponding to the nine zones of the mind. Further, we are given to know what the quality of each zone is, hence what the quality of the mind. We may study these matters for a while and then, we may summarize the results of our study in some such diagram as the following:

    ========= SUCCESSIVE DEGREE ======= >

    FIRST HEAVENSECOND HEAVEN

THIRD HEAVEN

   OLD

TESTAMENTNEW

TESTAMENTTHIRD

TESTAMENT

   OLD CHURCH

STATE WITHIN US

NEW CHURCH STATE WITHIN

US

ULTIMATE CHURCH STATE

WITHIN US

ISRAEL 

SPIRITUAL SELF

(Religion) (Affections)

(Will)

celestial sense of the Word

SIMULTANEOUS DEGREE 

(upward)

ABRAHAM (or our religious ideals; our piousness) 

7

ISAAC (our altruistic 

strivings for the sake of the Word) 

8

JOSEPH (our delights in good uses; 

peace) 

9

ASSYRIA 

RATIONAL SELF

(Morality) (Rationality)

(Understanding)

spiritual sense of the Word

AARON (our study and 

knowledge of the Word) 

4

ELIJAH (our understanding of allegory & parable in the Word) 

5

JESUS OF NAZARETH 

(our rationality, honesty, 

politeness) 

6

EGYPT 

NATURAL SELF (Civics) (Competence)

(Uses)

literal sense of the Word

MOSES (our care in building 

the external denominationa

l church) 

1

JOHN THE BAPTIST (our 

work of repentance in everyday life 

in preparation for the Lord's Coming to us) 

2

SWEDENBORG (our religious prudence and propriety in our worldly study and 

affairs) 

3

This diagram shows some qualities of the nine zones of the mind, the Word, and the Heavens. As we study the Word more and more7its wonderful arcane are given to us for perception, bit by bit, so that we may construct conceptual schemes for our understanding to contemplate and reflect upon. After that we find that we can confirm bits and pieces in our daily transactions with others which become known to us through the practice of religious self-inspection. The following diagram summarizes some of the activities we can perform in our study and use of the Word for the purpose of striving to cooperate with the Lord's regeneration of us:

    ========= SUCCESSIVE DEGREE ======= >

    FIRST HEAVENSECOND HEAVEN

THIRD HEAVEN

    OLD TESTAMENTNEW

TESTAMENTTHIRD

TESTAMENT

   OLD CHURCH

STATE WITHIN US

NEW CHURCH STATE WITHIN

US

ULTIMATE CHURCH STATE

WITHIN US

AFFECTIVE SKILLS 

Celestial sense of the

Word

(SPIRITUAL SELF)

SIMULTANEOUS DEGREE 

(upward)STRIVING TO OBEY 

the Lord through verse of Scripture

(Celestial assertions)

7

LOVING THE LORD 

through verses of Scripture

(Celestial implications)

8

PERCEIVING THE LORD'S DIVINE 

HUMAN QUALITIES WITHIN 

US 

through confirmation of

verses of Scripture

(Celestial presuppositions)

9

COGNITIVE SKILLS 

spiritual sense of the

Word

(RATIONAL SELF)

ANALYZING verses of 

Scripture by means of 

ILLUSTRATION & CORRESPONDENCE

S 

(spiritual assertions)

4

DRAWING OUT from verses of Scripture 

DOCTRINES &PRINCIPLES that explain event of life 

(spiritual implications

)

5

UNDERSTANDING THE OPERATION 

OF TEMPTATIONS WITHIN US  

through verses of Scripture 

(spiritual presuppositions

)

6

SENSORIMOTOR 

SKILLS 

literal sense of the Word

(NATURAL SELF)

MEMORIZING & PARAPHRASING 

verse of Scripture 

(historical assertions)

1

INTERPRETING verse of 

Scripture and APPLYING 

THEM TO LIFE 

(historical

ABSTRACTING & PERSONALIZING 

verse of Scripture 

(historical presuppositions)

3

implications)

2

    This diagram depicts the nine zones of the mind, the Word, and the Heavens and specifies some properties of each in relation to the study exercises we may do to gain the skills we need to use the Word effectively for the benefit of the growth of the Lord's Church within us. The diagram may best be read from bottom up and from left to right. By studying the diagram the following propositions may be derived:

    Zones 1,2,3.

    The study of the literal sense of the Word is done by means of the Natural Self and yields sensorimotor skills regarding it. Zone 1 involves the memorizing and paraphrasing of verses of the Old Testament. This corresponds to the Old Church state within us and derives from the First Heaven. This literal sense of the Old Testament consists of historical assertions or facts such as, some person traveled from this place to that place, or, the Lord tells someone to do something, or, some event occurs at some time in a narrative.

    Zone 2 involves interpreting verses of the New Testament and applying them to our life. This corresponds to the external part of the New Church state within us and derives from the Second Heaven. This use of the literal sense of the Word consists of making historical implications or interconnections such as our duty to take Communion because the Lord enjoined it upon His disciples, or our expectation of Heavenly delights because the Lord promised it to the audiences who followed Him.

    Zone 3 involves abstracting verses of Scripture so that we may be able to explain their content to children and students, and to personalize that content so that we may see in it what our duties and responsibilities are in life. This activity corresponds to the external aspects of the Ultimate Church within us and derives from the Third Heaven. This literal sense of the Third Testament consists of historical presuppositions, which are considerations we may adduce as to the goods and trues of the Word. For example, we read that the will and the understanding are to act as one, like the heart and its blood circulation acts as one with the lungs and its respiration; from this we can presuppose that a scientific theory of human behavior that violates this premise cannot be true and should not be accepted.

    Zones 4,5,6.

    The study of the spiritual sense of the Word is done by means of the Rational Self and yields cognitive skills regarding it. Zone 4 involves analyzing verses of Scripture by means of illustration from the Lord and correspondences from the Writings of Swedenborg, which in this state of the Church within us, have not yet become the Third Testament for us. This activity of the Rational Self corresponds to the first internal of the Old Church state within us and derives from the intermediate zone of the First Heaven. This spiritual sense of the Old Testament consists of spiritual assertions or facts such as the explications given in Arcana Coelestia or in Apocalypse Revealed concerning the meaning of Jacob, that he represents the external worship in the church, or concerning the Dragon that it represents the Pope.

    Zone 5 involves drawing out from verses of Scripture doctrines and principles that explain events of life. This activity corresponds to the first internal of the New Testament and derives from the intermediate of the Second Heaven. This spiritual sense of the New Testament consists of spiritual implications, which are like the reasonings found in New Church sermons, such as those of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in Bryn Athyn and elsewhere.

    Zone 6 involves understanding the operation of temptation within us through verses of the Third Testament. This activity corresponds to the first internal of the Ultimate Church state within us and derives from the intermediate degree of the Third Heaven. This spiritual sense of the Third Testament consists of spiritual presuppositions, which are like the reasonings of the Doctrinal Lessons and Sermons of the Lord's New Church which is Nova Hierosolyma in Bryn Athyn.

Zones 7,8,9.

    The study of the celestial sense of the Word is done by means of the Spiritual Self and yields affective skills regarding it. Zone 7 involves striving to obey the Lord through verses of Scripture. This corresponds to the inmost of the Old Church state within us and derives from the inmost degree of the First Heaven. This use of the second internal sense of the Old Testament consists of celestial assertions or facts such as the details concerning the Lord's glorification given to us in Arcana Coelestia about Genesis and Exodus.

    Zone 8 involves loving the Lord through verses of the New Testament. This corresponds to the second internal of the New Church state within us and derives from the inmost of the Second Heaven. This celestial sense of the New Testament consists of celestial implications. It is not possible at this point to give examples.

    Zone 9 involves perceiving the Lord's Divine Human qualities within us through confirmation of verses of the Third Testament. This corresponds to the inmost of the Ultimate Church within us and derives from the inmost of the Third Heaven. This use of the second internal sense of the Third Testament consists of celestial presuppositions. No examples of this activity can be given at this point.

    By studying these nine varieties of activities relating to the threefold Word, we are given to understand more fully the ways we can cooperate better, as of ourselves, with the Lord's regeneration of us. This study of religious psychology will reveal the quality of the resistance we continuously offer to the growth of the Church within us. This knowledge involves a comprehension of the varieties of temptations -- natural, rational, and spiritual -- in our reformation and regeneration. Natural temptations are sensorimotor disturbances in the Natural Self (Zones 1,2,3) and may be combated with the literal sense of the Three Testaments. Rational temptations are cognitive disturbances in the Rational Self (Zones 4,5,6) and may be combated through the first internal sense of the Three Testaments. Spiritual temptations are affective disturbances in the Spiritual Self (Zones 7,8,9) and may be combated with the second internal sense of the Three Testaments.

    It is clear that the Church within us must grow gradually in all nine zones; that is, at no time is any one zone fully developed, though the rate of development reached in the nine zones at any one time does vary from individual to individual. All of us need to engage in all these activities all the time and we may learn from each other unevenly and unpredictably in accordance with the Lord's secret leading.

[end of Part 2 of 2]

Part 1 starts here under the title:Religious Psychology:   A Guide to Spiritual Self-examination

Some related articles are available here:

Spiritual Gegoraphy || Spiritual Associations or The Vertical Community || The Vertical Community || Spiritual Psychology || Cyberpsychology: Cyberspace and the Spiritual World || The Postmodern Paradigm Shift in Psychology || Swedenborg's Status and Significance: A Great Paradox || Elements of Biological Theology || Three Phases of Religious Behaviors

You may like to explore many of the concepts you encountered in this essay by looking at our Swedenborg Glossary. 

You can see the outline for our book called Christ Against Road Rage if you like.

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