Extraterrestrial Contact from Epsilon Eridani and Emanuel Swedenborg

Recently I have been doing a series of blogs researching the reality of UFOs and extraterrestrial contacts. In modern times mass public interest in UFOs and extraterrestrials began with the crash of one or more flying saucers in Roswell New Mexico in 1947, but evidence of such contacts can be traced back to antiquity. In the 18th century Emanuel Swedenborg claimed to have come in touch with extraterrestrial humans not from our planet, and before I started on this research I thought for sure Swedenborg was mistaken. Most do: the U.S. Government and NASA says there is no evidence of extraterrestrial life on other planets on our solar system, which Swedenborg said were inhabited. But then I found incontrovertible evidence that NASA tampers with photos in order to hide any evidence of UFOs or extraterrestrials on other planets in our solar system: see Emanuel Swedenborg was Right, and NASA is Hiding It. Note that NASA has done this AGAIN. In 2012, the Grail satellites sent back a lot of new images mapping the surface of the Moon. In one of them, a triangular shaped UFO can be seen hiding in the shadow of a crater. It is huge. The researcher had downloaded the image, and subsequently NASA touched up the photo to hide the image once they realized they let one slip through. Check out this video: [UPDATE: VIDEO TAKEN DOWN, SEE BELOW]


UPDATE: The above video was taken down, and the account deleted, for "third party infringement."  It showed an original NASA photo of a triangular object in a moon crater hiding in the shadow with an orb above it, and then later the published version of the photo with those images brushed out. If this was taken down for "third party infringement", that means the party that took down the account was NASA. These were NASA photos of the Moon from the Grail satellite. Even before it was taken down, in point #1 below I indicated that if NASA ever finds evidence of extraterrestrial life - more advanced than ours - they will hide it from the public.

So, in light of that, check out this picture of a cylindrical object on the Moon from the Apollo 15 mission:

It is legitimate, not doctored. The original photo is here: Apollo Image Atlas AS15-P-9625. So its out there in the open, so what do "they" do? They spread false disinformation by creating a duplicate, falsified image, and invent a hoax of another secret Apollo mission to examine an ancient alien spacecraft. Other's have already caught the hoax to hide this photo so I won't repeat it here. That's what happens with a leak - mix it in with false information so the public rejects it. [END OF UPDATE]

So from this, and the other evidence I showed earlier, we can draw two conclusions:

1. If NASA discovers any evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life, they will hide this fact from the public.
2. Data from NASA concerning the planets of our solar system are not trustworthy. Scientific knowledge of extraterrestrial life will be based on faulty and falsified data. 

So, just because our scientific data and knowledge concerning our solar system may be in disagreement with what Swedenborg said concerning extraterrestrial life, that is no reason to reject Swedenborg offhand. In every other case where I could verify his statements, I have been able to do so. Case in point: Swedenborg had mentioned a lost book of the Bible called Jasher, I found it, and the contents of the book match what he had seen in his visions. For that reason I included at the end of the multi-volume work of all his published writings, The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem. See Jasher: the Lost book of the Bible, as foreseen by Swedenborg, and The Book of Jasher: a lost ancient book of the Bible, or a medieval forgery?.

As for what Swedenborg states concerning extraterrestrial life in our solar system and beyond, he did that by contacting them by going out of his body, sort of like remote viewing (see Astral Projection and Out of the Body Experiences (OOBE)). Swedenborg accidentally confirmed his remote viewing capabilities when a fire broke out in Stockholm which threatened to burn down his house with all of his writings - this was verified by none other than the German philosopher Imanuel Kant (see The Confirmed Clairvoyance of Emanuel Swedenborg). Swedenborg kept this secret as it is better for people to examine the truth of the spiritual knowledge he imparted, according to rational thought.

UPDATE ON THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL CONTACT FROM THE PLANET IARGA

In Extraterrestrial Contact from Iarga: their Origin and Philosophy, not only is there some independent evidence that this contact was valid, but also the contactee was a rich businessman from the Netherlands who had no reason to lie about it. There is also direct and circumstantial evidence that these amphibian extraterrestrials - the "Iargans" - originate from the solar system of Epsilon Eridani, about 10.5 light years away from our solar system. And they may have been observing us for a long time. Here is a map of the closest stars to our solar system:

Looking at the star map, to the left we see the star Epsilon Eridani. One of the closest stars to Epsilon Eridani is Sirius - much closer than our solar system. In the book The Sirius Mystery, Robert Temple documented how the Dogon tribe of Africa had a record of an ancient visitation by an extraterrestrial being from the Sirius star system, which they preserved in their oral traditions and religious rituals. Not only that, but after it was recorded it was discovered that much of the information contained very detailed astronomical information about the Sirius star system, including a 50 year orbital period of one of its stars, which was later verified by astronomers. The reason why I bring this up? The Dogon elders stated that this extraterrestrial being who visited them was amphibious. They call them "Nommo." From Wikipedia:

The Nommo are mythological ancestral spirits (sometimes referred to as deities) worshipped by the Dogon tribe of Mali. The word Nommos is derived from a Dogon word meaning "to make one drink." The Nommos are usually described as amphibious, hermaphroditic, fish-like creatures. Folk art depictions of the Nommos show creatures with humanoid upper torsos, legs/feet, and a fish-like lower torso and tail. The Nommos are also referred to as “Masters of the Water”, “the Monitors”, and "the Teachers”.

This is very similar to the Oannes mythology from ancient Mesopotamia, which I already discusse in the previous blog post. Another interesting note: the Nommo are described as hermaphroditic. This is very close to what Stefan Denaerde had seen concerning the extraterrestrials from Iarga: there was very littel noticeable differences between their males and females. If extraterrestrials from Epsilon Eridani travelled over 10 light years to reach our solar system, it is very likely they had also visited (and possibly colonized) the Sirius star system.

EXTRATERRESTRIALS FROM IARGA AND EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

Lately an interesting question popped in my head: among the extraterrestrial human races that Swedenborg encountered, was one of them from the planet Iarga, which is perhaps in the solar system of Epsilon Eridani?

Emanuel Swedenborg originally described his extraterrestrial contacts in his massive work Heavenly Arcana (aka Arcana Coelestia, or Heavenly Secrets). He then extracted these encounters and published them later in a smaller work entitled Earths in the Universe. In the Heavenly Arcana, he described his extraterrestrial contacts in the following order:

1. Mercury

2. Venus

3. Mars

4. Jupiter

5. Saturn

6. Moon

7. Six other solar systems 

In Heavenly Arcana, Swedenborg describes different planets inhabited by extraterrestrials in their order of distance from our Sun, except for the Moon. However in Earths of the Universe, for some reason he changes the order in which he relates his contacts, and drops the account of one of the other solar systems. If that is the case, is it possible that Swedenborg was shown extraterrestrials on other solar systems that were in closest distance to our own solar system? That would seem logical. If that is the case, does one of them happen to describe the planet Iarga, as described by Stefan in his work UFO Contact from the Planet Iarga? There are not that many solar systems in close vicinity with our solar system - within ten light years of our Sun there are about ten other solar systems. This question really intrigued me.

So let's assume that Swedenborg may be describing extraterrestrial races on solar systems that are in close vicinity with our Sun in terms of light years. There is one passage in particular that I remembered, and this concerns the "Second Earth in the Starry Heaven." Swedenborg did not know which solar system it was, so hereafter I will refer to it as the "second earth." Concerning the sun of that inhabited planet, Swedenborg wrote this:

Being asked about their sun, which is seen as a star from our earth, they said that it was of a fiery color, in appearance no larger than a man's head. I was told by angels that the star which is their sun is among the lesser stars, not far from the celestial equator. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10162)

This is the only account where Swedenborg was given something useful in terms of the actual location of an outside solar system inhabited by extraterrestrials. The celestial equator is the projection of the Earth's equator into space. Using celestial coordinates, the distance of a star north or south of the celestial equator is measured in angular degrees known as its declination. So, out of curiosity, lets take the list of the closest solar systems, but select only the ones that are close to the celestial equator. We get the following list of stars, with their distance from us in light years as well as their declination:

1. Barnard's Star = 5.96 light years, declination +04° 41'
2. Wolf 359 (CN Leonis) = 7.78 light years, declination +07° 00'
3. Epsilon Eridani = 10.52 light years, declination -09° 27'
4. Ross 128 (Fl Virginis) = 10.92 light years, declination +00° 48'
5. Procyon (a Canis Minoris) = 11.40 light years, declination +05° 13'
6. Luyten's Star = 12.37 light years, declination +05° 13'

That narrows down the list, but that is too many to choose from. Can we narrow it down further? Yes. Swedenborg makes one other key statement:

...their sun... is seen as a star from our earth (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10162)

Their sun can be seen as a star in the sky. Whether or not a star can be seen by the unaided eye is measured by its apparent magnitude. The lower the number of the apparent magnitude, the brighter the star. So lets take the above stars and list out their apparent magnitude:

1. Barnard's Star = 9.53
2. Wolf 359 (CN Leonis) = 13.44
3. Epsilon Eridani = 3.73
4. Ross 128 (Fl Virginis) = 11.13
5. Procyon (a Canis Minoris) = 0.38
6. Luyten's Star = 9.86

Stars with an apparent magnitude of 6 are less are visible to the unaided human eye. So that narrows down the number of possibilities to just two star systems:

1. Epsilon Eridani
2. Procyon

As stated before in Extraterrestrial Contact from Iarga: their Origin and Philosophy, I had identified the star Epsilon Eridani as the solar system for the planet Iarga. But there is one other point made about their sun: it is said that is "among the lesser stars." This excludes the Procyon, which is not only among the brightest stars in our skies but its Sun is larger than ours. Procyon is also a binary star system, thus it is unlikely to have a planet in the habitable zone. So there is one choice, and once choice only: the star Epsilon Eridani. In fact, I looked through a list of the 26 closest solar systems and I cannot find any other candidate.

So, does Swedenborg's description of the extraterrestrials of the second earth match the description of the Iargans as described by Stefan Denaerde in his book, UFO Contact from the Planet Iarga? Well let's take a look.

POINT #1: HIGH INTELLIGENCE

One of the first observations Swedenborg made when he encountered these extraterrestrials from the second earth is that they were highly intelligent, in a higher state of intelligence than he, and he compared their insight to the far-sighted vision of eagles. Swedenborg himself was a child prodigy and is estimated to have an IQ of over 200. In the book UFO Contact from Iarga, it is quite obvious that the Iargans as a race are much more intelligent than we and have the tendency to examine things to the smallest detail. They love to put a mathematical number on everything to calculate its efficiency. The contactee, Stefan Denaerde, was able to explore their world and become educated about their culture through a holographic image that was projected directly into his mind over a period of 2 days in their flying saucer while it was submerged off the coast of the Netherlands. He was told that they use this holographic imaging system to rapidly teach all their children concerning their knowledge, which is done over many years.

POINT #2: ABILITY TO TRAVEL BETWEEN SOLAR SYSTEMS

Swedenborg had stated that extraterrestrials he had encountered from the planet Mercury had the tendency to travel among different solar systems to gather knowledge, more so than any other race he had encountered. When he described them to these extraterrestrials from the second earth, they indicated that they were in close contact with them:

...they observed that I was not from their earth, but from one far away elsewhere; and therefore they addressed me, inquiring about various things, to which it was also given me to reply; and among other things I told them what earth I was from, and what its nature was. And I afterward told about the other earths in our solar system, and about the spirits of the earth or planet Mercury, that they wander around to many earths in order to procure for themselves knowledges of various things. When they heard this, they said that they had also been seen with them. (Earths in the Universe, n. 139)

The above passage shows that their solar system may not be that far from ours. Like the extraterrestrials of Mercury, it may also indicate that they travel among solar systems as well.

POINT #3: KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST AS GOD OF THE UNIVERSE

In the contact with the Iargans, they had told Stefan that they knew the identity of Jesus Christ as God of the Universe and accepted that as fact:

"Never say anything in conflict with the Christ insight such as it appears in the Bible. His authority is unassailable in the whole universe. He is the only way; the only truth and the life. 'No one comes to the Father except through Him.'"

The Iargans actually quoted John 14:6 from the Gospels. When Swedenborg asked the extraterrestrials of the second earth about what God they worshipped, they provided this answer:

They were asked about the God Whom they worshipped; and they answered that they worshipped a God visible and invisible — a God visible under the human form, and a God invisible not under any form; and it was found from their speech, and also from the ideas of their thought as communicated to me, that the visible God was our Lord Himself, and they also called Him Lord. To this it was given to reply, that on our earth also God is worshipped as invisible and as visible; and that God invisible is called the Father, and visible the Lord, but that the two are one — as He taught, saying that no man had ever seen the form of the Father, but that the Father and He are one; and that he who sees Him sees the Father; and that the Father is in Him, and He in the Father; and consequently that the two are the Divine in one person. That these are the words of the Lord Himself, may be seen in John (v. 37; x. 30; xiv. 7, 9-11). (Earths in the Universe, n. 141)

So, not only do these extraterrestrials know who Jesus Christ is, but coincidentally the gospel of John is again quoted in the discussion. This also implies that they are able to travel to our solar system and have been observing us, how else would they know who Jesus Christ is?

POINT #4: SOCIETY AND SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT

So what system of government do the extraterrestrials of the second earth have? This is the answer given to Swedenborg:

[they] were asked whether on their earth they live under the rule of princes and kings; to which they answered that they did not know what such rule was; and that they live under themselves, distinguished into tribes, families, and households. (Earths in the Universe, n. 143)

What about the Iargans? They said long ago in their history they had been divided into several nations, and did war against each other when land resources became scarce. But all those divisions have since been eliminated, and they no longer knew warfare. Do to our focus on power and warfare, they consider the humans on earth as extremely short-sighted when it comes to long term future planning:

"A race that lives under the constant threat of war and destruction does not logically make any plans for the distant future. For an absolute race, that is different. The continual improvement of our mental capacity directs our thoughts more and more into the future. We have created a planet on which our race can survive for an eternity. We live in a stable world on a clean planet, where the balance of nature can be maintained for unlimited time. We live for the future, because we expect great things from it. We are constantly occupied with making our world a better place to live in. The Earth, on the other hand, lives for the present and the past, and does not worry about the future generations."

Whereas humans tend to be individual, the Iargans are extremely social. They don't live as a single couple in a household, but each household will contain several couples so that they always do things in a group. As for government, their communist type economy is overseen by different corporations or "trusts," and at the head of each trust there is a president. These presidents may be part of a central planning group for the entire planet.

POINT #5: NO JEALOUSY NOR WORRY OVER MATERIAL THINGS

Swedenborg next makes this statement:

They were asked whether they are secure in this way. They said that they are, since one family does not envy another, nor wish to take anything away from it. They were indignant at being asked such questions, which seemed to imply that there was hostility among them, or need of protection against robbers. What more is needed, said they, than to have food and clothing, and so to dwell contented and quiet by ourselves. (Earths in the Universe, n. 143)

This is completely in line with the communist type society of the Iargans, where all material needs are provided for each citizen. The goal of their world-wide economy was to release each person from materialism, and since everyone has everything they need, there is no stealing. They also talked at length about creating an egalitarian society, where no one had more than the other, and this also eliminated the tendency of envy, greed and jealousy. Here is what Stefan Denaerde wrote:

They explain it as follows: an economic plan, aimed at efficiently satisfying man's needs so that he is released from the tyranny of material things over his daily life. In other words, if everyone has everything at his disposal, then the acquisition of material goods is no longer of paramount importance. This can only be achieved by providing "equal shares for everyone"; otherwise envy will always exist. The culture then becomes more or less stable. I nodded in agreement; mankind released from material problems, no envy or greed, that was an answer.
Only one small problem: how is it done? A little magic perhaps? There are only two solutions: everyone must own the same; or no one must own anything. The last is the most efficient. I sat bolt upright in my chair. Were they telling me, a well-to-do company director, that I must dispense with personal property? These beings were pure communists! 

POINT #6: CAMELS AND DESERT ENVIRONMENT

For the extraterrestrials of the second earth, Swedenborg mentions that they had a small animal similar to our camel:

Among the smaller they mentioned one kind which had the back humped, like the camels on our earth. (Earths in the Universe, n. 144)

Such an animal is not mentioned by Stefan Denaerde, but he does state that much of the land on the islands of planet Iarde are an arid desert:

Yet it is not an abundant planet beause the soil of their few islands is very absorbent so that a lot of rain is necessary in order to support plant growth. Short periods of drought are devastating and change the landscape into an arid desert. Life, therefore, is mainly concentrated in the coastal areas and in particular in a small stretch along the water. 

POINT #7: A DIET BASED ON VEGETABLES AND FISH

Swedenborg stated that the extraterrestrials of the second earth ate fish and vegetables:

They do not however eat the flesh of these animals, but only the flesh of fishes, and also the fruits of trees and leguminous plants of the earth. (Earths in the Universe, n. 144) 

The Iargans evolved from an amphibian life form, which Stefan compared to our sea otter. Stefan Denaerde stated that the Iargans were for the most part vegetarian, but still ate fish:

Beside the farming, their food production was supported to a great extent by the fisheries. Their preference for fish probably has something to do with their amphibian origin, and the fact that they have so many oceans.

POINT #8: HOUSING WITH GARDEN

Swedenborg stated that the extraterrestrials of the second earth did not live in houses like we do, but in groves:

They said further that they do not dwell in regularly built houses, but in groves, in which they make shelter for themselves among the boughs against rain and the heat of the sun. (Earths in the Universe, n. 144)

The Iargans told Stefan that they thought are method of individual housing was extremely inefficient, and unsocial:

"Small houses with separate pieces of land form a system that you call 'towns,' and such inefficiency is unthinkable to us."

For this reason, they think our idea of "overpopulation" is completely ridiculous:

"Your word 'overpopulation' is pure nonsense. Our planet has a population density at least one hundred times greater than yours and we do not speak of overpopulation."

So how to the Iargans do it? They all live in groups in apartments that are part of these cylindrical structures, each cylindrical tower can contain about 10,000 residents. In the center of these cylindrical towers they have a garden oasis, which is sheltered from the outside environment:

Picture text: Cross cross-section of one of the floating and rotating house-cylinders. The construction is so stable that despite the heavy Iargan earthquakes, the framework (base, wall, and roof) has a minimum useful life of more than a thousand years. The plastic flats (apartments)(20 x 20 x 6 meter) are removable horizontally. The diameter of the building is more than 300 meters, the height is 135 meters. It provides housing for 10,000 persons, each with so m2 to themselves, plus a part of the heated communal garden. The smooth exterior is necessary in connection with the strong winds and the rainfall. 

Stefan describes the central Iargan gardens in more detail (by "camera," he means the view from within the holographic projection in his mind):

The camera moved through this area and out through a door which led to the central "garden" of the hollow cylinder. A beautifully laid out recreation area of at least three hundred yards in diameter. A quarter segment of the cylinder was glass which, combined with a gigantic glass roof about three hundred feet above the ground, gave the effect of being inside a huge glass house. Galleries ran around the inside at each floor. And on the lowest gallery, which was wider than the rest, small rail transport units moved. The central space was a huge garden of tropical-looking plants and flowers. A huge central pillar was at its base, surrounded by a rock garden with plants and flowers in the most exotic colors. Streams and waterfalls came out into ponds and tanks that contained strange and brightly colored fish. Green, mosslike areas were broken up by patches off lowers and shrubs.

So, the comparison with Swedenborg's statement concerning living in groves protected from the rain and sun is interesting. It is not the boughs of the trees providing protection from the weather, but rather the cylindrical structure which surrounds the garden which provides protection from the elements. The parallel, needless to say, is amazing.

POINT #9: PHYSICAL APPEARANCE

If that were not enough, Swedenborg next provides the physical appearance of these extraterrestrials of the second earth:

They had a face not unlike that of the men of our earth, except that the eyes and nose were smaller. As this seemed to me somewhat of a deformity, they said that to them small eyes and a small nose are marks of beauty. (Earths in the Universe, n. 146)

Compare this description to an illustration Stefan Denaerde had made for his book, based on his encounter:

The Iargans look different, this is perhaps why Swedenborg thought that their face was somewhat of a deformity. When Stefan first saw them, he was most deeply impressed by their eyes. Their eyes do not look smaller, but their pupils are shaped differently - they have rectangular pupils, giving the impression of smaller eyes. Their eyes are also more deeply set into their skull under their brow, perhaps because of the higher wind speeds on Iarga. In Extraterrestrial Contact from Iarga: their Origin and Philosophy, the illustrator for Stefan Denaerde's book mentioned another book that mentioned an alternative way humans could have evolved, where we would have had no protruding nose nor ear lobes. The difference in eyes and nose are the most noticeable features of the Iargans that Stefan described, and these are the exact same features described by Swedenborg.

POINT #10: MONOGAMY AND SEXUAL IMMORALITY

So what kind of sexual relationships did the extraterrestrials of the second earth have? This is what Swedenborg stated:

They also said that on that earth a husband has one wife, and no more, and that they have from ten to fifteen children. They added that harlots are also found there; but that after the life of the body, when they become spirits, they are sorceresses, and are cast into hell. (Earths in the Universe, n. 147)

As for the Iargans, I did not get a complete picture of how they lived from the book by Stefan Denaerde, but he thought their practices were odd. Although monogamy was implied, they also stated that they allow sexual freedom. In the interview in the previous blog post Stefan Denaerde also described this as well, but I think he implied polygamy. The impression I have is they have one primary monogamous relationship, but one or both partner is allowed to have sexual relationships outside of that marriage. It should be noted that they do not place so much emphasis on sex as humans do. The Iargans also described how they were able to eliminate much evil from their society: when an Iargan reaches a certain age, they are medically and psychologically evaluated to determine if they should be given the "right" to have sexual relationships. Some are apparently not, and I think they call this process "reincarnation selection" - preventing more evil souls from incarnating in bodies. They might do this among the males only, and if so, that would lead to more females than males, perhaps leading to the situation that Swedenborg described.

CONCLUSION

I am looking at what I just wrote, and my reaction is one of utter surprise. I can hardly believe it. Two independent accounts, one from an 18th century scientist who had visions of the spiritual world, and another from an extraterrestrial contact with a Dutch businessman in the 1960s. Both contain information that points to the star system of Epsilon Eridani. Neither witness even thought of the star Epsilon Eridani. And when you compare the details of the extraterrestrials in both accounts, they match! Swedenborg's account is so short, and yet he summarizes the main points that desribe the culture of Iarga which are covered in Stefan Denaerde's book, UFO Contact from Iarga. Taken by themselves, perhaps skeptics will doubt, but can anyone doubt when we have two independent sources confirm each other? If anyone told me I would have found direct evidence confirming one of the extraterrestrial races described by Emanuel Swedenborg when I started this research on UFOs months ago, I would have never believed them. I did not make the association between extraterrestrials from Iarga and Emanuel Swedenborg until about a couple of days ago. I am completely surprised.

If any reader wants to read for themselves the book UFO Contact from Iarga, they can find that book online plus others here: Free On-Line UFO Books. Coincidentally, it was the first random book of a UFO contact I decided to read. Who would have thought it was directly related to Emanuel Swedenborg? His accounts of extraterrestrials can be found interspersed in his massive opus magnum, Heavenly Arcana, or in a smaller condensed form in his work Earths in the Universe which can be found as a volume as part of the work The Final Judgment.  Both works can be found together in the work The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem (expanded edition). And if Swedenborg's account of extraterrestrials is correct, then perhaps we should pay attention to his accounts of the spiritual realms of the afterlife, and heaven and hell.

I have to mention one last quote from the book, which I found rather funny. It is interesting to actually get an extraterrestrial viewpoint of our society. Unfortunately, it really does make us look extremely stupid. Stefan Denaerde, capitalist businessman he was, would at times argue with them about their communist economy. Here is one interesting exchange, where the Iargans describe to Stefan how it is different from communism, where it involves some other economic principles based on capitalism:

Iargans: "Careful central planning can also influence the law of supply and demand."
Stefan: "Surely that can be done by advertising?"
Then they really went to town! What we did under the guise of "advertising" and "public relations" was something that bordered on indecency. The money and manpower - in other words, potential prosperity - that we limit for a non-efficient brain. Can you imagine what these Earth people thought of now? Artificial aging! A continual stream of seemingly new models compelled our status-symbol oriented society to discard things before they had reached the end of their useful life. A terrible waste of raw material and production capacity, and, even worse, it was a stimulant for jealousy and greed, and this was criminal. This promotion of materialism, a deadly danger for an intelligent race, was directly opposed to any idea of justice. I thought they were finished, but their most remarkable argument was yet to come. Our advertising was a despicable form of propaganda which was ethically unacceptable. In a socially stable society, you had not only freedom of speech, but, even more important, freedom of thought. Propaganda, repeated one-sided information, damaged the freedom of thought, and that was unacceptable discrimination.

We value freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion. But not freedom of thought. Television is a propaganda tool. Organizations are constantly pushing lies to make consumers buy things. Why? Profit margins. Stock price. All about money. Imagine a world where money does not even exist, where the entire society becomes spiritual not in word but in the very actions of their lives.

The Best Bible Translation in English?

Which English Bible translation is the best? I will quickly summarize it here - there are plenty of translations out there, and they will generally follow two translation philosophies: a word-for-word literal translation, or a "thought-for-thought" translation following a philosophy known as dynamic equivalence (or functional equivalence) - where the translator chooses a word for the idea that is conveyed. Here is a nice diagram showing where the translations fall on this spectrum:

The translations that use the "thought-for-thought" are bad, the paraphrase ones are the worst. They sacrifice accuracy for readability. Avoid those. The translation is so poor it is ridiculous, often with the translator's bias or interpretation coming through. It is also harder to do word studies in the original languages. If we look at some of the commentary of Swedenborg on the hidden spiritual meaning in the scripture, he will often go to a literal translation which is closest to the Hebrew original. So the best literal translations in my opinion can be narrowed down to the New American Standard Bible (NASB), the English Standard Version (ESV), or the New King James Version (NKJV). The NKJV is lower in the spectrum, but I will explain why I use it shortly. If you want to do side by side comparisons yourself, you can compare them online at Bible Gateway. Here is another chart which shows some of the history of each of the translations:

BIBLICAL MANUSCRIPT RECENSIONS

Besides translation, there is one other issue to consider: which recension of manuscripts were used for the translation. Whereas in most cases the Hebrew Masoretic has priority for the Old Testament, for the New Testament there are three major recensions of Greek manuscripts that are used:

Textus Receptus - this is based on a set of six medieval manuscripts that was used to create the German Luther Bible and the King James Version (KJV). It is fanatically supported by a "King James only" group, who somehow believe that it is the Divinely inspired selection of the majority text. It includes the spurious late addition in 1 John known as the "Comma Johanneum" which is not attested to by the majority of manuscripts.  

Majority Text (also called Byzantine text-type, Antiocheian Text, or Syrian Text) - as time progressed and scholarship on the Bible increased, more and more Greek manuscripts were gathered and collated which represented the majority reading across all the Greek manuscripts. There are more than 5,000 of these manuscripts, and most modern translations are based on the majority reading of these texts. The Textus Receptus recension is in close agreement with the Majority Text.  

Alexandrian text-type (based on the research of Westcott & Hort, later Nestle & Aland) - these represent about 1% of the known Greek manuscripts, but are older than the rest and tend to come from the vicinity of Alexandria. Extant manuscripts are about 85% identical with the majority text, and most variants cannot be translated into English. Translations that use this recension tend to operate under the theory that "older is better", but that is not the case here - critics have shown that in many cases these recensions contain corruptions or omissions of the text.

My general opinion is that the Majority Text tends to be closer to the original. Why do I say this? Because unlike most Western scholars, I am of the opinion that much of the New Testament was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic, then later translated into Greek. When you see the Aramaic text of scripture, then all those minor differences in Greek disappear. Often an Aramaic word has multiple meanings, and one Greek manuscript would translate it one way, another in a different way. This becomes so obvious for one who knows Aramaic and Greek it is undeniable. Don't take my word for it, look at the evidence: read Was the New Testament Really Written in Greek?. The earliest complete manuscript of the Aramaic Peshitta dates to the 5th century A.D., but scholarship and historical evidence indicates that this manuscript dates from the 2nd century A.D.

So much for the modern translations that try to be literal for the New Testament - they are basically making a translation of a translation. However all is not lost, most mistranslations are minor and the Majority Text closely matches the Aramaic Peshitta. You can compare the Aramaic with the KJV online here: Peshitta New Testament. The NKJV, like the KJV, bases its translation on the Textus Receptus. So why do I use the NKJV? Because it lists all the variants from the Majority Text and Alexandrian text-type in the footnotes! No other translation does that. If it weren't for that, I would probably use the ESV or NASB.

Instead of arguing which translation is better, I decided to look at some of the major differences between the Textus Receptus (KJV and NKJV) and the Majority Text (ESB and NASB) in the book of Revelation, using the Aramaic Peshitta as a guide. For a discussion of how the book of Revelation still bears evidence of an Aramaic original, see Revelations Excerpt. At first some of the differences look minor. But when examining these differences, they alter the pattern of the wording, which affects the hidden spiritual symbolism behind the literal words.

FIRST EXAMPLE: KING OR KINGDOM?

The first difference comes in Rev. 1:5-6. The Textus Receptus (KJV and NKJV) has this:

To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Instead of "kings and priests" the Alexandrian and Majority text has "a kingdom, priests." The Aramaic Peshitta has "a priestly kingdom." In support of the Textus Receptus, we have this passage later in Revelation:

And have made us kings and priests to our God (Rev. 5:10)

However if it is "kingdom" and not "kings", an interesting pattern appears: the first part of the book of Revelation follows a pattern laid out in Lord's Prayer in the Gospel of Matthew. First, the Lord's Prayer, divided into seven statements:

1. Our Father
2. Who art in heaven,
3. Hallowed be Thy name.
4. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
5. Give us this day our daily bread.
6. And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from evil.
7. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Compare the pattern of the Lord's Prayer with the pattern of Revelation 1:4-6

1. Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come,
2. and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne,
3. and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead,
4. and the ruler over the kings of the earth.
5. To Him who loved us
6. and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
7. and has made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

The word "kingdom" is the correct one: the beginning of the book of Revelation matches the pattern of the Lord's Prayer, in fact, it can be considered a response to the Lord's Prayer. So in the Lord's Prayer, everyone says "Hallowed be Thy name." What is the name of the Father? Jesus Christ is His name. And this is the error that many Christians make: having been taught that there is a trinity of three beings, many pray to the Father as a separate person and ignore Jesus Christ. This is not so: the Father is the Divine itself, which resides bodily in human form in Jesus Christ: He is one Being, one Person.

Statements #5 and #6 have reference to the Communion or Eucharist, and in the symbolism of scripture bread is symbolic not just of the body of Jesus but also the Divine Love which flows from Him, and His blood is a symbol of the Divine Truth. For it is the Divine Truth which cleanses from sin, not literal blood.

Another point: in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew, many have considered that the last statement, the doxology, was a late addition. The parallel in the book of Revelation shows that it is not a late addition. So look at the amount of information one can receive when one pays attention to a word, and asks why that word was used and not another.

SECOND EXAMPLE: ALPHA AND OMEGA PASSAGES

The next main difference comes in Rev. 1:8. The Textus Receptus has this:

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

According to the Alexandrian, Majority Text, and Aramaic Peshitta this passage should be:

I am Alpha and Omega, saith the Lord God,
which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

The phrase "the beginning and the ending" was likely added to explain the meaning of Alpha and Omega, perhaps as a marginal note, which then made its way into the text. But should it be "Lord" or "Lord God"? The title "Almighty" is almost always used in conjunction with "God." The reason for that is that the title "Lord" refers to the Divine Love, and the title "God" refers to the Divine Truth, from which God exercises His power. However in the book of Revelation we have for the first time "Lord God Almighty":

"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!" (Rev. 4:8)
"We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come" (Rev. 11:17)
"Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty!" (Rev. 15:3)
"Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments." (Rev. 16:7)
"But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." (Rev. 21:22)

And in two places we have "God Almighty" in the cases where the evil make war with God, as they do not acknowledge the Lord as God Almighty:

For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. (Rev. 16:14)
He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (Rev. 19:15)

Considering that Lord God Almighty is combined with the phrase "who is, who was and who is to come" in two other instances, "Lord God" is probably the correct reading.

Now in Rev. 1:11 the Textus Receptus has the phrase "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and..." This phrase is superfluous, and is properly omitted in the Alexandrian, Majority and Aramaic Philoxenian. When the passage is omitted, then the term "Alpha and Omega" is mentioned a total of three times in Revelation, a sign of completion:

"I am the Alpha and the Omega" (Rev. 1:8)

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End." (Rev. 21:6)

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." (Rev. 22:13)

And each statement adds on to the other. However note that for Rev. 22:13 the Textus Receptus and Aramaic Peshitta probably have the correct reading, except that the Textus Receptus flip-flopped some of the word order. The Alexandrian and Majority texts omit the phrase "the Alpha and the Omega." Note that in Aramaic the letters are not Alpha and Omega but rather Aleph and Tau, the first and last letters of the Aramaic and Hebrew alphabets.

THIRD EXAMPLE: THAT WOMAN OR YOUR WIFE?

The Textus Receptus has this passage for Rev. 2:20:

Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

However in the Majority Text of Greek manuscripts, instead of "that woman" they have "your wife." So what is it, "that woman" or "your wife"? The answer comes from the Aramaic Peshitta: it is "your wife." However the Aramaic word can be translated as "woman" or "wife"! One set of Greek manuscripts chose the Greek word for woman, the other set chose the Greek word for wife. With the possessive it obviously should have been translated as wife. This is one example among many that the New Testament was written in Aramaic. How come scholars say it was written in Greek? That is what they were taught - originally the west had no access to the Aramaic manuscripts, and the tradition has persisted despite the evidence. I would say the majority haven't even looked at the evidence.

"Your wife" is very harsh. Not even the NASB or ESV versions translate this correctly. This is directed against the church of Thyatira, which in his visions Swedenborg said portrayed the Protestant churches who promote a dead faith separate from good works and repentance. Coincidentally, a Protestant minister of a large church just confessed that his wife has had multiple adulterous affairs, and has gone into rehabilitation. There are several examples of Protestant ministers who have committed adultery, because they themselves have adulterated the scripture with their doctrine, that one has to just believe without regard to the sins of their life.

CONCLUSION

For those of you who want to pursue this further, use Bible Gateway to bring up the NKJV with footnotes, as well as a parallel passage with the ESV and NASB, and then compare with the Aramaic Peshitta for the New Testament at Peshitta New Testament.

For the entire Bible, the best translation in English is the New American Standard Version (NASB) and the English Standard Version (ESV). Hopefully there will be another scholarly edition that comes out that uses the Aramaic Peshitta for the New Testament. And what do readers discover when you read the New Testament from the Aramaic? In the phrase "Lord Jesus" the word for "Lord" is the Aramaic word "Maryah." And the Aramaic word "Maryah" is the word used for the Hebrew tetragrammation YHWH, the name for Yahweh or Jehovah. It becomes quite clear: in the earliest Christian Church of the Middle East, Jesus is declared to be Jehovah in human form.

Extraterrestrial Contact from Iarga: their Origin and Philosophy

Due to the planet conditions, a human is willful and disobedient. He obeys no God, no commandment, and no conscience; he even pretends that he doesn't have one. -- the Iargans

You do not have the values, the ethics, of a developed civilization. Because of this, the human race has, as yet, no chance of eternal survival. It blocks the way to cosmic integration. -- the Iargans

I just read one of the most interesting and detailed extraterrestrial contact cases from a book, UFO Contact from Planet Iarga. The contact occurred in the 1960s, when the yacht of a wealthy Dutch businessman collided with a partially submerged flying saucer off the coast of the Netherlands. As the flying saucer had a magnetic field, the hull of the yacht could not break loose from the saucer. He then saw a humanoid figure with a helmet floating in the water, and he was able to quickly launch a dingy boat and save the person from drowning. As this occurred in the middle of the night, he at first did not realize he had saved an extraterrestrial humanoid until he was in the middle of the rescue. Whereas the contacts of the 1950s were intentional and were with extraterrestrial humans who warned about our atomic weaponry, this one was a complete accident. The extraterrestrials were humanoid in form, but had evolved into the human form from amphibians from their home world, which for the most part was covered with an ocean. They called their planet "Iarga" and could not breathe our atmosphere.

On their part, they did not know what to do at this point because they stated that there is this universal cosmic law which forbids that a higher civilization should interfere with the culture and development of a lower civilization. Moreover, they knew he had taken photographs of their saucer. They offered him two choices: a piece of metal that would provide him proof of the contact, or to spend two days in their ship where they would teach and answer all his questions about their civilization. He chose the latter, but as a condition had to destroy his film. This has got to be the most interesting extraterrestrial contact case I have read: for by reading it, one gains an outside perspective on our society. And not just our society, our economy and base materialism. And reading it, one can see why our government has a strong interest in hiding extraterrestrial contact: for on other advanced worlds their economy is based on a form of communism, where there is no money. They said this kind of economy is a universal economy found on other worlds that are more advanced than ours, and I have seen this kind of economy independently described in a couple of other contact cases. Obviously, as this occurred during the Cold War, there is no way the U.S. would want this to be publicized. Even now, such a theory would upset our entire economic system. However, it is not exactly the same as Communism: it was combined with "trusts" - large corporations for each industry segment which competed with each other according to the laws of supply and demand. This is perhaps one of the reasons why it succeeded and Communism in Russia collapsed. The Iargans also indicated that their economic system would not work of Earth at this time due to the selfish egotism of many of the inhabitants.

Some have stated that this story is obviously debunked since the story was first published as a work of fiction. I do not see it that way: it was published as a work of fiction to hide the reality of the contact and to get the ideas out: the Iargans made it clear that they wanted to plant a seed of knowledge. They did not want proof of their existence published, as authority behind a system of knowledge would infringe on the freedom of choice to accept or reject it. And if someone is going to make up an extraterrestrial contact the subject matter is not going to be on economics, maximum efficiency, and manufacturing. The fake extraterrestrial contact stories are the ones that typically talk about pseudo New Age religious concepts. The contactee was a wealthy businessman for a company that produced auto parts, and had much to lose by publishing the story, which he published under the name of "Stefan Denaerde." Moreover he did not actively promote the story, thus hardly anyone has ever heard of it. Some of the ideas are so foreign to our way of looking at the world I cannot see how he made this up, for even the communist-like economy is not completely communistic. Who can imagine a world without money? I still find that hard to grasp, coming from the financial world.

What about evidence? When published there was no evidence, but when examined by the author Wendell Stevens he uncovered some corroborating evidence, including other witnesses, that this extraterrestrial contact case is real. After the original contact, the contacts continued for several years by means of some telepathic communication:

"These communications continued and ultimately developed into a sort of mechanical transmission from a technical device aboard the spacecraft to the mind of the witness, something like the way it was done during his visit aboard the spacecraft in the Oostscheld, except that now the pictures were transmitted to his mind instead of viewing them on a screen. Unknown to the witness however, and this will be news to him when he sees it in print for the first time, communications experts working with NATO in defense systems had picked up a strange incoming RF (radio frequency) electronic signal in the vicinity of a high security NATO defense installation in the Netherlands, and became very disturbed about the nature and purpose of this transmission. It was in an unusual bandwidth and had a strange character. It also was only detectable within a limited area in Den Hague (The Hague near where the sensitive installation is located. NATO Intelligence, believing this may be an attempt to interfere with the defense installation and its equipment, moved hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of highly sophisticated detection equipment into the area to try to find out what was happening.

"It seems that this strange signal would begin about 4:00 PM and continue for an hour or more several days each week. Now, before this information came to light, my interviews with the witness had shown that his contacts were coming in several days each week on a more or less regular basis. The witness's habit was to come home from his office about 3:00 PM daily, read his personal mail and relax in his living room for a while. Often, when he was contacted, the "telepathic" transmission would begin about 4:00 PM, and would continue for an hour or more. This strange coincidence became of paramount importance when I learned that the search for the strongest signal was taking them only a few blocks from this man's home where he was receiving the contacts!"

Wendell Stevens described this in a lecture, where it is also revealed that he was tailed by some CIA agents (they seem to always pop up) on his way to visit Stefan:




The phenomenon of UFOs underwater in the oceans is known as "USO" - Unidentified Submerged Object. The reports of these are quite extensive, going back at least 50 years. So this is by no means the only case of this. It makes sense: we have hardly explored our own oceans, and it is a perfect place to hide. See the following documentary for other cases:




The following videos contain an actual interview with Stefan Denaerde. They asked the technical illustrator for the book, "Could he have made it all up?" His opinion was no, there was just so much detailed information that was quite foreign to our way of thinking. When he began to realize it might be real, it gave him the creeps, and said "it is weird". The interview is in Dutch, but there are English subtitles:

THE ORIGIN OF THE PLANET IARGA

One of the first questions that arose in my mind is where is their home world, the planet Iarga? During the two days he stayed with them, he was instructed with a succession of holographic images that were imprinted into his memory. In this way, they could show him everything about their home world, without having to travel there. The first thing he saw was planet Iarga, which had a permanent white and pink cloud cover. It had two concentric rings around it, similar to the planet Saturn. It also had a moon similar to ours. The diameter and mass of the planet was much greater than planet earth, thus it had greater air pressure. The rotation of the planet was slower, causing the days and nights to last longer. Most of the surface is covered in water, and the wind speed can be as much as three times as powerful as on Earth.

There is one key piece of information they gave: their home world is a little more than 10 light years away from our solar system. That narrows down the location considerably. We have the following possible star systems, listed with their distance in light years from Earth:

Ross 248 (HH Andromedae) = 10.30 light-years 

Epsilon Eridani = 10.52 light-years 

Lacaille 9352 = 10.74 light-years

Of these three star systems, only Epsilon Eridani is known to have at least one planet known as Epsilon Eridani b, discovered as recently as the year 2000. It has an orbital period of about 6.85 years with a mean distance of 3.4 astronomical units (AU). Its mass is thought to be 1.2 (plus or minus 0.33) times that of Jupiter. In addition, the star Epsilon Eridani has two belts of rocky asteroids one at 3 AU and another at 20 AU. A second hypothetical planet, Epsilon Eridani c, is thought to orbit at about 13 AU with an orbital period of about 50 years to account for this. In addition, the star Epsilon Eridani has an extensive Debris disk - similar to our Kuiper belt, but with much more dust. So there are two pieces of data in agreement with the information from the Iarga contact: first, the planet is much bigger than our planet Earth. Second, the asteroids and dust surrounding Epsilon Eridani could indicate that such a planet has rings like Saturn. Here is an artist's conception of the planet Epsilon Eridani b:

Not only does the artist show rings around the planet (with a moon!), but the artist comes close to the pink and white cloud cover! Coincidence? One other interesting note - here is a picture of the constellations Eridanus and Cetus:

Cetus is a sea monster. What prompted the ancients to assign a river and a sea monster to thest two constellations? Could it be that the ancients had knowledge of amphibian humanoids from Epsilon Eridani? Another bizarre coincidence: the great fish or whale that swallowed the prophet Jonah after being thrown overboard is known as ketos in the Greek Septuagint, which is the equivalent of the Latin Cetus. This happens to be a very similar story to this extraterrestrial contact, where a ship collides with a saucer and the contactee spends 2 days inside of it - just as Jonah spent 3 days inside the belly of the fish.

The reason I bring up this line of speculation is that the Babylonian historian Berossus records how in ancient times mankind lived in wretched conditions, until a fish-man emerged from the sea and taught mankind the principles of civilization:

"At first they led a somewhat wretched existence and lived without rule after the manner of beasts. But, in the first year appeared an animal endowed with human reason, named Oannes, who rose from out of the Erythian Sea, at the point where it borders Babylonia. He had the whole body of a fish, but above his fish's head he had another head which was that of a man, and human feet emerged from beneath his fish's tail. He had a human voice, and an image of him is preserved unto this day. He passed the day in the midst of men without taking food; he taught them the use of letters, sciences and arts of all kinds. He taught them to construct cities, to found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short he instructed them in everything which could tend to soften human manners and humanize their laws. From that time nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun set, this being Oannes, retired again into the sea, for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like Oannes."

That the account of Berossus is ancient is shown by earlier myths and archaeology. In earlier times Oannes was known as Adapa (from Wikipedia):

"Adapa, the first of the Mesopotamian seven sages, was a mythical figure who unknowingly refused the gift of immortality. The story is first attested in the Kassite period (14th century BCE), in fragmentary tablets from Tell el-Amarna, and from Assur, of the late second millennium BCE. Mesopotamian myth tells of seven antediluvian sages, who were sent by Ea, the wise god of Eridu, to bring the arts of civilisation to humankind. The first of these, Adapa, also known as Uan, the name given as Oannes by Berossus, introduced the practice of the correct rites of religious observance as priest of the E'Apsu temple, at Eridu."

Adapa was a mortal man, a son of the god Ea/Enki, god of the waters. He brought civilization to the ancient city of Eridu, and is identified as an advisor to the first king of Eridu in Babylonia, Alulim. The city Eridu was once regarded as the oldest city in the world. Archeaological layers of the city go as far back as 5300 B.C. (see Eridu circled on map below)

The city name of Eridu is Sumerian, could this possibly explain the Greek name for the constellation of Eridanus? From Star Names Their Lore and Meaning, some research indicates that the constellation Eridanus was originally identified with the river Euphrates in ancient Babylonia:

There is much in the Euphratean records alluding to a stellar stream that may be our Eridanus, — possibly the Milky Way, another sky river; yet it is to the former that the passage translated by Fox Talbot possibly refers:

Like the stars of heaven he shall shine; like the River of Night he shall flow;

and its title has been derived from the Akkadian Aria-dan, the Strong River.

This is not all, some regard the city as the original location of the mythical tower of Babel. According to Stefan, the amphibian extraterrestrials from the planet Iarga were able to speak telepathically, and they made this interesting statement:

"The language we speak is not your own language, although it seems to be. It is the language of all living species in this universe. Even a plant or an animal will understand it. This language was spoken on Earth before the Babylonian confusion of tongues. You don't hear words but sounds that are directly reflected by your emotional structure, the life-field. Therefore, don't try to understand words, but listen to the reflections of your soul."

Here is an Assyrian representation of Oannes:

Here is another depiction:

The head underneath a fish-head is probably how the ancients viewed he head of the being in an enclosing helmet. The myth was so prevalent, remnants of it survive to this day. The myth of the Oannes fish priests is probably the origin of the Pope's mitre:

Stefan Denaerde never made the association of his extraterrestrial contact with Epsilon Eridani or with the ancient myth of Oannes. While this is circumstantial, the distance in light years and the description of the planet makes Epsilon Eridani as the most likely origin for these extraterrestrials from Iarga.

EXTRATERRESTRIAL PHILOSOPHY: FREEDOM, JUSTICE AND EFFICIENCY

I will skip over a discussion on the economy, society, and technology that was described in detail by the Iargans through a holographic projection (according to the author). I may get to some of that later in this blog. For now, what struck me was their philosophy, which they summarize in three principles: freedom, justice and efficiency. I should make it clear here: whereas here on Earth philosophy and religion is mostly a matter of belief, for Iarga it is a way of life, influencing even their society and economy. So once this philosophy is understood, everything else becomes clear in the way they view things as it is so foreign to us. How they applied it is described in detail in the book, and it is very pragmatic and utilitarian in nature, yet in many ways superior to the simple concept of pragmatism and utilitarianism.

I will summarize the three principles as follows. Freedom is the value one places on free will and free thought. It is freedom to pursue one's love. Justice is the value that everyone must be treated equally, and they express this in their egalitarian society with a disdain for individual status. There is no rich, and no poor: everyone is equal across their entire planet. Long ago they were able to destroy the boundaries between families and nations, until they became united as one race. The last value is one of efficiency: this is to be maximally productive or useful with the least amount of waste in effort. On Earth they see us doing a lot of wasted effort and wasted time because we are extremely inefficient. Efficiency is practically a religious value in their lives: they are so efficient that they have released themselves from material cares unlike us, which gives their society a lot of free time to just enjoy life and be happy. They see us rushing around, wasting time, and forgetting what is most important: how to enjoy life and be happy, and seek closer union with God. They thought efficiency was so important that they would probably consider W. Edwards Deming a prophet. Deming's philosophy of quality control had completely turned around the Japanese auto industry in the 1980s. These extraterrestrials even think like Deming: they placed a number on everything, to ensure it was efficiently done without waste, and that all things were made with the highest quality with least amount of failure. If this is a work of fiction, who in the world would have thought that up? When I read it, I realized there was quite a bit to learn here from the insights.

These three values - freedom, justice, and efficiency - were given to them in some Divine revelation in the past, which they either had to follow or die out as a race. For most of the surface the planet Iarga is covered in water with very little land: this forced them to be very efficient in managing their resources. Initially they were not, they were care-free, until the population began to outstrip the available land resources. They were forced to organize, and different tribes of Iargans fought with each other over the land resources. In my opinion, on Earth we are at this stage - except for us it is different, the limited resource is oil, as the entire world economy is based on the availability of oil as an energy source. Then God intervened, which Stefan describes as follows:

"At this low point of their history God stepped in and a huge natural disaster took place, which they call the fire of sin; a mysterious fire in the atmosphere which created enormous increases in temperature and wind speed and as a result of which a large part of the life of the planet was destroyed. The survivors were divided over twelve islands and received a new Divine Law which regulated their society much more strictly than before. It was the Law which prescribed freedom, justice and efficiency as the highest standard of their behavior... In this the woman received the executive power in the control of the observation of the Law."

By applying these three principles of freedom, justice and efficiency, their society was transformed, until they became an advanced spiritual civilization that represents a possible later stage in our evolution. However before I proceed, one thing the Iargans stressed was that just because an extraterrestrial race tells you something is so, do not blindly follow it. So they wanted to be sure that Stefan would not seek to prove their existence and publish his work initially as a work of fiction. They wanted no hysteria or unneeded publicity, but wanted the idea to speak for itself. They said any knowledge should come from independent thinking:

"If as a result of this knowledge you should find yourself forming any convictions, do so with care. Make sure that they are lasting convictions, born of independent creative thinking, and not the sort of passing convictions that the impact of strenuous visual emotions tend to provoke. These pseudo convictions paralyze individual freedom and make men rigid and dogmatic."

Dogmatic religious thinking, where people believe something just because someone told them so, they view as infringing on the freedom of thought for the individual. The same goes for religious convictions based on emotional experiences: such convictions do not last. Since some level of proof has been given that this extraterrestrial contact may be valid, at this point I am going to switch the discussion and take note of something I noticed in the philosophy or Divine revelation of the Iargans: a very similar doctrine appears in the revelations as described in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. And this is completely independent - when one reads the second half of Stefan Denaerde's book, it is quite obvious he knew absolutely nothing about Emanuel Swedenborg.

IARGAN PHILOSOPHY AND EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

The three principles of the Iargans - freedom, justice and efficiency - appear in the revelations given to Swedenborg, but using a different vocabulary. Most people are familiar with the scientific concept of cause and effect. Swedenborg took this concept and applied it to the human soul, but extended it to the triad of end, cause and effect. Whereas the principle of "cause and effect" implies a mechanical world, the principle of "end, cause, and effect" implies a world where everything has an intention behind it. There is no such thing as an accident or coincidence: there is a reason for everything. The "end" is the intention, the "cause" is the thought to execute that intention, and the "effect" is the act or outcome of those thoughts based on some intention. Said in another way, in each person there is intention, thought, and action. The principle of "freedom" is applicable to the value of free will or fulfilling one's purpose, the principle of "justice" is applicable to true thought, and the principle of "efficiency" is applicable to the act or outcome of one's thought. This principle of theology of the New Church described in the writings of Swedenborg is very similar to Iargan philosophy. The main difference is Swedenborg describes it in high level abstract terms, whereas Iargans apply it directly and prefer to describe it by providing concrete examples of their advanced civilization. Their teaching method is by example, repeated over and over again.

That the Iargan philosophy may have originated from a Divine revelation is shown in the writings of Swedenborg, which also originated from heavenly visions. The vocabulary is different, the application is different, but the underlying idea is the same. Swedenborg states that end, cause and effect correspond to the spiritual, rational and physical aspects of each person:

Celestial and spiritual things form the internal man, rational things the interior or middle man, sensual things — not of the body but derived from bodily things — the external man; and this not only with man, but also with spirits. To speak in the language of philosophy — these three are as end, cause, and effect. It is known that there can never be any effect unless there be a cause, and never any cause unless there be an end. Effect, cause, and end, are as distinct as exterior, interior, and inmost. Properly speaking, the sensual man, that is, he who thinks from sensual things, is the external man, and the spiritual and celestial man is the internal man; but the rational man is mediate between the two, and by this, or by what is rational, there is communication of the internal man with the external. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 978)

The intention or purpose of every thought and action we make originates from our higher spiritual selves, which receives life from a Divine influx. This Divine influx, or spirit, can only flow freely when the sins of the lower self are removed, as sin will block the flow of the Divine:

All things in general and in particular in man, nay, all things in general and in particular in nature, succeed one another as end, cause, and effect; and, when they thus correspond to one another, they act as one; for then the end is the all in all things of the cause, and through the cause is the all in all things of the effect. As for example, when heavenly love is the end, the will the cause, and action the effect, if there is correspondence, then heavenly love flows into the will, and the will into the action, and they so act as one that the action by correspondence is as it were the love; or as when the faith of charity is the end, thought the cause, and speech the effect, if there is correspondence, then faith from charity flows into the thought, and this into the speech, and they so act as one, that the speech by correspondence is as it were the end. In order however that the end, which is love and faith, may produce the cause, which is will and thought, it must take administering means in the rational mind that will correspond; for, without administering means that correspond, the end, which is love or faith, cannot be received, however it may flow in from the Lord through heaven. From this it is plain that the interiors and the exteriors of man, that is, what is rational, natural, and sensual in him, must be brought into correspondence, in order that he may receive the Divine influx, and consequently that he may be born again; and that it is not well with him till then. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 5131)

End, cause and effect correspond not only to the human being but also to three levels or spiritual degrees in heaven:

So also it is in the spiritual world; as the end, cause, and effect are distinct from one another, so in the spiritual world are love to the Lord, charity toward the neighbor, and the works of charity. When these three become one or exist together, the first must be in the second, and the second in the third. As in the works of charity, unless charity from affection or the heart is interiorly in them, they are not works of charity, and unless love to God is interiorly in charity, it is not charity. Therefore if you take away that which is interior, the exterior falls away; for the exterior exists and subsists from its interiors in order. So is it with innocence. This makes one with love to the Lord, and unless it is interiorly in charity, it is not charity; consequently unless charity in which there is innocence is interiorly in the works of charity, they are not works of charity. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 5608)

In this passage, Swedenborg associates end, cause and effect with the will, thought and action of each person:

...the end is the first in order, the cause the second, and the effect the last. Thus they proceed successively, but still the cause is presented at the same time in the effect, which is last, and the end in the cause; wherefore, the effect is a filled containant, in which interior or prior things are also brought together and exist.
The case is the same with the willing, thinking, and doing in man; willing is the first, thinking second, and doing last; this last also is the effect in which things prior or interior exist together; for so far as a man's doing contains in it what man thinks and what he wills, so far interior things are held together in their form and connection. This is why it is declared in the Word that man will be judged according to his deeds, that is, according to his works, which means that he will be judged according to his thinking and willing, inasmuch as these are in his deeds even as the soul is in its body. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9824)

This doctrine of end, cause and effect is one of the main reasons why there needs to be a New Church, separate from the Protestant churches which are based on the false teaching of salvation by faith alone. The two theologies are in exact opposition to each other (see Was Swedenborg a Cult Leader, and is the New Church a cult?). Not only does end, cause and effect allow us to have a better understanding of what it is to be truly human, but it gives a better understanding of God: it corresponds to a trine of the Divine itself, the Divine Human, and the proceeding Divine spirit, all in one Supreme Being. It is a mistake to divide God into three persons, which originated from an ignorance of higher spiritual concepts and dogmatic literal thinking. Such an irrational theology leads to either blind belief or secular societies and naturalism.

FREEDOM AND THE WILL, OR FREE WILL

One's intention or purpose in life is the true essence of one's soul. One's intent or purpose is guided by free will. The Iargans stressed the importance of free will, that there should be no compulsion in the free will of humans. While the Iargans eventually discussed their concept of freedom my starting with lower level concepts of society based on efficiency, Swedenborg always begins by talking about the highest concept, God, and then approaching lower level topics. The will and thought in each person corresponds to the Divine Love and Divine Truth, which are symbolically portrayed in the gospels as the Father and the Son. But what is free will? Philosophers have been debating this, but Swedenborg spells it out: free will originates from the equilibrium between heaven and hell, which plays out in every moral choice a person makes in their intention. I already discussed this in a previous blog post, see The Spiritual Origin of Free Will.

Although it is often said that there should be no compulsion in free will, Swedenborg stated what is not so readily apparent: there is a hidden freedom in self compulsion against what is evil towards what is good:

...they who have compelled themselves against evil and falsity — though at first they thought that this was from themselves or from their own power, but were afterwards enlightened to see that their effort was from the Lord, even to the least of all the particulars of the effort — these in the other life cannot be led by evil spirits but are among the happy. Thus it may be evident that a man ought to compel himself to do good and to speak the truth. The hidden truth within this is, that a man is thus gifted with what is heavenly for his own by the Lord. That which is heavenly of his own is formed in the effort of his thought; and if he does not maintain this effort by compelling himself, as the appearance is, he certainly does not by not compelling himself. That it may be plain how this is, let it be observed that in all self-compulsion to good there is a certain freedom, which is not discerned as such when one is in the work of compelling, but still it is within; as in one who is willing to undergo the risk of death for the sake of a certain end, or in him who is willing to suffer bodily pains for the sake of health, there is a willingness and thus a certain freedom from which each acts; although the dangers and the pains, while he is in them, take away his perception of the willingness or freedom. So it is with those who compel themselves to good. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1937)

Freedom, or free will, does not simply mean one can do whatever one wants: it is a moral choice. For the Iargans, the concept of freedom goes further: their goal was to create a society where one was free to pursue whatever interest or love one had towards the good. To do this, an economy and society was created where each person had to do as little servile work as possible, had no worries about material matters, and jealousy and greed were eliminated by creating an egalitarian society. The civilization became so advanced that every citizen in reality became rich, and everyone had more free time on their hands. More free time means more freedom to pursue one's interests and one's love toward others. What blocks our path towards this? Selfish egotism.

THE PRINCIPLE OF JUSTICE

As the principle of freedom states that everyone should have the right to pursue their free will, the principle of justice states that everyone should be able to pursue their free will equally. What is justice? Not only is everyone treated equally under the law, but also equal rights for everybody. That means, no one can own anything more than anyone else, just what one needs. They see that we have large imbalances of wealth in this world due to lack of not only efficiency, but also discrimination which goes against the principle of justice.

Now, when Swedenborg talks about justice it is always in the context of the phrase "judgment and justice" which appears in Hebrew scripture. Unfortunately this leads to some confusion as the Hebrew word for "justice" (tzedakah) is more accurately translated as "righteousness", or simply doing the right thing. Judgment is rendering the proper decision of the law according to the truth, and justice is doing what is right according to charity. Judgment is related to the concept of truth or the law, and justice is related to doing what is right. Thus when Iargans talk about justice that is more comparable to the Hebrew concept of rendering proper judgment based upon righteousness. For example:

Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven. Yea, Jehovah shall give good, and our land shall yield its increase (Ps. lxxxv. 11, 12). Here truth, which is of faith, is used for judgment, and justice for love or mercy. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2235)

All things in scripture relate to the concepts of truth and love. Thus in the first sentence the first half relates to truth or judgment, and the second to justice or love. The phrase "our land shall yield its increase" is related to the efficiency of the outcome, to put it in Iargan terms. The point is, the Iargan principles of freedom, justice and efficiency are related to end, cause and effect, which in turn correspond to the will or intention (love), the thought (truth), and the action (efficiency). The Iargan principle of justice is based on the truth or just laws from the truth.

THE PRINCIPLE OF EFFICIENCY

When we come to the principle of efficiency as described by the Iargans in how they do everything, there is a close correspondence in the writings of Swedenborg. In the following passages, Swedenborg mentions the "efficient cause" which brings about the effect or outcome:

These three goods follow in order, as end, cause, and effect; and as the end is the soul of the cause, and the cause is all that is efficient in the effect, so celestial good is the soul of spiritual good, and spiritual good the all in natural good. That which is the soul and the all in another thing, is interiorly in it, just as endeavor is in motion, or as will in action. That will is the soul and the all in an action, is plain, for when the will ceases, the action ceases. From this it may be evident how the case is with the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural, namely, that inmostly in natural good there must be celestial good, that is, the good of love to the Lord, which also is the good of innocence. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9812)

if the efficient cause should cease, the effect would immediately become none. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 3498)

The term "efficient cause" is not the principle of efficiency per se, but rather it is to indicate that the cause or the thought in action which brings out the effect. The Iargan principle of efficiency is to measure the outcome of the effect: how effective was the act? What is the return of investment (ROI)? How productive was the person or business? The Iargans constantly measure the outcomes in terms of numbers. In spiritual terms, the principle of efficiency is more related to self examination: examining one's deeds in life, and then correcting them to be more "efficient" towards that which is good. Self examination and correcting oneself is the act of repentance, and it is a continual process of improvement.

THE RELIGION OF THE IARGANS

The Iargans never really talked about religion like we do: for them, the way they lived was their religion. There is no dichotomy between the society and the religion. But they first expressed things in terms of efficiency of the manufacturing process. They loved to talk about how efficient was their manufacturing in the areas of housing, transportation, and farming. Everything was measured in numbers. By the time they got to talking about the manufacturing of their cylindrical house structures, Stefan in reality started to get bored which really disappointed them. It is the weirdest extraterrestrial contact I have seen: who would have expected a contact to discuss manufacturing and concepts of quality control? Despite the weirdness, it is quite applicable to one's life, and the principles can be used to improve a business. When I came to think about it, the principle of efficiency is very important: it can be used to help save and preserve the natural resources of this planet. When they observed how inefficient we were, it must have driven them nuts.

Stefan was however interested in the propulsion system of their flying saucers, as well as their holographic learning system. Exact details of this they would not give: to give us technology innovations would be dangerous, as we would immediately use those technologies for the effort of warfare. It would be immoral to transfer technology to us considering the state we are in:

"The most dangerous natural law governing the development of an intelligent people states: a highly technological society does away with all discrimination or self-destructs."

"The only information you need lies in the field of societal standards."

What was more important was to improve our society and our culture. They kept using the word culture a lot. Here is their definition of the word "culture":

Stefan: "What's your definition of culture, then, exactly? I'm beginning to think that we define the word differently." 

Iargan: "That's a very important question, Stef. Culture is the measure through which a society caters to the least fortunate man. The measure in which the sick, invalid, old or poor people are taken care of. In short, the measure of collective unselfishness." 

Stefan: "But what has this got to do with immortality?" 

Iargan: "Just this, that unselfishness makes an intelligent race immortal. But before you can understand this, you will first have to climb the ladder with Us to the misty heights of comic integration." 

Stefan: "Unbelievable! I thought that you practiced efficiency as a sort of religion, but now I see that your economic system is a religion of sorts as well." 

Iargan: "You are beginning to understand, but the word 'religion' is not well chosen." 

Stefan: "Something like it, then?" 

Iargan: "Correct."

In order to have the culture they have, the Iargans had to eliminate evil from their society. How did they do it? I am not exactly sure, but they mention a strange concept known as "reincarnation selection" (as this contact was done over a kind of thought transference, some of these thoughts are theirs, others are Stefan's):

"Every intelligent race is dualistic, and as absolute necessity, contains an extremely evil consciousness component that now and again comes to the surface in the form of lies, deceit, sadism, homicide, etc. etc. One of the reasons for the terrible murder of millions of women and children in gas chambers.
"A detailed explanation will come later, so let it suffice here to say that beings on Iarga that possess this mentality are denied reincarnation. This selection is the cause of the continuing improvement in mentality, generation after generation, which enables a race to become unselfish.
"On Earth, this selection was blocked some twenty centuries ago by extra-terrestial intervention whereby we cannot improve our average mentality. This system is therefore unsuitable and undesirable for us because it would stimulate the egoism. The lazy and the profiteers would disrupt the system. The universal economic system is just an utopian dream for us.
"The beginning of this system is their world order. The unity of such a race comes from the fact that they obey a set of Godly laws and therefore have a uniform legal system."

Again, the concept of reincarnation comes up. Races that are spiritually evolved tend to believe in reincarnation, and this came up before among a group of human extraterrestrials which was described in Extraterrestrial Contact in 1952: the Case of Orfeo Angelucci. But reincarnation is not what most think it is: we are born once, but after death spirits are able to participate and merge with the memories of the living to the point they think the memories are their own. For that see Christianity, Reincarnation and Emanuel Swedenborg. So what do the Iargans mean by "reincarnation selection"? I think that means they mentally examine each of their race at a certain age, and determine if they should be given the right to have sex. Yes, apparantly not all Iargans are allowed to sexually reproduce. As for the extraterrestrial intervention that occurred twenty centuries ago, they are talking about Jesus Christ. So was Jesus an extraterrestrial? No, that becomes apparent later. As to how "reincarnation selection" was blocked is not clear. The Iargans do explicitly talk about Christianity, which interests them greatly:

Iargan: "Our understanding of religion is so far evolved that it is incomparable with yours. Have you a religion?"
Stefan: "I am a Catholic."
Iargan: "How strange, a Christian! We are familiar with the work of Christ and the Bible. After you've eaten, you must explain to us how someone with so much property can seriously call himself Christian. We are intrigued. On the other hand, it simplifies the explanation of the two cosmic selection laws. The first confirms Christ's condemnation of social discrimination. A high level of technical development liquidates every discrimination and compulsion under pain of chaos and eventual self-destruction. The Earth demonstrates the justice of this law in a convincing manner. The social chaos exists already and the threat begins to manifest itself. At the moment, only the great powers have nuclear weapons at their disposal, but the smaller nationalist groups will soon be in the same position. The situation becomes more dangerous every year.
...The second selection law compels the correct understanding of human relationships. It poses 'Christian love' as a condition for cosmic integration. Only unselfish behavior that restores the original efficiency of natural order can give an intelligent race the certainty of survival until cosmic integration is achieved."

As for the Iargans, what is their opinion of Jesus Christ? As they are spiritually evolved, and seem to be familiar with the spiritual planes above the material, they know exactly who He is. I am again surprised because before I was of the opinion other extraterrestrial races would have thought that Jesus was just another teacher. Instead we get the reaction, we know who He is, how come you do not, and do not do what He says? Towards the end of the contact, the Iargans told Stefan this:

"Never say anything in conflict with the Christ insight such as it appears in the Bible. His authority is unassailable in the whole universe. He is the only way; the only truth and the life. 'No one comes to the Father except through Him.'"

OUT OF THE DEPTHS

I have hardly touched upon this extraterrestrial contact, it has been ignored and buried for far too long, probably because 50 years ago nothing was offered in terms of proof. There is actually a lot to learn from it. Stefan saw that the Iargans were excellent swimmers and could dive underwater for long periods of time. The fish of their planet are similar to ours, and like dolphins, they are able to accelerate underwater and ram other large fish. Perhaps there is some hidden truth to the legends of mermen and mermaids?

Out of the depths I have cried to You, O LORD (Psalms 130:1)

Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high,

You who have done great things; O God, who is like You?

You, who have shown me great and severe troubles, Shall revive me again,

And bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

You shall increase my greatness, And comfort me on every side. (Psalms 71:19-21)

Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all you stars of light!

Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, And you waters above the heavens!

Let them praise the name of the LORD, For He commanded and they were created.

He also established them forever and ever; He made a decree which shall not pass away.

Praise the LORD from the earth, You great sea creatures and all the depths (Psalms 148:3-7)