If there is one insight that the revelations given to Emanuel Swedenborg provides about the true nature of God, it is that not only that God is One, but that there are two aspects to God: Love and Truth. Everything that exists are forms of love and truth: we are created in the image of God, in that we are forms of love and truth. Love and truth corresponds to our will and thought, doing and thinking. Love and Truth must act as one as a marriage, and indeed, it so influences how we behave it is the spiritual origin of sex: females are forms of love, and males are forms of truth, and together they make one angel. The correspondence extends into the material world: instead of spiritual Love and Truth, there is substance and form in matter. You cannot have a substance without a form, nor form without substance. At an atomic level, substance and form corresponds to the nucleus and the orbiting electrons. And not only matter, there is a correspondence of Love and Truth with space and time. Everything in the universe has a correspondence to Love and Truth, and this is represented most perfectly in the human form. Thus all of life tends to evolve towards the human form, and the goal of each creation is to return back to his or her Creator.
It is a simple concept, and once one understands it, one can apply it to just about everything. On a spiritual level, one can recognize false religions and philosophies. Some say we must love everybody. But this is not true: love must be guided by truth, to consider what is good and useful. On the other extreme many religions emphasize just "faith," or "belief," or "enlightenment," or "meditation" - but this is just one side of the coin. If you know something, and do not act upon it, it is nothing. If it is not applicable to life, it is nothing. Spirituality must guide the will, how you live. All religions tend to degenerate into two forms: the opposite of Love, which is the love of self, which seeks to use religion to rule over others. If its not the love of rule or self, the other way religion degenerates is into belief alone, and external worship. Always seek the middle ground: when you recognize the truth, live by it, apply it to your life. For the universal truth is this: all who live by the truth that they know to do what is good will go to heaven.
Swedenborg summarized this concept in his work Angelic Wisdom concerning Divine Love and Wisdom. It is not as popular as his other works, but it is in fact the foundation of the theology that was revealed to him. Even those who have had Near Death Experiences talk about it: a Supreme Being of Light, full of Love and Truth, who has one question to ask us: what have you done with your life? And then there is a life review, and we see how our actions have effected others. Some who have come back seem to have this idea planted in their head: its all about Love and Truth. Swedenborg describes how this concept of Love and Truth can be applied to everything:
If you gather together all things that you are acquainted with, and consider them attentively, and if in some elevation of spirit you search for the universal of them all, you cannot conclude otherwise than that it is Love and Wisdom. For these two are the essentials of all things of man's life; everything civil, moral, or spiritual belonging to it depends upon these two, and without them is not anything. It is the same with all things of the life of the composite man, which is, as said above, society in a larger or smaller form, a kingdom or empire, the Church, and also the angelic heaven. Take away love and wisdom from these, and think whether they are anything, and you will find that without love and wisdom as their source they are nothing. (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 28)
It is upon this concept, and different degrees of order (another topic), that form the foundation for disclosing the spiritual meaning of scripture. Each line of scripture will have some relation to love or truth. For example in scripture, this is represented by the name "LORD God," which in Hebrew is Jehovah Elohim. The name Jehovah is used when referencing the Divine Love, and Elohim when referring to the Divine Truth. Divine Love is often called "mercy," and the Divine Truth is called simply "truth" or "judgment" - for everyone is judged by the truth. Whereas the Divine Love is often represented by fire, the Divine Truth is represented by light. As Divine Love governs the will, so Divine Truth governs the thought: thus the latter is often called the "Law," or as others know it: the Word.
And what of the Father and Son of the New Testament? Are they two different beings? Far from it. This is a lower material view of God, and many, many people have fallen into this false way of thinking. The Father is simply the Divine Love, and the Son is simply the Divine Truth. And so the Word became incarnate, and this involved a descent of the Divine Love as the Divine Truth into human form:
"Jehovah descended as Divine truth, which is the Word, and yet He did not separate Divine good. Two things make God's essence, Divine love and Divine wisdom; or what is the same, Divine good and Divine truth. That these two are the essence of God was shown above (n. 36-48). These two in the Word are meant also by Jehovah God; by Jehovah, Divine love or Divine good, and by God, Divine wisdom or Divine truth. This is the reason of the distinction in the Word in various ways, when sometimes only Jehovah is named, and sometimes only God; for where the subject is Divine good, Jehovah is said; and where it is Divine truth, God is named; and where both are meant, Jehovah God is said. That Jehovah God descended as Divine truth, which is the Word, is evident in John, where are these words: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by Him, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. . . . And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (i. 1, 3, 14). By the Word is there meant Divine truth because the Word which is in the church is Divine truth itself; for it was dictated by Jehovah Himself, and what is dictated by Jehovah is purely Divine truth, and can be no other; but because that passed through the heavens even into the world, it became accommodated to angels in heaven and also to men in the world. Hereby there is in the Word a spiritual sense in which Divine truth is in light, and a natural sense in which Divine truth is in shade; therefore Divine truth in this Word is what is meant in John. This appears still further from the fact that the Lord came into the world in order to fulfil all things of the Word as it is so often said that this and that was done by Him, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. Nor is any other than the Divine truth meant by the Messiah or Christ; nor any other by the Son of Man; nor any other by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, which the Lord sent after His departure. (True Christian Religion, n. 85)
When one understands this concept, many things Jesus says about himself suddenly becomes clear. He says he is the "light of the world" for he is Divine Truth in human form. No one can approach the Father except through him - for no one can approach what is good or love except through the truth. Jesus says all judgment is entrusted to him, for it is the Divine Truth which will judge every person after he or she dies. As for the Father, he always says he came to do the "Father's will" and that he could do nothing except what he sees his Father doing. That's because the Father is the Divine love, the Divine will of God. And what about Jesus dwelling in the Father, and the Father in him? The Father dwelt inside of Jesus as the soul dwells inside the body, and the human form was in the soul in that it could do nothing but what the soul was directing the outer form to do. Jesus said he was lesser than the Father - for Divine Truth is lesser than the Divine Good. And when he became glorified, or united with the Father, what happens? All power on heaven and earth is given to him. For now his external form had been transformed and made one with the Divine.
The concept of love and truth governs everything - not only concerning Christianity, but of everything you look at in life. And when one realizes the truth that love is first and makes one with truth, one can then see things differently in life, and act accordingly.
I have completed a new translation of the Psalms of the Bible - where I looked at not only the Hebrew Masoretic, but also three other ancient translations: the Septuagint, the Vulgate (Latin) and the Peshitta (Aramaic). Of these, the Septuagint translation is the most ancient, and at least for the Psalms I have found it to be the most valuable. What got me started on this? As explained in Is the Masoretic Text of the Bible the Most Reliable?, Psalm 145 is an acrostic Psalm where each line begins with a Hebrew letter. But in the Masoretic text, the line which should begin with the letter N is missing (after verse 145:13). This concerned me, because Jesus was very specific the smallest portions of scripture down to each letter was important:
For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Matt. 5:18) And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. (Luke 16:17)
So I began to translate the Psalms, not beginning from scratch, but combining the research of others, according to the following principles (as explained in The Mistranslations of the Bible:
1. Base translation on KJV to be familiar to readers. Try to retain the meaning to the common reader. 2. Update KJV translation to modern English for readability. 3. Base OT translation on Masoretic, Septuagint, Vulgate, Peshitta and Dead Sea Scrolls, with Masoretic given priority. Note important variants in italics. 4. Fix mistranslations. If Masoretic is overruled, note in italics. 5. Improve translation with more equivalent words, if apparent. 6. Improve translation consistency if apparent, regarding context. 7. Document the mistranslations for the reader (noted with a link).
The seventh rule is important: so many times, the average reader of the Bible is faced with a dilemma: which translation is most correct? Before I went through this exercise, I tried to come up with a good recommendation in The Best Bible Translation in English?. The bad news in this: in every single Psalm, I could find a mistranslation in every modern version of the Bible. Most are minor, many are translation inconsistencies, but it adds up. This took a while because I did not just do it for the Psalms, but also kept notes on word changes when the same word was used in other areas of the Bible.
A CLAIRVOYANT DREAM CONCERNING THE TRANSLATION
Here is the odd thing that happened when I began this: someone I know who tends to have clairvoyant dreams had a dream about the work I was doing, without any knowledge that I had decided the Psalms. This person saw an open white book, discussing spiritual topics, but on top of this book was a blue spider. The spider was killed, and then cleansed with kitchen cleaning agents, but it left navy blue ink on the white book.
In dreams, a spider with its poison represents a falsehood. This surprised me, as I was marking mistranslations in the Bible, and marking them with navy blue hyperlinks. Here is a screenshot of the tool I was using:
The advantage of the translation is that one can check on the work to compare with other translations: if I corrected a mistranslation of a word in KJV, or improved on translation consistency, it was noted with a hyperlink, which is shown in blue. Other notes can be seen when one clicks on any plus sign [+] for the line.
THE RESTORED POETIC STRUCTURE OF THE PSALMS
Another point to note about this translation: the poetic structure of each line of the Psalms has been restored. In the Hebrew text all letters were just written together, and at a much later date verses were added for reference without regard to the poetic structure. In ancient Hebrew poetry they used parallelism, where the second line would repeat the previous line, or say the same idea in a different manner. Some modern Bibles have started to restore this structure but none of them do it completely. In the above, related lines are indented in the same manner, and subsequent sections with the same indent will often repeat a former section. The verse numbers of the Bible have been shifted to the right in order to show this. In many of the Psalms sections are 4 or 8 lines, but other patterns are used.
Emanuel Swedenborg had an interesting insight concerning some of this parallelism. When one takes a look at the parallel lines, often one line will talk about love, and the following line will refer to truth. Or another way to say it, one line will reference the will, the other line one thoughts. Love and truth must unite to make one: love is female, truth is male, and both ever desire to become united to become one. Thus the repetition, and this explains the meaning of the following verse:
Seek ye out of the book of Jehovah, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for my mouth it hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them. (Isa. 34:16)
NEXT STEPS FOR PUBLICATION
I would like to publish this translation of the Psalms as a digital e-book, but in order to complete it I would like to add commentary to each Psalm explaining the spiritual symbolism, according to what was revealed concerning the Divine Inspiration of the Bible in Heavenly Arcana (aka, Arcana Coelestia). In Heavenly Arcana Swedenborg provides the proof of how certain books of the Bible are Divinely Inspired, but as he went through it word by word he only covers Genesis and Exodus in detail. However for each point he makes he references other scripture, so there is commentary on the Psalms but scattered throughout or in other works of his. I started with the first Psalm, but when the spiritual symbolism is opened it is somewhat an introspective journey into one's own mind, and I found the commentary I started to write was turning into a stream of consciousness that was not ending. Or I would just end up thinking about it without writing a word. Swedenborg stated that when one opens the Bible with an open heart, asking for guidance, there is a connection made between one's mind and the angelic heavens. Most are unaware of it, or accept it on faith, but Swedenborg directly experienced it.
I decided to look up what Swedenborg had to say on the color blue, I found this interesting passage:
"It has been made known to me by much experience, and so well known that nothing can be more so, that spirits who are in falsities flow into the thought, and induce a persuasion just as if falsity were truth, so that it can in no way appear otherwise, and this from their sphere. ...The spheres of fantasies, when presented invisible form, appear like clouds, more and less dense according to the quality of the fantasy. There is a certain rock composed of cloud under the left foot, where the antediluvians are, and under which they stay. That cloudiness, by which they are kept apart from all others in the other life, arises from their fantasies. From those who have lived in hatred and revenge, there exhale such spheres as cause swooning and excite vomiting. Such spheres are as it were empoisoned; and it is usual to test how poisonous they are and how dense, by dark-blue fillets..." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1511-12).
This is intriguing: note that the dream was showing a poisonous blue spider as a symbol for a falsehood that is represented as true...in the Bible. And here Swedenborg talks of spirits who specialize in presenting a falsehood as truth, who appear in a blue sphere. As for the clairvoyant dream concerning the blue spider on the white book, which got smashed into navy blue ink, I decided to look up the internet on any blue spiders. As it turns out, there is this very strange spider known as the Cobalt Blue Tarantula which is blue and iridescent, which some spider pet owners call the "Holy Grail" of spiders. Here is a video of one owner handling it (they are poisonous):
Many psychological theories, divorced from any spiritual revelation, take a stab at the psychology of the inner being of the human soul. Some of these psychologists - such as Carl Jung - actually "borrowed" their ideas from Emanuel Swedenborg, a scientist of the 18th century who began experiencing visions of the spiritual world in his late fifties. Swedenborg, more than anyone else perhaps, was given revelations concerning the psychology of the human soul that is all encompassing and spiritual, and in many cases describes things that are hard to put down in words as few have experienced them. Most people are probably more familiar with Sigmund Freud, so lets start with an example from his theory, where he describes the Id, the Ego, and Super-Ego:
Id, ego and super-ego are the three parts of the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud'sstructural model of the psyche; they are the three theoretical constructs in terms of whose activity and interaction mental life is described. According to this model of the psyche, the id is the set of uncoordinated instinctual trends; the super-ego plays the critical and moralizing role; and the ego is the organized, realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-ego. The super-ego can stop one from doing certain things that your id may want to do.
This theory was developed late in Freud's thinking, and I am not going to go into the endless details (and confusion) that Freud gets into. So lets jump to the question: how much of this is true, and how much of it is just plain theory without any proof? Well let's take a look at what Swedenborg had to say. Although his writings are categorized as belonging into the realm of Christianity and Biblical interpretation, much of his writings have to do with the psychology and spiritual development of the human soul. So if you are a psychologist or psychiatrist looking for any nice theories or useful information, the revelations given are actually a gold mine of information. So let's compare what Swedenborg had to say compared to the above definition (from Wikipedia) - probably not exact, but simple enough to keep this short. And the terminology of each theory is endless (i.e. conscious, sub-conscious, super-conscious, conscience....etc.).
THE LOWEST SELF: THE NATURAL MAN
Any psychological theory that recognizes the the human psyche has several degrees of order is going to gain quite a few insights. The human soul is a bit complicated - we are not just a simple individual being with a brain and a body, which is as far most get on their thinking on this matter. It goes much further: each human being is a microcosm of the universe, a spiritual being made in the image of God. Everything in heaven and earth has some relationship or correspondence to something within our human psyche and body. In our lowest state, we are in love with our self ego - Swedenborg calls this what each person thinks as "their own", and in Latin he names it one's proprium. The selfish ego is the origin of all evil. And yet, if we deny our self, we have an opportunity of becoming raised to a spiritual being. Before we are raised or grow into a spiritual being, we are merely a natural being. This is what Swedenborg calls "the natural man," and this state is similar (not the same) as what Freud calls the "Id." The natural man is driven by natural desires - food, sex, self importance, external appearances, and little else. The natural man tends to be proud and think of himself/herself as better than others. Thus there is a tendency towards jealousy - and when you encounter jealous people, dont get angry, just recognize they are operating at a lower base level.
There are several degrees to the soul, and few know of them:
As regards the initiation of truth into good in the natural man, it can in no way be set forth to the apprehension; for the man of the church at this day does not even know what the internal or spiritual man is, though he very often speaks of it. Neither does he know that truth must be initiated in good in the external or natural man, in order that one may become a man of the church; still less that there is any arranging by the Lord in that man, in order to effect its conjunction with the internal. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4266.2).
The earliest Jews had no idea that man had an internal spiritual, but regarded everything in a very external materialistic way, where everything had to be seen in order to be real:
That Jacob and his posterity were of such a character that with them celestial and spiritual love could not be conjoined with natural good, that is, the internal or spiritual man with the external or natural man, is manifest from everything which is related of that nation in the Word; for they did not know, nor were they willing to know, what the internal or spiritual man is, and it was not, therefore, revealed to them; they believed that nothing was given in man but the external and natural. In all their worship they had regard to nothing else, so much so that Divine worship was to them no otherwise than idolatrous; for when internal worship is separated from external, it is nothing but idolatrous. The church which was instituted with them was not a church, but only the representative of a church; for which reason that church is called a representative church. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4281.2)
Thus the Jews - and many Christians who examine Biblical prophecy - expect a literal kingdom of God to be established in Israel, not realizing that the Jewish rituals and the land of Israel were meant to by symbols of the true Church. This is because people who are in the lowest natural state judge things from external appearances, and will have a tendency towards a very literal interpretation of scripture.
The first step in spiritual development, is to subdue the selfish nature of the natural man: when this is done, a spiritual person is born. Thus the natural self is also known in scripture as a "midwife" - it is a means to an end, but our body is not an end to itself.
The midwife is the natural here, because when interior temptations are being undergone, that is, when the interior man is undergoing temptations, the natural is then as a midwife; for unless the natural affords aid, in no way can any birth of interior truth take place; for when anterior truths are born, it is the natural which receives them into its bosom, since it enables them to come forth. Thus it is with the things of spiritual birth, that their reception must be wholly in the natural. This is the reason that when man is being regenerated, the natural is first prepared to receive; and as far as this is made receptive, so far interior truths and goods can be brought forth and multiplied. This is also the reason that if the natural man has not been prepared for receiving the truths and goods of faith in the life of the body, he cannot receive them in the other life, and thus cannot be saved. This is what is meant by the common saying that as the tree falls, so it lies, or as man dies, such he will be. For man has with him in the other life all his natural memory, or that of his external man, though not there permitted to use it (n. 2469-2494). Thus it is there as a foundation plane, into which interior truths and goods fall; and if that plane is not receptible of the goods and truths which flow in from the interior, the interior goods and truths are either extinguished, or perverted, or rejected. From these things it may be evident that the natural is as a midwife. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4588)
In order to be spiritually born, one must first go through one's selfish desires, and subdue the desires of one's ego. Or as Jesus taught his disciples - one must wash one's feet. The feet represent one's lowest self, the base desires, which must be cleansed. Thus the first step in any true spiritual path is to repent of one's sins: thus all four Gospels begin with the message of repentance. And as the selfish ego is in itself is evil, one must try to do this, but in one's effort one must acknowledge one's sinful nature and know that all good originates from God. But true spiritual good cannot be implanted until one's lower natural self is brought into alignment, and that means, acknowledging one's sins, and turning against them.
So the first stage of spiritual development is hard - one's lowest natural self will resist, and this will lead to internal conflicts and temptation. This initial state is mentioned in several areas of scripture: when Israel was brought out of Egypt, they were tempted for 40 years in the wilderness, and, Jesus was tempted for 40 days in the wilderness. But if one's own natural self wins in the conflict, one will have a tendency to belief that everything one does is right, or what is right is what brings most self pleasure. And unfortunately, many do not recognize the trap they put themselves in. But if one fights against it, an internal war begins: a war between the lower natural self, and the next higher state - one's rational self. Reason, properly guided by spiritual truth, will always fight against the lower natural self. But the truth must be first implanted in the mind in order to bear fruit, for it is from truth that one fights against the lower self.
Unfortunately, we have only covered the lowest natural self - which somewhat corresponds to Freud's Id (Freud confused some higher stages with the lowest self) - so I will probably have to follow up on this later. When one understands the psychology of the human soul, and its stages of spiritual development, one can then arrive at a true spiritual understanding of Christianity, one that is very applicable to everyday life.
Someone I know had a very strange telepathic dream concerning a song from Saturn. In the dream, this person approaches a door in a house, and from behind the door hears a haunting melody, similar to classical music, playing. This person opens the door, and sees a room that had been kept secret for a long, long time - forgotten so that no one knew that it existed. However the music was playing, but it was not known who had started playing the music, or where it was from - coming from the closet in the room. The room was elegant, but dusty from age, and needed to be cleaned. A window facing to the west was open, and wind was blowing into the room from the open window.
On the southern wall there were three full length elegant oval mirrors, framed in gold:
All of this had been kept secret. In the room was a couch and a carpet that had a strange light blue color. The room...was to now belong to this person.
I asked about the light blue color of the room. I showed the following graphic:
I asked the question:Was the color of the couch and carpet of this secret room the same as this light blue color? Answer: Yes. What is it? Me: The cover album of the music I was listening to the day before. At this point, I started to play the music. Me: Was the music of your dream similar to this music? Answer (surprised): Yes, that sounds like the music of the dream.
At this point I had to explain the origin of the album of the music. The song is entitled A Song from Saturn, from the album Authentic Music from Another Planet by Howard Menger. And this is where it gets weird. Howard Menger was one of the well known UFO contactees of the 1950s, who was harassed by government agents. Howard Menger could not play the piano, until he was immediately taught by a man who claimed to be from Saturn. I was doubtful about Howard Menger's claims, so I decided to hunt down the song and listen to it. It is beautiful. Sort of like classical music, but meandering about in a sort of dreamy way (see video below). And how did Howard Menger discover the music? Almost exactly as described in the dream. I will quote from his book, From Outer Space to You:
The car, whatever was controlling it, had led me off the main road, and I had ridden for miles through the countryside on little-used roads, not knowing just where I was. When the car came to a stop I looked off through the woods, and there to my left was the old cabin, dilapidated and apparently unused for years.
Whomever or whatever was in the cabin, I knew I had been brought there and that I must enter the old dwelling.
I walked nearer. Very low at first, and then louder, the strains of the most inspiring, soul-tingling music ever to fall upon my ears emanated from the cabin. I paused outside the door, stood there entranced, letting the music flow through me. I seemed to be absorbing the music into my entire body, and my heart almost beat in time to its pulsating rhythm.
The music seemed to soothe and excite me at the same time. Yet I found a bewilderment developing within me, something that disturbed me deeply. What was it? Then I knew the reason. Somehow the music was familiar, but only vaguely so. Had I heard it somewhere—on the radio, on a television show, in the movies? Certainly not this kind of music? ...
I pushed timidly on the door, partly ajar. At my touch it swung open, and there, sitting at a piano-like instrument in the middle of the main room was a man, playing the unusual melody.
Little about the man appeared strange. He wore a rough woolen shirt, just as any camper might wear, and trousers tucked into heavy boots. He was ordinary enough, excepting, perhaps, for his long brown hair, which curled under and fell to his shoulders, reminding me of pictures of page boys. His skin was smooth and white, and his eyes, which I first saw when he looked at me and smiled, were hazel. His entire demeanor was one of serenity mixed with good humor.
My eyes went from the man to the surroundings. The floor of the rustic cabin was wood, partly covered by a rug. At one end was a huge fireplace, and at the other end I saw a series of instruments which I realized certainly didn't originate on Earth. From the instruments my eyes went to the wall on which I saw a clock, but a most unusual timepiece. Instead of numbers I saw 12 fluorescent spheres; nor were there hands on the clock: instead I noticed a very bright light on the face of the clock where the hour hand should be. I glanced at my watch, which said 10 minutes to four, then back at the clock and noted the bright light appeared very near the fourth sphere. Where the minute hand should be I saw another light, of lesser intensity.
On the floor were more instruments, one of them a box-like instrument with a view screen, something like a portable television set. Another instrument was shaped similar to a console set, with a coil-like aerial revolving on top of it.
Just then two blonde-headed men stepped from another room, as one of them greeted me, "Hi, Howard, we have been expecting you." Then he introduced the other blonde man and told me both of them were from Venus.
"And our own private 'Liberace' here (as the pianist scowled at them, then grinned) is from Saturn."
The Saturnian broke off playing with a good-natured, theatrical flourish on the keys, rose and extended his hand. I complimented him on his playing, and told him the music sounded familiar. Then I halted in the middle of a sentence, for I remembered where I had heard the melody. Why, it was the little tune I had so often hummed, and even tried to pick out, unsuccessfully, on the piano. I had never given the melody much thought.
"Sit down and play it, the melody," he offered, gesturing toward the instrument, but I stammered the only thing I could play was a phonograph. He put his hand on my shoulder and spoke reassuringly.
"This music you can play, Howard," and he guided me gently toward the chair in front of the "piano." I sat, protestingly.
"From this time on you will be able to play a piano whenever you are moved to do so, and not only this tune, but any melody you wish."
I looked down at the keyboard. It was entirely different from a conventional piano keyboard. This one was much longer and contained many more keys, which were narrower and had strange symbols on them which I did not understand. The entire instrument was much lower and closer to the floor.
I almost automatically reached down to touch the keys, suddenly knowing which to strike to correspond with the sounds of the melody running through my mind. Although I had never been able to play before, it all seemed natural and delightfully simple.
Although I could not master the subtle nuances I had heard in his playing, I believe I could have played it otherwise as perfectly as he, had my fingers not often struck two of the keys instead of the intended one, probably because of the narrowness.
As I played, the men looked at each other and nodded; then they applauded politely when I finished. I was thrilled and happy, because I knew I had suddenly found a beautiful, haunting melody that had always stirred my imagination, and found myself playing a musical instrument for the first time.
The Saturnian spoke. "You're wondering why we brought you here for a musical exercise, and it probably seems foolish to you. But it isn't. You're going to play this melody on the piano, Howard, and thousands of people of Earth will hear it."
I visited with them all that night, which we spent talking of many things which would be taking place in the months to follow. Early in the morning we parted, as one of the blonde men saw me to the door and jokingly dismissed me with, "Farewell, Maestro."
The dream of course is quite similar to the story, which I had just read about the day earlier. The person who had the dream had no idea I was reading this story. Instead of an old secret room that had been shut off for years, there is an old dilapidated cabin. Similarly, Howard began to hear the music as he approached the door. What of the three oval mirrors on the wall in the dream? Howard Menger sees an odd looking clock similar to our modern digital clocks, where time is indicated by spheres - at that point the hour was still at three o'clock. The three oval mirrors are of course in the shape of flying saucers, and there were three men in the cabin - two from Venus, one from Saturn. So why bring Howard Menger out to a deserted cabin in New Jersey to play an odd piece of music? Howard explains:
I had been told that anyone hearing the music the Saturnian and my soul had taught me would get a feeling, or reach an awareness, which would act as a mental assist to release something from the subconscious. People hearing the theme would react in their conscious state with increased understanding and brotherly love toward one another.
Every musical note, they had explained, has its specific density and frequency which causes a sympathetic vibration, when created at the correct frequency and in certain combinations (witness a glass breaking in the presence of a high-pitched musical note). This, of course, is an oversimplified example of what happens to the subconscious when certain music is heard—but its principle is similar; in short, sound causes a corresponding effect in one's innermost mind.
Oddly, somehow this person probably began to pick up on my thoughts in the dream...perhaps from listening to the music? I do not know. Was Howard Menger telling the truth? I do not know, but he certainly suffered a lot of ridicule and adversity for it. But I do know I was reading the story and listening to the music, and someone happened to have a telepathic dream about it which matched what I was thinking. But there is one other item I have not explained about the dream...what about the open window in the secret room? From the dream, the room was a room known to exist, and the window of that room faces west. The room is in a house in New Jersey, and if one goes in a straight line west for several miles, one reaches a place known as High Bridge New Jersey. High Bridge New Jersey is allegedly where many of the contacts took place...and probably near the location of that secret cabin. After many years of silence, Howard Menger would publish another book entitled The High Bridge Incident:
Admittedly, all very strange. A bit too strange for me to make up, that is for sure. So who is lying here? Venus may have been able to support life in its distant past, and may be able to still do so but only underground. Saturn is less likely to support life, but life may exist on its moons. NASA has been shown multiple times to have released doctored photos to the public. I just updated the blog post Swedenborg and the Extraterrestrial UFO Phenomenon, where I found positive proof that NASA tampered with a photo of Victoria Rupes on Mercury, as they have done in so many other cases. Whether one believes it or not, one can still sit back and enjoy the mysterious music of The Song from Saturn....
In June of 1978, an English family was abducted by a flying saucer piloted by Nordic humans who claimed to have originated from a faraway planet that they called JANOS. The planet itself was destroyed by a moon that had a decayed orbit. Before the disaster, they had begun searching the universe for an alternative home, and began building a huge mother spaceship in which to evacuate the population. Unfortunately not all the population could be evacuated before the moon started to break up, and many of their people were killed. They claimed that long ago they had originated from our own earth. This I described earlier in the blog post Stephen Hawking and the Extraterrestrial Janos Affair.
One thing they stressed, is that they came in friendship and peace, and had no intention of making war. They said, quote:
'There must be no war: we do not want to cause any trouble.'
'We have suffered too much sadness and sorrow; we cannot fight more wars. We would rather die in space.'
They were seeking a home to live, as they could not live in space forever. Soon after this, Ronald Reagan was elected as President of the United States. Reagan, who was intent on ending the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, began giving public speeches in which he mentioned an "extraterretrial threat" which threatened the entire planet:
Was Reagan making up this "extraterrestrial threat"? Or did the U.S. military become aware of something that scared the living daylights out of them? UFOs had been seen and were investigated by the military (despite their public denials) since the explosion of the atomic bomb in 1945. What had changed? In addition to this, Reagan then also began to push to have billions of dollars spent on a "Star Wars" defense initiative, which ostensibly was designed to protect the U.S. from a nuclear attack from the Soviet Union. However, others have said that the "Star Wars" defense initiative had nothing to do with intercepting nuclear weapons, but rather it was designed to protect earth from an extraterrestrial threat. From Reagan UFO Story which discusses this in detail:
In the UFO community, the SDI system was viewed as a system set up to destroy not Soviet missiles as Reagan was claiming, but to protect earth from a perceived alien invasion. The "alien invasion" remarks that Reagan made after his 1983 announcement of the SDI program, was heralded as further proof that the alien/SDI hypothesis was correct....The alien/SDI speculation has also augmented by a group of witnesses who declared that SDI type weapon systems, both land and space based, were being used to track and target extraterrestrial vehicles as the approach earth. These witnesses include:
In a June 1995 Bay Area Lecture Dr. Steven Greer announces information leaked to him from the North American Air Defense Command in Colorado shows that the Air Force tracks an average of 500 "fastwalkers" (term used for UFOs) entering the earth atmosphere every year.
New York Times Pulitzer prize winning author Howard Blum reports that NORAD deep-space radars track many UFOs.
Two Aerospace engineers working on the AeroJet’s DSP spy satellite claim UFOs are detected coming from deep space two or three times a month.
Author Whitley Strieber, in his book Breakthrough, stated that he had seen part of a document which revealed that the EG&G Corporation is involved in developing defense weapons against extraterrestrials.
Two further sources have told Greer that rogue units within Unacknowledged Special Access Programs, have directed black budget funds to develop SDI weapons to down UFOs. Further the sources have stated that they have been successful in shoot downs.
...Dr. Steve Greer, as part of his Project Starlight, came across a top level former aerospace executive who claimed that the design of "Star Wars" was to fight aliens rather than Russians. Dr. Greer mentioned him, as one of the 100+ witnesses who would be testifying as part of his proposed disclosure video. This international team working intensely on the disclosure process has been recently joined by a former senior aerospace executive - a person who has been aware since the 1970's that the Ballistic Missile Defense Program would be used to target extraterrestrial objects in space - even though there is no evidence of any credible threat from these craft.
In an interview with Russia Today, Hellyer explained (as if it was obvious): "Of course, there's been a lot more activity in the last few decades."
The reason for this, he said, was that man was stupid enough to invent the atomic bomb. Aliens are frightened that we're going to use it again (and again) and that this will affect the whole balance of the cosmos.
Ergo, each visit seems to have symbolized: "What the hell are they doing in that insane asylum today?"
Hellyer suggested that there are Edward Snowden-style whistleblowers who have already revealed government knowledge of alien visits. "It doesn't take long to get your hands on it," he said.
And why are they so secretive? Hellyer continued:
In previous pronouncements, Hellyer has insisted that aliens know how to make us greener.
The aliens would, it seems, like to teach us better ways to live. Hellyer believes, though, that they are waiting for our consent. Moreover, they're scared that if they revealed themselves we'd throw a conniption.
In light of the U.S. military (and CIA, and NSA...) in dealing with this situation, especially under Reagan, their fears are well founded. Is it a coincidence that the Janos people spoke of not coming to make war in 1978, long before Reagan was elected and started to speak of an "extraterrestrial threat"? Or is it possible that the "Star Wars" defense initiative was in response to the U.S. Military becoming aware of the Janos people? Is this why contact was made in 1978 before Reagan was elected, to tell people that they did not come to make war?
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG AND THE EXTRATERRESTRIALS OF MERCURY
One interesting aspect of the Janos people is that earlier contacts may be described in Greek and Roman myths, specifically concerning the two faced Roman god Janus, which has a name close to their planet name Janos. The Roman god Janus has similarities to the god Mercury, which corresponds to the Greek God Hermes. And statues of Hermes have been found that are two faced similar to the Roman god Janus. When I did the research for that, it reminded me of something: in the 18th century, a scientist known as Emanuel Swedenborg encountered an extraterrestrial human race which he thought inhabited the planet Mercury. Anyone who reads this will think that it is highly unlikely: the surface of Mercury is just too hot. Was Swedenborg wrong? And yet he seems quite accurate in his other visions: see The Confirmed Clairvoyance of Emanuel Swedenborg. All I could find unusual on the surface of Mercury was this odd rectangular shape which others have noted, but to me it looks like something that was "blacked out" by NASA on the photograph (by someone who was forced to do it and decided to be obvious about it) - see Swedenborg and the Extraterrestrial UFO Phenomenon.
Like the Janos people, Swedenborg stated that the extraterrestrials of Mercury, more than any other race, like to travel from solar system to solar system, to gather knowledge:
The spirits of Mercury, above all others, possess knowledge both of this solar system, and of the earths beyond this in the starry heaven; and what they have once acquired they retain, and also recall, as often as any like thing occurs. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6812)
The spirits of the earth Mercury do not tarry long in one place, or in the sphere of the spirits of one world, but wander through the universe. ...Hence it is given them to wander, and everywhere to acquire to themselves knowledge. During this journeying if they meet with spirits who love material, that is, corporeal and earthly things, they shun them, and betake themselves where such things are not heard. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6925)
Like the Janos people, they know that there are many other planets that are inhabited:
They said that in the universe there are very many earths inhabited by men, and that they wondered that it should be supposed by any, whom they called men of little judgment, that the heaven of the omnipotent God consists only of the spirits and angels who come from one earth, when yet these are so few that in respect to the omnipotence of God they are scarce anything, even if there were myriads of worlds and myriads of earths. They further said that they knew of earths existing in the universe numbering more than hundreds of thousands; yet what is this to the Divine, Which is infinite? (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6927)
Although Swedenborg encountered them in the spiritual world, what people do in the spiritual world will mirror what they did in their earthly life. Whereas Swedenborg attributed their wandering from solar system to solar system to gather knowledge, for a long time the Janos people were forced into exploring the cosmos due to the impending disaster on their home world.
The nomadic nature of the extraterrestrials of Mercury and the Janos people is one thing, but what about their appearance? Swedenborg was shown what the extraterrestrials of Mercury looked like:
Some time after there was shown me a woman of the inhabitants of the earth Mercury; she had a beautiful face, but it was smaller than that of a woman of our earth; her shape also was more slender, but her height was the same; she wore on her head a linen cap, put on without art, yet becomingly. A man also was seen from that earth, who likewise was more slender in body than the men of our earth; he was clad in a garment of dark blue, closely fitted to his body, without any puffs or folds. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 7175)
So, what did the Janos people look like on the flying saucer according to the witnesses who were abducted? Here is a description from the book, The Janos People:
All the people seen in the spaceship, and all
those seen in films of the planet, were without exception of the Nordic
European type - very fair-skinned, with light blue eyes and yellow-blond hair.
The men averaged around six feet in height, and were of slim build. The women
were smaller, about five foot four to five foot six, and of slight build, with
a light slender body, small breasts and slim hips; it is possible that a
majority of the women seen were quite young, and this is the impression they
made on our witnesses, though they may not have been as young as they appeared...
Although the adults had trouble with their memories of the event, one of the daughters, Natasha, had a clear memory and spoke about what they looked like:
Although at that stage Natasha found these
dreams worrying, she later became clearer and much happier about the whole
experience; by the time I questioned her, she was entirely normal in her
reactions to the spaceship people, and was not in the least 'put off' by her
recollections of them. On one later occasion, when she happened to enter the
bathroom where her mother was shampooing her hair, and (upon advice) had
covered her hair with aluminium kitchen foil to prevent it drying too quickly,
Natasha laughed and said:"Mummy, you look just like one of the spaceship
people" (many of them wore a close-fitting silver helmet, continuous with
the suit, which covered the head entirely, coming up under the chin, showing
only the face - the kind known as a 'balaclava' helmet).
The close fitting garment is also described later:
In the spaceship, the fifty-odd crew members
seen were all in uniform, which was the same for men and women. Basically, this
consisted of a one-piece close-fitting garment covering the whole body, in a
fabric faced with gleaming metallic silver, but quite supple and flexible.
Note how Swedenborg stated that those of Mercury wore tight fitting clothing, and the women wore a "linen cap." Here is the clothing someone made based on the descriptions of the book The Janos People: - showing the tight fitting clothing, with the cap that goes over the head:
IS THIS THE PLANET MERCURY OR SOMETHING ELSE?
Let us suppose for a moment, that when Swedenborg encountered extraterrestrials from the planet Mercury, that they were not from Mercury, but from something else close to the Sun. That they were definitely originating from somewhere close to the Sun he saw in his visions:
They were asked also concerning the sun of our world, how it appears from their earth. They said that it appears large, larger there than when seen from other earths, and that they know this from the idea of other spirits concerning the sun. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 7177)
The accounts of extraterrestrials Swedenborg initially published in Heavenly Arcana he later republished in a smaller volume entitled, Earths in the Universe. When he rewrote the account for Mercury, he changed the wording slightly. Here is the wording from Heavenly Arcana:
Once they came to me and inquired into what was in my memory — as spirits can do with the utmost skill; for when they come to man, they see in his memory every thing which the man knows. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6809)
In the case of the Janos affair, as with other extraterrestrial abductions, they showed a technological skill of not only selectively erasing memories, but planting false memories as well. Now here is the same passage, rewritten in Earths of the Universe:
Some spirits came to me, and I was told from heaven that they were from the earth nearest the sun, which in our earth is called the planet Mercury. They began as soon as they came to explore my memory in search of all that I knew — which spirits can do most dexterously, as when they come to a man, they see in his memory everything there is in it. (Earths in the Universe, n. 11)
In other words, Swedenborg was shown that they come from the "earth" closest to our Sun, and concluded it was what we call the planet Mercury. Now, was it actually an "earth" - or was it something else? Swedenborg saw that when they travel between solar systems, they do so by forming a large "globe":
The spirits of that earth go in companies and bands, and when assembled together, form as it were a globe; they are thus joined together by the Lord in order that they may act as one, and that the knowledges of each may be communicated to all, and of all to each. That those spirits wander through the universe to acquire knowledges of things, was made evident to me also from this, that once when they appeared very remote from me, they talked with me thence, and said that they were then gathered together and were journeying out of the sphere of this solar world into the starry heaven, where they knew there were spirits who had no concern about what is earthly and corporeal, but about what is abstracted therefrom, and that they wished to be with them. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6926)
The spirits of Mercury appeared at the left in the form of a globe, and next in a mass extending in length; and I wondered whither they would go, whether to this earth or elsewhere (Heavenly Arcana, n. 7170)
The witnesses involved in the Janos affair were shown a video showing the destruction of their home world Janos by the Moon which had begun to gradually fall towards the planet in a decaying orbit. As they had known about this in advance, they planned ahead - a plan was put in place to evacuate the population of the entire planet. And of course, if you are going to evacuate the population of an entire planet, you are going to need something very, very big to hold them all. And indeed, that is what was shown in a video to the abductees:
They saw the immense ring-shaped ship, which
was built in space, with many lesser saucer ships, to evacuate the population
and take them to another world.
...Like everyone else with long warning of the need
for action, they ran it a little too long; and the rain of great rocks began
before they quite expected it. They were almost ready: out in orbit, above the
fragmenting moon, the great fleet lay in its gravitational anchorage, a host of
mighty ships, clustered about one really stupendous ring-shaped flagship, a
veritable city in space, capable between them of taking in the entire
population of Janos, many millions in number, and provisioned and ready for a
long interstellar voyage. They had already picked out their destination.
A drawing of the huge flag ship of the Janos people is given in the book,
The shape of it was not exactly clear:
It is of really stupendous size, and appeared to
be in the form of a ring; but because Frances saw the ring edge on, she
could not tell whether it was filled in as a disc, or whether it was just an
open annulus. Set around the outer rim, in a circular pattern,
were many huge entry ports for spaceships to come and go.
Their destination? Earth. Anything like that seen by our astronomers in our solar system? Yes. In the 19th century, reliable astronomers had made accurate sightings of a body in a closer orbit to the Sun than Mercury, which was dubbed "Planet Vulcan." But it would occasionally appear, only to disappear later, until the whole idea was discounted when the perturbations of Mercury's orbit was explained by other factors. Perhaps this was the origin of Gene Roddenberry's Vulcan race in his series Star Trek.
SIGHTINGS OF A HUGE UFO NEAR THE SUN
And now we come to the point which probably shook up the U.S. military, and why they scrambled to spend billions to create a defensive shield around the planet during the administration of Ronald Reagan. In March of 2012, a giant UFO was caught on video sucking material from the Sun, which was there for several days. Note that as the Sun rotates, the object stays STATIONARY. The mainstream media is calling this a "solar flare", which it is not. What is it? I don't know, but it is huge, it has a cooler temperature signature, and strong enough to resist the gravitational pull of the Sun. Other nice time lapse videos can be seen on NASA Video of UFO Near Sun -
Here is another with alternative views on the video with commentary:
So what is the current scientific theory for all of this? Scientists speculate that it is a "solar prominence." From Solar prominence:
A prominenceis a large, bright, gaseous feature extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun's corona. While the corona consists of extremely hot ionizedgases, known as plasma, which do not emit much visible light, prominences contain much cooler plasma, similar in composition to that of the chromosphere. The prominence plasma is typically a hundred times cooler and denser than the coronal plasma. A prominence forms over timescales of about a day, and prominences may persist in the corona for several weeks or months. Some prominences break apart and may then give rise to coronal mass ejections. Scientists are currently researching how and why prominences are formed.
However this explanation falls short to explain away the videos, and is merely a cover story. Here is an assessment of the solar prominence theory from NASA Video of UFO Near Sun:
Yet there are questions about this explanation. If you look at the hundreds of images of solar prominences available here, you will find exceedingly few that look anything like this phenomenon (other than images of this particular event). And a funnel retaining its shape for days is far outside of normal for a solar prominence, though some claim it might be what's called a "filament channel." Yet look at these images and videos of filament channels. Not very convincing.
Is it a solar flare phenomenon? No, that does not work either. Solar flares are short bursts, and this vortex around the Sun lasts for a long time:
If you research Sun activity, you will see that this cannot possibly be a solar flare, as they generally last only a few seconds to an hour. The longest solar flare ever recorded was 22 hours and 48 minutes. Yet the funnel-looking object in these videos lasts well over 48 hours.
Now check out this video where a globe appears next to sun, reflecting light off off its surface, showing concentric rings in its structure - similar to what was described concerning the mothership of Janos. It was caught by SOHO in June of 2013:
Not sure if this is the same thing, but a large UFO is seen moving rapidly away from the Sun in June of 2013, again from SOHO (starting after 30 seconds):
And this from 2007 - a large sphere moves in towards the Sun, which then experiences a solar eruption, and then moves away. Its not a comet, there is no tail, and its moving a lot faster. Again, this spherical object is HUGE...
SUMMARY CONCLUSION
There are hints that the extraterrestrial Janos people that were encountered in 1978 may be the same as a certain group of extraterrestrials that Emanuel Swedenborg encountered in his visions in the 18th century, which he associated with the planet Mercury. We have reliable sightings of a large object that occasionally comes in very close to the Sun, which is obviously not a planet or comet. Soon after the Janos encounter, in which they stressed they did not want to cause a war, Ronald Reagan announces the "Star Wars" defense initiative and starts to talk about an "extraterrestrial threat." We see a large globe periodically appearing close to the Sun; and of course in Star Wars we have this large artificial spaceship serving as a planet named the "Death Star"...to think that this is not science fiction just boggles the mind. This is perhaps another confirmation of Swedenborg's visions concerning extraterretrials, for another see Extraterrestrial Contact from Epsilon Eridani and Emanuel Swedenborg.
Here is a song called Running to the Sea by Röyksopp featuring Susanne Sundfør, which reminds me of the Janos people:
I was looking to kill time and watched a random movie, Cloud Atlas. And like me, the best way to watch it is to not know what it is about. At the beginning, many will say "I don't get it" and at that point be confused and give up. But by the end, my reaction was WOW, what an epic movie. How did I miss it? Like the movie Inception, its not a typical movie where you can predict where it is going. And one would have to watch it again to catch everything. Trailers do not do it justice, its impossible to summarize, except perhaps the following chart:
As you can see, it spans 500 years. Strangely, the author (or perhaps script writer) seems to have some knowledge of the hybrid program of UFO abductions (see The Orion Messages of Stan Romanek and Extraterrestrial Cattle Mutilations - and Secret Intelligence for physical evidence of this, suppressed from the media by certain government agencies), which is implicit in the scenes from the year 2144 where the world is divided between "purebloods" and "fabricants." The fabricants are clones...and the purebloods are..well, they have black dilated pupils (for some weird stories from multiple witnesses, look up "black eyed children" on the internet).
But that is merely a side story of the movie. The main theme of the movie is this (from Wikipedia):
The official synopsis for Cloud Atlas describes the film as: "An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution."
In other words, it is an argument for reincarnation as being responsible for shaping our destiny before we are born. It is a more dramatic explanation of how small acts can have a ripple effect beyond our own lives. I previously discussed the concept of reincarnation in the blog post Christianity, Reincarnation and Emanuel Swedenborg. However I thought I would share some further thoughts I have had on the matter, based on some comments on that blog post.
THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL
Emanuel Swedenborg, a scientist of the eighteenth century, spent several years on a search for the human soul. If we follow the principle of Occam's Razor, and evidence from biology, the soul originates upon conception of the human sperm with the female ovum. In certain passages Swedenborg states in his writings that the soul originates from the seed of the father. However this may have not been from revelation, but rather from the science of the day based on certain classical authors such as Aristotle and Pliny. If we look at other passages, it is quite clear that the soul originates from something prior to conception, composed of a spiritual substance that does not interact with light. Here are some passages based on one of my comments from the blog post Christianity, Reincarnation and Emanuel Swedenborg:
1. Swedenborg states that the soul does NOT originate from the seed or the ovum, but from a spiritual influx. This is in direct disagreement with the idea that the soul originates from the seed of the father, which he probable borrowed from others. I knew I read it somewhere, finally found it: "Who at this day does not believe that man springs from the seed and the ovum according to nature? and that there is in the seed from the first creation the ability of producing itself into such forms, first within the ovum, next in the womb, and afterward of itself, and that it is not the Divine which continues to produce? The cause of its being so believed is, that no one knows there is any influx from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4322) 2. Something spiritually prior must exist before the seed: "Unless there were such an eminent perfection in prior and simple things, neither man, nor any animal, could exist and afterward subsist from seed" (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 204) 3. The seed is merely a receptacle of life (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 269) 4. Seeds are impregnated with a substance of a spiritual origin (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 310). As for the soul, we will never perhaps know of it directly, as Swedenborg said it was composed of a substance that does not interact with light (Divine Love and Wisdom, n.432). 5. "nature contributes nothing at all to the production of plants and animals, but ...all are produced by that which flows in from the spiritual world into the natural" (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 344). Also, the image of creation originates from the spiritual, not the natural (Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 315) 6. There is this odd passage where he says "as the soul descends the truth descends" and "that while this is being done the whole soul forms itself and clothes itself and becomes a seed" and the soul can exist in the smallest of receptacles (the seed) as much as the fullest receptacle (the body) (Angelic Wisdom concerning Marriage Love, n. 220). 7. Finally, Swedenborg mentions "a secret from heaven" concerning conception between a disunited married pair. He then repeats "the soul is procreated; but in its descent, while it is becoming seed, it is covered over by such things as are of his natural love" (Angelic Wisdom concerning Marriage Love, n. 245)
So, a more accurate picture of the origin of the soul is that a spiritual substance combines with the physical union at conception, which exists prior to conception. The seed and ovum is nothing more that a vessel for reception. So while genetically offspring will be similar, personalities in each offspring can be exceedingly different. Note that in the last passage Swedenborg indicates that a "secret of heaven" is being revealed, which may indicate something more exists to this process.
ABORTION OR ADOPTION?
Wisely consider before committing abortion. It is quite clear from what Swedenborg has said on the origin of the soul, is that it is created upon conception. One can always go for adoption. And this is not only from Swedenborg, but from other personal revelations from others, that upon conception, we are dealing with another human living being. The very act is unnatural, and the spiritual impact of committing this act is not good. For a very beautiful story about a mother being reunited with a daughter she gave up, see ‘Burger King Baby’ reunited with birth mother after nudge to search from adoptive mom.
What happens to children when they die? They all go to heaven, and they become children of the Lord, and eventually grow to become angels. It was from the children who died young that a new heaven was formed for the New Church.
ANGELS AND SPIRITS ASSIGNED AT BIRTH
Each person who is born is not an isolated individual. In order to form a complete human personality, a conjunction is formed between the spiritual world and our material form. This idea was actually common in ancient Platonic and Neoplatonic philosophy. A demon - a generic term for spirit in Greek thought - was assigned to each person at birth. This is described in the work Egyptian Mysteries by the Neoplatonic philosopher Iamblichus:
"This demon, therefore, is present as exemplar
before the souls descend into the realm of generated existence. As soon as the soul chooses him for leader
the demon immediately comes into charge of the completing of its vital endowments,
and when it descends into the body, unites it with the body, and becomes the
guardian of its common living principle.
He likewise himself directs the private life of the soul, and whatever
the conclusions we may arrive at by inference and reasoning, he himself imparts
to us the principles. We think and do
just such things as he brings to us by way of thought. He guides human beings thus continually till
through the sacred theurgic discipline we shall obtain a god to be guardian and
leader of the soul."
In Roman times, this spirit assigned at birth was often known as one's "genius." When Christianity came along, it was generally termed as "guardian angel" and this is common to this day. In his visions it was shown to Emanuel Swedenborg that the ancient Neoplatonic philosophy was in fact correct. However, two angels an two spirits are assigned to each person at birth:
Man does not know at all that he is governed of the Lord by means of angels and spirits; and that with every man there are at least two spirits, and two angels. Through spirits communication of man with the world of spirits is effected, and through angels with heaven. Without communication through spirits with the world of spirits, and through angels with heaven, and so through heaven with the Lord, man can by no means live. His life entirely depends on that conjunction. If the spirits and angels should withdraw, he would perish in a moment. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 50)
It is through this spiritual influx that each person has free will, and has to constantly decide between good and evil. For those who turn away from sin, the good angels become dominate, but for those who follow their sinful desires the evil spirits become dominate.
SHARED MEMORY BETWEEN LIVING PEOPLE AND SPIRITS
The conjunction between the spiritual world and the mind of each person is so close that when the spirits come into conjunction with a person's mind, they believe that the memory of the person they are in touch with is their own memory. There is somewhat a loss of individual identity:
The spirits who are in company with a man enter into all his memory and into all the knowledges of memory that he possesses. Thus they take upon themselves all things belonging to the man, so completely that they do not know but they are their own. This is a prerogative that spirits have above man. In consequence, all things which the man thinks they think, and all things that the man wills they will. Conversely also, whatever the spirits think the man thinks, and whatever the spirits will the man wills; for they act as one by conjunction. Yet on both sides it is supposed that all these thoughts and feelings are in and from themselves, both on the part of the spirits and on the part of man. But this is a fallacy. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 5843)
From much experience it has been given me to know that whatever the spirits think and speak from the memory of man, they suppose to be their own and in themselves. If it is told them that it is not so, they are highly indignant — such fallacy of sense reigns with them. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 5858)
Another spirit also supposed himself to be me, insomuch that he believed when he talked with me in my native language that he was speaking from his own, saying that the language was his. But it was shown that the language that belongs to spirits is entirely different, and that it is the universal language of all, and that from it ideas flowed into my native language, and thus they spoke, not from themselves, but in me; and that this is a proof that they not only come into those things which are man's, but also that they suppose them to be their own. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6199)
This "shared memory" or "collective memory" among souls in the spiritual world is probably where Carl Jung obtained his idea of the collective unconscious. But this point is key to understanding reincarnation and the memory of past lives. Yes, it is true that we will go through the experience of multiple lives. But as a spiritual being, what is most likely is that we are only born once, created at the time of conception. The literal idea of reincarnation that we are actually born again and again is probably false - it is only an appearance of the truth, not the actual truth. And yet is is true we will experience multiple lives through shared memory. So, for that reason, I regard the spiritual philosophy behind the idea of reincarnation to be actually helpful for any spiritual development. People who have gone through past life regression under hypnosis have found it to be helpful to understanding how and why they behave the way they do. Those who have studied the phenomenon get puzzled when the chronologies overlap, but this problem disappears when one realizes that this is due to shared memory among multiple souls who have a similar personality.
AFTER DEATH, OUR PROGRESSION IS ETERNAL
The truth of the matter is that there is no death, death is merely our transition into the spiritual world without the encumberance of a physical material body. And after that, our progression towards perfection will be eternal:
The Lord out of Divine mercy regenerates man, and this is effected from his infancy even to the end of his life in the world and afterward for ever. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9452)
...it is an arcanum [hidden secret], man's regeneration in the world is only a plane for the perfecting of his life to eternity. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 9334.3)
...one who is being born again passes through the ages of life as when first born; and that the state that precedes is always as an ovum with respect to the following one, and thus that he is continually being conceived and born; and this not only when living in the world, but also to eternity when he comes into the other life; and still he can never be perfected further than to be as an ovum to the states that still remain, which are without number. It is manifest from this how innumerable are the things relative to man's regeneration, when as yet man knows scarce any of them (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4379)
So don't expect heaven to be a life of abstract consciousness or plucking a harp on a cloud. It will be a spiritual life of active usefulness towards others. Science is now discussing higher dimensions than the 3 or 4 we know, and realms without time and space, and Swedenborg saw that the spiritual world lies in a higher dimension where time and space do not exist. After we die, we will continue in a fully human spiritual body - and we will continue to be male or female as we are now, to eternity.
As each person dies and enters into heaven, heaven actually gets bigger, and more perfected, and this goes on to eternity. A child once told me she had a dream of heaven: it was blank, like a blank piece of paper. She then heard a loud voice say: MAKE THIS PLACE COLORFUL. She then rode on a horse through it, and everywhere the horse walked became a green path full of flowers. There will be no end to creativity, for it is a world where ideas become immediate realities.
EACH SOUL BELONGS TO A SPIRITUAL SOCIETY
Each individual's heaven will be different from another person's heaven. But we all belong to a particular society of heaven, and in scripture these particular societies are known as the "stars of heaven," because from afar each society appears as a glowing star.
Since there are in heaven infinite varieties, and no one society just like another, nor even one angel like another, heaven is distinguished generally, specifically, and particularly — generally into two kingdoms, specifically into three heavens, and particularly into innumerable societies. These several divisions will now be described. The general division is said to be into kingdoms, because heaven is called the kingdom of God. (Heaven and Hell, n. 20)
All who are in similar good also know one another, just as men in the world do their kinsmen, their near relations, and their friends, though they have never before seen them; for the reason that in the other life there are no other kinships, relationships, and friendships than such as are spiritual, thus such as are of love and faith. This has sometimes been given me to see, when I was in the spirit, thus withdrawn from the body, and so in company with angels. Then some of them seemed as if known from childhood, but others as if not known at all. They whom I seemed to have known from childhood, were those who were in a state similar to that of my spirit; but they who seemed unknown to me, were in dissimilar state. (Heaven and Hell, n. 46)
These heavenly societies are what I call the "group soul," and one of the visions of Swedenborg confirms this:
...the Lord leads all who are in the whole heaven as if they were one angel, and in like manner those who are in each society. Hence an entire angelic society sometimes appears as a one, in the form of an angel, as I have been given by the Lord to see. And when the Lord appears in the midst of angels, He does not then appear encompassed by many, but as one, in angelic form. From this it is that the Lord in the Word is called an angel, and that an entire society is so called. Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are no other than angelic societies, so named from their functions. (Heaven and Hell, n. 52)
Even when we are living, in the spiritual world our spiritual self belongs to some spiritual society, and this through the angels or spirits assigned to us at birth. Heaven is ever striving to reach perfection, and amazingly Swedenborg saw that the shape of heaven was that of the human form. Heaven is constantly striving to reach a perfect human form as a whole. Thus if a society in heaven is imperfect, or lacking, I believe that at that moment a new soul is created to fill that particular gap in heaven, which is then immediately conjoined to the embryo at conception. Thus the personality of each person is designed to be unique to fill a gap in a large and ever growing jigsaw puzzle. If a society of angels or spirits are lacking, perhaps due to a common mistake or sin they had committed in life, a person will be born who will then go through that same pattern of hardship, so they could all learn a lesson and grow from it through shared memory. And that is my spiritual interpretation of the movie Cloud Atlas. Here is a trailer for it, which at first makes it appear like a boring British movie drama (which I can assure you it is not):
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