THE MYSTERY OF PRECOGNITIVE FICTION
In 2013 I posted a blog concerning "precognitive fiction" which discussed some uncanny coincidences where a work of fiction would later remarkably predict future events (see Precognitive Fictional Novels, and Synchronicity). In that blog I mentioned how the novel Futility predicted events concerning the sinking of the Titanic. Philip K. Dick, a famous science fiction author, wrote a fictional work concerning a character named Kathy who was 19 years old in a relationship with a policeman. The same year after he finished his novel, he met a woman named Kathy who was also 19 years old who was in a relationship with a policeman. There are many examples which go beyond just a simple coincidence. In that blog, I had also mentioned the movie Stranger than Fiction (2006), which is about an IRS agent who begins to hear the voice of a narrator who begins to predict his impending death, and he eventually discovers he is hearing the thoughts of an author who has writer's block in trying to determine how he his going to die:
THE FICTIONAL NOVEL OF THE BOOK OF DOORS
Recently someone suggested I should look into audio books when on long road trips. All one needs is a library card, and a mobile audio app such as Libby or Hoopla. A couple of weeks ago I had to get a library card to check out a book for another person, and then decided to try it. Between work and writing, audio books would be a nice way to pass the time. I looked up fantasy novels, the first one I found was Babel by R.F. Kuang. Despite good reviews it did not hold my attention. I next randomly found another fantasy novel, The Book of Doors, by Gareth Brown.
As any reader can see from blog comments and books that I have written, my name is Theodore D. Webber (in 2025 I recently issued a new edition of The Numerical Poetry of the Psalms). In 2023 I had left the New Jersey/New York area, and in 2025 I began a temporary apartment lease where I worked with a leasing agent, a young woman named Cassidy. For the past few months I have been working remotely in the business center across the lobby where Cassidy would be at her desk for the apartment. There is a coffee machine in the lobby which I would use while there, and Cassidy would periodically maintain it when I indicated it was broken. There is also a cold brew coffee canister, which at one time exploded and doused her in cold coffee while she was trying to fix it.
And as I listened to the audio book The Book of Doors, I just could not believe what I was hearing. It begins with a young woman named Cassie working at a bookshop, which also has a coffee counter. An elderly man named John Webber would frequently visit the bookshop to sit at a table across from Cassie who would periodically serve him coffee. This takes place in New York in the year 2022, the same year I was still in the New York area. Midway through the book it is revealed that Cassie's actual given name is Cassidy. At another point in time Cassie encounters Mr. Webber who finds her a place to stay in the same apartment complex, reversing the roles of the real Mr. Webber and the real Cassidy. Mr. Webber is a pianist and composer, and while I am neither, I am named after my grandfather Theodore Webber who was both a pianist and composer. We are both descendants of one John Webber.
Mr. Webber is a minor side character who appears at a key moment at the beginning and end of the book. Much to Cassie's dismay (and to my own personal disappointment), Mr. Webber immediately dies in the first chapter in the book store. Despite not knowing Mr. Webber so well, Cassie soon discovers that Mr. Webber left behind a marvelous gift for her: a strange magical book called The Book of Doors. Cassie soon discovers that the book gave her the power to travel to other destinations, any destination, by simply opening a door while holding the book. Moreover it had another power: she could travel to other destinations in the past, as well as the future.
This is where it gets interesting. Here is what one book cover of The Book of Doors looks like (see Gareth Brown Books - The Book of Doors):
And here is a book I published back in 2012, containing all of the major theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg:
I discuss the work here: The complete works of Emanuel Swedenborg - on your tablet or smartphone which you can find on Amazon here: The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem: Expanded Edition. In his work Emanuel Swedenborg made use of a more accurate version of the Bible at the time, and based on that I made use of modern research to document mistranslations in the book of Psalms in the work, The Mistranslations of the Psalms:
And here we have a woman walking through a magical doorway in the Bible. It is glowing with multiple colors which is exactly what happens to the book of doors in the fictional novel when someone uses it.
Between The Book of Doors and The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem, both covers contain a spiral staircase with a woman. Both have a background of stars. In the case of The Book of Doors, the spiral staircase refers to a secret staircase at the top of which was a secret library containing a library of magical books. In the case of The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem, the cover is from a painting by William Blake called Jacob's Ladder, depicting angels ascending and descending on a stairway to heaven. And The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem is not just one book, but a whole library of books.
Coincidence? Even if the author did see my work online, which I doubt, it is just not possible he could have known about my personal circumstances as they occurred after the book was published. The focus and subject matter of his work is completely different: it is just a fantasy novel.
THE REAL "BOOK OF DOORS"?
So is there any other connection between this fictional "Book of Doors" and the work The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem? In one scene of The Book of Doors, there is time travel back to around the year 2012 where Cassie begins a search to find The Book of Doors. And The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem was published in the year 2012. As said above, the cover of the work is a depiction of Jacob's ladder, a staircase to heaven that the patriarch Jacob saw in a dream. When he awoke from the dream, he said this:
And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and he said, Surely Yahweh is in this place; and I did not know it. And he was afraid, and said, How fearsome is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven (Gen. 28:16-17).
And a gate is of course a door. The works in The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem describe a system of symbolism known as "correspondences" embedded in the Bible which connects our reality with heaven, and it is through this symbolism that communication with heaven is opened. The author, Swedenborg, experienced 27 years of open communication with the spiritual world of heaven and described the afterlife in detail. And he was shown that a "door" is a symbol of open communication:
"it must be told whence it is that a door and a door post signify communication and conjunction. Angels and spirits have habitations which appear quite like those which are in the world, and, what is an arcanum [secret], all things and each seen in their habitations are significative of spiritual things; they are indeed the outflow of the spiritual things which are in heaven and hence in their minds. Communications of truth with good are there presented by doors, and conjunctions by door posts... That this is the case, man at this day, especially if a merely natural man, cannot believe, because such things are not manifest to the senses of the body. Nevertheless that such things were seen by the prophets when their interiors were open into heaven, is evident from the Word. They have also been perceived and seen by me a thousand times. I have moreover frequently heard them say that the doors of their apartments were open when their thoughts were in communication with me, and that they were closed when they were not in communication." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 8989.3, in The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem)
And indeed, when Swedenborg discusses the symbolism of the angels descending and ascending upon the stairway to heaven in Jacob's dream, it signifies communication and conjunction with heaven. Thus the entire cover of the work can simply be represented by a door.
In the novel the book of doors is a "key" to a secret library of books. This book, as well as other books with different powers, allows the holder to make their idea become manifest in reality. In one scene the origin of the magical books is explained as the manifestation of the thoughts of a key character, which then later became the physical book in our world. But in most of these books the contents are seen as useless incomprehensible scribbles. The main topic in in The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem describes how high level heavenly ideas descended into the minds of prophets and was made manifest in a beautiful series of symbolic correspondences which we now know as the Bible. But to many, the meaning of most of the contents is kept hidden. The revelations given to Emanuel Swedenborg explains the hidden spiritual sense of the Bible, and this revelation is the Second Coming, the manifestation of the Word which had manifested itself in the flesh in the First Coming.
THE REAL "MR. WEBBER"?
Life is full of surprises, and this is not the first time someone upstairs has played such an odd joke on me. The other experience is so unbelievable I have only hinted at it in a few blog posts here and there, and somehow one reader of this blog was able to figure some of it out and gave me some things to investigate in a rather interesting email. While certain parts of The Book of Doors are unnecessary or distracting to the main plot of the book itself, for me personally the ending involving Mr. Webber was a bit touching. I would like to believe that I also could give something to others, and to me there is nothing more important than the heavenly revelations as described in The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem. Other versions of these writings can be found here online: The Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. My hope is other readers will find it.
After I listened to the audio book of The Book of Doors, I searched online about the book to recall certain details. Mr. Webber appears at the beginning and end of the book, and even though he is a minor character I saw online that some fans have speculated that perhaps Mr. Webber is not who he seem to be, and has some other hidden identity which would give the book an interesting plot twist. A hint of that comes from the book Mr. Webber reads, The Count of Monte Cristo, which is based on someone who assumes an alternate identity, who leaves his old life behind due to a betrayal and begins a new one. At that observation I just had to laugh.
If any readers of the The Book of Doors are still seeking a plot twist concerning the identity of Mr. Webber, this blog post should give them, as well as the author, another theory to think about. But most will probably not even believe this. This would align perfectly with the name Cassidy, as it comes from the Greek priestess Cassandra. Cassandra was fated by Apollo to utter prophecies, but who was never to be believed.
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