Clairvoyant Empathy and the Golden Rule

Empathy is defined as the ability to step into another person's shoes and to understand their point of view and sense their feelings.  For those who are sensitive or empathatic, the weight of these feelings are so strong that they can become unbearable. I recently found this website, 13 Signs You're An Empath, which lists similar symptoms. Empathy is based on love, and accepts the other person with their faults with understanding, without judgment or hate - for love opens the door to empathy, and hate is what closes it off.

The experience of empathy can become so strong, however, that it becomes clairvoyant - one literally experiences what the other person thinks or feels. This is known by others as "psychic empathy."  This kind of empathy is more common in waking dreams. I know someone who had a dream, where he was standing in a garage, and sees his mother. His mother than walks away, and he begins shouting after her to come back. However an invisible barrier then comes up, and she cant hear him, and they become distant until the mother walks away. He woke up with such a heavy sadness, and that very morning received a phone call giving the news that his best friend's mother had committed suicide. She had committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage.

Empathy can be closed off for many years, but by random chance one may come across a person that triggers something, opening it up once again.  It can cause one to lose sleep, I have recently experienced something similar to it and can't shake it off so I thought I would blog about it to let it out and let it go.

THE SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATION FOR EMPATHY

There are spiritual laws which govern the experience of empathy, and that is the spiritual love of God and loving one's neighbour.  These two are the greatest commandments:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:36-40)

Scripture expresses this as a commandment, and one may view that one must follow it as a duty or obligation.  That is certainly the first step, but as one practices it, one experiences the love, and it grows more internal. An empath lives it, where they are living in the shoes of the other person. More spiritual experiences can happen with those who have similar personalities or who follow similar life paths, despite their differences. Empathy is the bridge across differences, which are in fact mental constructs which block the flow the empathy.

From empathy, one can begin to read other people's thoughts. In fact, the gospels state that Jesus had this ability:

"But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man." (John 2:24-25)

And, what is interesting to note here, of all empaths God is the greatest empath. He literally stands in the place of every person, and knows firsthand what each person experiences. This can be seen in the following passage:

"Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’" (Matt. 25:34-40)

THE SPIRITUAL EXPLANATION OF EMPATHY

The writings of Emanuel Swedenborg provide a deeper explanation for the experience of empathy. Whereas our bodies live in a three dimensional material world, our souls are spiritual in origin and dwell in a parallel dimension where space and time have no meaning. In the spiritual world, instead of space there are states of love, for heaven is composed of one' interior state of ideas and feelings. The more one loves another person the more closer one becomes to that soul:

"In the spiritual world one appears in presence to another, if only he intensely desires his presence; for thus he sees him in thought, and presents himself in his state; and conversely, one is removed from another so far as he is averse to him. And because all aversion is from contrariety of affections and from disagreement of thoughts, it comes to pass in that world, that several who are in one place are seen by one another so long as they agree, but as soon as they disagree they disappear." (Heaven and Hell, n. 194)

What then happens is that in the spiritual world, communities form based on like personalities, and this collection of souls appear together in the form of a human being:

"It is to be known that though all in a society of heaven, when seen together as one, appear in the likeness of a man, yet no one society is just such a man as another. The societies are distinguished one from another as are human faces from one stock... they are varied according to the varieties of the good in which they are, and which gives them their form... It is noteworthy that the more there are in a society of heaven making a one, the more perfect is its human form, since variety disposed in heavenly form makes perfection" (Heaven and Hell, n. 70, 71)

In the spiritual world, angelic spirits experience a more intense from of empathy - one can literally share the memory of another person where one thinks one is that person:

"That I might know how the matter stood, as to man's not being able to think from his own memory, if spirits flowed in from their exterior memory, it was permitted two or three times that this should be done; and I then knew no otherwise than that that was mine which was not mine, but a spirit's; and that I had thought the things before, which I had not thought" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2478)

This influx into another person's memory is the spiritual origin of telepathy as well as empathy. here is another passage:

"An angel or a spirit when he comes to a man, and by turning to him is conjoined to him, comes into all his memory, insomuch that he scarce knows otherwise than that he knows from himself what the man knows, including his languages" (Heaven and Hell, n. 246)

Thus those who have experienced clairvoyant empathy have in fact experienced something very close to what the angelic minds think, when they come across another soul who is of like mind with them. Empaths are thus the hidden angels on earth, and you are lucky if you should ever encounter one, or share such an experience with another.

The Golden Rule of Love of the New Church

The Golden Rule, do unto others as you would have done to you, is practically universal among all religions.  This is also true of the New Church, but with the difference that there are many doctrines concerning love and charity on how to apply it.  The main mistake people make is when they try to apply it, they apply it equally to everybody, and they quickly find out it cannot be applied in this way.  For the doctrine of the New Church states that love must be guided by truth and discernment.  In fact, all doctrines of the New Church concern the marriage or conjunction between love and truth.  Love with truth becomes adulterated, and truth without love quickly dies out.

The New Church is different from the older Christian churches, in that the older Christian churches tend to be focused on belief or faith alone.  This leads to narrow minded and dogmatic tendencies, and religions that emphasize belief or faith alone will tend to condemn anyone who does not believe as they do or follow their organization.  In the New Church, love is primary in end or purpose.  However in order to reach a state of love, one must first follow the truth.  The truths of faith that one learns is first in time, but they are not first in one's goal.  Many get stuck in faith as the primary goal, and do not proceed to living a life of love, of service to others, of usefulness.  For when love and truth become conjoined, one becomes useful to oneself, to others, and to the society.

In the end God cares about love, how we live our life, for God is Love itself.  Moreover, faith without love is not faith:

"They who have separated faith from love do not even know what faith is; some in their notion of faith know it as a mere thought; some as thought concerning the Lord, a few as the doctrine of faith. But faith is not merely the knowledge and acknowledgment of all things that the doctrine of faith embraces; but is chiefly obedience to all that it teaches. The first thing that it teaches, to which men ought to yield obedience, is love to the Lord and love to the neighbor. Whoever is not in this love is not in faith, as the Lord so clearly teaches in Mark that it cannot be doubted: The first of all the commandments is: Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord. Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment, and the second, like unto it, is this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these (xii. 29-31). In Matthew. He calls it The first and great commandment, and says that On these commandments hang the Law and the Prophets (xxii. 35-40). The Law and the Prophets are the whole doctrine of faith, and all the Word." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 36)

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

In the New Church, emphasis is placed on the gospels of Jesus, which emphasize love and service, over the writings of the apostle Paul, which emphasizes faith.  So let's take a look at the greatest commandment, and see how the New Church doctrines bring further light to it:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matt. 22:36-40)

Notice, Jesus states that on just these two commandments hang "all the law and the prophets."  In the literal sense, the law is the Torah, or the first 5 books of Moses, and the prophets are all the books after that.  Anyone who reads the Bible knows it contains some very odd stories, genealogies, and other seemingly irrelevant data.  But in the revelations received in the New Church in the 18th century, it is shown how each and every word of scripture is Divinely inspired, which is especially spelled out in a massive work known as "Heavenly Arcana" or "Arcana Coelestia" or "Heavenly Secrets" depending on the publication.  Through symbolic correspondence, every word becomes abstracted from space and time, and concern the universal principles of love and truth.  No one has ever been able to demonstrate how truthful Jesus words were when He explained the Golden Rule, or the greatest commandments.

Contained in the spiritual sense of Jesus' discourse on the greatest commandment, there are three levels of spiritual development, which are actually also revealed in the three main Jewish festivals (see The Three Steps of Spiritual Development);

1.  Knowledge of good (the "Law" containing commandments) and knowledge of truth (the "Prophets")
2.  Living by the truth, in loving others
3.  Acting out of love, seeing God in the love in other people.

Note here, that the spiritual steps of development are in reverse order in time from the order of priority.

In the spiritual sense the Law and the Prophets refers to knowledge of good and truth, which in the material world we receive from the Bible.  But in the most universal sense, it simply refers to knowledge of good and truth.  Good itself, is the more internal form of the Truth which represents it.  Thus instead of "law and prophets" scripture sometimes phrases this as "Moses and the prophets."  Moses represents the most internal revelation, that concerning love, which is hidden at first to many who are at a lower level of understanding.  Thus Moses could not speak well, and Aaron represents Moses.  Moses alone could ascend the mountain, representing love, which is hidden in obscurity to those at a lower level of understanding, represented by the clouds that surrounded the mountain.  When Moses descended from the mountain, the people could not look directly at his shining face, so he covered it with a veil.  This represents how internal spiritual truths are hidden in the literal sense of the Bible.

So, when one enters the first state, of learning knowledge of good and truth, this is a state of servitude and obedience.  One is in the truth, but one's life may be one of sin and evil.  In this state, a conflict arises within oneself: if one has a desire to follow the truth, it will come into conflict with one's desire for sin or evil.  Then one can enter into a period of temptation, internal conflict, sadness and depression.  This internal conflict, in reality, is a conflict that plays out between good and evil spirits associated with one's spiritual soul, who influence everything that you do or think.  But it is the Truth which cleanses, if one follows Truth, from the Truth one can achieve salvation.  In the literal sense, Truth is symbolized by blood.  This is the spiritual meaning of the blood of Jesus, but few Christians know this.  Thus Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  And "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."  And, "Sanctify [cleanse] them through Your Truth, Your Word is Truth."  Temptation is overcome in repentance, but one must be in conjunction with Divine Truth and ask for Divine aid when one does this, for one must acknowledge that sin and evil originate from one's selfish ego.

The second stage is one who loves and desires the truth, and enjoys doing it.  This becomes a life of service and use to others, to one's neighbor.  But it is not indiscriminate love.  Love guided by truth, loves each person according to need and use.  You can't give a hug to someone who is about to hit you.  You can't talk nicely to someone who is stealing or gossiping about others.  You can't agree with someone engaged in jealousy.  Love must be according to use, according to what is good and true.  This is known as the principle of DISCRIMINATE CHARITY:

"It is a common opinion at this day that every one is a neighbor in the same degree, and that good must be done to every one in need. But it is the part of Christian prudence to explore well the quality of a man's life, and to exercise charity accordingly. The man of the internal church does this with discrimination, thus with intelligence; but the man of the external church, since he cannot exercise such discernment, does it without discrimination." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6704)

This is the principle that most people miss.  I have seen some highly intelligent people reject Christianity just because of this, loving everybody indiscriminately they know is not going to work.  In the ancient world, the doctrine of charity was the primary doctrine, but since everyone knew it they didn't write it down:

"The ancients reduced the neighbor to classes, and gave each class the names of those who appear in the world to be especially in need; they taught also how charity was to be exercised to those in one class, and how to those in another; and thus they reduced the doctrine and the life according to it into order. Thus the doctrine of their church contained the laws of life, and from it they saw the quality of every man of the church, whom they called a brother, but with distinction in the internal sense according to his exercise of charity from the genuine doctrine of the church, or from doctrine changed by himself; for every one, because he wishes to appear blameless, defends his own life, and therefore either explains or changes the laws of doctrine in his own favor." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6705)

In other words, one has to discriminate among people according to their state, do they need help because they are lacking something, or should they be restrained because they are committing evil?  These different states that a person is in, is signified by those who are blind, by the lame, those who are sick, or those who in prison, etc.  The blind are those who are in ignorance, and need the light of truth.  The lame are those who are lacking in ability to do good.  The sick are those suffering from evil they have committed.  Those in prison are those who have imprisoned their mind due to a false persuasion.  The doctrines of the New Church on these matters, are endless.

At some point, few reach the third stage, which is acting out of love.  Instead of loving others, one loves the love within them. In other words, one loves God who is love itself.  In this kind of state, one does care about debating or learning the truth any more, but acting out of love.  When one acts out love, one gains a secondary perception of truth automatically.  It becomes a matter of intuition, or inner knowing.  This is what Jesus meant when he said not to take an oath (following the truth), but rather let your yes be yes and your no be no.  For in love, the perception of truth is immediate, and comes within.  This third and final stage is explained in the following passage:

And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matt. 25:33-40)

One last point, living the Golden Rule comes from effort, and it is not immediate: one must follow the three steps.  Inasmuch as we approach God, God will approach us.  Thus it is said, you shall love the Lord your God with all your HEART, with all your SOUL, and with all your MIND.  The heart represents one's will, one's intent, one's desire.  The soul here is one's spiritual understanding of the truth.  The mind is our lower level mind, which seeks ways on how to apply love and truth in one's life.  One's will is not passive, as some religious philosophies teach.

The other secret, as revealed in the New Church, is that love in its external from is represented by the woman, and truth in its external form is represented by the man.  The spiritual conjunction of love and truth is the origin of marriage love between a man and woman.  In fact, forms of love and truth can be seen and experienced in all levels of reality, and in all walks of life.  It is always within you, and becomes your kingdom in heaven in the afterlife.

For those interested, here is a French version of La Vie en Rose, followed by an English version:

The True Spiritual Faith of the New Church

Whereas many religions emphasize just faith or belief, the central doctrine of the New Church is the Golden Rule.  The true church is not just people who believe the same thing, but rather it the church is made of any person who lives in love and charity.  The more a church is based on love, the closer it is to God and His truth.  In the present times most people emphasize "faith" -- and by faith most people assume it is mere belief of the memory.  But believing something is true, or a mere belief of knowledges in the memory, is not enough for a true spiritual life:

"...knowing is not believing, and that believing is internal; and that it cannot be given except in affection for good and truth, and accordingly to none but those who are in the good of charity toward the neighbor." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4319.2)

In other words, there can be no spirituality apart from love, for all spiritual life and truth originate from love.  And yet learning or knowledge is necessary as an introduction to spiritual life, for without learning, or a desire to know, the way cannot be opened to higher spiritual truths:

"The external man receives its life principally from the internal man, that is, from its spirit or soul. Thence is its very life in general; but this life cannot be received in its particulars, or distinctly, by the external man, unless its organic vessels are opened, which are to be the recipients of the particulars and the singulars of the internal man. These organic vessels, which are to be the recipients, are not opened except by means of the senses, especially those of hearing and sight; and as they are opened, the internal man can flow in with its particulars and singulars. They are opened by means of the senses, by learning and knowledges, as also by pleasures and enjoyments; those belonging to the understanding by learning and knowledges, and those belonging to the will by pleasures and enjoyments." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1563)

As an introduction to internal spiritual truths can only happen via external knowledges, derived from the senses and learning, invariably in the process of spiritual development one recognizes the falsehoods and opposing desires one has adopted the more one learns about spiritual truths.  When one reaches this stage, a "spiritual crisis" then develops, and one enters a period of temptation and struggles to remove these former falsehoods and evils:

"From these things it may be evident, that it must necessarily happen that learning and knowledges which cannot agree with spiritual truths, then insinuate themselves into the external man; and that pleasures and enjoyments insinuate themselves which cannot agree with celestial good things; as is the case with all those things which regard corporeal, worldly, and earthly things as ends; which, when regarded as ends, draw the external man outward and downward, and so remove it from the internal. Wherefore, unless such things are first dispersed, the internal man can by no means agree with the external; therefore before the internal man can agree with the external, such things must first be removed." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1563.2)

Removal of these things is effected by temptation and repentance.  But most do not suffer to go through temptation and repentance, they are satisfied in the mere knowledge of spiritual matters.  But mere knowledge, without entering one's life in how one lives, effects nothing.  It is how one lives which determines one's eternal life, not what one knows.  Knowledge only serves as an introduction, and those who remain stuck in researching things of knowledge and remain there, without examining their life, are very much deceived.  Those who equate faith with just belief are even more deceived, for they make it a matter of persuasion in their religion and ignore things that relate to life and charity.

Although there are many sources of spiritual truth, many are not prepared to distinguish between truth and falsehood in spiritual matters, so it is best to start by learning spiritual knowledge from scripture.  Jesus, as a boy, began this way as a means of becoming united with his Father:

"The external man is corporeal and sensual; nor does it receive anything celestial and spiritual unless knowledges are implanted in it, as in ground; celestial things can have in these their receiving vessels, but the knowledges must be from the Word. Knowledges from the Word are such that they are open from the Lord Himself; for the Word is itself from the Lord through heaven, and the Lord's life is in every single thing of the Word, although it does not so appear in the external form. Hence it may be evident that the Lord in boyhood was not willing to imbue Himself with any other knowledges than those of the Word; and this was open to Him, as was said, from Jehovah Himself, His Father, with Whom He was to be united and become one; and this the more, because nothing is said in the Word which does not in its inmosts look to Him, and which did not first come from Him; for the Human Essence was only an additament to His Divine Essence which was from eternity." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1461)

So what is the true spiritual faith of the New Church?  It is completely based on love towards the Lord, and love towards the neighbour.  This is the universal golden rule of the New Church, according to Jesus' commandment:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the great and first commandment.And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matt. 22:36-40)

In teaching after teaching, the revelations of the New Church shows that love is primary, and faith or truth is secondary.  Yet many churches, especially the Protestant, make faith primary and charity or love of no account, or something that must be done for sake of civil morality.  But the truth is all truth leads to love, and any truth that does not becomes dissipated and forgotten, for the mind will only accept a truth or falsehood that fits how that person habitually lives. Those who are wise find the highest spirituality in living a moral life, not for sake of appearance, not for self honor, or fear of the law, but for the sake of love towards the Lord.

In the revelations of the New Church, it is shown how the entire Word is in fact based on the Golden Rule.  The Golden Rule can be divided into three spiritual levels of development:

1. Love towards the Lord, or the Divine Love.
2. Love towards the neighbour, or charity according to the good in others.
3. Learning and obedience from scripture, otherwise known as "the Law and the Prophets"

These are three levels of spiritual development, from highest to lowest - it is mentioned in many different ways throughout scripture, to see one of them see The Three Steps of Spiritual Development.  This begins to show in what way scripture is completely based on the Golden Rule. Although I have described the three levels from highest to lowest, one begins by going from lowest to highest.  Thus learning through knowledge of scripture, and obedience to it, is level 3 - the law and the prophets.  In the literal sense the law refers to the Torah, and the prophets to the second division of the Jewish canon.  But in the spiritual sense here the law relates to knowledge of how one should life, and the prophets refer to the truths of doctrine.  Once one learns these things, one begins to apply them - and this is done through love or charity to the neighbour, the second level.

The final ascension is when one sees that the good in others belong to the Divine good, and one's intention becomes a higher intention: that of love for the sake of love, and seeing that the good in each person is from the Lord himself, who is Divine good itself.

This is the true faith of the New Church, and the New Church belongs to all those who are in this good according to this truth, and who acknowledge that this Divine Love manifested itself among us in human form in Jesus Christ.