The Origin of the Soul, the Group Soul and Reincarnation

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):

Extraterrestrial Contact from Iarga: their Origin and Philosophy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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




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

THE ORIGIN OF THE PLANET IARGA

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

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

Ross 248 (HH Andromedae) = 10.30 light-years 

Epsilon Eridani = 10.52 light-years 

Lacaille 9352 = 10.74 light-years

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here is an Assyrian representation of Oannes:

Here is another depiction:

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

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

EXTRATERRESTRIAL PHILOSOPHY: FREEDOM, JUSTICE AND EFFICIENCY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IARGAN PHILOSOPHY AND EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FREEDOM AND THE WILL, OR FREE WILL

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

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

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

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

THE PRINCIPLE OF JUSTICE

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

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

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

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

THE PRINCIPLE OF EFFICIENCY

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

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

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

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

THE RELIGION OF THE IARGANS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stefan: "Something like it, then?" 

Iargan: "Correct."

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

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

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

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

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

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

OUT OF THE DEPTHS

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

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

Also Your righteousness, O God, is very high,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christianity, Reincarnation and Emanuel Swedenborg

Common among New Age thought, spiritual channeling and eastern religions is the concept of reincarnation. This doctrine repeats over and over again, and it was also a way of thinking among the ancients, especially among Neoplatonic philosophers. So is this true, or is it false? That is not an easy question to answer. One must be familiar with the spiritual world, about which modern science knows absolutely nothing. Naturalists just assume we cease to exist at death. The Near Death Experience has been challenging this primitive materialisic view. But when it comes to reincarnation, confirming whether it is true or not is not easy to confirm since since the doctrine of reincarnation teaches that we are forced to forget our past lives before we are reborn again. That there may be some truth to this idea was rediscovered recently by hypnotists, who could regress people back in time to recall memories that they had forgotten. Some hypnotists, noticing the memory recall was enhanced under hypnosis, experimented a bit and regressed people from beyond the time they were born. The result was surprising: hypnotists began to uncover past lives of those who died before, sometimes uncovering historical facts and even a language or a particular accent that was unknown to the subject that was hypnotized. Hypnotists discovered that past life regression was also therapeutic in value: one can understand on a more spiritual level the limits we place on our own behavior, and the way we look at life, based on past unknown fears. Unexplained phobias or depression can be traced to a spiritual source of thought. So reincarnation may be true, right? Well let me throw in a monkey's wrench. All seemed well and good, but then some hypnotists discovered that these past lives overlap with each other chronologically. So what is going on here?

REINCARNATION IN THE BIBLE?

Opposed to eastern religions, the three religions of the book: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, state that we live once and then after we die, comes the judgment. Yet among the mystical traditions in all three religions, some mystical schools of thought subscribe to the idea, although opposed to the orthodox theology. And unfortunately - and I will be honest here - ministers and those who go to church often just live in a box. They are out of touch with society, not meeting its needs. So we now find a lot of spiritual independents, and people attracted to New Age thought, but without a proper guide to wander through the forest of ideas. Some churches are even detrimental in their doctrine - declaring after we die we just fall asleep, all to await a physical resurrection at some always future date. Its a false doctrine, as there is no literal physical resurrection of the body: however there is a spiritual resurrection of the spiritual body after death. But that is another topic. The point is, most churches are failing to address the issue because they are blissfully ignorant of it inside their box. Just telling people from scripture is not enough.

So, out of curiosity I delved into this to see what Jesus had to say about reincarnation. The topic comes several times. And in every single case, he never answers the question. He gives a different answer to a different question. Which drove the Jewish Pharisees nuts. Here are some examples:

Jesus: Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus: How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?
Jesus: Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Nicodemus: How can these things be?
Jesus: Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. (John 3:3-13)

To be born again is to experience a spiritual rebirth, to leave one's sins behind and begin a new life. It begins with a period of temptation, but once one overcomes then one is born with a new will, with new desires: based on love for others, rather than being self-centered. One's spirit or soul is then drawn up into heaven. But notice he does not answer the question of Nicodemus. And he says why he does not answer: if he spoke of heavenly matters no one would believe. So Jesus always spoke in parables. Here is another example:

Jesus: Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?
Disciples: Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.
Jesus: But who do you say that I am?
Peter: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. (Matt. 16:13-16)

Implied in the question is that prophets reincarnate, held to be true by some Jews at the time. But Jesus does not address that question, He asks them who he is. As a side note, Peter's answer is a hidden explanation of the Trinity: there is a trine which resides in one person Jesus Christ: You are the Christ (3), the Son (2) of the living God (1). But that is another topic. So why does the prophet Jeremiah come up? It is from this passage:

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." (Jer. 1:4-5)

Which implies a preexistence, after which the prophet Jeremiah became incarnate. But it can be read the other way: God simply had foreknowledge of who is to come. Here is another passage:

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth.
And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (John 9:1-5)

Implied in the question, is that the man born blind had committed a sin in a previous life. Again, Jesus does not answer the question. This just drove me nuts. Just ANSWER the QUESTION. Why does he not answer? The answer is a bit complicated, and involves spiritual matters that could not be revealed at the time. Perhaps he does give an answer in this statement:

And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands."
Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist. (Matt. 17:10-13)

So, Elijah was reborn as John the Baptist? Or he fulfilled the role of Elijah? And then we have this answer:

Now this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?"
He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ."
And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." (John 1:19-21)

Which could mean John the Baptist was denying he is a reincarnation of Elijah. But then again, maybe he just does not remember? My answer to this is he fulfilled the role of Elijah...but that again is another topic. The point is, when just depending on the literal sense of scripture, we just got nowhere. This is because the literal sense of scripture hides behind it the true spiritual meaning, for those willing to find it. You can't just read it and expect to understand it unless you ask the Lord to reveal it to you. Otherwise the literal sense can be "bent" to confirm what you want it to confirm. Without revelation, it is a closed book.

THE SPIRITUAL REALM AS SEEN BY EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

There is a certain spiritual uncertainty to important questions unless a direct revelation is given. It is questions such as these that led me to Emanuel Swedenborg - one who claimed to have had continuous visions of heaven and hell over a period of 25 years. He had extraordinary gifts of the mind - see The Confirmed Clairvoyance of Emanuel Swedenborg. One of the main reasons for the revelation is that most people have absolutely no idea what happens to them after they die, and deny the afterlife. And he wrote volumes concerning what he experienced. He summed up the afterlife in his work Heaven and Hell. Simply put, the world of ideas inside our mind is what becomes our reality when our body dissipates. More accurately, it is our will that survives more so than our intellectual thought, for the will - how we lived - determines who we are. So what does Swedenborg have to say? A lot. Actually more than a lifetime of study. Within our material body there is a more refined spiritual body that causes the material form to live, which is not visible to light:

With regard to the soul, of which it is said that it shall live after death, it is nothing else than the man himself who lives in the body, that is, the interior man who acts through the body in the world, and who causes the body to live. This man when loosed from the body is called a spirit, and appears then altogether in a human form, yet cannot in any wise be seen by the eyes of the body, but by the eyes of the spirit; and before the eyes of the latter appears as a man in the world, having senses, namely, touch, smell, hearing, sight, much more exquisite than in the world; having appetites, lusts, desires, affections, loves, such as in the world, but this in more excellent degree; thinking also as in the world, but more perfectly; conversing with others; in a word, he is there as in the world, insomuch that if he does not reflect upon his being in the other life, he knows no otherwise than that he is in the world — as I have sometimes heard spirits say; for the life after death is a continuation of life in the world. This then is the soul of man which lives after death. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6054)

The soul is not amorphous, or some aether in the air. It is in its complete human form. Not only that, but a male will be male and a female will be female, and this does not change to eternity:

Since man lives as a man after death, and man is male and female, and the masculine is one and the feminine another, and they are so different that one cannot be changed into the other, it follows that after death the male lives as a male, and the female as a female, each a spiritual man. It is said that the masculine cannot be changed into feminine, nor the feminine into masculine, and that therefore after death the male is a male and the female is a female (Angelic Wisdom concerning Marriage Love, n. 32).

The sex does not change. If you examine accounts of past lives retrieved through hypnotic regressions, you will find that past lives will interchange between male and female. Why? These memories one is accessing through hypnosis are not exactly "past lives."

THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY OF THE SOUL

One's memory of what one did in life survives after death - this becomes a "book" that is inscribed on everyone's life, that can be read by anyone that is close in the spiritual world. It is what is read when one first enters the light of the afterlife, to determine where you belong. And memories of different spirits are accessible in the other life through telepathy.

For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. (Mark 4:22)

Hypnosis was not known in the time of Emanuel Swedenborg. And yet he speaks of what would happen should one come into contact with the memory of another spirit:

An angel or spirit is not allowed to speak with a man from his own memory, but from that of the man; for angels and spirits have memory as well as men. If a spirit should speak with a man from his own memory, then the man would not know otherwise than that the things which he then thought were his own, when yet they were the spirit's; it is like the recollection of a thing, which yet the man never heard or saw. That it is so, has been given me to know from experience. From this some of the ancients had the opinion, that after some thousands of years they should return into their former life, and into all its acts, and also that they had returned. They concluded it from this, that sometimes there occurred to them a recollection, as it were, of things which they never saw or heard; and this came to pass because spirits flowed from their own memory into their ideas of thought. (Heaven and Hell, n. 256)

This perfectly explains past life memories retrieved under hypnosis: they are the memories of those who have gone before us. It also explains why in ancient times they held to the belief of reincarnation: when their minds were more spiritually open, they came into touch with these kindred spirits from the spiritual realm, and thought the memories were their own. Each and every individual is associated with angels and spirits which influence how one thinks and acts, and these spirits are so integrated with the personality that they think that one's own memory is their own memory. These spirits are both good and bad:

With every man there are good spirits and evil spirits; by good spirits man has conjunction with heaven, and by evil spirits with hell. These spirits are in the world of spirits, which world is in the midst between heaven and hell, and will be described particularly hereafter. These spirits when they come to a man, enter into all his memory, and thence into all his thought; evil spirits into the things of the memory and thought that are evil, but good spirits into the things of the memory and thought that are good. The spirits do not know at all that they are with man, but when they are with him they believe that all things of his memory and thought are their own (Heaven and Hell, n. 292)

It is for this reason that those who get in touch with spirits through channeling - which are typically lower order spirits - will constantly insist that reincarnation is a fact. This is false - it a fallacy that comes from shared memory between the spirit and the subject:

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)

And the funny thing is when these spirits were told that reincarnation is not true, that these are shared memories with the subjects they influence, they get extremely upset and angry:

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. To convince them that it is not so, they were asked whence they knew how to speak with me in my mother tongue, when they had known nothing at all of it in the life of the body, and how they knew other languages with which I was acquainted, and they of themselves knew not one — whether they believed these were their own. I read Hebrew in their presence and they understood it, even children, as far as I did and no farther. And all the science that was in my mind, was in theirs. From this they were convinced that when they come to a man, they come into possession of all his knowledge, and that they are in error in believing it to be their own. They have also their own knowledge, but they are not permitted to draw this forth, to the end that they may serve man through his knowledge — as well as for various other reasons, of which above (n. 2476, 2477, 2479) — and because there would be the greatest confusion if spirits should flow in from their own memory (n. 2478). (Heavenly Arcana, n. 5858)

Apparently, under hypnotic regression this barrier between the subject's memory and the memory of spirits is somehow brought down - especially when someone is asked to remember something from the time before they were born. This brings about confusion as to identity. Indeed, one spirit was so integrated with Swedenborg's memory that he thought he was Swedenborg:

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)

So one can begin to understand why Jesus did not answer the question concerning reincarnation. It involves the interaction of the spiritual world with the lower material world. And if he gave answers such as the above, the Jews probably would have stoned him for heresy. When Jesus revealed who He was they thought He was an insane demoniac. Even in the present day, many are not ready to hear about these spiritual matters. But at this time I believe these answers must be given, as there is a proliferation of reincarnation in New Age thought and the church has not addressed it, nor are they ready to address it.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL

It is quite understandable why many believe in reincarnation, especially those who may have become more spiritually advanced and had their minds opened through meditation. The past memories will be of lives similar to your own. But for those that believe in reincarnation, the origin of the soul becomes problematic. In the other world Swedenborg encountered some ancients who could not adequately explain the origin of the soul:

But some of them, not indeed dissenting from the rest, but to throw light on the state of the question, said: "Souls sprang into existence when the ether gathered itself together from that great chaos, and then in the highest region divided itself into innumerable individual forms, which infuse themselves into men while they begin to think from the purer air; and these are then called souls." Hearing this another said, "I grant that the individual forms, formed from the ether in the upper region, were innumerable; but still the men born since the creation of the world have exceeded their number; how then could those ethereal forms suffice? Wherefore I have thought with myself that the souls which go out of the mouth of men when they die return to the same after some thousands of years, and enter into and pass a life similar to the former; that many wise men believe in such things and metempsychosis, is well known." (True Christian Religion, n. 79)

So, when and where does the soul originate? The answer is quite simple, and it is one that is supported by biology: the soul, or one's life, originates at conception of the seed of the father with the ovum of the mother.

...the soul is from the father and the body from the mother; for the soul is in the seed of the father, and it is clothed with a body in the mother; or, what is the same, all the spiritual that man has is from the father, and all the material is from the mother. (True Christian Religion, n. 92)

What a man receives from his father is one thing, and what he receives from his mother is another. From his father a man receives all that is internal, his soul itself or life being out of the father; but he receives from his mother all that is external. In a word, the inner man, or the spirit itself, is from the father; but the outer man, or the body itself, is from the mother; which every one can comprehend merely from this, that the soul is itself implanted from the father, and this begins to clothe itself in a little bodily form in the ovule. Whatever is afterwards added, whether in the ovule or in the womb, is of the mother; for it has no increase from anywhere else. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 1815)

The soul originates from the seed of the father. And this explains why Jesus was born of a virgin - as there was no human seed, but conception was by the Holy Spirit, His soul was Divine, and this is the reason why he calls God His Father:

Every man's internal is from his father, and his external from his mother; or what is the same thing, the soul itself is from the father, and the body with which the soul is clothed is from the mother. The soul and the body together still make a one; for the soul is the body's, and the body is the soul's; they are therefore inseparable. The Lord's internal was from the Father, and thus was the Father Himself. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2005)

Most Christian churches have fallen into the error in believing that the Father is a separate distinct being from Jesus. The New Church does not make this error, it is this doctrine which distinguishes the New Church from the older Christian churches. What does this mean? Jesus is Jehovah in human form:

The Divine Itself which is the Esse of all things was in the Lord alone, for He was conceived of Jehovah; and every man has from his father the esse of his life, which is called his soul. Hence it is evident that the Divine good of the Divine love was in the Human of the Lord, as the soul of a father in a son. And because with man nothing lives but his soul, for the body without the soul does not live, and because everything of the body is produced from the soul, thus to the image of it, in order that the soul may be in adequate condition and adapted to functions in the ultimates of order, which are in the world, it hence follows that the Esse itself in the Human of the Lord was Jehovah, which is the Divine good of the Divine love. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10125.2)

Thus the human in which He was born eventually became glorified and one with the Divine, and rose from the dead:

So was it in the Lord as to His Human; yet concerning His Human it cannot be said that it was regenerated, but that it was glorified, for His inmost, which with man is called the soul from the father, was the Divine Itself, as He was conceived of Jehovah. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 10052.2)

Thus the "Son of God" is the human that was born to Mary in time, not from eternity:

Whence is the soul of a son but from the father? and whence is his body, but from the mother? We speak of the Divine of the Father, and mean the Father Himself, since He and His Divine are the same; this also is one and indivisible. That it is so, is evident also from these words of the angel Gabriel to Mary: The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, and the Holy Spirit come upon thee, and the Holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God; and just above He is called the Son of the Highest, and elsewhere, the only-begotten Son. (True Christian Religion, n. 112)

Finally, the Christian church invented the doctrine of a "Son of God born from eternity" - this doctrine was introduced into the Nicene Creed in the fourth century, and from that error much of Christianity became a corrupt religion that was not truly monotheistic. Swedenborg compares this doctrine of the Nicene creed to the fable of reincarnation:

That a Son of God born from eternity descended and assumed the Human, may be compared to the fables of the ancients, that human souls were created from the beginning of the world, and enter into bodies and become men; and also to the absurd notions that the soul of one passes into another, as many in the Jewish Church believed — as, that the soul of Elijah passed into the body of John the Baptist (True Christian Religion, n. 171)

PERFECTION OF THE SOUL CONTINUES FOR ETERNITY

Those who have held reincarnation as a central tenet of their belief system may be disappointed to hear that one only lives once, then comes the judgment, and then that is it, the end. But it is not the end, it is the beginning: for the perfection of the soul continues for eternity.

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)

In this life we have barely touched the surface of what we will experience in the higher planes of existence:

...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)

The means by which a soul is perfected is barely known to us, but they are based on the means of perfection in this life, beginning with acknowledgment of one's faults through self examination, and exercising love for others according to their need:

Sins are not remitted by repentance of the mouth, but by repentance of the life. Sins are continually remitted to man by the Lord, for He is mercy itself; but sins adhere to man, albeit he supposes that they are remitted, nor are they removed from him except by a life according to the precepts of faith. So far as he lives according to those precepts, so far his sins are removed, and so far as they are removed, so far they are remitted. For man is withheld by the Lord from evil and is held in good. And he is so far able to be withheld from evil in the other life, as in the life of the body he had resisted evil. And he is so far able to be held in good then, as in the life of the body he had done good from affection. From this it may be evident what the remission of sins is, and whence it is. He who believes that sins are remitted in any other way, is much deceived. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 8393)

Belief is nothing unless you live by it. But how is one perfected to eternity? There are a variety of passages I can draw from Swedenborg, but I found this one interesting - angelic spirts occasionally revert back to their natural state. This is explained in the symbolism of the Jewish law concerning touching dead bodies:

Again: The soul which toucheth any such [uncleanness] shall be unclean until the even, and shall not eat of the holy things; unless he bathe his flesh in water. And when the sun is down, he shall be clean; and afterward he shall eat of the holy things (Lev. xxii. 6, 7). And again: Any man that is not clean . . . when evening cometh on, shall bathe himself in water; and when the sun is down, he shall come within the camp (Deut. xxiii. 10, 11). That this law also has its origin from the laws of good and truth, or the laws of order, which are in the Lord's kingdom, may be evident; otherwise it would never have been commanded that the unclean person should be unclean until the evening, and should then wash himself with water, and after the sun was down should be clean. The law of order in the Lord's kingdom, from which the above law comes, is that good and angelic spirits, when they lapse into a state of self-love, and thereby into a state of falsity, are then remitted a little into their natural or lower state, and are there imbued with knowledges of good and truth as to that thing, which is signified by washing themselves with water in the evening. That washing with water means being purified from falsities, may be seen above (n. 3147, 3148); and that waters are the knowledges of truth (n. 28, 680, 739, 2702, 3058). And after they have been in that obscure state, which is signified by the going down of the sun, they return into their former state, which is signified by their being clean, and entering into the midst of the camp — on which subject, by the Divine mercy of the Lord, something shall be said elsewhere from experience. From what has been said it is now manifest that the going down of the sun, in the Word, signifies an obscure state as to truth with the good, and a state of falsity with the wicked. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 3693.7)

And what happens when an angelic spirit descends to a lower natural state of self desire? That angelic spirit becomes conjoined with the mind of a person on earth who has chosen to live in the same state of being. A spirit can become conjoined with the memory of a living person to the point where they think that memory is one's own. So is the doctrine of reincarnation true or false? It is not true, but it is not exactly false either. To all intents and purposes, we will each have the experience of multiple life times in order to be perfected. And yet as a material life form, we only live once. Going down to a lower natural state is not the only means of perfection. Angelic beings are given tasks as guides for others: at birth, two angelic spirits and two evil 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. While man is unregenerate, he is governed quite otherwise than when regenerated. While unregenerate there are evil spirits with him, who so domineer over him that the angels, though present, are scarcely able to do any thing more than just to guide him so that he may not plunge into the lowest evil, and bend him to some good — in fact to bend him by means of his own desires to good, and through the fallacies of the senses to truth. He then has communication with the world of spirits, through the spirits who are with him, but not so much with heaven, because evil spirits rule, and angels only avert their rule. But when man is regenerated, angels rule, and inspire him with all goods and truths, and with fear and horror of evils and falsities. The angels indeed lead, but only as ministers, for it is the Lord alone who governs man by angels and spirits. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 50)

And the above is similar to ancient Neoplatonic thought, where an angelic genius is assigned to each person at birth. This blog entry is long, but I have barely touched the surface. Obviously broaching this topic of the spiritual afterlife brings up a host of other questions. I had to eliminate a lot of other passages from Swedenborg, there was a lot to choose from. But my intent here was to focus on the spiritual matters behind the idea of reincarnation. Perhaps, by participating in the memories of others, one can find the means to escape from limbo:



Did anyone bother to read the confidential paper that appears at the beginning of the movie Inception?

The heading of the confidential paper says PROCLUS.  Proclus, of course, was one of the last major Neoplatonic philosophers. So what did he have to say about the soul? Here is a summary from wikipedia:

Individual souls have the same overall structure as the principle of Soul, but they are weaker. They have a tendency to be fascinated with the material world, and be overpowered by it. It is at this point that individual souls are united with a material body (i.e. when they are born). Once in the body, our passions have a tendency to overwhelm our reason. According to Proclus, philosophy is the activity which can liberate the soul from a subjection to bodily passions, remind it of its origin in Soul, Intellect, and the One, and prepare it not only to ascend to the higher levels while still in this life, but to avoid falling immediately back into a new body after death.