The Precognitive Fiction of the Book of Doors

THE MYSTERY OF PRECOGNITIVE FICTION

In 2013 I posted a blog concerning "precognitive fiction" which discussed some uncanny coincidences where a work of fiction would later remarkably predict future events (see Precognitive Fictional Novels, and Synchronicity). In that blog I mentioned how the novel Futility predicted events concerning the sinking of the Titanic. Philip K. Dick, a famous science fiction author, wrote a fictional work concerning a character named Kathy who was 19 years old in a relationship with a policeman. The same year after he finished his novel, he met a woman named Kathy who was also 19 years old who was in a relationship with a policeman. There are many examples which go beyond just a simple coincidence. In that blog, I had also mentioned the movie Stranger than Fiction (2006), which is about an IRS agent who begins to hear the voice of a narrator who begins to predict his impending death, and he eventually discovers he is hearing the thoughts of an author who has writer's block in trying to determine how he his going to die:

THE FICTIONAL NOVEL OF THE BOOK OF DOORS

Recently someone suggested I should look into audio books when on long road trips. All one needs is a library card, and a mobile audio app such as Libby or Hoopla. A couple of weeks ago I had to get a library card to check out a book for another person, and then decided to try it. Between work and writing, audio books would be a nice way to pass the time. I looked up fantasy novels, the first one I found was Babel by R.F. Kuang. Despite good reviews it did not hold my attention. I next randomly found another fantasy novel, The Book of Doors, by Gareth Brown.

As any reader can see from blog comments and books that I have written, my name is Theodore D. Webber (in 2025 I recently issued a new edition of The Numerical Poetry of the Psalms).  In 2023 I had left the New Jersey/New York area, and in 2025 I began a temporary apartment lease where I worked with a leasing agent, a young woman named Cassidy. For the past few months I have been working remotely in the business center across the lobby where Cassidy would be at her desk for the apartment. There is a coffee machine in the lobby which I would use while there, and Cassidy would periodically maintain it when I indicated it was broken. There is also a cold brew coffee canister, which at one time exploded and doused her in cold coffee while she was trying to fix it.

And as I listened to the audio book The Book of Doors, I just could not believe what I was hearing. It begins with a young woman named Cassie working at a bookshop, which also has a coffee counter. An elderly man named John Webber would frequently visit the bookshop to sit at a table across from Cassie who would periodically serve him coffee. This takes place in New York in the year 2022, the same year I was still in the New York area. Midway through the book it is revealed that Cassie's actual given name is Cassidy. At another point in time Cassie encounters Mr. Webber who finds her a place to stay in the same apartment complex, reversing the roles of the real Mr. Webber and the real Cassidy. Mr. Webber is a pianist and composer, and while I am neither, I am named after my grandfather Theodore Webber who was both a pianist and composer. We are both descendants of one John Webber.

Mr. Webber is a minor side character who appears at a key moment at the beginning and end of the book.  Much to Cassie's dismay (and to my own personal disappointment), Mr. Webber immediately dies in the first chapter in the book store. Despite not knowing Mr. Webber so well, Cassie soon discovers that Mr. Webber left behind a marvelous gift for her: a strange magical book called The Book of Doors. Cassie soon discovers that the book gave her the power to travel to other destinations, any destination, by simply opening a door while holding the book. Moreover it had another power: she could travel to other destinations in the past, as well as the future.

This is where it gets interesting. Here is what one book cover of The Book of Doors looks like (see Gareth Brown Books - The Book of Doors):

And here is a book I published back in 2012, containing all of the major theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg:

I discuss the work here: The complete works of Emanuel Swedenborg - on your tablet or smartphone which you can find on Amazon here: The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem: Expanded Edition. In his work Emanuel Swedenborg made use of a more accurate version of the Bible at the time, and based on that I made use of modern research to document mistranslations in the book of Psalms in the work, The Mistranslations of the Psalms:

 

And here we have a woman walking through a magical doorway in the Bible. It is glowing with multiple colors which is exactly what happens to the book of doors in the fictional novel when someone uses it.

Between The Book of Doors and The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem, both covers contain a spiral staircase with a woman. Both have a background of stars. In the case of The Book of Doors, the spiral staircase refers to a secret staircase at the top of which was a secret library containing a library of magical books. In the case of The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem, the cover is from a painting by William Blake called Jacob's Ladder, depicting angels ascending and descending on a stairway to heaven. And The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem is not just one book, but a whole library of books.

Coincidence? Even if the author did see my work online, which I doubt, it is just not possible he could have known about my personal circumstances as they occurred after the book was published. The focus and subject matter of his work is completely different: it is just a fantasy novel.

THE REAL "BOOK OF DOORS"?

So is there any other connection between this fictional "Book of Doors" and the work The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem?  In one scene of The Book of Doors, there is time travel back to around the year 2012 where Cassie begins a search to find The Book of Doors. And The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem was published in the year 2012. As said above, the cover of the work is a depiction of Jacob's ladder, a staircase to heaven that the patriarch Jacob saw in a dream. When he awoke from the dream, he said this:

And Jacob awoke from his sleep, and he said, Surely Yahweh is in this place; and I did not know it.  And he was afraid, and said, How fearsome is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven (Gen. 28:16-17).

And a gate is of course a door. The works in The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem describe a system of symbolism known as "correspondences" embedded in the Bible which connects our reality with heaven, and it is through this symbolism that communication with heaven is opened. The author, Swedenborg, experienced 27 years of open communication with the spiritual world of heaven and described the afterlife in detail. And he was shown that a "door" is a symbol of open communication:

"it must be told whence it is that a door and a door post signify communication and conjunction. Angels and spirits have habitations which appear quite like those which are in the world, and, what is an arcanum [secret], all things and each seen in their habitations are significative of spiritual things; they are indeed the outflow of the spiritual things which are in heaven and hence in their minds. Communications of truth with good are there presented by doors, and conjunctions by door posts... That this is the case, man at this day, especially if a merely natural man, cannot believe, because such things are not manifest to the senses of the body. Nevertheless that such things were seen by the prophets when their interiors were open into heaven, is evident from the Word. They have also been perceived and seen by me a thousand times. I have moreover frequently heard them say that the doors of their apartments were open when their thoughts were in communication with me, and that they were closed when they were not in communication." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 8989.3, in The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem) 

And indeed, when Swedenborg discusses the symbolism of the angels descending and ascending upon the stairway to heaven in Jacob's dream, it signifies communication and conjunction with heaven. Thus the entire cover of the work can simply be represented by a door.

In the novel the book of doors is a "key" to a secret library of books. This book, as well as other books with different powers, allows the holder to make their idea become manifest in reality.  In one scene the origin of the magical books is explained as the manifestation of the thoughts of a key character, which then later became the physical book in our world. But in most of these books the contents are seen as useless incomprehensible scribbles. The main topic in in The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem describes how high level heavenly ideas descended into the minds of prophets and was made manifest in a beautiful series of symbolic correspondences which we now know as the Bible. But to many, the meaning of most of the contents is kept hidden. The revelations given to Emanuel Swedenborg explains the hidden spiritual sense of the Bible, and this revelation is the Second Coming, the manifestation of the Word which had manifested itself in the flesh in the First Coming. 

THE REAL "MR. WEBBER"?

Life is full of surprises, and this is not the first time someone upstairs has played such an odd joke on me. The other experience is so unbelievable I have only hinted at it in a few blog posts here and there, and somehow one reader of this blog was able to figure some of it out and gave me some things to investigate in a rather interesting email. While certain parts of The Book of Doors are unnecessary or distracting to the main plot of the book itself, for me personally the ending involving Mr. Webber was a bit touching. I would like to believe that I also could give something to others, and to me there is nothing more important than the heavenly revelations as described in The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem. Other versions of these writings can be found here online: The Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. My hope is other readers will find it.

After I listened to the audio book of The Book of Doors, I searched online about the book to recall certain details. Mr. Webber appears at the beginning and end of the book, and even though he is a minor character I saw online that some fans have speculated that perhaps Mr. Webber is not who he seem to be, and has some other hidden identity which would give the book an interesting plot twist. A hint of that comes from the book Mr. Webber reads, The Count of Monte Cristo, which is based on someone who assumes an alternate identity, who leaves his old life behind due to a betrayal and begins a new one. At that observation I just had to laugh.

If any readers of the The Book of Doors are still seeking a plot twist concerning the identity of Mr. Webber, this blog post should give them, as well as the author, another theory to think about. But most will probably not even believe this. This would align perfectly with the name Cassidy, as it comes from the Greek priestess Cassandra. Cassandra was fated by Apollo to utter prophecies, but who was never to be believed.

The Spiritual meaning of the Plague and the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse

Due to the present coronavirus pandemic, I am seeing an interest in the meaning of the prophecy of the four horseman of the apocalypse, as explained in the post The Prophecy of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.  The Bible, in general, is concerned more about our spiritual life than our physical life.  The fourth horse, which represents the punishment of plague, is called death, and ultimately represents spiritual death in the afterlife after truth has been destroyed (represented by the red horse) and a state of famine which signifies a lack of good (represented by the black horse). When we disregard spiritual truth and follow falsehood, good then declines by which we have conjunction with the Divine. The final state is then spiritual death, and this occurs when we block the internal Divine influx in our soul by rejecting good and truth, upon which our spiritual life depends. Hell, in the other life, is the state of spiritual life that souls prefer who are selfish - it is falsehood which becomes darkness, and hatred which becomes burning fire. When there is a lack of truth and good in the church, spiritual death prevails, and then a new revelation is given to establish the New Church, which is the Second Coming (see Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event?).

The Bible has multiple levels of meaning. The lowest level is the literal level. Hidden behind the literal meaning is the spiritual meaning. Thus when "death" is mentioned in scripture, its true spiritual meaning is spiritual death, which happens in the afterlife. Spiritual life is living a life of love and service by obeying God's commandments and rejecting evils as sin. Consider this Biblical passage:

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. (Deut. 30:19-20) 

The promised land here is not the land of Israel.  It is the promised land of heaven, God's true heavenly kingdom, and the country of Israel was a representation of that. The Jews were God's people only as long as they represented the true spiritual church.

And Jesus said not to fear physical death, but one should be in fear of spiritual death:

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (Matt. 10:28)

In the other life, it is not God who condemns, but it is our own evil desires which condemn ourselves. Those who love evil, hatred and revenge, or are constantly jealous of others, they are attracted to the place that is most agreeable with their desire.  The desire of our will is what determines where we go in the other life.

Those who are natural and materialistic only fear the death of the body. Those who are spiritual fear spiritual death, and thus engage in periodic self examination and repentance.

That "death" in scripture refers to spiritual death is confirmed by Swedenborg in several passages:

"And we shall live, and not die. That this signifies spiritual life, is evident from the signification of living and not dying, as spiritual life, since nothing else is signified in the internal sense by living and not dying. For in the other world by life is signified in general heaven, and in particular eternal happiness; and by death is signified in general hell, and in particular eternal unhappiness there — as is plain from many passages in the Word. That heaven in general and eternal happiness in particular is called life, is because the wisdom of good and the intelligence of truth are there; and in the wisdom of good and the intelligence of truth is life from the Lord, from Whom is the all of life. But because in hell there is just the contrary — evil in place of good and falsity in place of truth, and thus spiritual life is extinct — therefore in hell relatively there is death; for spiritual death is evil and falsity, and in man it is to will evil, and thence to think falsity. Evil genii and spirits are unwilling to hear it said of them that they do not live, or that they are dead; for they say that they have life because they are able to will and to think. But they are told that since life is in good and truth, it cannot possibly be in evil and falsity; for these are contrary to good and truth." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 5407)

Nevertheless, natural punishments, such as plagues, are given by Divine Providence to correct human behaviour. What I am seeing with this plague, more so than other preceding plagues, is that it is forcing people to stay at home because it is initially hard to detect. It is a chance to become more introspective rather than being distracted by external things which really do not matter.

Preceding the coronavirus pandemic, there was a decline in traditional church membership, and I think one outcome of this coronavirus pandemic is people will seek a more inward spirituality rather than the external appearance of just going to church while ignoring one's spiritual and moral life.  It is how we live our lives which matters more than religious belief. A moral life becomes a spiritual life when one's intent becomes spiritual, which is to serve out of love towards God and others, rather than self gain.

SWEDENBORG'S ENCOUNTER WITH THE PLAGUE AND JESUS CHRIST

There is an interesting personal story in the life of Swedenborg which I find very instructive.   In 1710 when Swedenborg was a young man he had boarded a merchant ship bound for London, but when he arrived they were told they must remain on ship in quarantine for six weeks as a plague had broken out in Sweden. Some Swedes had boarded the ship and persuaded Swedenborg to join them to go to the city, however Swedenborg was caught, and the penalty for breaking quarantine at that time was hanging. However he luckily got away with only a severe warning. This was his closest encounter with death in his entire life.

Swedenborg had many visions, and was proven to be clairvoyant by so many witnesses that this is rarely doubted even by his most severe critics.  In the years 1744-45, he has a series of encounters during which time he shifted from recording dreams to having full waking visions of heaven.  In March of 1744, he had a dream in which he met Jesus Christ, and in that encounter Jesus makes a direct reference to a plague at that time:

"There came over me a shuddering, so strong from the head downwards and over the whole body with a noise of thunder, and this happened several times. . . . I then fell into a sleep and at about 12:00, 1:00 or 2:00 . . . there came over me a strong shuddering from head to foot, with a thundering noise as if many winds beat together; which shook me; it was indescribable and prostrated me on my face . . . at that very moment I was wide awake and saw that I was cast down . . . and I spoke as if I were awake; but found nonetheless that the words were put into my mouth. “And oh! Almighty Jesus Christ, that thou . . . deigned to come to so great a sinner. Make me worthy of thy grace.” I held together my hands, and prayed, and then came forth a hand, which squeezed my hands hard. Straightway . . . I continued my prayer and said, “Thou hast promised to take to grace all sinners; thou canst nothing else but keep thy word.” At that moment, I sat in his bosom, and saw him face to face; it was a face of holy mien . . . and he smiled so that I believe that his face had indeed been like this when he lived on earth . . . he asked if I had a clear bill of health. I answered, “Lord, thou knowest better than I.” “Well, do so,” said he. . . . Wakened, with shudderings." (Journal of Dreams, #51).

A "bill of health" was given at the time to people who had arrived on ship from another country to indicate that they did not carry the plague. Here, Jesus asked Swedenborg if he had a clear bill of health - that is, was he committed to living a spiritual life, and avoided things that led towards spiritual death.  Just think, if Swedenborg had died, he would not have contributed all the writings that we can freely read today, which explains the spiritual sense of the Word. Swedenborg was allowed to live so that in the future he could fulfill his mission to reveal the Second Coming, of which many Christians are ignorant due to the falsehoods which prevail in the churches. Perhaps Swedenborg was allowed to live at that moment because of God's future plan for him.

So, now that we are all confronted with death, what kind of commitment are we willing to make? How would we want to be remembered? Is there any unfinished business we should take care of?  It is a good time to re-evaluate our life.

X-Men Prophecy of 9/11 (The X Prophecy)

The book The X Prophecy describes and analyzes evidence of precognition and prophecy in the X-Men comics, which originated from a series of dream interpretations:

Here is a summary of this work: 

This book describes a series of clairvoyant dreams that accurately portray certain scenes from the X-Men comics published 20 years ago in remarkable detail. When the dreams were interpreted it was realized that the dreams were communications from an angelic intelligence speaking in a symbolic manner, and the dreams were describing stories that were a form of precognitive fiction that have been predicting major events of our time. This is compared this with other well known instances of precognitive fiction, including the writings of the Morgan Robertson, Jules Verne, and the science fiction author Philip K. Dick.

The dreams begin at a personal level, however the dream interpretation led the author to uncover future prophecies on a world wide scale, warning against the further development of nuclear weapons and the use of nuclear power, as well as the misuse of artificial intelligence for military purposes. One particular prophecy describes the U.S. Presidential election of 2020. Another set of prophecies concern the involvement of extraterrestrials in human affairs. Related to this is the decoding of a possible extraterrestrial signal that has been kept hidden from the public. Several prophecies that have come to pass already include the attacks of September 11, the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, the marriage of Prince William of England with Kate Middleton, and other events up to the present time.

The subject matter of the dreams are also spiritual in nature, describing how our material world is but one level of reality in a multi-leveled universe. The dreams communicated this knowledge by indicating that certain X-Men comic stories were used as source material for the movie Inception. The dreams are also analyzed in the context of the writings of the clairvoyant Emanuel Swedenborg, who for 27 years had waking visions of the spiritual world.

The book is part dream interpretation, part fiction, and part prophecy. It is a case of precognitive fiction, similar to the one which foretold the sinking of the Titanic: The Wreck of the Titan: Or, Futility. Except in this case - a dream told us to read a particular series of fictional stories.  I have been interpreting dreams for many years and never saw anything like this: the dream would basically reenact certain scenes from comic book stories in remarkable detail, of which the dreamer knew nothing. The dreamer is a young blonde haired girl who appears in the comics as the character Amara, and as I followed the story of Amara in the X-Men comics I came across this scene from Uncanny X-Men, #189:

This comic was published in 1985.  And it predicts the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11, during the 21st century. Afterwards I searched on the internet, and this scene was noticed by others in 5 Times Comics Were Eerily Right About The Future.  The scene above is preceded by this one:

One can see the World Trade Center, and above it a plane flying. The Statue of Liberty is being restored. The restoration of the statue was completed right before the attack on September 11, 2001. But that is not all, we also have this scene, from Kitty Pryde: Agent of Shield #3, published in 1998:

The story is about a flying helicarrier that is remotely hijacked. There is a similar plot in the pilot episode of The Lone Gunman which aired 6 months before the attack on September 11, which speaks of a government conspiracy to remotely control an airliner to crash into the World Trade Center so that the U.S. could go to war against terrorists and increase weapon sales for the military industrial complex.

This is just one example of a prophecy of a world wide event predicted in the X-Men comics that was discovered through a series of dreams. In the first scene shown from the comic, it showed two women travelling to New York. One of them is Rachel Summers who has travelled back in time, who is the daughter of Jean Grey. She embodies the Phoenix force. The dream references Rachel of the X-Men by describing the ancient myth of the Phoenix, specifically the myth of Rarog the firebird of Slavic myth:

In an indirect way, the dream specifically pointed us in the direction of the X-Men movies, and it was associating the X-Men movies with this ancient myth of Rarog the firebird, or the Phoenix. The dream thus references Jean Grey, and from Jean Grey to Rachel Summers, who both embodied the Phoenix force, a symbol of death and rebirth. And the bizarre thing about this: the dreamer knew nothing about the X-Men movies or comics. Very specific details were coming through, and there is no way this was from random coincidence, or from the dreamer's subconscious.

It is somewhat timely, Marvel is about to release its movie Dark Phoenix focused on Jean Grey, who becomes the mother of Rachel Summers. Here is a trailer of the movie:



A more relevant movie, which was directly referenced by the dream, is X-Men: Days of Future Past, and one does need to be familiar with this movie as it was key to interpreting the dream, it is what I consider to be one of the best in the series:



The reason why this particular movie is important is it describes one of the key concepts in the X-Men stories: time travel. Specifically, time travel backwards in time, by sending back a future consciousness into the mind of someone of the past. It is one of the theories that explains the phenomenon of prophecy and precognition.

The dream acts as a filter, indicating which fictional story lines were important and carried symbolic significance. There are now several X-Men movies to watch, the ones I would recommend to watch in order in order to understand the complete story are as follows:

1. X-Men (2000)
2. X2 (2003)
3. X-Men: the Last Stand (2006)
4. X-Men: First Class (2011) - this one can possibly be skipped
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - important from the dream perspective
6. Logan (2017) - important from the dream perspective 

The important ones are the last two, but unfortunately one has to know the backstory to completely understand them. It is not completely necessary to see the movies first, I do provide a necessary summary in the book relevant to the dream interpretation.

The dream has several layers similar to the dreams described in the movie Inception. I did not plan on writing a book, but the book grew from the notes on the interpretation.

The story becomes personal: some of the fictional characters are representations of real life people I know, in a case of life imitating art. One meets a character known as Doug Ramsey, otherwise known as Cypher. He transcribes and publishes these heavenly writings found in Asgard of Norse myths, which involves the history of the country of Sweden. I happened to have published the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, who came from Sweden.

So in the comics Doug Ramsey is a software programmer - so am I.  Doug works on a project involving money transfer and preventing money laundering - so did I.  Doug, in two scenes, is at the center of a "web" of a network. My last name is Webber. Doug decodes an extraterrestrial language - so did I.  One can find it here: A Decoded NSA Extraterrestrial Radio Signal from Outer Space and here: The Origin of the NSA Extraterrestrial Radio Signal. The precognitive fiction is not only referenced personal details about my life (I mention just a few here), but this radio signal in particular. And this decoding catches the attention of some rather unusual people. They are aware of Doug, but Doug is unaware of them.  Dates are given that match real events in my personal life, specifically the years 2013 and 2015.

And then one begins to wonder: what parts of the story are real, and what parts are fiction? This becomes a big question when the story begins to reference human looking extraterrestrials that intervene in human affairs.  Which I happened to have blogged about before I independently encountered this dream, as Swedenborg does indicate that there are other planets in the universe inhabited by extraterrestrial humans. And then one realizes, should they exist, and ever be discovered, they might be classified as mutants. And this is the subject matter and theme of the X-Men comics.

It is very strange to read a fictional work that is referenced by a dream, where one finds oneself written as a character in the book.  There is a movie which describes just such a plot, called Stranger than Fiction:



When encountering a work of precognitive fiction, there are four possible explanations:

1. That this is all just random coincidence
2. That the predictions are probable futures that were guessed by the author(s)
3. That the positive predictions ignore the negative predictions
4. The authors somehow were inspired to write something that would happen in the future, in a case of subconscious precognition.

There are many cases of precognitive fiction that can be eliminated or adequately explained by the first three explanations. But not this one, it includes very specific details. There are predictions that were fulfilled from 1981 all the way to 2020, concerning the upcoming U.S. Presidential election. The prophecies speak of extraterrestrial involvement in human affairs, a future warning against the development of tactical nuclear weapons, and a warning against the misuse of artificial intelligence by the military.

Other aspects are symbolic, and the dreams reveal the true hidden origin of the movie Inception.

For other prophecies from the X-Men that are described in the book, see the post, X-Men Prophecy of Prince William of England and the Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown

Swedenborg's Clairvoyance on Biblical Discoveries

In the 18th century Emanuel Swedenborg experienced 27 years of waking visions to reveal to the world the reality of the afterlife, the spiritual sense of scripture, and the true doctrines of Christianity. Although he intended everyone to examine the truth for themselves from scripture, he inadvertently at times included clairvoyant information that can be verified by facts (see The Confirmed Clairvoyance of Emanuel Swedenborg). For example, it is now well established that the first 11 chapters of Genesis have parallels in the myths and writings of ancient Sumeria, which were discovered in the 19th century. Before their discovery, and long before the creationist-evolutionary debate, Swedenborg stated that the first 11 chapters were based on earlier writings which were mythical in character:

"There are in the Word, in general, four different styles. The first is that of the Most Ancient Church. Their mode of expression was such that when they mentioned terrestrial and worldly things they thought of the spiritual and celestial things which these represented. They therefore not only expressed themselves by representatives, but also formed these into a certain historical series, as it were, that they might be the more living... These particulars concerning the creation, the garden of Eden, etc., down to the time of Abram, Moses had from the descendants of the Most Ancient Church. (Heavenly Arcana, n. 66)

"...the historic narrative concerning the creation and concerning the first man, and concerning paradise, is a history so framed as to contain within it heavenly and Divine things, and this according to the received manner in the Ancient Churches. This manner of writing extended thence also to many who were outside of that Church..." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 8891.4)

For further details, see the earlier blog post Is Genesis Historical? A Revelation from Heaven.  Another was he predicted the content of the Hebrew midrash of the book of Jasher, which he states is much older than scholars think (see The Lost Book of Jasher, the Exodus, and Emanuel Swedenborg).

Combined with his other clairvoyant experiences that were verified by his contemporaries this is impressive. However I started to read again Swedenborg's extensive explanation of the book of Revelation and found another odd finding, which is hard to notice unless one uses a search engine or index of Swedenborg's writings.

THE SPIRITUAL MEANING OF THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA

From his waking visions under the guidance of the Lord, Swedenborg interpreted every single small detail in the Apocalypse, the final book of the Bible, and many still struggle to interpret its meaning. The work begins with seven epistles from Jesus to seven churches in Asia Minor:

John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from Him who is, and who was, and who is to come (Rev. 1:4).

The seven churches signify seven different types of Christianity where one can directly apply it to one's Christian walk of life (see The Symbolism of the Seven Churches of the book of Revelation for a summary). However every small detail in scripture has a spiritual significance, even personal and geographic place names. So what is the spiritual meaning about Asia, or Asia Minor? Swedenborg says this:

"Which are in Asia, signifies to those who from the Word are in the light of truth. Since by all the names of persons and places in the Word the realities of heaven and the church are meant, as said before, the same are signified by Asia, and by the names of the seven churches there, as will be manifest from what follows. They who are in the light of truth from the Word are meant by Asia, because the Most Ancient Church, and after it the Ancient, and afterwards the Israelitish, were in Asia; also because the Ancient Word was with them, and afterwards the Israelitish; and all the light of truth is from the Word." (Apocalypse Revealed, n. 11)

Although Swedenborg does not mention it, another reason why Asia has this significance is that it contains Mt. Ararat, the region where Noah's Ark rested after the flood, and Noah and his descendants represent the Ancient Church that succeeded the Most Ancient Church of the antediluvians. In Apocalypse Explained Swedenborg gives a more detailed account on how he arrived at this interpretation:

"In Asia, signifies those who are in the light of intelligence. This can be seen by a spiritual idea only, such as angels have, concerning the regions of this earth. When Asia is named, angels perceive the south; when Europe is named, the north; and when Africa, the east; and as by the "south" is signified the clear light of intelligence, so that light is signified by "Asia." This perception has been granted also to me, as often as I have been in the spiritual idea and have thought of Asia. Such is the spiritual idea of Asia, because the church was there in ancient times, and then extended over many regions there; therefore, those who are in heaven from that country are in the light of intelligence. For this reason, when Asia is thought of, a light like that which is in the south of heaven flows in." (Apocalypse Explained, n. 21)

This explanation is more detailed, which Swedenborg simplified in Apocalypse Revealed. It at first seems strange, but it is actually supported in prophetic interpretations of scripture, especially by those of the Seventh Day Adventists. In the prophecy of Daniel 11-12, it is recognized by several commentators that the "king of the north" eventually refers to the Roman Empire of Europe and the "king of the south" refers to the Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt. The latter had survived longer than its other rival, the Seleucid Empire, which covered Asia Minor. The war between the king of the north and south ultimately signify the corruption of the early Church, which happened when Rome became the primary authority over the more ancient eastern churches of the Middle East (see The Prophecy of Daniel 11-12 Explained, for my personal viewpoint on the prophetic interpretation).

CLAIRVOYANCE ON THE ANCIENT HITTITE EMPIRE

Focusing back on Asia, specifically Asia Minor, we now know that Asia Minor was once the center of the Hittite Empire. From The Hittites - Ancient History Encyclopedia:

"Little was known of the Hittites other than the references from the Bible and fragmentary documentation from Egypt until the late 19th century CE when excavations began at Boghaskoy (modern-day Bogazkale, Turkey) which was once the site of Hattusa, capital of the Hittite Empire... Hattusa was originally founded by the Hatti (an aboriginal tribe of Anatolia) in 2500 BCE, and their culture may have provided the basis for that of the Hittites.  This very important complex and those who built it along with their vast empire, however, remained almost unknown until their writings were discovered, first by the Irish missionary William Wright in 1884 CE, and then by the German archaeologist Hugo Winckler in 1906 CE."

Below is one map of the Hittite Empire, showing it covered portions of Asia and bordered the land of Canaan:

By 1912 Winckler found a huge cache of clay cuneiform tablets which were quickly deciphered. It was soon realized by scholars that they had discovered the empire of the Hittites which are mentioned multiple times in the Bible. Up until that time nothing was known of the Hittites, except also they happened to be another one of the inhabitants in the land of Canaan. They were in no way associated with the geographic region of Asia. The case for the identification is summarized in Biblical Hittites:

Apart from the similarity in names, the Anatolian Hittites were a powerful political entity in the region before the collapse of their empire in the 14th-12th centuries BC, so one would expect them to be mentioned in the Bible, just in the way that the ḤTY post-Exodus are. A stone lion relief found at Beth Shan, near the Sea of Galilee (now at the Israel Museum), dated to about 1700 BC, has been interpreted by professor Bill Humble as confirming this identification, since lions are often pictured in Hittite art. Moreover, in the account of the conquest of Canaan, the Hittites are said to dwell "in the mountains" and "towards the north" of Canaan — a description that matches the general direction and geography of the original Hittite empire, which had been influential in the region prior to the Battle of Kadesh.
Modern academics propose, based on much onomastic and archaeological evidence, that Anatolian populations moved south into Canaan as part of the waves of Sea Peoples who were migrating along the Mediterranean coastline at the time of the collapse of the Hittite Empire. Many kings of local city-states are shown to have had Hittite and Luwian names in the Late Bronze to Early Iron Age transition period. Indeed, even the name of Mount Zion may be Hittite in origin.

So, Swedenborg had absolutely no knowledge of this, as the Hittite Empire had essentially been forgotten until it was rediscovered in the 20th century. Now here is where things get interesting. If Asia signifies those who are in the light of truth as they were from the Ancient Church preceding Judaism, then the spiritual significance of "Hittite" should be similar as we now know they originate from Asia. And here is what Swedenborg states concerning the Hittites:

"There were many inhabitants of the land of Canaan, who are named in many passages of the Word and among them the Hittites (see Gen. xv. 20; Exod. iii. 8, 17; xiii. 5; xxiii. 23; Deut. vii. 1; xx. 17; Josh. iii. 10; xi. 1, 3; xii. 8; xxiv. 11; 1 Kings ix. 20: and other places). Most of these were from the Ancient Church; that this extended through many lands, and likewise through the land of Canaan... Among the better inhabitants of the land of Canaan were the Hittites, as may be evident from this, that Abraham dwelt among them, and afterward Isaac and Jacob, and had their burial-place there; also from their bearing themselves piously and modestly toward Abraham, as is very plain from what is related of them in this chapter (particularly in verses 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 15). And thus by the Hittites, as by a well-disposed nation, is represented and signified the spiritual church, or the truth of the church." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2913.1-2)

Swedenborg had no knowledge that the Hittites originated from Asia, only that they were part of the Ancient Church. And yet the spiritual meaning of "Asia" and "Hittite" is practically the same: Asia represents those of the church in the light of truth, and Hittite always represents those who are in the spiritual truth of the church. This is reaffirmed in another passage:

"There were remains of the church from ancient times still in the land of Canaan, especially with those who were called Hittites and Hivites. Consequently by those nations are represented the truths which were of that church." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 4429.3)

And again, similar to Asia the Hittite spiritually signifies the light of truth:

"That is in the field of Ephron the Hittite. That this signifies that yet there may be light, is evident from the signification of a field, as the church (see n. 2971, 3766); and from the representation of Ephron the Hittite, as those with whom truth and good may be received (n. 2933, 2940, 2969), and thus with whom the obscurity of faith may be made clear." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 6454)

When explaining this passage of Ephron the Hittite among the sons of Heth, Swedenborg goes further:

"This verse treats of the new church that the Lord establishes when the former church expires; and the verses that follow treat of the reception of faith with them. A church among the sons of Heth is not treated of; but the raising up by the Lord of the spiritual church in general, after the former ceases or is consummated" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2913.1-2)

And this is the exact theme of the book of Revelation - the consummation of the old Christian churches, and the establishment of a new spiritual Christian Church, signified by the New Jerusalem that descends out of heaven. This is something that Swedenborg could not have conceived on his own, and is thus evidence he was receiving heavenly revelations on the spiritual meaning of scripture. It is thus evidence that the Second Coming indeed has taken place in these new revelations, for which see Is the Second Coming a Physical Event or Spiritual Event?

An Explanation of Swedenborg's Extraterrestrial Encounters

Emanuel Swedenborg was a scientific genius of the 18th century, who later in life experienced a spiritual awakening and was introduced to the spiritual world. He was given new revelations concerning Christianity, and wrote volumes concerning a systematic and rational Christian theology that reveals the spiritual sense of scripture. Time and time again, it was verified that he had some clairvoyant abilities, one of which was verified by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. However he attempted to keep these private, as spiritual truths should be examined on their own merits, without external "miraculous" proofs.

In his 27 years of waking visions of the spiritual world, Swedenborg was surprised to encounter angelic spirits of the human race that were not from our planet but from other planets. In his attempt to determine where they originated, Swedenborg concluded that some originated from planets of this solar system, based on his limited astronomical knowledge of the 18th century. This has caused many to offhand reject the revelations that Swedenborg received, and many who study the theology have questions about this.

So what is the explanation? Swedenborg's visions of extraterrestrials were first published in interspersed passages in a massive multi-volume work Heavenly Arcana (aka Arcana Coelestia, meaning "Heavenly Secrets"). He then republished these experiences in a smaller work, Earths in the Universe. Both of these are available in the multi-volume set, The Divine Revelation of the New Jerusalem. However, the original encounters with extraterrestrials were first recorded in his private diary, which I have published separately in The Spiritual Diary of Emanuel Swedenborg. This Spiritual Diary contains details about these extraterrestrials which were not in the published accounts, and in fact provides some insightful answers.

Although I have discussed extraterrestrials before, I realized I never gave an overall assessment of Swedenborg's work, Earths in the Universe. So, using the resources at hand, lets examine this closely, point by point, to give others the proper background in this area.

POINT 1: THESE ARE SPIRITUAL VISIONS, NOT EARTHLY ONES

At times Swedenborg had remote clairvoyant visions of physical locations. However these are rare. These particular waking visions took place in the spiritual world, where physical concepts such as time and space become irrelevant. In this state, the physical natural world is invisible. Swedenborg states that the light of the sun in the natural world is complete darkness to the angelic spirits of the spiritual world:

"It is to be known that the sun of the world does not appear at all to any spirit, nor any of its light. The light of that sun is to spirits and angels like thick darkness. That sun remains only in the perception of spirits, from their having seen it while in the world, and is presented to them in idea as something dusky and this behind at a considerable distance" (Earths in the Universe, n. 42).

Also Swedenborg admits that he could by no means see the planet, only the spirits from that planet:

"no earth is anywhere seen by those who are in the spiritual world, but only the spirits and angels who are from it" (Earths in the Universe, n. 47).

So this obviously leaves room for error as to one's exact physical location or dimension. At times Swedenborg tries to get around this limitation which does not always provide a correct answer.

POINT 2: PHYSICAL CONCEPTS CORRESPOND TO SPIRITUAL IDEAS

In the spiritual world, ideas are elevated to an abstract level, where a person, place or thing is not thought of, but what that person, place or thing signifies in a spiritual sense. For example, our physical idea of "light" is translated into a higher level concept of "truth." Every physical idea we have corresponds to a higher level concept. And this would include the planets of our solar system. When Swedenborg saw from afar what the solar system looked like, it looked nothing like our physical solar system (see Earths in the Universe, n. 42), for things appeared according to their symbolic spiritual relationships.

POINT 3: HEAVENLY SOCIETIES IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD CORRESPOND TO STARS

In Swedenborg's visions, he saw that all of heaven were arranged into individual societies, and sometimes he references particular stars. However in the spiritual world it is known that stars in the physical world correspond to societies of angels in the spiritual world. Swedenborg briefly notes this in a couple of passages in Heavenly Arcana:

"The very stars correspond, the societies of heaven and their habitations being what they have correspondence with; not that they are there, but that they are in a similar order." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 5377.2)

"That the Divine was signified by what is high, was because by the starry heaven was signified the angelic heaven, and it was also believed that it was there, though the wiser among them knew that heaven was not on high, but where the good of love is, and this within man, wheresoever he may be." (Heavenly Arcana, n. 8153)

Thus the stars in the natural world correspond to angelic societies in the spiritual world. But in Earths in the Universe, Swedenborg did not indicate this, and when he speaks of an extraterrestrial society, he talks of their star system as a physical star system. In The Spiritual Diary, Swedenborg also explains that an angelic society, although few, can represent an entire planet in its form:

"It is to be observed that in heaven a few may represent themselves as if they were all, and that some few from a globe represent, as it were, the whole planet. Such is the representation in heaven, for the individuals are images of the whole, as a few are images of all." (Spiritual Diary, n. 1444)

POINT 4: HEAVENLY SOCIETIES CORRESPOND TO THE HUMAN FORM

Another point that plays a major role in the revelations concerning Christianity is that all of the heavenly societies in the spiritual world correspond to an aspect of the human form, which is termed as the "Grand Man" or "Greatest Man" -

"It is most hidden in the world, yet nothing is more manifest in the other life, even to every spirit, that all things in the human body have correspondence with those that are in heaven; and this so fully that there is not the smallest particle in the body, to which something spiritual and celestial does not correspond... Hence it is that the whole heaven is called also the Greatest Man; and hence it is that it has been so often said that one society belongs to one province of the body, another to another, and so on. The reason is, that the Lord is the Only Man, and heaven represents Him" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 2996)

An important corollary point to this is that if a particular society is lacking or deficient in representing a full and complete human form, angelic spirits from other earths will be brought into spiritual communion with our society to "fill the gap" -

"That the universal heaven has the form of one man, which is therefore called the Greatest Man, and that all things and everything pertaining to man, both exterior and interior, correspond to that Man, or heaven, is an arcanum not yet known in the world; but that it is so, has been abundantly shown. To constitute that Greatest Man, spirits are required from many earths, those who come from our earth into heaven not being sufficient, being comparatively few; and it is provided by the Lord that whenever and wherever there is a deficiency in the quality or quantity of correspondence, those are summoned at once from another earth who may supply the deficiency, so that the proportion may be preserved, and thus heaven be kept in due form." (Earths in the Universe, n. 9, also Heavenly Arcana, n. 6807)

So, what Swedenborg saw as "our solar system" was probably a communion of different spiritual societies, so that each society represented a different aspect of the human psyche. In comparison with other extraterrestrial societies, Swedenborg saw that we are the most external and materialistic of most other societies, corresponding to the external senses of the body. Other extraterrestrial societies have to be brought into communion with ours to represent the full aspect of the spiritual levels of the human psyche. Some of this is summarized in the Spiritual Diary:

"In like manner the spirits of the earth Jupiter represent rational ideas... The spirits of the earth Saturn correspond to interior sense, or reason; The spirits of the earth Mercury to knowledges; The spirits of the earth Mars to thought." (Spiritual Diary, n. 1558)

Our earthly society corresponds to what is most external, that is the external sensual of the body, and spiritual concepts and ideas are relatively ignored or absent. Most people put up an external appearance in front of others, and are concerned about external appearance, or material things. But overall most ignore the internal thoughts, intuitions, dreams, conscience and feelings inside of us. To make up for this imbalance, other extraterrestrial spiritual societies have been drawn in to rectify this imbalance.

POINT 5: SWEDENBORG MISIDENTIFIED THE PLANET MERCURY

In Earths in the Universe, Swedenborg starts off describing an interstellar wandering group of extraterrestrials, whose sole purpose in life is to gather knowledge. Swedenborg simply says they are from the planet Mercury. But when we read of the original encounter in The Spiritual Diary, the answer is not so clear. In fact we can see Swedenborg jumps to the conclusion that they must be from a planet in our solar system, but the answer was never once given to him:

"When I represented the planets to them - because they could not say from what planet they came - they said that they know that there are many earths, and they know various things pertaining to the inhabitants of those earths, for they are delighted with cognitions. And when I represented in a spiritual manner the planets which are called Mercury and Venus, they directed my sight to the planet Venus, but I could perceive that they wanted to conceal [where they came from]. Thus I could perceive that they were from the planet nearest the sun" (Spiritual Diary, n. 1425).

This account is omitted in Earths in the Universe. Swedenborg first assumes they are from our solar system, even though they are telling him there are many planets in the universe. He then picks Mercury and Venus, they say "not Venus" and Swedenborg then assumes it must be Mercury. And this from a group of extraterrestrials that we would perhaps call "habitual liars," because it was their custom to give either an opposite or indirect answer to a question. This they did not consider a "lie," but rather it was to excite the curiosity to know:

"They said that when they speak with the men of their own earth, they do the same, and this not with the intention of deceiving, but to inspire the desire of knowing. For when they suggest what is opposite, and conceal things in a certain manner, the desire of knowing is excited, and thus from the endeavor to examine into what is presented, the memory is perfected." (Earths in the Universe, n. 35, also Heavenly Arcana, n. 7074)

As to why Mercury was selected, this is explained in the myths of Mercury and Hermes who are associated with travel, knowledge and trade, which would correspond to an extraterrestrial society that travels the universe to gather knowledge. When one knows how physical ideas correspond to spiritual ones, the identification makes perfect sense.

POINT 6: SWEDENBORG MISIDENTIFIED THE PLANET JUPITER

Swedenborg talks extensively about the extraterrestrials from the planet Jupiter, and like the ones from Mercury he says he was told that they were from Jupiter. Again there is a more nuanced explanation in The Spiritual Diary that explains why Swedenborg associated this particular extraterrestrial society with the planet Jupiter. First, there is this entry from Jan. 3, 1748:

"representations were shown me of those who are worshipped as saints and gods. The gods and goddesses of the ancients are still represented, as Venus, Diana, Phoebus, Jupiter, and indeed each in his or her own peculiar attire... Moreover, of the men who were worshipped as saints and thus as gods, three kinds only were represented to me. Namely, there were those who are averse to that worship, who were among the angels and guarded by them. Then there are those who do not wish to be among the gods and to be worshipped as gods, but who still retain something of the outward appearance although they repudiate it with the mouth. The third kind are the profane who receive such worship and want to be acknowledged as saints and gods." (Spiritual Diary, n. 440, 443)

Soon after this entry, in the same month Swedenborg encounters the extraterrestrial society "of Jupiter," where they described that some of their society wished to be worshipped as saints or gods. As the myths of Jupiter indicate that Jupiter or Zeus is the head of the gods, it makes perfect sense for Swedenborg's idea of "Jupiter" corresponds to such a society. Jupiter, or Zeus, is the god of thunder, and a representation of that was also shown:

"Jupiter was represented with a continuous power, as it were, of lightning, which cannot be described because it cannot be conceived, by which all are driven away" (Spiritual Diary, n. 440)

And, it just so happens that Swedenborg sees lightning in his interactions with the extraterrestrial society of Jupiter:

"They said that when any little disagreement arises among them, there appears as it were a slender bright ray like that of lightning, or like a little belt in which are gleaming and wandering stars; but any disagreement among them is soon adjusted. Stars gleaming and at the same time wandering signify what is false, but stars gleaming and fixed signify what is true; and thus the former signify disagreement" (Earths in the Universe, n. 50, also Heavenly Arcana, n. 8112).

Lightning, in the spiritual sense, also signifies a heavenly revelation that is dissipated by falsehood (see Heavenly Arcana, n. 3900.9). As in this society there were some disagreements about religion, so it was associated with the god of thunder.

POINT 7: THERE IS AN ANGELIC SOCIETY ASSOCIATED WITH EACH STAR OR PLANET, WHETHER INHABITED OR NOT

This is a subtle alternate explanation. Since every physical terrestrial object corresponds to something in the spiritual world which is living or alive, every physical planet or star will have a spiritual society associated with it whether that system is actually inhabited or not. As Swedenborg had limited scientific knowledge at the time, he assumed all planets were inhabited. However he does make this alternate conclusion when he realizes that the moon of our earth does not have an atmosphere to support life:

"but still that the human race was there, because there is nothing without an end: thus [so] nothing without the human race, to be a [the] bond between terrestrial and natural things, and celestial things: for otherwise, never can an earth, whether planet, or moon, or satellite, exist" (Spiritual Diary, n. 3244)

The natural world exists and subsists from the spiritual world, which Swedenborg explains further throughout his works. This is an alternate conclusion which unfortunately he did not publish in his work Earths in the Universe.

POINT 8: VENUS AND MARS WERE PREVIOUSLY INHABITABLE

This is another alternative explanation. In the last 10 years or so, scientists now know much more about Venus and Mars, and there is strong evidence that they were previously inhabitable. While this is now recently known to be true for Mars, one model suggests it is also true for Venus: see NASA Climate Modeling Suggests Venus May Have Been Habitable. Both Venus and Mars once had a breathable atmosphere, and both once had water on the surface. The environment of Venus gradually changed as our Sun grew hotter, and Mars suffered a cataclysm on a grand scale in its distant past. So, in this theory, Venus and/or Mars were previously inhabited, and Swedenborg may have described societies there that have long since died out. That, of course, would entail a radical revision of our human history.

POINT 9: THESE SOCIETIES MAY BE FORMER CIVILIZATIONS FROM EARTH

In this theory, some of the societies that Swedenborg is seeing are not extraterrestrial at all, but represent former civilizations from planet earth. Swedenborg saw that angelic spirits are associated with planets from where they are from, since they are of a similar genius and character to those living on the planet. But what happens to former civilizations on earth that have died out, which are of a different character than those living on the planet in the present? If they are of a different character, then the angelic societies of these former civilizations would start to form their own spiritual community, and appear from a different "planet" in the spiritual world.

There are only two "extraterrestrial" societies that Swedenborg describes that are candidates for this theory. One concerns the society of "Mars." For Mars, Swedenborg describes their character and he himself makes the observation that they are of a similar character to the antediluvians that existed on our planet before the flood of Noah. Both the antediluvians and this extraterrestrial society had a similar way of breathing, and were of a "celestial" character as they both were in close contact with heaven, which is described in the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Some, similar to the story of Adam being cast out of the garden of Eden, or Cain being forced to wander, are cast out of their society when they begin to act selfishly. Also like the antediluvians, they are vegetarian.

So what is it about the planet Mars that corresponds to the Adamic race that existed before the flood? For one, the name "Adam" means not only earth but also is related to a word meaning red, and Mars of course is known as the "red planet." As Mars appears red from earth, in ancient mythology he was considered the god of war since they associated the color red with blood. Thus the physical idea of "Mars" corresponds with Adam, and thus in the spiritual world would become associated with the ancient society of the antediluvians. In the spiritual realm, physical ideas get translated into their corresponding abstract ideas independent of the place.

There is one other physical correspondence between the planet Mars and the ancient antediluvians from our history, and this is a little weird because it was not known to Swedenborg. Mars, as it turns out, experienced massive flooding in its distant past. And this is a recent discovery, and it is quite obvious from the analysis of recent probes there. See Remnants of a Mega-Flood on Mars for detailed pictures. Mars happens to have the largest flood channels in the solar system. But this was not known to Swedenborg - the ancient floods of Mars is a recent discovery.

Other than Mars, Venus is the other "extraterrestrial" society that Swedenborg describes which may actually be a spiritual society from our own planet earth. The spiritual society of Venus is divided into two societies, one gentle and humane on the far side, but the one facing our earth is of a savage nature. When describing them, Swedenborg compares them to savage people living on our earth 3000 years ago:

"I have been told by angels what their quality is, and whence they have so savage a nature — namely, that their chief delight is in plundering, and especially in feasting on their plunder. Their enjoyment when thinking of feasting on their plunder, was communicated to me, and was perceived to be extreme. That there have been inhabitants on our earth also of such a savage nature, is plain from the histories of various nations; also from the inhabitants of the land of Canaan (1 Sam. xxx. 16), and from the Jewish and Israelitish nation even in the time of David — in their making yearly excursions to plunder the nations and feast with rejoicing on the spoil. It was also said, that those inhabitants are for the most part giants, and that the men of our earth only come up to their middle" (Earths in the Universe, n. 108, also Heavenly Arcana, n. 7248)

This may just happen to be describing the "Nephilim" - an ancient race of giants that inhabited the land of Canaan during the time of David. They were the descendants of the "sons of God" mating with women during antediluvian times:

"And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose... There were giants (Nephilim) in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown." (Gen. 6:1-2, 4)

These same giants were encountered in the land of Canaan at the time the Israelites spied upon the land (Num. 13:32-33). There is one ancient theory, popular among the Essenes of ancient Israel, that states that the "sons of God" in the passage of Genesis were extraterrestrial beings. They are described in the apocryphal book of Enoch. They are described as "angels" who descended from heaven, but as they have physical bodies, this ancient work is actually proposing an extraterrestrial origin from a race similar to ours. These beings mated with women to produce giants through illicit sexual relationships. Thus it would make sense for the idea of "Venus" to be associated with this society since Venus is the goddess of love and sex. However this is admittedly strange since this ancient theory was unknown to Swedenborg and even Swedenborg gives an alternate explanation for Genesis 6. The apocryphal book of Enoch was rediscovered in the year 1773, a year after Swedenborg had died. In the latter half of the 20th century remnants of the book were also recovered from the Dead Sea Scrolls. So like Mars, this correspondence is a bit odd as it is based on knowledge unknown Swedenborg.

POINT 10 - SWEDENBORG WAS GIVEN INFORMATION ON THE RINGS OF SATURN

Besides Swedenborg's other clairvoyant experiences, which were highly accurate according to numerous witnesses, is there any information that was given to factually validate that he indeed came into contact with other extraterrestrials in the spiritual world? Sadly very little. However an exception arises when Swedenborg asks the extraterrestrial society of "Saturn" what the rings looked like to them, for these angelic spirits had retained their memory from their physical lifetime. He gives the following description:

"They were asked about that great ring which appears from our earth to rise above the horizon of that planet, and to vary its situation. They said that it does not appear to them as a ring, but only as a snowy light in the sky, varying in direction." (Earths in the Universe, n. 104, also Heavenly Arcana, n. 8952)

Back in the 18th century, it was thought that the rings of Saturn were solid rings. The rings were first discovered in 1655, but it was not until 1787 after Swedenborg died that Laplace proved that a solid band of rings would be unstable. And it was not until the 19th century that the nature of Saturn's rings became more well defined. From Wikipedia:

"In 1859, James Clerk Maxwell demonstrated that a nonuniform solid ring, solid ringlets or a continuous fluid ring would also not be stable, indicating that the ring must be composed of numerous small particles, all independently orbiting Saturn. Later, Sofia Kovalevskaya also found that Saturn's rings cannot be liquid ring-shaped bodies. Spectroscopic studies of the rings carried out in 1895 by James Keeler of Allegheny Observatory and Aristarkh Belopolsky of Pulkovo Observatory showed Maxwell's analysis was correct."

And now, in the 21st century, the observations of the Cassini probe show that the rings of Saturn are almost entirely composed of particles of water ice, and when seen up close it would look like "snowy light." Here is an image from Cassini:

Like Mercury and Jupiter, Saturn may have misidentified by Swedenborg, and was shown a society that also happens to have rings around its planet. It is now known that it is not unique to Saturn - see Which Planets have Rings?

POINT 11 - WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF HUMAN EXTRATERRESTRIALS

Since the explosion of the atomic bomb at the end of World War 2, there have been multiple witness accounts of encounters with human or humanoid extraterrestrials. In some of these accounts, it is explained that the human form is common throughout the universe, confirming Swedenborg's statement. Although there is a large body of evidence in this area, it is an active area of counter-intelligence, where frauds and hoaxes are invented every day. It takes discernment to see beyond the methods of "poisoning the well" and "character assassination" as well as the social taboo of ridicule. The methods of secrecy around this subject serve to protect the spiritual truths revealed to Swedenborg against profanation:

"The case is this: When men have become inverted orders of life, and are unwilling to live and be wise except of themselves and from their proprium, then whatever they hear that relates to faith they reason whether it is so or not; and as they do this from themselves, from their sensual ideas and knowledges, they cannot but deny, and when they deny they blaspheme and profane. And at length they do not care if they commingle things profane with those that are holy. When a man has come into such a state of profanation, he is in the other life condemned beyond all hope of salvation" (Heavenly Arcana, n. 301).

In other words, these accounts of extraterrestrials may have been revealed so people would simply not believe and reject anything Swedenborg had to say. For it would be better for them to not to believe, than to take the revelation and then reject or distort it. And the amount of effort that goes in to keep any extraterrestrial contact secret serve to keep the spiritual revelations given to Swedenborg hidden in plain sight.

What is interesting about some of these witness accounts is that some report feeling an intense, irrational anxiety or fear before and during the encounter. Some break out into a sweat before the encounter. And this comes from independent accounts. It is unexplainable, even to those who think they are rationally or intellectually prepared for it. It is very similar to some of the encounters Swedenborg described, in which angelic spirits from our earth started to experience a fear when encountering those from another planet:

"These spirits were altogether unwilling to think of their body, and indeed of any thing corporeal and material — quite unlike the spirits from our earth. This was why they were not willing to come near. And yet after the removal of some of the spirits of our earth, they came nearer and spoke with me. But then anxiety was felt, arising from collision of spheres; for spiritual spheres encompass all spirits and societies of spirits; and as they flow forth from the life of the affections and of the thoughts therefrom, so where there are opposing affections there arises collision, and thence anxiety" (Earths in the Universe, n. 148)

Swedenborg explains that there is an unseen spiritual aura that surrounds each and every living thing. Thus when something foreign is encountered, it engages a "fight or flight" biological response (see Fight-or-flight response). This, as well as other factors, would explain why extraterrestrials would choose not to contact us even though they would become aware of us.

SUMMARY CONCLUSION

So this sums up my current view on the extraterrestrials that Swedenborg encountered in the spiritual world. Given Swedenborg's other confirmed clairvoyant experiences, it means somewhere out there there are other intelligent and loving human races. None of Swedenborg's experiences by any means discounts any of the other revelations he received, but one has to study the spiritual revelations in order to understand Swedenborg's accounts. Without understanding spiritual correspondences, one is going to get hopelessly lost in the literal account.

As to why these revelations were given to Swedenborg, it is my belief that they were given to help prepare us for eventual extraterrestrial contact. It was also explained to Swedenborg why God chose to become incarnate on our earth and not on others. It serves to expand our limited view to a more universal view, one of understanding of others who are different from us. It is a logical revelation for us to grow in the love for others, to create a bridge across the gulf of separation.