From The Doctrines For Spiritual Christianity
Man does not know that in respect to his mind he is in the midst of spirits, for the reason that the spirits with whom he is in company in the spiritual world, think and speak spiritually, while his own spirit thinks and speaks naturally so long as he is in the material body; and the natural man cannot understand or perceive spiritual thought and speech, nor the reverse. This is why spirits cannot be seen. But when the spirit of man is in company with spirits in their world, he is also in spiritual thought and speech with them, because his mind is interiorly spiritual but exteriorly natural; therefore by means of his interiors he communicates with spirits, while by means of his exteriors he communicates with men. (True Christian Religion 475)
As regards thoughts: all the thoughts of man, together with the single ideas thereof, derive something from space, time, person, and matter, which appear in natural light or the light of the world, for nothing can be thought without light, in like manner as nothing can be seen without light, and natural light or the light of the world is dead, because it is from its sun, which is pure fire; nevertheless the light of heaven everywhere and constantly flows into and vivifies that light, communicating perception and understanding of the subject. The light of the world alone cannot give anything perceptive and intellectual, or present any natural or rational light [lumen]; but the light of the world gives and presents it from the light of heaven, because the light of heaven is from its sun, which is the Lord, and thence life itself. The influx of heavenly light into the light of the world is like the influx of the cause into the effect; the nature of this influx shall be explained elsewhere. From this it appears what the quality of natural thought is, or what quality the ideas of men’s thoughts are, namely, that they inseparably cohere with space, time, with what is personal, and material; consequently, such thoughts or ideas of thoughts are very limited and bounded and thus gross, and to be called material. But the thoughts of the angels of the middle heaven are all without space, time, or what is personal, and material, for which reason they are unlimited and unbounded; the objects of their thoughts are spiritual like the thoughts themselves, for which reason they think concerning those objects spiritually and not naturally. But with regard to the angels of the highest heaven, they have no thoughts, but perceptions of the things which they hear and see; instead of thoughts they have affections, which with them are varied in like manner as thoughts are varied with the spiritual angels. (De Verbo 3{6})
At this point I shall add two accounts of experiences, of which this is the first. When the problem about the soul had been debated in the high-school and solved, I saw them leaving in due order. The headmaster came first, after him the elders with in their midst the five juniors who had given answers, and then the rest. When they had emerged, they began to go apart to the sides around the building, where there were walks surrounded by shrubs. When gathered there they split up into small groups, each being a party of juniors talking about matters to do with wisdom, and in each group there was one wise man who had been in the gallery. When I saw all this from my inn, I passed into the spirit, and in that I went out to meet them, approaching the headmaster who just before had set the problem about the soul. On seeing me he said, ‘Who are you? I was surprised when I watched you on your way here and saw you at one time becoming visible to me, at another dropping out of sight; now I saw you, now you suddenly vanished. You must surely not be in the same state of life as the people in our country.’ I replied to this with a smile, ‘I am no actor, or Vertumnus, 1 but I am by turns sometimes in light and sometimes in shade to your eyes. So here I am both a stranger and a native.’ At this the headmaster looked at me and said, ‘What you say is unusual and strange. Tell me who you are.’ ‘I am,’ I said, ‘in the world in which you once were and which you have left, what is called the natural world. I am also in the world to which you have come and where you now are, what is called the spiritual world. Consequently I am in the natural state and at the same time in the spiritual state; in the natural state when with people on earth, in the spiritual state when with you. When I am in the natural state, I am invisible to you, but when in the spiritual state visible. I have been granted by the Lord the ability to be like this. You as an enlightened man are well aware that a person who belongs to the natural world cannot see one who belongs to the spiritual world, and vice versa. Therefore when I plunge my spirit into the body, you do not see me, but when I release it from the body, you do. You also taught in the school that you are all souls, and souls can see souls, because they are human forms. You know that you could not see yourselves, that is, your souls, when they were in your bodies in the natural world. But this happens because of the difference between the spiritual and the natural.’ When he heard me mention the difference between the spiritual and the natural, he said, ‘What difference is that? Is it not like that between what is purer and what is less pure? So what is the spiritual but a purer kind of natural?’ ‘It is not that sort of distinction,’ I replied, ‘but rather the sort of distinction there is between what is prior and what is posterior, which can have no finite relationship. For the prior is in the posterior, as the cause is in its effect; and the posterior derives from the prior, as the effect derives from its cause. That is why one is not visible to the other.’ To this the headmaster said, ‘I have pondered this distinction and chewed it over, but up to now in vain. I only wish I could grasp it.’ ‘You will,’ I said, ‘not only grasp the distinction between the spiritual and the natural, but actually see it.’ Then I went on, ‘You are in the spiritual state when you are with your people, but in the natural state with me. For you talk with your people in the spiritual language, which is shared by every spirit and angel, but you talk with me in my native language. For every spirit or angel who talks with a man speaks his own language, French with a Frenchman, English with an Englishman, Greek with a Greek, Arabic with an Arab, and so on. So in order to be aware of the distinction between the spiritual and the natural as it applies to languages, do this: go inside to your people, say something there, and memorise the words. Then come back keeping them in mind, and pronounce them in my presence.’ He did so, and came back to me with those words on his tongue, and uttered them, and did not understand any. They were completely strange and foreign words, not to be found in any language of the natural world. Repeating the experiment several times showed clearly that all in the spiritual world have a spiritual language, which has nothing in common with any language of the natural world. Everyone automatically comes into possession of that language after his death. At the same time he discovered that the actual sound of the spiritual language is so different from that of natural language, that even a loud spiritual sound is inaudible to a natural person, and so is a natural sound to a spiritual person. Later I asked the headmaster and the bystanders to go inside to their own people, and write a sentence on a piece of paper, and then to bring the paper out and read it to me. They did so, and came back with the paper in their hands, but when they went to read it, they could not understand it at all, since the script was merely composed of a few letters of the alphabet with curly lines over them, and every single letter stood for some particular meaning. Since each letter of the alphabet there conveys a meaning, it is obvious why the Lord is called ‘alpha and omega.’ When they went in again and again, wrote and came back, they discovered that the script entailed and comprehended countless things, which no natural script can ever express. They were told that this was because the thoughts of the spiritual man were incomprehensible and inexpressible to the natural man, and they cannot be transferred or copied into another script or another language. Then, since the bystanders were unwilling to grasp that spiritual thought is so far beyond natural thought that it is relatively inexpressible, I said to them, ‘Carry out an experiment. Go inside to your spiritual community, think of an idea, keep it in mind, and come back and expound it in my presence.’ They went inside and thought, and, keeping the thought in mind, came out; but when they went to expound what they had thought, they were unable to do so. For they could not find any idea of natural thought capable of matching an idea of spiritual thought; neither could they find any words to express those ideas, for what is an idea in thought becomes words in speech. Thereupon they went back inside, came back and convinced themselves that spiritual ideas were far above natural ones, inexpressible, unutterable and incomprehensible to the natural man. Because spiritual ideas so far excelled natural ones, they said that spiritual ideas or thoughts, as compared to natural ones, were ideas of ideas and thoughts of thoughts, and could therefore express qualities of qualities and affections of affections. It followed that spiritual thoughts were the beginnings and origins of natural thoughts. They also showed that spiritual wisdom is the wisdom of wisdom, and so incapable of being perceived by any wise men in the natural world. Then they were told from the third heaven that there is a still more inward or higher wisdom, called celestial, which stands in the same relationship to spiritual wisdom as this does to natural wisdom. These forms of wisdom flow in, one after the other, depending upon which heaven is concerned, from the Lord’s Divine wisdom, which is infinite. (Conjugial Love 326{1-7})
Key Points From The Video
Perception and Invisibility: Natural and spiritual beings are imperceptible to each other due to fundamentally different modes of thought, not physical distance.
Swedenborg’s Experience: Swedenborg’s accounts demonstrate how shifts between natural and spiritual thought affect visibility, influenced by spiritual affection.
Universal Law of Life: Spiritual and natural states of life can align when the thoughts that are related to space and time are removed. Even in the natural world, there are those who can meet and experience a spiritual sphere of connection despite their differences in unique life conditions and history.
Distinct States of Thought: Perceiving nature as an effect of Divine Life through the interaction of spiritual and natural thought, can make one visible to spiritually aligned beings but reverting to natural thought fallacies renders one invisible.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Why are natural and spiritual beings unable to see one another?
a. because of vast physical distances separating them
b. because natural beings lack the capacity for spiritual vision
c. because spiritual beings choose to remain hidden
d. because of fundamentally different modes of thought
Answer d)
2. What primarily influences the manifestation of external presence in the spiritual realm?
a. physical strength
b. spiritual affection and the absence of obscuring factors
c. knowledge of spiritual teachings
d. ability to control one’s thoughts
Answer b)
3. What is the ‘universal law of life’ discussed in the context?
a. that natural beings must always remain separate from spiritual beings
b. that spiritual and natural states cannot align
c. that spiritual and natural states can can align when natural thinking is removed
d. that physical distance is the only barrier to spiritual connection
Answer c)
4. How does perceiving nature as an effect of Divine Life, through spiritual and natural thought interaction, affect one’s visibility to spiritual beings?
a. it makes one permanently invisible
b. it makes one invisible only at certain times
c. it makes one visible to spiritually aligned beings
d. it has no effect on visibility
Answer c)
5. What creates space and time, and all that they encompass, according to the Spiritual Christianity?
a. the respective states of thought in both natural and spiritual realms
b. the Divine will
c. physical laws
d. the interaction between natural and spiritual beings
Answer a)
Reflective Questions
1. How might a deeper understanding of the distinct modes of spiritual and natural thought influence your interactions with the physical world?
2. In what ways can you actively cultivate spiritual affection in your life to help remove the “obscuring factors” that may hinder your perception of spiritual realities?
3. How does the concept of aligning different states of life challenge your understanding of relationships and connections with others, and how can you apply this to your daily life?
Experiential Integration
Daily Perception Shift Practice: Choose a common object or aspect of nature (e.g., a tree, a flower, the sky). First, observe it through the lens of your natural mind, focusing on its physical characteristics, scientific classification, and practical uses. Spend 5 minutes recording your observations.
Then, shift your perspective and attempt to perceive the same object as an effect of Divine Life, imagining the flow of spiritual energy that sustains it and its connection to a larger spiritual reality. Spend another 5 minutes journaling these insights.
Over time, this practice can help you develop a greater capacity for spiritual perception and integrate it into your everyday experience.
Further Exploration
After death, every one is first introduced into the world which is called the world of spirits–which is in the middle between heaven and hell–and is there prepared, the good for heaven and the evil for hell. This preparation has for its end, that the internal and external may be concordant and make a one, and not be discordant and make two. In the natural world they make two, and only with the sincere in heart do they make a one. That they are two is evident from crafty and cunning men, especially from hypocrites, flatterers, dissemblers, and liars. In the spiritual world, a man is not permitted thus to have a divided mind, but he who had been evil in internals must be evil also in externals; so likewise the good must be good in both; for after death every man becomes what he had been internally, and not what he had been externally. To this end, he is then let into his external and his internal alternately. While in his external, every man, even the evil, is wise, that is, wishes to appear wise, but in his internal, an evil man is insane. By these alternations, the man is able to see his insanities and repent of them; but if he had not repented in the world, he cannot do so afterwards, for he loves his insanities and wishes to remain in them, and therefore brings his external to be likewise insane. Thus his internal and his external become one, and when this is the case, he is prepared for hell. With a good man, it is the reverse. Because in the world he had looked to God and had repented, he is wiser in his internal than in his external. Moreover, in his external, by reason of the allurements and vanities of the world, he sometimes became insane. Therefore, his external must be brought into concordance with his internal, which latter, as was said, is wise. When this is done, he is prepared for heaven. This illustrates how the putting off of the external and the putting on of the internal is effected after death. (Conjugial Love 48b. IV)
The Divine order is that heaven should rule the world in man, and not the world rule heaven in him; for when heaven rules man, then the Lord rules him. Man is born into loving the world and himself more than heaven and the Lord. And because this is opposite to Divine order, there must be an inversion by means of regeneration; and this inversion is effected when the things of heaven and the Lord are loved more than those of the world and of self. This is the reason why the man who has been regenerated, as also he who is in heaven, is alternately in external and in internal things; for external things are thereby disposed so as to agree with internal things; and finally to be subject to them. When a man is in external things, he is in labor and combat, for he is then in a life which savors of the world, into which the hells flow from all sides, continually endeavoring to infest, and even to subjugate in the man the things of heaven; but the Lord continually protects and sets him free. From this arise the labor and combat which are signified by the “six days of the week in which works are to be done.” But when the man is in internal things, then, because he is in heaven with the Lord, the labor and combat cease, and he is in the tranquility of peace, in which tranquility conjunction also is effected. These are the things which are signified by the “seventh day.” (Arcana Coelestia 9278{2-3})
After this we asked him what he had thought, and still did, about his third proposition, about the centre and expanse of nature and life. Did he believe that the centre and expanse of life were the same as the centre and expanse of nature? He said that here he hesitated. He had previously believed that the inward activity of nature was life and that love and wisdom, which are the essential components of human life, come from this source. It is produced by the heat and light coming from the fire of the sun and transmitted through atmospheres. But now as the result of what he had heard about people living after death he was in doubt, a doubt which alternately lifted up and depressed his mind. When it was lifted up, he acknowledged a centre which had previously been quite unknown to him; when it was depressed he saw a centre which he thought to be the only one. Life was from the centre previously unknown to him, and nature from the centre he thought to be the only one, each centre being surrounded by an expanse. (True Christian Religion 35{10})
Sensual knowledges are such knowledges as enter from the world through the five bodily senses, and thence viewed in themselves are more material, corporeal, and worldly than those that are interior. All who are in the love of self and have confirmed themselves against Divine and spiritual things are sensual men, and when they are left to themselves and think in their spirit, they think about Divine and spiritual things from sensual knowledges, and consequently they reject Divine and spiritual things as not to be believed, because they do not see them with their eyes or touch them with their hands; and they apply their knowledges, which they have made sensual and material, to the destruction of these. For example, men who are learned in this kind of knowledge, who are skilled in physics, anatomy, botany, and other branches of human learning, when they see the wonderful things in the animal and vegetable kingdoms say in their hearts that all these things are from nature, and not from the Divine, and this because they believe in nothing that they do not see with their eyes and touch with their hands; for they are unable to elevate their minds upward so as to see these things from the light of heaven, for that light is thick darkness to them; but they detain their minds in earthly things, much the same as the animals of the earth do, with which indeed they compare themselves. In a word, with such all knowledges [scientiae] are made sensual; for such as the man himself is, such are all things of his understanding and will; if the man is spiritual all things become spiritual; if he is merely natural all things become natural and not spiritual; if the man is sensual all things become sensual, and this however learned and erudite he may seem to the world to be. But as every man has the faculty to understand truths and perceive goods, such men are able from that faculty to talk about these things like those who are spiritual-rational, although in respect to their spirit they are sensual; for when such men speak before others they do not speak from the spirit but from the bodily memory. All this has been said to make known what sensual knowledges are. These are what especially persuade, or are especially persuasive, because they are the ultimates of the understanding; for into these as into its ultimates the understanding closes, and these captivate the common people because they are appearances drawn from such things as they see in the world with their eyes; and so long as the thought clings to these it is impossible to dispose the mind to think interiorly or above them until they are put away; for the interior things of the mind all close into ultimates and rest upon them, as a house upon its foundation; consequently these are especially persuasive, but only with those whose minds cannot be elevated above sensual things; and the mind is elevated above them with those who are in the light of heaven from the Lord, for the light of heaven dissipates them. For this reason spiritual men rarely think from things sensual, for they think from things rational and intellectual; but sensual men, who have confirmed themselves in falsities against Divine and spiritual things, when they are left to themselves think only from sensual things. (Apocalypse Explained 559{2-3})