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Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #332

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332. At this point I shall add four accounts of experiences, of which this is the first.

I once heard some shouting, which welled up from the lower regions as if through water. One shout on the left was 'How just!'; another on the right 'How learned!'; and a third behind me 'How wise!' This made me wonder whether even in hell there were righteous, learned and wise people; and I had a strong desire to see whether there were such people there. A voice from heaven told me: 'You will see and hear.'

Then I left home in the spirit and saw in front of me an opening in the ground; on approaching and looking into it I saw steps, so I went down. When I reached the lower level I saw plains covered with bushes mixed with thorns and nettles. I asked whether this was hell. 'It is the lower earth,' they said, 'just above hell.' Then I went towards each of the shouts in turn, first to that of 'How just!' I saw a gathering of those who in the world had been judges influenced by partiality and bribery. Then I went towards the second shout 'How learned!' and saw a gathering of those who in the world had been fond of logic; and then to the third shout 'How wise!' and saw a gathering of those who in the world had been keen to prove everything.

But I left the others and went back to the first group, the judges influenced by partiality and bribery, those who were being hailed as just. On one side I saw a sort of amphitheatre built of bricks and roofed with black tiles; I was told that it was their court-house. It had three entrances on the north side, and three on the west, but none on the south or east sides; this was an indication that their judgments were not equitable but arbitrary.

[2] In the middle of the amphitheatre was to be seen a hearth, on which stokers threw torches dipped in sulphur and full of pitch. Their light projected on to the plastered walls produced pictures of birds of the evening and night. But the hearth and the flickering light projected from it to form these pictures were representations of their judgments, indicating their ability to depict the truth of any question in false colours and make it look favourable to the side they preferred.

[3] Half an hour later I saw some old and young men in robes and gowns filing in; they took off their hats and sat down on chairs at the tables to hold a session. As I listened I realised with what skill and ingenuity they leaned towards the side they favoured, and twisted their judgments to make them appear equitable. Indeed they went so far that they themselves could see injustice as just and justice instead as unjust. It could be seen from their faces and heard in the sound of their voices that they had such delusions. Then I was granted enlightenment from heaven, so that I was able to grasp whether each point was valid or not. I then saw how zealously they wrapped up injustice and gave it the appearance of justice, selecting from the laws the one which suited their case, and using clever arguments to set the rest aside. When judgment had been passed, their sentences were relayed to their clients, friends and supporters outside, and they, to repay the partiality shown to them, went off far down the street crying 'How just, how just!'

[4] After this I talked about these judges to some angels from heaven, and told them some of what I had seen and heard. The angels said that such judges appear to others to be endowed with the sharpest powers of understanding, when in fact they are unable to see a grain of justice and equity. 'If you take away their partiality,' they said, 'they sit in court like statues, and only say, "I agree, I concur with the judgment of so-and-so or so-and-so." The reason is that all their judgments are based on prejudice, and prejudice treats the case from beginning to end with partiality. Consequently they can see no other side than their friend's; if anything comes to oppose it, they avert their eyes and look at it askance. If they do take the opposing point up again, they entangle it in arguments, like a spider's web wrapped round its prey, and swallow it. So it is that they cannot see any point as valid, unless it fits into the web of their prejudice. They were tested to see whether they could, and were found to be unable. The inhabitants of your world will be astonished that this is so, but you can tell them that this is a true statement which has been checked by angels from heaven. Since they cannot see any justice, we in heaven do not regard them as human beings, but as monstrous effigies of people, their heads made of partiality, their chests of injustice, their hands and feet of proofs and the soles of their feet of justice, so that, if this does not support their friend's case, they can tread it underfoot and trample on it.

[5] What they are really like you are going to see, since their end is at hand.'

Then suddenly the earth split open, tables fell one on another, and together with the whole amphitheatre the people were swallowed up, and thrown into prison in caves. Then I was asked whether I wanted to see them there. They appeared to have faces of polished steel, their bodies from neck to legs like carvings dressed in leopard skins, and feet like snakes. I saw that the law books, which they had had placed on the tables, had turned into playing cards; and now instead of delivering judgments the task assigned to them was to make vermilion into rouge, to daub on the faces of prostitutes and make them look like beauties.

After seeing this I wanted to visit the other two groups, the one which consisted of people fond of nothing but logic, and the other of those who want to prove everything. 'Wait a bit,' I was told, 'and you will be given an escort of angels from the community closest above them. By their help enlightenment will come to you from the Lord, and you will see astonishing sights.'

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

True Christian Religion #697

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697. The sixth experience. 1

I once saw not far from me an atmospheric phenomenon. I saw a cloud divided into smaller clouds, some of which were blue and others dark; and I saw these as it were colliding with one another. They were striped with glittering rays which crossed them; sometimes the stripes had sharp tips like sword-points, at other times they appeared square-ended like broken off swords. Sometimes the stripes ran out so as to meet, at other times they withdrew into themselves, rather like boxers. So it looked as if these little clouds of varied colours were fighting one another, but they were playing. Since this atmospheric display took place not far from me, I lifted up my eyes and looking hard I saw boys, young men and old men entering a building constructed of marble with also porphyry in its foundations. The phenomenon was over this building. Then I asked one of those who were going in what was happening there. 'It is a high school,' he replied, 'where young men are given an introduction to various forms of wisdom.'

[2] On hearing this I went in with them. I was in the spirit, that is, in much the same state as people in the spiritual world, those who are called spirits and angels. Inside the school there was in front a chair, in the middle were benches, around the sides seats, and a gallery over the entrance. The chair was for the young men who were to take turns to reply to the question set. The benches were for the audience, the seats at the sides for those who had previously given wise answers, and the gallery for the older men who were to be umpires and judges. In the middle of the gallery there was a platform, where a wise man, called the headmaster, was seated. He put the questions, and the young men answered these from the chair.

When all were assembled, the man on the platform got up and said: 'Please now reply to this question and answer it if you can: what is the soul and what is its nature?'

[3] On hearing this all were astonished and began to murmur; and some of the crowd on the benches cried out: 'What man is there from the age of Saturn 2 down to our times who has been able by any effort of rational thought to see and grasp what the soul is, much less what its nature is. Surely this is beyond the capacity of anyone's understanding?'

But people in the gallery replied to this: 'This is not beyond the understanding, but within its capacity and purview. just give a reply.'

So the young men got up who had been chosen that day to mount the chair and reply to the questions. There were five of them, who had been examined by the elders and found to be outstandingly clever. They were then sitting on padded seats at the sides of the chair. They then took it in turn, according to the order in which they sat, to climb up to the chair. As each went up, he put on a tunic of opalescent silk and over it a gown of soft wool with flowers woven in it, and a hat on his head with a chaplet of roses surrounded by small sapphires on the crown.

[4] Then I saw the first man so clothed go up and say: 'What the soul is and what its nature is has not been revealed to anyone since the first day of creation. It is a secret which God alone keeps in His treasure-houses. But this much has been discovered, that the soul dwells in man like a queen. However the location of its residence has been the subject of conjecture among learned experts. Some have placed it in the small tubercle between the cerebrum and the cerebellum known as the pineal gland. They have guessed that this was the seat of the soul because the whole person is controlled from those two brains, and that tubercle regulates them. So what governs the two brains at its whim, must also govern the whole person from head to heel. This view,' he said, 'has been regarded by many in the world as true or very probable, but a later age has rejected it as a mere invention.'

[5] On finishing this speech he took off the gown, tunic and hat, and the second of those chosen put them on and so took the chair. His pronouncement about the soul was that in the whole of heaven and in the whole of the world there is no one who knows what the soul is and what its nature is. 'This much,' he said, 'we know, that the soul exists and is in man; but where it is, is a matter of guesswork. This is certain, that it is in the head, since that is where the understanding thinks and the will forms its resolutions; and it is on the face in front of the head that man's five sense organs are to be found. What gives all of these life is the soul which resides inside the head; but I would not dare to express an opinion on where in it its residence is. I have agreed with those who have assigned to it a lodging in the three ventricles of the brain; at other times with those who placed it in the corpora striata there, at other times with those who placed it in the medullary substance of either brain, at other times with those who placed it in the cortical substance, at others with those who placed it in the dura mater. For there was no lack of points to be made in favour of each one of these seats.

The point in favour of the three ventricles in the brain was that they are the receptacles of the animal spirits and all the brain's lymphs. The points in favour of the corpora striata were that these compose the marrow through which the nerves emerge, and by means of which either part of the brain has continuous extensions to the spine; and from one or other of these the fibres emerge which compose the whole structure of the body. The points in favour of the medullary substance of either brain were that it is a gathering and massing together of all the fibres which form the starting point for the development of the whole person. The point in favour of the cortical substance was that here are the first and last ends, and so the beginnings of all fibres, and so of sensation and movement. The point in favour of the dura mater was that it is the shared covering of either brain, from where it stretches in a kind of continuity over the heart and the viscera of the body. For my part, I do not rate one of these theories as superior to another. Will you please, decide and choose which is the best theory.'

[6] After saying this he came down from the chair and passed on the tunic, gown and hat to the third, who went up to the chair and spoke as follows. 'How can I at my age deal with such a lofty subject? I appeal to the learned people seated at the sides here, I appeal to you wise people in the gallery, in fact I appeal to the angels of the highest heaven: can anyone by the light of his reason form for himself any idea of the soul? As regards its seat in man, I can offer as good a guess as anyone else. My guess is that it is in the heart and consequently in the blood. My reason for this is that the heart by means of the blood from it controls both the body and the head. There is a large blood-vessel called the aorta emerging from it and reaching the whole of the body; and there are blood-vessels called carotid arteries emerging from it and reaching the whole of the head. As a result it is universally agreed that the soul by means of blood from the heart sustains, nourishes and gives life to the whole organic system of both the body and the head. An additional reason for believing this assertion is the fact that Holy Scripture says so many times 'soul and heart'. For instance, you are to love God 'with all your soul and with all your heart'; and God creates in man 'a new soul and a new heart' (Deuteronomy 6:5; 10:12; 11:13; 26:16; Jeremiah 32:41; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30, 33; Luke 10:27, and elsewhere). It also says explicitly that the blood is the soul of the flesh (Leviticus 17:11, 14).' On hearing this some people raised their voices to cry 'Very learned!'; they were members of the clergy.

[7] After this the fourth put on the garments worn by the previous speaker, and on taking the chair said: 'I too suspect that there is no one of such a sharp and subtle mind as to be able to discern what the soul is and what its nature is. I think therefore that anyone who wishes to scrutinise it has his subtlety exhausted by useless exertions. But from childhood up I have persisted in believing the opinion of the ancients, that man's soul is in the whole of him and in every part of him, and so is as much in his head and each of its parts as in the body and each of its parts. It is a useless invention of modern scholars to locate its seat in some part rather than everywhere. Also the soul is a spiritual substance, to which neither extension nor position can be attributed, but only residing and filling. Again, is there anyone who does not understand life when he mentions the soul, and is not life in the whole and in any part you like to name?' There were many in the audience who supported this statement.

[8] He was followed by the fifth, who, adorned with the same emblems, pronounced from the chair as follows: 'I don't much care to say where the soul is, whether it is in some part or in the whole person. But I will draw on my own resources to disclose my opinion on this question, what the soul is and what its nature is. No one thinks of the soul as anything but something pure, which can be likened to ether or air or wind, the vital principle in which derives from the faculty of reason, which man has to a higher degree than animals. I have based this opinion on the fact that, when a person expires, he is said to breathe out or give up his soul or spirit. As a result too a soul which goes on living after death is believed to be a breath of this kind, containing the life of thought which is called the soul. What else could the soul be? But because I have heard people from the gallery asserting that the question what the soul is and what its nature is, is not beyond the understanding, but within its scope and purview, I beg and beseech you to disclose yourselves this everlasting secret.'

[9] The elders in the gallery here looked at the headmaster, who had set the question. He understood from their nods that they wanted him to go down and tell them the answer. So he at once got down from the platform, and passing through the auditorium took the chair, and holding up his hand said: 'Please listen to me. Is there anyone who does not believe the soul to be the most intimate and subtle essence of a person? But what is essence without form but a figment of the imagination? The soul then is a form, but what sort of form I will tell you. It is the form of all the parts of love and all the parts of wisdom. All the parts of love are called affections, and all the parts of wisdom are called perceptions. The perceptions as a result of and so together with the affections make up a single form containing countless parts but arranged in such order and so cohering that they can be called a unity; and they can be called a unity, because nothing can be taken away from it or added to it, if it is to be a unity. What is the human soul but such a form? All the parts of love and all the parts of wisdom are the essentials of such a form, and in the case of a person these essentials are in his soul, and from his soul in his head and body.

[10] 'You are called spirits and angels; and you believed in the world that spirits and angels were like puffs of wind or particles of ether, and so minds of higher or lower degree 3 . Now you see clearly that you are truly, really and actually people, who in the world lived and thought in a material body; and you knew that it is not the material body that lives and thinks, but the spiritual substance in that body. This you called the soul, whose form you did not know; yet now you have seen it and go on seeing it. You are all souls, about whose immortality you have heard, thought, talked and written so much; and since you are forms of love and wisdom coming from God, you cannot ever die. The soul then is a human form, from which nothing can be taken away, and to which nothing can be added, and it is the inmost form of all the forms throughout the body. Since the forms which are outside receive from the inmost both essence and form, you are therefore souls, just as you appear to be to your sight and to ours. In short, the soul is the real person because it is the inmost person; its form therefore is the human form in full perfection. But it is not life, but is the nearest receiver of life from God, and so God's dwelling.'

[11] This speech was greeted by many with applause, but there were some who said, 'We must think about this.' I then went home, and suddenly there appeared above that high school, in place of the previous atmospheric display, a shining cloud without any stripes or rays fighting one another. This cloud penetrated the roof and coming inside lit up the walls. I was told that they saw things written on them, among which was this:

Jehovah God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, Genesis 2:7.

Footnotes:

1. This section is repeated from Conjugial Love 315.

2. The 'golden age' of antiquity.

3. Latin: mentes et animi.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.

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