How is heaven organized? And what does the body we all wear around every day have to do with it? Join us as we discuss Swedenborg's accounts of his spiritual experiences and what he learned through them. This is an audio-only version of video-based show, and the podcast may contain references to visuals from the original episode. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX6ma_MZHKg
How is heaven organized? And what does the body we all wear around every day have to do with it? Join us as we discuss Swedenborg's accounts of his spiritual experiences and what he learned through them.
This is an audio-only version of video-based show, and the podcast may contain references to visuals from the original episode. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX6ma_MZHKg
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Heaven and Hell: http://www.swedenborg.com/product/heaven-hell-nce/
“Several times I have been allowed to see that each community of heaven reflects a single individual and is in the likeness of a human being as well...it is worth noting that the more members there are in a single community and the more united they are in action, the more perfect is their human form. This is because variety arranged in a heavenly form makes perfection...and variety occurs where there are many individuals.” Heaven and Hell 68, 71
“The eye, or rather its power of vision, has a particularly strong correspondence with the communities in the other world devoted to the beauties of paradise. These communities appear high up, out in front, and a little to the right, where a lifelike display of gardens is presented to view. The gardens contain trees and flowers of so many genera and species that by comparison the number of different kinds on the whole planet is small. Every object in those gardens incorporates some element of understanding and wisdom, which shines out from it. You might even say that along with [the flowers], specimens of understanding and wisdom fill these parks. Those are the things that move the community members from deep inside, gladdening not only their eyes but also their mind...this heaven is divided into several heavens, to which every feature in the chambers of the eye corresponds.” Secrets of Heaven 4528
“A man I had known in bodily life-though I had not known his disposition or deeper feelings-talked with me several times in the other life, but only briefly and from a distance. He revealed himself in a general way through entrancing representations. He was able to create pleasures for the eye (such as colors of every kind and lovely colored shapes), to insert images of little children wearing beautiful adornments, as angels do, and to add many other attractive, agreeable sights. He worked by exerting a soft, gentle influence on a membrane in the left eye. By these methods he stole into the affections of other people, in order to please them and enhance their lives. Angels told me that people like this are associated with the membranes of the left eye, and that they provide a link with paradisal kinds of heavens, where truth and goodness are represented in the form of substance….” Secrets of Heaven 4412
“[Spirits and angels] in the universal human who correspond to the hands, arms, and shoulders are the ones with power, which they receive through religious truth that springs from goodness. People devoted to this kind of truth have the Lord's power, because they attribute all power to him and none to themselves. The more they disclaim any personal power, not with their mouth but in their heart, the greater the power they have. That is why angels are called powers and authorities.” Secrets of Heaven 4932
“Those Belonging to the Province of the Earlobe: There was a spirit with me who flowed rather forcefully into my thought, whenever I was treating about matters concerned with Providence (such as the concern that I might not receive a response from the printer); and each time I was driven into anxious thoughts about this matter. Then I was told that it was a spirit belonging to the province of the outer ear, and in fact the earlobe, or fleshy appendage hanging below the cartilaginous part, or rather, where the thick membranous cartilage is, who was doing this. And it was told that he had been of a mind in the life of the body that when he had prayed for something, and had not obtained it, he would become very indignant, and come into doubt concerning Providence - and yet, when he was outside of that state of mind, he still practiced piety, obediently, as the elders had instilled into him. These are those who are imbued with simple obedience.” Spiritual Experiences Minor 4813
Footage used from:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Protein-Dynamics-in-Individual-Human-Cells-Experiment-and-Theory-pone.0004901.s012.ogv
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Humanrbc1000x.jpg