 Emanuel Swedenborg, 75, holding the manuscript of Apocalypsis Revelata (1766). Emanuel Swedenborg (born Swedberg) (January 29, 1688–March 29, 1772), Swedish scientist, philosopher and mystic, was born in Stockholm as the third son of the renowned, but controversial, priest Jesper Swedberg. After concerning himself with scientific matters until he was 55 years old, Emanuel experienced a crisis, during which he claimed he gained entrance to a spiritual world where he talked with angels and spirits, many of them dead and some only known from the Bible, such as Moses and Jesus. Amongst other things, these spirits enlightened him about the true meaning of the Scriptures.
Early life Swedenborg's father Jesper Swedberg (1653—1735) had a modest background, but after studying theology and travelling abroad, he was eloquent enough to impress the Swedish King Charles XI with his sermons in Stockholm. Through the King's influence, he would later become professor of theology at Uppsala University and Bishop of Skara.
Jesper took interest in the believes of a dissenting Lutheran movement, the Pietist movement, which placed more emphasis on the virtues of love and communion with God than on sheer faith, as the in Sweden prevailing Lutheran Church did. These believes were to have a major impact on his son Emanuel's sprituality. It was however unpopular among churchmen in Sweden at the time, and Jesper was charged with being a pietist -- which was considered heretical -- since he in his writings emphasize too much on good deeds, and not enough on the virtues of faith. Jesper also held the distinguished belief that angels and spirits were among us all the time. Emanuel never doubted this, and it would be his own guide as he became a seer.
Emanuel completed his university course at Uppsala, and in 1710 undertook a European tour, travelling through the Netherlands, France, and Germany, to reach his destination, London, where he would spend the next four years. At this time, London was the biggest city in the world, and it was the most liberal in Europe with regard to philosophical discussion and freedom of speech. It was also a flourishing center of scientific ideas and discoveries. Emanuel studied physics, mechanics, and philosophy, read and wrote poetry, and attended a lecture by Isaac Newton. Later in life, Emanuel claimed he met Newton in the spiritual world, where Newton confessed to him that he had been mistaken in his theory of colors. While in London, Emanuel developed a taste for the scientific life, and believed he might be destined to be a great scientist, as he told his benefactor and brother-in-law Eric Benzelius in a letter.
Scientific period In 1715 Swedenborg returned to Sweden, where he was to devote himself to natural science and to engineering projects for the next two decades.
In 1716, he met with King Charles XII of Sweden in the city of Lund, where the king was sojourning on his way between military expeditions. The Swedish inventor Christopher Polhem, who became a close friend of Swedenborg's, was also present. Swedenborg's intention was to persuade the king to fund an observatory in northern Sweden. However, the warlike king did not consider this project important enough, and appointed Swedenborg assessor-extraordinary on the Swedish board of mines instead (Bergskollegium). From 1716 to 1718, while serving in this capacity, he also published a scientific periodical entitled Daedalus Hyperboreus, a record of mechanical and mathematical inventions and discoveries. His reports on smelting and assaying were remarkable for their detail and for the comparisons drawn between Swedish and other methods. Two years later he distinguished himself at the king's siege of Halden in Norway by the invention of machines for the transport of boats and galleys overland from Strömstad to Iddefjord, a distance of 14 miles.
At the death of Charles XII, Queen Ulrika Eleonora ennobled Swedenborg and his siblings. It was common in Sweden in the 17th and 18th century for the children of bishops to receive this honour, as a recognition of the services of the father. The family name was changed from Swedberg to Swedenborg.
In the parliamentary House of Knights, Swedenborg's contributions to political discussion exerted great influence, and he dealt with such subjects as the currency, the decimal system, the balance of trade and the liquor laws. The next few years were devoted to the duties and studies connected with his office. In 1724, he was offered the chair of mathematics at Uppsala University, but declined on the ground that it was a mistake for mathematicians to be limited to theory: he considered practical studies just as important.
Scientific contributions As early as 1721, Swedenborg was seeking to lay the foundation of a scientific explanation of the universe. That year saw the publication of his Prodromus Principiorum Rerum Naturalium, and he had already written his Principia in its first form. In 1734, his Opera Philosophica et Mineralia appeared in three volumes, the first volume of which (the Principia) comprised his view of the first principles of the universe, a mechanical and geometrical theory of the origin of things. The other volumes contained various metallurgical studies, probably connected to his work on the board of mines.
Swedenborg is believed to have anticipated many modern scientific discoveries. It was not until the end of the 19th century that his voluminous writings began to be examined by scientists, and he was shown to have been ahead of his time in many ways. His early, scientific publications from his youth are, however, fundamentally different from the mystical and speculative works of his later life. His paradigm shift from the objective experimentalist to the subjective mystic, beyond falsifiability, was complete indeed. Swedenborg's work made contributions to palaeontology, geology, physics, biology, chemistry, psychology, neuroscience and astronomy, to name a few areas.
Contributions as a scientist He made several practical inventions concerning the mining industry in Sweden. He was working on a method for determining longitude at sea by observations of the moon among the stars, trying to get the prize issued in England.
He investigated patterns on rocks along the coast lines, and was one of the first to notice that rocks on a high altitude have marks from water. (Because of the ice age).
He invented an ear-trumpet for the deaf, improved the common house-stove of his native land, cured smoky chimneys, and even sketched a flying machine. The sketch for the Swedenborg's Flying Machine, which he drew in one of his notebooks, still exists in the library of Linköping.
Contributions as a seer He believed in a holistic anatomical system where every spiritual condition manifests itself in the body, so that things that belong to a person’s life are not only of their mind but of their whole body, from head to foot (1) (http://www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/hh/shl/sm15.htm); where worrying, for instance, corresponds to stomach problems. He also proclaimed that there exist life forms on every planet in the universe. Besides suspect claims like these, the sheer bulk of his writings has contributed to making scientists largely ignore him up to this day.
As a physicist he was the first to write about the nebular hypothesis, a theory attributed to Kant. It is possible, although not confirmed, that Kant—one of the few to have purchased and read Arcana Caelestia—had derived the idea from Swedenborg. Swedenborg himself claimed it had been told to him by angels. Some creationists argue that this provenance disproves today's scientific view, which is in support of Swedenborg.
Swedenborg also had theories about light and about atoms. He wrote a lucid account of the phenomenon of phosphorescence, and proposed a molecular magnetic theory which anticipated some of the chief features of early 20th-century hypotheses. In chemistry, the French chemist Jean-Baptiste Dumas gives him credit for the first attempt to establish a system of crystallography.
Anatomical inquiries In the 1730s Swedenborg became more interested in spiritual matters and became determined to find a method which would explain how matter relates to spirit. In 1734 he published Prodromus Philosophiae Ratiocinantis de Infinito, et Causa Finali Creationis, which tries to explain how the finite is related to the infinite, and how the soul is related to the body. He also devoted himself to discovering the nature of soul and spirit by means of anatomical studies.
In 1743, at the age of 55, Swedenborg requested a leave of absence to go abroad. His purpose was to collect information for Regnum Animale ("The Animal Kingdom"), another book he was about to write, for which material could only be found in books published abroad. The aim of the book was to explain the soul from an anatomical point of view. During this period of time, The Age of Enlightenment, the tenets of René Descartes' materialism were increasingly influential among scientists. According to Descartes, humans consist only of atoms and are purely made of matter, and there is no such thing as a soul or an afterlife. Swedenborg spent much labour researching material to disprove this view, because he felt in his heart that it was untrue. All his anatomical research during the 1730s-40s was for this purpose.
Discoveries Swedenborg proposed (150 years before any other scientist) that the motion of the brain was synchronous with the respiration and not with the action of the heart and the circulation of the blood. He had arrived at the modern conception of the activity of the brain as the combined activity of its individual cells. The cerebral cortex, and, more definitely, the cortical elements (nerve cells), formed the seat of the activity of the soul, and were ordered into departments according to various functions.
His views as to the physiological functions of the spinal cord are also in agreement with later research, and he discovered the purpose of the ductless glands.
Conclusions Up to middle age Swedenborg's position was that of a scholar, a scientist, a practical administrator, a legislator, and a man of affairs. But a profound change was coming over him, which led him to leave the domain of physical research for that of psychological and spiritual inquiry. Neither by geometrical, nor physical, nor metaphysical principles had he succeeded in fully understanding the soul, the brain or the way everything worked, but he had none the less learnt much, which would now guide him into the state he was about to enter.
The crisis In 1744, in the Netherlands, Swedenborg had finished his work and published it. Shortly after he travelled to London. Around this time he began having strange dreams. It appears, in hind-sight, as though his mind was being ripped apart by two strong diametrically opposed powers, one of belief and one of disbelief. He was dreaming about angelic states and about demonical states, about spiritual things and material, and was often very frightened. All these dreams he interpreted and wrote down in a notebook, found about 100 years later and published as Journal of Dreams.
Spiritual guidance In October 1744 he was instructed in his dreams to abondon his old career as a scientist and pursue a new career, one where he would write about spiritual things. The book he started writing shortly afterwards was The Worship and Love of God (published 1745).
According to his own account, the Lord filled him with His spirit to teach the doctrines of the New Church by the word from Himself; He commissioned him to do this work, opened the sight of his spirit, and so let him into the spiritual world, permitting him to see the heavens and the hells, and to converse with angels and spirits for many years. Late in life he wrote to Oetinger that "he was introduced by the Lord first into the natural sciences, and thus prepared, and, indeed, from the year 1710 to 1745, when heaven was opened to him." This latter great event is described by him in a letter to Thomas Hartley, rector of Winwick, as "the opening of his spiritual sight", "the manifestation of the Lord to him in person", "his introduction into the spiritual world".
He elsewhere speaks of his aim as mainly an opening of the spiritual sense of the Word. His friend Robsahm reports, from Swedenborg's own account to him, that the Lord Jesus Christ revealed himself to him and said, "I am the Lord thy God, Creator and Redeemer of the world. I have chosen thee to unfold the spiritual sense of Holy Scripture. I will Myself dictate to thee what thou shalt write." From that moment, Swedenborg gave up all scientific learning and only worked towards spiritual knowledge.
Period of visions In the year 1747, Swedenborg resigned his post of assessor of the board of mines and devoted himself to his higher quest. He requested to be allowed to receive half his salary as a pension. He took up afresh his study of Hebrew, and began to work on the spiritual interpretation of the Bible. His plan was to interpret the spiritual meaning of every verse, starting with Genesis. Even though he worked very hard and wrote very much -- in Latin 8 dense books, but translated they can be twice as many -- he had after 2 years only managed Genesis and parts of Exodus, and abandoned the project. His interpretations were published under the title Arcana Caelestia. It is said that there were only three people who purchased this expensive volume during Swedenborg's life, one of them Immanuel Kant.
His life from 1747 until his death 1772 was spent in Sweden, Holland and London, in the composition of his works and their publication. During this time he was befriended by many people who regarded him as a kind and warm-hearted man. Though many people disbelieved in his visions, believing he had lost his mind, they didn't ridicule him in his presence. Those who talked with him felt that he was devoted to his beliefs. He never disputed matters of religion, and if obliged to defend himself, did it with gentleness and in a few words.
Psychic abilities In particular three instances were reported about Swedenborg's seership. The first was when, during a dinner in Gothenburg, he told the party that there was a fire in Stockholm (405 km away), and even explained details of the fire that were later confirmed. The second was when he visited the Queen of Sweden, who asked him to tell her something about her deceased brother. The next day, Swedenborg whispered something in her ear that turned the Queen pale and she explained that this was something only she and her brother could know about. The third was a woman who had lost something important, and came to Swedenborg asking if a recently deceased person could tell him where it was, which he also did the following night. Immanuel Kant was struck by these in 1763, and made inquiries to find out if they were true. At first he could find no flaws in the reports, but in 1765 he concluded that two of them had "no other foundation than common legend" (gemeine Sage)." See Kant's Träume eines Geistersehers.
His manner of life was simple in the extreme; his diet consisted chiefly of bread and milk and large quantities of coffee. He paid little attention to the distinction of day and night, and sometimes lay for days together in a trance, while his servants were sometimes disturbed at night by hearing what he called his conflicts with evil spirits. But his communication with spirits was often perfectly calm, in broad daylight, and with all his faculties awake. It has been discussed whether his visions were the result of hallucinations, if he had lost his mind, or if he actually had gained a unique access to the spiritual world. By all first-hand accounts, he behaved as normally as other people.
Theology Some of his beliefs were: - Life after death. When a human being dies, he moves over to the spiritual world. The spiritual world consists of many divisions, stretching from bright light to utter darkness. Good people are in bright areas, bad people are in darkness. They are in this state already in life, but it is not visible because of the limitations of the physical body.
- All good comes from God. The light is the same as love towards God. When a person lets Jesus lead his life and opens his heart towards God, he will enter the light, and his speech and actions will be governed by the divine spirit.
- Evils are from the Self. When a person is occupied with the self-preservation of his body, he concerns himself primarily with material things and is without spirit. The human body is for Swedenborg the external, while the Spirit is called internal.
- Man has a free will. A person can only love something he believes in. Therefore God lets men think and act according to what they believe is best. They can only love God by their own choice.
(from Swedenborg's The New Jerusalem, and its Heavenly Doctrines.)
Swedenborg was influenced by Biblical persons such as St.Paul, Jesus, Moses and Abraham, but also many others, like St. Augustine, Plato and Cicero. All of these he claimed to have met and spoken to in the spiritual world. This claim was the main reason for some to view him as a madman.
Swedenborg wholly rejects two important doctrines of the Christian faith: the doctrine of God as three separate persons and the doctrine that "faith alone" (Sola fide) is enough to save a man. The first doctrine is a common way of thinking in the Catholic Church, while the second is a Lutheran doctrine, one of the basics of Luther's teachings, stemming from a passage in the New Testament as well as a passage in the writing of the church father Origenes.
Theological writings His theological writings roughly fall into four groups: - Books of spiritual philosophy, including The Divine Love and Wisdom, The Divine Providence, The Intercourse between the Soul and the Body, Conjugal Love;
- Expository, including Arcana Celestia (giving the spiritual sense of Genesis and Exodus), The Apocalypse Revealed, The Apocalypse Explained;
- Doctrinal, including The New Jerusalem, and its Heavenly Doctrines, The Four Chief Doctrines, The Doctrine of Charity, The True Christian Religion, Canons of the New Church;
- Eschatological, including Heaven and Hell, and The Last Judgment.
About forty volumes are available in English, and they are continuously being translated into languages from all continents, such as Arabic, Hindi, and Japanese.
See also
References - C. Sigstedt,The Swedenborg Epic. The Life and Works of Emanuel Swedenborg (New York: Bookman Associates, 1952). The whole book is available online at Swedenborg Digital Library (http://www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/ES/epicfor.htm)
- Olof Lagercrantz Dikten om livet på den andra sidan (Wahlström & Widstrand 1996), ISBN 9146169326. In Swedish.
- Martin Lamm Swedenborg: En studie (1987; first ed. 1915). A popular biography that is still read and quoted. It is also available in English: Emanuel Swedenborg: The Development of His Thought, Martin Lamm (Swedenborg Studies, No. 9, 2001), ISBN 0877851948
- James Leon Overcoming Objections to Swedenborg's Writings Through the Development of Scientific Dualism (http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy/instructor/np98.html) An examination of Swedenborg's discoveries. The author is a professor of psychology and an avid reader of Swedenborg.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.
Further reading Newer material: - A short guide Swedenborg and His Influence, ed. Erland J. Brock, (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania: The Academy of the New Church, 1988), ISBN 0910557233.
Older material, some of it not in print: - The most extensive work is: RL Tafel, Documents concerning the Life and Character of Swedenborg, collected, translated and annotated (3 vols., Swedenborg Society, 1875—1877);
- J Hyde, A Bibliography of the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg (Swedenborg Society).
- Kant's Träume eines Geistersehers (1766; the most recent edition in English is from 1975, ISBN 3787303111 );
- J. G. Herder's "Emanuel Swedenborg," in his Adrastea (Werke zur Phil. und Gesch., xii. 110-125).
- Transactions of the International Swedenborg Congress (London, 1910), summarized in The New Church Magazine (August, 1910).
External Links - The New Church (http://www.newchurch.org/about/) The New Church (Church of the New Jerusalem) is based on the Bible, and on the teachings of the 18th Century Scientist and Theologian, Emanuel Swedenborg.
- The Swedenborgian Church (http://www.swedenborg.org/)
- The Holographic Universe (http://www.soultravel.nu/2004/040907-swedenborg/index.asp): Comparison of Emanuel Swedenborg's observations with later theories by David Bohm and Karl Pribram
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