Swedenborg Scientific Association
Publishers of The New Philosophy Journal
It is the oft-repeated teaching of the Heavenly Doctrines that the first is in all the series, even as the end is in the cause and in the effect—a statement so philosophically true as to admit of no doubt whatever in the mind of a rational being.
The scientific and theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg have been artificially divided by an abyss of revelation. Because of the obvious abrupt change in both the style and content of the books published after his spiritual crisis of 1744–45, it is easy to presume that the two collections are essentially unrelated. In a stark transition from the rigorous analytical method of his scientific works, we find in Swedenborg’s theological Writings an exegetical style, dependent no longer on the reproducible sensory data of the scientific method alone, but on spiritual experience, with the added authority of divine revelation. Such is the nature of these Writings, as clearly described by Swedenborg himself.
In the Prologue to his second major work on human anatomy and physiology, Emanuel Swedenborg made an uncharacteristically emotional appeal to his readers. Filled with the excitement of his Age of Reason, and inspired by the limitless promise of his day, he proclaims that the time has come to take the scientific method out of the old world of orthodoxy, and free it to sail into the future. Old ideas and prejudices were being overcome, and new, scientific principles were taking their place, formed not just by careful observation alone, but with reason to lead the way. In an urgent appeal to the learned world, Swedenborg announced that it is time to put this New Philosophy into use.
As your Chairman has stated, we are met together to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of the Arcana Caelestia. Swedenborg commenced the writing of this work in November 1748, at a place not far distant from the very centre of this city, and it was published in the following summer. This publication was the culmination of an event which had happened three years before. In April 1745, the Lord appeared to Swedenborg and announced that he was to be appointed the servant of the Lord to reveal to the Christian world the spiritual sense of the Word and the nature of the spiritual world, and that for this purpose he was to be admitted into the spiritual world at the same time that he was present in the natural world.
I was once asked how, from a philosopher, I became a theologian; and I answered, “In the same manner that fishermen were made disciples and apostles by the Lord: and that I also had from early youth been a spiritual fisherman.” On this, my questioner asked, “What is a spiritual fisherman?” I replied, “A fisherman, in the Word, in its spiritual sense, signifies a man who investigates and teaches natural truths, and afterwards spiritual truths, in a rational manner.”
In Part I, Chapter I of his Principia (1734), Emanuel Swedenborg introduces ideas not only of a philosophical system of his own, but develops a philosophical method to deal with the great problem in cosmology: the relationship of the Infinite to the natural world. The idea of a method is not unique to Swedenborg. This was the consuming passion of Descartes, from his earliest days—not to simply explain things, but to show how to arrive at explanations for unseen things. This message was not lost on Swedenborg, himself a student of this philosopher, and likewise consumed with a passion for knowing.
In the end, Truth prevails over deception. Just as Jesus’ opponents attempt to say that His resurrection was a fake failed when the facts of His post-resurrection appearances became known, so too the assertion that the renowned German philosopher Immanuel Kant did not actually believe that what Emanuel Swedenborg said was credible fails when the actual facts about Kant’s positive letter regarding him are known.
Since the philosophy of Swedenborg was fundamental to Newton’s outlook on the world, we should touch upon certain aspects. Swedenborg’s major work, Principia (1734) argues that the source of all existence is the Infinite. He defines “matter” as arising from serial aggregations of components differing in complexity of arrangement but not as to substance.
In this paper we will compare Emanuel Swedenborg’s (1688-1772) practice of internal breathing to Paramahansa Yogananda’s (1893-1952) kriya yoga. We will focus on the esoteric meaning, historical context and scientific foundation beneath the role of breath control in these two systems with a particular emphasis on the influence of neuroscience on the development of these two practices.
Sometimes, some of a scientist’s ideas are rejected by their contemporaries or, more commonly, simply ignored. Much more rarely, these ideas become accepted as major insights decades or even centuries later. This paper considers three very different such cases in neuroscience, one from each of the last three centuries. I will discuss the context in which each of them worked, what their initially ignored discoveries were, why they were ignored and how they were finally recognized.
Swedenborg Scientific Association
The Swedenborg Scientific Association’s primary purpose is to make the scientific and philosophical works of Emanuel Swedenborg available as widely as possible. We do this by preserving, translating (into many languages), publishing, and distributing this material.
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