Swedenborg: Man Of Unaccountable Talents, Scholar, Great Intellect And His ‘Spiritual Awakening’
A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Emanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772) was an intellect of a very special kind. He was renowned for his worldly achievements both in the arts and sciences.
Additionally, he had an odd ability to live in both this world and the next, too. Swedenborg was indeed a very strange person. Swedenborg (his original name Emanuel Swedberg, changed after he was granted the title of nobility) was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 29, 1688.
The Swedenborg Society headquarters in Bloomsbury, London house a large library of Swedenborg’s works and holds regular lectures for all interested in his theories and beliefs regarding both this world and the next.
His father was a professor of theology and later became the Lutheran Bishop of Skara, Sweden. The young Emanuel completed his university education at Uppsala in 1710, and then traveled abroad in England, Holland, France, and Germany.
He was a scientist highly skilled in anatomy, mathematics, chemistry and physics.
He was also a psychologist and psychoanalyst, a theologian, a linguist fluent in nine languages and a very competent craftsman in seven arts. Swedenborg was also a skilled metallurgist who devised several new ways of using metal in engineering, mining engineer and creative author of works that were translated into 30 languages.
Swedenborg had also time for gardening, music and poetry.
His career as a scientist, however, came to an abrupt end in 1745, when he received a vocational ‘call’ to become a theologian; even much earlier, he had a particular interest in religious matters and has some mystical experiences – harbingers of things to come.
This man never considered himself eccentric but he was always aware of the existence of his guardian angel.
In 1736, Swedenborg had his first recorded psychical-spiritual experience, which as he expressed, ‘cleared his brain’.
Soon, he began to record his dreams, in which appeared many important symbols; light represented intelligence, hips of rags, soldiers marching past his window and gross thoughts. From his unpublished dream journal it is known that Swedenborg experienced struggle between his independence regarding scientific methods and his growing interest in spirituality. And so, Swedenborg’s first spiritual crisis occurred in April 1744. He began to receive revelation that he was appointed by the Lord to write ‘The Heavenly Doctrine’ to reform Christianity.
According to ‘The Heavenly Doctrine’ the Lord had opened Swedenborg's spiritual eyes, so that from then on he could freely visit heaven and hell and talk with angels, demons and other spirits; and the Last Judgment had already occurred, in 1757.
From 1744 onwards, Swedenborg produced several theological works, of which the most important was ‘True Christian Religion’.
Memorial plaque at the former location of Emanuel Swedenborg’s house at Hornsgatan on Södermalm, Stockholm.
This great scientist, scholar with many extraordinary scientific achievements, claimed to be able to live simultaneously in our world and in the world of spirits.
He was aware of spirits and had a consciousness of being surrounded of them all the time.
Gradually, Swedenborg came in contact with them and could talk with them at will.
Swedenborg was a very unique medium because it was not the spirits who entered his world, but he who entered theirs!
This mostly unusual man developed a number of psychic gifts, including prophecy and precognition.
He was also the so-called ‘direct voice’ medium taking dictations from spirits.
Several his prophecies were fulfilled to the minute. One of Swedenborg’s strange episodes occurred, when he told a man known as Dr. Rosen - who had denied owning one particular book – its exact location on a shelf in Rosen’s loft, where the Swedenborg had never been.
There are many stories about this man’s extraordinary powers. The Swedenborg Society headquarters in Bloomsbury, London house a large library of Swedenborg’s works and holds regular lectures for all interested in his theories and beliefs regarding both this world and the next.
Swedenborg believed that heaven and hell surround us.
He believed that dying is simply the process by which our soul changes its state.
See also:
Paracelsus: Physician, Alchemist, Philosopher Well Ahead Of His Time
Nicholas Owen ‘Little John’ Who Paid Highest Price For His Ingenious, Camouflaged Places To Hide
The spirit newly arrived in the next world is met by angels and good spirits, however, due to a spiritual gravitation, the spirit is drawn into association by inner similarities with those with whom it wishes to be, following its own ambitions and delights and thus creating a life similar to its career in the body.
According to Swedenborg, God punishes no one; but evil lusts may be burned away and the damned tortured, yet only in the sense that they restrained from doing the evil they want to do.
Swedenborg’s spiritual cosmology is made up of three heavens and three hells; every inhabitant of these realms, including angels and devils was once a human being because Mankind inhabits innumerable planets besides our own. Swedenborg did not believe in reincarnation.
Contemporaries who met him and knew him, found Swedenborg honest, sensible, sane, kind, very efficient in work he undertook, but somewhat - reserved.
Many of these contemporaries accepted this extraordinary man and the phenomena as genuine.
Written by – A. Sutherland AncientPages.com Staff Writer
Copyright © AncientPages.com All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in whole or part without the express written permission of AncientPages.com
Expand for referencesMore From Ancient Pages
-
Controversial Discovery Of Rama’s Bridge – A 1,700,000 Year Old Man-Made Structure
Featured Stories | Jun 19, 2014
-
Ancient Maya Drug Containers – Scientists Identified What’s Inside
Archaeology | Jan 16, 2021
-
Potlatch: Ancient North American Indian Tradition Of Very Generous Gift Giving
Ancient Traditions And Customs | Sep 12, 2016
-
900-Year-Old Coins And Jewelry Unearthed In Polish Village – Could They Belong To A Ruthenian Princess?
Artifacts | Jan 12, 2021
-
Tantalus – Greek King And Evildoer Who Violated Divine Laws And Was Sent To Tartarus
Featured Stories | Mar 1, 2019
-
Surprising Diversity Of Ethnic Groups In The US Virgin Islands Before Columbus – New Study
Archaeology | May 18, 2023
-
Archaeologists unearthed artifacts in a 3,700 year-old mine factory
Artifacts | Aug 22, 2015
-
On This Day In History: Battle Of King’s Mountain Was Fought – On Oct 7, 1780
News | Oct 7, 2016
-
Advanced Heating System Discovered In Ruins Of Metropolis ‘City Of Mother Goddess’
Archaeology | Nov 17, 2019
-
Ördög – Shapeshifting Demon Who Controls The Evil And Dark Forces In The World
Featured Stories | Oct 23, 2019
-
Ushabti: Servants Who Worked For Their Owners In Afterlife In Ancient Egyptian Beliefs
Ancient History Facts | Feb 12, 2020
-
Cahuachi – Complex Of Truncated Adobe Pyramids In Peru’s Desert
Civilizations | Aug 27, 2015
-
A Graffiti Inscription With The Name Of Knight Adrian von Bubenberg – Found On Mount Zion In Jerusalem
Archaeology | Nov 30, 2022
-
1,300-Year-Old Art Mystery Solved By Scientist
Archaeology | Sep 7, 2022
-
DNA From Mysterious Hominin In China Suggests Native Americans’ East Asian Roots
Archaeology | Jul 14, 2022
-
Evidence Humans Walked The Great Plains 18,000 Years Ago May Have Been Found – Archaeologists Say
Archaeology | Mar 14, 2022
-
On This Day In History: Battle of Oosterweel Was Fought – On Mar 13, 1567
News | Mar 13, 2017
-
Hill Of 100,000 Crosses In Lithuania Survived Against All Odds
Featured Stories | May 23, 2017
-
Excavations At Urartu Fortress Will Shed Light On Mysteries Of Ancient Temple
Archaeology | Jul 31, 2019
-
John Hawkwood ‘John Sharp’: Feared, English Mercenary And His White Company In 14th Century Italy
Featured Stories | Jun 20, 2020