Size A5 56 pages Clear-sized print Strong cover with attractive design Further reading links given

The Anthology’s main aim is to provide clear contemporary explanations of 219 terms which Swedenborg uses in his writings with also a brief outline of many of his core teachings.

Rather than clutter the explanations themselves with cross-references to Swedenborg’s source material, these have been left to a loose-leaf insert at the end of the Anthology to list the entries with source references to one or two passages in Swedenborg’s writings where that topic is spoken about. In the downloads and future printed copies, these will be stapled into the booklet.

One potential use of this Anthology would be to provide someone wanting to know about Swedenborg’s spiritual approach with a wide range of helpful information.

Explanations have been deliberately kept to a few lines per entry, as each topic could be (and has elsewhere been) further explained at much greater length. Where it has been thought useful, paragraphs have been written with our own spiritual experience and practice in mind, and not merely as an intellectual definition. This is felt to be very important in today’s world.

More printed copies at a cost of $10 are available from the Swedenborg Centre (ph (02) 9888 1066; email: info@swedenborg.com.au) Online copies are free of charge but we invite people to consider a $10 payment to cover the cost.

We hope you enjoy the potential uses of this modest work. Thank you for your continuing support of the Swedenborg Association of Australia and Swedenborg Centre.

Joe Vandermeer, Swedenborg Centre Director

It uses the translation by George Dole.

It is a remarkable book and it has often been described as a “notebook” of Swedenborg’s spiritual teachings. There are 23 chapters, most of which are thoroughly but briefly dealt with in about three pages.

These include very personal concepts such as Good and Truth, Will and Understanding, The Inner Self and the Outer Self, and then move into more specified subjects like Faith, Piety, Conscience, Freedom, then into several chapters about Regeneration, then towards the end, Heaven and Hell, the Church, the Word, Providence, the Lord and finally, even surprisingly, a chapter on Ecclesiastical and Civil Governance. Truly, a comprehensive list!

In the original version each chapter has an appendix of passages drawn from the Arcana Caelestia or Secrets of Heaven. In some previous editions of New Jerusalem these have been left out; it is good to see that they have been included in this new edition.

One way of appreciating and valuing this book is to see that each chapter and topic is discussed along the lines of “What do we really mean when we talk about … “Faith” or “The Church”? Each chapter is a 101 in today’s language.

Here, as an example, is the opening part of the chapter on Repentance and the Forgiveness of Sins:

“If we want to be saved, we must confess our sins and repent. Confessing sins is to recognise things that are evil, see them within ourselves, acknowledge them, accept that we are at fault, and condemn ourselves because of them. When this is done in the presence of God, it is confessing our sins.

“After we have confessed our sins in this way and have prayed for forgiveness with a humble heart, repenting is to stop doing them and to lead a new life that follows the principles of caring and faith.

“If all we do is make a blanket acknowledgement that we are sinners and declare ourselves guilty of all evils but without examining ourselves – that is, seeing our own evils – we are making some kind of confession but not a confession that leads to repentance. Since we do not know what our evils are we live the same way afterward as before.” (159-162)

It is worth mentioning that in 1938, in celebration of 250 years since Swedenborg’s birth, the Swedenborg Society in London issued this book – without the appendices – in twenty of the world’s languages. And nearer our time, in 1993, the Swedenborg Foundation issued Rev. Lee Woofenden’s very free translation as “The Heavenly City, a Spiritual Guidebook” which was audio-recorded by Barry Eaton here in Australia as an audiobook.

Here are the publication details –

New Jerusalem – Emanuel Swedenborg – George F Dole translator

208 pp Cost: $US 7.99 Publication date: December 2016

Website for enquiries or purchase is:

www.swedenborg.com/product/new-jerusalem- nce/

Reviewer: Julian Duckworth

Produced by Spiritual Wisdom with artwork by G Roland Smith

The 64 cards are 24 full colour illustrations of events and visions in the Apocalypse and 40 images of single images to be used in the process of taking part.

The invitation given is to “enter the exciting world of the biblical Apocalypse; discover the mysteries revealed in the breaking open of the seals of the Book of Life; ride the winds of change with the four horsemen and rejoice in the collapse of the evil city Babylon; be amazed at how John’s Apocalypse mirrors the more disturbing events in your inner life, while enabling you to understand their purpose; feel the welcoming light of the Holy City and take in the healing energies of the River and Tree of Life.”

The 24 coloured Illustrations (15x10cm) each have a personalised spiritual theme and paragraph about it on the reverse side. The 40 image cards, playing card size, have a graphic, title, and a reference from Revelation. These are identically colour illustrated on the back.

Handbook One introduces the Cards, and how the Deck follows a pattern in John’s visions. After brief spiritual reflections inspired by the major cards it leads the reader into ways of getting to know the Biblical Apocalypse.

Handbook Two suggests ways of working with the Cards for personal spiritual growth, including a synopsis of each card, its context in the Apocalypse, its spiritual significance and personal application.

The Card Games booklet contains the ‘rules’ for eight card games for 2-5 players, and one game of Patience using The Throne Scene. These games can be played for fun, and used as a means of becoming familiar with the structure and pattern of the Card Deck.

Each game covers a simple spiritual dynamic indicated at the start. The invitation is to enjoy playing the games, and of finding your interest in the Apocalypse being stimulated by them.

The various games are outlined and very clearly explained from start to finish, along with variations depending on the number of players.
____________

In reviewing this boxed set for The New Age, I must first congratulate the people involved in producing this, a process which has been taking place now for many years. This card set is only one of several outcomes, another one being full-sized mounted art illustrations of the 24 scenes done by Roland Smith along with spiritual commentary.

The Card Set is professionally produced and I like the two levels it sets out to provide – knowledge of what is in the book of Revelation, and knowledge about what these mean spiritually. The point of the several games goes beyond this level of ‘knowing’ and aims to get those playing to discover the Apocalypse’s relevance to and within the individual person.

The games look moderately simple to play and are based for the most part on card distribution and then seeing what you have been given. I have not yet played any of the games so I can’t yet describe their effect on my spiritual state, but I can imagine that they bring up new insights and awarenesses of both our experience of things in us that may be selfish or holding us back along with ways in which the Lord’s light and love can lead us to find help and transformation.

The production is published under the copyright of the General Conference of the New Church in Britain.

So my interest both with Swedenborg and with Jung is most heightened in hearing the stories of their lives. This is the rich immediate data of their memories and dreams and such, which they might theorise about however my excitement is more in hearing these lived experiences recounted and in seeing significant similarities and patterns between them as they tell their stories.

Both men kept diaries of their experiences across a variety of what we might call altered states of consciousness and which were primarily for personal use with Jung begrudgingly permitting publication of his Memories, Dreams, Reflections and after his death his Red Book was published though not his Black book. Swedenborg wrote both a journal of dreams and then a spiritual journal recounting his experiences, neither of which were destined for publication yet published none the less.

The similarity between the records, journals and experiences of both men is what fascinates me and leads me to write this book.

Swedenborg and Jung:

A Gestalt of Psycho-spiritual Development

Introduction:                                Page 13

Psychology and Psycho-spiritual

Development

Part One                                       Page 39

Early Years

Science and Early Studies

Psychology of Religious Experience

Part Two                                       Page 57

Dream Journal and States

of Consciousness

The Experience of Opposites

A Question of Sanity or Metanoia

Part Three                                     Page 99

The Near Death Experience

Spirits and the Unconscious

Death and Beyond

Part Four                                       Page 133

Religion and the Experience of God

Love and Wisdom

Anima, Animus and Conjugial Love

Available through Amazon and Ravenwood Press

Dr Alexander began as a dedicated neurosurgeon after years of training and preparation. He became highly thought of and an expert in his field of surgery. He had no thought that consciousness could or would continue on if the brain has stopped living or functioning, and he would have argued, he says, vehemently against the whole idea.

Until it happened to him during a sudden severe illness which shook him to the core because he saw, met and experienced events and beings after his brain died. This had such a profound effect on him that he could not deny the evidence of it and the certainty, for him, that consciousness continues on in powerful, new and beautiful ways after death.

This is all written about in his first book “Proof of Heaven” which has been a long best-seller. He has done many talks and tours on this subject in recent years.

The second book “The Map of Heaven” has just been published. It ranges far and wide – like any ‘map’ should – of very many people from antiquity to modern times who have put forward the idea of continuing consciousness. He introduces Swedenborg in roughly the middle of the book and later refers to him again several times, very positively.

It is probably best to give a short extract on Dr Alexander’s summary of Swedenborg and the afterlife. If you get the book, it is round about p62 onwards.

“Swedenborg had a particular interest in the brain and spent many years trying to isolate the seat of consciousness – the physical location of what, back in his time, was still called the soul. Then in the middle of his life, Swedenborg discovered (as the psychologist and Swedenborg scholar Wilson Van Dusen put it) that he had been ‘looking in the wrong place’. Swedenborg underwent a spiritual crisis. A series of terrifyingly vivid dreams finally led to a moment in which the heavens themselves seemed to open. Swedenborg’s old world cracked, buckled, and collapsed. A new one grew up in its place.

“Swedenborg devoted the rest of his life to studying and cataloguing the spiritual worlds he had discovered, with the rigour that he had previously devoted to studying the physical world.”

Then Dr Alexander goes on to outline Swedenborg’s understanding of these worlds and what they are, and where they are in relation to our sense of ourselves. He describes the familiarity of objects in the afterlife – there are trees! – and then he covers the all-important point that the laws of spiritual world life work rather differently than here. “The one rule we need to remember from here, however, is that we end up, in the end, where we belong, and we are led by the amount of love we have in us, for love is the essence of heaven. It is what it is made of.”

By all means, go and get yourself a copy of the book. It covers the afterlife extensively and shows the remarkable similarity of different peoples’ experiences and understanding of it. It is … a map of heaven.

Julian Duckworth

Atheists are basing their lives on the belief that no God exists that could hold them accountable or provide meaning and hope for their lives. In my view it would be monumentally foolish to embrace this view without taking stock of the strong scientific support for the belief that God exists.

In what follows I shall be drawing largely on the book by Doug Ell titled “Counting to God.” In this book Ell states that modern science strongly supports belief in God. Doug Ell notes that there are at least 7 discoveries of modern science that can be seen as stepping stones that count to God. In addition I have added another wonderful development which I only came across recently and this is Systems Biology.

Here are the 8 stepping stones counting to God  :-

1.   The arrival into existence or the creation of our universe 14 billion years ago. Why does anything exist? What caused the Big Bang 14 billion years ago? The fact of the Big Bang  points to the conclusion that something that does not exist in our reality created our reality – that is, God.

2.  The fine-tuning of the universe to allow life to occur. The laws and constants of physics are fantastically fine-tuned to allow life to exist. In other words, if the laws and constants of physics were only infinitesimally different, life could not exist. This is information hidden in the structure of the universe and it points to the existence of God.

3. The origin of life and the impossibility of creating life by chance.  Life is a miracle. Modern Science cannot conceive of a plausible pathway for the origin of life.The simplest organisms contain staggering complexity.

Life builds biological parts called proteins using instructions from the DNA molecule in the cell. Life builds different types of protein – perhaps more than 100,000 – for a human being as well as a lot of complicated machines by assembling those proteins in just the right way to have life. Mathematics shows the fantastic improbability of a single functional protein occurring by chance. So the advent of Life on Earth again points to God.

4.  DNA and the technology of life. Life has technology to dazzle as revealed by molecular biology.  DNA is biological computer code, only far, far more advanced than anything humans have ever built. All life has the same operating system. All life stores information in DNA and transfers that information to build biological machines in basically the same way. There is no evidence there ever was a different operating system. Somehow life’s operating system sprang into existence 3.5 billion years ago. So the dazzling technology of the living cell is the fourth wonder of modern science in counting to God.

5.  The absence of scientific evidence for macro – evolution. Macro evolution is the Darwinian idea that complex life forms developed from simple ones by the Darwinian mechanism of accidental mutation and natural selection. The alternative explanation for the formation of complex organisms is design.

The predictions of Neo-Darwinian theory do not match the scientific facts such as the absence of transitional forms in the fossil record, absence of junk DNA in the genome, irreducible complexity and orphan genes. There is no evidence that the Darwinian mechanism created complex systems such as the eye, the backbone, or the human brain.

So where does new genetic information come from, the precise coding to build new proteins and assemble them to form new biological systems and body parts?  The Darwinian Theory of Evolution has no answer!

When early experiments revealed that less than 2% of human DNA codes for proteins, the remainder was quickly but falsely labelled “junk” DNA.  The Encode Project showed that at least 80% of the genome had biochemical functions and therefore is not junk and so it supports design. So it seems clear that if all or almost all of our DNA serves a purpose, the theory that humans arose simply from accidental mutations is nonsense.

The idea of irreducible complexity is that some systems are complex and won’t work  if any part is missing. There are many biological systems that have this quality of irreducible complexity. It is very doubtful that they could arise by accident.

Orphan Genes are genes that have no family. Orphan genes make a species unique. Examples are the orphan genes in jellyfish that create toxins and the orphan genes in polar cod that prevent freezing.  Orphan genes have been found in every genome sequenced to date, from mosquito to man. According to Darwinian theory all genes should be descended from earlier ones and orphan genes with no recognisable ancestors shouldn’t exist. But they do. Orphan genes are misnamed. They should be called designer genes.

Species are connected but by common design not by common descent through chance-based unguided processes from a remote ancestor.

6. The special qualities of Earth, the privileged planet. Modern science is revealing the wonder of planet Earth. Some years ago astronomer Carl Sagan in his popular TV series ‘Cosmos’ in America described planet Earth as ‘an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe’……

This view is now losing its hold as modern science is finding just how unique Planet Earth is. We now know that it is not just position in the universe which makes Earth special.  What is special about Earth is its ability to sustain life for billions of years and this is because the conditions for life to thrive are just right. A very important factor in making Earth so hospitable to life is the uniqueness of our Sun and Moon. Our Sun is solitary, has about the right mass, relatively stable light energy and optimum distance from the Earth for life to flourish.

Our Moon is the largest moon in the solar system and it keeps the tilt of the axis of the Earth’s rotation at about the same angle of 23.5 degrees to its orbit around the Sun. The Moon prevents Jupiter from causing large changes in the tilt of the Earth’s axis but Jupiter and other outer planets also help Earth by protecting it from meteors and other dangerous objects. If this tilt were to change substantially then North and South poles would move toward the equator, with enormous climate change and disruption to any advanced form of life.

In the sky the Moon looks exactly the same size as the Sun.The Sun is about 400  times further away and about 400 times larger in diameter. This “coincidence” occasionally gives rise to total eclipses when for a few minutes the moon comes precisely between Earth and the Sun when viewed from the right spot on Earth.

Total eclipses have helped scientists understand our universe. Experiments during total eclipses have measured the Sun’s corona to learn about stars, measured the slowing of the rotation of Earth and confirmed Einstein’s theory of general relativity by measuring how the light from stars near the edge was bent by the Sun’s gravity.

Water makes up only 0.02 percent of Earth’s mass, but oceans cover 71% of Earth’s surface to an average depth of about 12,000 feet. This is about perfect for Human life with water the best of all possible solvents.

Earth also has a large core of molten iron, which generates a strong magnetic field that deflects the solar wind and protects Earth’s atmosphere from erosion.

Finally Earth has plate tectonics. Earth’s crust is divided into huge “plates” that collide and grind into each other. Plate tectonics may be the central requirement for life. Because of plate tectonics, land exists and Earth is not a smooth globe uniformly covered with water. Plate tectonics causes Earth’s crust to constantly churn  and this churning regulates the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide.  Because of plate tectonics the temperature of Earth’s surface has permitted liquid water to exist for billions of years and life has thrived. Earth is the only planet in the solar system with plate tectonics.

In summary Earth is unique and special. It is in the right galaxy, is located the right distance from the centre of the galaxy, travels a safe path through the galaxy, has the right Sun, is in the right place in the solar system, has the right Moon, has the right chemical ingredients and has plate tectonics.

7 Quantum Physics

In Quantum physics it is known that two particles can be “entangled,” which means they are exactly alike. Whatever you measure on one will be true of the other and if you change one you change the other instantaneously. It happens faster than the speed of light – there is no delay whatsoever. Entangled particles are connected outside space and time. This suggests some reality outside of space-time.

Shortly after the discovery of quantum mechanics in 1925 Arthur Eddington realised this meant that the universe was entirely mental, that is, that the substratum of everything is of mental character. He also noted that this acknowledged deepest discovery ever in human intellectual history, is one that has changed our understanding of our own nature far more than did the Copernican Revolution (discovery that the Earth is not the centre of the universe).

So where does this leave us? Physics points to mathematics as underpinning everything. If ideas – which are mental – expressed as mathematical concepts are the foundation of the universe, perhaps there is a great thinker or God.

Atheism/Scientism/Naturalism say we exist as accidental creations of a material world in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get reality. Quantum physics contradicts this view and suggests we exist in a what-you-think-is-what-you-get reality. Richard Conn Henry says that “the discovery of Quantum Mechanics gave us the most fundamental insight ever into our nature; the overturning of the Copernican Revolution, and the restoration of us human beings to centrality in the Universe”. Perhaps we do not live in a purely material world but in a world, a universe of thought. Remember the Gospel of John starts with ,”In the beginning was the Word….”.

8 Systems Biology.

Systems Biology can be defined as the study of the “big picture” in cell biology, that is, looking at whole systems and how they function, rather than using a “bottom up” approach that tries to deduce function from molecular interactions.

The new paradigm of Systems Biology which has arisen over the past 10 years analyses living systems in terms of systems engineering concepts such as design, information processing optimisation and other explicitly teleological concepts. This new paradigm offers a successful, quantitative, predictive theory for biology because design is the driver of the science in Systems Biology. Again this new paradigm in biological science points strongly to a Designer.

So in conclusion we have 8 stepping stones or scientific arguments strongly pointing to God which atheists cannot refute.

Philip Richards

Three of these productions – Our Life After Death, The Lives of Angels and Regeneration are basically extracts from Swedenborg’s Writings, but they are thematic, with simple titles and keeping to only that one area. So the title is what it says inside. The texts are easy and clear, the layout is attractive and the books are not too long.

The Joy of Spiritual Living (Simple Steps to Your Best Self) is a set of simple techniques to help you in and through your life, practically and spiritually.

Nice work, Swedenborg Foundation!

We look forward to further books on chosen topics. These books are available from the Swedenborg Foundation or from the Swedenborg Centre in Sydney – info@swedenborg.com.au

It all began with The Hunger Games now waiting on its 3rd and 4th movie sequels and Divergent (so far only the first of three books has been filmed). One positive element of this book to film process pioneered by the Harry Potter and Twilight franchises is the extra inducement on young people to read, since the books are often available long before the movies yet the movies stick to the book storylines with great care.

If you believe as I do that God not only speaks through His Word and other carefully chosen Writings but also the modern equivalent of tribal myth telling, the big screen. You might have followed with interest these dystopian dramas looking for the hidden correspondences which could leave implanted remains for the future use of Heaven. But you would have been largely disappointed. Up until now the story lines have had little of interest for the theologian or philosopher.

But that may have changed with these two new releases! Note: I have taken care not to giveaway too many spoilers.

The Giver

(book published 1993) has sold more than 10 million copies, (largely because of its inclusion in many secondary school reading lists).

It is about a boy (Jonas) chosen to train as “a receiver “ one who learns and remembers his society’s truths and history, so that his society can remain in the ignorance necessary for them to live in utopian purity without cares or anxieties.

However there are severe sacrifices incurred for this ignorance, including the loss of colour (the first half of the movie is in black and white) love, family ties, and music. These things Jonas begins to discover as his training proceeds.

The really fascinating aspect to the story which comes out in the book and is maintained in the Movie is the cost to Jonas of these discoveries, of the reclaiming of his society’s truths.

In New Age philosophy much is made of the millions who live lives of ‘unconsciousness’ unaware that they are spiritual beings and that life is  more than just the acquisition of wealth and security and a good retirement package (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Although it’s understood that suffering is often the key to breaking out of this ‘ignorance cycle’ only the Writings articulate the role of temptation combats as pain in a constructive roll opening our eyes to larger understanding and insight about ourselves and our world. The Giver in its own way communicates this phenomenon with amazing sophistication.

Maze Runner

This is a much more recent book to movie franchise and incidentally the main reason for me writing this article.  Its been described as Lord of the Flies meets Labyrinth with a group of boys (you guessed it all teens) trapped in the center ‘the Glade’ of a maze. They have no idea why they are there except that they arrived over two years from an opening in the ground which supplies them with food and materials by means of a warehouse lift. When they first arrive in the Glade they remember nothing not even their names. Around the outside of the Glade is a maze with massive concrete walls which constantly change and vast doors which slide open each day to allow the ‘Maze runners’ to try to find an escape. (See excellent trailer on YouTube). The doors are important since at night scary mechanised monsters with sharp blades and poison spikes prow the maze. Suddenly with the arrival of a new boy (Ben) everything starts to change  he begins to challenge the carefully constructed society in the Glade, the monsters become a much more imminent threat, and messages indicating the end of things arrive. I first saw the trailer for this movie six months ago and was so fascinated I read the books (three of course). Only the first book remained worthy of my continued interest.

In true heavenly doctrine style let me describe the allegory according to ascending levels.

First Level: The Maze of course is an allegory for life; we arrive in it without any information of why we’re here or what we’re meant to do. We become part of the society which includes the philosophers and theologians (maze runners) who attempt to explore the higher questions about life (sometimes a risky business). And provide meaning and a possible escape.

Second level: a new boy seemingly just like the rest arrives, but he’s not like the rest. He begins to do and say things which undermine the social hierarchies becoming a threat to the present order. Yet he solves more mysteries in two days then have been solved in two years. He doesn’t remember who he is or his name at first yet some find him strangely familiar.

Third level: They say He helped create the maze? Yet he doesn’t even know his own name. Equipment in the maze bares the acronym WICKED but it is confirmed that “WICKED is good” how can the maze with its horror monsters be good? How can those who created it be good? Is the maze a prison in which we just have to learn to get along or is it a challenge we must surmount?

‘Exinanition’ is the term the Writings use to describe the Lord emptying himself not only of all power but all self awareness in order to become man incarnate. Much New Age theology suggests we all do so in order to experience physicality (and with it evil) in order to better know and choose good. This tale handles that conceptualization better than I have ever seen done before. Many people blame God for their struggle in life thus they hate and fear Him and truly see Him as wicked.

But what if WE chose to be here and what if God only agreed out of love for our mutual benefit?

The film has low levels of violence and horror but I still highly recommend it.

Martin Pennington