TAYLOR - The Hidden Levels of the Mind : Swedenborgs Theory of Consciousness

Beyond our everyday consciousnessthe part of our mind that is constantly processing information and formulating responses, the part that we think of as methere are hidden levels of our mind that exert a constant, often unfelt, influence. Sigmund Freud introduced us to the concept of a subconscious, the part of our mind that is below our conscious awareness and houses our less-than-perfect impulses. But two centuries before Freud, a Swedish scholar named Emanuel Swedenborg (16881772) described what could be called the supra-conscious, higher levels of our mind that are above our conscious awareness and can lift us up above the influence of our subconscious. We use those higher levels by living according to the Divine order as revealed in the Word of God. In this way, we slowly allow the influence of the Lord to enter us and transform our being, a process that Swedenborg calls regeneration.

Emanuel Swedenborg was born as Emanuel Svedberg in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 29, 1688, the third child and second son of Dean Jesper Svedberg and his wife, Sara Behm. At the time of Swedenborg's birth, his father was a professor of theology, and would later become a bishop in the Swedish Lutheran church. When Jesper Svedberg was ennobled by the new queen in 1719, the family name was changed to Swedenborg.

Swedenborg's interest in science was aroused by his brother-in-law, Erik Benzelius, librarian at the University of Uppsala (Swedenborg's alma mater) and a keen student of mathematics and science. After completing his university studies in philosophy at the age of twenty, Swedenborg went on a foreign journey to complete his education. In London, he lodged with various tradespeople, learning their arts and crafts. He studied the works of Newton, introducing them to Sweden; he studied mathematics at Oxford, and conferred at length with the astronomers Flamsteed and Halley. In general, he took every opportunity to meet the world's best thinkers of his day. Looking back on this period in his old age, he recognized it as the beginning of his preparation for his life's work.

After two-and-a-half years in England, Swedenborg visited Holland, France, and Germany. At this time, his personal writings contain plans for fourteen mechanical inventions, including a submersible ship, a universal musical instrument, a flying ship, and a method of psychological analysis.

On his return to Sweden after an absence of five years, Swedenborg collaborated with Christopher Polhem, the great Swedish inventor, publishing at his own expense what is now recognized by the Swedish Academy of Sciences as its first scientific periodical. He soon received an appointment with the government ministry that oversaw the mining industry, and worked there for the next twenty-five years.

This kept him in touch with the work-a-day world, but he was also active in the learned world. He was a pioneer in geology, and he wrote the first Swedish textbook on algebra. In addition, he managed to acquire a European reputation as a first-rank philosopher. From his pen there flowed the following major works: Philosophical and Mineralogical Works; Basic Principles of Nature (the first volume of the three-volume work Philosophical and Metallurgical Works ); The Infinite; Dynamics of the Soul's Domain; and The Soul's Domain , a sequel. As the titles of the last two books indicate, Swedenborg had become increasingly interested in the soul, specifically in a question that intrigued eighteenth-century philosophers: where is the seat or dwelling place of the soul?

In The Soul's Domain (published in 17445), Swedenborg realized that he had gone as far as reasoning from the scientific method could take him. This realization led to the turning point of his life, his transition from being a philosopher to being a theologian. He had always been a Christian philosopher, deploring the secret atheistic materialism that he encountered among a number of his scientific colleagues. His philosophic works were all designed to show that there is a realm of reality above the merely physical. He began exploring the world of spirit at age fifty-five, and he spent the next thirty years developing a remarkable theology that not only explained the way in which the soul and body interact but laid out how that interaction can bring us spiritual growth. This is the subject we will be exploring in this book.

During his lifetime, Swedenborg published eighteen theological works spread across twenty-five volumes. His teachings about the human mind are scattered throughout a number of those works, particularly Secrets of Heaven (often referred to by its abbreviated Latin title Arcana Coelestia ), together with Divine Love and Wisdom , Soul-Body Interaction , and True Christianity . Because there is no one volume on the subject, it can be difficult to get a coherent picture of Swedenborg's philosophy of the mind. The purpose of this book is to gather together these many scattered threads and to show that, taken as a whole, they have a great relevance to our life and happiness.

This book is not intended to make you more efficient or in any other way enhance your standing in this life. The main focus will be on your spiritual life, your preparation for the life after death, where you may continue to grow into greater love and wisdom for eternity. Your life on this earth will not be regarded as an end in itself but a means, a means of helping you become a more spiritual kind of person, that is, an even better person.

In keeping with that purpose, this is not an exhaustive study of every passage Swedenborg ever penned on the subject of our mind. That would be a mammoth task, and one that has been very thoroughly done by the late Reverend Doctor Hugo Odhner in his book The Human Mind . Rather, this is a very general presentation of Swedenborg's concept of the mind, clarifying it and providing a structured framework upon which to hang his other teachings. For those interested in pursuing these ideas further, there are references throughout the book to specific passages in Swedenborg's writings. You may also be interested in one of Swedenborg's shorter works, Divine Love and Wisdom , which goes into greater detail about the levels of creation and the way that they relate to the human mind.