Still more wisdom from Swedenborg and Bacon
"...Dr. George Dexter, a New York physician, initially looked upon spirit communication as “a foolish delusion or an absolute, outrageous deception.” John W. Edmonds, Chief Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, had similar views and set out to expose mediumship as so much humbug. However, as Dexter and Edmonds observed and studied mediums, the two friends came to believe in the reality of mediumship. In fact, Dr. Dexter soon found that he had mediumistic abilities and began transmitting profound messages purportedly coming from the spirits of Emanuel Swedenborg and Francis Bacon. Here is more of what Swedenborg and Bacon had to saw through Dexter’s hand.
Angels: “What are considered by you as angels, are but the beatified spirits of men, in whom the progress of their nature has developed all that there is of beauty and perfection of form. They are, as I am led to believe, the spirits of men whose organization has passed the seventh and last process of refinement, and are constantly in intercourse with all that can be known of God. No human mind, fertile in imagination as it is, can picture to its wildest fancy the overpowering and transcendent beauty of the progressed and elevated soul. The world’s images of thought fail to convey the faintest idea of my meaning, and I shall, therefore, leave the description to the evidence of your own senses.” Bacon
Dealing with non-believers: “It is not worth while to contest the truth of spirit revelation with those who do not believe. Truth is like the misty vapor encircling the mountain top. The sun of error, of superstition, of priestly teachings may, in its full blaze, dissipate the cloud, but its cloudy substance is disseminated through the whole atmosphere, and descends in grateful showers to replenish and fructify the thirsty earth. So with man. Argue with him and he battles with you. Prove he is wrong, and, Proteus-shaped, he attacks you again with arguments founded on that very error. But let the cloud rest on the mountain, and when disturbed by the sun or the wind, in grateful sprinklings it returns to foster, to cherish, to develop the nature of its own godlike virtues.” Bacon
Premature death: “The spirit which enters the body of the child on being born is the principle or germ. It has not existed before in a sentient form, but has existed, as a principle, from the beginning. So intimately blended are the two, both body and soul, that the one was created to grow and expand with the other; and though a child may die, yet the spirit grows and expands, and assumes very much the character here, which the full-grown man could have occupied on earth.” Swedenborg
When soul enters body: “When there is sufficient life or vitality to maintain a balance between the spirit action and the material action, then the spirit enters the embryo; but even then it does not always occupy that germ. It sometimes, from the death of the embryo, returns and occupies some other body.” Swedenborg
Other worlds: “If this world were alone the abiding place of immortal spirits, we could imagine how much more beauty God would have lavished upon its formation, and how much vaster would have been its proportions. But beyond the vision of the most powerful telescope there are worlds filled with spirits whose birth is forever and ever. They know no death, and yet are organized with bodies suited to the worlds in which they live.” Swedenborg
Spirit intercourse in earlier times: “That spirit perception in the ancient days was clear and distinct, I believe, and think I know. Now, what you consider the fall of man is only the great change in his mental and material nature, produced by the increase of numbers, the wants and necessities which arose around him, the occupation of his thoughts with the circumstances of his material life, and the entire direction of his mind from spiritual things to subjects of earth. When there were few persons on earth, and the spirit intercourse was frequent, of course, the minds of men were directed to spiritual things; but when the world was more thickly peopled, then it was that the necessities of life compelled man to work, to develop, to invent, to construct, and these occupations prevented that freedom of spiritual communication which existed previously.” Swedenborg
Spirit influence: “The fate of spirit is with its own control, but the influence of good is as general and specific in our world as in yours. Now if some mind develops a good thought in your country, do not the minds of individuals receive and profit by it in Europe? Spirits in affinity with you likewise receive the good you generate, or rather the good generated through you, and they, responding, circulate it through the spheres where they dwell. So with evil.” Bacon
Soulmates: “I can say that when there are affections formed on earth, death itself does not change or alter them, but when separated, the soul in the spheres develops more extensively the love it first recognized on earth, and is drawn to meet the spirit for whom that love was formed, when it is ushered into the spheres. If, then, all their affinities correspond – and they are likely to – if there is a basis formed on earth, they will go hand in hand through all the transitions of spirit life, together loving and being loved, together aspiring, together progressing.” Swedenborg
Oneness: “…you will never lose your identity. If God designed to absorb all souls into himself, there would have been no necessity at first to give off from himself distinct identical germs, possessing all the characteristics of independence. Therefore, as every spirit is independent in his mind and its exercise, how could God contravene his own institutes? That is impossible, and from this I reason. Swedenborg
Truth Distorted: “Is there not in truth itself a power sufficient to overcome all opposition, all perversion, and accomplish its design and purpose of itself? Can that which so essentially concerns man, as the knowledge of what is right, be diverted, made to produce evil instead of good? Should those laws which indeed are from God, and when properly and wisely understood, answer the intent for which they were instituted, b e forced by man to the injury of his race? Alas! It is so. Alas! That this should be the great obstacle to man’s progress on earth, and, in fact, is an all-powerful cause, of his lingering on the wayside even in these spheres. What do I say, that truth itself is made a means of evil? Yes, and the history of man from the earliest period until the present time corroborates this statement. Look at every nation of which we have any knowledge, that has made its mark on the passage of time, and you will agree with me that my remark is just. That there has been no settled belief on what has been revealed as true does not in the least alter the truth itself. From the beginning until the present time, the eternal manifestation has been the same – yesterday, now, and forever! What has been the truth to the Egyptians is no less truth to the Romans; and the divine emanation has lost none of its purity, its godlike attributes, even though the truth is altered or denied by the mass of men at the present day. In your earth, light is from one source, and your philosophers have invented means by which they have divided it into what they call its several properties or colors. So with truth. Man’s ingenuity has succeeded in giving it so many forms that it has lost its distinguishing quality, and under the aspect they exhibit it, it has less or no correspondence with the original idea. Bacon..."
Angels: “What are considered by you as angels, are but the beatified spirits of men, in whom the progress of their nature has developed all that there is of beauty and perfection of form. They are, as I am led to believe, the spirits of men whose organization has passed the seventh and last process of refinement, and are constantly in intercourse with all that can be known of God. No human mind, fertile in imagination as it is, can picture to its wildest fancy the overpowering and transcendent beauty of the progressed and elevated soul. The world’s images of thought fail to convey the faintest idea of my meaning, and I shall, therefore, leave the description to the evidence of your own senses.” Bacon
Dealing with non-believers: “It is not worth while to contest the truth of spirit revelation with those who do not believe. Truth is like the misty vapor encircling the mountain top. The sun of error, of superstition, of priestly teachings may, in its full blaze, dissipate the cloud, but its cloudy substance is disseminated through the whole atmosphere, and descends in grateful showers to replenish and fructify the thirsty earth. So with man. Argue with him and he battles with you. Prove he is wrong, and, Proteus-shaped, he attacks you again with arguments founded on that very error. But let the cloud rest on the mountain, and when disturbed by the sun or the wind, in grateful sprinklings it returns to foster, to cherish, to develop the nature of its own godlike virtues.” Bacon
Premature death: “The spirit which enters the body of the child on being born is the principle or germ. It has not existed before in a sentient form, but has existed, as a principle, from the beginning. So intimately blended are the two, both body and soul, that the one was created to grow and expand with the other; and though a child may die, yet the spirit grows and expands, and assumes very much the character here, which the full-grown man could have occupied on earth.” Swedenborg
When soul enters body: “When there is sufficient life or vitality to maintain a balance between the spirit action and the material action, then the spirit enters the embryo; but even then it does not always occupy that germ. It sometimes, from the death of the embryo, returns and occupies some other body.” Swedenborg
Other worlds: “If this world were alone the abiding place of immortal spirits, we could imagine how much more beauty God would have lavished upon its formation, and how much vaster would have been its proportions. But beyond the vision of the most powerful telescope there are worlds filled with spirits whose birth is forever and ever. They know no death, and yet are organized with bodies suited to the worlds in which they live.” Swedenborg
Spirit intercourse in earlier times: “That spirit perception in the ancient days was clear and distinct, I believe, and think I know. Now, what you consider the fall of man is only the great change in his mental and material nature, produced by the increase of numbers, the wants and necessities which arose around him, the occupation of his thoughts with the circumstances of his material life, and the entire direction of his mind from spiritual things to subjects of earth. When there were few persons on earth, and the spirit intercourse was frequent, of course, the minds of men were directed to spiritual things; but when the world was more thickly peopled, then it was that the necessities of life compelled man to work, to develop, to invent, to construct, and these occupations prevented that freedom of spiritual communication which existed previously.” Swedenborg
Spirit influence: “The fate of spirit is with its own control, but the influence of good is as general and specific in our world as in yours. Now if some mind develops a good thought in your country, do not the minds of individuals receive and profit by it in Europe? Spirits in affinity with you likewise receive the good you generate, or rather the good generated through you, and they, responding, circulate it through the spheres where they dwell. So with evil.” Bacon
Soulmates: “I can say that when there are affections formed on earth, death itself does not change or alter them, but when separated, the soul in the spheres develops more extensively the love it first recognized on earth, and is drawn to meet the spirit for whom that love was formed, when it is ushered into the spheres. If, then, all their affinities correspond – and they are likely to – if there is a basis formed on earth, they will go hand in hand through all the transitions of spirit life, together loving and being loved, together aspiring, together progressing.” Swedenborg
Oneness: “…you will never lose your identity. If God designed to absorb all souls into himself, there would have been no necessity at first to give off from himself distinct identical germs, possessing all the characteristics of independence. Therefore, as every spirit is independent in his mind and its exercise, how could God contravene his own institutes? That is impossible, and from this I reason. Swedenborg
Truth Distorted: “Is there not in truth itself a power sufficient to overcome all opposition, all perversion, and accomplish its design and purpose of itself? Can that which so essentially concerns man, as the knowledge of what is right, be diverted, made to produce evil instead of good? Should those laws which indeed are from God, and when properly and wisely understood, answer the intent for which they were instituted, b e forced by man to the injury of his race? Alas! It is so. Alas! That this should be the great obstacle to man’s progress on earth, and, in fact, is an all-powerful cause, of his lingering on the wayside even in these spheres. What do I say, that truth itself is made a means of evil? Yes, and the history of man from the earliest period until the present time corroborates this statement. Look at every nation of which we have any knowledge, that has made its mark on the passage of time, and you will agree with me that my remark is just. That there has been no settled belief on what has been revealed as true does not in the least alter the truth itself. From the beginning until the present time, the eternal manifestation has been the same – yesterday, now, and forever! What has been the truth to the Egyptians is no less truth to the Romans; and the divine emanation has lost none of its purity, its godlike attributes, even though the truth is altered or denied by the mass of men at the present day. In your earth, light is from one source, and your philosophers have invented means by which they have divided it into what they call its several properties or colors. So with truth. Man’s ingenuity has succeeded in giving it so many forms that it has lost its distinguishing quality, and under the aspect they exhibit it, it has less or no correspondence with the original idea. Bacon..."
~ Source ~
No comments:
Post a Comment