Emanuel Swedenborg and Esoteric Philosophy

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Emanuel Swedenborg and Esoteric Philosophy
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Esoteric Philosophy

• Esoteric philosophy removes the element of belief
  from speculation. Its views are built on
  experience rather than theory.

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Esoteric Philosophy

• It offers a way of thought and life that opens up
  the spiritual quest for people who are not
  religious and cannot abide the path of belief and
  conformity to revealed and orthodox truth.

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Esoteric Philosophy

• A core part of esoteric philosophy is to discover
  what truth there might be that can reconcile
  these two movements not by suppressing one in
  favor of the other, but in synthesizing them at a
  higher level.

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Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)

• He was both an intellectual scholar and a
  practical scholar and he had the wonderful trait
  of being able to learn from just about anyone.

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Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)

• Long before modern physics he came up with the
  then radical notion that the basic building block
  of material reality was energy, rather than
  irreducible particles of matter called atoms.

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Swedenborgs Esoteric Philosophy

• He wanted to study spirituality from a scientific
  point of view. He approached his own experiences
  as a scientist working in a lab.

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Swedenborgs Esoteric Philosophy

• A holistic approach to traditional spirit/matter
  and mind/body dichotomies is one of his major
  contributions.

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Swedenborgs Esoteric Philosophy

• Swedenborg taught that humans are the meeting
  point of spirit and matter and this is why we are
  so confused and dualistic, but also why we are so
  glorious and why our lives can be so meaningful.

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Conclusion

• Swedenborg dedicated the first half of his life
  to the religious study of science and the second
  half to the scientific study of religion.

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Conclusion

• Swedenborg demonstrated the esoteric principle
  that one must become that which he or she wants
  to know.qq