Latest / Journey to the Fringe / Emanuel Swedenborg: Between Two Worlds
Transcript
- 0:03From the unexplained to the mundane, come join
- 0:06us on a Journey to the Fringe. And I feel like
- 0:25any documentary after that on the making of the
- 0:28last one would just keep adding to that. There
- 0:31would be an endless cycles of Journey 2, which
- 0:33I think at some point we might have to do. But
- 0:35at this point, I'm not that ambitious. We are
- 0:40your Strictly podcast host for now, Taylor and
- 0:42Chelsea. And tonight. We are stepping into the
- 0:46life of a man who lived in two worlds at once.
- 0:48The man we're going to be looking at today is
- 0:50Emanuel Swedenberg. I've never heard of him,
- 0:53I don't think. No, you haven't. He's kind of
- 0:55a forerunner of a few things that we talk about,
- 0:58but I kind of want to leave that as a surprise
- 1:00as we go. Without much more, just get right into
- 1:02this. Because Emanuel Swedenberg refused to stay
- 1:06in one lane. He was an inventor who sketched
- 1:08flying machines long before airplanes, a scientist
- 1:11who mapped the human body in ways that anticipated
- 1:13modern neuroscience, and a mystic who claimed
- 1:15he could walk freely between heaven and hell.
- 1:18His story is one of visions, revelations, and
- 1:21ideas that unsettled both church and state. Now,
- 1:24Emanuel Swedenberg was born in Stockholm, Sweden
- 1:26on January 29th, 1688. He was the son of Jesper
- 1:31Svedberg, a pastor in Sweden's Lutheran State
- 1:34Church. At 11, Emanuel entered the University
- 1:36of Uppsala. When his father left to become Bishop
- 1:39of Skara, Emanuel remained, completing his studies
- 1:42in 1709. At this point, it's Svedberg. Okay.
- 1:48It does change, which is a little confusing.
- 1:50It's funny that he's in Sweden and his name sounds
- 1:53like Sweden. I know. In fact, I think his last
- 1:56name means Swedenborn. I don't know for sure.
- 1:58I didn't look it up, but I think that's what
- 2:01he ends up getting as a last name. Okay. Okay.
- 2:04Strange. It's easy to remember. Yeah. And I find
- 2:08it very interesting. He was able to start university
- 2:11at 11. I don't know what the curriculum was like
- 2:13back in the day. Maybe that was normal. I missed
- 2:15that one. His dad was a professor there, so maybe
- 2:19that's how nepotism works. I would be more expecting
- 2:22an 11 year old to be at university if his dad
- 2:25taught there. Yeah, interesting it doesn't come
- 2:27up all that often anymore. No. Now, like many
- 2:31wealthy young Swedes, he embarked on a grand
- 2:33tour of Europe after this. In England, he studied
- 2:35astronomy under John Flamsteed, the royal astronomer,
- 2:39and moved in the same circles as Isaac Newton
- 2:41and Edmund Halley. He dabbled in geology, botany,
- 2:45zoology, and mechanics, later continuing his
- 2:47studies in Amsterdam and Paris. After more than
- 2:50five years abroad, he returned to Sweden and
- 2:52became assistant to inventor Christopher Polum.
- 2:55This connection brought him to the attention
- 2:56of King Charles XII, who appointed him to the
- 2:59prestigious Board of Mines. When Charles XII
- 3:01died in 1718, his sister, Alrica Eleonora, ennobled
- 3:05the Swedenberg family, giving them the name by
- 3:09which Emmanuel is remembered today, Swedenberg.
- 3:12Because he got a favor he was liked by the king,
- 3:14his sister ended up giving them a new title,
- 3:16a new last name. I mean, they just added an M.
- 3:19More or less. That would be so weird these days
- 3:21if, like, I don't know, Prime Minister of Canada
- 3:23calls you up and he's like, hey, I think you're
- 3:25doing a good job, you're getting a new last name.
- 3:27Yeah, we're just gonna add like a few extra letters.
- 3:31We're gonna add Canada to the start of your name
- 3:33or something like that. I don't know that I would
- 3:36like that. It would be weird. I think I'd be
- 3:40like, no, thank you. It's a different culture.
- 3:43I like my country and all, but... I have my signature
- 3:46down. I don't want to have to introduce myself
- 3:48with extra... That's three extra syllables. I
- 3:50don't know that I need it as a part of my name.
- 3:53Could it be silent, perhaps? Yeah. I'm sure it
- 3:57could actually, knowing how English works. In
- 4:00these early years, Emanuel Swedenberg poured
- 4:03his energy into science and invention. He launched
- 4:05a journal, Da Dallas Hyperboreus, meant to showcase
- 4:08Polen's work, the inventor he was working under,
- 4:10but also filled it with his own ideas, including
- 4:12a design for a flying machine. Yes. The inventor
- 4:15that he was working with, his name was Polen?
- 4:18Polen. Like P -O -L -H -E -M. I was like, what
- 4:22the hell's up with this episode? Nobody was named
- 4:25but countries back in the day. At least the people
- 4:27who survived. They went on to found countries.
- 4:30Just needed to clarify that quick. Included in
- 4:34the journal was his design for a flying machine,
- 4:37which is in the early 1700s. Oh, I love that.
- 4:40I think it's a beautiful Chelsea. I'm just going
- 4:42to share my screen because there's actually a
- 4:45picture of his flying machine that he has sketched.
- 4:48And if I can find where I need to be. Oh, I love
- 4:51how un -aerodynamic these flying machines used
- 4:54to be. Yeah. They're pretty clunky. Oh, wow.
- 4:58What is that? Is that a blimp? I'm not quite
- 5:00sure how to take it. Like I think it's one wing
- 5:02and you're like floating underneath it. Oh. But
- 5:05it also kind of looks like a blimp from the side.
- 5:07It does look like a blimp. So I'm not quite sure
- 5:08which angle we're looking at it. And it's really
- 5:10small writing and it's Swedish writing even if
- 5:12we could read it. So I'm not quite sure how to
- 5:14take it. Anyhow, this flying machine actually
- 5:16has its own entire Wikipedia entry. Oh, okay.
- 5:19So he drafted this up in the early 1700s and
- 5:22there's a conversation between him and Pohlheim
- 5:24where Swedenberg admits that this contraption
- 5:27that he invented wouldn't fly, but he saw it
- 5:29perhaps as a first step. He specifically wrote
- 5:31apparently on this page. It seems easier to talk
- 5:34of such a machine than to put it into actuality.
- 5:37Perhaps in time to come, someone might know how
- 5:40to better utilize our sketch. Although when the
- 5:42first trials are made, You may have to pay for
- 5:44the experience and not mind an arm and a leg.
- 5:48He also did basically say like this wouldn't
- 5:50work with just like human power. Like you'd need
- 5:52something else far before engines had been invented.
- 5:55What does he mean by human power? Like we wouldn't
- 5:58be strong enough to make it fly. Okay, well then
- 6:00what's he looking for? Something that would give
- 6:02it power. I don't know. More than humans. Yes.
- 6:06Horses, perhaps. Like, is he a god -man? Or,
- 6:10like, he quits looking? Oh, he's definitely a
- 6:12god -man, but he's more - he didn't want to pray
- 6:14it into the sky. I think he just thought, like,
- 6:16somebody might invent something stronger than
- 6:18a human at some point that could power it. Okay.
- 6:21But I'm speculating here, unfortunately. Like,
- 6:23I was thinking, like, is he thinking extraterrestrials
- 6:27will come down and strike it with lightning?
- 6:29And then it's, I don't know. I don't know. No,
- 6:32this is well before extraterrestrials. This is
- 6:34God times. The 1600s. Okay. In 1734, Swedenborg
- 6:40published what's called the Opera Philosophica
- 6:43et Mineralia. It's Latin. It's about minerals
- 6:46because he's on the board of mining. Sometimes
- 6:48he's doing interesting stuff, but a lot of his
- 6:50mid -years where he's super successful is about
- 6:53mining. So kind of a dull guy at this point.
- 6:55Yeah, that does sound dull. And he publishes
- 6:57this book. The second and third ones are called
- 6:59On Iron and On Copper, and they earn the attention
- 7:02for their technical detail throughout Europe.
- 7:05But it was his first volume, Principa Reurum
- 7:07Naturalium, Basic Principles of Nature, that
- 7:10laid the philosophical groundwork for his later
- 7:12explorations of the soul. Oh, the soul. He followed
- 7:15this with anatomical studies, including Dynamics
- 7:19of the Soul's Domain, there's a Latin version
- 7:21out of it, I'm not going to attempt it, which
- 7:22examined the heart, blood, brain, and nervous
- 7:25system. And here Swedenberg began to bridge science
- 7:28and spirituality, describing a subtle spiritual
- 7:31fluid that sustained all living things, an energy
- 7:34he believed that flowed directly from God. But
- 7:36his scientific work was soon interrupted by something
- 7:39far stranger. He has a spiritual crisis. So beginning
- 7:43in 1743, which would make him about 55 I believe,
- 7:47late midlife crisis but nonetheless he's here,
- 7:49Swedenberg's nights were filled with vivid dreams
- 7:52and visions. He recorded them in his diary, often
- 7:54interpreting them as divine warnings or calls
- 7:57to purify himself. By April 1745, His vision
- 8:01spilled into waking life. Swedenborg claimed
- 8:04he could now see and converse with beings from
- 8:06the spiritual world. And in 1747, he resigned
- 8:10from the Board of Minds, turning down a promotion
- 8:12so he could devote himself entirely to theology.
- 8:16His first major theological work after this is
- 8:18Arcana Coelestia, Secrets of Heaven, and it's
- 8:21appeared in 1749, published in London to avoid
- 8:25Sweden's strict heresy laws, and it's stretched
- 8:27across eight volumes by 1756. In it, Swedenberg
- 8:32argued that the Bible could not be read literally.
- 8:35Instead, every verse contained a hidden spiritual
- 8:38meaning, a correspondence between the physical
- 8:40and the spiritual world. Alongside this, alongside
- 8:43his commentary, he described the structure of
- 8:45heaven and hell, the lives of angels and demons,
- 8:47and the intimate connection between body, soul,
- 8:49faith, and cherry. In 1758, he returned to London
- 8:53with five new works, Heaven and Hell, White Horse,
- 8:56other planets, Last Judgment, and New Jerusalem.
- 8:59Here, he made one of the boldest claims that
- 9:01the Last Judgment had already happened, not on
- 9:04Earth but in the spiritual realm in 1757. He
- 9:08said he had witnessed it himself and that it
- 9:10marked the dawn of a new spiritual age for humanity.
- 9:15In 1759, Swedenborg's reputation as a mystic
- 9:18was about to explode. That summer, while attending
- 9:20a dinner party in Gothenburg, he suddenly grew
- 9:24pale and agitated. He announced that a fire was
- 9:26raging in Stockholm, over 250 miles away, and
- 9:29that it was threatening his home. Hours later,
- 9:31he calmly reported that the fire had been extinguished
- 9:34just three doors down. Two days later, messengers
- 9:37arrived from Stockholm every detail matched Swedenberg's
- 9:39account. In 1760, the widow of the French ambassador
- 9:43to Sweden faced a troubling bill for an expensive
- 9:45silver service. She was certain her husband had
- 9:48paid, but the receipt was missing. After consulting
- 9:50Swedenborg, she dreamed of her husband revealing
- 9:53the receipt's location, and the next day, she
- 9:55found exactly where the dream had shown. In 1761,
- 9:59Queen Luisa Elrica herself put Swedenberg to
- 10:02the test. She asked him to relay a private question
- 10:05to her deceased brother, Prince Augustus Wilhelm
- 10:07of Prussia. Three weeks later, Swedenberg returned
- 10:10with an answer so precise that the Queen reportedly
- 10:13gasped, quote, only my brother could have known
- 10:15this, end quote. These incidents, widely reported
- 10:18and discussed, made Swedenberg a sensation across
- 10:22Europe and for the first time he openly acknowledged
- 10:24authorship of his theological work. But perhaps
- 10:28the strangest part of Swedenborg's legacy is
- 10:31this, Chelsea. In the 18th century, the idea
- 10:33that other planets might be inhabited wasn't
- 10:35as strange as it sounds today. Philosophers like
- 10:38Fontenelle and even Kant speculated about a plurality
- 10:42of worlds, a universe that was teeming with life.
- 10:44But while most thinkers treat it as a theory,
- 10:46Swedenborg went further. In his 1758 book, Earths
- 10:50in the universe, he claimed not only that other
- 10:52planets were inhabited, but that he had actually
- 10:54met and spoken with their inhabitants through
- 10:57his spiritual journeys. Each planetary society,
- 11:00he said, reflected different aspects of divine
- 11:03order. This was more than speculation. It was
- 11:06a bold theological claim. Swedenborg suggested
- 11:09that God's creation was far too vast to be limited
- 11:11to Earth alone and the spiritual destiny of humanity
- 11:14was shared across the cosmos. This is centuries
- 11:17before UFO - sightings or science fiction Swedenberg
- 11:21was already describing encounters with beings
- 11:23from other worlds it is more than speculation
- 11:25but it is speculation at this point not really
- 11:29speculation because he's saying in his dreams
- 11:31he's talking to people from other planets specifically
- 11:34in the solar system it's still speculation well
- 11:38it's not speculation if you're saying i have
- 11:40talked to a person from venus in my dreams You're
- 11:45forgetting that part. That's not speculating
- 11:47though, that's grounding it where you've got
- 11:49this information from. It would be different
- 11:52if he's saying that I think there's people on
- 11:54Venus because... Um, I spoke to them in my dreams.
- 11:57He's like, no, I'm speaking to people on Venus.
- 12:00Regularly. In my dreams. In my dreams. Yeah.
- 12:02I mean, that's not really grounded in reality
- 12:05though. I could say a lot of things happen in
- 12:07my dreams and my dreams are crazy. Oh no, I'm
- 12:10not saying it's grounded in reality. I'm saying
- 12:12it's not speculation. Well, the speculation is
- 12:14that there's life on another planet. Other people
- 12:17are speculating. He's saying it's true. Okay.
- 12:20I'm not seeing why it's not speculation, but
- 12:22okay. I guess we're splitting hairs. I'm saying
- 12:24there's no uncertainty in how he's saying it
- 12:26because it has happened to him. He is sure of
- 12:28it, whereas speculation is kind of like, I think
- 12:30this. Which is what the other philosophers of
- 12:33the day are doing. I would go out on a limb to
- 12:35say that he is thinking that he thinks that.
- 12:38I don't think we necessarily need to have a semantics
- 12:41argument, I guess. The reason I decided to cover
- 12:45Emanuel Swedenberg, a guy that neither of us
- 12:48had heard until very recently for both of us,
- 12:50for you right about now, is because he is considered
- 12:53the first person to have interacted with other
- 12:58entities on other planets. In his dreams. How
- 13:01else, Chelsea? And this is something you see
- 13:04today still, is people saying like I'm interacting
- 13:06with these people from the Pleiades, from Sirius
- 13:09B, things like that. Do you know how much stuff
- 13:12I've done? and talked within my dreams. I don't
- 13:15know. And I don't know for me either, because
- 13:17I don't remember many of my dreams. I remember
- 13:20a lot of my dreams and it is all pretty much
- 13:23nonsense. But I'm out there doing it. Yeah. And
- 13:27this is the first point we can draw everyone
- 13:30back who is claimed to have spoken with people
- 13:32from other planets to this. This is the first
- 13:35time it ever happens. I mean, that is a long
- 13:37time ago. I'll give them that. Not everyone saw
- 13:40Emanuel Swedenberg as a prophet or visionary
- 13:43to many of contemporaries and plenty of scholar
- 13:45sins, he was something else entirely. Some accuse
- 13:48him of madness, suggesting his visions were hallucinations
- 13:50brought on by illness or stress. Others dismiss
- 13:53his elaborate theology of correspondences. as
- 13:56arbitrary, even incoherent, grand system built
- 13:59on imagination rather than revelation. The famous
- 14:02stories of his seership, the Stockholm Fire,
- 14:04the widow's missing receipt, the queen's private
- 14:05question, were retold across Europe, but skeptics
- 14:08argue they could be explained by coincidence,
- 14:11rumor, or exaggeration. Even within Sweden, his
- 14:14writings were controversial, enough to be banned,
- 14:16in fact, and his followers were charged with
- 14:18heresy. And while writers like William Blake
- 14:20and Ralph Waldo Emerson admired him, others found
- 14:23his books unreadable, verbose, and rep— and filled
- 14:26with claims too extravagant to be taken seriously.
- 14:29Well I'm personally surprised that he wasn't
- 14:31tried as a witch. Too rich! Too rich. Okay, fair
- 14:36enough. It's not Germany, where apparently the
- 14:38rich could be taken for it. What I do find strange
- 14:41about it is where would the inspiration for this
- 14:44come from? Like, it doesn't seem anything in
- 14:46his background other than religion, maybe? His
- 14:50dad was a pastor, like the religion's in him
- 14:52from deep, and I do just think it might be maybe
- 14:55a midlife crisis mixed with some weird dreams.
- 14:57Remember, these are back in the days where religion
- 15:00was a lot more literal and everywhere, so If
- 15:03you did get a dream, God was sending you those
- 15:05dreams. You can put more stock in his dreams
- 15:08than I was putting because where else would he
- 15:11have heard something like this? But I don't know
- 15:13what they're doing in this time. There are theories
- 15:16out there at this time that basically every planet,
- 15:18every star, everything has life on it. The universe
- 15:21is teeming with life. Yeah. So it's not unheard
- 15:24of to think of there being habitants of other
- 15:27planets. It's just he's the first to say he met
- 15:29them and talked to them. OK, I like them. So
- 15:31in the years that followed, Swedenberg published
- 15:33some of his most influential writings, Divine
- 15:35Love. wisdom, divine providence, revelations
- 15:38unveiled, and marriage and love, the final of
- 15:41those being in 1768. Divine love and wisdom explored
- 15:44the very nature of God, arguing that God's essence
- 15:46is both love and wisdom, the source of all life.
- 15:49Divine providence tackled free will, evil, and
- 15:51the hidden spiritual laws that govern existence.
- 15:54Revelation, unveiled, returned to his method
- 15:56of uncovering the Bible's inner meanings, this
- 15:59time focusing on the book of Revelation. Here
- 16:01Swedenberg introduced what he called memorabilia,
- 16:04vivid accounts of a encounters with angels, demons,
- 16:06and spirits. And then there was A Marriage of
- 16:09Love. Despite its title, it was not just about
- 16:11earthly marriage. Swedenberg described true married
- 16:14love as the highest spiritual bond, one that
- 16:16continued beyond death. In heaven, he wrote,
- 16:18a man and woman who are truly compatible will
- 16:21recognize each other instantly and unite as one
- 16:23spirit. For Swedenberg, who was never married,
- 16:26this teaching may have carried personal weight.
- 16:29All of Swedenberg's theological books were written
- 16:31in Latin and published outside of Sweden. most
- 16:33often in London or Amsterdam. This was deliberately
- 16:36strategized to avoid Sweden's strict censorship
- 16:39laws, which forbade publishing anything that
- 16:42contradicted the teachings of the Lutheran state
- 16:43church. But in 1769, two of his followers were
- 16:47charged with heresy after promoting his ideas
- 16:49in Swedish. During the trial, Swedenberg's work
- 16:51was scrutinized. In 1770, the verdict came. His
- 16:55books contained doctrinal errors but were not
- 16:58outright heretical. Still, they were banned in
- 17:01Sweden and his followers lost their teaching
- 17:03posts. Partly in response, Swedenborg began his
- 17:05final great work, True Christianity, in 1771.
- 17:09It was both a defense and manifesto, laying out
- 17:12his vision for a quote, new church, end quote.
- 17:15Not a sect, but a new spiritual age in which
- 17:17humanity would grasp divine truth more directly.
- 17:20True Christianity would be Swedenborg's last
- 17:22book. The main text was printed in Amsterdam,
- 17:24but he traveled to London to prepare a supplement.
- 17:27It was never published in his lifetime. In December
- 17:29of 1771, he suffered a stroke. Though he partially
- 17:32recovered, he seemed to know the end was near.
- 17:35In February, when a friend suggested meeting
- 17:37in six months, Swedenborg replied, quote, that
- 17:39will be impossible, for I shall die on the 29th
- 17:42day of the next month. And? True to his word,
- 17:45Emanuel Swedenberg died on March 29th, 1772 at
- 17:49the age of 84. Geez. The U .S. wasn't even a
- 17:52country at that point. Do we talk about what
- 17:54he was talking in his dreams to these people
- 17:57about? I'm trying to keep it an overview of everything.
- 17:59I'm not going too specific into that. You know,
- 18:02the other night I had a dream that Jupiter was
- 18:04falling out of the sky and the world went into
- 18:07chaos. I just want to put it out here for the
- 18:10listeners. Okay. Being as the topic. of this
- 18:13episode. Just a non sequitur, of course. Editor's
- 18:21note here from Taylor I've realized that it's
- 18:24probably important to actually have quotes of
- 18:26what Swedenberg said about other planets and
- 18:28their inhabitants So I decided to add a few in
- 18:31the editing process So without further ado Swedenberg
- 18:35wrote about many of the planets and their inhabitants
- 18:37of Mercury He wrote the spirits of Mercury are
- 18:41very intelligent They care little for material
- 18:43things but are eager to learn about spiritual
- 18:45and natural matters They said that on their earth
- 18:48they do not speak much but transmit ideas by
- 18:50a kind of thought speech. They mocked Earth's
- 18:53reliance on books. They made jokes about pieces
- 18:55of paper on Earth, knowing things that the people
- 18:57there do not know. Of the people of Venus, Swedenborg
- 19:00wrote of two kinds of inhabitants. One is savage,
- 19:03more than the rest of the inhabitants of the
- 19:06other Earths. The other kind is gentle and humane.
- 19:09The savage group lived in forests and preyed
- 19:11on others, while the gentle group lived separately
- 19:13and were devoted to worship. Of the inhabitants
- 19:16of Mars, he wrote, these are the best of all
- 19:19in the solar system for they are in greater obedience
- 19:22to the Lord than the rest. They acknowledge and
- 19:24adore him and rejoice to be instructed by angels.
- 19:27Of Jupiter, he writes, the spirits of Jupiter
- 19:30are of a mild and gentle disposition. They detest
- 19:33hatred and in their world they live in mutual
- 19:36love. They said that they do not allow anyone
- 19:38to speak of God except in human form for they
- 19:41know that the Lord alone is the God of heaven
- 19:43and earth. They also were described as living
- 19:46simple lives and avoiding luxury and focusing
- 19:49on spirituality. Of the inhabitants of Saturn,
- 19:52he writes, He also claimed they were deeply contemplative
- 20:03and spiritually oriented. He also wrote about
- 20:06meeting beings from beyond our solar system.
- 20:09He states that there are innumerable Earths in
- 20:11the starry heaven, each inhabited by human beings.
- 20:15The end of creation is the human race from which
- 20:17heaven is formed. Swedenborg has a huge legacy
- 20:21and influence that moves forward from 1772. Swedenborg's
- 20:26writings didn't end with his death. In fact,
- 20:28they sparked a movement that rippled through
- 20:30art, literature, and philosophy for centuries.
- 20:32Like I said earlier, the poet and artist William
- 20:34Blake read Swedenberg early in his career. Though
- 20:37he later criticized him in The Marriage of Heaven
- 20:38and Hell, Blake still called Swedenberg a divine
- 20:41teacher and wove his ideas of heaven and hell
- 20:44and correspondence into his own visionary art.
- 20:47In America, Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalists
- 20:51drew inspiration from Swedenberg's sense of nature
- 20:53as a living symbol of the divine. Emerson praised
- 20:56him as a, quote, colossal soul whose writings
- 21:00open a new way of seeing the spiritual in the
- 21:02everyday. Helen Keller was another surprising
- 21:05admirer. She credited Swedenberg's writings with
- 21:07shaping her understanding of the afterlife and
- 21:10giving her some comfort and clarity about the
- 21:12spiritual world. Even the legendary folk figures
- 21:15like Johnny Appleseed, John Chapman, was a devoted
- 21:18Swedenbergian. Was Johnny Appleseed a real person?
- 21:22Oh yeah, he was. He was? Although everything
- 21:24he planted was cider apples, not actually eating
- 21:26apples. He carried Swedenberg's books across
- 21:31the frontier and shared them with his settlers.
- 21:33Writers as diverse as Honoré de Balzac, Jorge
- 21:38Luis Borges, and Robert Frost all engaged with
- 21:41his ideas finding in Swedenberg a bridge between
- 21:44imagination and eternity. So while Swedenberg
- 21:46may have been dismissed by some as a dreamer,
- 21:49his influence has been anything but fleeting.
- 21:51His vision seeded the imagination of poets, philosophers,
- 21:54reformers, and mystics. proof that his strange
- 21:57journey between two worlds continues to inspire.
- 22:00Swedenberg's influence didn't stop with poets
- 22:02and philosophers though. In the 19th century,
- 22:04his visions were rediscovered by a very different
- 22:06audience. The occultists and spiritualists of
- 22:09the Victorian era. For these seekers, Swedenberg
- 22:12was more than a theologian. He was a proto -occultist,
- 22:16a man who had mapped the invisible worlds long
- 22:19before seances and spirit circles became fashionable.
- 22:22His doctrine of correspondence, the idea that
- 22:25every physical thing mirrors a deeper spiritual
- 22:27reality, became a cornerstone for mystics who
- 22:30wanted to read the universe as a vast symbolic
- 22:33text. The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875
- 22:37by Helena Blavatsky, HPB, drew heavily on this
- 22:41idea. Blavatsky herself called Swedenborg, quote,
- 22:44the greatest among the modern seers, end quote.
- 22:47And his descriptions of layered heavens and cosmic
- 22:50laws resonated with her visions of a universe
- 22:53governed by hidden spiritual hierarchies. Aleister
- 22:56Crowley, though rarely citing him directly, inherited
- 22:59much of the same esoteric soil. Swedenberg's
- 23:02layered heavens and existence on personal spiritual
- 23:05experience echo in Crowley's ceremonial magic
- 23:08with a K. Meanwhile, the Fox sisters whose spirit
- 23:11wrappings in 1848 ignited the spiritual movement
- 23:14were often compared to Swedenberg as the man
- 23:16who had already mapped the afterlife they claimed
- 23:18to contact, and Daniel Dunglass -Holme, Korean
- 23:21medium, famed for levitations and seances before
- 23:24royalty, was Cassus Swedenberg's showman, Heir,
- 23:26bringing to life in drawing rooms what Swedenberg
- 23:29had described in books. At the same time, the
- 23:40emerging new thought movement, with its emphasis
- 23:42on the power of mind, positive thinking in the
- 23:44unity of spirit and matter, found in Swedenborg
- 23:46a kindred spirit. His insistence that divine
- 23:49energy permeates all life and that thought itself
- 23:52shapes reality became a kind of blueprint for
- 23:55metaphysical healing and self -transformation.
- 23:58By the late 19th century, Swedenborg's books
- 24:00were circulating not just in churches but in
- 24:02occult libraries, seance parlors, and esoteric
- 24:05study groups. To these readers, he wasn't a relic
- 24:08of the He was a toolmaker, someone who had left,
- 24:12someone who had left behind a set of maps and
- 24:14symbols that could guide mystics, mediums, and
- 24:17visionaries into the unseen. In this way, Swedenborg
- 24:20became a bridge, a scientist mystic, of the 18th
- 24:24century whose writings fueled occult revival
- 24:26of the 19th century and whose ideas still echo
- 24:29in spiritual subcultures today. By the end of
- 24:31his life, Emanuel Swedenborg had written volumes
- 24:34on science, theology, and the afterlife. He was
- 24:37praised as a visionary and dismissed as a madman.
- 24:39But perhaps the most startling part of his legacy
- 24:42is this. Centuries before UFO sightings or modern
- 24:45science fiction, Swedenberg claimed to have met
- 24:47beings from other planets in our own solar system.
- 24:50To him, the universe was alive with countless
- 24:52worlds, each inhabited each part of a vast spiritual
- 24:55order. So was he a prophet of cosmic truth or
- 24:58a dreamer lost in his own imagination? That's
- 25:01for us to decide. What's certain is that Swedenberg's
- 25:04visions of heaven, hell, and even life beyond
- 25:07earth still challenge us to wonder how thin the
- 25:10boundary really is between the known and the
- 25:12unknown. So he's an interesting guy that neither
- 25:16of us have heard of, but he's inspired pretty
- 25:18much everyone. We've done an episode. Well, not
- 25:20everyone. We've done more than four episodes,
- 25:23guys. Yeah. The occult side. That's super interesting.
- 25:26I can't believe how far back that goes. I just
- 25:29I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind exactly
- 25:32what the hell just happened and why he inspired
- 25:36so many people because basically he dreamed it
- 25:38and by that logic I'm a seer. I'm an important
- 25:42seer the way that I dream. The important part
- 25:44of seeing is telling and he told about his seeing.
- 25:48see and i only got one idea out on this episode
- 25:51but i promise you guys i'll be sharing more oh
- 25:54good i think that's what everyone's thinking
- 25:58okay it's so interesting actually i don't think
- 26:01he's an asshole he might be but i don't know
- 26:04if our modern -day concept of assholes within
- 26:09our reviews can really dissect people from this
- 26:12era. I just don't think we can. No, I don't think
- 26:14so. We don't have enough information. The witch
- 26:15people, the people who hunted the witches did
- 26:17that and they just burned them. Yeah, they did
- 26:20so without fully knowing whether or not they're
- 26:22an asshole. I think the witch burners were the
- 26:25assholes, to be honest with you, because they
- 26:27didn't fully find out if they were assholes or
- 26:30not. I really hope that's not the twist we're
- 26:32leading up to with Journey to the Fringe. Me
- 26:35too. I guess we'll find out in our dreams. Well,
- 26:39I will. You won't, because you don't remember
- 26:41your dreams. Unless you tell them. But if you
- 26:43dream that, just don't tell them, okay, please?
- 26:44I guess I won't tell them, but... Okay. Who's
- 26:47to say? I might share freely. Just like that
- 26:50last one, maybe I shouldn't have told you that
- 26:52Jupiter falls out of the sky. Maybe it was better
- 26:54you didn't know. And with that, I have been Taylor,
- 26:57here with Chelsea. We are Journey to the Fringe.
- 26:59Thank you all for listening, and we'll see you
- 27:01next week. Bye. Thank you for listening to Journey
- 27:06to the Fringe. If you have liked what you have
- 27:08listened to, please like, share, subscribe, or
- 27:12follow, depending on what venue you are listening
- 27:15to us through. Also, please, if possible, leave
- 27:18a five -star review, as that really helps us
- 27:21in the algorithms. Should you wish to interact
- 27:24with us, please check us out on your social media
- 27:26of choice. I bet you we are there. And if you
- 27:30really want to communicate with us and give us
- 27:32ideas for new episodes or tell us that were wrong
- 27:34and terrible either way, please send us an email
- 27:37at journeytothefringe at gmail .com. For now,
- 27:41I'll see you in the next episode.