My parents
Both of my parents died in the past year, and I couldn’t be happier!
Don’t get me wrong. I love my parents very much. No, they weren’t perfect. Who is? But I could not have asked for better parents. I consider myself blessed in that way.
As much as I love them, I am also very happy that they died.
You see, my parents lived a full lifespan. They died at the ripe old age of 90 (my father) and 85 (my mother). They died within nine months of each other, having been happily married for over sixty years. Together they devoted their lives to the things they loved and believed in, the greatest of which was their shared religious faith, and not the least of which was raising eight children.
At my father’s funeral I was smiling and laughing and greeting family and old friends. Then I realized, there are people grieving here. So I toned it down for their sake.
But for me, despite all I’ve learned about the process of grieving, I still can’t figure out what to be sad about. Months later, it still hasn’t “hit me.” Though there are always many different emotions when someone we love dies, what I feel the most about my parents’ deaths is a sense of happiness and even joy. They had a good life. I had plenty of time to bid them farewell from this earthly plane as their physical bodies gradually wore out in their final years.
By the time my parents died, they were very much looking forward to death. They were tired of struggling with failing bodies and deteriorating minds. Toward the end of his life my father had sage advice for anyone who would listen: “Don’t get old.” Both my father and my mother were eager to move on.
For my parents, death was a joyful thing—an event to be celebrated!
Rational and irrational fear of death
That’s just the opposite of how death is generally viewed in our society.
The general attitude seems to be that death is the ultimate catastrophe. Death is something to be avoided at all costs, and denied as long as possible. That’s why about a quarter of Medicare spending in the United States goes for people who are in the last year of their lives. For some people, spending on the last week or two of life reaches astronomical levels as doctors use heroic measures in their desperate attempts to cheat death.
Of course, there is a rational basis for our fear of death. We humans are meant to live out our full lifespan. There is a real and justified grief over those whose lives are cut short in childhood, young adulthood, and middle age. Fear of death helps us to achieve a full lifespan by motivating us to provide for our own health and welfare, and by restraining us from doing a whole lot of foolish, reckless things that could result in an early death. The will to live is one of the strongest motivators among both animals and humans.
However, there comes a time when the fear of death becomes irrational. There comes a time when both animals and humans are meant to die. For elderly people who have lived out their years and whose bodies and minds are failing, does it really make sense to fear death and attempt to stave it off as long as possible, whatever the costs?
Death is a natural part of life
Even from a purely physical and biological perspective, death is a natural part of life.
Everything from plants and animals to stars and solar systems has a natural lifespan. Things are born, live out their lives, and die to make way for the next generation. This cycle of life, death, and rebirth makes it possible for nature to be continually renewed, and to change and evolve toward higher forms of organization and life.
From a social perspective, the cycle of life, death, and the birth of the next generation provides for the renewal and development of human society. As one generation becomes set in its ways, it gradually dies off, making space for its children to take the next steps in carrying human culture toward greater understanding and better ways of living.
True, not all change is for the better. But when humankind goes backwards for a shorter or longer period of time, each new generation provides a new opportunity to reverse the downward slide and start humanity on an upward course again.
Without the full cycle of birth, life, and death, neither the natural ecosystem nor human society as we know it could exist. Without death, nature would quickly become choked with overpopulation. Without death, human society would slide into oppressive stagnation.
Death is a spiritual part of life
From a spiritual perspective, death is no less essential to life.
Seen from a spiritual perspective, this entire material universe is like a womb for the spiritual world. Here on earth we are not only physically conceived and born, but we also have the opportunity to be spiritually conceived and reborn.
We humans are not born merely to live a few short decades on this earth. Rather, our lifetime on this earth is preparation for eternal life in the spiritual world.
Our mother’s womb provided an environment in which we could be conceived and pass through the developmental stages of becoming an embryo, then a fetus, until we were ready to be born into the world, breathe the air for ourselves, and continue our process of maturation into full adulthood.
In the same way, the material world provides an environment in which we can grow not only into physically mature adults, but into spiritually mature human beings, ready to take our place in our heavenly home. This is the process that Jesus calls being “born again.”
From a spiritual perspective, our physical death is not death at all. Rather, it is our birth from this world into the next.
When we leave behind the womb of the material world, we are born into the full, spiritual humanity for which we were originally created. We can then freely breathe the spiritual air of understanding and wisdom, feel the warm spiritual sunshine of God’s love shining upon us, and join a community of like-minded people, now angels, in a joyful life of mutual love, learning, and service that continues to grow and develop to eternity.
The joy of death
Yes, I am happy that my parents have died. I know that they are now moving on to their true home. They no longer have to struggle with failing physical bodies. Their minds are now free from the limitations of this material world. They are regaining their youthful health and vigor in their eternal, spiritual bodies.
For me, the thought of my parents’ life and death is a joyful thing. While they were here on this earth, they followed their loves, and lived out their faith. They spent their lives on this earth loving each other and their family, and giving of their fine minds and their great talents to everyone they met.
Yes, they gave life to me and my brothers and sisters, and indirectly to a growing number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But more than that, they gave spiritual life to their children and to thousands of others. They spent their life teaching and sharing their deep and abiding faith through their words and their actions.
My parents are now entering into the full joy of the spiritual world toward which they guided so many others while they were living here on earth.
For my parents, and for all who have devoted their lives to love, understanding, service, and spiritual growth, death is the final and greatest blessing of earthly life. It is when all of our labors finally come to fruition in the eternal life and joy of heaven.
And that is an event to celebrate!
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Lee Woofenden is an ordained minister, writer, editor, translator, and teacher. He enjoys taking spiritual insights from the Bible and the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg and putting them into plain English as guides for everyday life.
Spiritual Insights for Everyday Life 
Your post reminded me of the frenzy of medical activity in my mothers hospital room as she was dying. I ordered the nurses and doctors to ‘Stop!’ and the look on their faces was priceless. Once they were banished from the room, it was possible to create a quiet, loving and peaceful environment for her in which to die. The medical staff were just doing what was expected of them – to prolong life – but they were swimming against the tide!
Beautiful, thought-provoking and healing post Lee. Thank you.
Thanks! I’m glad to hear that you were able to cut through the pandemonium and create some peaceful final moments for your mother as she departed this earthly life for the next world. Those are precious moments!
Hi Lee I can relate. I spent 19 years as a private caregiver in many peoples homes and some institutions. The majority of my clients had no solid spiritual inclinations during their lives and as they aged they became more angry of course the dementia/Alzheimers added to their plight. I was always so relieved when they passed and really had very little to say in condolence and grieving always felt hollow although I could feel their loved ones pain-for which I felt sad-the peace of ended suffering was what I remember most. I know they will be given more opportunities to continue toward God. Hopefully with more compassion than they received in this life.
Now I’m preparing for my parents leaving this world. They too have no spiritual inclinations and feel the angst of the unknown as well as my brothers and sisters. There is so much comfort in the spiritual insights of Emanuel Swedenborg and am sure glad to have found his writings, from which I have tried to comfort my folks and ease their fears.
I would like to recommend the “Messages from the Open Door” by Margret Scott Houts and the fiction trilogy starting with “the Searchers” by Naomi Gladish Smith as introductions to ES’s thoughts on the subject.
Even in Buddhism impermanence is a major realization for the attainment of peace in this life.
It was a blessing reading this testimonial of your wonderful parents.
David
Hi David,
Thanks for your good thoughts and experiences. My thoughts are with you as your parents complete their time on this earth. They will find out soon enough that there’s more to life than the material world.
When I briefly served as a hospital chaplain during my seminary training years ago, I wished that I could tell the cancer patients about heaven as Swedenborg describes it. One of the chaplaincy trainers, a Quaker, provided an insight that has been helpful to me ever since. He said, “You may not be able to tell them about Swedenborg’s descriptions of heaven, but you can create some of that heaven for them while they are still here on earth.”
On a lighter note, toward the end my father’s life he lost most of his memory. That included his memory of Swedenborg’s teachings–to which he had devoted his life as a teacher, minister, and editor. When we described to him his own beliefs about the afterlife, he said, “That sounds pretty good!” 😉
I really like the insights you develop, here, Lee – especially the way you start your essay. You are completely on target when you say the “general attitude” of our society is to view death as “the ultimate catastrophe.” As a physician, I see the illogical scenarios this attitude produces playing out on a regular basis in the families of elderly folks who are dying. And you are completely correct, in my view, when you guide your readers to a larger view of the cycle of birth, life and death as an absolutely integral part of the nature of the physical cosmos.
In line with this thinking, if you look at what scientists describe as the greater than 13 billion year evolution of our physical universe, you see a process that begins with simplicity and relative uniformity, moving constantly towards ever greater complexity and organization. Likewise, if you look at life on earth as it has evolved over the last 3 to 4 billion years or so, you see life starting as single cells, then becoming multicellular, then finally achieving ever greater freedom of action based on ever greater complexity of form and variety.
None of this process of evolution and change looks at all like an accident. The ever greater complexity that is both cooperative and self-supportive cannot be a mere accidental process of change driven by random events. This means that some influence completely outside the physical is driving the whole process. Yes, we agree that the physical cycle of birth, life and death is a spiritually motivated process. And it is beautiful.
To me, these questions and their answers are inescapable if we take both a balanced and wide enough view of the process we find ourselves in the middle of. But then the next question becomes: “Where is all this going?” On this question we may diverge a bit in our points of view. If I am hearing you right, you seem to view our physical lives as a preparation for something completely different – “an eternal life in the spiritual world.”
What if we are already in this eternal spiritual life while our hearts still beat and our lungs still breathe? What if we have the potential to “freely breathe the spiritual air of understanding and wisdom” right now? What if death is in no way final, just another natural transition? Of course, what I am implying cannot be supported by any objective proof, I am only asking questions. I am not saying that your view is incorrect. I am only exploring the possibility that the next stage of our spiritual evolution is to experience “heaven” right now and not wait until after our death.
You quite rightfully celebrate the very beautiful lives of your parents. You see the tremendous value of all they achieved. Could part of this achievement be in helping to lay the groundwork for a new stage of our spiritual evolution, one that they could not yet fully and consciously participate in while they were still physically with us? Could we be moving to a whole new view of how it all works and where it is all going?
Hi Chuck,
Thanks for your good thoughts, which I very much appreciate.
Just to scratch the surface of some of your questions:
I believe that we are simultaneously living in the spiritual world while we are still living physically in the material world. We are mostly unconscious of that fact, as are the angels who surround us spiritually, but it is still true. When we make the transition called death, what’s really happening is that when we lay aside our physical body, our spiritual senses are fully opened, and we become conscious in the spiritual world that our inner spiritual self has been inhabiting all along.
I do believe that this is a one-way transition in the same way that birth is a one-way transition from the womb to the world outside the womb. Just as we will never return to our mother’s womb, so we will never return to the “womb” of the material universe. Just as the womb is a one-time beginning and preparation for our life in the world, so our life in the material world is a one-time beginning and preparation for life in the spiritual world, which is our true and eternal home.
Within the next week I’ll post an article about angels and how they live. That article will offer a much more concrete description of the spiritual world, and how it is both similar to and different from our life here on earth. I am now writing a lead-in post that will go up first.
For now, suffice it to say that this world is less like a schoolroom and more like an apprenticeship for heaven. We learn how to live in heaven by doing the same sorts of things here on earth that we will be doing in heaven. Death is simply the transition from our earthly apprenticeship into the actual practice of the spiritual profession that we have been preparing for here on earth. To use the example of your profession, it is like completing your residency and entering into your medical practice as a licensed physician.
About humanity entering a new stage of spiritual evolution, I invite you to read my article, “Is the World Coming to an End? What about the Second Coming?”
Thanks again for your thoughtful comments.
Hi Lee,
I find a logical difficulty in accepting what you describe as life being a one-time preparation for a spiritual after-life. My problem is this – where were we prior to being born? Before being born into this physical life, did we exist at all? I have a hard time imagining that each of us was somehow created out of nothing when we were born, but we have now become eternal beings. I have not read enough of your writings to know where you stand on this.
For the moment, I will assume that you believe, like I do, that there is no such limitation as time to which consciousness is limited. This would mean that each of us has always existed and always will. If you accept this as true, why we would we not enter into many physical lives to further our spiritual growth with the physical cosmos as a tool for this purpose? I suspect we live many, many lives on earth in different times and in different locations. I also suspect we have experiences in other dimensions also, and I see no reason why we wouldn’t.
Your writings are very interesting and helpful, Lee. Perhaps I will come across your answer in other articles. Is there a particular article I should look to?
Thanks,
Chuck
Hi Chuck,
I’m glad you are finding my writings helpful. I am gaining some great insights from yours as well, so the feeling is mutual.
At this point I don’t have anything written and published or posted dealing with the questions you raise. Perhaps I will in the future. However, I have found that for those who believe in reincarnation, it tends to become a litmus test in their minds to divide those who are “enlightened” from those who are not. So for the most part, there is nothing to be gained from debating reincarnation with its proponents.
However, since you asked, I will offer a quick sketch of my views on the subject of where we human beings come from.
To understand this fully, it is necessary to have some grasp of what Emanuel Swedenborg calls “correspondences.” This is the mechanism by which things on different levels of reality–divine, spiritual, and material–relate to and interact with one another. In simple terms, it is how God is expressed or manifested in the spiritual level of reality, and how spiritual things are expressed or manifested in the material level of reality.
In line with this view that material things are an image and expression of spiritual things, which, in turn, are an expression of divine things, I see two simultaneous origins of human souls.
First, all human souls ultimately come from God. This means that they do originate from an eternity that is outside of time. However, in the process of becoming non-divine, they enter into time and its spiritual analog or correspondent. This means that we humans do have a point of beginning in time, though we have no point of ending in the spiritual analog of time.
The more practical and understandable origin of human souls is, I think, easier to see and grasp. If we look at the physical generation of a human being, it originates in a unique offshoot of genetic material from each parent, which are combined to form a new, unique individual. In precisely the same way on the spiritual level, each new human soul is a unique combination of uniquely different offshoots of the souls of the two parents.
This means that practically speaking, the point of origin in time of a human soul coincides with the point of origin of that human being’s body. However, seen from a spiritual perspective, the newly created soul is prior, and it forms the newly developing human body using blueprints provided by both parents, and materials provided primarily by the mother, since a new human body develops inside the mother’s body and is entirely dependent on her for the materials and sustenance needed for growth.
In short, each human soul is a uniquely new creation of God made in time through the agency of unique offshoots from the spiritual and material forms of that human being’s parents. So we humans do have a beginning in time, but we are created such that our spirits have no ending point in time. The physical body, which does have an ending point in time, is only a temporary vessel formed to contain the human spirit (which is the real human being) while that spirit goes through its initial developmental phase in this material world.
As for the belief in reincarnation, I believe it arises from reading Eastern scriptures literally and materialistically rather than spiritually. The rebirths spoken of in both Eastern and Western scriptures are not physical rebirths, but spiritual rebirths.
Other than that, the only “reincarnation” that exists is a continual re-incarnation of the infinite attributes of God into billions of unique and always newly created human souls and bodies. This is part of God’s infinite creativity in continually bringing new things into the world and into human society.
A further thought in response to the questions you raise:
People on earth have no need to return to their mother’s womb. Once the development that takes place in the womb has been completed, there is no need to repeat it. We then continue to develop outside the womb through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood into old age. Returning to the womb would merely be repeating developmental stages that we have already completed.
In the very same way, once we have left the “womb” of the material world in the process we on earth call “death,” we have no need to return here again. We have already completed the developmental phases for which this material plane exists.
Just as our physical, mental, and spiritual development does not stop at birth, so it does not stop at death. We continue to grow and develop spiritually as human beings when we take up residence in the spiritual world.
In the spiritual world, we have access to higher and more efficient tools and modes of development than we have access to here on earth. We need our developmental phase here on earth to be able to access and use those spiritual modes of development.
Returning to earth would deprive us of the tools and facilities needed to continue our spiritual evolution, and force us to repeat phases of development that we have already completed.
God’s design for creation is very efficient. There is no need to repeat earlier phases of development. Each phase builds the foundation for the next.
Our time in our mother’s womb provides the foundation for our development as human beings on this earth, and we have no need of ever repeating that phase of development.
Our time of development as human beings on this earth provides the foundation for our further development as spiritual beings in the spiritual world, and we also have no need of ever repeating that phase of development.
Physical death is not the end of our spiritual growth. It is the point at which our spiritual development kicks into high gear! To use another metaphor, once we no longer need training wheels, why would we ever reinstall them on our bicycle? They would only slow us down.
The critical idea to understand is that we continue to grow and develop as human beings to eternity. Our life here on earth is just the first phase of a process of spiritual growth and development that continues forever in the spiritual world.
Lee,
a couple of questions.
What about infants/babies/young children who die without “completing their development”?
I read it once that the fundamental question of philosophy is: Why not to commit suicide? I think it’s a very succinct and precise way of putting it. What would be your response?
Hi laurisolups,
Good question. For the general answer about children who die, please see: Where are my Children who have Died? Will I Ever See Them Again?
The short answer is that they all grow up and become angels in heaven. None of them go to hell. That’s because they did not reach adult age on earth, which is when we first begin to make moral and spiritual decisions for ourselves in sufficient freedom from our parents’ influence and responsibility over us that the decisions are really ours.
Then why wouldn’t it be better for them to die as children, through accident, murder, or suicide?
Because although all children who die do become angels, they become angels who lack the full development as human and spiritual beings that they would have had if they had lived a full lifetime on earth. It is here on earth that we develop the character that we carry with us to eternity. Children who die have had that character development stopped before full maturity. So although they do have a very happy life in heaven, they have that life without reaching the full human potential they could have achieved if they had lived out their lives on earth.
Yes, of course there is the risk of choosing hell over heaven for all who live into their adult years. But that risk also carries with it the potential reward of becoming a much more fully developed human being and angel, capable of doing types of work in the spiritual world that those who die as children cannot do, because they do not have the depth of character that is developed in those who have faced evil, fought it, and overcome it.
Lee: You have some fascinating replies to your blog. I had much the same feelings as you had when my father and mother made their journey to the spiritual world (within three months of each other). – Naomi Smith
Hi Naomi,
Thanks for your thoughts, and for stopping by!
Hi – found this post through the culture monk post – and Lee, I really like this post!! wonderful.
“They spent their life teaching and sharing their deep and abiding faith through their words and their actions” – 🙂
and one day your parents will be on your welcome team when – as you put it – you leave this “womb” of a life to join them for your “eternal life in the spiritual world”
Hi Y. Prior,
Thanks for stopping by, and for your good thoughts. Yes, I’m looking forward to seeing my parents again when it comes my time to “shuffle off this mortal coil.” But I’m in no big hurry. I still have lots to do right here on earth!
Hi Lee,
I got a chuckle out of this post because my grandfather’s last words to me before he passed away were, “David, don’t get old.” 🙂
I get frustrated with some of my skeptical friends who believe that this life is in — you die and you go in a whole. Sometimes it’s almost like they WANT this to be true just I want their to be eternal life. Perhaps they just don’t like what religion would mean for their lives.
David
Hi deepthinkingdave,
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the piece!
I think “Don’t get old” is common wisdom arrived at by those who do get old, and feebler in body than they are in mind.
Some people don’t like what religion would mean for their lives. Some people just want to have their fun and not have to do anything they don’t want to do—especially straightening up their own lives.
Others don’t like what the religion they have encountered tells them about life and the afterlife. Unfortunately, false religion, and false Christianity has driven hundreds of thousands of good and decent people into agnosticism and atheism.
What do you think of Theosophy? They know about Swedenborg and say that his visions never left the astral plane. They believe in reincarnation and their heaven is temporary lasting as long as the amount of good karma you’ve created. Then you reincarnate and repeat the process until you are “enlightened” like the Buddha, ending the cycle of reincarnation.
They say that suicide will prevent you from going to heaven until your natural lifetime ends, and ALL bad things that happen to you are a result of bad karma from a previous life.
I ask you because like Swedenborg, they are an old “newage cult” (no offense) based on a religion (Buddhism/Hinduism instead of Christianity) that the “near-death experience” supports.
Do you think they are plausible? Is there anyway to prove that they are wrong?
Hi Rolan,
Thanks for stopping by, and for your comment and questions.
I am no expert on Theosophy. However, the Theosophists are not the only ones who claim that Swedenborg’s visions were limited to a lower plane of the spiritual realms. There are even spirit mediums who have claimed to have received messages from Swedenborg in the spiritual world, and that he has now recanted everything he said in his theological writings about this or that.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it’s all hogwash.
Did these detractors of Swedenborg spend nearly three decades fully conscious in the spiritual world, visiting angels, spirits, and devils in their communities and houses, carrying on conversations with them face to face, and becoming fully acquainted with the spiritual world? I’m not aware that any of them even claim to have had the length and depth of experience in the spiritual world that Swedenborg did. And yet, they presume to make pronouncements about his errors and misperceptions?
It’s all rather ridiculous. For example, it’s silly to think that after having already spent nearly thirty years exploring the spiritual world before he died, Swedenborg would suddenly, after he died, come to the conclusion that everything he had previously seen and experienced in the spiritual world was wrong.
In short, these claims about Swedenborg make no sense, and they are not made by credible witnesses when compared to Swedenborg’s extensive experience in the spiritual world.
It would take too long in a comment to discuss all of these issues fully, let alone “prove that they are wrong.” However, here are two articles that lay out the issues sufficiently that you can come to your own conclusions:
In the second article, see especially the sections starting with, “2. Swedenborg’s experience in the spiritual world was unique in known history.”
I’m so happy for your loss.
😀
I came here to hopefully find some comfort that my mum and dad are together again. My mum passed away 3 years ago and my dad 2 weeks ago. I just don’t feel they should of gone yet but u really hope they are happy and together. I also wonder if they are watching over us? Thankyou for reading.
Hi Jade,
I am sorry to hear about your parents’ death. If they were happy together in this life, then they will be even happier together in the next. Please see:
Will Happily Married Couples be Together in Heaven?
Meanwhile, for your own reflection and comfort as you continue on without them here on earth, please see:
What Does it Mean When My Parents Die? Will I See Them Again?
Do our loved ones who have gone before us watch over us? I think so. We are in their hearts just as they are in ours. And in the spiritual realm, it is closeness of heart and mind that brings people together. We may not be able to see their face and hear their voice, but I believe they are right here with us in spirit.
I hope these thoughts, and the linked articles, are helpful to you. Meanwhile, you are in our thoughts and prayers.
Hi lee,
My mother just passed away in March 2021 my dad 10 years before. I’m having such a hard time right now for I miss my mother terribly. The one thing that comforts me is that she is now with daddy. My mother has always told me that everything that lives must die so while we are here in earth we must live. I miss her terribly and I am having a hard time because of not hearing her voice and seeing her beautiful face. How do I receive comfort in knowing we will be together again and have complete peace?
Hi Rose,
I am sorry to hear about the death of your parents. It sounds like your mother is a wise woman. Here is another article that may be helpful to you:
What Does it Mean When My Parents Die? Will I See Them Again?
Please feel free to continue the conversation there if you wish. Meanwhile, our thoughts and prayers are with you.
Thank you so kindly Lee… I will read this and share Your article with my brother & sister. We are a Christian family and love our Lord. My mother loved God so much and she made sure that we were taught the same. She was tired and wanted to go to the home. We wanted to keep her here. Thank you
Hi Rose,
My parents were also very ready to go home when it came their time. I hope the article will be helpful to your family.
I have seen some claims that Swedenborg had slipped into a state of insanity during those last 30 odd years. And yet, his writing make so much spiritual sense. I wonder Lee, whether you’re familiar with the claims of Paul Wallis who wrote the Scars of Eden and two other books? He runs a YouTube channel analysing ET references in world religions and the Bible. He puts many cases for Genesis being the stories of alien “gods” and for Yahweh being a dragon. Disturbingly, he was an Archdeacon in my home country of Australia. I read two of his books and came away shaking my head at the total destruction of hope for humanity wrought by a person who peddles his former religious office as some claim to authority on these matters. Since the loss of my 19 year old son to suicide, this site has helped me to deepen my faith and understanding in a beautiful plan for creation by the Lord. Thank you for your work and compassionate fielding of comments and questions. I am very grateful.
Hi leeannemeredith,
Good to hear from you again, and thank you for your kind words. I’m glad this site is helping you.
I have not heard of Paul Wallis and his claims before, but this all sounds strange and baseless to me. UFOs and aliens have been popular ever since the beginning of the Space Age, but so far there is no scientific evidence for any actual aliens, whether visiting Earth or living on other planets out there in the solar system or the galaxy. People come up with all sorts of weird ideas. Most of them have nothing to support them outside the fevered imaginations of the people who came up with them.
As for Swedenborg being insane, that charge has commonly been made against him ever since it first became known that he was the author of a whole series of books in which he said that he had been able to visit the spiritual world for many years. However, as with UFOs, there is no actual evidence that Swedenborg was insane. Stories of him having fits of insanity were published in various periodicals, including in The Arminian, which was a widely circulated Methodist publication during the time Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, was still alive. But these stories were investigated at the time, and no witnesses could be found to corroborate the stories. Just the opposite. Everyone who was interviewed who lived where these incidents supposedly had occurred, and therefore might have had knowledge of them if they had actually happened, said that Swedenborg’s mind was clear and rational, whether or not they believed he was actually visiting the spiritual world.
Absent any actual evidence of insanity, the charge is that he must have been insane because he claimed to talk with angels and spirits. But if that is true, then most of the major figures in the Bible, such as Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joseph, and Mary must also have been insane, because they also are said to have spoken with angels.
Short version: There is no evidence whatsoever that Swedenborg was ever insane, or had episodes of insanity. These are simply rumors spread by his theological enemies in an attempt to discredit him.
Why would they want to discredit him? Because what he wrote, if taken seriously, takes the foundations out from under their own false and unbiblical beliefs. Obviously, they don’t like that! It is telling that instead of attacking him on the merits of his teachings, they made ad hominem arguments against him personally. That is a sign of people who are not secure in their own beliefs.
Why does it even matter? Because as you have experienced, Swedenborg’s teachings have the power to lighten the burden and bring comfort, hope, and even joy to millions of people who are struggling under life’s burdens. Attacking those teachings, and their messenger, is attacking the Lord’s work in sending light and hope into the darkness of this world.
Thank you. Very well explained. I especially appreciate what you said in that last sentence about the Lord’s sending of light and hope. Throughout my journey, I have wandered away, exploring New Age concepts and looking for immediacy in the relieving of my pain. That of course, is fruitless. Until I began to make peace with the fleeting nature of earthly life. Sometimes, I have seriously planned not to be here any longer myself. But then God wanders back into my life in ways that have solid promise of a better day. I initially found some comfort in bereaved parent groups on facebook These served me well at one point because somebody put me onto Swedenborg, of whom I’d never heard. Religion had not cut it for all of the un-Biblical teachings you’ve discussed across this site. Three pastor’s attended my son’s funeral service in March 2019. I’m yet to hear from any of them since. I will never understand why they bothered to attend. I think it had something to do with keeping up appearances. The funny thing about suicide loss is the Great Silence. People either have condemned my child or they prefer not to acknowledge he ever existed. It’s a very lonely loss. But it was an even lonelier death for him. I no longer frequent social media as I soon learned that the New Age philosophies were pervasive through the groups and I was repeatedly told not to worry as this was in my son’s “soul contract”. Any disagreement from me about this was shut down. Particularly when I took issue with the implications of such terrible concepts that seemingly doomed my child to this. Then I was assured there were “exit points”. Three I think. Let out clauses if you will. Anyway. Just some observations and experiences along my way. Thank you for again, lending some clarity. I have made death an inclusive aspect of my thinking about life and your take on the death of your parents sits very well with me and I feel that is how God would have us to understand it. An inevitable process in our continuing journey.
Hi leeannemeredith,
Unfortunately, due to the common traditional Christian idea that suicide is a sin, and due to suicide’s inherently painful and conflicting nature, many people prefer to avoid confronting the issue, and to avoid dealing with it when it happens among family members, friends, and fellow churchgoers. When I was a pastor in Bridgewater, Massachusetts over a decade ago, one of the most active families in the church had left the Catholic Church and joined our church because their Catholic priest had refused to perform a funeral for their adult son who had committed suicide, whereas the then pastor of our church willingly and supportively did so.
Suicide is not a sin. It is a tragedy. But knowing that a person who commits suicide can go on to live a good life in heaven takes away some of the sting. In most cases, when people commit suicide they are not intending any evil. They are struggling with overwhelming inner conflict, major depression, and severe loneliness, among other things. These are all things that can be resolved on the other side, though not necessarily quickly and easily. It all depends upon the person. What sends a person to hell is an evil and selfish heart. That is not what drives most people who commit suicide to take their own lives.
About the online bereavement groups, my Swedenborgian friend Judy Ebbe used to frequent them, and point people to Swedenborg when there was an opening to do so. She had the same observation as you about the prevalence of New Age thinking there, and its damaging effects.
Dealing with the death of a close loved one who dies before their time is never easy. Suicide makes it even harder. I am glad you are finding a pathway toward some sense of goodness in life. It’s a hard climb out of the pit, but it is not impossible, especially when we know the truth about the afterlife and our purpose here on earth. And of course, having a fully and infinitely loving and compassionate God to turn to can carry us through our darkest times.
You linked me to this article.
What do you think of my proposal that immortal beings were who transgressed against God/gods (Elohim) were cursed to be incarnated in the physical world as mortals, and cursed to be isolated from spiritual reality until death?
That’s kind of like the Muslim idea that humans who transgressed were reincarnated as pigs, a proposed reason for the prohibition of eating pork.
I follow an abstract religion when I find that evidence is against the Christian religion and the Judeo-Christian God. You know about the Greeks with an altar for an “unknown god”?
Hi World Questioner,
I’m sure you realize that I do not accept that theory. There is no mention of God creating any immortal beings in the Creation stories of Genesis. And there is no acceptance in the Bible of the idea that we existed in any form before our conception and birth. When Jesus was presented with the possibility that a man was born blind because of his own sins, which could only have been committed in a previous life, Jesus rejected the idea:
And yes, an altar to an unknown God is mentioned in Acts 17:23.
What about going to Heaven without dying?
Enoch did not die. Rather, he walked with God so closely that God just finally took him. Elijah also ascended into Heaven. However, there are two arguments you would make against it. One is the doctrine that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are not meant to be taken literally. Second of all, Hebrew and Greek both use the same words for Heaven and Sky. I don’t know what the Hebrew word is for Heaven, but I know the Greek word is Ouranos (latinized Uranus, also the name of a planet). when Elijah was taken up to Heaven in a whirlwind, maybe “Heaven” should be translated “sky” instead. But if it is unclear how to translate something, if you want to make the translation ambiguous, the best translation would be “the Heavens,” because that is used for both the sky and space.
Going to Heaven without dying is an extremely rare gift… So rare that only two have ever achieved it (Enoch was the first, Elijah is the most recent if you don’t count Jesus) and it is only ever achieved once every thousands of years.
Thoughts? I know we may have talked about this before, but if you have nothing new to say, you can reiterate what you’ve said or rephrase or clarify it.
Hi World Questioner,
I know that it is commonly believed among traditional Christians, especially evangelical and fundamentalist ones, that Enoch and Elijah did not die. This is based primarily on Hebrews 11:5, which says:
However, I think this is more mythical and symbolic than literal. The passages describing the deaths of Enoch and Elijah don’t actually say that they didn’t die:
And:
There was then a search for his body, but it was not found.
People who read the Bible literally will, of course, believe that these two men literally did not die, and were taken directly up to heaven without dying.
But these same people usually believe that no one goes to heaven until after the Last Judgment, which they believe is still in the future. And the ones who take the Bible most literally don’t even believe people go to heaven after they die. Rather, they believe that at the time of the Last Judgment, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and the redeemed will live on the new earth, not in heaven. I’m sure these people have fancy ways of explaining how Enoch and Elijah could be in heaven when no one else is, but this just illustrates that if we try to take everything in the Bible literally, we’ll end out having all sorts of problems and contradictions.
Further, if Jesus was not lying, and the one thief on the cross would be with him in Paradise that day, then it’s clear that Paradise is not this physical earth, nor is it some future new earth. Paradise would have to be some other realm that exists now, or the thief could not go there the day that he died.
If we don’t try to read the Bible in a doggedly literal fashion, then it’s clear enough that heaven is a spiritual place, not a physical place, and that our spirit goes there while our body remains here in the physical world and returns to the dust it came from.
If so, then it is not possible for anyone, including Enoch and Elijah, to go to heaven without their physical body dying. It says that “God took” Enoch. But that is common euphemism for dying. “Good took my husband from me,” a wife might say after her husband’s death.
And Elisha watched Elijah go up into the sky (as it should be translated), apparently with his physical eyes. If this was a literal event at all (which I doubt), then we know that if a human being is carried far enough into the sky, he will die of asphyxia when he gets high enough that the atmosphere becomes too thin to breathe. Even as a kid, I thought, “Well, if he went up into the sky, who knows where his body ended out? It could have been carried halfway across the world, and ended out in the ocean somewhere, where the company of prophets would never find it.”
I just don’t think that taking these stories literally is particularly fruitful. Even the book of Hebrews is a highly metaphorical book. I doubt that its author was being literal about Enoch not experiencing death. Spiritually, death means becoming an evil person and going to hell. This is the second death mentioned in the book of Revelation. And this is the death that I think Hebrews is referring to. Enoch walked with God, and did not experience spiritual death because he was a good man, and went to heaven, not hell.
There’s plenty more that could be said about this, but that’s enough for now. Suffice it to say that attempting to take everything in the Bible literally is an earthly, physical-minded, materialistic view of the Bible, which is meant to be read as a spiritual book about spiritual things, not a literal book about physical things. But literalists and fundamentalists can never see this, because their mental sight is limited to the things of this earth. They are stuck in the letter that kills, and do not have the spirit that gives life in their reading of the Bible.
Is it a coincidence that Enoch’s life on Earth was cut short? He only lived 300-some years.
Hi World Questioner,
Nothing in the Bible is a coincidence. Three hundred years is not a random number. All the numbers in the genealogies have deeper meanings. Three, in particular, is a number of completeness, head, heart, and hands working together. Making it three hundred instead of three just intensifies it. The meaning is that people whose motives, thoughts, and actions are completely dedicated to God are walking with God.
P.S. that gift is very hard to achieve. It comes from walking exceptionally close with God.
Hi World Questioner,
These are exactly the people who do not experience spiritual death.