Mythbusting: Talking With Spirits. Part 3

In the final entry in his three part series Todd questions how members of a church based on the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg could harbor as much fear about contact with spirits as the New Church seems to. He examines communicating with the other world from a fresh perspective. Follow these links to find part 1 and part 2. - Editor.

So if communication between the natural and spiritual worlds is to be open again with the New Church, why do most General Church people that I know think that any spirit contact must be an evil spirit contact, whereas new age folks generally regard them as “spirit guides” or “helpers.” So which is it? Sorry for the non-answer, but for now I think there is both. I figure it just depends on you, and what spirits you are attracting by your thoughts and your life.

Back in the old days, the position of priest was one of honor, respect, and even high pay. As humanity lost communication with God and the spiritual world, it was the priests who would serve as God’s ambassadors, conveying God’s orders and leading them in His ways. We are told that modern priests do have extra “enlightenment,” but they don’t have the Lord or His angels directly communicating with them. Could they?

The Writings state that open communication with heaven “was in time closed…as [humanity] began to think about the world and little about heaven, and especially when he no longer believed that there is a heaven or a hell…” (Secrets of Heaven 7802). Sounds to me that if we want open communication with heaven, then we need to start thinking about it, and get everybody else to think about it as well.

Sociology is familiar with this concept, and commonly calls it the tipping point. Simply, the tipping point can be illustrated by fashion: Crocs were once an obscure choice in footwear, but once their popularity reached critical mass, they quickly transformed into a “must have.” As more and more people believe in the afterlife, and as a result think about it, and want to talk with spirits, it seems that communication will be reopened.

But isn’t talking with spirits dangerous? Not necessarily. It is dangerous, “unless [a person] is governed by the good of faith” (Secrets of Heaven 5863). So, it is not dangerous if governed by the good of faith. To be honest, I haven’t quite figured out what exactly that means, but to me it doesn’t sound that hard, at least in principle. Most New Church theology boils down to living the Ten Commandments, loving the Lord first, the neighbor second, and yourself last. Stuff that if you just practice a bit, you can be quite good at. Moses didn’t fear evil, and Moses was just a guy who did what the Lord told him to. Do what the Lord commands, and you too will not have to fear evil. Don’t make it harder than it is. Just do the right thing.

Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Want open communication with the spiritual world? I recommend evangelizing so we can reach that critical mass. Get people to think about their real retirement, not just this 401k stuff. If you can’t wait for the world to wake up and want to be a trailblazer of spiritual communication, I suggest safety first. But like skydiving, being safe doesn’t mean not having any fun.

Let’s start with the basics: attracting good spirits. As conventional as it may sound, studying the Writings is a great place to start. There is a lot there that can give you a foundation of knowledge, a rock, to start from. Jesus commanded His disciples to be as innocent as doves, but also as wise as serpents, wise enough to know when you’re being deceived. Plus, understanding spiritual reality would mean that your freedom would be less likely to be impinged upon, thus allowing the angels to say more. Once you understand spiritual reality you also know that you need to think positively, as in, if you think about evil spirits, evil spirits will come to you, so you need to think about good spirits.

Where does that leave us? A few main points: use the Writings as your spiritual rock; evil spirits can, and do, say true things which we can profit from as long as we are careful to not be misled; there can be contact with good spirits; and lastly, open spiritual contact is coming. The New Jerusalem is descending: don’t be afraid of it.

Todd Beiswenger

Legend has it that when Todd passes on, he we will be an associate spirit to the Phillies left-fielder and hopes that all cars, not dogs, go to heaven. All we know is that Todd is a third year Theological School student who is happily married with one child and is looking forward to his posting in Hurstville, Australia.

Comments

[Byron Harris]

Yes, communication with spirits is a touchy subject, isn't it? Why, some seem to think that the theory of evolution is due to Swedenborg's communicating with evil spirits, as shown on this YouTube video:

Secret Knowledge: Life of Emanuel Swedenborg- (Shawn Boonstra)

Others, such as myself, thank the Lord for using Swedenborg to show how Genesis contains much more meaning behind His creation of our spirit than just a literal interpretation provides.

[Todd Beiswenger]

Interesting video. Funny you mention it because I've had it bookmarked to watch for a few days, so I took some time to watch it today. I generally fall into the camp of "there's no such thing as bad publicity", so I'm happy he made the video even if his intent is to discredit Swedenborg.

[Brian]

yeah, what's curious about it is its quality. Its definitely B grade acting and filming, but there is <some> decent research behind this and it certainty took the team of actors, costume people, directors etc a fair amount of time. There is relatively little available of a similar quality which is pro-Swedenborg. The publicity is good and its good to see people paying enough attention to ES that they'd take the time and effort to try to shut him down.