Emanuel Swedenborg Phone Home: A Mystic Perspective On Aliens

Using Swedenborg's descriptions of alien life, Vaishali finds comic irony in that, while we as a culture obsess over the possibility of life on other planets, allocating massive funds in search of scientific proof of it, those life forms reject our banal material focus in preference for the sublime worship of One. You can find other essays on the topic of extra-terrestrial life published by New Church Perspective here. -Editor.

We all know that scientists around the world have been searching for alien life. They have been behaving like the ultimate in universal voyeurs, keeping a roving eye out for signs of “other worldly life forms”, poised listening, like the nosey eavesdropping neighbor, for any possible alien transmissions - intergalactic messages. We are also familiar with the various scenarios science fiction writers have depicted as possible outcomes of alien and human life reaching out and touching one another. It runs from “Star Trek” to “The Martian Chronicles” and Spielberg’s “E.T.” to “Independence Day”, “Mars Attacks” and even “I Had An Alien’s Baby” in the supermarket tabloids. At least the science fiction writers are more creative and broad-minded in their speculative surmising. Between the hard measurable facts and the flights of human imaginative fancy is there some information that exists, right now, about the actuality of alien life, and how they may be responding to us? The answer is... yes! The source however may surprise you. The author I will be drawing upon has impeccable credentials and has attained an unquestionable level of scientific and academic accomplishment. His observations, however, may read to many like the ramblings of an over inventive, over active imagination. Sound interesting? Well, it is! And, this author’s books and writings about his contact with alien life forms have been around for hundreds of years and published in dozens of languages. Stumped? Allow me the pleasure of introducing you to the 18th century scientist mystic Emanuel Swedenborg.

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Some Ideas Regarding Science and the Writings

This piece is a condensed version of the forty-nine page essay Allen had published in The New Philosophy, in July 2008. He addresses the friction created when science and religion do not meet neatly in the middle. Allen takes a positive view of this conflict and suggests holding sharp things gently. -Editor.

The Writings contain many pieces of information about the natural world. Often, this information is in agreement with contemporary, scientific understanding. Sometimes it is not. One example of conflict between the two regards the topic of life on other planets: the Writings claim that humans live on all planets and satellites of this solar system, but contemporary science does not support this claim. What are New Church readers to do with conflicts like these? I’ve had that question put to me many times. I offer here a few thoughts on the subject, intended not as the final word but as a few ideas to engage the subject.

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