Talking back to the spirits: the voices and visions of Emanuel Swedenborg
Page updated 02/06/2008
Talking back to the spirits: the voices and visions of Emanuel Swedenborg
History of the Human Sciences, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1-31 (2008)
Simon R. Jones and Charles Fernyhough
Simon has written an outline summary for INTERVOICE about his recently published paper on the findings the voices and visions of Emanuel Swedenborg:
Over 300 years ago, Emanuel Swedenborg, the famous mystic, scientist, inventor and theologian, experienced three decades of voices and visions. Swedenborg understood these voices to be from angels, devils, and other spirits, and built up a detailed model of the spiritual world based on this. In this paper we examine what Swedenborg experienced, and how these experiences were viewed by himself, his contemporaries, and 19th and 20th century psychiatry.
Swedenborg himself famously said he was “well aware that many will say that no one can possibly speak with spirits and angels . . . and many will say that it is all fancy, others that I relate such things in order to gain credence, and others will make other objections. But by all this I am not deterred, for I have seen, I have heard, I have felt”. Many of those who met him agreed he was a sane man. However, many of his more distant contemporaries saw him as mad. 19th century psychiatrists diagnosed him as insane. 20th century psychiatry has labelled him as being schizophrenic or epileptic.
However, Swedenborg was able to carry on a fruitful and productive life, despite these voices and visions.
We show how the idea of ‘hallucinations in the sane’ which appeared in the mid-1800s in France, has been resurrected in the work of Romme and Escher, and argue that Swedenborg can be seen as having ‘hallucinations without mental disorder’. We conclude by asking what we can learn from Swedenborg’s experiences and from those who experience voices and visions today.
Simon R Jones,
Department of Psychology, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK, s.r.jones@durham.ac.uk
To view the abstract and for details on how to purchase and view the full article go here.
For more about Swedenborg and other notable pople who heard voices go here.
Comments
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When you have a soul conflict in your body you have to know that the other soul is trying to control your body. The other soul is a standalone soul and people like to call them spirits. They do not see things the way we do once inside some else’s body. The reason bad spirits are talking so much is to assign our emotions, reactions and all the information they can to their soul and that will make them your master. If you are a voice hearer and you feel a skin sensation, that is what’s happening to you! For example: If you laugh a lot with the voices you will notice a small smile in your face if you lay down your body in arrange your head towards the sky. If you cry a lot you will notice a crying sensation for absolutely no reason once and a while. In fact, all other reactions even thoughts can be assigned to the spirit. When you react to what you hear it’s like giving the spirit a pass, a key road to the maze that your brain represents. It all begins with voices then later the victim will start to have unrecognized thoughts, see things, and to become completely schizophrenic. It’s all a perfect trap when you don’t understand what is going on. But do not be afraid because all the process is reversible. You have to keep your mind extremely busy. Buy an agenda if you didn’t have one. Make sure you are always doing something, because if you don’t spirit will be glad to do what it pleases. Being diplomatic with a bad spirit is a complete waste of time. Good spirits do not create drama they are instead grateful and caring. You have to be tactful with the advantage you have by trying to control your body and thoughts. Keep disagreeing if necessary with the voices and keep yourself emotionless. You have to keep convincing yourself to be in control. Read a lot! The only true power is to think. Those voices aren’t talking to you just to bring you down; they are actually damaging your soul. for more information go to: voiceswithinyourhead.blogspot.com