Emanuel Swedenborg was born in 1688 into a wealthy Swedish family in Stockholm and initially received a classical education at the University of Uppsala. However, he showed a great interest in science and technology and went on to study all of the mathematical and physical sciences that were then available. He travelled extensively throughout Europe and spent several periods of his life in London, where he died in 1772. During his adult life he showed himself to be a brilliant scientist and scholar and had a particular aptitude for the invention of mechanical devices. His scientific and inventive abilities attracted the attention of the King of Sweden who appointed him to be Assessor Extraordinary of the Royal Board of Mines.

Between 1716 and 1734 Swedenborg wrote extensively about the physical sciences and, particularly, on metallurgical subjects. From 1734 to 1742 he turned his attention to the study of human anatomy and physiology and published widely in these subject areas. In both of these fields he suggested many ideas and theories which have only become accepted and developed further by science during the last century. For example, Swedenborg was the first to indicate that the cortical areas of the brain are the specific seat of the higher faculties of the mind. In spite of all this work his aim was not primarily to further scientific research as such, but to find the seat of the human soul in the body and to demonstrate its existence. In 1743 a remarkable event took place in Swedenborg’s life which caused him to change his whole approach to his work. He apparently underwent a series of dreams and mystical experiences which he described in a later letter as: "I have been called to a holy office by the Lord Himself, who most graciously manifested Himself in person to me, His servant, in the year 1743; when He opened my sight to the view of the spiritual world, and granted me the privilege of conversing with spirits and angels, which I enjoy to this day". He also wrote, in 1745, of having been admitted into the kingdom of God ‘by the Messiah Himself’ and speaking there with various heavenly personages and ‘with the dead who have risen again’. After this he gave up all his previous work, recognising that these studies had only been the preparation for a much more important mission to which he had to devote the rest of his life.

Over the next 29 years he undertook a profound study of the Bible and wrote prolifically on the themes which developed from this study. His major work Arcana Caelestia (or Heavenly Secrets - he wrote in Latin) was published in eight large volumes between 1749 and 1756 and was principally a revelation of the inner or spiritual meaning of the Books of Genesis and Exodus. Subsequently he published further major volumes and many minor books developing themes from the Arcana and unfolding on a wider scale the inner spiritual meaning of the Bible. This enormous output of esoteric scholarship was founded on his continuing direct contact with beings, or angels as he called them, in the spiritual world. As he stated not long before his death: "It has pleased the Lord to .... open the interiors of my mind or spirit, whereby I have been permitted to be in the spiritual world with angels, and at the same time in the natural world with people, and this now [has happened for] twenty-seven years."

Swedenborg’s writings are very concentrated and, particularly in the older translations, may be found to be heavy going by many wishing to explore his spiritual philosophy. The following books are suggested as a way into the subject for those wishing to know more about his teachings on life after death and related subjects:

Stanley, Michael (1988). Emanuel Swedenborg. Essential Readings. Crucible. ISBN 1-85274-026-4.

Following an introduction on the life and work of Swedenborg and an outline of the structure of his spiritual thought, Michael Stanley has selected and edited many readings covering the whole range of his visionary insights. This book is a useful general introduction to the subject.

Fox, Leonard & Rose, Donald L., eds. (1996). Conversations With Angels. What Swedenborg Heard in Heaven. Chrysalis Books, West Chester, Pennsylvania. ISBN 0-87785-177-8.

"Throughout the final twenty-seven years of his life, Swedenborg explored the realms of heaven and hell and spoke with angels about the nature of life after death, discussed with newly arrived spirits their misconceptions about the afterlife, and debated with devils or spirits from hell. As an Enlightement scholar, Swedenborg recorded these encounters, attesting to God’s will that humanity might know the truth of eternal life. These narratives … have been selected from three of Swedenborg’s works, Conjugial Love, Apocalypse Revealed, and The True Christian Religion, and have been arranged by theme. Swedenborg’s conversations with angels startle the reader with insights into the reality of the spiritual world."

Swedenborg, Emanuel (1989).
Heaven and its Wonders and Hell. From Things Seen and Heard.
The Swedenborg Society, London. No ISBN. (Translated from the original 1758 Latin in 1958, Reprinted 1989).

This book, usually known as Heaven and Hell, is one of Swedenborg’s original works. It has been described as follows: "First published in 1758, this remarkable work is a detailed description of life after death, reported by Swedenborg from his actual visionary journeys to heaven and hell. Our entrance into the spiritual world, the nature of the world of spirits, and the place of preparation for our eternal dwelling place are explained. The structure and life of heaven and hell, uses of angelic societies, the marriage of angelic spirits, children in heaven, angelic language, and many other topics are discused in this famous work."

A useful introductory summary of Swedenborg’s life and works was written some years ago by William Le Geyt (Swedenborg’s Radical Christianity, The Friends’ Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 1, January 1975, pp. 39-43). In it he gives an outline of Swedenborg’s description of the after-life, as follows: "Thirdly, he gives a credible account of life after death, which is in general accord with what evidence there is from psychical research. He claims to have been granted the privilege of prolonged access to the spiritual world for the purposes of his mission. Basically, he describes the future life as a full and active one where there is an appearance of a physical world, but where time, space and visible objects have a quite different nature from their counterparts in this world. Individuals retain their more basic attitudes and abilities, and gravitate towards different communities on the principle of "like to like". There are of course evil communities, but divine intervention, far from being punitive, is concerned only to ameliorate their conditions."

to top of  Emanuel Swedenborg or on to William Blake Rudolf Steiner or Edgar Cayce