Spiritism

by Rev. Robert S. Jungé

"And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:19-20).

The doctrines tell us, "Few will believe... that there are any spirits; and this chiefly for the reason that at this day there is no faith, because no charity, and thus it is not believed that there is a hell, nor even that there is a heaven, nor consequently that there is any life after death" (AC 5849).

But by this belief which the Writings say men do not have they mean far more than a wishful hope, far more than the faint aspiration that man lives on after death. Many would express such hopes. Many give superficial assent to at least the possibility of a life hereafter, but this cannot in truth be called belief, not in the sense the Writings mean. Any fair appraisal of our age must lead us to recognize that few so believe in a life hereafter that it really alters and patterns their daily lives here.

This lack of belief comes about from lack of faith and lack of charity. These lacks lead to modern man's constant quest for sensual proof. The serpent, the most subtle of the beasts, still wants us to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The sensual part of man that crawls and eats the dust wants proof-proof to satisfy man's own intelligence.

Yet the Lord God does not permit sensual proof, for it would compel. There was a time when they would not believe even though one returned from the dead. But in our day, if with the controls of careful scientific experiment such a thing were to happen, it would compel belief and destroy man's freedom. Still man foolishly does not recognize this and hopes someday that the life hereafter will be demonstrated or proven to him, beyond all shades of doubt.

Sensual and worldly thought is a terribly powerful force. It can undermine a country's national purpose; it can destroy friendships in a most subtle way; it is capable of utterly crushing a marriage; indeed it can poison the very vitals of any human life.

With some, the materialistic standards have become so strong that they can no longer even hope for life beyond four score years. Their youth becomes a time of merry enjoyments, their maturity a wistfully questioning period of disillusionment, their old age a dreaded and meaningless dwindling away. They have nothing more to look for as their material aspects gradually succumb to the unfailing passage of time.

Many others, however, recognize that unless there is something beyond death, life becomes meaningless and drifting. So they feel they must believe in something. Yet what visions do they conjure up? Because of the weakness of their spiritual understanding, sensual thought creates a materialistic resurrection at the last trumpet. Only by accepting some such literal return to this world do they feel that they can believe. Other non-Christian religions conjure up visions of physical pleasure, feasting and drinking, constant recreation, even hollow meaningless sexuality. Sensual thought stamps its impress, and yet because no such literal claims can be proved to the senses, a doubt is cast upon any concept of life hereafter whatsoever.

Now it is easy for New Churchmen to visualize the beautiful descriptions given in the memorable relations. We picture houses, real people, trees, flowers, and cities. And we love doing so. Indeed we need such ultimate pictures. This is the view unfolded to our senses; it appeals to our imaginative power to visualize. Yet unless we understand the essential spiritual nature of that world and its laws, unless we reach up to the revealed Word, and see this wonderful world not just with our imaginations but with our rational minds, we too can have a doubt cast upon its existence. The spiritual world is not real because in our imaginations we can picture it even if the pictures are drawn from the Writings. The kingdom of heaven is real because the Lord has told us that this is so. From Divine revelation we understand the need for it, and also can grasp something of its order, even see something of the nature of its substance that exists eternally without time and space. Some erroneously say of such subjects that they are idle abstractions, but in reality unless the church has a growing knowledge of these rational truths and a growing interest in them, unless the church has a vision far deeper than mere descriptions, then the church is inviting the subtle serpent of sensuality into its midst. A literalistic picture of the spiritual world without a strong rational support can be torn down by the skeptic. But if we fix our thoughts upon the rational revelation given us, our faith and confidence in the life hereafter will be founded upon a rock.

Now usually death strikes close to most men long before they themselves are called. For those without the Writings, with the death of a friend comes a certain sense of desperation and urgency.

Deep within, man's spirit cries out that he must understand. He must know if all is well with his loved ones. If only he could see them or speak with them, to be reassured. But too often the only path man knows at such a time is to seek sensual proof. Then the tempter may speak within, "Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter."

So it is that grief at a loss, the pain of separation, or sometimes resurgent curiosity concerning the occult, frequently drive men into the dark chambers of the spiritist. And many, once they have seen these "so-called proofs and demonstrations," cannot abandon the practice. Soon, their reason surrendered, they come under the powers of the messages proffered to them.

But what does our text say? "When they shall say unto you, seek them that have familiar spirits, ...should not a people seek unto their God? ... to the law and to the testimony." And indeed the law of Moses is clear, "Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards to be defiled by them: I am Jehovah your God" (Lev. 19:31). The Writings also condemn the practice of seeking contact with spirits.

Yet, curiously enough, Swedenborg is often misidentified with spiritism. Many spiritists confusedly consider him a great leader in the movement. Yet nothing is further from the truth.

The New Church stands utterly opposed to spiritism and everything it represents (See HH 249). Particularly do we oppose its usual denial of the Lord's divinity and its destruction of man's rationality and with it his freedom.

But when we shun the abuse, we must use care that we understand the doctrine in this regard. Almost all heresy is based upon some isolated truth that is drawn out, separated, and exaggerated until it is perverted. So too with spiritism.

We must recognize that there are two worlds. In fact we read, "Man was so created that he might hold intercourse with spirits and angels and thus heaven and earth be conjoined. Such was the case in the Most Ancient Church, such in the Ancient, and in the Primitive also there was a perception of the Holy Spirit..." (SD 1587; cf. 110). The spiritual world is a divinely ordained reality. Men today are associated with spirits throughout their life in the world, even though not consciously associated. This association is the origin of man's affections. It is a rational explanation of his ability to make a choice concerning the delights which will rule his life. The reality of the spiritual world and its inhabitants is essential to an understanding of human states and human nature. To establish such belief, vision was given to the ancients and also to the prophets. But this was associated with the giving of Divine Revelation. Though the prophets saw visions, they only wrote what was dictated by a living voice. Such vision was not sought, but it came as a gift from the Divine.

So too with Swedenborg; it was a gift which was never sought. Swedenborg was no different from the prophets, save that he was preserved in a normal rational state so that he might describe the wonders of heaven with Divine authority and by Divine authorization for ages to come. But these visions of the prophets and of Swedenborg are in a class all their own, and are to be called Divine visions. They have nothing to do with wizards that peep and that mutter. Yet they must never be denied.

Many today consider spiritism all deception and fakery. No doubt much of it is. But as we condemn the practice of spiritism (for surely it is destructive of man's freedom), let us not at the same time deny all possibility of communication with spirits. The Writings make clear that such things are possible (DP 135). And for the modern who might scoff at such an admission, let him look to some of the recent experiments in parapsychology. We do not claim them as proof, nor do we agree with their theoretical conclusions which savor of materialism, making spiritual phenomena simply the result of more and more refined natural vibrations. But the experiments can serve to shake the skeptic and let him realize that there is something yet to be explained.

The doctrines do not condemn spiritism by saying that it does not exist. Rather they state clearly that seeking communication places man in a position of yielding his rational to becoming the dupe of enthusiastic spirits. Such spirits can even impersonate those who are loved or for whom man's heart grieves, and achieve great power through such impersonation. The angels of heaven, however, do not seek such communication. Thus it is bound to be only with evil spirits. So strong is the Writings' condemnation of seeking familiar spirits.

Also in the doctrine concerning association with spirits we find a logical explanation of some of the fantastic visions or delusions of an abstracted mind (DP 134). Physical disorders or natural mental disorders, as well as addiction to evil practices, invite the influx of disorderly spheres from the other world and can leave man in that horrible confusion between imagination and reality.

Despite these disorders, the Writings indicate other states of communication. But notice that these states are not sought. The doctrines point out that people who lead solitary lives may occasionally hear spirits speaking to them, and without danger (SD 1752). Is not this a logical explanation for a phenomenon which comes to the lonely about which we have all heard? Perhaps even some of the vagaries of the senile have a similar explanation as their preparation for entrance into the other world grows more intense.

Nor can we forget the clear statement of doctrine concerning another form of communication which is not sought: "...to speak with angels of heaven is granted only to those who are in truths from good, especially to those who are in the acknowledgment of the Lord and of the Divine in His Human, because this is the truth in which the heavens are..." (HH 250). Apparently those who are in a genuine acknowledgment of the Lord in His Divine Human would not have their freedom imperiled by such visions, because a belief in the other world is already a part of their life's conviction. Nor would they abuse the freedom of others through trying to persuade on the basis of such visions. And particularly, in no way would such unsought communication alter the essential doctrine that the conjunction of heaven with man is by means of the Word (HH 303). We read, "It is believed that man might be more enlightened and become more wise if he should have immediate revelation through speech with spirits and with angels, but the reverse is the case. Enlightenment by means of the Word is effected by an interior way, while enlightenment by immediate revelation is effected by an exterior way..." (Verbo 29). "Mediate revelation, which is effected through the Word, surpasses immediate revelation which is effected through spirits" (ibid.). "Moreover, no leave is given to any spirit, or even angel, to instruct any man on this earth in Divine truths, but the Lord Himself teaches everyone through the Word..." (ibid.).

Any church is bound to be plagued by misconceptions of its teachings. But in correcting these, we must use great care that we do not discard nor discredit too much. The guide for all of us is clear: "Should not a people seek unto their God?" He has revealed the wonders of the life hereafter for all men to see in freedom. His servant Emanuel Swedenborg wrote from things heard and seen. And yet never from angel or spirit, but from the Lord alone. In the process of time, with patient study, we can increasingly know what heaven is like, not from the compulsion of sensual wizardry, but in the clear and free light of Divine truth. We will always find the answers to eternal life if we learn to seek not spirits but the law and the testimony.

* * * * *

But at the present day to talk with spirits is rarely granted because it is dangerous;# for then the spirits know, what otherwise they do not know, that they are with man; and evil spirits are such that they hold man in deadly hatred, and desire nothing so much as to destroy him both soul and body, and this they do in the case of those who have so indulged themselves in fantasies as to have separated from themselves the enjoyments proper to the natural man. Some also who lead a solitary life sometimes hear spirits talking with them, and without danger; but that the spirits with them may not know that they are with man they are at intervals removed by the Lord; for most spirits are not aware that there is any other world than that in which they live, and therefore are unaware that there are men anywhere else; and this is why man is not permitted to speak with them in return. If he did they would know. Again, those who meditate much on religious subjects, and are so intent upon them as to see them as it were inwardly within themselves, begin to hear spirits speaking with them; for religious persuasions, whatever they are, when man dwells upon them by himself and does not adapt them to the various things of use in the world, penetrate to the interiors and rest there, and occupy the whole spirit of the man, and even enter into the spiritual world and act upon the spirits there. But such persons are visionaries and enthusiasts; and whatever spirit they hear they believe to be the Holy Spirit, when, in fact, such spirits are enthusiastic spirits. Such spirits see falsities as truths, and so seeing them they induce not themselves only but also those they flow into to believe them. Such spirits, however, have been gradually removed, because they began to lure others into evil and to gain control over them. Enthusiastic spirits are distinguished from other spirits by their believing themselves to be the Holy Spirit, and believing what they say to be Divine. As man honors such spirits with Divine worship they do not attempt to harm him. I have sometimes talked with them, and the wicked things they infused into their worshipers were then disclosed. They dwell together towards the left, in a desert place.

But to speak with the angels of heaven is granted only to those who are in truths from good, especially to those who are in the acknowledgment of the Lord and of the Divine in His Human, because this is the truth in which the heavens are. For, as it has been shown above, the Lord is the God of heaven (n. 2-6); it is the Divine of the Lord that makes heaven (n. 7-12); the Divine of the Lord in heaven is love to Him and charity towards the neighbor from Him (n. 13-19); the whole heaven in one complex reflects a single man; also every society of heaven; and every angel is in complete human form, and this from the Divine Human of the Lord (n. 59-86). All of which makes evident that only those whose interiors are opened by Divine Truths, even to the Lord, are able to speak with the angels of heaven, since it is into these truths with man that the Lord flows, and when the Lord flows in heaven also flows in. Divine truths open the interiors of man because man was so created as to be in respect to his internal man an image of heaven, and in respect to his external an image of the world (n. 57); and the internal man is opened only by means of Divine truth going forth from the Lord, because that is the light of heaven and the life of heaven (n. 126-140).

Heaven and Hell 249, 250

-New Church Life 1981;101:503-509

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