On a warm July evening in 1759, at a dinner party in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, in the house of the merchant William Castel, a strange event took place.
In the dining room, where sixteen guests were gathered, an atmosphere of easy fun reigned, the conversation was interrupted by bursts of laughter, the clinking of knives and forks was heard. Suddenly one of the guests, 71-year-old Emanuel Swedenborg, who enjoyed the well-deserved fame of a serious scientist, abruptly pushed the device away from him and, turning pale, got up from the table. The conversation was interrupted, and there was an oppressive silence in which Swedenborg walked out of the dining room. The guests looked at each other in bewilderment.
Several minutes passed, and the scientist reappeared on the doorstep. “A fire has started in Stockholm! he said breathlessly. "The fire has already engulfed the nearest houses and is now approaching mine." This explanation did not clarify the situation too much. No one in the crowd could understand how Swedenborg had learned of the fire raging in Stockholm, three hundred miles from the city where the dinner party was being held. Maybe these are just the fantasies of an old man, whose mind was clouded by several glasses of alcohol?
The owner of the house, as he could, calmed the guest and asked the others to continue the meal. However, throughout the evening Swedenborg showed anxiety several times - he changed his face and, unable to cope with the excitement, began to pace the dining room. And only at eight o'clock the scientist suddenly exclaimed: “Thank God! The fire was extinguished in three houses from mine! My home was not damaged."
The next day, news of Emanuel Swedenborg's strange behavior spread throughout Gothenburg. People shrugged their shoulders in disbelief. Imagine the amazement of the townspeople when in the evening a courier rushed from Stockholm and reported a big fire that had engulfed the city the day before. According to him, the fire was extinguished only at eight in the evening.
A person far from mysticism
The identity of Emanuel Swedenborg, a Swedish scientist and mystic theosophist, remains mysterious today. He was born on January 29, 1688 in Stockholm and died in London at the age of 84.
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Emanuel was born into a priestly family, was educated at home, and then studied ancient languages, philosophy, history, law and natural sciences at Uppsala University. While still a very young man, Swedenborg served as a mine inspector at the Mining Authority and was so successful in this that King Charles XII made him his adviser on engineering. The monarch studied with interest the drawings of mechanisms made by the young scientist, among which there were machines for movement on land, under water, and even by air. In addition, Swedenborg invented a steam boiler, an air gun, proposed a new technology for laying channels …
At 46, Emanuel Swedenborg became an honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. All-European fame was brought to the scientist by "Works on Philosophy and Mineralogy", written by him in 1734. All in all, his scientific heritage is fifty volumes, twenty of them are devoted to mathematics and astronomy. He also had works on anatomy and geometry. Contemporaries considered Swedenborg a very practical man, firmly on his feet and far from any mysticism.
However, the main event that turned his whole life, as Swedenborg wrote in his diary, happened in 1745. Not long before that, he felt a strange uneasiness, then he began to have erotic dreams. And then … Someone might decide that Swedenborg just went mad …
A journey to heaven and hell
On an April night, the scientist, returning home, was walking through the deserted London streets when he suddenly heard someone's footsteps behind him. Looking around, Swedenborg saw a stranger who silently followed him. Swedenborg entered his room and found that his mysterious companion was also there.
To the perplexed question he answered: “I am Jesus Christ! - and, looking directly into the eyes of a confused person, he said: - You must reveal to people who have fallen into sin, unbelief and delusion, lost faith. The Church is in decline, you must create a new Church, the Church of Jerusalem. The stranger said that now the spirit of Emanuel will be able to travel to heaven and hell, talk there with angels and demons. In addition, he ordered the scholar to study the Bible.
Later Swedenborg wrote: “On that night my inner gaze was also opened, so that I got the opportunity to see the inhabitants of the spirit world, heaven and hell, and thanks to this many hidden aspects of being. After that I completely abandoned my studies in earthly sciences and devoted myself exclusively to spiritual attainment, the Lord Himself guided my notes about this."
The wonderful life of the dead
Obedient to the will of higher powers, Swedenborg began by studying the Hebrew language in order to read the sacred texts in the original. It took him two years. Having studied the scriptures, he realized that it laid the foundation for his future teaching.
Swedenborg's teachings are based on the belief in the immortality of the soul and the existence of the other world. In his opinion, having died, a person does not lose free will. At first, he does not even realize that he is dead, because nothing changes in his environment. He walks the same streets, lives in the same house, the same friends come to him. However, gradually the deceased begins to pay attention to the fact that the colors around him have become brighter, and the emotions - stronger. Life becomes more intense and, if I may say so, tangible. A person begins to understand that until now he has only vegetated, real life began quite recently.
Society to your liking
Soon after this understanding comes, angels and demons begin to appear to a person. Swedenborg writes that angels and demons are dead people, only some of them have risen, while others have fallen. A person, talking with them, gradually decides for himself where he will be better - in heaven or in hell. This is his free will. The area in which a person finds himself after death is intermediate between heaven and hell - this is the area of spirits. The souls of the dead live here, here they converse with angels and demons.
It can take a very long time before a person decides where to move from the realm of spirits - to heaven or hell. In the end, he chooses for himself "the society of his liking." If a person was prone to intrigue and evil deeds during his lifetime, he chooses hell, despite the fact that it is "a land of swamps with burned cities." Oddly enough, sinners live there very comfortably, only there they feel truly happy. It also happens that, having mistakenly chosen paradise for himself as a habitat, a person in whose veins demonic blood flows, then leaves him and settles in hell with relief.
Paradise is usually chosen by people with high intelligence. According to Swedenborg, they are the ones who go to this land of universal love and labor. In his book "On Heaven, on the World of Spirits and on Hell", he describes in detail everything that happens in the other world. He talks about the existing social system there, the occupations of the inhabitants. At the same time, the tone of the narrative is such that it becomes clear that the scientist is not trying to convince anyone of anything. He simply talks about what he saw with his own eyes.
Man's salvation is in his mind
An interesting story described by Swedenborg of a hermit who, during his lifetime, did everything that, in his opinion, should help him get to heaven. He retired into the desert, abandoning simple human pleasures, and spent all his time in prayer that he would be in paradise. After death, this hermit came to paradise, but his appearance did not make anyone happy: he could not become a worthy interlocutor for the angels, because he did not even understand what they were talking about.
Having spent his earthly Days away from human society, not developing spiritually, but only offering prayer after prayer, he became a righteous, but 'primitive person. Taking pity on the poor man, the Lord created for him a piece of the desert, to which he was accustomed during his lifetime, right in paradise. And there he was able to continue his earthly pursuits. Having given up the joys of life, this righteous man became useless to anyone - neither on earth nor in heaven.
Swedenborg believes that man's only salvation is in his mind. If you are not able to understand what the angels are talking about, are you worthy of heaven?
Travel notes
For the last thirty years of his life, Swedenborg communicated with the inhabitants of heaven and hell. His servants claimed that they themselves had attended such conversations more than once. However, he preferred not to discuss the content of these conversations with anyone: everything that he managed to learn about the other world, he outlined in his writings. The old scientist expounds what he heard and experienced in a sparse, restrained manner, reminiscent of the travel notes of a person who has traveled many distant countries and decided, without convincing anyone of anything, without imposing his opinion on others, to simply tell about everything he saw.
Widow's request
Soon after the nighttime incident of 1745, Emanuel Swedenborg discovered the gift of clairvoyance. An example of this is the fire incident at the beginning of this article. There have been many other similar cases.
One, the most famous, occurred after the Dutch envoy at the Stockholm court, Count Martheville, died suddenly. Shortly before his death, the count acquired furniture, for which he paid in full. However, soon his widow was approached by a supplier who allegedly did not receive any money. The unhappy woman, who had not yet recovered after the death of her husband, had no idea where the deceased put the document confirming the payment. In desperation, she turned for help to Emanuel Swedenborg, about whom there were rumors that he could establish a connection with the afterlife. “If only people are telling the truth about you, you can ask my husband where these papers are. Do it, I beg you,”she begged, choking on her tears.
Swedenborg complied with such requests reluctantly, but this time, feeling sorry for the poor thing, he could not refuse. Several days passed, and Swedenborg appeared to the widow with the following words: "Your spouse instructed me to inform him that he will soon indicate where to look for the papers."
A few days later, the widow had a dream in which her late husband clearly indicated the place where the receipt lay. There, she also found a diamond pin, which she had long believed lost.
The queen fell unconscious
Having heard about the incredible abilities of the old scientist, the Swedish queen Louise Ulrika invited him to her place to see for herself. She asked Swedenborg to meet with her deceased brother, Prince Wilhelm, and find out what he talked to her about on the day of his last date. No one knew the content of the conversation except the Queen and her late brother. Thus, the crowned lady wanted to be convinced of the unusual abilities of Swedenborg.
A few days later Swedenborg informed the Queen not only of the content of the conversation with the prince, but also of the circumstances under which this conversation took place. Louise Ulrika was so shocked by what she heard that she fell unconscious.
Otherworldly Explorer
Emanuel Swedenborg, engineer, scientist, mystic, predicted the date of his own death. Shortly before leaving for another world, he invited friends to him and told them that in his entire life he had not written a single word of lies. Everything stated in his books is true!
The famous Argentine writer Chorus Luis Borges spoke of Swedenborg as follows: “He is a much more interesting mystic than all the others. They only say that they felt ecstasy and try to convey it in literary form. Swedenborg is the first explorer of the other world to be taken seriously."
Yuri Zolotov
