Whenever I share the life and wisdom of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) with my radio show listeners, the people who read my books and magazine articles, or with those who attend my many classes and lectures, I always start out by introducing him as "my boyfriend." That introduction accomplishes a couple things.
First and foremost, it makes an 18th century scientist/mystic more approachable to a 21st century audience. In our current paradigm, scientists can't relate to mystics, and mystics don't relate well to scientists. How could he be both?
Through a technique of controlled breathing, Swedenborg could enter a state of concentrated focus. This trance-like state enabled him to literally master every known science in his life, and later gave him access to the angelic community. This is a difficult concept for most people to grasp, so who would not feel slightly alienated by that? Who would not be intimidated by a man Stanford University voted the most brilliant person to have ever lived on the planet!? Swedenborg left us with an enormous canon of scientific work. Merely reading these volumes would be a daunting undertaking. Not to mention his achievements as a profound mystic discoursing with people who have died, with angels and with ... well let's just say beings we would not call angels. When you add in the over four and half million words he wrote about the nature of the spiritual worlds, how they are organized and why we, as spiritual beings, benefit from having a human experience, you do not exactly have a man the average person feels they can immediately relate to on a personal level. As you can see, a definite overachiever.
The second thing this introduction does is bring the context of his writings down to a level uncomplicated and relevant to one's everyday life. The heart and soul of his wisdom is, after all, about examining what we are doing with our attention. Let's face it. There is nothing more germane to everyday life than what are we are choosing to give our attention to, and thereby what we tell ourselves inwardly, as we move through our day.
The Swedenborgian Basics
Now let's go over the Swedenborg basics and explore what is unlimited that we could be giving our attention and therefore our love to. For nearly all, this is also the most unfamiliar. It just so happens that the unlimited truths that set us free are also the same core ideas running throughout Swedenborg's writings. The principal and most important one is to remember your true nature and separate your attention from toxic self-defined illusions. This means seeing, relating, identifying and speaking to yourself as divine love and wisdom and nothing less. It is understanding that you, as divine love and wisdom, are the most powerful force in the universe:
1.You have more power than any challenge you are presently going through.
2.Everything that touches your life is working for you. Because everything serves the most powerful force in the universe: divine love and wisdom.
3.As the most powerful force in the universe you can only create learning experiences that work for your highest good, no matter what it may look or feel like. Furthermore, you do not have the power to create those self-expanding learning experiences before or after you needed them.
4.You have free will. You determine what gets your attention ... what you want to love. You choose if you want to sign up to learn more about limitation or unconditional love and abundance. You are not a victim or without power.
5.You are treasured and adored. Speak to yourself that way. Treat yourself that way. Feed, care for, be patient and love yourself with that quality of integrity.
In order to align your attention with these unlimited things you must be willing to grow beyond the concept, the self-identified restriction that you "do not have enough." You must be willing to no longer see yourself as the person who is a day late and a dollar short. You must be willing to see whatever touches your life, be it an overdue bill, an I.R.S. audit, a medical diagnosis, or the loss of a relationship or job, as providing your life with the seeds of a greater growth. In order to be in right relationship with these unlimited ideas you must also be willing to take your power back from the outer world. You must be willing to no longer allow your value, power and worth to be determined by how much money you have, what kind of car you drive, how much weight you have gained, what level of education you have received, what your marital status is, or what job level you have achieved. These things no longer have the ability to define you. You must exclusively know that your value, power and worth is that you are divine Love and wisdom, and no one and no thing has the power to change that.
Vaishali is a faculty member at The Omega Institute she has appeared on national radio and network television programs including The Dr. Oz Radio Show, and has been featured on the home page of Oprah.com. Vaishãli graduated Magna Cum Laude from San Francisco State University, with degrees in both Philosophy and Religion, and has a talent for making Emanuel Swedenborg's esoteric concepts about human life and death clear, concise and easy to apply in day to day life. Vaishali is the author of , "You Are What You Love" and "Wisdom Rising", Visit www.purplev.com/mediakit