Southern Illinois University Carbondale OpenSIUC The sP ychology and Philosophy of Emanuel Creative Works Swedenborg 2018 The syP chology and Philosophy Of Emanuel Swedenborg Vol. 1 Horatio W. Dresser Follow this and additional works at: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/histcw_ppes Recommended Citation Dresser, Horatio W. "The sP ychology and Philosophy Of Emanuel Swedenborg Vol. 1." (Jan 2018). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Creative Works at OpenSIUC. It has been accepted for inclusion in The sP ychology and Philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg by an authorized administrator of OpenSIUC. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Psychology and Philosophy Of Emanuel Swedenborg by Horatio W. Dresser VOLUME 1 Edited and with an introduction by John S. Haller, Jr. 1 Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..i Glossary…………………………………………………………………………………… Publications by H. W. Dresser…………………………………………………………….. Part One: General Principles Preface…………………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapters: 1. Psychological Types……………………………………………………………… 2. Swedenborg’s Scientific Period………………………………………………….. 3. Universal Principles………………………………………………………………. 4. The Sphere of Manifestation……………………………………………………… 5. Reception………………………………………………………………………….. 6. Brain and Senses………………………………………………………………….. 7. Sensation………………………………………………………………………….. 8. The Body…………………………………………………………………………… 9. Memory……………………………………………………………………………. 10. Remains……………………………………………………………………………. 11. Soul and Body……………………………………………………………………… 12. Mental Activity…………………………………………………………………….. 13. The Nature of Spirit…………………………………………………………………. 14. Spirit and Soul……………………………………………………………………….. 15. Will………………………………………………………………………………….. 16. Mental Origins………………………………………………………………………. 17. Mental Growth………………………………………………………………………. 18. Love…………………………………………………………………………………. 19. Understanding………………………………………………………………………. 20. Correspondences……………………………………………………………………. 21. Influx……………………………………………………………………………….. 22. Degrees……………………………………………………………………………… 23. Mental Planes……………………………………………………………………….. 24. The Nature of Knowledge…………………………………………………………… 25. Reason……………………………………………………………………………….. 26. The Sphere of Consciousness………………………………………………………… 27. Fallacies and Falsities………………………………………………………………… 2 28. The Frontier of Desire………………………………………………………………… 29. Feeling………………………………………………………………………………… 30. Emotion……………………………………………………………………………….. Part Two: Doctrinal Principles and Values Introductory 31. Sleep and Dreams…………………………………………………………….. 32. Spheres and Spiritual States………………………………………………….. 33. The Life of Affection…………………………………………………………. 34. Adverse Correspondences…………………………………………………….. 35. Practical Values……………………………………………………………….. 36. Personality…………………………………………………………………….. 37. The Nature of Evil…………………………………………………………….. 38. Goodness and Conscience…………………………………………………….. 39. Social Psychology……………………………………………………………… 40. Divine Providence…………………………………………………………….. 41. Freedom and Responsibility……………………………………………………. 42. The Sphere of Faith……………………………………………………………. 43. Temptation and Regeneration………………………………………………….. 44. Ethics and Religion…………………………………………………………….. 45. The Eternal Word………………………………………………………………. 46. Revelation………………………………………………………………………. 47. Visions………………………………………………………………………….. 48. The Functions of Spirits………………………………………………………….. 49. The Spiritual World…………………………………………………………….. 50. Spirit and Body at Death………………………………………………………… 51. The Seer’s Method………………………………………………………………. 52. A Theory of Seership…………………………………………………………… 53. The Test of Seership…………………………………………………………….. 54. Mysticism………………………………………………………………………… 55. Psychical Research……………………………………………………………….. 56. The Language of Correspondences………………………………………………. 57. Meanings and Values……………………………………………………………… Index…………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 4 Introduction In his day, there was probably no more steadfast and prolific proponent of the Swedish scientist and philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg (1699-1772) than Horatio Willis Dresser (1866- 1954) whose life bridged the period between Reconstruction and the nationally televised hearings of Wisconsin Senator Joseph R. McCarthy seeking to prove Communist infiltration of the U.S. Army. Born into a household that held strongly to the belief that healing and religion were intimately entwined, Dresser spent a lifetime speculating, testing, and practicing the interrelationship of the two. A prolific author schooled by some of the nation’s best minds, he drew upon sources ancient and modern to construct a view of the natural and spiritual worlds. A lifelong admirer of Swedenborg, his views of the man and his world ebbed and flowed with the times as he sought to fit the seer’s ideas and beliefs into the intellectual constructs of modernity and postmodernism. One of the founders of the movement known as New Thought, he was considered among its more popular and coherent spokespersons.1 Horatio’s parents, Julius Alphonso Dresser (1838-1893) and Annetta Gertrude Seabury (1843-1935), had once been patients of the healer Phineas Parkhurst Quimby of Portland, Maine, whose introspective experiences in the healing arts challenged much of the commonsense knowledge of the day. Beginning as an inquisitive mesmerist, Quimby had analyzed his own as well as his patients’ experiences in the healing encounter, eventually replacing many of the reigning mesmeric practices with what he called the “silent method” in which patients were encouraged to discover their own inner spiritual power as the means to overcome disease and illness. Once cured under Quimby’s guidance of their illnesses, Julius and Annetta moved to 5 Boston where the couple opened a mental healing practice based on the so-called “Quimby System of Mental Treatment.” In addition, they wrote articles for various periodicals and defended their healing theories and techniques against the ideas of Mary Baker Eddy who, unlike the Dressers, organized a church-based healing system known as the Church of Christ, Scientist. In their practice at 14 West Chester Park, the Dressers offered a twelve-step set program that explained health as spiritual in nature, the outer reflection of a person’s inner world, or what they identified as “the Christ within.” Following Quimby’s format, they explained disease as false beliefs and opinions holding body in bondage. The program followed a set format: 1. A description and analysis of the life of the mind and the effect of erroneous beliefs. 2. Learning the power of thought and the part played by fear. 3. Discussion of Divine immanence. 4. The nature of matter and the influence of the mind on the body. 5. The subconscious after-effects of opinions and beliefs. 6. The general mental theory of disease with constant reference to the New Testament regarding the healing of disease. 7. The spiritual nature of human beings with the distinction between the historical Jesus and the universal ideal of Christ. 8. Dispelling the fear of death for an eternal spiritual life that was poised, calm, and free. 9. The real intent of human experience and “the wisdom of the situation,” 10. The hidden effects of fear as “the backbone of disease.” 11. The power of thought. 12. The fundamental principles of a comprehensive spiritual philosophy of life.2 6 In honor of Quimby, Annetta published The Philosophy of P. P. Quimby (1895), a book of recollections outlining her mentor’s life, philosophy, and healing methods. The book also included samples of Quimby’s unpublished manuscripts which she and others had helped edit. Four years later, Julius published The True History of Mental Science (1899) containing a series of lectures delivered at the Church of the Divine Unity in Boston. Evident in all his lectures was a deep and abiding regard for Plato, Emerson, and the healing practices of Quimby. 3 Horatio Willis, the oldest of the Dresser children, was born in 1866, in Yarmouth, Maine, the year of Quimby’s death. At thirteen he left primary school to learn telegraphy and, three years later, was managing a railroad station on the Central Pacific line in Pinole, California. Several years later, he returned to New England to become a reporter for the New England Farmer. Like his father, he was an ardent admirer of Emerson, a factor that would eventually influence a lifetime of writing and lecturing. In 1884, he joined his parents at their mental healing practice in Boston which catered to the city’s ageing population of Transcendentalists, Unitarians, Theists, and lapsed Eddyites.* Armed with strong communication skills, he became known among the town’s spiritualists as having mediumship abilities and a degree of telepathic powers. 4 Horatio admired his parents’ generation for having replaced the material conception of disease with theories of healing based on the power of the mind. They replaced the harsh healing protocols of conventional medicine with gentle reasoning, auto-suggestion, and self-affirmation. The essential elements to bodily health and healthy-mindedness† required the calmness of the healer; the patient’s willingness to cooperate; a mind freed of inner discord; and a feeling of * The term refers to Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science. † The term was first coined by William James. 7 “oneness” with God. To the extent that the diseased body or “sick soul” was capable of putting faith to practice as Jesus intended, the individual could adjust his or her inmost thoughts and external actions to the fullness of God’s love. In 1891, Horatio entered Harvard and, while working on his