|
| |
e-mail
Leon James Back to
Swedenborg Glossary
Religious Behaviorism
Chapter 2
By Dr. Leon James
(c) 1983 Revised 1999
The Primary Premises of
RELIGIOUS BEHAVIORISM
Here You Will Find a List of Items Found in This Chapter:
- The Spiritual Psychobiology Premise:
- The regeneration Process:
- The Ten Commandments:
- The Ten Plagues:
- Figure 05: Psychotherapy in Relation To The Practice of Evils from
Falsities
1. The Spiritual Psychobiology Premise:
- All living creatures in the created universe have participatory life, not life on
their own; that is, God and creature interact reciprocally to maintain life, moment by
moment. Thus, as soon as God weakens His influx, or as soon as the creature closes off
influx; degeneration and death result in proportion to the breaking of the reciprocal bond
between creature and God. This reciprocal participation is constant and permanent, in
general as well as in detail. Thus, death is the result of severe withdrawal; sickness
and dysfunction correspond to the degree of withdrawal and separation of the community
from spiritual influx.
-
- In the human creature, separation between the individual and God brings on illness,
misfortune, accidents, anxieties, lack of wisdom, errors in judgment, false attitudes, and
so on to all the evils of society and civilization.
-
- Resoration of closeness between creature and God is instantly reviving, vivifying, and
regenerating. Healing, positive change, growth, development, understanding are some of the
goods that result from restoration of closeness and participatory life. Once restored or
regenerated, the human creature continues to evolve, progress, and expand to eternity,
since human participatory life is immortal.
-
- In the absence of regeneration, human life continues down a gradual degeneration to
eternity: the individuals who share the fantasy constructions of non-participatory life
for example, "I can do what I want," "I am a god," or "I do this
solely from my own power," etc., degenerate together in infernal societies, (in body
form, in mental capacity, in impoverished environment, in psychological distress, and in
spiritual darkness).
- Human life contains Birth of the individual on some natural earth, a first death
or entry into the spirit world, and a second death or entry into heaven or hell. Birth
occurs simultaneously in three worlds so that each human being is born with three
bodies, each made of its own organic substance, and each subject to the laws of its
world. Thus, the natural body is subject to time/space material constraints of
reaction and motion; the spiritual body is in the spirit world and its laws of
reaction and motion; the heavenly vs. Infernal body is in heaven or hell and their
laws of action and motion.
-
- Each of the three bodies has its own "self" or conscious awareness of itself.
Thus, the natural body's conscious self is the "me" we know in this
world, what we call our "private and social self" that has a name by which I and
others know me. The spiritual body's conscious self is unknown to the natural self
and leads its own existence amidst some spirit society in the spirit world. These two
selves, though unknown to each other, nevertheless act in conjunction. This corresponding
action binds them together, each in its own way. The natural self has the hallucination
that it thinks its own thoughts. Actually, the thoughts "descend"
psycho-biologically from the spiritual self into the natural self's imagination and
acquired memories from experiences in the earth environment. At this point the natural
self hallucinates that these thoughts did not descend from some other higher world,
but were produced in the natural world by the natural self's imaginative capacities and
"brain power". But, actually the spiritual self produces the thoughts, as
thoughts can be produced and maintained only in the spirit world, (outside time/space
because visual thoughts cannot exist in time/space). The bond between the two selves
established from birth insures that each individual relates only to his or her own pair of
selves in the natural and spiritual worlds. In this way, the natural self and the
spiritual self progress and act together. Thus, the imagination and memory of the natural
self always relates to and interacts with the thoughts of the spiritual self. While in our
bodies on earth, the natural self is partially aware of the spiritual self's thoughts but
attributes these thoughts to itself.
-
- However, there is also the third self, (heavenly infernal), which is bonded to the lower
two and participates in the natural self's threefold-life, (imagination and memory
of experiences on earth--which is proper to itself; thought-life and reasoning--which
it attributes to itself by hallucination; and striving or motivational life-which
it also attributes to itself by hallucination). This third self actually lives in heaven
or hell alternately, and has there a life of its own affections, loves, strivings, and
goals, which descend into the thought-life of the spirit self, from where they ultimate in
the imagination of the natural self.
-
- While all three selves are bonded together, (after birth and before first death),
the natural self has a life of its own in the imagination and memory of earth
experiences, while it shares in the life of thoughts from the spirit self, and it shares
in the life of strivings from the heavenly or infernal self. The spiritual self has
a life of its own in the thoughts and reasoning, while it shares in the life of
imagination from the natural self, and shares in the life of strivings and purposes
from the heavenly or infernal self. The heavenly or infernal self has a life of its
own in the strivings and purposes, while it shares in the life of thoughts from the
natural self. Thus while all three selves are bonded together, each self must share in the
life of the other two, and none of the three selves exist on their own as a full fledged
person. The spiritual self hallucinates it lives on earth as to external
environment since it shares imagination and memory of earth experiences from the natural
self's own life on earth. The heavenly or infernal self hallucinates it lives on
earth, (from external imagination in time/space), as the natural self's well as on the
spirit world earth, (from the spiritual self's thoughts it shares). The natural self
hallucinates it lives in the spirit world through thoughts it attributes to itself, and
hallucinates it also lives in heaven or hell, (from the heavenly or infernal self's
affections it shares). Thus, we say and feel at times that we're being
"spiritual" or that we experience the ecstasies of "heaven" or the
sufferings of "hell".
-
- Upon the first death, we lose the natural body, hence, the natural self and its
capacity to have imagination and memory of the natural stimuli or experiences in the
natural world. A few hours following natural death, the person awakens or resurrects in
the spiritual body, which of course feels entirely familiar since we are exposed to the
memory of the thoughts we shared even in the natural life. However, at this point, we stop
hallucinating that we are thinking on our own, and instead, as a spirit, we are keenly
conscious of our actual freedom in our thoughts and reasoning. In this state, as spirit
individuals, our mental life is much more keen and is capable of feats unparalleled and
undreamed of by its more restricted capacities while being bonded to the former natural
self, now deceased. However, the spirit-individual still hallucinates that it has a life
of its own in its strivings and affections which actually are not their own but shared
from the heavenly or infernal self. Thus, societies in the earth of the spirit world have
a much more active life of thoughts and reasoning than societies in the earth of the
natural world which are not active rationally, but rather sensuously and imaginatively.
But, spirit-individuals who are liberated from the bonds of the deceased natural self's
life of imagination now acquire a pseudo-natural imagination proper to the spirit
world's laws. These laws operate so that the imagination and sensory input of the
spirit-individual corresponds to and expresses the spirit-individual's
thought-life. Thus, whatever the spirit-individual thinks, believes, or reasons about in
himself or herself, that is expressed in the "pseudo-natural environment."
Actually, since spirit-individuals communicate and sense each other's thought-life
completely, they in effect collectively hallucinate their pseudo-natural surrounds for
example, geographic features, resources, governance, and management practices.
-
- Upon the second death, we lose the spiritual body, hence, the capacity to think
and reason on one's own as before in the life of the spirit-self. Now we are an angel in
heavenly-societies or a devil in hell-societies. Each of us is then fully free to live our
own strivings, loves, or purposes, and we are also given a life of pseudo-thoughts and
reasoning, plus a life of pseudo-natural images and sensations.
- Actually, these pseudo-thoughts and pseudo-sensations are mere expressions or
"natural-appearing correspondences" of one's own free life of loves, purposes,
and affections. Again, since life in heaven and hell is collective at the pseudo-levels,
(thoughts and sensations), societies in heaven and hell collectively hallucinate a common
life of "thoughts" and a common life of "images" and
"sensations."
-
- Finally, the richness of life in each of the three worlds is conditioned by the
individual's morality and religiosity. While the natural self is alive, it dictates or
governs in freedom how the natural body behaves towards others in community life. The more
moral the natural self is, the richer the thoughts it shares with the spiritual
self, hence, the more intelligent and wise it is and the more it succeeds to bring
out its native potentials for happiness and achievement. Immoral behavior styles
impoverish and sicken the mind or spiritual self's life. After the first death, the
spiritual self uses and further develops all the capacities it evolved from the moral or
immoral behaviors of the natural self. Thus, if the natural self, while alive, imagined
good things regarding others then the spirit-individual will have a rich life. If however,
the natural self lived a life of selfish imagination and deceitfulness towards others,
then the spirit-individual will have a poor life; poor in understanding, and power of
intellect.
-
- Upon the second death, our life in heaven is the richest yet in terms of personal
capacities for achievement and fulfillment if the spirit-individual had a rich life.
However, if the spirit-individual had a poor life, (from an immoral and selfish natural
life), the individual now lives a wretched life in infernal societies- -bestial in
appearance, mentally dull, and extremely cruel towards others. Thus, eventual life in
eternity, whether sublime or wretched, is ultimately dependent on the natural self's life
of morality and acquired character traits.
- Life in the natural world has both primacy of existence, (in that the natural
self is the locus of our first conscious life), as well as primacy of importance,
(in that the natural self's acquired character determines the individual's richness of
life subsequently and to eternity). Therefore, the natural self's acquired character or
morality needs to be carefully nurtured by the individual, the family, and society at
large.
- Regeneration is the process of gradual restoration of union between the
individual and God, ("religion" = retie). Without the reunion, the natural
self's situation in society which is socio- political and competitive, drags the
individual down into a spiral of increased selfishness, immorality, cruelty, and
anti-sociality. With regeneration, the individual is given the power to block these
negative tendencies and bonds, and gradually become more moral, more willingly forgiving,
and compassionate in character.
-
- The regeneration process is effected through religion. Its essence is the natural self's
recognition of its natural wickedness and acceptance of blind obedience to religious
doctrine and Divine Commandments as revealed in religion. However, there are both
authentic religious doctrines and false or pseudo-religious doctrines, (cults, idol
worship, magic, spirits, etc.). Pseudo-religious and false teachings within the world's
major religions offer a pseudo-regeneration process which captivates the three selves and
destroys and sickens their life. Hence, it is of the utmost importance to investigate the
tenets of one's religion, (or lack of them), and to try to confirm or to not confirm them
in one's own personal observation of life. This process of confirming and not
confirming religious doctrines is thus the principle purpose of our life in the
natural world.
-
- This regeneration process is thus a process of self-education, self-modification,
and self- training. God provides for equity in this respect regarding every individual in
the universe: in one way or another, impossible for us to discern, information
regarding authentic religious doctrines reaches all individuals in the natural world
societies. Upon exposure to this information, the natural self is free to make it its own,
in its life of imagination and memory. If it makes it its own, (by acceptance, faith,
belief, and love), then the individual gradually, and surely becomes regenerated, and
acquires a loving and gentle character, and lives a life of inner morality. But, if the
individual does not make this authentic religious information his or her own, then there
is no regeneration but instead, only gradual degeneration. A degenerated person may appear
moral on account of suppressed tendencies out of fear of punishment and retaliation by
others. This kind of "compliance-morality" is of no use to the individual's
regeneration process, and in the spirit world after the first death, the true character
comes out in accordance with the individual's inner and private actual preferences or
affective bonds.
3. The Ten Commandments and Sin:
Figure 03a: Psychotherapy Reborn: Based on the New Psychobiology
Figure 03b: Psychotherapy Reborn: Continued
Figure 04: The Stages of Degeneration of the Non-regenerated Mind
4. The Ten Plagues and Guidepost to Therapists:
(The Ten Plagues and Guidepost to Therapists) = Degenerative Steps (- Psychological
Therapy of a person who is stub-born-ly word-ly.) [The Bible is The Handbook of
Psychology] MOSES = Brown (D. Truth) AARON = Blue (Reason) PHARAOH = Green (Imagination)
[The pure intellect, (our spiritual/rational) receives Divine Truth which is spoken to
our Reasoning; from there we threaten/warn the imagination with degeneration, (plagues),
unless the latter lets go of dominion over itself.] [((Patient feels bad in imagination,
((green plagues)), tortured by intellect - guilt, etc. because of selfishness and
materialism. Therapist, (rapist), rapes the mind by weakening plagues, (see O. H. Mowrer),
or helps the mind by getting behaviors and strivings to harmonize with spiritual law for
example, methods issue of therapy type: green imagination - F. Perls -- subordinated to
blue reasoning - Ellis - which is to be guided by brown spiritual laws.))]
Figure 05: Psychotherapy In Relation To The Practice of Evils from
Falsities
| From Emanuel Swedenborg's True Christian Religion 571. CHAPTER TEN
REFORMATION AND REGENERATION
After dealing with repentance we come next in order to reformation and regeneration,
because these come after repentance and it is by repentance that they advance. There are
two states which a person must enter upon and undergo to pass from being natural to being
spiritual. The first state is called reformation, the second regeneration. In his first
state a person looks from his natural to his spiritual man and desires to be spiritual; in
the second state he becomes spiritual-natural. The first state is formed by means of the
truths which must become part of faith, and these enable him to look towards charity. The
second state is formed by the kinds of good which make up charity, and from them he enters
into the truths of faith. To put this in other terms, the first state is one of thought on
the part of the understanding, but the second is one of love on the part of the will. When
this state begins and develops, a mental change takes place; for there is a turning-point,
following which the love of the will flows into the understanding, and drives and guides
it to think in harmony and in keeping with its love. In so far therefore as the good of
love then plays the leading role, and the truths of faith take second place, to that
extent he is a spiritual man and a new creature. Then charity inspires his actions, faith
his speech; he feels the good of charity and perceives the truth of faith. Then he is in
the Lord and in a state of peace, and so he is regenerated.
[2] Anyone who has begun the first state while in the world can after death be brought
into the second. But anyone who has not entered upon the first state while in the world
cannot be brought into the second after death, and so cannot be regenerated. These two
states can be compared with the advance of light and heat in spring days; the first state
can be compared with twilight and cock-crow, the second with morning and dawn; and its
development with the day advancing to noon, and so growing in light and heat. It can also
be compared with a harvest, which begins with the blade, then grows into awns and ears and
finally becomes the wheat in them. Or again with a tree: first it springs from a seed in
the ground, then becomes a stalk from which branches come forth; these are decked with
leaves, and then it flowers, and the inmost part of the flower is the beginning of the
fruit; and as the fruits ripen they produce new seeds as their offspring. The first state,
that of reformation, can also be compared with the state of a silk-worm, when it draws
silk thread out of itself and wraps itself in it; and after its hard labour is over, it
flies out into the air, and feeds, not as formerly on leaves, but on the juices in
flowers.
572. I
Unless a person is born again and as it were created anew, he cannot enter the kingdom
of God.
Unless a person is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God; this is what the Lord
teaches in John, where this passage occurs:
Jesus said to Nicodemus, Amen, amen*, I say to you, unless a person is born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. And again, Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a person is
born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. What is born of the
flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit. John 3:3, 5, 6.
The kingdom of God means both heaven and the church, for the kingdom of God on earth is
the church. It is the same in other places where the kingdom of God is named; as Matt.
11:11; 12:28; 21:43; Luke 4:43; 6:20; 8:1, 10; 9:11, 60, 62; 17:21, and elsewhere. To be
born by water and the spirit means by the truths of faith and by living by them. For water
meaning truths, see APOCALYPSE REVEALED 50, 614, 615, 685, 932. Spirit means living by
Divine truths, as is plain from the Lord's words in John (6:63). Amen, amen means that it
is the truth; and because the Lord was the truth itself, that is why He said it so often.
He is also called the Amen (Rev. 3:14). Those who are regenerated are called in the Word
sons of God and born of God; regeneration is described by a new heart and a new spirit.
573. Since to be created also means to be regenerated, it is said of one who is
born again and as it were created anew. The following passages, not to mention others,
prove that to be created has this meaning in the Word.
Create for me, God, a clean heart, and make new a steadfast spirit within me. Ps.
51:10.
You open your hand, and they are filled with good; you send forth your spirit, and they
are created. Ps. 104:28, 30.
The people who are going to be created will praise Jah. Ps. 102:18.
Behold, I shall create Jerusalem to be a rejoicing. Isa. 65:18.
Thus spoke Jehovah, your Creator, Jacob, who formed you, Israel, I have redeemed you.
Everyone who is called after my name, I have created him for my glory. Isa 43:1, 7.
So that they may see, know, attend and understand that the Holy One of Israel created
this. Isa. 41:20.
This is also clear where the Lord is called Creator, He who forms and Maker. This makes
it plain what is the meaning of the Lord's charge to His disciples:
Go into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature. Mark 16:15.
Creatures means all who can be regenerated; likewise, Rev. 3:14; 2 Cor. 5:16, 17
574. All reason plainly shows that man needs to be regenerated. For he acquires
by birth from his parents evils of all kinds, and these are lodged in his natural man,
which is of itself diametrically opposed to the spiritual man. Yet he is by birth destined
for heaven, and he cannot reach heaven, unless he becomes spiritual; and the only way this
can happen is by being regenerated. The necessary consequence is that the natural man with
his longings must be tamed, subdued and turned upside down; otherwise a person cannot
advance a step nearer heaven, but more and more he drags himself down to hell. Everyone
can see this, if he believes that he has acquired by birth evils of all kinds, and if he
acknowledges the existence of good and evil, one opposed to the other; and if he believes
in life after death, in hell and in heaven, and that evils make hell, good makes heaven.
The natural man regarded in himself is as concerns his nature not in the slightest
different from an animal. He is equally untamed, but this as regards his will. In respect
of the understanding, however, he differs from the animals, for the understanding can be
raised above the cravings of the will, and can not only see them, but also control them.
That is why man is able to use his understanding to think, and his thinking to talk, which
no animal can do.
[2] What man is like by birth, and what he would be like if not regenerated can be seen
from wild beasts of all kinds. He would be a tiger, a panther, a leopard, a wild boar, a
scorpion, a tarantula, a viper, a crocodile and so on. So unless he were by regeneration
transformed into a sheep, what else would he be but a devil among the devils in hell? Were
it not for the restraint the laws of the kingdom impose on their innate ferocity, would
not one then rush to attack another, so that they would slaughter one another or strip
them of everything down to their underpants? How many of the human race are there who were
not by birth satyrs and priapi, or four-footed lizards? Everyone of either class, if he is
not regenerated, turns into an ape. This is the result of external morality, which is the
extra lesson learned in order to cover up one's internals.
575. There is a further description of what the unregenerated person is like in
the comparison and similes found in Isaiah:
The spoonbill and the vulture shall possess it, and the owl and the raven shall live
there, He will stretch across it a measuring-line of emptiness, and plumb-lines of
desolation. From there the thorn shall climb up its altars*, the thistle and briar in its
fortifications; and it becomes a dwelling of dragons, a courtyard for the daughters of the
owl. There shall meet there tziim and iyim, and the satyr shall encounter his partner;
indeed lilith shall rest there. There the blackbird shall build its nest, lay eggs, gather
food and hatch its young in its shadow. There indeed shall kites, flock, one with his
partner.** Isa. 34:11, 13-15.
576. II
A new birth or creation can only be brought about by the Lord through charity and faith
as the two means with the person's co-operation.
It follows from the proofs offered in the chapters on charity and faith that
regeneration is brought about by the Lord through charity and faith; in particular, from
the statement there that the Lord, charity and faith make one, just as do life, will and
understanding; and if they are divided each of them perishes like a pearl collapsing into
dust. These two, charity and faith, are called means, because they link a person with the
Lord and make charity charity and faith faith. This is only possible if the person plays a
part in his regeneration; this is why we say, with the person's co-operation. In previous
sections the co-operation of a person with the Lord has been discussed several times. But
because the human mind is so constituted that it cannot help perceiving this action as
being effected by the person by his own ability, it needs to be illustrated again.
[2] Every motion, and so every action, contains an active and a passive principle. In
other words, the agent acts, and the object acts as a result of the agent. So the two
together produce an action. This may be compared to a mill driven by a wheel, a carriage
pulled by a horse, a movement responding to an effort, an effect to a cause, inertia to
energy, in general, an instrumental part responding to a principal one. Everyone knows
that the two together perform a single action. In the case of charity and faith the Lord
acts, and the person acts in response to the Lord, for the Lord's activity is in the
person's passivity. Therefore the ability to act aright is from the Lord, so that the will
to act is as if it were the person's. This is because he enjoys free will, so that he can
act together with the Lord, and so link himself to Him, or he can act by the power of
hell, which is outside him, and so cut himself off from the Lord. It is the person's
action in harmony with the Lord's action which is meant here by co-operation. To render
this even clearer, further comparisons will be supplied below.
577. A further consequence of this is that the Lord is continually in the
process of regenerating a person, because He is continually in the process of saving him,
and no one can be saved unless he is regenerated, exactly as the Lord said in John: he who
is not born again cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5, 6). Regeneration is
therefore the means to salvation, and charity and faith are the means to regeneration. The
idea that regeneration comes as a consequence of the faith the present-day church upholds,
that is, without the person's co-operation, is the height of folly.
[2] Action and co-operation as here described can be observed in everything which has
any activity and power of movement. Such is the action and co-operation of the heart and
every one of its arteries. The heart acts and the artery uses its coverings or tunics to
co-operate; and this is how the circulation of the blood works. It is much the same with
the lungs. The air acts by the atmospheric pressure which depends on altitude, and the
ribs first co-operate with the lungs, and then the lungs co-operate with the ribs. This is
how every membrane in the body breathes. In the same way the meninges of the brain, the
pleura, the peritoneum, the diaphragm and all the other coverings of the viscera and their
inward structures act and are acted upon and so co-operate, since they are elastic. This
is how they come into existence and continue in existence. It is much the same in every
fibre and nerve, and in every muscle, even in every cartilage. It is well known that in
each of these there is action and co-operation.
[3] Every sense too affords an example of co-operation, for the sensory organs, like
the motor organs, are composed of fibres, membranes and muscles. But it would be a waste
of time to describe how each of them co-operates. We know that light acts on the eye,
sound on the ear, smell on the nose, and taste on the tongue, and that the organs respond
to these things, thus giving rise to sensation. Can anyone fail to perceive from this that
if there were no such action and cooperation with inflowing life in the spiritual organism
of the brain, thought and will could not come into existence? For life flows into that
organism from the Lord, and because it co-operates the perception is possible of what is
thought, likewise what is there judged, concluded and given expression in action. If all
that happened was that life acted and the person did not co-operate as if of himself, he
could no more think than a block of wood, or than the structure of a church can when a
minister is preaching. In this case something like an echo may be experienced as the
result of the reflexion of sound from the doors, but no speech. That is what a person
would be like, if he did not cooperate with the Lord as regards charity and faith.
578. Comparisons too can illustrate what a person would be like, if he did not
co-operate with the Lord. When he perceived or felt any spiritual influence from heaven or
the church, it would be like something hostile or discordant coming in, such as a rotten
smell to the nose, a dissonance to the ear, a monstrosity to the eye and a foul taste to
the tongue. If the pleasure of charity and the beauty of faith were to fall upon the
spiritual organism of the minds of those who delight in evil and falsity, they would be so
vexed and tormented by the intrusion of that pleasure and beauty, that they would end by
falling into a faint. This organism is composed of a continuous series of helices; and in
the case of such people it would wrap itself into coils and writhe like a snake on an
ant-hill. I can vouch for the truth of this as the result of many experiences in the
spiritual world. |
Go to the Top
e-mail Leon James
Back to
Swedenborg Glossary
|
