Mesmer and Swedenborg

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Preface

The object aimed at in the present work is to elevate the phenomena of Mesmerism to a higher plane than that on which they have been wont to be contemplated. The fundamental ground assumed is, that the most important facts disclosed in the Mesmeric state are of a spiritual nature, and can only receive an adequate solution by being viewed in connection with the state of disembodied spirits and the laws of their intercourse with each other. Perhaps the first impression would be, that the world of spirits is so far beyond our ken — that everything pertaining to it is so shadowy, dim, and delusive — that it were idle to think that any certain light can be reflected from it upon the psychological constitution of our nature in the present life. It remains to be seen whether this judgment be not premature. It is at any rate claimed in behalf of Emanuel Swedenborg that he was in spirit intromitted into that world, and has made a faithful revelation of the state of its inhabitants and of the general laws and conditions of spiritual being. It is essentially involved in these disclosures that man, in this world, is a spirit clothed with a body — that in his interior principles he is so constituted as to be even now a denizen of the spiritual world and constantly associated with kindred spirits — that the laws of his intellectual life, which are operative here, are operative there also — and that consequently his future state is merely the normal and necessary result of the working of those elements, psychical and moral, which distinguish him in his bodily life. It is claimed, moreover, that many of the leading interior principles of his nature are developed, under a new aspect, in the Mesmeric condition, and that we are at full liberty to bring these developments into juxtaposition with those of Swedenborg to see how far they coincide. If they are found to be in the most marked and striking harmony with each other, it is surely difficult to resist the conclusion, that Swedenborg is entitled to our credence as a truthful reporter of the facts and phenomena of the spirit-world. If not

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an apostle to others, he certainly is to those who are satisfied of the reality of the facts elicited in the Mesmeric state.

My object then is to show to what extent these coincidences exist. I propose to display the dominant phenomena of Mesmerism by the side of the spiritual disclosures of Swedenborg. The reader will thus have before him the adequate means of forming a judgment on the grand question. It is not to be disguised that very momentous issues hang upon the result of the investigation. If, upon a rigid interrogation of the laws of our mental being, it turns out that whathavebeen incredulously termed the reveries and dreams of the Swedish Seer are in fact no other than the eternal verities of things, a new complexion is at once put upon the sublime system of disclosure which he has been made the instrument of imparting to the world. His solemnly asserted claims are no longer an idle pretence. Though not professedly confirmed by miracles, as miracles are usually understood, yet they must be considered as hereby receiving the direct seal and stamp of the authority of Heaven, and it can be no light matter to pass them by unheeded. As he came avowedly not to usher in a new religion to the world, but to develope the interior and spiritual genius of one already given, his mission could only be authenticated by an appeal to the universal reason of man acting upon the alleged accordance between its soundest inductions and the intrinsic character of his expose. It is by this test that his adherents are supremely desirous that the truth of his mission should be tried. They refuse to admit that they have yielded their credence to it on any other ground, and they are unable to see why the evidence which has satisfied them should not satisfy others, provided they will entertain it with equal fairness and candor ; and considering the magnitude of the interests at stake, in case it should prove to be true, they are at a loss to conceive that it should not be entitled to the most diligent examination. If the system bore upon its face the self-evident marks of imposture and delusion — if it contravened any settled first-truths of the reason — if it arrayed itself in obvious antagonism with the purport of the Christian Scriptures — if, in a word, it had only to be looked at to be at once warrantably rejected — then indeed every plea in its behalf would be a useless labor, if treason against Truth be not the more appropriate appellation. But we confidently affirm that no man can intelligently pronounce such a verdict upon the alleged revelations of Swedenborg. Apart from all the collateral confirmations which we propose to exhibit in the ensuing pages, they commend them-

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selves, by their internal evidence, to the calmest and profoundest reflection of every enlightened mind. The criterion to which they refer themselves is the intrinsic nature of man and the report of his clearest intuitions. If they do not abide this ordeal, let them be rejected, and consigned for ever to the contempt which has temporarily been their lot. But we have no fears for the grand issue. The evolutions of Providence may justly be expected to enhance the testimony of truths which its counsels have purposed to bestow upon the world. From a source but little anticipated, this witness is now forcing itself upon the human mind with an energy which cannot be resisted. A new phasis of our nature has been recently developed, and its plain bearing is to fortify the conclusions of the reason by a demonstration made to the very senses.

It will be seen that in the ensuing discussion I have little to say of the purely physical effects of Mesmerism, and that I propose no theory of the nervous influence, or any other, by which to account for the phenomena. I trust this may not be set down to the account of a defective mode of treating the subject. My aim is altogether different. It involves no attempt to solve the physiological problems connected with the processes and results in question. I do not underrate such inquiries, nor do I doubt that a continual progress is making towards the discovery of the physical laws upon which the physical manifestations of Mesmerism depend. That many, or most, or all of them, maybe resolved into the constitution of the nervous system, is in the highest degree probable. But at present we know very little of the interior economy of this part of our organism, and to say that a particular phenomenon is to be traced to the action of the nervous influence is merely stating a. fact without explaining it. We are not thereby advanced in our knowledges of causes. The department I have chosen to consider is that of psychology, and not of physiology. I wish to show that certain psychological facts are strikingly illustrated by the statements of Swedenborg in regard to the phenomena of the spiritual world. These facts undoubtedly rest in a measure in a physiological basis, but this we have not yet compassed, nor is it our impression that it will be compassed, except by the light reflected back upon it from, the spiritual sphere into which we are conducted by Swedenborg's illuminated guidance. He alone, we conceive, has set before us the true point of contact between the spiritual and the physical, and shown how the one flows into, governs, and moulds the other. Nothing, in my view, is more idle than the 1*

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attempt to refer the Mesmeric effects, in the light in which I consider them, to physical or natural causes. They inevitably conduct us to a higher sphere. It is only the condition of spirit out of the body that can unfold to us the laws and operation 6f spirit in the body, and the fixed relation that subsists between them. Correct knowledge upon this point is the universal desideratum of the human mind. Nothing does it more earnestly covet than an insight into the mystery of the connexion between matter and mind. The solving of this mystery is one of the grand ends of Swedenborg's mission. For this he was providentially prepared by those profound researches in the whole field of science and philosophy, which had conducted him to such splendid results prior to his illumination. His spiritual illumination, however, was the crown of his prerogatives, and subsequent to that epoch the speculations of the Sage gave place to the oracles of the Seer. This we are willing should stand for the present as a simple assertion; the sequel will discover, in some good degree, upon what grounds it is made. But the body of his works must be consulted for the full establishment of his claim.

It can hardly fail to be gathered, from the entire air of the present work, that its ulterior object is to present, under a new form, a plea for the truth of Swedenborg's revelations. The author has no motive to disguise this as the real animus of the undertaking. In this he regards himself as entering into direct co-operation with the designs of Providence. He has no scruple to avow it as his firm conviction that the phenomena of Mesmerism have been developed in this age with the express design of confirming the message of Swedenborg — of testifying, by external evidence, to the absolute truth of the disclosures and the doctrines which he has promulgated to the world. If they are of God they are worthy of special authentication at his hand. This, we think, is afforded in the extraordinary results which have grown out of the first discovery of Mesmer.

Let me, however, on one point be distinctly understood. I do not place the main evidence of Swedenborg's truth on the basis of the discoveries made through Mesmerism. They are held to rest upon the immovable ground of their internal character — of their accordance at once with the voice of Reason and the voice of Revelation. The Church of the New Jerusalem, to which his announcements have, under God, given birth, is not to be considered as compromised, in any point of its faith, by what is in these pages

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given to the world. It is but justice to the members of that body to say, that they have never consented to assume any peculiar responsibility on the score of the alleged phenomena, as though the system of doctrines they have embraced were in any way pledged for the veritable character of the Magnetic developments. So far as any palpable and undeniable truth is brought out in connection with them — truth which spontaneously allies itself with the laws of spiritual being unfolded by Swedenborg — they, of course, willingly accept it. While they uniformly, I believe, stand aloof from all public and promiscuous exhibitions of the marvels of the Mesmeric trance, and while upon their own principles they can readily account for all the delusions that may be mixed up in the clairvoyant reports, yet they do not hesitate to acknowledge anything in them that is absolutely true ; and if, at the same time, it affords a proof of the grander truths of Swedenborg's teachings, they gratefully recognize it as a providential attestation which may be of service to those who are not convinced, as they are, upon other and higher grounds.*

* I insert in the present connection the following paragraph from a pamphlet recently published in London, from the pen of a New Churchman, to the leading sentiments of which I fully subscribe : — " It is therefore impossible for the members of the New Church to remain silent and indifferent upon this interesting question. Can they resist the inquiry thus forced upon them — What is the affinity or connection which exists between the principles of Swedenborg and the science denominated Animal Magnetism ? Can any serious reader of our author's theological works be persuaded that its principles are irrelevant, or not interwoven, or do not form a prominent part of all his doctrines ? And if it is so, how vain the attempt to smother and silence all inquiry and examination — to put a veto upon our lips and to stay all future correspondence upon a point in which the character of our author's doctrines is so deeply implicated ! The readers of Swedenborg are not to be terrified by any gratuitous supposition about one finite mind interfering with the will and consciousness of another, so as to bring it into a state or condition * in which it is not accountable, either in bodily words or works.' Such a case is entirely suppositious, and not possible. It cannot happen ; nay, a cherubic guard is ever ready to prevent it. * In the natural world, that which acts and that which reacts, is called a force and an effort; but in the spiritual world, that which acts and that which reacts, is called life and will. Life is then a living force, and will is a living effort ; and the equilibrium is called liberty or freedom.' Now, under any possibility, can this equilibrium be ever frustrated or remain quiescent, even while its bodily or external sensations have that appearance ? There is a cherubic guard, as said before, ever ready to prevent it, conducted by laws of order, and sus-

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While I thus desire to be viewed as occupying a position which shall in no way commit the interests of the New Church with the issues of what may be deemed an uncertain science, I would also tained by the Divine Omnipotence. « For the divine sphere proceeding from the Lord is omnipresent, and constantly sees where anything is in danger; whereas an angel only sees what is near him, and cannot so much as perceive, within himself, what is passing in his own society.' And then may we not ask, in relation to the development of this vital action, Can any gift or power be given to man for good and use, within the sphere of his operation, which it is not his duty to accept and wisely adopt r It is unnecessary to add any more remarks at present upon this supposition and gratuitous assertion, which requires proofs of its solidity, from the writings of our author. It is presumed, however, that in the theological writings of Swedenborg, we have confirmatory proofs of the existence, and of some of the distinguishing properties, of this principle of vital influence. Its discovery is coincident in manifestation and concurrent in its effects. We therefore make our appeal to Swedenborg in proof or testimony to the existence and to the order of this principle, for it is the living principle in man, and of which, as an organized form, he is the proper recipient, and in different or distinct degrees; because all the distinguishing qualities of his character, as a human being, are the results of its manifestation, in the varieties of its development, in the growth of his mind, in the arrangements, classification, and regeneration of all his active powers : in every moment of his existence, dependent and constantly receptive of its influence, and this bath mediately and immediately.

It is the accommodated medium or agent by which all activity and power originates, even all the forces in the universe, and from which they subsist and continually exist. To be thoroughly grounded in this conviction, the reader of Swedenborg must not only study the little treatise on Influx, as an introduction, to gain some general ideas upon the subject, but he must take a more extensive range in the deep study of the numbers of the Arcana Celestia, wherever the index refers to the terms Influx and Life. And the reader of Swedenborg who has time and leisure to digest these points in our author, and then to compare them impartially with the recent discoveries of the properties of this vital fluid in man, and even with the wonders and phenomena of somnambulism, will see nothing frightful, or repugnant, or contrary to our principles and doctrines, but all consistent, confirmatory, and in harmony with Swedenborg. For it is from him that we are instructed concerning the continual influx, passing from the spiritual into the natural world ; the inflowing of life into organized forms adapted to its reception, and founded in the nature of things, and in harmony vsith all the laws of order in the great system of the divine economy, and no less in harmony with the common influx, which descends by lower degrees^ equally separate and distinct, into the life of animals, and the subjects of the vegetable kingdom." — Mesmeric Phenomena, p. 25-27.

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deprecate the inference that I approve of the indiscriminate practice of Mesmerism from motives of mere idle curiosity or public entertainment, especially by novitiate hands. Indeed, I know of nothing more calculated to bring the whole theme into contempt with the sober-minded than such Lectures as are frequently advertised by itinerant Magnetizers, who are willing to demean themselves to making gain from the public exhibition of a power which can never be rightly regarded but as a most sacred endowment, that is positively profaned by being turned to any account independent of use and unprompted by benevolent motive. Moreover, when physically applied, it is frequently a perilous agent in its effects upon the nervous system, and though its curative powers in disease are oftentimes eminently great, yet it is a law of its operation that its success shall depend upon the character of the motive by which it is applied, and the general discretion which governs its ministry. Regarded from a still higher point of view — as the development of an interior state which puts the subject into a new relation with the spiritual world — it is fraught with a sanctity with which no right mind will trifle. The highest moral and religious conditions are here requisite in both parties, as the only guaranty not only against the most pernicious physical effects, but also against the liability to the most egregious delusions, and a dangerous abuse of the moral sentiments.

I venture to express the hope that the copiousness of the quotations, made necessary by the plan of the work, will not mar the reader's interest in the perusal. Apart from their direct bearing on the general scope, they will be seen to possess an intrinsic value from the character of the psychological and moral principles which they embody. The extracts from the various works on Mesmerism present an interesting view of the main phenomena, while those from Swedenborg will be seen to be entitled to the profoundest consideration, in whatever light they are viewed, whether as confirming the truth of the former or not.

Nor would I have it overlooked, that, for the most part, I make no account whatever of the claims of clairvoyants to direct intercourse with spirits. Without denying the possibility of the fact, or its occasional actual occurrence, still I do not aim to establish the truth of Swedenborg's revelations by the similar revelations of Magnetic subjects. Their alleged visions may, for aught that concerns the scope of my discussions, be justly regarded as artificial dreams, produced by the excitement of the cerebral organs. On this head I have nothing to affirm — nothing to deny. I take simply the manifestations, as developed in the ordinary state, and as evincing a peculiar mental

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relation between the parties, and endeavor to show that these facts receive their true and only explanation from what Swedenborg has disclosed of the laws of spiritual intercourse in the other life. The ground of this is his own grand position — that M man is a spirit as to his interiors," and in virtue of that fact, is unconsciously associated with spirits, and governed, as to his mental workings, by the same laws with them. The denial and refutation of this principle will be seen to be absolutely requisite to the rejection of the results which I have affirmed to flow from it.

In relation to the extraordinary case of A. J. Davis, given in the Appendix, I have indeed been compelled to view its phenomena in a higher light than that pertaining to any other sample of the clairvoyant power. It will be seen at once to be a case altogether unique and unprecedented. Still even this is not a case of direct revelation of the facts of the spiritual world, like those of Swedenborg. It is one where a supernatural knowledge is displayed on subjects of which he was previously ignorant, and which can only be explained on the ground of the influx of the minds of spirits into his mind. This circumstance renders his state a remarkable illustration, or demonstration rather, of the truth of Swedenborg's disclosures, and how vastly is the evidence of this heightened, when we find him unconsciously reproducing Swedenborg's own philosophy, and making long verbal quotations from his works — works of which he had never read a solitary page ! The narrative I have given relative to this young man will doubtless encounter the most stubborn unbelief, but the facts by which it is fortified are beyond dispute, and I offer it to the world without the slightest misgiving on the score of its possible future exposure as an idle tale of imposition or delusion. That it will carry conviction to the mass of my readers, I do not venture to say; but that it defies contradiction in the form in which I have given it, I unhesitatingly affirm. Upon the evidence of the facts in the affair will depend the soundness of the conclusion I draw from them. If, with the impregnable array of the facts before them, my readers can draw any other conclusion, I am assuredly somewhat curious to learn what it is. G. B.

CHAP. XI. Conclusion 160

APPENDIX A. Revelations of A. J. Davis 169

APPENDIX B. The Seeress of Prevorst 218

Distinction of Soul, Body, and Spirit. . . . 220

The Nerve-Spirit 22

The Sun-Circle and the Life- Circle. . . . 225

Separate Functions of the Soul and Spirit 228

The Language of Spirits 234

On Spirit-Seeing 239

Growth of Infants in the other Life. . . . 243

State of the Heathen in the other Life. . 245

The Forms of Spirits 247

Spirits seen by a Spiritual Eye 249

The Illuminated Eye 350

APPENDIX C. Swedish Document on Animal Magnetism. 253

APPENDIX D. Trance of Rev. William Tennent 281

ABBREVIATIONS

The various works of Swedenborg are usually cited by the following abbreviated titles, which are adopted in the ensuing pages.

A. C. - - - - Arcana Celestia.

A. E. - - - - - Apocalypse Explained.

A. R. - Apocalyse Revealed.

T. C. R. - - - - - Trite Christian Religion.

C. L. - - - - Conjugial Love, H. & H. Heaven and Hell.

D. L. &W. - Divine Love and Wisdom,

D. P. - - - - - Divine Providence.

S. D. - - - - - Spiritual Diary.

E. U. - - - - - Earths in the Universe.

Ath. Creed - - - - Athanasian Creed

ERRATA.

The reader is requested to note the two following corrections, which are important to a right view of the author's meaning.

On page 163, seventeenth line from the top, instead of — " when the only things," — read " when the very things."

On page 252, near the bottom, read the whole sentence thus : — "But a spiritual idea is one that excludes space and time; and as death introduces a good spirit into a sphere in which time and space are unknown, such a spirit comes, of course, into a spiritual perception of the internal contents of the Word." In the printing the word good was inadvertently omitted, and universal was erroneously written for internal A few other trifling errors of type occur.

Introduction

The progress of scientific research at the present day has distinguished itself not less by the wideness of the field over which its triumphs have spread, than by the soundness and certainty of the inductions by which it is sustained. The bare mention of the sciences of Astronomy, Geology, Physiology, and Chemistry, indicates the vast extent to which discovery has pierced with penetrating eye; and though the ultimatum of its conquests has left new worlds of truth to be explored, yet it is impossible, on good grounds, to deny that its main results have been established on the impregnable basis of cautious observation and sound reasoning. This claim, however, does not preclude the admission, that theories of causation are still broached, in many departments, which future and farther investigation will set aside or greatly modify ; but that an immense accession has been made, in modern times, to the store of facts and phenomena previously gathered, cannot be questioned. Equally indisputable is it, that we are continually approximating the true philosophy which underlies the enlarged and enlarging experience of the current age. That this philosophy, when reached, will conduct us into the sphere of the spiritual, as the true region of causes, and disclose new and unthought of relations between the worlds of matter and of mind, is doubtless a very reasonable anticipation, and one which is even now widely though vaguely entertained. To multitudes of minds the surprise will then probably be great to learn, that this result had been long since not merely predicted, but actually attained, in the sublime system of conjoint philosophy and theology embodied in the works of Swedenborg — a system which fully meets the present demand of the human mind in this department, and supplies all the desiderata which will be felt for ages to come.

It is of course by the limited few only who understand the system in its length and breadth, that a concession answerable to so large a claim will be made ; by them, however, it will be made intelligently and cordially. They know that the gulf of separation between the natural and the spiritual world has been bridged by the disclosures of Swedenborg. They are assured, too, that the conviction of this truth has come to them in the only legitimate way — by a calm, careful, and diligent pondering of its internal evidence. Nor can their confidence in the results which they have reached be, by any possibility, shaken, except by a process of reasoning which shall show that the fundamental principles of the system are not the fundamental principles of human nature, and that the clearest intuitions of their minds are not the intuitions of the minds of other men. A priori objections go with them for nothing, so long as the specific testimonies of Swedenborg's truth are not encountered upon their own grounds.

Meantime, as his adherents with one consent find themselves forced to recognise a divine origin in these revelations — as they refuse for one moment to regard them as the outbirth or excogitation of any mere human intellect, however exalted its order, however grand its endowments, however rich its resources — they naturally stand in watchful posture, looking for such incidental confirmations of the truth as the Divine Providence may see fit to bestow, for the sake of those whose faith can only be yielded to higher verities by being previously extorted to lower. Nor is it at all unreasonable to suppose, that the same considerations which have dictated the bestowment of a new revelation to the world, should operate to the gradual bringing forth of a mass of testimony that shall go to authenticate its claims. In this light the recent marvellous developments of Mesmerism are undoubtedly to be viewed. These phenomena constitute a very interesting theme of study, considered simply in their grosser physical relations, as pertaining to the human organism ; but this is not the plane on which they prefer their highest claims to investigation. They bear as directly on psychology as upon physiology. They come into the sphere of Anthropology just at the point where Anthropology weds or welds itself to Theology. These two departments we hold it impossible fairly to separate. The truths of Anthropology are the truths which take hold of the physical and psychical nature of man. They ascertain the constituent elements of his being. They develope the laws, corporeal and mental, by which he is governed in reference to the end of his being. Theology also deals with man as appointed to a destiny which shall be developed on the ground of his constitution as a creature, as well as of his character as a moral agent. In conducting inquiry on this head, we assume it as a postulate, that the facts of man's nature in the present world, are to be regarded as a criterion of the facts of his nature in the other world ; or, in other words, that what man is in the present life, as far as his spirit is concerned, is to be considered as an exponent of what he is to be in the other life ; for we hold it to be impossible to conceive, that he shall be substantially different in the one state of his being from what he is in the other. He lays aside indeed, at death, his gross material body, but the true man is the internal man, or the soul, which survives the body, and goes into the spiritua world in the full possession of all the essential powers and faculties by -which he is distinguished here. His thoughts, his memory, his affections, go with him when he forsakes the earthly tenement, for they are the elements wiiich constitute his essential and identical self; and this, we say , must remain substantially the same both before and after death.