I have seen enough revelations where I am pretty sure that Heaven and Hell are true realities, in an alternate world of existence. There is also a region in between this - some call it purgatory, others call it middle earth. It is a waiting place for the Last Judgement. And from world age to world age, last judgements take place in this region, where the good are separated from the evil. This is where the Second Coming occurs - it is an event in the spiritual world, where the balance between heaven and hell is restored. There is a constant battle between good and evil, and we are caught in the middle. Thus we have free will. Such is the revelation given in the visions of Emanuel Swedenborg.
For several years I have been wondering about reincarnation - it is accepted in eastern religions, but generally in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam it is not. There are certain dialogues in the New Testament that could not be understood unless reincarnation was accepted. But the answer is never directly given - enough to leave room for doubt or alternate explanations. I have often wondered - could the middle ground between heaven and hell, closest to our earthly experience, be a "testing ground", where multiple life experiences are possible, until our ultimate fate is decided? I don't know. In this area, I am an agnostic - agnostic for the fact that I would rather see direct evidence, or a direct revelation explaining the matter.
Hypnotic regression is an excellent tool for psychologists - not only does it provide memory recall, but it can recall details of past lives. And it can reveal a lot about our personality, what makes us tick or behave the way we do. Some people can recall historical details, or even speak foreign languages that they did not know before. Certain children are born with an amazing amount of intelligence, and some spontaneously recall former lives. Is this proof for reincarnation? No it is not. When describing the interaction between the soul and the body, Swedenborg discovered that every thought that we think has a spiritual origin. In fact, he went further - every thought we think originated from a particular spirit, or society of spirits. For angel and man are in constant communion. Without that communion, we would all die. We simply choose what thoughts we listen to, and what thoughts to act upon. Like a radio, we are in receive mode, and our free will is the tuner to choose what frequency we listen in on. In hypnotic regression, the origin of our thoughts become more apparent. That these past lives may not be our own, but the memories of kindred spirits who have lived before us, is indicated when certain hypnotherapists become puzzled when the time lines of previous lives overlap. Another indication is when the gender of past lives switch. Swedenborg was shown that once created, a male will continue as male, and a female will always be female. It is an inherent nature of the soul.
Swedenborg's thoughts on this subject often made him a favorite of the spiritist movement, and completely alienated him from the Christian Churches. For when it comes to the supernatural, Christianity has forgotten its roots - yet the Bible originated from visions and dreams. Swedenborg's visionary experiences is the closest answer I have been able to get on reincarnation, which he discusses when he talks about the memory of the human brain:
"An angel or spirit is not permitted to speak with a man from his own memory, but only from the man's memory; for angels and spirits have a memory as well as man. If a spirit were to speak from his own memory with a man the man would not know otherwise than that the thoughts then in his mind were his own, although they were the spirit's thoughts. This would be like the recollection of something which the man had never heard or seen. That this is so has been given me to know from experience. This is the source of the belief held by some of the ancients that after some thousands of years they were to return into their former life, and into everything they had done, and in fact, had returned. This they concluded because at times there came to them a sort of recollection of things that they had never seen or heard. This came from an influx from the memory of spirits into their ideas of thought." (Heaven and Hell, 256)
The conjunction between spirits and man can be for good, or for evil. Swedenborg describes it in many passages, and in fact, the hidden process behind certain mental illnesses are revealed:
"With every individual there are good spirits and evil spirits. Through good spirits man has conjunction with heaven, and through evil spirits with hell. These spirits are in the world of spirits, which lies midway between heaven and hell. This world will be described particularly hereafter. When these spirits come to a man they enter into his entire memory, and thus into his entire thought, evil spirits into the evil things of his memory and thought, and good spirits into the good things of his memory and thought. These spirits have no knowledge whatever that they are with man; but when they are with him they believe that all things of his memory and thought are their own; neither do they see the man, because nothing that is in our solar world falls into their sight. The Lord exercises the greatest care that spirits may not know that they are with man; for if they knew it they would talk with him, and in that case evil spirits would destroy him; for evil spirits, being joined with hell, desire nothing so much as to destroy man, not alone his soul, that is, his faith and love, but also his body. It is otherwise when spirits do not talk with man, in which case they are not aware that what they are thinking and also what they are saying among themselves is from man; for although it is from man that they talk with one another, they believe that what they are thinking and saying is their own, and everyone esteems and loves what is their own. In this way spirits are constrained to love and esteem man, although they do not know it. That such is the conjunction of spirits with man has become so well known to me from a continual experience of many years that nothing is better known to me." (Heaven and Hell, 583).
The fact that Swedenborg did have this ability is attested to in many cases, where he answered questions that only a person who had recently passed away could have known it. The ironic thing about Swedenborg is that the one who achieved what perhaps could have been the greatest psychic ability, was in fact a devout Christian. He stated that his ability was much more common in ancient times. Such was the state of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. It is shut off to most at this day, as there are many evil spirits who are eager to lie and deceive. It takes a well balanced intelligent mind to have correct judgment in these matters.
However Swedenborg was not correct in all matters - his knowledge was yet limited to that of a scientist of the 18th century. When it comes to reincarnation, the wierdest evidence I have seen yet on that matter deals with birthmarks. Researchers have found that there is a strong correlation between a birthmark, and a violent injury that caused death in a previous past life. Could reincarnation still be possible, but to the few whose lives were cut off short? Again I don't know. I remember one time I was discussing this with a friend of mine, when we were discussing the birthmark on Gorbachev's head - I joked he was probably killed by a head injury in a previous life. When he asked what I meant, I showed him the research, and as I read it to him, his eyes just got wider (Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation by Ian Stevenson). And then he told me of a bizarre memory he recalled of a former life, where he died a violent death, and he had a birthmark at the point of injury - but he never correlated the two. Moreover, in this memory recall he had a friend who died with him -- apparently me. We are friends to this day.
