Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Emanuel Swedenborg s Influence on Ernest Holmes By Rev. Linda Reppond December 2011 In my studies to become a Religious Science minister, I was frequently directed to study great teachers who were primary influences in the thinking of Ernest Holmes, the founder Religious Science. Those people include Emma Curtis Hopkins, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Thomas Troward, among others. Only after reading their essays and books did it occur to me to inquire about who influenced them. In each case, it took little time to find that all three were strongly influenced by Emanuel Swedenborg. Ernest Holmes often described himself as not an original thinker, but as a synthesizer. He was born in 1887 on a small Maine farm, the youngest of nine sons. He moved to Boston to work in a grocery store at age 18, and became self-educated through a rigorous study of philosophy, metaphysics, science and literature. His pursuits were confirmed by his associate of many years, Dr. Donald Curtis, who said, He learned, borrowed, and absorbed from everyone and everything. He was an avid student, but not strictly a scholar. He could intuitively grasp great concepts and he had an exceptional ability to synthesize the knowledge he received in meditation. 1 The result is that the lines of influence a blurred; rarely a direct linkage that would indicate that a particular thought came from a particular teacher or philosophy. Thus it is 1 Donald Curtis, Science of Mind in Daily Living, Wilshire Book Co., Los Angeles, CA, June 1975, p. 136.
instructive to trace backwards not only those Holmes read directly, but also those whom they studied. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, and theologian, whose writings had tremendous influence in the development of the United States. Such influential people as Emerson, Evans, Henry James, Helen Keller, Johnny Appleseed, William Blake, Carl Jung and W.B. Yeats were all enthusiastic students of Swedenborg. As one scholar has noted, Swedenborg s teachings particularly appealed to the various dissenting groups that sprang up in the first half of the 19th century who were surfeited with revivalism and narrow-mindedness and found his optimism and comprehensive explanations appealing. 2 That he was a scientist was appealing to those with a passion for science, because he seemed to bring scientific order to his philosophical approach. That he was a mystic, with a vision of a new heaven and a new earth appealed to those with a spiritual hunger who were not in agreement with the conservative direction of their neighbors. In the birth and development of the American New Thought movement, Swedenborg s influence is prominent in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horatio Dresser, Phineas Parker Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy and her student, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Judge Thomas Troward, William James and Warren Felt Evans, and more. For the purposes of this paper, we will examine Swedenborgian influence in three of those teachers, who were the most prominent in shaping the thinking of Ernest Holmes: Emerson, Troward, and Hopkins. We will also examine how Ernest Holmes incorporated and presented these same topics. Spiritual Influx 2 Ahlstrom, S.E. A Religious History of the American People, Yale University Press, 1972, p. 483.
Swedenborg described an inflow, or pouring in of Divine influence, which is the fundamental experience of the power that is constantly flowing into humans from God, or the central sun of the universe. This influx fills us with vigor, health and moral virtue if we allow it to flow into our beings. In his dreams and visions, Swedenborg would sometimes spend days in a state of gnosis, or communion with God and the angels. This mystic communion provided spiritual sustenance and the information received was treated with equal validity to the information received from physical realities. Emerson called this the revelation of the Over-soul. In his essay, The Over-Soul, he states: For this communication is an influx of the Divine mind into our mind. It is ebb of the individual rivulet before the flowing surges of the sea of life. Every distinct apprehension of this central commandment agitates men with awe and delight. A thrill passes through all men at the reception of new truth, or at the performance of a great action, which comes out of the heart of nature. In these communications, the power to see is not separated from the will to do, but the insight proceeds from obedience, and the obedience proceeds from a joyful perception. Every moment when the individual feels himself invaded by it is memorable. 3 Troward embodied the Swedenborgian nebular hypothesis, of the central sun surrounded by a family of planets, which are animated by Pure Spirit, or the Life Principle. He also describes it as the formless principle of life and atomic intelligence. He also described this Divine Influx as a plastic and undifferentiated substance, which flows and takes definite form. This creative power takes form as a result of our definite mental attitude. 3 Emerson. Ralph Waldo, Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, New American Library, New York, NY, 1965 p,. 287
Hopkins derives her metaphysical principles directly from Swedenborg, and adds her own interpretation. As a Christian mystic, she sees influx as the Christ principle. She defines Divine Influx as: There is one indestructible substance pervading all things from the remotest star to the nearest dust particle It is the power deriving from this universal substance that constituted the impersonal Christ-power which enabled Jesus to perform his mighty works: by a process he made clear to his disciples, he made a draught upon he universal principle The Life stuff of which his being inhaled to overflowing was the Christ. All who learn the way of life he taught are also the Christ. 4 The doctrine of influx is one of the most pr3evaswive ideas found in Holmes teaching. The great creative power which sustains the universe is constantly and universally sending forth its beneficent energy, and everything that is draws upon this life force for its life and well-being. Holmes also called it Cosmic Consciousness. Over and over he states that we must place ourselves in alliance with the Unseen, which will then possess us. This influx is always available but the Creative Spirit only enters the door that is open and benefits only that person who is receptive. We become channels for this divine force, and it flows through us, healing us and all we touch. It seems that he is drawing primarily from Hopkins and Emerson in claiming this life force and understanding it as a flow. All four seem to draw directly from Swedenborg in their descriptions of influx. Law of Correspondence Swedenborg wrote extensively about the relationship between the natural and spiritual worlds, which he termed the Law of Correspondence. For things experienced in the material 4 Larson, Martin A, New thought or A Modern Religious Approach, Philosophical Library, New York, NY, 1985, p. 232.
world, there is a corresponding principle operating in the spiritual world; in other words, what one experiences physically has a spiritual cause. Perhaps more than any other message from Swedenborg, this idea was wholeheartedly embraced by Troward, Hopkins and Holmes. Frequently described in words such as As above, so below; or What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve; or change your thinking, change your life; the law of correspondences has become the motto of new thought teaching. Troward dedicates much of his presentation in the Edinburgh and the Doré Lectures to the principle of correspondence. He describes the supreme and universal intelligence that flows from the Great Center into every existing thing. While we are all replicas of the Infinite Central Power, not everyone is brilliant, noble and successful, because not everyone has learned how to live in harmony with the Divine laws of the Universe. Again and again, he says that thoughts are things. As we will our thoughts to be, they will become. Hopkins made the law of correspondence into a practical primer by identifying the importance of language in claiming one s good. By speaking only of that which you wish to see manifest, you bring that thing into your body of affairs. By specifically denying the power of that which you wish to eliminate, you remove it from manifestation. One might say, I deny the reality of anything unlike Health and Wholeness, and I claim for my body Vibrant Health. She was sought after as a healer, and the tool that she used in healing many physical ailments was the law of correspondence. She described her role as the practitioner as holding a mental template of health and wholeness in her awareness and praying with confidence on the patient s behalf.
Holmes drew from each of these teachers in creating his hallmark affirmative prayer treatment, which is a structure form of prayer, in which one begins by recognizing the Infinite Central Power of the Universe, and unifying with it. The power of the word spoken is that which claims its good and denies that there is any reality to anything which obstructs its flow. The prayer form is a powerful re-statement of the principles of influx and correspondence. Further, although a departure from Swedenborg, Holmes used the Law of Correspondences in formulating his beliefs about sickness and its cure. Since God is the Universal All, there can be no duality or evil in the universe. Man is the microcosm filled with macrocosmic deity; and since there is no sin, evil or disease in God, these can have no reality in man. Anything that appears as disease is an idea of duality, and has no reality in God. Under the law of correspondences, one manifests or externalizes what one thinks within. Heaven and Hell Swedenborg writes extensively of his visions of heaven and hell. In addition, there is a world of spirits between them which is neither heaven nor hell, where we begin the afterlife, with hells below it and heavens above it. He describes heaven and hell this way: A state of heaven for us is the union of what is good and true within us, and a state of hell is a union of what is evil and false within us. When the good in a spirit person is united to the true, then that individual arrives in heaven, because as already stated, that union is heaven within us. On the other hand, when the evil is united to the false within us, then we arrive in hell, because that union is hell within us. 5 5 Swedenborg, Emanuel, A Swedenborg Sampler, Swedenborg Foundation Press, West Chester, PA, 2011, p.7
We begin the world of spirits, which is filled with many people, who may stay a very short time, or for years. In this state, people may recognize others they knew in their physical life. The gates to the heavens above and hells below are visible only to the ones who will enter there, and ar3e guarded so that no one may exit. Swedenborg vividly describes meeting angelic beings and people from other lifetimes who are enjoying a grand life in heaven. Those in hell are happy there because it is a continuation of the life they lived on earth. Even as we live our physical lives, Swedenborg s vision describes that we are in constant contact with those from other realms, although we may not realize it. When our attention is drawn inward, into our spirit bodies, we can recognize the spirit world and interact with it. None of the four American new thought leaders treated Swedenborg s vision as a literal heaven and hell. Emerson voiced his doubts by stating that none of us knows if there is a heaven or a hell. He was rather inclined to view the afterlife as a state of mind. He said that to different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven. Troward believed in the eternal progression of the soul, forever and ever upward. He stated, The universal life forever unfolds itself in all the infinite evolutionary forces of the cosmic scheme and, in its onward march evolves into higher and higher conscious intelligence in the successive races of mankind. 6 Heaven is a state of consciousness and conditions where we experience Light, Joy, Peace, and Abundance in life now. 6 Troward, Thomas, The Wisdom of Thomas Troward, Vol. I, Wilder Publications, 2009, p. 188.
Hopkins taught that heaven and hell are not places, but states of mind. It requires a belief in duality, in good and evil, in God and the devil. There is no duality; only good. Our good is our God and our God is our Good. Hell is not a location, but a discordant state of being. Holmes elaborated further. He spoke of life as eternal; that death was but a horizon. He also taught that Heaven is within, it revolves about us; it is the result of that atmosphere of conviction which our thought awakens within us. The Kingdom of Heaven is unformed, unlimited, unconditioned. Heaven is not a place, a locality, with streets of gold and gates of pearl. It is the real state of Being. When asked in a lecture about hell, he said, I do not believe in hell, devil or damnation, in any future state of punishment, or any of the strange ideas which have been conceived in the minds of morbid people. God does not punish people. There is, however, a Law of Cause and Effect, which governs all and which will automatically punish, impartially and impersonally, if we conflict with its principle of harmony. 7 Summary Although the lines might at times be blurred, and less than verbatim, in reviewing these three core Swedenborg teachings, Influx, Law of Correspondences and Heaven and Hell, his influence is unmistakable. Some thoughts evolve over time, such as the Law of Correspondences. Popular language today would describe it as the Law of Attraction, described as that which is like to itself is drawn. And it continues to evolve again beyond Holmes definition. 7 Holmes, Ernest, Can We Talk To God, HCI Publisher, Deerfield Beach, FL, 1999, p.77
Some of Swedenborg s visions, particularly of the afterlife, were not accepted by these four teachers, perhaps because their own visions and inner experiences did not match Swedenborg s. But the themes of his visions were incorporated. Where Swedenborg would describe that heaven was a continuation of the life lived on earth, his successors would describe it as something that is experienced on earth. The idea that thoughts evolve is essential to a living spiritual tradition. Troward s description of life is that it is an upward spiral, forever evolving into higher and higher forms. Holmes liked to call it being open at the top, or expecting that more will be revealed all the time. I like to think that Swedenborg would be delighted with the evolution of his thinking, if he were here today. The science of quantum physics, those that heal by the power of the mind, would be a source of great excitement to him.