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There is more than a little irony in the charges of
Swedenborg being insane in view of the facts that Swedenborg was both a
sufficiently acute student of neuroscience that he arrived at some
constructs in that area far ahead of his time7 and that he was,
as well, fully aware that people would think him insane as a result of his
avowed revelatory experiences. For instance, Count von Höpken8
records that,
I once represented, in rather a serious manner, to this
venerable man [Swedenborg] that I thought he would do better not to mix
his beautiful writings with so many memorable relations, or
things heard and seen in the spiritual world concerning the states of
men after death, of which ignorance makes sport and derision. But he
answered me, that this did not depend on him; that he was too old to
sport with spiritual things, and too much concerned for his eternal
happiness to yield to foolish notions, assuring me, on his hopes of
salvation, that imagination produced in him none of his revelations,
which were true, and from what he had heard and seen.9
And in another place, where von Höpken raised the same
question,
whether it would not be best for him to keep them to
himself, and not publish them to the world? But he answered that he
had orders from the Lord to publish them; and that those who
might ridicule him on that account would do him injustice; for, said
he, why should I, who am a man in years, render myself ridiculous for
fantasies and falsehoods.10
Indeed, in the Writings themselves Swedenborg also
comments that he foresees that people will think some of the memorable
relations "inventions of the imagination," but makes his famous
affirmation that they were "truly seen and heard" and goes on to point out
biblical precedents of revelation and question why such revelation should
be a "marvel" now, at the commencement of a new dispensation (True
Christian Religion, n. 851).
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