The Manifest Cookbook

Dodging A Stroke

All throughout my sixty-nine years of life, I have tried to deal with going to the doctor in the same way as I deal with poison ivy – avoid it if humanly possible. I was successful in avoiding doctors for twenty-two years in a row.

As my body has aged however, I have found it necessary to choose a doctor and have regular checkups so as to nip any potential problems in the bud. The problem with aging is that my body is 69 but I am still 29 on the inside.

A few years back, I slipped and sprained my right knee while shoveling snow. It was quite painful the next day so I decided to go to one of those urgent care joints for a precautionary x-ray. While I was there, they took my blood pressure. The reading was extremely high and the attending physician told me to immediately schedule an appointment with my family doctor. I told her that I did not have one. She insisted that I see one as soon as possible so as to avoid a stroke.

Strokes are really horrible things. One in eight stroke victims die from strokes. The other seven out of eight are maimed resulting many times in some form of permanent disability. To me, a stroke that limited my self reliance, would be a fate much worse than death. So I scheduled an appointment with the doctor that my mother went to when she was alive.

My Doctor Loves Pills

The doctor put me on a treatment regimen of two anti-high blood pressure pills. Subsequent to blood work, he put me on a pill for my cholesterol and another pill for gastric reflux. He wanted to put me on another pill to reduce my potassium level. I told him “Enough with the pills already. I’ll stop eating bananas, beans and broccoli!” (three high potassium foods). He’s a good doctor but the guy absolutely loves pills. My doctor has a pill for every conceivable type of treatment. A pill for this. A pill for that. A pill to handle side effects from a pill. Big Pharma has a framed picture of this guy in their Hall of Honor.

What Is A Mental Prayer Treatment

A Mental Prayer Treatment is a method of prayer. No pills needed. It is done to bring about healing of a specific troubling situation. You cause the thoughts of your mind to focus on God. You can liken it to going to the hospital for surgery. A Mental Prayer Treatment is a surgical operation on your soul. It is different from a general prayer. The purpose of a general prayer is simply to visit with God.

General Prayer can be likened to fresh air, healthy food in the right amounts and regular exercise. You enjoy them as an end in themselves, but they also serve to keep you in good health.

The object of a Mental Prayer Treatment is to completely remove any thought of the troubling situation from your mind. Even if you are only successful in doing this for a short period of time, the healing of the situation commences. During the treatment (surgery) your total focus is on the One True Presence, God.

Part One, Part Two

A Mental Prayer Treatment consists of two distinct parts: the foundation idea and the affirming idea. Compare it to the construction of a house. The foundation idea is the solid foundation of the structure. The affirming idea is the actual construction of the house.

Treat as often as you feel led during the course of the day but treat at least twice every day. Between treatments, refrain from thinking of the problem. That just slows things down. The treatment is assuredly working if done in faith. Refrain from constantly digging up the seed to see if it is growing. That always turns out the same way – the seed is unable to grow.

Cause And Effect

Cause and Effect. Comedy team from the 60’s? Rock duo from the 80’s? No, not really. Cause and effect is a scientific principle. You do something (cause) and something happens as a result of what you did (effect). That’s it in a nutshell.

Treatment is your cause. Demonstration is the effect. Cause and Effect. You engage in a prayer action and the result of that action is the effect. Jesus Christ made the definitive scientific cause and effect statement in Matthew 6:33. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Spiritual Math Equation

Your realization of the Presence of God, wherever you are, is the power that heals any situation. In the Old Testament book of Joshua, it is stated “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened or dismayed. The Lord your God is with you wherever you go”

Take that to its logical conclusion. Look at it as a spiritual math equation. 1. God is perfection. 2. God is with you wherever you are. 3. No problem can survive the perfection of the Presence of God. 4. Thus, by seeking the Kingdom of God right where your problem is, the problem must disappear, because God is there with you.

Don’t Touch Me Nurse, I’m Sterile

Refrain from thinking of God in one place and the problem in another place. This merely affirms in your mind the power of the problem instead of the power of the Presence of God,

Your Mental Prayer Treatment is done in a restricted area. Have your personal mental security detail bar doubt from ever entering your mind. This is equivalent to the strict sterilization process that takes place during all surgical operations.

Treatment Idea

I first learned about the concept of the Mental Prayer Treatment from the writings of Emmet Fox. This is a beautiful method of prayer. As with all prayer, imaginative belief (faith) is essential.

Here is an example of the foundation part of a Mental Prayer Treatment:

God is fully present within me right now. God is the one true Presence, everything else is just shadow. Since God is perfect good, God is the cause only of perfect good. I am a child of God. In God I live. In God I move. In God I have my being. I am always in the Presence of God. I am caressed by the Peace of God. I am free. I do not fear the past, the present, or the future. I am thankful. I live in the freedom of the Kingdom of God.

The above foundation idea can be used with a great variety of specific affirming ideas. You can go online and search for others or you can construct your own. They can be longer. They can be shorter.

Affirming Idea

The affirming idea part of your Mental Prayer Treatment hones in on the specific thing that you desire to treat (heal). It can be geared to your finances, your relationships, your career, your health, or on behalf of another person or even a beloved pet.

A sample of an affirming mental idea for your finances is as follows:

Prosperity flows within me now. My faith yields my financial good health. I affirm my financial security. My inner belief is the evidence of my continuing plentiful supply of money. With all that I am, I am thankful.

Word

For many years I worked in a facility in an urban setting that had over 200 employees. The mens room was on the other side of the men’s locker room. You had to walk through the locker room to get to the restroom. Usually when I had to make the trip to the mens room, there was always a small contingent of employees conversing about this or that. One day I overheard a short snippet of a conversation between two guys that went as follows. First guy: “Yo, I fucked three bitches last night”. Second guy: “Word?” (Meaning: Are you telling the truth?) First guy: “Word!” (Meaning: It’s the truth.)

You can transpose the word “truth” for the word “word” in this beautiful verse from Isaiah 55:11. “So is my word that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (NIV)

The Royal Proclamation

A Mental Prayer Treatment is a word (or proclamation) to your subconscious mind. It is proclaiming the word (truth) in faith. Your subconscious mind is your connection to God. Thus, you are affirming to your subconscious mind, through you faith, that you believe the word that you are proclaiming.

In the time of the kings, if a king proclaimed something, he formally made it known to the kingdom that it is now the law of the land. The king knew that once he made the proclamation, it would come into force. He did not hope it would, he knew it would.

When you live in the Kingdom of God, your word can only be that which is directed by God. If your word is directed by God, it is truth, and thus it will return to you fully laden with success.

Inconceivable!

There was a comedy/adventure movie that came out in 1987 titled, “The Princess Bride”. It was an amusing movie with many good actors. One of those actors was a man named Wallace Shawn. He played a villian in the movie but he was a humorous villian. One of the lines that he said throughout his time in the movie was the word “inconceivable”. It has since become a well known meme. There are even t-shirts and sweatshirts for sale with Mr. Shawn’s face and the word “Inconceivable”. If you google the words “the inconceivable guy”, the search results will lead you to Wallace Shawn. Finally, at one point in the movie (after he says the word for the fifth time), one of his confederates says to him, “You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Let’s look at how the dictionary defines what the word “inconceivable” means. It defines the word inconceivable as “not capable of being imagined or grasped mentally”. When something is inconceivable, your mind is unable to mentally process its existence. Inconceivable goes beyond the word unbelievable. It means that you cannot even imagine it. You cannot believe in or not believe in something that your mind is unable to process.

Layer After Layer

Thus it is with the world of the “subconscious”. Layer upon layer of consciousness exists beneath your surface consciousness. What fully goes on there is truly inconceivable. What goes on there totally affects what you call the real world. The thing that you term “reality” is the world which your eyes can see, your ears can hear, your hands can touch. Everything that happens in the real world in which you live is a direct result of what is going on in the “subconscious world”.

What a Mental Prayer Treatment does, when done rightly, is penetrate to that subconscious world and alter “the real world” for your benefit or for the benefit of a loved one for whom you are treating.

Why?

Why do I write these blog posts? It does take time each month to write these articles. At the age of 69, time is not something I have a lot of before I “hit the road”. I believe the answer to my question is this – to get across to whoever may read these articles certain truths that I have learned in my sixty-nine years of life. I hope that whoever reads these truths then acts upon them to manifest good things in their life.

As the end of the line approaches for me, maybe I have five years, maybe ten, there is an urging within me directing me to put these truths out there. Neville Goddard once said that he felt a Divine urgency to give his lectures. He said that even if nobody came to his lectures, he would speak to the four lecture hall walls. Thus it is with this blog.

Glitches in my inner personality have thrown obstacles in the way of my manifesting efforts over the years. With that said, through the power of God, I have manifested a great number of beautiful things in my life using the principles that I describe. I am so thankful. Having been saved from death no less than four times, I figure that there is a reason why I am still here. When I perceive the urging of the Divine for me to do something, I do that something, whatever it is.

What Do You Have To Lose?

The Mental Prayer Treatment gets productive results. I know this because I have used it successfully for things both big and small. If you use this method of prayer, it will cost you nothing in terms of money. It will however cost you some time. It will also cost you the familiar comfort of your old way of doing things.

What do you have to lose? Let me list some of the things that you have to lose: your painful frustration due to repeated setbacks; your beating your head against the wall and getting the same unsatisfactory results; your utter exhaustion from continually running in place on the hamster wheel and getting nowhere; your looking in the mirror at yourself in despair and saying “You suck”.

Give yourself a Mental Prayer Treatment regarding something that is troubling you. Give yourself an opportunity to demonstrate God’s goodness, God’s power, God’s love. You do have it within you to do so. The proof of that is that you have been led to read this article.

May you always perceive the Peace and Presence of God.

Conceive. Believe. Receive.

The Hey Yo Guy

At a job that I worked at for many years, there was a guy that I called the “Hey Yo Guy”. He was one of a bunch of supervisors. For a period of time, I worked in the main facility of the installation. In the capacity in which I worked at the time, I interacted with over 200 employees during the course of the day. The Hey Yo Guy moved around the building during the course of his work day. When ever he wanted to get someone’s attention about something, he would always start out by saying “Hey yo”. Some days I would hear him say it as many as a dozen times during the course of the day.

You continually walk into dead end after dead end in the endless maze of your life. It’s a horrible feeling isn’t it? It has been called the Sisyphus Syndrome. Sisyphus was the unfortunate from Greek mythology who was punished by Zeus. He was sentenced to roll a large boulder over a hill. Every single time that he got near the top of the hill, the boulder would jump. It would then roll back down to the bottom again and he was back at square one.

Pay attention to what I am going to say to you now. If you are just plain sick and tired of shuffling around and around endlessly in the maze, going nowhere, let me say to you “Hey yo, this is your way out”. If you are interested, then read on.

AKA Anonymous

Joseph Benner was an author of the early twentieth century. He lived from 1872 to 1938. The authorship of the Benner books was always listed as Anonymous. Benner wrote several books including, The Way Beyond, Wealth, Teacher, Brotherhood, The Way To The Kingdom and The Impersonal Life. The last book was a personal favorite of Elvis Presley. He would buy a couple hundred at a time. He would then hand them out to everybody he met. He was said to be clutching a copy when he died.

One other book written by Benner in 1931 was The Way Out. It is from that book that I am going to try and summarize some main ideas for you. The book is in the public domain. It is available for free on the internet if you choose to read the entire book. The contents of the book, as you might surmise, offers the reader “the way out”. The way out of ill health. The way out of financial lack. The way out of loneliness. The way out of marital unhappiness. The way out of discord in the workplace. The way out of legal problems. The way out of conflict with friends, family members or neighbors. The way out of that disgusting maze.

Get Out Of The F**king Maze

Stop for a moment. Take a couple of deep breaths. Think about the next questions very carefully. Don’t you think that it’s about time that you got out of that f**king maze? Don’t you think that you deserve to escape that f**king maze?

Take your time answering those questions. Refrain from any snap answers. Refrain from answering with what is called the “New Year’s Resolution” answer. That is where you do something to make your life better at the start of the new year. Then after a period of time, when things get difficult, you give up. That means you really did not want it after all. OK, if your answer is “you want out”, then open up your mind and read on.

Everything Is Consciousness

The first thing that you must realize is that everything in your life is a result of your state of consciousness. Everything that has manifested in your outer circumstances is a direct result of your inner state of consciousness.

If you have never heard this before, it is a tough pill to swallow. Your first inclination is to violently disagree and steadfastly refuse to accept it. You may point to this glaring injustice or that suffering of innocents (especially if it involves children) and say that the premise is both stupid and ridiculous. Or you may have heard it before but completely refuse to accept it. Or perhaps you may have come to an acceptance of this as Universal Law. Then you tried to put it into action in your own life and failed miserably. Your failure to achieve your desired results may then have caused you to lose your faith.

As you lost your faith, you then found yourself deeper than ever within the maze. Your old familiar way of doing things returned. You became more frustrated than ever. It is at that point that the blame game begins. It’s this one’s fault. It’s that one’s fault. It’s God’s fault. You yourself suck. And so on. Bitterness starts seeping in to your soul. Before you know it your deeper in the maze than you were before.

It Makes No Difference

It makes no difference if you do not accept that an inner state of consciousness brings about your outer state of circumstances. There are constantly things in play under the surface of your conscious reality that you simply cannot see or perceive. The Law is the Law is the Law. Universal Law is eternal, unchanging and impartial.

As Einstein aptly put it, God does not play dice. I am not God and do not pretend to have all the answers to worlwide suffering. I hate suffering. There is a causal reason however behind everything that happens, everywhere.

Discipline your inner state of consciousness. It is your personal dowser to get your ass out of the maze. The Law is thus – thoughts that you continue to hold onto in your consciousness, and then charge with the energy of belief, will manifest ultimately in your life’s outer circumstances.

Do You Or Don’t You

You say that changing the way that you think is too hard. I say that it is is not. It is your way out of the maze. This is the point in your life, where the bullshit is stripped away once and for all. You will discover if you really want out of the maze or if you are secretly content to just shuffle along in the maze for the balance of your lifetime. Without knowing a thing about you, I will tell you this – you…can…do… it BUT you must make the choice to do what is required of you. You must do what is necessary.

It all comes down to this – Do you or don’t you want to get out of the maze. If you don’t, fine, that is your choice. Stop reading this and go play a video game or watch tv or get a haircut or something. If you do want out of the maze however, then the concepts and ideas freely given to you will provide the way out. Read on.

Plug It In, Man, Plug It In

Thoughts, in and of themselves, are merely empty mental forms. They only take on energy and power to manifest by being charged with feeling. You supply the feeling. Thus, when you plug in your thoughts to the outlet, your imaginative belief (faith), you begin the process. What process? The process of leading you out of that suffocating maze.

What is outside the maze? Anything and everything that you desire. Every good desire of your mind has been patiently standing outside the maze waiting for you to make your move out of the maze, waiting to jump into your arms.

Are We There Yet?

Perhaps you have meandered deep into the bowels of the maze. Once you begin the process of getting out, it may take you some time to get to the exit. The time varies according to the person invoved. Your job in the process is not to worry about how far from the exit you are. Neither is your job to worry about how long it is going to take. Your entire job is remain free of worry by keeping your thoughts on God.

Never, ever worry. Worry is not a neutral emotion. Worry is sin. Never give permission for worry to occupy your mind. The more that you let worry linger in your thoughts, the more you actually draw to you or a loved one that which you are worrying about. Hold God (I Am That I Am) in your consciousness instead.

Fort Knox

Guard your mind like it was Fort Knox. Your thoughts, charged with your imaginative belief, are in fact your personal Fort Knox. A Fort Knox that contains all the good that is just waiting to manifest itself in your life once you are out of the maze. You are the security guard of the entrance to your mind. There is only one way in and that is through you. Refuse to allow entry into your mind of any thought that is carrying the virus of fear or doubt or worry.

Keep the focus of your thoughts on God. As you do this, pay close attention to everything around you. Be alert. The guidance of the Kingdom of God within you will tell you where to walk, where to look and where to turn to get out of the maze.

Ready Or Not, Here It Is

Here is the way out. It is your way out of the maze. The simplicity of it may cause you to say “Is that it? Is that all there is?” I disagree with Benner when he states it is simple and easy. It is simple. It is most definitely not easy. It is hard. It involves you removing yourself away from your old familiar way of thinking. It involves a complete, unequivocal commitment by you to the process. Many are simply not willing to do that. They may think they are, but when push comes to shove, they lose faith.

No half-way efforts here. No just dipping your toes in the water. You must dive in and stay there until your faith brings your desires into fruition.

What you must do is say these words over and over again in your mind until you truly believe the words one hundred percent:

God loves me relentlessly.

God blesses me thru my inner beliefs.

I love God. I think God’s thoughts.

I live, I breathe in the Kingdom of God.

Alternate Fourth Or Fifth Line:

I Live In The Freedom Of The Kingdom Of God

Trusted Guide

Say these words over and over and over again in your mind. How long? Keep saying them. Say them day after day after day. Say them in your head or out loud. Say them until they have completely seeped in to every part of your soul. Keep saying them until the last smidgeon of doubt has left the building. If you put the emphasis on certain syllables, you will even create a rhythmic cadence. This allows it to stick in your mind more easily. You can even put music to the words if you wish.

A Change For The Better

If you just will stay with it and persist, you will ultimately feel a change in your consciousness. It will be a change for the better. This change of consciousness, according to Universal Law, will serve to guide you bit by bit out of the maze. It will serve to manifest good things into the circumstances of your life.

The words noted above are not the words that Benner used. I have paraphrased the same overall idea in words that I personally prefer. You may prefer to use Benner’s exact words. Or you may use your own words to translate the same idea. Feel free to go online if you wish and read Benner’s book for yourself. It is a quick read.

Methodology

You will observe that I included an alternate fourth and/or additional fifth line. Both lines represent the same idea. Use whatever format that resonates with you. If you wish to say each line more than once in sequence, feel free. Sometimes I say each line three times. Do you desire to say them slowly, feel free. If you wish to say the lines in reverse order, feel free.

Say the above words however you want, just make sure to say them on an everyday basis. Sometimes you can say them aloud. Sometimes you can say them silently. However you proceed, do your best to feel the words as you say them. As you say the words, just keep your focus on God. God comes first in your mind.

Refuse to give up if your mind does not respond quickly. Most likely, it will not. Persist. Giving up too soon is a common error. An error that sets you up for failure. Remember, your mind has formed the habit of including fear, doubt and worry in the creative process. Almost everybody, at one time or another, falls into the trap of giving up too soon. To hell with what your present negative circumstances are. Mind on God. Eyes on God. Heart on God. Persist. Persist. Persist.

A Done Deal

Summon up the courage that is within you to persist. Persist until your mind fully accepts your imaginative belief. Your imaginative belief is your faith. Faith is how God works through you. God is the Power. Your faith is the instrument that allows you to receive the power. If you will just do this, events will ultimately manifest your desires into your outer circumstances. It must happen. There can be no other outcome. It is Immutable Law. Read and fully absorb the parable from Jesus of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8).

Do you doubt that your heart beats in your chest or your lungs allow you to breathe? You don’t see them but you know they are within you. That is the level of belief that you are going for with regard to your imaginative belief. Faith is the concrete evidence of things unseen. You, free of fear. You, free of doubt. You, living free, living happy, living fulfilled, being “a done deal“. I can personally affirm to you that it is an indescribable feeling of joy. Make the choice to live each day in the Kingdom and get to feel it for yourself.

Rip out all of your old defective wiring. Replace it with new wiring in your mind. This is admittedly hard to do. It involves hard work on your part. What is so very much harder to do however, is to just continue shuffling along in the maze, going nowhere, until your very last breath on earth. At that point, it will then be too late to do anything.

It’s Hiding In Plain View

Hey yo, let me tell you something. Listen. You were meant to live free, outside of that sickening maze. You were meant to live in peace, in joy, in harmony, in power, manifesting all manner of good things. All those things unfold the glory of the Almighty. Bumbling along blindly in the maze, walking to dead end after dead end does not demonstrate the glory of God.

The answer that you have been searching for, longing for, has been hiding in plain view. Your way out is in your mind. The thoughts that you entertain and then cling to. The thoughts that you then supercharge with your imaginative belief, your faith.

Jesus Christ stated it quite clearly, “Whatsoever things you desire, believe that you have them and they will be yours.”

Conceive. Believe. Receive.

Jesus Christ Is King

December 25 – Christmas. Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The message of Jesus Christ as King can be observed in several verses throughout the Bible. One verse is in John 18:37. “Therefore Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice”. Another verse is located in Revelation 19:11. “On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords”.

Christ the King has been used as a name for churches, schools, seminaries, hospitals and religious institutions. In the liturgical calendar for the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church there is celebrated a Feast of Christ the King. Lutheran, Anglican, Moravian, Methodist, Nazarene, Reformed and United Protestant churches also celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.

I have always been grounded in the Christian faith. The phrase “Jesus Christ is King” is a phrase that I was familiar with but had never actually spoken. That abruptly changed some 26 years ago. At that time those words came out of my mouth without any aforethought as I was under duress. Those words were my shield of protection against an approaching ominous evil spiritual entity.

Vivid Dream Number One

I was sprawled out on the living room sofa late at night. I was watching college basketball on television. As I found myself getting drowsy, using the remote control, I remember turning off the tv. It was one of those situations where I was so tired that I did not even feel like getting up to go to bed. I just thought to myself, “I’m just going to rest my eyes here for ten minutes and then I’ll head to bed”. Of course, I promptly dozed off to a deep sleep.

I rarely remember my dreams. Even the remarkable dreams fade away very rapidly after awakening. I tried keeping a dream journal a few times but gave up after a week or two. The dream that I had that night however is something that is burned into my memory. In my dream I was laying on the living room sofa exactly in the manner that I had fallen asleep after turning off the tv. Everything in the house was quiet. In my dream I was awake, just laying on the sofa.

An Icy Cold Chill Went Down My Spine

Suddenly I got an icy cold chill down my spine. I looked over to my right to the stairs that led to the second level of the house. My eyes saw a grey luminous mist. It had the general outline of a human being but without any real definition or features of any type. You can call it an entity or a presence or a spirit or any one of a dozen different things. Call it whatever you want but it was there and the evil essence it gave off was unmistakable. It was midway down the stairs and heading in my direction. It made no sound whatsoever and moved without any motion from the arms or legs.

In Dire Danger

Whatever this thing was, I sensed through intuition that it was pure malevolence in nature. As soon as I saw it on the steps, I knew that I was in dire danger. I felt the essence of its complete contempt for me and for any ability I had to resist it. My body was literally frozen in fear. I could not run away because I could not physically move so much as an inch. It is difficult to imagine that a luminous mist can emit such an evil presence but it did. I felt an intense but cold hatred directed at me. I knew it was coming for me. Whatever its intent upon reaching me, I knew it was something bad. Very, very bad. It was the type of terror that could cause a heart attack.

I was paralyzed and powerless to fend off this malevolent creature. It was the nightmare of all nightmares. I have had nightmares where when I was about to be killed, I just woke up. Aliens or some other bad guys would be chasing me. I would have one close call escape after the other (a la Indiana Jones). Then at some point in the dream I would actually have the thought, “Alright, enough of this bullshit, I’m waking up” and then I woke up. Not this time however.

No Escape

In this particular dream however, there was no such escape. Pure and simple, I was screwed. The malevolent entity reached the bottom of the stairs. At that point, from the very deepest part of my being, came the words out of my mouth “Jesus Christ is King.”. I had no thought beforehand of saying it. I did not think “what am I going to do?” The words just came out of me without thinking. Since even my vocal cords were partially paralyzed through fear, I barely was able to voice the words but I spoke them slowly with conviction “Jesus…..Christ…..is…..King”, somewhat in the manner that a stroke victim would struggle to speak.

As soon as those four words came out of my mouth, the evil presence stopped in its tracks. Then, immediately, in a more pronounced manner, I spoke those same four words “Jesus Christ is King”. This caused the entity to shrink backward and begin to lose presence. Without thinking, I followed up with a third more forceful, almost shouting, “Jesus Christ is King”. I intuitively knew that I was now in possession of the sword and shield that it was not able to resist. So it left. After the third pronouncement, it vacated the scene and was gone.

There Was No Difference

As soon as the malevolent force departed, I opened my eyes and woke up. It hit me almost immediately that I was in the same exact position now that I was awake as I was in the dream. I was wearing the exact same clothes. Everything in the living room was in the exact same place as the dream. Even the light from the street lamp outside shining through the living room window was exactly the same as in the dream. My immediate thought was WTF, was I in the Twilight Zone or something. I was somewhat shaken by the experience. I turned on a living room lamp and walked to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

As I passed the stairs, I just stopped for a moment and stared at the spot where “it” was. I sat on the sofa for a few moments in the quiet of the night pondering over what I had just experienced. I prayed a succinct “Thank you Lord” before going up to bed. My conclusion was simple yet profound – the dream was no dream. It was real.

Vivid Dream Number Two

Flash forward some twenty years later to the year 2016. I was now living in another house. It was a one story house. I slept in one bedroom. My oldest son, who lives with me, was sleeping in the other bedroom. I had the habit of leaving a forty watt lamp on in the living room at night. I slept with the bedroom door open. This was for easier access to the bathroom. BPH was going to be sending me there at least a few times during the night. In those intervening twenty years, I never forgot my encounter with the evil entity. I even kept a crucifix on the wall above my bed that had been in my mother’s bedroom when she was alive.

Anyway, it is the middle of the night and I am in bed sound asleep. All of a sudden, in my dream, I am awake. I look at my open bedroom doorway. Standing there in the hallway, just outside the bedroom is “you know who”. It is the same evil entity that I encountered some twenty years ago. The exact same grey luminescence. You might wonder how could I possibly know that since the spirit had no discernable features. I can only tell you that I knew. I just knew. It was strictly an intuitive knowing, no logic, just a knowing.

A Different Response

This time however, I had a different reaction than my first encounter of twenty years ago. Just as before, it was standing there, observing me with the utmost contempt and hatred. I sensed that it was about to head toward me as I lay in bed. This time my memory banks kicked in immediately. I was not frozen in fear. I simply said out loud, “Oh, it’s you again”. Then I followed up with the very same phrase that I had used twenty years before – “Jesus Christ is King”. At the sound of those words, it froze. I followed up with a second “Jesus Christ is King”. After that second salvo, it started backing away. I felt it was losing energy. One more time I repeated loudly “Jesus Christ is King”. With that third pronouncement, the malevolent entity departed – poof – gone. This time I knew from the very start that the power of Jesus Christ would protect me.

Free From Fear

I was aware of the pure malevolent essence of the being. This time however, I did not fear. In fact, in this second vivid dream, after the departure of the entity, I said aloud to myself, “And that takes care of that”. In my dream, I turned on my side, back to the hallway and went back to sleep. And then I opened my eyes and woke up. Everything around my bedroom was exactly the same as in my dream. The bed, my position on the bed, the bedsheet, the blanket, my bed clothes, the wall hangings, the quiet of the house, even the light from the living room lamp. This time I understood that my shield of protection was something that the evil presence could not overcome. I then said, “Thank you Lord, now I’m going back to sleep” and I proceeded to do just that.

Merry Christmas to you and a very happy new year!

Conceive. Believe. Receive.

Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772)

A Little Background On Swedenborg

Emanuel Swedenborg was a pluralistic Christian theologian, scientist, inventor, philosopher and mystic. He was born in 1688 to a wealthy family with extensive mining interests. He completed his studies in Sweden in 1710, at the age of 22. Swedenborg then went on a grand tour through Netherlands, France and Germany to continue his studies. Continuing on to London, he chose to stay there for the next four years. He voraciously studied physics, mechanics, geometry, chemistry, metallurgy and philosophy. Swedenborg thoroughly immersed himself in the abundance of scientific ideas and discoveries that were flourishing in London. He wrote to his patron, his brother-in-law, that he felt destined to be a great scientist.

She Blinded Him With Science

In the early 1980’s, there was a very popular music hit by the English musician, Thomas Dolby. It was accompanied by an equally popular music video. The name of the song was “She Blinded Me With Science”. Even today you may hear the song played as background music in a retail establishment. Emmanuel Swedenborg was the epitome of a man on fire in the pursuit and dissemination of scientific knowledge.

In 1715, he finally returned to his native Sweden. For the next 25 years, his focus was on science. He devoted himself to the gaining of and applying knowledge through scientific observation and experience. Swedenborg came to be considered the preeminent expert in metallurgy in all of Europe.

Swedenborg published a veritable mountain of papers and treatises regarding metallurgy, chemistry, geometry, anatomy, engineering, natural science and physiology. He was a true whirlwind of science-based activity and discovery.

Throughout the 1730’s, he undertook many experiments with regard to the anatomy of the human nervous system. He had the first known anticipation of the neuron. He had prescient ideas about the cerebral cortex, cerebrospinal fluid, the pituitary gland and the association of frontal brain regions with human intellect. It is safe to make the statement that the guy was really “into science”.

And Now For Something Completely Different

In the 1970’s, there was an English sketch comedy show that was very popular called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. In the beginning of the show, a man dressed in a tuxedo (John Cleese) would introduce the show with the catch phrase, “And now for something completely different”. There was even a movie by the same name in 1971. If John Cleese was around in 1741, he would have issued his famous catchphrase with regard to “The Emmanuel Swedenborg Show”.

Picture a finely tuned automobile zipping along a smooth stretch of superhighway. The driver is a luminary on his way to an award ceremony where he is the person being honored. All of a sudden, the brakes screech and the car jolts to a stop. The car backs up a bit and then turns off into a dirt road leading through a dense forest. Got the picture? Good, now you have an idea of what Swedenborg did in his middle age years.

In his mid-fifties, Swedenborg’s next scientific project was to write a multi-volume definitive study of the animal kingdom. He was granted a leave of absence from the king from his position as the head of mining in Sweden. Netherlands was known to have an abundance of books that would assist him, so he set off for Netherlands in 1741.

Dreams And Visions

While Swedenborg was in Netherlands, he suddenly began having extremely vivid dreams and intense visions. Some were very pleasurable while others were highly disturbing. If this happened in modern times, people would have accused him on tripping out on LSD or ayahuasca.

Swedenborg carried a travel journal with him. He made a written record of his dreams and visions. The whereabouts of the journal was unknown until being discovered in the 1850’s in the Royal Swedish Library. I always forget my dreams except for two extraordinarily vivid dreams that I will talk about in my next blog post. Anyway, these dreams and visions sent Swedenborg on an entirely different path for the remainder of his life.

Heaven, Hell And The World Of Spirits

After his experience with regard to the dreams and visions, he chose to conclude his efforts on the original animal kingdom project. He began writing treatises on spiritual matters. Swedenborg stated that he found himself able to travel to the spiritual world. His writings, most of which were published anonymously, merely reported what he saw and heard in the spiritual world.

Perhaps his best known book was published in Latin in 1758. The official title of the book is “Heaven And Its Wonders And Hell – From Things Seen And Heard”. It is commonly known by its short title, “Heaven And Hell”. In this book, Swedenborg gives a detailed description of his observations of life after death in the world of spirit. This world is divided into three areas – Heaven, Hell, and The World of Spirits. The book is a whopping 574 pages.

After The Body Dies

What distinguishes this book is that it is not presented as theory derived from the logic of the mind. It is presented by Swedenborg in a straight-forward, empirical manner as actual observations of what happens to a person after the physical body dies.

The book is divided into three parts, Heaven, Hell and World of Spirits. As you might expect from a book of over 500 pages, the book is divided into 63 chapters. The three basic levels of heaven and the three basic levels of hell are described. In between these two areas is something Swedenborg called The World of Spirits. This is the area where everyone first goes to after death.

In the book, Swedenborg makes two fundamental points. First, intractable love of self above all and of the things of the world is a basic determiner of Hell as a destination. Second, love of God and fellow human beings drives one in the direction of Heaven.

Rejected By The Church

Swedenborg did not follow the template of Christian theological orthodoxy. This caused his work to be censored by the Swedish state church authorities. He was attacked as a heretic as well as derided as a hallucinatory lunatic. Even today there are Christian websites that describe Swedenborg as dangerous and the followers of his teachings as members of a cult.

One of the things that rankled the church hierarchy was the fact that Swedenborg maintained that Heaven was not only populated by Christians. He stated that there were also Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and even atheists. The nature of a person’s heart was described as the prime indicator of a person’s experience in the afterlife.

Today Swedenborg’s writings are considered heresy by various Christian theologians and scholars. What Swedenborg espoused in his writings does not check all the boxes of the traditional teachings of Christianity.

Some People Influenced By Swedenborg

Now that it has been established that learned men and women of various church denominations say that Swedenborg’s writings are heretical, let’s move on to some people who have been influenced by Swedenborg.

William Butler Yeats – Irish poet, dramatist and writer. One of the foremost writers of twentieth century literature.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe – German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist and statesman. Widely considered the greatest German literary figure of the modern era.

Franklin D. Roosevelt – Thirty-second president of the United States. Seminal president of the 20th century, leading America through the Great Depression and World War II’

Calvin Coolidge – Thirtieth president of the United States. Well known for his tight-lipped New England conservatism.

Arthur Schoenberg – Austrian – American composer, music theorist and teacher. One of the highly influential composers of the 20th century.

Martin Luther King – American Baptist preacher and activist. One of the most prominent leaders of the American civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Ralph Waldo Emerson – American essayist, poet and philosopher achieving worldwide fame as a lecturer and author.

Arthur Conan Doyle – British writer and physician. He created the character known around the world – Sherlock Holmes.

Robert Frost – One of the greatest American poets of the 20th century, winner of four Pulitzer prizes.

William James – Considered by many to be the most insightful and stimulating of American philosophers. Known as “the Father of American psychology”.

Carl Jung – Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung’s work is influential in psychiatry, anthropology, archeology, psychology and religious studies.

Helen Keller – American author and disability rights activist. Lost her sight, speech and hearing at the age of two. Taught herself to speak and visited twenty-five countries as a lecturer.

Light In My Darkness

The person in the above list who I am in total awe of is Helen Keller. To have done what she was able to do, with the disabilities that life threw at her, is nothing less than mind-boggling.

Helen Keller’s spiritual autobiography was a book titled, “Light In My Darkness”. It was written in 1927 when she was 47 years old. The book was written as a tribute to Swedenborg whom Helen regarded as “one of the noblest champions true Christianity has ever known”. Keller stated, “in a state of exhilaration, I accepted the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg and drunk in his interpretation of Bible, fearless, reverent, yet as unconfined as the sun, the clouds, the sea”.

The title of her book is from one of Keller’s poetic statements. “I know life is given to us so that we may grow in love. And I believe that God is in me as the sun is in the color and fragrance of the flower, the Light in my darkness, the Voice in my silence.”

You Be The Judge

So there you have it – Emanuel Swedenborg. Super intelligent, thoroughly devoted to science. Then in his fifties, a switch of some type was flipped on in his life. After this, his focus was on the spiritual side of life.

What do you think? Is he a heretic? Was he hallucinating? Was he mentally ill? Or was he a true seer? He was a man who stated that he was given the ability to pierce the veil between the physical and spiritual worlds. Swedenborg purportedly observed things in his travels to the spiritual world that he was directed to report.

He was not a raving lunatic. An English friend of the famous German philosopher Immanuel Kant visited Swedenborg in London at Kant’s request. Swedenborg was described as a “reasonable, pleasant and candid man”.

Swedenborg was not a publicity seeker. His writings were published anonymously. He was not a “truth entrepreneur” seeking to cash in on his visions. Swedenborg was very well off financially due to his mining interests. He created no organizations or foundations to support his contentions. In fact, he dissuaded those who would attempt to do so. He was not looking for status. Swedenborg said he was directed to publish what he saw and heard. He said, “Do not believe that without the express command that I would have thought of publishing things which I knew in advance would make me look ridiculous and many people would think lies.”

Regardless of whatever conclusion that you come to with regard to Emanuel Swedenborg, you must admit that he is indeed an interesting enigma.

Conceive. Believe. Receive.