|
Once again I'm attempting to not only read but to understand as Emmanuel Swedenborg describes in his book 'Heaven and Hell' the various scenes he sees while presumably journeying through what we call the astral plane.
I say presumably because as yet there is no explanation as to how he actually got 'there'. Perhaps for him in this book it is obvious that the reader 'knows' how he does this as he wrote many other books on roughly the same subject.
Swedenborg is undoubtedly one of the greatest astral travellers if not the greatest but you have to be prepared for some almost preposterous statements.
Anyway he says that our understanding of Earth should be looked upon not as a planet but as a plane. In other words he says that 'earthmen' are a race and doesn't simply refer to the inhabitants of the planet we are on. At his time on this planet the Milky Way was the total universe, that other galaxies existed was unknown, so basing his reason on this then knowledge he goes on to guess the number of planets in relation to each sun in the galaxy. He does however come up with the figure of millions and goes on to say that these (ET) Earth plane inhabitants of the after-life in heaven and hell congregate and are all of the same 'human' kind.
There are by the way other more scientific reasons to think that any ETs would be similar to us. Above all the positioning of our eyes, ears, nose and mouths right near the brain bring tremendous advantages as far as danger is concerned. Walking upright on two legs gives us a good all-round view and allows physical flexibility. Gravity causes that which we have eaten to fall automatically thus aiding digestion, we have twice ten digits which is very handy as a basis for a digital system.
So maybe Swedenborg is right!
|