1. Emanuel Swedenborg and Esoteric Philosophy

2. Esoteric Philosophy Esoteric philosophy removes the element of belief from speculation. Its views are built on experience rather than theory.

3. Esoteric Philosophy It offers a way of thought and life that opens up the spiritual quest for people who are not religious and cannot abide the path of belief and conformity to revealed and orthodox truth.

4. Esoteric Philosophy A core part of esoteric philosophy is to discover what truth there might be that can reconcile these two movements not by suppressing one in favor of the other, but in synthesizing them at a higher level.

5. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) He was both an intellectual scholar and a practical scholar and he had the wonderful trait of being able to learn from just about anyone.

6. Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) Long before modern physics he came up with the then radical notion that the basic building block of material reality was energy, rather than irreducible particles of matter called atoms.

7. Swedenborg’s Esoteric Philosophy He wanted to study spirituality from a scientific point of view. He approached his own experiences as a scientist working in a lab.

8. Swedenborg’s Esoteric Philosophy A holistic approach to traditional spirit/matter and mind/body dichotomies is one of his major contributions.

9. Swedenborg’s Esoteric Philosophy Swedenborg taught that humans are the meeting point of spirit and matter and this is why we are so confused and dualistic, but also why we are so glorious and why our lives can be so meaningful.

10. Conclusion Swedenborg dedicated the first half of his life to the religious study of science and the second half to the scientific study of religion.

11. Conclusion Swedenborg demonstrated the esoteric principle that one must become that which he or she wants to know.qq