Trauma On Society

I believe our society has become too litigious. The proliferation of lawsuits and the use of lawyers incites peoples fears and suspicions in a very unhealthy way. It brings out the inclination toward evil in human nature. It is too easy for people to hide behind lawyers and become like vengeful children instead of learning to resolve conflict.
Of course, lawyers are a necessity in our system. They are meant to protect those who are honest. But the system can easily become abused and often is. The legal system is too often used as a tool by the greedy and the vengeful for selfish gain. This breeds a consciousness of fear and conflict which contributes greatly to the stress level of individuals and businesses. It is well known that there is an enormous amount of money spent on liability insurance and on litigation and lawsuits themselves. Many of these may be necessary, but there is an enormous amount of legal activity which is unnecessary and causes a great burden of stress on individuals and society.
The real solution to this is the universal religious ethic of do unto others as you would have them do unto you - which means to love others as we love ourselves. Another way to put it is to look after others interest the same as we would look after our own. Such a fair-minded society would help the individual feel safer and freer and therefore more spiritually open.
In my construction and real estate business I never did have a lawsuit against me nor did I present one against anyone else, but there were times when people threatened to do so. The threats always created great anxiety for me. Forty nine out of fifty jobs were a mutually good experience but those times I ran into difficult people were very disturbing.
In Swedenborg’s theology he presents heavenly life as a state of being where each soul loves the neighbor more than themselves. This is the cause of the ever-growing, eternal happiness of heaven. On earth we are asked to love the neighbor at least as much as ourselves. In Churches, which represent heaven on earth, members are trying to practice this and so, I would conjecture, the litigious problem is far less amongst Church members.

The Affirmative Verse the Negative

Swedenborg wrote very distinctly on the affirmative verse the negative state of mind. He says it is according to order for man to believe in faith in God and his operation and then to use reason to make the rational case for it and develop an understanding so that it becomes his own. Those who want to follow the intellectual process of science to prove God exist usually get stuck on the natural level because their will refuses to accept on faith. They develop a negative will because they wont let anyone move them to a loving understanding.
There is no excuse for not coming to the conclusion that there is a God. His existence is plain to see in a million was if only we are affirmative in our will.

Steve

How did Man separate himself from the Lord at the time the Lord came to Earth

The time came when the Lord could not reach to man becuase man had altogether removed himself from the Divine at the end times by ceasing to cherish faith and charity in his heart. But as the Divine Human, who is Jesus Christ, the Lord did come down to man and reach him. He subjugated the hells, and put all back into order, and showed man how to give love to the Lord from the Lord. The dark cloud from the hells that intercepted man’s ability to recieve influx from the Lord was removed and now man was able to recieve light and heat, or wisdom and love from the Lord to a far higher degree. It is like the difference between being warmed by the moon as to the sun. This is how the our Lord, Jesus Christ redeemed and saved man. Now man can choose to be regenerated by the Lord by seeking in his heart to do so. The Lord holds the hells in obeyance. As to man he holds the influence of heavenly spirits and hellish spirits in equelibrium so man has a fair chance to choose. For to be saved the relationship between man and the Lord must be reciprical. Man must move his own will to bond with heaven, walk the path of regeneration, and thus be reborn.







It was very hard for me to grasp why Jehova, the very God, the father from enternity, could not effect the redemption of man from his place in Heaven, or by the wave of his hand so to speak. ‘After all’, we all tend to think, ‘He is God. He is omniscient and all powerful’. This reasoning is basically saying the same thing as the soldeirs did who jeered at Jesus on the cross; ‘If you are the Messiah then save yourself’. To answer this we must keep three concepts in mind; one, that man is given freedom of choice; two, the relationship between God and man is recirical; and three, God must follow his own laws. That man has freedom of choice is a paramount Law of the Lord. God closely protects and regulates this law. Thee Lord manages all of heaven and hells influence in a dynamic equalibrium so that both can influence him but niether have a compulsive influence. Angels can urge, guide and prtect man but they cannot force his will past a certain point. Hell can tempt man, but also cannot fforce his will past a certain point. (Temptations are used by God so that man can overcomee them and thus regenerate himself, which is similar to how the Lord purified His Human.) If one side or the other gained excessive influence mans freedom of will would be lost. God must excercise astounding power subjugating the hells so that equalibrium is maintianed. Because the relationship between God and man is reciprical, if man will not reach out and recieve the love and influnce of God then over time man becomes lost to God. His internals, or spiritual levels, close and he becomes confirmed in his natural self. This is spiritual death. Jehova, who is in purity, or first prrincipals, could not reach into this gross natural level. Man was lost to Him.
At the time Christ came man had lost all charity in his heart. God could not reach out and transform man’s state becuase he can only follow his own laws. He is order itself so how could he go against himself? The only way he could redeem man now was to come down and be born into the natural level Like other men. Before he came down his Devine self could reach into the Celestial and spiritual level, but now he could also move in the natural level. He came into the fishbowl with man where he could have effect on man, all spirits, and the hells.

Questions and answers

1) Was it easy to follow in the book how the mind control was taking place?
2) Was it hard to imagine how a person would stay for as long as I did?
3) Did you get enough of the sense of the draw of SRF and how I was bound
in by the mind control and pressure to see why I would stay?
4) How did the Childhood section work for you?
5) Did the after leaving chapters convey the process of recovery
effectively and did you feel the sense of redemption in the end?

My answers:
1) Yes it was. I enjoyed reading about it because you went much into
details. I loved it! I wish you would even discuss more mind control
techniques bill used, like you did on your blog. The only part I didn't
understand was your fear of going to hell. How did you imagine or picture
"hell" to be like?
Okay, I'm not religious so eventually my vision of hell looks more like one
you'll see on a bugs bunny cartoon picture. It's hard for me to imagine how
you could believe and fear hell.

2) No. I think your marriage, you daughter, were reasons enough to stay for
a life time.
But pages after pages I madly wanted you or anyone to kick rev bill's ass. I
was sad none ever hit him or hurt him in any kind of way. If you would have
said "fuck you" to him, how would you have expected him to react? Or perhaps
more intersting, if you had called him steak face!

3) Oh yes. But like I said above, I'm amazed none ever went as far as to
kill rev bill for all the mean things he did. Unfuckingbelievable.

4) Actually it was one of my favourite part of the book! It moved me. It's
interesting because sometimes I realize I was just like you. I thought the
same things, etc... Very interesting. Those teenage years are always pretty
tough, we keep our secrets, our feelings... but if we shared what's really
going on inside of our troubled minds I think we would realize we look
pretty much all the same. This is what that section made me realize.

5) I was astonished how you started anew. Man, so many people would have
taken their lives if they had been in the situation you used to be. I
consider you a hero. If you made it so far after being so down it means we
can all make it. There's a great message of hope in your book.
You have charisma.

This book was truly an experience.
I have to thank you

- Marion

predestination

In order for man to be man he must have freedom of choice and rationality which are gifts from God and man must choose to use wisely. God wills constantly and eternally for the salvation of all men, because He is love, and life itself. Without Him we could not even breath, think, or move. His being gives us life. He is life and we are recepticals of life. All men on this earth are held in the balance between good and evil so that we can have freedom of choice. We are made in the image of God in the sense we have the ability to will and to understand, and in order for these gifts from God to have meaning, Man has to have a measure of self determination. If there were predestination our gift of will and understanding and freedom of choice would be meaningless.
When I say God only wills love for all men, I don’t mean God is a pussyfooter in any way. It means that Gods love is life itself and that God is Divine order itself. He knows everything with everyone at every moment because He is outside of time and space and in the spirit. He has established Divine laws by which he runs all of heaven and all of hell. One of these laws is freedom of choice and another that goes along with it is that the relationship between God and man is reciprical. Man chooses to respond to God’s love by shunning evil and obeying His commandments. The man who chooses in his dailey walk to obey God comes home to heaven; the man who deosn’t can not enter heaven because he would defile those there, and furthermore because the briliance of God’s love in heaven would kill such a man. It would kill him because his interior self has closed to love and opened to hate, and therefore in the presence of heaven’s love, which opens the interiors of man, an evil man would experience unbearable torture. God sends no-one to hell, but men go there of themselves because they developed a ruling love of evil by rejection God.
The Bible says The Lord sends rain upon the good and the evil - meaning God’s love is always provided to both - otherwise neither would have life at all. Even though the evil reject his love he still loves them by letting the evil punish each other and thereby keeping them from rushing into a deeper hell.
God does know all at every given moment. He knows the inclination of every man and provides for their place in heaven according to their works. God himself has to follow his own laws other wise He would be contrradicting himself because he is Divine order. God does everything possible to save all, but he can not stop a man from going to hell when he does not reciprocate by following his commandments.
If there were predestination than it would mean that God would willingly create a human being to be sent to hell. This is an impossibility of the Divine Will. Only the devil wills to send a man to hell. If predestination were real than Gods Divine order would crumble like the foundation being taken out from a brick building.
People misinterpret the Bible to think God has human emotions. To seek revenge and to hate are sins. The Lord overcame all temptation, subjugated all the hells, and never sinned. The anger he blazed with when he overturned the money changers was in perfect rightousness because its root was love for the Sacred. When he says revenge is mine He knows that his will, in accordance with Divine order is wisdom itself and the evil doer will receive perfect justice accordingly.
The only way a human being can come into conjuntion with the Lord is through the excorcise of his will to do so. He must be willing to be led by the Lord. This is the purpose of free will – so that man can enter conjunction with the Lord and thereby enter heaven.
Predestination is a false Doctrine mad popular by Calvin and some others after him. It had no part of our Lords original Church. To think that god would make salvation a lottery pick is a folly of human creation.

Musings on two points of the after life

When reading Emanuel Swedenborg, I have often mused over the actuality of the experience of the spirit world.
I remember reading that the angels have ‘total recall’ when it is needed. He says also though, that angels completey forget about their past lives as they move into their new angelic life. This makes sense to me because as we regenerate we don’t need or want to think of the things that involve us in a lower state. E. S. says as the angels move into their interiors many things of the past that are of no use to them are removed and no longer have any effect because they have no use. This is a wonderful thing. I can understand this in my own life. Six years ago now I left the cult after being in it for 14 years. For years I dreamed about it, thought about it, and talked about it. I also wrote a book about which I have published. (It is called Spiritual Perversion.) In recent times I have remarried and think about it less and less. I processed it and worked it out. It is by no means gone, but greatly lessened in its effect, because I have moved into a new place or level of my life.
In this life the evil and good are all mixed together and of course effect each other and the evil cuases a lot of problems. In the next world in the heavenly realm we wont have that problem and I imagine it will be an absolutely wonderful thing.
A friend off mine was asking about the skin that angels have for their body. I never imagined it quit as a ‘skin’ but in a slightly different way. Skin is perhaps too course a word. I recall E. S. saying that the spirit body is composed of a super subtle atmosphere which creates a certain circumpressure around the spirit which is what makes a distinguishable body.

Steve

Correspondence on Charisma

Hi Steve. A little less than one year ago, I tried to undertake a study on the subject of « charisma ». I began reading a few interesting books, including the one called « prophetic charisma », but then I gave up... These books were quiet helpful to understand how narcissistic people tend to become charismatic, but man... I still don't get it.

I still don’t understand what a “charismatic” looks like.
I still don't understand how a “charismatic” acts like.
I still don't understand what a “charismatic” sounds like.
I still don't understand how and why someone commands all the attention in the room.
I still don't understand how someone gets more respect than others.

Steve, I have been reading a few books about cults but never have I understood better how mind control works than by reading your book.

I would like to ask you about rev. Bill's charisma.
You made me aware of how intimidating he was, but what was his appeal in the first place?
There must have been a charming part in his personality.
Why did the people listen to him, follow him?
Please tell me from your own experience.

Thanks for your reply. To be completely honest, my mother’s best friend lives in a cult right now.
My mother is completely devastated and this has a terrible effect on me and my 2 younger brothers.
I’m afraid that one day someone from my family or even me gets trapped in a cult.
I want to understand the seduction so I can see through it.
More people should be aware of what charisma is so that they don’t get deceived.
I want to be able to recognise the devil in disguise if I meet him on the road.

I’m looking forward to your answer.
Thank you.


- Alex

Hello Alex, Thanks for the honest reply. Below is a description of Bill’s charisma.

Bill made people laugh a lot. In group gatherings he would tease people and make all kinds of jokes . To these gatherings he would add in spiritual affirmations and whip the energy up so that everyone felt an emotional high together. This is a powerful group experience that cults offer routinely whereas in regular life it is not so common.
Bill spoke in a rapid-fire manner sort off like Robin William's on a tear. He often spoke all day and all night without stopping. It was very impressive and exhibited such a superior talent that no one else dared to join in, or question what he was saying. This gave him almost total control from the start. The way he communicated was a major aspect of his charisma.
He claimed, and everyone close to him agreed of course, that he was an enlightened psychic and a Holy man of the Christian faith. He said he did everything in our interest and at times acted compassionate. Everyone felt very special to be close to him.
He always named or addressed intense personal or group issues first. Most people are afraid or sensitive about doing this so his skill at it is a powerful way of making a huge impact on a person’s mind and soul. He was not afraid to engage in conflict, intimidation, or scary thoughts. He was very demonstrative of powerful emotions like joy, acting-out, amusement, anger, rage. He always grabbed the stage and claimed to act out what people secretly wanted to or feared to do the most themselves. He fascinated him members mind by speaking of these kinds of things; the taboo, the psychic and occult, of his members personal lives, issues, shortcomings. In his speeches he constantly tore into people’s personal lives, and then promised to sow them back together. He tore apart and put together people relationships. In return for total dedication he promised that his followers could become like him.
In his case the mind control was a big part of the charisma. We believed he was enlightened, that he had all the answers. He always said, “I might not have all the answers but I have a friend inside that does.’ That is a tricky way of making people believe he was humble and at the same time in contact with spirits and God in a way that we weren’t. The impression it made in our minds of his enlightened status was enormous.
He fulfilled in us what psychologists call a ‘salvation fantasy’. Salvation fantasy was a big part of the emotional appeal that lead the hippies. Bill claimed to be a master of the ‘mystery teachings’ which promised to give a unique and elite connection to God. If we didn’t execute the teaching to his satisfaction then we were in danger of a horrible fate in hell.
At another level I think when Bill opened himself to these kind of dangerous thoughts and beliefs, spirits, (unbeknown to Bill), used him and gave them ideas, energy, and skills which were palpable to the observer. These spirits were extremely resourceful, skilled, and tricky - but in the end evil.
Blessings, steve

Providence

I heard Hank Henagraph explaning Predestination and Providence t a man on the radio who desperately wanted to understand. The way he was explaining it the man just got more and more confused. I wanted to share what I understand from reading Swedenborg wit the man. I'll do the next best thing here as best I can.
The Lord is omnipresent and in the eternal now, and from here he knows the nature of the future. He knows the future because he knows our nature and our disposition. He knows our inclinations because he created us and gives us life each and every moment. The whole universe and all in it follows the laws off his Divine order.
Because we are human, born of a mother and father, we contain evil, and we have an inclination toward evil. This gets passed on from generation to generation. But the Lord is with us giving us life and love, inclining us toward our true Providence which is a life according to his Divine order in heaven. We are held in the balance between good and evil by evil spirits from hell and angles from the lord. The Lord keeps the influence off each of these in balance so that we can make our own choice from free will.
Free will is a law of the Lord given to man because we must of our own will bond with heaven. The Lord is always urging us to Him, but we must reciprocate. We reciprocate by moving our inner will to the good. All men are made for heaven because the Lord only wills our good or love. But because we have free will we can reject Him and side with the evil. If there were no free will life would have no meaning. Love must respond too love and shun evil. As we reach to Him He regenerates us and as we overcome temptations to the best of our ability He removes our inclinations to evil.
According to the way we live the Lord is building a place in heaven for us. this is our Divine Providence. Even for those who side with evil he gives holds them in abeyance from deeper evil.