Swedenborg's Reported Vision Ofthe Stockholm Fire example essay topic

10 Extra Sensory Perception In the world of everyday existence, the five senses reign, but their powers are sharply limited. We perceive the universe in glimpses through narrow portals, acquiring our knowledge by sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. But what if knowledge has wider gateways and thresholds What if, beyond vision, humans have another way of seeing (Brill, Dr. A.A. p 3+) From all over the world, from the beginning of time, some people have been called gifted with what is known as a seconds ight, the third eye, the sixth sense-powers of the mind that seem to bypass the usual sensory channels and transcend normal reality. Many powerful figures in ancient past history had been claimed to obtain some sort of ESP. In fact, witch doctors, sham as, prophets, and assorted soothsayers were all said to have these qualities.

Also, many powerful figures in just past history have claimed of ESP. One such person was Abraham Lincoln. He claimed that in dream of his own death, he stood at the foot of a coffin in the White House and saw a shrouded corpse. When he asked who had died, a solider among the shadowy mourners answered The President. Hewas killed by an assassin. Another episode of ESP happening to an important figure in our past was when Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) had a dream about walking into the waiting room of the steamboat he was currently working on, and finding his brother laid out in a metal coffin with white flowers and a single rose laid on his chest.

He awoke 10 believing this dream was true, and began to cry. After finding out this didn t happen, he was afraid to say anything to anyone abou this dream. Days later his brother has an accident on the boat hewas working on and was said to be dying. Samuel went to him and stayed with him until he died. At the layout, his brother was in a metal coffin, but there were no flowers or roses on his chest. Minutes after observing this an old lady walked in and laid white flower on his chest witha single rose in it.

Needless to say Samuel Clemens was stunned. People of all ages and cultures have always been fascinated by the unknown and the mysterious, that is why this topic caught my eye. Extrasensory perception, or ESP, is the term that is used to describe the four topics I will discuss with you. These four topics include: clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition, and retrocognition. (Day, Laura p 80+) My first topic is clairvoyance.

This is when someone is able to see events from the past, present, and future that are not invisible sight. Here is an example of an episode of clairvoyance. On the evening of July 19, 1759, a pleasant party was just beginning at the home of a prominent citizen of Goteborg, Sweden. Suddenly, unaccountably, the most eminent of the sixteen guests-the famed scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg-left and walked outside without explanation. When he returned a short time later, he was pale and shaken. A fire was raging, he said, It had already destroyed a friends house and now threatened his own.

10 The guests exchanged startled glances. As they all knew, Swedenborg did not live in Goteborg, but in Stockholm. And Stockholm was almost three hundred miles away. The party proceeded, but Swedenborg left the house several more times and returned to report the blaze was still spreading.

Finally, at 8: 00 p. m., he accounted that is had been extinguished-only three houses from his own. (Brill, Dr. A.A. p 115+) By the next morning, a Sunday, Swedenborg's vision was the talk of Goteborg. Had there really been a fire Or was the seventy-one-year-old's imagination running away with him An apparent answer came the following night when an express messenger arrived form Stockholm with news of a great fire. Three days after the vision, a second messenger brought more details.

They matched Swedenborg's account of the blaze and confirmed that is had halted only three doors from his own and had ended, just as he said, at 8: 00 p.m. Swedenborg was a respected engineer, inventor, and author whose intellect encompassed sciences ranging from psychology to zoology. When he was in his late fifties, however, he received what he regarded as a visitation from God. There after, he turned his full attention to theology, metaphysics, and the exploration of his psychic powers, which seemed abundant. To many parapsychologists, Swedenborg's reported vision ofthe Stockholm fire is an example of clairvoyance: the ability to see psychically what the eye cannot perceive. 10 People who claim to be clairvoyant, often help police in finding bodies, finding crime scenes, or even just finding a murder weapon.

These people aid in the investigation to help close cases that are otherwise discontinued. (Matsuda, Kenya Internet) My personnel opinion on this is that they claim to be clairvoyant, and can help investigations, then why not let them. Believe that clairvoyance is very possible because of a hypothesis found out of a book. It stated that when a proton and an electron collide in space, they shot miles apart and become protons.

One proton starts to spin a direction directly after the collision, the other however, doesn t begin spinning until hours later. Sure this may not sound like a big deal, but the thing toit is that the second proton has to find out which way the first proton is spinning (from miles away), so that is can begin spinning the opposite. This scientists say is the connection between the event and the person. A similar event is supposedly to take place. This hypothesis is the only hypothesis that could logically explain clairvoyance. Scientists have no real evidence of finding any link to clairvoyance from anything.

(Morse M.D., Melvin p 49+) The next topic I will discuss is telepathy. Websters's dictionary defines telepathy as that of: communication form one mind to another without the use of speech or writing or gestures etc. We know telepathy as simply being able to read ones mind. A good example of telepathy is.

One day in 1955, five-year-old Joicey Hurth of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, came home from a birthday party to find that her father 10 and two brothers had gone to a movie without her. The theater was only a block and a half away from their home, so the little girl dashed out to join them. Shortly after the child left, her mother, also named, Joicey, was washing dishes at the kitchen sink when suddenly, unexplainably, she knew her daughter had been in an accident. Without hesitation, Mrs. Joicey Hurth ran to the telephone and dialed the theater. (Wozniak, Robert Internet) My little girl was on the way to the theater, she told the woman who answered. She has had an accident, is she badly hurt How did you know stammered the confused theater employee. it- the accident- just happened.

Indeed, it turned out that the child, in rushing to join her father and brothers, had run into the path of a moving car just outside the movie house. After being hit, she had bounced off a fender and landed on the pavement, but she was not badly hurt. I did not see or have a mental image of a car hittingJoicey, the mother recalled, but I did have the impression so strongly that I did not question it or hesitate to call the theater. (Wozniak, Robert Internet) Recounting the episode some years later, the daughter said that just after she was hit by the car she ran to the side of the street, crying and calling out in her mind, Mama, mama, mama.

Hewas, she believed, screaming inaudibly. Since Mrs. Hurth neither heard nor saw anything that could have alerted her to her daughters mishap, parapsychologists 10 studying the case attributed her knowledge of it to telepathy-direct mind-to-mind communication occurring without the five senses. (Day, Laura p 13) Another great example of telepathy is by a woman by the name of Mary Craig. She was the wife of Upton Sinclair, a novelist. Mary believed she had telepathic powers, and in the 1920's, she and her husband set out to test them. He would draw pictures, and try to transmit them to her mentally; and she would draw the image she received.

She believed that psychic talent can be cultivated by anyone. She recommended a method that combines relaxation with intense concentration. Doing this right, she said, would produce an almostsleeplike stage that was critical in the conductivity of telepathic reception. She also said that by doing this you created a third type of mind. not conscious, and not unconscious.

She called this the deep mind. (Wilson, Cloin p 21+) Her experiments with her husband however, were very successful. She redrew every object as it appeared. However, she did not interpret every object for what is actually was. Many intellectual people have had something to say about this topic. Sigmund Freud believed that psychic research is a legitimate scientific pursuit, but was wary of linking himself with what he had once called the Black tide of mud of occultism.

Although he kept an open mind, Albert Einstein considered telepathy unlikely because it seemed to defy physics. 10 Parapsychologists claimed distance between subjects did not affect their telepathic success. For Einstein, this contradicted the observation that forces decline over distance. I believe that this could also be in existence. I have no experiences of my own, but I like to keep an open mind about the unknown. The final two topics shall be combined because of how close in nature they are.

Precognition is seeing into the future or before and event happens, while retrocognition is seeing into the past. (Moody Jr. M.D., Raymond p 39) There is a story that appears to encounter both. A man is fixing a bush in his yard and turns to look at the landscaping ofthe house. When he turns back around, the bushes that he had previously been working on had vanished. All he saw was a long dirt road with a man in old western-style clothing walking down it.

When the man walking got close enough to make out the other, he stopped. They stared at each other for minutes until one finally turned around to see what was going on, and then the original landscape came back again. Some parapsychologists interpret the man doing yard works vision as an instance of simultaneousretrocognition and precognition. Through a tear in the fabric of time, her was peering into the past-retrocognition. The old western-type, if indeed he saw the doctor, experienced precognition-seeing into the future. (Matsuda, Kenya Internet) 10 All of these topics seem to have one thing in common, no hardcore evidence.

This leaves most skeptical about believing. I onthe other hand can find believing this as easily as I believe in flying saucers, or even the loch ness monster. Anything that has unknown origins make me interested. I do not think I would believe everything off of hearing this from word of mouth I would either have to experience it myself first hand, having it either happen to me or have me watching it. After researching this topics find myself thinking that all of this is very possible. I am not being gullible about this either, I just like to keep my eyes open and have an open mind about everything. I. Moody Jr. M.D., Raymond.

The Light Beyond. New York: Bantam Books, 1988 II. Wilson, Cloin. Afterlife. New York: Harrat Limited, 1985 . Morse M.D., Melvin, Parting Visions.

New York: Villard Books, 1994. IV. Day, Laura. Practical Intuition.

New York: Villard Books, 1996 V. Brill, Dr. A.A. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud. New York: The Modern Library. 1938 VI. Morse M.D., Melvin.

Closer to the Light. New York: Villard Books, 1990 VII. Matsuda, Kenya. ESP Super Willpower (online) Avaiable web espe r/300. htm, May 9, 1999. V. Wozniak, Robert. Mind and Body. (online) Avaiable web May 9, 1999 IX. Carroll, Robert.

Skeptics Dictionary (online) Available web May 8, 1999 X.A.R.E.E.S. P Extra Sensory Perception (online) Avaiable web.