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Can anybody help me find a logical explanation for this stuff?

The "purple sash" thing appears to be a typical symbolic representation of Jesus and I have seen several churches with crosses wrapped in purple sashes or even painting with them since I made the comparison. I don't know about the "two angels" thing, but I am forcing a fit.

I'm trying to get out of my paranoid conspiracy theory mindset, and I noticed that I'm doing nothing but having paranoid freak outs and asking you guys to clear it up for me instead of doing the critical thinking on my own.

I don't know how Swedenborg had so many impressive stories about him with many witnesses, but that was a long time in the past. For paranormal and psychic phenomenon, it should be provable in the present. Still, I wonder about the connections in religions that mystics talk about, and like what was pointed out in the book I linked to, "Swedenborg and Esoteric Islam". People here have said the comparisons aren't impressive, though I don't think they read through it. Most likely there is no reason to read through it, since a large heap of evidence from modern times points to there being no such thing as unified spiritual laws.

Sites like "Near-Death" aren't a reliable source either. Even if it makes comparisons, it suffers from confirmation bias. They tend to only focus on the similarities and not talk about the huge differences.
 
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Zanders said:
I'm trying to get out of my paranoid conspiracy theory mindset, and I noticed that I'm doing nothing but having paranoid freak outs and asking you guys to clear it up for me instead of doing the critical thinking on my own.
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That seems to be pretty accurate self-analysis. I hope you are seeking a way to handle that. If you just believed in Swedenborg, you'd be no different from anyone else who has faith in a religion. We'd disagree, but it'd be no big deal. If you are truly having "paranoid freak outs," then it seems you should seek some medical help. That's no way to live.

Good luck,
Ward
 
In an earlier post I made in this thread I asked if his mention of the "familiar spirit" as he called it (not to be confused with the one commonly used in wicca and such things) was similar to any later spiritualist claims.

The other day I found something called an "eidolon" (wiki) that seems rather similar. In theosophy it says there are similar concepts as well.

Not that this will really matter to many people, it just answers a question I asked earlier.
 
Zanders said:
The "purple sash" thing appears to be a typical symbolic representation of Jesus and I have seen several churches with crosses wrapped in purple sashes or even painting with them since I made the comparison.
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The purple sash is traditionally wrapped around crucifixes in Catholic churches during Advent, the four weeks preceding Christmas.
 
Zanders, it's interesting that you took the trouble to investigate the meaning of the purple sash worn by Christ in some paintings (purple=royalty). Many examples of what you seem to think are incredible coincidences are based on widely-understood symbolism such as this. You also underestimate the influence of fiction on the visions described by mystics - for example, most of Dante's Paradiso is about the existence of spirits on other planets.
 
Zanders said:
In an earlier post I made in this thread I asked if his mention of the "familiar spirit" as he called it (not to be confused with the one commonly used in wicca and such things) was similar to any later spiritualist claims.

The other day I found something called an "eidolon" (wiki) that seems rather similar. In theosophy it says there are similar concepts as well.

Not that this will really matter to many people, it just answers a question I asked earlier.
Click to expand...


The question seems to have been "Are modern-day spritualists still peddling the same old nonsense that they always have?" and the only real surprise is that it's taken so long to come up with the obvious answer, despite numerous people telling you what it is.
 
Alice Shortcake said:
Zanders, it's interesting that you took the trouble to investigate the meaning of the purple sash worn by Christ in some paintings (purple=royalty). Many examples of what you seem to think are incredible coincidences are based on widely-understood symbolism such as this. You also underestimate the influence of fiction on the visions described by mystics - for example, most of Dante's Paradiso is about the existence of spirits on other planets.
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(This is Zanders; I lost me password and got locked out of both my JREF account and the email adress used for the backup password)

It's true that the connections can be influence or coincidence, and it is also very easy to make logical leaps and fallacies when comparing such things.

The part I still don't understand was something I brought up a long time ago, and it is how many people seemed to support his abilities while he himself never really capitalized on them himself or ever appeared to be looking for fame (Like I said he originally went under a pseudonym) and he never officially started any religion (that took off years after his death when other people decided they wanted to take his writings and base a religion off of them. This was already discussed so I doubt any progress will be made, this can just die finally.
 
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Zanders,

I urge you to write to the moderators here at the forum. They probably have ways of retrieving your password. Just creating a new account is frowned upon. I don't think you'll get into too much trouble if you write to them, but if you don't, they might not like it.

Ward
 
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