The Erotic Dreams of Emanuel Swedenborg (2013)
Emanuel Swedenborg was a mystic. &quot;Mystic&quot; seems to be a dirty word among empiricists, but, like Carl Jung, he was able to use his observation skills with the experience.<p>His experiences, though with content unique to him, generally follows the pattern and dynamic of spiritual emergencies. These cross cultural boundaries. That he has erotic dreams and developed this idea that it is divine in origin is not unknown. That he dreamed of symbols that show up in other cultures is also not unknown. None of those are surprising for anyone who has gone through or is undergoing through their own spiritual emergency.<p>One of the biggest driver of the spiritual emergency is a force called &quot;Kundalini&quot; in India. It goes by other names in other cultures (for example, in Taoist alchemy, it is known as &quot;dragon&quot;). This force lies within each human body, and in its quiescent state, helps keep the body alive. It is the very power that drives sexuality in humans, and in some people, will awaken the drive towards spiritual emergence. It seems surprising to people who have beliefs that sexuality and spirituality don&#x27;t mix, yet, they are integral. Swedenborg, like many other adventurers, rediscovered this.<p>It is easy to say Swedenborg had repressed homosexual urges based on those dreams. It&#x27;s more accurate to say that when the spiritual emergence starts unfolding, all the different potentiality of consciousness that were already present starts manifesting. These potentiality exists within every human. If you entered spiritual emergency, all sorts of things you didn&#x27;t know lurking inside of you will come out, including ones that you share with other people, yet never consider it to be &quot;your&#x27;s&quot;.<p>Bonnie Greenwall did her Ph.D. in transpersonal psychology on spiritual emergencies, and has written books about this. She wrote a book on awakening and one on the kundalini phenomenon. The books go into detail about the kind of things that might happen, whether you are talking about a shaman or yogi or monk or householder.