Theos-Talk Archives (January 2003 Message tt00240)

Writing about Emmanuel Swedenborg, "the great Swedish seer and 
mystic," Mme. Blavatsky comments that Swedenborg "claimed to pass at 
will into that state when the Inner Self frees itself entirely from 
every physical sense, and lives and breathes in a world where every 
secret of Nature is an open book to the Soul-eye." "The Secret 
Doctrine," Vol. III, 1897, p. 425

But she adds: 

"Unless one obtains exact information and the right method, one's 
visions, however correct and true in Soul-life, will ever fail to get 
photographed in our human memory, and certain cells of the brain are 
sure to play havoc with our remembrances."

Elsewhere, Madame Blavatsky states that Swedenborg's "clairvoyant 
powers . . . were very remarkable; but they did not go beyond this 
plane of matter; all that he says of subjective worlds and spiritual 
beings is evidently far more the outcome of his exuberant fancy, than 
of his spiritual insight. . . ." "The Theosophical Glossary," entry 
on Swedenborg.

H.P. Blavatsky gives more information on this topic in her E.S. 
Instruction No. I:

"Yet even a clairvoyant possessed of such faculties, if not an Adept, 
no matter how honest and sincere he may be, will through his 
ignorance of the truths of Occult Science, be led by the visions he 
sees in the Astral Light only to mistake for God or Angels the 
denizens of those spheres of which he may occasionally catch a 
glimpse, as witness Swedenborg and others." "The Secret Doctrine," 
Vol. III, 1897, p. 448.

Some food for thought.

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://hpb.cc