Standing on the Shoulders of Giants:
Emanuel Swedenborg’s Influence on Ernest Holmes
By Rev. Linda Reppond
December 2011
In my studies to become a Religious Science minister, I was frequently directed to
study great teachers who were primary influences in the thinking of Ernest Holmes, the
founder Religious Science. Those people include Emma Curtis Hopkins, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, and Thomas Troward, among others. Only after reading their essays and books did
it occur to me to inquire about who influenced them.
In each case, it took little time to find
that all three were strongly influenced by Emanuel Swedenborg.
Ernest Holmes often described himself as not an original thinker, but as a synthesizer.
He was born in 1887 on a small Maine farm, the youngest of nine sons. He moved to Boston
to work in a grocery store at age 18, and became self-educated through a rigorous study of
philosophy, metaphysics, science and literature. His pursuits were confirmed by his associate
of many years, Dr. Donald Curtis, who said, “He learned, borrowed, and absorbed from
everyone and everything. He was an avid student, but not strictly a scholar. He could
intuitively grasp great concepts and he had an exceptional ability to synthesize the knowledge
he received in meditation.”1
The result is that the lines of influence a blurred; rarely a direct linkage that would
indicate that a particular thought came from a particular teacher or philosophy. Thus it is
Donald Curtis, Science of Mind in Daily Living, Wilshire Book Co., Los Angeles, CA, June
1975, p. 136.
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instructive to trace backwards not only those Holmes read directly, but also those whom they
studied.
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, and
theologian, whose writings had tremendous influence in the development of the United States.
Such influential people as Emerson, Evans, Henry James, Helen Keller, Johnny Appleseed,
William Blake, Carl Jung and W.B. Yeats were all enthusiastic students of Swedenborg. As
one scholar has noted, Swedenborg’s teachings particularly appealed to the various dissenting
groups that sprang up in the first half of the 19th century who were “surfeited with revivalism
and narrow-mindedness” and found his optimism and comprehensive explanations appealing.2
That he was a scientist was appealing to those with a passion for science, because he seemed
to bring scientific order to his philosophical approach. That he was a mystic, with a vision of
a “new heaven and a new earth” appealed to those with a spiritual hunger who were not in
agreement with the conservative direction of their neighbors.
In the birth and development of the American New Thought movement, Swedenborg’s
influence is prominent in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horatio Dresser, Phineas
Parker Quimby, Mary Baker Eddy and her student, Emma Curtis Hopkins, Judge Thomas
Troward, William James and Warren Felt Evans, and more. For the purposes of this paper,
we will examine Swedenborgian influence in three of those teachers, who were the most
prominent in shaping the thinking of Ernest Holmes: Emerson, Troward, and Hopkins. We
will also examine how Ernest Holmes incorporated and presented these same topics.
Spiritual Influx
2 Ahlstrom, S.E. A Religious History of the American People, Yale University Press, 1972, p. 483.
Swedenborg described an inflow, or pouring in of Divine influence, which is the
fundamental experience of the power that is constantly flowing into humans from God, or the
central sun of the universe. This influx fills us with vigor, health and moral virtue if we allow
it to flow into our beings. In his dreams and visions, Swedenborg would sometimes spend
days in a state of gnosis, or communion with God and the angels. This mystic communion
provided spiritual sustenance and the information received was treated with equal validity to
the information received from physical realities.
Emerson called this the revelation of the Over-soul. In his essay, “The Over-Soul,” he
states: “For this communication is an influx of the Divine mind into our mind. It is ebb of the
individual rivulet before the flowing surges of the sea of life. Every distinct apprehension of
this central commandment agitates men with awe and delight. A thrill passes through all men
at the reception of new truth, or at the performance of a great action, which comes out of the
heart of nature. In these communications, the power to see is not separated from the will to
do, but the insight proceeds from obedience, and the obedience proceeds from a joyful
perception. Every moment when the individual feels himself invaded by it is memorable.”3
Troward embodied the Swedenborgian nebular hypothesis, of the central sun
surrounded by a family of planets, which are animated by Pure Spirit, or the Life Principle.
He also describes it as the “formless principle of life” and “atomic intelligence.” He also
described this Divine Influx as a plastic and undifferentiated substance, which flows and takes
definite form. This creative power takes form as a result of our definite mental attitude.
Emerson. Ralph Waldo, Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, New American Library,
New York, NY, 1965 p,. 287
3
Hopkins derives her metaphysical principles directly from Swedenborg, and adds her
own interpretation. As a Christian mystic, she sees influx as the Christ principle. She defines
Divine Influx as: “There is one indestructible substance pervading all things from the
remotest star to the nearest dust particle…It is the power deriving from this universal
substance that constituted the impersonal Christ-power which enabled Jesus to perform his
mighty works: by a process he made clear to his disciples, he made a draught upon he
universal principle…The Life stuff of which his being inhaled to overflowing was the Christ.
All who learn the way of life he taught …are also the Christ.”4
The doctrine of influx is one of the most pr3evaswive ideas found in Holmes teaching.
The great creative power which sustains the universe is constantly and universally sending
forth its beneficent energy, and everything that is draws upon this life force for its life and
well-being. Holmes also called it Cosmic Consciousness. Over and over he states that we
must place ourselves in alliance with the Unseen, which will then possess us. This influx is
always available but the “Creative Spirit only enters the door that is open and benefits only
that person who is receptive.” We become channels for this divine force, and it flows through
us, healing us and all we touch. It seems that he is drawing primarily from Hopkins and
Emerson in claiming this life force and understanding it as a flow. All four seem to draw
directly from Swedenborg in their descriptions of influx.
Law of Correspondence
Swedenborg wrote extensively about the relationship between the natural and spiritual
worlds, which he termed the Law of Correspondence. For things experienced in the material
Larson, Martin A, New thought or A Modern Religious Approach, Philosophical Library, New
York, NY, 1985, p. 232.
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world, there is a corresponding principle operating in the spiritual world; in other words, what
one experiences physically has a spiritual cause. Perhaps more than any other message from
Swedenborg, this idea was wholeheartedly embraced by Troward, Hopkins and Holmes.
Frequently described in words such as “As above, so below;” or “What the mind can
conceive, the body can achieve;” or “change your thinking, change your life;” the law of
correspondences has become the motto of new thought teaching.
Troward dedicates much of his presentation in the Edinburgh and the Doré Lectures to
the principle of correspondence. He describes the supreme and universal intelligence that
flows from the Great Center into every existing thing. While we are all replicas of the Infinite
Central Power, not everyone is brilliant, noble and successful, because not everyone has
learned how to live in harmony with the Divine laws of the Universe. Again and again, he
says that thoughts are things. As we will our thoughts to be, they will become.
Hopkins made the law of correspondence into a practical primer by identifying the
importance of language in claiming one’s good. By speaking only of that which you wish to
see manifest, you bring that thing into your body of affairs. By specifically denying the
power of that which you wish to eliminate, you remove it from manifestation. One might say,
“I deny the reality of anything unlike Health and Wholeness, and I claim for my body Vibrant
Health.” She was sought after as a healer, and the tool that she used in healing many physical
ailments was the law of correspondence. She described her role as the practitioner as holding
a mental template of health and wholeness in her awareness and praying with confidence on
the patient’s behalf.
Holmes drew from each of these teachers in creating his hallmark affirmative prayer
treatment, which is a structure form of prayer, in which one begins by recognizing the Infinite
Central Power of the Universe, and unifying with it. The power of the word spoken is that
which claims its good and denies that there is any reality to anything which obstructs its flow.
The prayer form is a powerful re-statement of the principles of influx and correspondence.
Further, although a departure from Swedenborg, Holmes used the Law of
Correspondences in formulating his beliefs about sickness and its cure. Since God is the
Universal All, there can be no duality or evil in the universe. Man is the microcosm filled
with macrocosmic deity; and since there is no sin, evil or disease in God, these can have no
reality in man. Anything that appears as disease is an idea of duality, and has no reality in
God. Under the law of correspondences, one manifests or externalizes what one thinks
within.
Heaven and Hell
Swedenborg writes extensively of his visions of heaven and hell. In addition, there is
a world of spirits between them which is neither heaven nor hell, where we begin the afterlife,
with hells below it and heavens above it. He describes heaven and hell this way:
“A state of heaven for us is the union of what is good and true within us, and a state of hell is
a union of what is evil and false within us. When the good in a spirit person is united to the
true, then that individual arrives in heaven, because as already stated, that union is heaven
within us. On the other hand, when the evil is united to the false within us, then we arrive in
hell, because that union is hell within us. “ 5
Swedenborg, Emanuel, A Swedenborg Sampler, Swedenborg Foundation Press, West
Chester, PA, 2011, p.7
5
We begin the world of spirits, which is filled with many people, who may stay a very
short time, or for years. In this state, people may recognize others they knew in their physical
life. The gates to the heavens above and hells below are visible only to the ones who will
enter there, and ar3e guarded so that no one may exit. Swedenborg vividly describes meeting
angelic beings and people from other lifetimes who are enjoying a grand life in heaven.
Those in hell are happy there because it is a continuation of the life they lived on earth.
Even as we live our physical lives, Swedenborg’s vision describes that we are in
constant contact with those from other realms, although we may not realize it. When our
attention is drawn inward, into our spirit bodies, we can recognize the spirit world and interact
with it.
None of the four American new thought leaders treated Swedenborg’s vision as a
literal heaven and hell. Emerson voiced his doubts by stating that none of us knows if there is
a heaven or a hell. He was rather inclined to view the afterlife as a state of mind. He said that
to different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.
Troward believed in the eternal progression of the soul, forever and ever upward. He
stated, “The universal life forever unfolds itself in all the infinite evolutionary forces of the
cosmic scheme and, in its onward march evolves into higher and higher conscious intelligence
in the successive races of mankind.”6 Heaven is a state of consciousness and conditions
where we experience Light, Joy, Peace, and Abundance in life now.
Troward, Thomas, The Wisdom of Thomas Troward, Vol. I, Wilder Publications, 2009, p.
188.
6
Hopkins taught that heaven and hell are not places, but states of mind. It requires a
belief in duality, in good and evil, in God and the devil. There is no duality; only good. Our
good is our God and our God is our Good. Hell is not a location, but a discordant state of
being.
Holmes elaborated further. He spoke of life as eternal; that death was but a horizon.
He also taught that Heaven is within, it revolves about us; it is the result of that atmosphere of
conviction which our thought awakens within us. The Kingdom of Heaven is unformed,
unlimited, unconditioned. Heaven is not a place, a locality, “with streets of gold and gates of
pearl.” It is the real state of Being.
When asked in a lecture about hell, he said, “I do not believe in hell, devil or
damnation, in any future state of punishment, or any of the strange ideas which have been
conceived in the minds of morbid people. God does not punish people. There is, however, a
Law of Cause and Effect, which governs all and which will automatically punish, impartially
and impersonally, if we conflict with its principle of harmony.”7
Summary
Although the lines might at times be blurred, and less than verbatim, in reviewing
these three core Swedenborg teachings, Influx, Law of Correspondences and Heaven and
Hell, his influence is unmistakable. Some thoughts evolve over time, such as the Law of
Correspondences. Popular language today would describe it as the Law of Attraction,
described as “that which is like to itself is drawn.” And it continues to evolve again beyond
Holmes definition.
7
Holmes, Ernest, Can We Talk To God, HCI Publisher, Deerfield Beach, FL, 1999, p.77
Some of Swedenborg’s visions, particularly of the afterlife, were not accepted by these
four teachers, perhaps because their own visions and inner experiences did not match
Swedenborg’s. But the themes of his visions were incorporated. Where Swedenborg would
describe that heaven was a continuation of the life lived on earth, his successors would
describe it as something that is experienced on earth.
The idea that thoughts evolve is essential to a living spiritual tradition. Troward’s
description of life is that it is an upward spiral, forever evolving into higher and higher forms.
Holmes liked to call it “being open at the top,” or expecting that more will be revealed all the
time. I like to think that Swedenborg would be delighted with the evolution of his thinking, if
he were here today. The science of quantum physics, those that heal by the power of the
mind, would be a source of great excitement to him.