SUBJECTS

The Human Organic Notes
        Following a philosophy course at the Academy of the New Church on The Doctrine of the Human Organic given by Professor C. R. Pendleton (c. 1926-27),   Dr. Hugo Lj. Odhner (HLO) taught a philosophy course on The Human Organic  for many years.  The HLO notes on that course are included here as our basic starting point.  After HLO  retired, Mr. Charles S. Cole, Jr., continued that course for some years.
          Human Organic Notes is organized by separate chapters and is well linked to footnotes, graphics, and Table of Contents.  Another version of the HLO notes was the author's own copy containing marginal notes and various insertions.  This Version C was scanned in full graphics onto a compact disk (CDRom) and is available at the Swedenborg Library, Bryn Athyn, Pa., for advanced studies.  See also the Bibliography to the HLO notes. 

Doctrtine of Correspondence
       The Swedenborgian doctrine of correspondences is summarized in the index to his work on The New Jerusalem And Its Heavenly Doctrine by a series of generalizations (call this plane 1), each of which is linked to the appropriate text in the book.  The book, in turn, summarizes the teachings under each generalization with more discussion (plane 2).  Each discussion ends with yet further reference to his extensive work, Arcana Coelestia, which provides detailed explanation of the specific subject matter (plane 3).  To access the Arcana Coelestia, go to New Search which is a search engine of his works, and can bring up plane 3 text.
        Emanuel Swedenborg demonstrates that the correspondence of nature to transcendental reality is functionally intrinsic in creation and was well known from most ancient times to people who perceived spiritual and divine reality.  A knowledge, or "science", of correspondences was developed in ancient times, and although the knowledge of correspondences was largely lost, yet historic myths, art work, heiroglyphics and sacred literature are evidence today of that science.
        This profound doctrine of correspondence has been recognized by students of many fields of learning in recent times.   This web site tries to bring together knowledge of the works that have been written about the doctrine, and also works that try to advance the philosophy and science beyond what we read in Swedenborg's writings.

Science of Correspondence
        Although Emanuel Swedenborg was a leading scientist of his day when he first started to propose the doctrine of correspondences, the concept gained its greatest importance to him after he was called to the task of revealing the nature of the afterlife.  He found the doctrine of correspondence necessary to explain the relationship between the natural and spiritual worlds.  It also implimented his need to explain how spirits and angels understand divine revelation.  He said that the spiritual, or internal, sense of the Divine Word corresponds to its natural, or literal, sense. See the subject on    A distinction between the doctrine and the science of correspondence is made in Doctrine and Science of Correspondence by Oliver R. Odhner.
        This web site is dedicated to the development of the science of correspondences through the management of study groups who can  communicate and record their progress within their groups (password protected) and with the public (published reports). 

Discrete Degrees
        A doctrine of  Emanuel Swedenborg that  is fundamental to the doctrine of correspondence is that of descrete degrees.  These are described in his scientific and philosophical works as degrees of composition, such as the sequence 1) electrons/protons, 2) atoms, 3) molecules (his theories speculated the existance of somewhat similar basic structures of matter).  These degrees are contrasted with continuous degrees, such as length, temperature, or weight.  In his theological works the concept is applied to 1) end, 2) cause, 3) effect; or 1) love, 2) wisdom, 3) use, for examples.  The concept of discrete degrees is basic to the concept of correspondence because in any series there is a mutual correspondence between the three levels, or degrees.  More is said on this subject in The Human Organic Notes and other material posted on this site.  Refer to the subjects  Doctrine of Correspondence and The Human Organic Notes.