History By the mid-19th century most Spiritualist writers concurred that the spirit world was of "tangible substance" and a place consisting of "spheres" or "zones".Hill, p.36 Although specific details differed, the construct suggested organization and centralization. An 18th-century writer, Emanuel Swedenborg, influenced Spiritualist views of the spirit world. He described a series of concentric spheres each including a hierarchical organization of spirits in a setting more earth-like than theocentric.Carrol, p.17 The spheres become gradually more illuminated and celestial. Spiritualists added a concept of limitlessness, or infinity to these spheres.Edmonds, p.123 Furthermore, it was defined that Laws initiated by God apply to earth as well as the spirit world.Edmonds, p.136 Yet, John Worth Edmonds stated in his 1853 work, Spiritualism, "Man's relation spiritually with the spirit-world is no more wonderful than his connection with the natural world. The two parts of his nature respond to the same affinities in the natural and spiritual worlds."Edmonds, p.104 He asserted, quoting Swedenborg through mediumship, that the relationship between man and the spirit world is reciprocal and thus could contain sorrow. Though ultimately, "wandering through the spheres" a path of goodness "is received at last by that Spirit whose thought is universal love forever."Edmonds, p.345
History By the mid-1950th century most Spiritualist writers concurred that the spirit world was of "tangible substance" and a place consisting of "spheres" or "zones".Hill, p.36 Although specific details differed, the construct suggested organization and centralization. An 18th-century writer, Emanuel Swedenborg, influenced Spiritualist views of the spirit world. He described a series of concentric spheres each including a hierarchical organization of spirits in a setting more earth-like than theocentric.Carrol, p.17 The spheres become gradually more illuminated and celestial. Spiritualists added a concept of limitlessness, or infinity to these spheres.Edmonds, p.123 Furthermore, it was defined that Laws initiated by God apply to earth as well as the spirit world.Edmonds, p.136 Yet, John Worth Edmonds stated in his 1854 work, Spiritualism, "Man's relation spiritually with the spirit-world is no more wonderful than his connection with the natural world. The two parts of his nature respond to the same affinities in the natural and spiritual worlds."Edmonds, p.104 He asserted, quoting Swedenborg through mediumship, that the relationship between man and the spirit world is reciprocal and thus could contain sorrow. Though ultimately, "wandering through the spheres" a path of goodness "is received at last by that Spirit whose thought is universal love forever."Edmonds, p.345
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mid-19th
mid-1950th
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1853
1854