Swedenborgian Afterlife

I kinda hope that Emanuel Swedenborg was right in his description of heaven, hell, and the world of spirits. After you die, you will be attracted to communities of like-minded people. It’s a karmic idea: your own thoughts and feelings determine which group you will be attracted to - either those who are selfish or those who are open to love.

“Swedenborg describes creation as made up of two separate and yet coexisting ‘worlds’: the natural world and the spiritual world. The natural world includes everything you see around you—the grass, the sky, houses, other people, your own body, and so on. The spiritual world consists of the unseen realities that we do not fully encounter until after death: heaven, hell, and the world of spirits in between.

In the spiritual world, people have bodies, live in houses, enjoy community life, and are surrounded by landscapes are like those of Earth, with familiar plants and animals. However, things work very differently in spiritual reality. Everything there is vivid and much more alive. What we see responds to what we are thinking. We always have all the time we need. Particular individuals are only as near or as far away as our thoughts of them, and thinking of a person or place can actually bring us there.

In short, while the spiritual world might not seem very different from ours at first, Swedenborg describes a realm where the inner state of individuals are reflected in their surroundings and where all life originates from, and is sustained by, the love and wisdom of the Lord.” Source: Spiritual World (Afterlife).

How to Tell If She Likes You

This is kind of subtle, but once I had a psychology class that had a textbook that showed two seemingly identical photos of a woman. You were to look at the two pictures to see if you were attracted more to one image or the other. At first it seems impossible, but you do end up preferring one image. The catch is that the woman’s eyes are more dilated in the more appealing photo.

Generally speaking the wider the eyes, the more interested and relaxed a person is. The opposite case is narrowing of the eyes - or beady eyes, which indicate suspicion, nervousness, and generally being uptight. So next time you look at an attractive woman, look into her eyes for a sign that she’s interested in you.

Jobber

Jobber, which means ‘an unspecified object,” as “Hand me that jobber over there.” Once I was driving back home to Illinois from Nebraska and I picked up a Native American couple who were hitch-hiking from the side of the road. The woman was a little dull-witted, and the husband wasn’t far behind, but we got on famously because we were able to communicate through the power of music. At that time I had an old beat-up guitar in the back seat, where the husband sat. Once we got going, he asked me if he could play the guitar. I said sure, and he proceeded to play “Keep on the Sunny Side.” We all joined in, and I flipped on a small tape recorder to catch the concert. We were howling like a bunch of cats but having a ball.

After the song was over, I took a drink from my Army surplus canteen, and I offered it to the gentleman. He said, “Sure, hand me that jobber, “ and I was startled because I hadn’t heard anyone say “Jobber” since I was a kid.

Watching the Water Flow

As a small child I lived in a nice house that had a creek running through the back yard. The creek was down a slope so it wasn’t visible from the house. One day I wandered outside and found my way down to the creek. Then I plopped down on the ground next to the creek and watched the water flow by. I was unaware that my mother was looking for me and she was growing increasingly alarmed. At one point I heard my name and I turned around to see my mother coming down the creek bank with the widest smile. Later I learned that the entire neighborhood had been looking for me, and there I was all the time, just watching the water flow.

The Librarian and Her Dream

I haven’t had many dreams about deceased loved ones, but I met a woman when I was hitch-hiking from Ashland, Wisconsin, who told me about a recurring dream she had about her deceased brother. In the dream, she was visited by her brother, who didn’t know that he was dead. He wanted to climb out of his grave and return home. He continued to appeal to her, night after night, to let him come home. She realized that he was indeed dead, but she had no idea how to tell him that, so she went to her father’s grave (in real life) and appealed to her father to let the brother know that he was dead. That night the recurring dream ceased.

Roadside Find and the Star Trek Blues

This isn’t particularly weird, but it was fun. I was walking a few miles from my home in my hometown of Streator, Illinois during wintertime, and I found a pint of Kessler’s whiskey (“Smooth as Silk”) in a snowbank. I was right on a road that was a favorite for lovers’ lane and teenage drinking. I could easily imagine kids throwing booze out the window as they were being pursued by the cops. And for that matter I came across six full cans of Budweiser further down the road - all spaced at regular intervals so I could easily imagine someone throwing the cans out the window with you-know-who pursuing them.

Mike and the Punk Kid

I was living in Lincoln, Nebraska, when a kid from next door came over and invited me to attend a party he was throwing when his mother was out of town. I didn’t care too much for the kid, so I gave him a polite no. He went back next door, and a friend of mine from two houses down - on the other side of the kid - came over and told me he was going to the party. “Suit yourself, Mike” I said, or some such nonsense.

The party revved up and got kind of noisy, so I thought I’d go and see how the good neighbor was getting along. As it was he was just headed back to his place, which was on the other side of a hurricane fence (chain link fence). A young punk called out, “See you later, Grampa!” from one side of the fence. Mike reached over the fence and pulled the kid over the fence, saying “Who you callin’ Grampa?” That, plus some guy calling the cops on all those underage kids, caused the party to grind to a halt. Now, that’s entertainment!