Journal of Dreams, with its accompanying interpretation by psychologist Wilson Van Dusen, provides an intimate view of the spiritual awakening of Swedish scientist-turned-seer Emanuel Swedenborg (1668-1772).

Emanuel Swedenborg meticulously recorded his dreams and visions from 1743 to 1744, adding interpretations that foreshadowed modern dream analysis. This edition of Swedenborg's dream diary includes commentary by Lars Bergquist.

In 1744 Swedenborg traveled the Netherlands to gather material for a scientific treatise on the anatomy and behavior of animals. En route, he began having strange and disturbing dreams. It was Swedenborg's custom to keep a diary while he traveled, and so he recorded his dreams in its pages. These visions began the process of Swedenborg's spiritual awakening, which culminated in visions of angels, demons, heaven and hell. Swedenborg would largely abandon scientific pursuits and instead devote himself to recording the mystical visions that would dominate his legacy. The whereabouts of this journal were unknown for decades after Swedenborg's death, but it was eventually discovered in the Royal Library in the 1850s and subsequently published.

Taking as its point of departure the two poems, "Correspondances" by Baudelaire and "Les correspondances" by Alphonse-Louis Constant, The Dream of an Absolute Language: Emanuel Swedenborg and French Literary Culture traces the reception and popularization of several key Swedenborgian doctrines in late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century French literature and popular culture, notably the doctrine of correspondences. Contrary to what Michel Foucault argued in his early Les mots et les choses, in nineteenth-century France, the word "correspondences" does not denote a break with "representation," at least as it was used by nineteenth-century French writers: rather it is intimately bound up with the taxonomic structures of natural history—and also with the desire to understand the social world in terms of an ordered and controllable totality. Because it crops up in texts we now classify as canonical and also those outside the canon, and because it is so clearly related to notions of literary structure and effect, the word "correspondences" and its transformations in late-eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France offers a vantage point for discerning how artists and writers defined their work both within and against a context of cultures defined as elite, "popular," and even ideological.

On average, we spend around six years of our lives dreaming. Yet, astonishingly, few of us understand the purpose of dreams and even fewer recognise what our dreaming mind can tell us about ourselves and our world. Melinda Powell, psychotherapist and co-founder of the Dream Research Institute UK, reveals how better understanding our dreams can improve our waking lives. As well as examining the importance of sleep and dreams, The Hidden Lives of Dreams explores the role of light, colour, landscapes, space, healing presence and lucidity in dreams, dispels common misconceptions and addresses our fears of nightmares. Powell shows how to tap into our dreams as a source of guidance and inspiration to enhance our wellbeing and to discover a healthier, more balanced approach to life. 'Exploring the depths of dreaming with an experienced guide like Melinda Powell will bring you closer to your heart, your purpose and your truest self. Highly recommended.' Robert Waggoner

Emanuel Swedenborg became best known for his book on the afterlife, Heaven and Hell. At 53, he entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions. His experiences culminated in a "spiritual awakening" in which he received a revelation that Jesus Christ had appointed him to write The Heavenly Doctrine to reform Christianity. The New Church, a new religious movement originally founded in 1787 and comprising several historically-related Christian denominations, reveres Swedenborg's writings as revelation. Arcana Cœlestia Heaven and Hell The Last Judgment The White Horse Earths in the Universe The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine The Athanasian Creed De Domino Prophets and Psalms The Word of the Lord from Experience Last Judgment Posthumous The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Concerning the Lord Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture Doctrine of Life Doctrine of Faith Continuation of The Last Judgement Angelic Wisdom Concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom Divine Providence Charity Apocalypse Revealed The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugal Love God the Saviour Canons Brief Exposition Interaction of the Soul and the Body Coronis Invitation to the New Church True Christian Religion Journal of Dreams

Although Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) is commonly known for his spiritual philosophy, his early career was focused unnatural science. During this period, Swedenborg thought of the world was like a gigantic machine, following the laws of mechanics and geometry. This volume analyzes this mechanistic worldview from the cognitive perspective, by means of a study of the metaphors in Swedenborg’s texts. The author argues that these conceptual metaphors are vital skills of the creative mind and scientific thinking, used to create visual analogies and abstract ideas. This means that Swedenborg’s mechanistic and geometrical worldview, allowed him to perceive the world as mechanical and geometrical. Swedenborg thought ”with” books and pens. The reading gave him associations and clues, forced him to interpret, and gave him material for his intellectual development.

“[Andrew Levy] brings a literary sensibility to the study of history, and has written a richly complex book, one that transcends Carter’s story to consider larger questions of individual morality and national memory.” –The New York Times Book Review In 1791, Robert Carter III, a pillar of Virginia’s Colonial aristocracy, broke with his peers by arranging the freedom of his nearly five hundred slaves. It would be the largest single act of liberation in the history of American slavery before the Emancipation Proclamation. Despite this courageous move–or perhaps because of it–Carter’s name has all but vanished from the annals of American history. In this haunting, brilliantly original work, Andrew Levy explores the confluence of circumstance, conviction, war, and emotion that led to Carter’s extraordinary act. As Levy points out, Carter was not the only humane master, nor the sole partisan of emancipation, in that freedom-loving age. So why did he dare to do what other visionary slave owners only dreamed of? In answering this question, Levy reveals the unspoken passions that divided Carter from others of his class, and the religious conversion that enabled him to see his black slaves in a new light. Drawing on years of painstaking research and written with grace and fire, The First Emancipator is an astonishing, challenging, and ultimately inspiring book. “A vivid narrative of the future emancipator’s evolution.” –The Washington Post Book World “Highly recommended . . . a truly remarkable story about an eccentric American hero and visionary . . . should be standard reading for anyone with an interest in American history.” –Library Journal (starred review) “Absorbing. . . Well researched and thoroughly fascinating, this forgotten history will appeal to readers interested in the complexities of American slavery.” –Booklist (starred review)