INTRODUCTION

Swedenborg (1688-1772) worked for decades as a scientist (especially metallurgy and mining), but his reputation today is primarily as a mystic. He kept a dream journal during the period of his great change from engineer to visionary, early 1743 to late '44; one of the world's oldest surviving dream-journals. It was never meant for publication--scrawled, with scratch-outs, abbreviations and highly personal references--difficult even before translation. However, Swedenborg's scientific habits serve him well--dates are clear, dreams are in sequence, and he regularly attempts interpretation; he's practical, reasonable, and sometimes records multiple possibilities.

Yet he was devout; he seems determined to emulate Christ, purging all selfish and worldly urges to become, essentially, a saint. Curious ambition for a scientist! Odder still, he achieved it--at least his practical demonstrations of miraculous knowledge (see Swedenborg's Visions) were the best-documented of his century; he influenced Blake and Emerson, and troubled Kant. If he'd been Catholic he'd likely be a saint--if a controversial one like Francis of Assisi. As it is, he's a strange, powerful figure making both scientists and conventional Christians uncomfortable. Good for him!

IN THE FORM OF WOMEN

Seemed to take leave of her with particular tenderness, kissing. When another appeared a short way off; the effect while I was awaking was as if I was in continual amorous desire. Yet it was said and as it were complained that it was not at all understood.

Which signifies that an end has now come to what I have written on the senses in general, and the operation of the interior faculties, which, as it is projected, cannot be comprehended; and that I am now coming to the second part, on the cerebrum.

1744/7/7

... all objects of the sciences presented themselves to me in the form of women.

Editor's Note

Swedenborg sees that research is, for him, as sexy as, well, sex. So an affair in his dreams may mean loving a research topic! Notice he qualifies it--"to me". Swedenborg's the earliest dreamworker I know of to catch on that dream symbols can recur not because they're archetypal, but just convenient for the dream-scriptwriter. If a dreamworker figures out a symbol once, why not re-use it? You build up a vocabulary of agreed-on meanings, easing interpretation. This works well--until, of course, a theorist like Freud or Jung assumes his own idiom is universal.

Source: Swedenborg's Journal of Dreams 1743-1744, 1989 ed. with intro by Wilson van Dusen. Paragraphs 212-213. Descriptive titles are mine; untitled in journal. Interpretations are Swedenborg's, though run together with dream text; I offset interpretations for clarity.

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