The influence of Emmanuel Swedenborg on homeopathic thinking

by Peter Fraser

Kentianism is not thinkable without the Swedenborgian soil in which it grew to maturity, nor has it seemed able to grow or develop further since it largely lost contact with this nutrient and sustaining environment.

Ralph Twentyman

The influence of the Swedish mystic Emanuel Swedenborg has been considerable in many fields. It can be seen in the writings and art of William Blake, in Strindberg’s drama and in the work of Goethe, Baudelaire, Milosz and of many of the fathers of American Literature including Emerson and Henry James; indeed it is to be found in the work of the whole James clan which covered a multitude of disciplines, including philosophy and psychology. Some of the great figures of American folk history, figures as diverse as Johnny Appleseed and Helen Keller, were inspired by their understanding of Swedenborgian theology. However, it is in homœopathy that the influence of Swedenborg has perhaps been most substantial. The list of homœopaths who were members of the Church of the New Jerusalem and influenced by Swedenborg’s writings stretches from John Garth Wilkinson, who was both one of the first English homœopaths and the first translators of Swedenborg into English, through most of the great American homœopaths of the later 19th and early twentieth century, to a few of us today. The major figures who were responsible for the development of classical homœopathy, particularly Hering and Kent but also Grimmer, Farrington, Boericke, Tafel, Holcombe, Gram and Wesselhoeft were not only members of the New Church but were also deeply influenced by Swedenborg’s philosophy. Until very recently many, if not most, members of the New Church used homœopathy as their primary form of medicine.

The first point of contact between Swedenborgian thought and homœopathy is the concept that Swedenborg called correspondence and Hahnemann referred to as similarity. For Hahnemann the principle was one that had been deduced from the evidence. It was one that had been observed through the centuries and which he then proved by careful experiment and observation. For Swedenborg the principle was one that had been revealed to him and which thereby explained the working of the universe or at least one part of it. Thus from Hahnemann it comes as an accepted fact that needs no explanation. He always realized the danger of theories which all too easily become more important than the facts and observations on which they should be based. From Swedenborg we get a mechanism that not only provides an explanation but offers new ways of looking at the world. Kent and his contemporaries used this opportunity wisely and so took the science of homœopathy to a deeper and more effective place.
The concept of different levels of existence that are not directly connected but which influence each other is an ancient one and one that lies at the heart of many forms of mysticism. It is the concept that lies behind the classical philosophy of Pythagoras and Plato. It perhaps finds its clearest expression in the Jewish Mystical tradition of the Kabbala, which in turn had a great influence on Western mysticism, particularly on Alchemy and Rosicrucianism and through them to the Golden Dawn and the modern Druids. In all its manifestations the basic idea is that there is an ideal concept, whether it be the Platonic Form or the Kabbalistic thought of God, that becomes manifest in a material expression which is imperfect but which can be perceived by our material senses. In its religious expressions the concept allows the adept to work upward from the perceptible material world to the purer spiritual levels and so to approach the Mind of God.

The concept has always stood in opposition to the rationalist and reductionist view of the world in which only the perceptible, physical world is real and in which the only influence one thing can have upon another is that of direct, physical interaction. This is the philosophy of Aristotle and of modern Humanism and Science. Hahnemann was in many ways a modern scientist and was much happier with such a world of direct physical interaction. Yet as a good scientist he was led by observation and reason towards an appreciation of another sort of interaction. The most important feature of Swedenborg’s understanding was that it was not necessary to choose between these two different perceptions of the world but that they could both coexist and that both were true. This is perhaps the feature that makes his theories unique and which ties in with homœopathy where we clearly observe both processes at work. William Blake expresses the concept clearly: he called the Platonic ideals the General Forms and they were the only proper subject of art yet that art could only be expressed through what he called the Minute Particulars, the actual physical processes and substances required to manifest the Forms. Swedenborg called the two types of interaction degrees. The terms he used to distinguish them (degrees of breadth and of height or continuous and discrete degrees) have become quite confusing and it is perhaps easier today to talk of degrees of interaction and degrees of similarity. On every level of material existence from the mind of God to the most solid physical manifestation there is an interaction where the actions of one thing cause an effect on the things that are in contact with it. These are degrees of interaction, they are actual, distinct and measurable. At the same time on each level there are things happening which have a correspondence or similarity to things that are happening on the other levels. As the alchemists put it: that which is above is like unto that which is below and that which is below is like unto that which is above. Furthermore when there is a similarity or correspondence the things that happen on one level affect the activity occurring on another level. These are the degrees of correspondence that we observe in homœopathy

For Hering and Kent and their like-minded contemporaries this offered a way of understanding and interpreting many of the more difficult aspects of homœopathy but particularly the concept of holism, of the totality of symptoms, that is clearly so important to understanding disease and finding a suitable remedy. The Swedenborgian concept of degrees offers a way of understanding the correspondence between the expression of disease on the physical, emotional and mental levels and offers a link to the disease on a spiritual or essential level where it can be addressed by a remedy that also acts on this essential level. This understanding was the most important development in classical homœopathy. It is something that the modern greats such as Vithoulkas and Sankaran have been able to express, but without an understanding of the underlying philosophy have not yet been able to make the next leap forward. The other area of Kentian homœopathy where the influence of Swedenborg is central is the concept of the Will and the Understanding. This is an area which we need to at least partly understand if we are to use the Kentian Materia Medica and Repertory effectively. In Swedenborgian theology the connection to God flows in two separate streams. These are the streams of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom. They are  analogous to the power of the Sun which comes to us in the twin forms of light and warmth. This concept, as so much in Swedenborgianism, corresponds to the Kabbala in which the Tree of Life is built around the twin pillars of Mercy and Judgement. The vessels in mankind in which Love and Wisdom are received in man are the Will and the Understanding. The Will is the receptacle for Divine Love but it is also the organ of expression of human love, while the Understanding is the receptacle for Divine Wisdom and the organ of expression of human wisdom. The streams of both love and wisdom are dynamic and the expression, or outflux, of human love and wisdom allow for the influx of Divine Love and Wisdom.  The greater the outflux the greater the influx. The Will is an active and expressive organ. It involves an act of volition that expresses the affections and emotions. The Understanding is a passive organ, its role is to accept influences and to discriminate between the good and the bad, accepting and absorbing the one and rejecting the other. The Will therefore corresponds to the active and expressive organs such as the Heart and Liver and the Musculature while the Understanding corresponds to those organs that discriminate, assimilating the good and expelling the bad. Thus it is associated with the Mind, the Lungs and the Digestive tract. The Will is active and so is masculine while the Understanding is passive and so, like Sophia the Divine Wisdom, is feminine. This somewhat contradicts the modern association of emotions with the female and the intellect with the male. It is therefore vital to understand these concepts, certainly to understand how the terms are used in the classical homœopathic texts, but I would argue also to understand what the pathology expressed by our patients really means.

Another of the important influences of Swedenborg on homœopathy is his attitude to judgement. Swedenborg never wished to create a new denomination and although the Church of the New Jerusalem was created, Swedenborgianism does not regard itself as the only acceptable form of religion. Rather, any heartfelt love of God and of neighbor is a proper expression of religious feeling. Although Swedenborgianism is in many ways an apocalyptical religion rooted as deeply in the Book of Revelations as it is in the rest of the New Testament, it is distinctive in seeing Judgment as an inevitable and internal process rather than something that is imposed as reward or punishment. Those who choose evil in life are not open to the influx of Divine Love and so are not capable of understanding the goodness of the presence of God and thus will never experience it; while those that choose to express human love and so make themselves open to the influx of Divine Love will experience eternal delight in the love and presence of God. Although the former do not experience Divine Love this is not a punishment, they are not even capable of understanding what they are missing and so will in some ways be content with what they have. God freely offers to each person his Divine Love and Wisdom in the form and quantity to which they are able and willing to receive it. This compassionate attitude corresponds very closely to the compassion and lack of judgment found in the best of classical homœopathy. We observe the symptoms of our patients and though we understand where these may come from it is our role to note them and to prescribe the indicated remedy. We offer only the remedy and the remedy offers to the patient healing and understanding in the form and strength to which they are capable of accepting and responding. This attitude, which seems to me to come to us as much from Swedenborg as from Hahnemann, is one that our patients often instinctively sense. Patients seem to feel comfortable telling us things that they have found difficult to tell anyone else because they understand that it is not part of our role to judge or condemn.

The concept which is found in paragraph 9 of the Organon (That in the healthy condition of man the spiritual vital force rules with unbounded sway and retains all parts of the organism in admirable, harmonious vital operation, so that our indwelling, reason-gifted mind can freely employ this living, healthy instrument for the higher purposes of our existence.) and which Swedenborg referred to as the Doctrine of Uses is another area where there is a strong correspondence between the two disciplines. Both regard the healthy body as an instrument that is available to the mind and soul for some form of higher purpose. For Swedenborg the higher purpose was to be useful, to do something that was of benefit to the world and to your fellow man and this concept permeates Kent’s understanding of this paragraph. The influence of the Druids through Maugham and Damonte (in the UK) has brought in a more egocentric understanding of this paragraph. Part of the modern understanding is that the higher purpose is to allow the individual soul to learn and to grow and so to move towards a state of greater perfection. Yet the concept of usefulness and of the healthy body being available to help others is still very strong in homœopathy.

Unfortunately for us, although Kent was a brilliant lecturer he did not write a great deal and much of what we have of his thought comes to us in the form of lecture notes transcribed by his students. It is impossible to tell whether or not he spoke of the Swedenborgian science behind his understanding of homœopathy but if he did his students failed to record it and transcribed only what they regarded as the homœopathy itself. Thus classical homœopathy has, for more than a century, been based on principles and understandings that have not been available to most of those who practice it. As Twentyman indicated, while it is possible to practice something without understanding much of what lies behind it; it is not possible to develop it further without such understanding. Classical homœopathy grew to maturity under the influence of Swedenborg and so has been available to us in a fully developed form. Yet in an expanded and more complex world there is a definite sense that homœopathy needs to develop and grow further if it is to continue to be as effective and useful as it was in the last century. To an even greater extent, without the framework that Swedenborgian science offers it has not been possible to expand the power and effectiveness of homœopathy outside the limited medical field to which it has been restricted. Homœopaths are perhaps the only group of people trained to deal effectively with many of the issues raised by the modern electronic world. However, it is unfortunate that we have not been able to offer to a wider society the understanding that is potentially available to us.


Peter is a homeopath practicing in Bristol, England.  He is the author of The Aids Miasm, and also a series of books on Themes in Homeopathy and has also been the master proving coordinator of many provings by the School of Homeopathy, Devon, England.