Polarity – a reworked, recycled religious concept

[Bitsy]

Lightworker/Darkworker = Angel/Devil

The two sides of the concept of polarity, which has recently emerged on this website, strike me as merely different labels for the age-old notion of heaven and hell as taught in certain religions, only in this context they have been recycled and presented to us in a more socially acceptable, New Age context with more socially acceptable labels.

I will refer to the writings of a man named Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), because he is the only person I know of who has the relevant experience. He wrote many books on the experiences he was allowed to have in heaven and hell and in the world of spirits in order to shed light on the truth concerning Christianity, the Bible and life after death. In his writings, he wrote many things which did not agree with mainstream Christianity, to put it mildly (in fact, one of the controversial things he stated was that God is a Divine inflow of love and wisdom energy and not some wise old man with a staff and a long, flowing, white beard). To this day he is perceived by mainstream Christians who know of him as having been possessed by demons and, of course, his deviant writings about his other-worldly experiences and conversations and radical professions about Christianity were quashed. For this reason he is not well-known.

The similarities between Steve’s notion of polarity and the labels of lightworker and darkworker and Swedenborg’s account of angels in heaven and devils in hell are clear:

“Lightworker”/Love-polarization – Angel/Heaven:

“All the evidence in heaven bears witness to the fact that the Divine, which emanates from the Lord, influences angels, and makes heaven, is love. All people who are there are actually models of love and charity.” Heaven and Hell, n. 17.

“Darkworker”/Fear-polarization – Devil/Hell:

“But in a broad sense, all the people who are in the hells are governed by their fears. Some are governed through fears grafted and then rooted in them in the world; but since these fears are not enough and gradually ebb, they are ruled by fears of penalties, which serve particularly to deter some of them from doing evil things.

...each individual is the particular kind of devil his opposition to the Divine in this world has made him.” Heaven and Hell, n. 543.

Swedenborg, however, does not polarize love and fear. According to Swedenborg, and accurately, in my opinion, both angels/love-based souls and devils/fear-based souls, act from and based on their love, but what distinguishes them is what they love, and, thus, intend and do:

“It is a person’s love that constitutes his purpose and focuses his inner sight or thought on its objects. So love of self focuses the inner sight on self and what belongs to self: love of the world focuses it on worldly matters; and love of heaven focuses it on heavenly matters.” Heaven and Hell, n. 532.

“A person’s whole intention and love stay with him after death. If a person intends and loves what is evil in the world, he intends and loves the same evil in the other life, and then will no longer let himself be led away from it... Consequently, after death, the person himself, not the Lord, casts himself into hell.” Heaven and Hell, n. 547.

Thus, I propose that “polarity” and “lightworker/darkworker” are merely alternative concepts that describe the traditional concepts of heaven and hell and angel/devil (good/evil). These old concepts have been reworked, recycled and presented, admittedly, in a practically applicable life context, given trendy, New Age labels and are now socially acceptable because they have not been presented in association with the idea of heaven or hell, or in the context of an organized religion.

[TheColonel]

Excellent Bitsy. This also gels with Tolle's theory that death is merely the falling away of all that isn't truly you.

[The Coronet]

Originally Posted by Bitsy

I don't know how it fits in with non-duality and subjective reality, which are all I am really trying to achieve right now (and am thankful that I at least understand those), and I have all I can manage with that.

Doesnt Steve say the whole of the outerworld is really and extension of himself and therefore according to him there is noone else out there in fact there is no out there?! In which case everything you are doing is for yourself ultimately, when you appear to help someone else, your are just having an experience for yourself. Therefore the light/dark dichotomy can only apply to fear and love and nothing else.

[Bitsy]

Originally Posted by The Coronet

Doesnt Steve say the whole of the outerworld is really and extension of himself and therefore according to him there is noone else out there in fact there is no out there?! In which case everything you are doing is for yourself ultimately, when you appear to help someone else, your are just having an experience for yourself. Therefore the light/dark dichotomy can only apply to fear and love and nothing else.

However, in subjective reality, or the non-duality model of reality, you don't experience any fear at all, only love. That is what he said in the Overcoming Fear podcast and the effect is the same if you apply the subjective reality model. There is no fear in those models of reality, only love. If you shift your consciousness to oneness, or that there is only one consciousness, you don't experience fear anymore.

Now he is saying to experience fear...and that it is good to be fear-based and basically we should ignore the things he has been teaching until now, which were to strive for a reality model with just one universal consciousness...I really liked those things. I don't like what he is saying now and they contradict his original teachings. Moreover, he is not explaining how what he is saying now relates to all he has been writing and saying about non-duality and subjective reality.

[wolfgang]

Originally Posted by The Coronet

Doesnt Steve say the whole of the outerworld is really and extension of himself and therefore according to him there is noone else out there in fact there is no out there?! In which case everything you are doing is for yourself ultimately, when you appear to help someone else, your are just having an experience for yourself. Therefore the light/dark dichotomy can only apply to fear and love and nothing else.

Yea! Anything you do for others is really a form of giving to yourself. I hope more people see this polarity idea with this context. Also can be said that in ordet to give to others you have to also be giving to yourself. As in being able to love someone, it's easier if you already love yourself. Or the quality of love you can offer is only as good as the quality of love you giveto yourself.

[The Coronet]

Originally Posted by Bitsy

However, in subjective reality, or the non-duality model of reality, you don't experience any fear at all, only love. That is what he said in the Overcoming Fear podcast and the effect is the same if you apply the subjective reality model. There is no fear in those models of reality, only love. If you shift your consciousness to oneness, or that there is only one consciousness, you don't experience fear anymore. .

yes I like this model and agree with it! When I am being driven by fear it is basically because I have forgotten this and have been sucked into the illusion of seperation. When I remember it I feel peaceful again:-)

Originally Posted by Bitsy

Now he is saying to experience fear...and that it is good to be fear-based and basically we should ignore the things he has been teaching until now, which were to strive for a reality model with just one universal consciousness...I really liked those things. I don't like what he is saying now and they contradict his original teachings. Moreover, he is not explaining how what he is saying now relates to all he has been writing and saying about non-duality and subjective reality.

Yea I totally agree. It does contradict. In fact the polarity concept can only apply if your living in the illusion of seperation, the illusion of lack and suffering.

I suppose the interesting point is that you can get results based on fear, like getting fit because your frightened of heart disease but ultimately isnt that because you love being healthy? Fear and love are in this way two sides of the same coin, it just comes down to what you want to focus on! However surely according to the LOA if you are doing something motivated by fear and thus focusing on that fear arent you inviting it into your life. Therefore in the above example you might get fit but get heart disease anyway!

Wolfgang, (sorry dont know how to put quotes in from different people) I agree, you cant love anyone else if you dont love yourself especially if we are all one and the same!

[Dbarker]

Originally Posted by Bitsy

Moreover, he is not explaining how what he is saying now relates to all he has been writing and saying about non-duality and subjective reality.

I'm not sure if this relates or not. I'm going back to non-duality and the Buddha teaching the "Middle Way." What I'm getting from Steve is that basically we have to choose one extreme or the other to achieve whatever it is we are intending. Or maybe these are two separate concepts, intending and non-duality?

[DrFredbert]

Bisty, I happy you actually came right out and said it. You saved my fingers from some exercise.

Repackaged, reworked, and redistributed dualistic thought is just as bitter on my taste buds. The scary thing is the sense of awe I'm getting of some of the posters. They are seemingly viewing good old Steve as the lightworker pope or something.

Creepy.

[Sean.M.Connelly]

Originally Posted by DrFredbert

Repackaged, reworked, and redistributed dualistic thought is just as bitter on my taste buds.

Indeed.

Controlled or not controlled?
The same dice shows two faces.
Not controlled or controlled,
Both are a grevious error.
-- Mumon

~Sean

[skydust]

im glad other people have noticed the absurdity in this new theory too.

[munish]

Originally Posted by Bitsy

Lightworker/Darkworker = Angel/Devil

Bitsy,

You could be right.