by Helen Keller
Reviewed for The Whole Life Times by Lorrie Kazan
Light In My Darkness is the re-edited edition of Keller’s popular 1927 manuscript, My Religion. This is her tribute to Emanuel Swedenborg, the widely diverse and original 18th century scientist and mystic whose discoveries, to name only a few, included the functions of the cerebral cortex and the ductless glands, the design of the glider-type airplane, the submarine and the slow combustion stove. He also experienced angelic visions, to which he devoted his writing during the last 27 years of his life. Such theological works as Arcana Coelestia and Heaven and Hell would dramatically impact William Blake, Samuel Coleridge, and the transcendentalists, among others.
The premise: God is Divine Love, Divine Wisdom and Divine Power for use. Where we think life happens from the outside in, Swedonborg claims that the “influx is of the interiors into exteriors, and by means of this influx man has perception.” The Seth books came along centuries later to astound us with that same information that your perceptions color your reality. We have to ask ourselves “what’s real?”
Keller reminds us that without the faculties of sight and sound, (lost from illness at 19 months), she is not blinded by matter the way most of us are. She has had to discover, develop and rely upon her inner life. Swedenborg’s celestial visions were therefore no more unreal for her than descriptions of our physical world. For her even to speak takes such rigor and control that it’s almost otherworldly in itself.
Swedenborg’s depiction of the afterlife imbues her with the sense that in the hereafter she will be able to see, hear, and speak the same glorious language as all other souls in God’s kingdom. To live a life of goodness and service is to bring one’s self closer to God and to recognize that the source of happiness is within.
Publisher: Chrysalis Books, 2000
