Publication of Dr. Sang Hun Lee's messages from the other side, Life in the Spirit World and on Earth,' comes at a moment when the salvation of the spirit world is at the forefront of Rev. Moon's concern. Each stage of the Blessing of 360 million couples on earth is reportedly accompanied by the blessings of billions of spirits.' In this context, Lee's book has nearly scriptural status. Rev. Moon endorsed it as suitable for Hoon Dok Hoe readings. Moreover, the book's reports were integral to a providential event: The fifth chapter is a record of Lee's interviews, at Rev. Moon's request, with mostly infamous personages-Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, etc. Within a month of that communication, at the Blessing of 120 million couples on June 13, 1998, these same personages were blessed as the representatives of all wicked people, thereby opening the gate for the liberation of hell.

Nevertheless, we will essay to better understand the vision of the spirit world reported in Life in the Spirit World and on Earth. For this purpose it is helpful to locate Lee's book within the genre of reports on the spirit world and compare its vision with other such visions. For this study, we will compare it with four other books in the genre. Two are channeled books familiar to many Unificationists. Life in the World Unseen has long been a popular spirit world primer for Western members of the Unification Church. It is an account of a bright, busy and pleasant realm narrated by a former Anglican monsignor. A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands was recovered from obscurity and republished by Philip Burley. 4 Its vivid and passionate description of one soul's journey on the path of atonement reveals much about the course of restoration through indemnity for spirits. The other two books in this study were authored by earthly people who journeyed into the spirit world and returned. Embraced by the Light, a recent best-seller, is an account of a near-death experience that includes a meeting with Jesus and a journey through several locations in the spirit world before the narrator returns to her physical body.' Heaven and Hell is a classic of reporting on the spirit world by Emanuel Swedenborg, who was the pioneer in this field.

Lee's book stands squarely within this genre. Like both Life in the World Unseen and A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, it includes visits with people who were famous on earth. Like Heaven and Hell also, it describes various realms of graded quality and brightness, from the dark hells to the bright realms of heaven. It extols the natural beauty of the higher realms and describes the atmosphere of light and love which pours into these realms from the divine Source. Like Betty Eadie in Embraced by the Light, Sang Hun Lee meets Jesus. Like Franchezzo in Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, Lee serves heaven by acting as an emissary to the lower realms.

All five books convey a message to readers on this side of the grave; indeed that is their main purpose. They are more than just travelogues; they have teachings to impart. Yet there are differences between their teachings, some of which can be attributed to the authors' or mediums' differing religious beliefs. Whether he or she is male or female, from East or West, also affects the tone and mood of the revelations. For a critical evaluation of these accounts, it is necessary to be aware of beliefs and predispositions that might color these messages.

Revelation, we know, is never received in a pure state. The human heart upon which it is impressed is not a blank slate. The reception of revelation is colored by the character and beliefs of its human recipients. Since the quality of life in the spirit world itself is so greatly governed by thought, the very experiences of its inhabitants are likewise colored. Two visitors to the same spirit world might see and hear different things. Exposition of the Divine Principle states, "Although spiritually sensitive people are in contact with the same spirit world, because their circumstances and positions vary and their character, intellect and spirituality are at different levels, they will perceive the spirit world in different ways."

In determining how the authors' religious beliefs might have influenced their accounts, we find that some have a connection with Spiritualism or the psychic sciences. From Swedenborg to modem Spiritualism, people drawn to this form of faith have distrusted conventional church teachings. They are often eclectic, drawing their understanding of reality from sources East and West. Could that be one reason why the protagonists of Life in the World Unseen and A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands meet teachers from the East with names like "Ahrinziman" and "the Chaldean" but do not encounter Jesus or the Christian saints? On the other hand, Lee is by confession a Unificationist. In addition to teaching what is recognizably Unification theology, he meets people who are important for the Unification story: biblical figures like Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Jesus and Mary, as well as leaders of the Communist world and of the Korean Christians who directly opposed Rev. Moon's ministry. What of Embraced by the Light? Eadie claims to have no connection to Spiritualism and few preconceived ideas about the hereafter. She describes herself as a Christian who has been searching for the correct understanding of God through experiences in many different churches. However, from outside sources we learn of her affiliation with the Latter-Day Saints,' and Mormon theology colors many of its pages.

A seeker for clarity would want to adjust for differences in religious belief or background by focusing on the teachings that these accounts hold in common. All of them affirm in clear tones that love is the essence of life in the spirit world. God is a God of love, who wants nothing else than to love each of His children as fully as possible. Nevertheless, most people enter the spirit world burdened with sin. It is not for God to judge or punish; rather, one's situation in the spirit world is self-made. The spirit world is where the internal fruits of one's earthly life become manifest. One brings to the spirit world the quality of character and love that one has manifested in earthly life, as well as the accumulated kindnesses and wrongs one has done to others. Earthly position, fame or reputation count for nothing. Love is all that matters.

Therefore, one should repent of attachment to material things, of the pursuit of power, or of selfish gratification of one's lusts. One should prepare for heaven by living a lifestyle that is fit for heaven, by cultivating genuine love while disciplining the desires of the flesh. The love and light of heaven emanate from God; therefore, to prepare for heaven one should cultivate a spiritual life of faith and charity such that one can receive God's love. However one cannot simply rely upon conventional religious dogmas, as their descriptions of what is needful to gain heaven and avoid hell are full of errors, misleading countless numbers of faithful believers.

This is a rough sketch of the philosophy of life held in common by all the books in our study. It may be termed the philosophy of the spiritual life. We need not be surprised that this thought is largely in agreement with Unification teachings. We should also not be surprised that this philosophy is also widely shared by sincere believers of many faiths who have found these and similar spiritual texts to be valuable guides for their spiritual life. We live in an age when God's truth is rapidly becoming known in all quarters.

An exhaustive list of the points of agreement and points of difference between these five accounts could fill many pages. Rather than enumerating them, I will give a brief assessment of each book's unique character and discuss in passing how its vision of the spirit world can help us better understand and appreciate Sang Hun Lee's special message.

Life in the World Unseen opens with the narrator, who on earth went by the name Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson but in the spirit world is known simply as "the Monsignor," giving a rather typical account of the passage to the hereafter. He rises from his body, feels the lightness and freedom of his spiritual body, and is surprised and pleased to know that he is still whole and possessed of his faculties of perception and speech. He meets a friend and guide, and then journeys up and away from the earth plane to the spirit realm where he will make his home. It is a rather beautiful place, a slice of heaven that resembles the English countryside.

What makes Life in the World Unseen stand out as an exceptional work is the details with which he describes the comings and goings of spirit life. Whether a description of spirit clothing, an account of the creation of flowers or a description of inventors at work, no fine point is omitted. It answers many questions that any curious person might have: What do people wear? What do they eat? Do they need to sleep? Can you take a swim? How do you travel about? Can you travel between realms?

Life in the World Unseen, and especially its sequel More About Life in the World Unseen, contain meetings with famous people. Since Lee also met with many famous people, it is worth examining these accounts. First, they do not trade on their names or titles, nor does their earthly position have any meaning to their social life in the spirit world. A member of the royalty becomes just another citizen. A great composer or scientist puts himself or herself at the disposal of all. The Monsignor remarks, "The great, who have gained their greatness through the various expressions of their genius, consider themselves but the lowly units of a vast whole, the immense organization of the spirit world. They are all striving-as we are too-for the same purpose, and that is spiritual progression and development. They are grateful for any help towards that end, and they are glad to give it whenever possible." 9 A meeting with Haydn and Tschaikovsky found them to be simple and unassuming, living in a small house, and happily composing new scores. Avoiding the distractions of worldly fame, these great men of music went about calling each other by their first names." Although the purpose of the visit was only to introduce a young newcomer, they did not, as one might expect, regard the youth (who on earth would be nothing but a tourist) as a bothersome distraction, but rather showed him warm hospitality. In comparison to some of Lee's interviewees, they seem quite happy and well-adjusted. They seem to have little to be ashamed about and can easily converse with friends and guests.

The famous people whom Sang Hun Lee interviewed in hell were tormented; some lived alone and avoided all contact with others. However, many of the personages whom he met living in the good spirit world also spoke of regrets and shame over their earthly life. Their demeanor was due, I presume, to the exceptional nature of their visitor. They could not be at ease with him as they would be with an ordinary guest. As a messenger of God, Lee carried the authority and the purpose to connect to their deepest past and their highest hopes. His authority from True Parents also meant that he came bearing words of judgment. Presumably, a visit from the Monsignor need not have elicited such painful honesty.

The Monsignor does not dwell in the highest spheres, nor can he easily enter and see their abundance of jewels and other sights of incomparable beauty. Now and then heavenly emissaries visit his realm, where they are received with deep respect. He is given a mission by one of these emissaries, one which will help in some way to atone for his mistakes in his earthly lifechiefly that in his books and sermons he had perpetuated ignorance about the true nature of life in the hereafter.

Can we better pinpoint where the Monsignor was dwelling? Lee describes the realms of Paradise as divided into nations: Japan Town, Chinatown, etc." This was certainly the case for the Monsignor, who lives in a place that bears striking resemblance to the English countryside. He confirms that such national distinctions disappear in the highest spheres, for, "this dividing of the nations extends only to a certain number of realms. Beyond that, nationality, as such, ceases to be... We shall cease to be nationally conscious such as we are upon the earth-plane and during our sojourn in the realms of less degree."" The fact that he was being guided by a Chaldean who came from those higher spheres suggests that a true estimation of Paradise should include realms that are beyond nationality." The Monsignor's experience suggests that he may be within the lower spheres of Paradise, among the realms that still maintained such distinctions yet not far from the border of those that do not.

Lee also says that people in the middle realms must work hard, yet they are passive and lazy, with little hope or desire. The Monsignor lives in a place where the people are working, though they seem to be happy and content. Still, I wonder whether he or his friends have much aspiration to better themselves; they rather expect to remain in their tolerably pleasant surroundings for a long time. Sure, there's plenty of work to do, people to help, music to write and perform, inventions to create. Yet, I sense that after a few years, it might seem rather boring and dull. Something is missing, some spark... What is it? There are no marriages, no families! Everyone is single, living as friends with one another. Can that be truly heaven?

For this reason, Life in the World Unseen, despite its recounting the beauties of the spirit world, ultimately doesn't satisfy our taste for life. It is rather like a society of angels, or of monks who are required to be celibate. Furthermore, there is no account of any personal relationship with God among the dwellers of the Monsignor's realm. They live removed from the Source, only receiving communications indirectly, through emissaries. One can conclude that the love there, though full of brotherly and neighborly affection, is not quite true love. Neither is there full and complete knowledge, either of a personal God, or of Satan, whose existence is denied." This latter feature of his world could be a reflection of his liberal Anglican or Spiritualist beliefs. Swedenborg before him also denied the existence of a personal Satan." Can we accept these denials at face value, given Jesus' many sayings about Satan scattered throughout the Gospels?

In Betty Eadie's much briefer account of the spirit world, Embraced by the Light, she has a foretaste of this same spirit world. She marvels at its flowers, its halls of knowledge and invention, its music and colors so vivid and full of life. Its theme is a message of comfort and hope that there is indeed life beyond the grave.

For nineteen years after returning to life-for it was not yet her time to die-Eadie kept her experiences to herself and shared them only with those she loved. Finally, she set them down in a book. Embraced by the Light is significant for being a best-seller that has popularized the idea of life beyond the grave to millions of readers and spawned numerous similar titles.

Eadie's near death experience begins in the typical manner: rising from the sick-bed, meeting friendly spirit-beings, traveling for a while on the earth plane to see her family one last time, and then a long journey upward. But in her case, the person she meets at the end of her journey is none other than Jesus Christ.

When Jesus speaks to her, she nestles herself in his arms as a child. He fills her mind with knowledge about God and spiritual reality, answering her many questions. Eadie's questions have a distinctly theological bent. What is death? How was the universe created? Why are there so many religions? What is the purpose of life? What are the spiritual laws by which we should live? Betty had always been a seeker for truth, with a mind full of such questions. Compare the cleric who narrates Life in the World Unseen, who probably had pretty definite opinions about most matters of faith. We never read that he sought the answers to great theological questions; his first queries were about practical matters pertaining to his new life in heaven.

As a result, Embraced by the Light is as theological as Lee's book, though we would more likely expect it from Lee, who in life was a philosopher and systematizer of Unification teachings. Perhaps Eadie shared with Lee a burning desire to know the answers to ultimate questions; hence her thoughts naturally turned in that direction. This sort of revealed theology however, claiming as it does to come from the highest spiritual source, still must be taken with several grains of salt, as it is inevitably mixed with the author's religious background.

In one of her visions, Eadie sees mature spirits who are about to be incarnated in their earthly bodies. She learns these pre-existent spirits are created in the spirit world and then incarnate to experience life in the physical body. They incarnate in families and in situations that reflect the friendships and bonds which they formed in their pre-existence. There they experience a lesson which is valuable for their spiritual growth.

The preexistence of the soul is not part of the teachings of the other accounts of the spirit world considered here. We don't find this idea in Life in the World Unseen, where on the contrary, the Monsignor reports, "In my travels through these realms of light I have yet to find a single solitary individual who would willingly exchange this grand, free life in the spirit world for the old life upon the earth-plane."" Moreover, one of the truths Eadie learns is that pre-existence is not reincarnation: "I also learned that we do not have repeated lives on this earth."" Pre-existence, however, is a pillar of Mormon theology. How much the author's own mind has conditioned this scene can be discerned from her own question to Jesus, "I wanted to learn the purpose of life on the earth. Why are we here? As I basked in the love of Jesus, I couldn't imagine why any spirit would voluntarily leave this wonderful paradise and all it offered... to come here."" When on her sick-bed she first met her spirit guides, she said that she knew they had known each other for "eternities" 9 a Mormon term for pre-existence. While the idea of the pre-existence of souls is foreign to most of us, Eadie already took it for granted.

This reader would have appreciated knowing in advance that the author was of the Mormon faith. To be fair, Eadie claims to have good reasons to avoid bringing up mention of her particular religion. She believes that the core of her experience is universal and can be had by a person of any faith. Therefore, she doesn't want to prejudice people of other faiths against hearing a universal message. Moreover, she teaches that the state of one's heart, not membership in a particular faith, is most important for deciding one's eternal life. She therefore says that she does not want people who are moved by her account to run and convert to the Mormon church.'O

Spiritual cognition, even of the highest beings, may be more or less true. Swedenborg recounts how the angels sometimes set up seemingly realistic scenes for troops of spirits, who do not question their veracity until they are revealed to be performances designed to teach a lesson." In A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, Franchezzo is instructed about astral shells which result from the magnetic emanations thrown off by earthly humans and spirit persons. They persist, though devoid of soul, and can be molded into various likenesses by the power of thought. He learns that spirits who wish to disguise themselves make use of this astral matter, as do spirits who wished to be photographed by earthly cameras." Thus there is room for much theater and pretense in spiritual experience. Still, regardless of their content, experiences of the bright realms of heaven are given in love and for the sake of love.

In a visit to the spirit world that would last only a few hours, it was not time to challenge Eadie's cherished beliefs. Swedenborg points out that instruction in the truths of heaven occurs only after several stages of adjustment." In Life in the World Unseen, the Monsignor states, "adherents to any particular religious body will continue to practice their religion in the spirit world until such time as their minds become spiritually enlightened."" Eadie herself said in an interview, "I was told that God is so loving that he would not shock anyone out of their current belief system."" Furthermore, Eadie's belief that mature spirits take on earthly bodies to learn life lessons may have been a useful vehicle for impressing upon her the directive to return to the earth-plane to finish out her own life-mission.

Questions of destiny and knowledge of the future do, however, loom large in many spiritual books. Psychically gifted people undoubtedly do see glimpses of the future, and time in the spirit world is not like earth time. In A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, Franchezzo is twice instructed by his teacher, Ahrinziman, on how the future interpenetrates the present. The first is a description reminiscent of Einstein's theory of relativistic space-time:

In the spirit world, where time is not reckoned by days or weeks or counted by hours, we judge of how long an event will take to accomplish or when an occurrence will happen by seeing how near or how far away they appear, and also by observing whether the shadow cast by the coming event touches the earth or is yet distant from it-we then try to judge as nearly as possible of what will be its corresponding time as measured by earthly standards... [M]any things may intervene to delay it and thus make the date incorrect. An event may be shown to be very near, yet instead of continuing to travel to the mortal at the same speed it may be delayed or held in suspense, and sometimes even turned aside altogether by a stronger power than the one which set it in motion."

In a second teaching, Franchezzo has a vision of a person's "star of destiny" whose path marks a person's life-course as long as they follow the ways of truth and right, but, "If the soul cease[s] to be pure, if it develop[s] its lower instead of its higher attributes, the star of that soul's destiny will grow pale and faint... die out and expire. . ."'I In both these teachings, the earthly person's destiny is predetermined in the spirit world, yet the individual has yet the free will to turn aside from destiny's path and thus delay its realization or even void it altogether.

This teaching of A Wanderer in the Spirit Worlds is clearly in agreement with Unification theology's doctrine of predestination contingent on human responsibility. What of the doctrine of pre-existence as presented in Eadie's vision? Perhaps in her vision Eadie had a glimpse of the distant land that is the future, and the mature spirits that she saw there were in fact from the predestined future kingdom in which all souls will achieve their God-ordained perfection. Or, maybe these spirits were astral manifestations symbolizing their future destinies. This could explain her sick-bed vision of the young child standing in the ballerina pose," which was realized years later in the person of her adopted daughter Betty Jean." On the other hand, when her mind was illuminated by the thought that she was one of countless spirits who were present from the beginning of time and assisted in the creation of the world,'o we can surmise that she might have glimpsed her origin as one of the countless individual images within God as posited by Unification Thought."

Eadie is predisposed to believe in Satan and the Fall, and so on these matters she receives wisdom." She learns that Adam was too satisfied with himself, while Eve was restless and "she wanted to become a mother so much that she risked death to obtain it." She recognized how women have an emotional structure that allows them to have an especially close relationship with God. Although in one sentence she reports the standard Mormon dogma that Eve chose to fall as "a conscious decision to bring about conditions necessary for her progression," a kind offelix culpa, two paragraphs later she describes how Satan tempts women and breaks up families:

I saw that he would use the same process of temptation in the world that had been used in the Garden. He would try to destroy families, and therefore humanity, by tempting women. This unsettled me, but I knew it was true. He would attack women through their restlessness, using the strength of their emotions-the same emotions that gave Eve the power to move when Adam was too satisfied with his situation. I understood that he would attack the relationship between husband and wife, distancing them from each other, using the attractions of sex and greed to destroy their home... I was told that once Satan had the women, the men would easily follow.

It is difficult to reconcile this truth with the doctrine that Eve chose to fall "to bring about conditions necessary for her progression." Is Satan, the destroyer of humanity, at the same time a divine agent whose temptation makes it possible for Eve to progress? Is evil, therefore, good? Is lust, which smothers the spirit and stunts its growth, at the same time necessary for growth? The Fall resulted in an enormous weight of human suffering; how could it then be welcomed as part of God's original plan? Yet by itself, the second revelation, which goes beyond Mormon doctrine, is uncannily accurate. This can be surmised by comparing it with Lee's interview with Adam and Eve.

Certainly, Betty Eadie experienced Paradise. Just how high a realm she witnessed is evident when she describes that at her decision to return to earth "thousands of angels surrounded me."" In her humility, she knew that the Paradise she saw was "only a tiny vestibule of heaven."" But the most striking thing about her experience was her intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, whose commanding and loving presence was ever her source of love, joy and guidance.

We are naturally led to the question of how Eadie's encounter with Jesus can square with Lee's encounter with Jesus-assuming that they were the same person. Lee states, "Even though Christians serve Jesus, fulfilling the highest goal of their earthly lives, Jesus feels lonely."" What a surprising statement! Jesus has loneliness in his heart despite being surrounded by countless Christians. This is because they don't understand Jesus' mission or God's will. They spurn the True Parents, in whose advent lies the key to God's hopes and Jesus' hopes. Instead they only want to stay with Jesus and praise Jesus. They "beg Jesus... 'Oh! Our Lord! We want to go together with you! ... 11

From Lee's perspective, when Eadie asked Jesus not to send her back to earth, saying, "No, no. I can't go back. I belong here. This is my home...,"" she was acting like a typical Christian with whom Jesus could hardly begin to share his heart. In Eadie's case, however, Jesus could take pleasure in the fact that she accepted her mission and left him to return to the earth-plane. She could accept that she had to leave him because she knew her time on earth was not yet over. But of those Christian spirits who have finished their course on earth, how many understand Jesus' heart well enough to go forth from his presence and labor for God's will? Jesus' love is so all-embracing. It must be difficult to leave Jesus and return to the battlefield of life without a strong understanding that there is much more to do to establish the Kingdom.

Although as a divine spirit Jesus should be fit for the Kingdom of Heaven, he stays in Paradise out of affinity and love for his sheep. It is the same principle for any elevated spirit, as the Monsignor relates in More About Life in the World Unseen:

It may transpire that two people, between whom there is a strong bond, might belong to different planes of progression, and therefore inhabit different realms. In such cases it is not uncommon for the one entitled to live in the higher realm to remain with the one who is not yet advanced, until such time as the latter has progressed, and then, together, the two mount to their new realm, and so continue unseparated.

Jesus is lonely indeed, because there are so few followers with whom he can confide his hopes and dreams. He has to treat them like little children of slight understanding, as he does Eadie. But when he meets Lee, Jesus can share from a deeper part of himself. In his letter to Rev. Moon, Jesus declares, "The name 'Jesus' is always being made to stand out on earth, and no words can describe how ashamed I feel before you, Father, because of this.... Christians on earth will begin to have dreams about the wretched appearance of Jesus in the spiritual world."" In other words, Jesus wants to reveal himself more fully to Christians, that they might view him not as an all-powerful king or all-knowing parent, but as God's son who still grieves that his work, and God's plan, is yet unfinished. In this way, his followers may be able to relate with him in a more adult manner. If one doubts whether this view of Jesus is correct, or rather is simply a projection of Unification teaching, here is a testable prediction: Jesus will begin to manifest himself to sensitive Christians in a new way.

A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands is a richly detailed and moving account of a young man's awakening to life in the spirit world, his gut-wrenching realization of his vile and sinful life, and his efforts to do penance and rise to the higher spheres. Franchezzo's story is in many ways the most gripping and soul-stirring of all the accounts discussed here. There's little theology-our protagonist had rejected the church-but rather through a series of narratives we are introduced to people in many situations of blessedness and (mostly) suffering. Dante's inferno was never more graphic than this account of the hells and the sufferings of its denizens. Yet the overall theme is hope that God has for even the most miserable sinner to repent and rise to the higher realms.

Another feature of this book is its advanced discussion of spiritual substance and spiritual phenomena. Through his teachers, Franchezzo learns many lessons about the principles of mediumship, the deceptive abilities of spirits, the baneful effects of evil spirits on earthly people, the nature of astral matter, the methods of spirit photography, and the arts of foretelling the future. This communication was given during the heyday of spiritualism. Evidently an aspect of Franchezzo's mission, in addition to giving hope to sinners, was to instruct spiritualists on some of the finer points of spiritual communication so as to avoid being deceived by evil spirits.

In Life in the World Unseen, despite its picture of a bright world where most people are content with their lot, we also learn of spirits who, by dint of sincere remorse and penance, are able to rise up from the lower realms. We learn that one occupation for spirits of the bright realms is to minister to the spirits in the hells and bring them to repentance.' In A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, the entire story is about repentance and the upward struggle. Franchezzo, buoyed by the love of his earthly companion, is a champion among those who strive to go on the course of restoration through indemnity. At death, he arises as a frightened, ugly, deformed spirit, which was a reflection of his dissolute life, his love of self, and his deceit towards even the one he most loved. He wanders in the darkness of the earth-plane for a time, until he is invited to join what appears to be a monastic order, the "Brotherhood of Hope," which exists for the purpose of guiding spirits on their path of penance. From his sparsely-fumished cell, he goes out on missions to rescue others, along the way confronting situations and temptations that challenge him to personal growth. He must learn elementary lessons about selfcontrol, followed by lessons about temptation and its causes, until he can finally learn the greatest lesson-to forgive and love his enemy.

The gray block building which housed the Brotherhood of Hope "was like a huge prison."" Perhaps it is a model for the prison which Lee describes' for residents in the Unification spirit world who committed grave sins, a place likewise devoted to indemnifying sin-not a cruel prison, but more of a reformatory. Living in the Brotherhood, Franchezzo's life is structured and guided as he takes on various tasks. As he grows stronger and more committed to the course of restoration, he is given more challenging missions. Stage by stage, his spirit-and his circumstances-improve. By the end of the book he is living in a beautiful villa in a bright realm, and he has taken his place as one of the angels of light in the providential struggle against the forces of darkness.

A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands is not least about romance and the power of love. Franchezzd gains the power to go forward only from the constant devotion of a pure-spirited woman whom he had left behind. She is his constant support and stay; the hope of eventually reuniting with her in the bright spheres motivates him to strive onward and endure any hardship in the course of indemnifying his many sins. She is the reason that he can advance so rapidly, while others around him backslide again and again and must labor for centuries before overcoming their lower natures. This is in agreement with the principle that resurrection requires a physical body. Lee also states, "If descendants sincerely offer their hearts for the sinners in the Spirit World, then such spirit people can come to the point of understanding themselves and how they must change."" How much more effective are the prayers and devotion of a spouse or a fiancee? Many times, the effect of Franchezzo's beloved's prayers was to help him understand himself, draw him away from temptation, and show him the way forward.

Sang Hun Lee, like Franchezzo, visited the inmates of hell, so it is instructive to compare their accounts. When Lee visited Stalin, he found that Stalin still lived like a king. Although the houses were like hovels and the atmosphere was oppressive, his followers still honored him as their lord. His guards kept tight security around him. Yet for all that, Stalin was miserable and spent much of his time in seclusion." On one of Franchezzo's journeys to hell, he met an Italian prince, his most illustrious ancestor, who had once ruled over the city of Rome with absolute power. In hell he was still enthroned, in a moldering castle, with servants and minions at his command.' While Stalin was humble before Lee's purity and divine love, this prince still gloried in his schemes to control the earth and sought to ensnare Franchezzo in his plans. Still, the effects of hell were to display his scheming as nothing but evil. Given this comparison, we see that kings on earth can sometimes still command a certain mock authority in the spirit world. Franchezzo's account of his meeting with the Roman prince gives verisimilitude to Lee's encounter with Stalin. What remains surprising about $talin, in my view, is that he so readily opened his mind to Lee and became humble and repentant.

While Lee visited Stalin, some of Stalin's guards held him and threatened him, saying that if he returned he would face "serious danger." How can a spirit, which is eternal and incorruptible, be subject to danger? We can learn from Franchezzo's account of his journeys to the hells, where he is indeed many times in danger. On visiting the prince, he is almost captured and thrown into a deep pit, and would have been imprisoned there if not for the help of a companion who threw him a life-line. Apparently, if heavenly visitors to a lower realm take on some of the realm's low magnetic energy, they can be trapped by the powerful beings of that realm. As Franchezzo learns through experience, even if a heavenly visitor has strong will, he can face danger if he has any give and take with hellish elements, either by partaking of its food and drink, or joining in its pastimes, or by the connection of lineage. Most damaging of all are the memories of the visitor's own sins; when these are called to mind by the hell-being, they can weaken even the strongest resolve. Lee describes how sinful spirits send signals to people on earth who are related to them by blood or otherwise, causing mishaps, illnesses or criminal activity. Bad fortune assails them, without them ever being aware of its spiritual cause.' Such ancestral influence can be varied and subtle. When Franchezzo met the Roman prince, he became aware of the many occasions in which this evil ancestor had influenced his own earthly life-chiefly towards pride, arrogance and thirst for power. He relates how his ancestor had sought to mold him in his own arrogant image:

When I had felt most of ambition and a proud desire to rise and be again one with the great ones of the earth as had been my ancestors in the past, then had he been drawn up to me and had fed and fostered my pride and my haughty spirit, that was in a sense akin to his own. And he it was, he told me, who had prompted those acts of my life of which I felt now the most ashamed-acts that I would have given all my life to undo, after I had done them. And it was he, he said, who had from time to time sought to raise me in the world till I should be able to grasp power of some kind.

This is but one of many insights that A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands gives into the nature of the spiritual chains of sin that bind people and drag them downwards.

In several episodes, Franchezzo meets a tyrant and his victims in the same hell, bound together by chains of hate as strong as any love on earth. In one scene that plays out the consequences of oppression on the earth,' he sees a man is chained to a dungeon wall while a crowd of people throw knives and rocks and curses at the wretch; these people were his victims on earth. They continue to attack him interminably but are unable to kill him. The man was a cruel judge in a city in South America acting in the name of the Spanish Inquisition. He coveted the beautiful wife of a local merchant; and finding a pretext to bind the merchant in prison, he seized the woman, who refused his advances and died. The wronged merchant nursed such a strong desire for revenge that once he entered the spirit world, he plotted the judge's death.

When the judge awoke in hell, chained to the dungeon wall as he had chained so many others, the merchant stood as foremost among the crowd throwing rocks and knives at the judge. Meanwhile, far away in heaven, the merchant's wife longed for him to give up his vengeful passion and join her. Yet until the softer feelings of love could weaken the thirst for revenge, this poor merchant remained in hell, tied to the villain who had destroyed his family. When Franchezzo comes with a message of hope from his wife, the poor merchant's gaze finally turns to higher things, and he begins the journey out of hell.

The scene is reminiscent of Lee's account of meeting Hitler.' He found him stripped naked and tied to a tree. A numberless throng of people shouting, "Kill him! Kill him!" pelted him with rocks and threw curses at him continually. They were Jews, victims of the Holocaust. The Jews were also bound in chains, some were covered with blood, some had fallen to the ground. Yet they cared about nothing except the opportunity to take revenge on their enemy. Lee wondered: between Hitler and the crowd of Jews, whom he should ask to repent first? Whom should he teach first about God and True Parents? One might think that these poor victims of Nazi cruelty deserve a better fate than to be bound in chains and living in hell, but such is the spiritual power of resentment and hate that it can overcome all other desires of the heart. Lee came to meet Hitler, but he could not help but pray with a heart of love for these victims, that they might cool their vengeful passions and resume their own spiritual progress.

Franchezzo confirms Lee's statement that each person is punished according to his crime." The murderer is continually murdered; the evil judge finds himself in jail; the taskmaster finds himself a slave. Yet everywhere God and His agents are working to bring souls to repentance; in that sense, hope is never lacking even in the deepest hell. I have found no account more accurate, and certainly none more graphic, of the plight of spirits in the lower realms and the indemnity course they must walk for restoration, than is presented by A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands.

Emanuel Swedenborg pioneered the scientific description of the spirit world. Being gifted with exceptional clarity, he was able to separate much of the wheat from the chaff. Exposition of the Divine Principle mentions him by name 51 and cites him for three significant contributions: First, his teachings have had widespread influence on modem religious thought despite the disapprobation of the established churches. Second, his teaching, which revealed many hitherto unknown secrets of the afterlife, is largely truthful." Third, he had a significant role in God's historical providence to elevate the Christian faith from the stage of rational adherence to doctrine to the higher stage of inner, experiential relationship with God and the Spirit. Millions of ordinary people have followed in his footsteps, gaining knowledge of the spirit world through personal experience.

Swedenborg's theology differs significantly from Unificationism as regards several core teachings. He lacked any understanding of God's providence of restoration. He had no concept of the human Fall, and he denied the existence of Satan. He looked for the New Jerusalem to be established in heaven while Unificationism teaches that the Kingdom of Heaven must first be established on earth. Yet as regards his teachings on the spiritual world, the amount of agreement is striking.

In common with the other spiritual accounts we are discussing here, Swedenborg emphasized the substantiality of the spirit. After death, a person is possessed of all his senses, and of every memory and affection. He said that the angels in heaven (by "angels" he meant mainly good spirits) are handsome in appearance and stature, reflecting their inner wisdom and love, while the denizens of hell appear as monsters." He taught that the quality of life on earth decides one's destiny in the next life, "To the extent that a man wills goodness and truth and does them... to that extent he has heaven in himself.""

Swedenborg described heaven as constituted by two kingdoms, each with three levels. Within each level are heavenly societies marked off by religion, nationality and other common factors which distinguished people on earth. There are also many levels and realms in hell. He declared that God does not cast anyone into hell. After death, a spirit chooses to live in heaven or hell according to his or her own will. An evil spirit finds love of God uncomfortable to bear; he prefers to be among other spirits with whom he finds affinity. Thus he journeys to hell of his own accord."

Heaven is filled with people of all faiths; and so is hell." In an earlier account of the spirit world written before his passing, Lee gave a similar view:

Many good Christians reside [in Paradise], as well as many non-Christians of comparable goodness, truthfulness and compassion... Just as the devout Christian lives by faith in Jesus Christ, there are believers of every religion who devote themselves to God with comparable sincerity, though they call Him by other names, including Allah, Krishna, Buddha, the Essential Self or the Unmanifest Source. Seekers and righteous non-believers also, who place dedication to the truth and right above worldly affairs, can attain this high level of spirituality and merit Paradise."

Swedenborg's observation on the particular receptivity of Africans" is surprisingly apt; in the recent Holy Blessings of 360,000 couples and 39.6 million couples conducted by the FFWPU, the largest number of participating couples were from Africa.

Swedenborg pinpointed the dividing line between heaven and hell in this way: those who direct the mind towards heaven's precepts and live for the sake of others go to heaven; on the other hand, those who pay attention to the world and live self-centered lives go to hell. Piety and charity must go together. He criticized those who gave only lip-service to Christianity, who thought that by attending church and believing in Christ they could automatically go to heaven while their minds were consumed with love of self. 59

Swedenborg also taught about spirit influence. Earthly men are influenced by both good angels and evil spirits, who can invade their bodies and minds and turn them according to their own desires. We are ever responsible to reject the evil and cleave to the good." In that light, he regarded the doctrine of reincarnation as a mistaken view, a misinterpretation of the work of possessing spirits." He thus comes down on the Christian (and Unificationist) side of what has been a point of division and controversy within the new age and spiritualist communities.

Swedenborg agrees with Lee in affirming heavenly marriage and its rootedness in the divine polarity. Here we find several distinctive teachings that cohere with basic tenets of the Divine Principle. We enumerate several of them:

First, Swedenborg regarded God's fundamental nature as the duality of love (character) and wisdom (form). A corresponding duality of male and female fills all creation." In marriage, husband and wife take after the divine polarity as distinguished by the relative proportion of love and wisdom. This corresponds to the Divine Principle's teaching of the divine polarity of internal character and external form, masculine and feminine.

Second, Swedenborg taught that heaven is the macrocosmic expansion of Christ, the Divine Human." It is constituted by all the elements of man's mind." The Divine Principle likewise teaches that a human being is the microcosm of the cosmos. The cosmos consists of dual realms: the physical world and the spirit world, corresponding to the human body and mind.

Third, Swedenborg taught that the family is grounded in the image of God. As God is the conjunction of love and wisdom, of good and truth, so marriage is the opportunity for this divine polarity to be expressed in a reciprocal union. For this purpose, men and women are born. Each family that is centered on God completes the divine image by instantiating the divine polarity. Each becomes the receptacle of divine love. Furthermore, the pattern of the family is mirrored throughout the creation. Thus, Swedenborg gave ontological grounding for marriage in the divine life and remedied a weakness in traditional Christian doctrine, which had no clear understanding of marriage, given the fact that Christ did not marry and the church knew only His example. This compares well with the Four Position Foundation in the Divine Principle.

Fourth, Swedenborg taught that the family is the seminary of the human race." There our lower nature is gradually transformed and spiritualized into the purity of true conjugal love, which is the essence of heaven. Rev. Moon likewise teaches that the family is the school of love and the basic unit of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Finally, Swedenborg regarded conjugal love as the highest joy of heaven." He admitted that among Christians no conjugal relations are totally pure 6' and prophesied that at the Second Advent, "conjugial love will be raised up anew by the Lord."' Here we recognize a prophecy of the Blessing, arriving some 200 years later to elevate marriage to its true ideal as the fulfillment of the purpose of creation.

In this regard, Swedenborg declared that marriage is a higher state than celibacy. He denied that the affections of priests, monks and nuns are necessarily chaste. On entering the spirit world, each is tried as to his or her purity of heart. Those full of inward lust are led away to hell. Those who truly and chastely loved the Lord will receive a marriage in heaven. Many who feel uncomfortable with the conjugal love which pervades heaven will depart and dwell in an outlying area.

Swedenborg's greatest error as regards his spiritual teachings lies in his assertion that "those who are in the hells cannot be saved." It is the testimony of several of the spiritual books in this study that the angels and spirits of heaven have been laboring constantly to bring the spirits of hell to repentance. It is not an easy task, for most of them are ignorant. Lee writes, "spirit persons in the low levels don't know how their present, terrifying world of punishment will change. For them there is no hope and nothing to wait for. Only continual pain and suffering."" Nevertheless, as Franchezzo declares to the poor merchant, "There is hope even here [in hell], for hope is eternal and God in his mercy shuts none out from it.""

Ultimately, the liberation of hell is part of the Good News that will precede the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth and in the spirit world. After all, how can the Kingdom of God be established on earth as long as the hells continue their baneful influence on the living? Lee relates that all his spiritual activities are alive with this gospel: "Now we lecture that the door of hell will be opened and hell will be liberated.""

This hope became a reality just on the eve of the publication of Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, when on June 13, 1998, Rev. Moon gave the blessing to the Communist leaders, the war criminals and the Korean Christian leaders who opposed God's providence whom Lee interviewed for the book. Now through the Blessing, the spirits imprisoned in hell are being liberated and shown the way they can ascend to heaven. Though the burden of their sins is still heavy and their indemnity course may be long, they can all see the light of blessing and respond to the hope of resurrection. Ultimately, hell will disappear and all spirits will become heavenly beings, to the joy of God who loves the prodigal and wishes only for his salvation. Then the omnipotent God will be all in all.

Throughout this study we have been remarking on the contents of Life in the Spirit World and on Earth. Although it lacks the descriptive detail of Life in the World Unseen or the narrative power of A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, it has its own special quality that makes it unparalleled as a work of spiritual literature. Its quality derives from the fact that Sang Hun Lee goes to the spirit world representing the True Parents. He has a mission to assist the True Parents in the liberation of the spirit world and the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven. Stemming from this background and purpose, Life in the Spirit World and on Earth has several unique aspects.

For the first time in this book, one can glimpse life in the Kingdom of Heaven itself. Heaven is a world of love. Everything about it exudes love God's love and human love. These are the two most notable features of Lee's experience, which signify that he is at a higher level then the other reporters we have encountered.

Lee describes his personal relationship with God, who calls him by name, in the intimate form used in addressing a close family member, "Sang Hun-ah." He says,

I hear his voice clearly with my own ears. Then a brilliant, glittering, radiating and reflecting light appears in front of, behind and above my head. Amid the light, a streak of light, unidentified, captures my heart... my feeling is like the peacefulness when a baby in its mother's bosom meets the mother's eyes while listening to her heartbeat. Even this description cannot fully capture my experience. Then, as God's calling voice changes, the brightness of the beautiful light changes, and I go into an ecstatic state. My whole body seems to be melting. Then, suddenly, I am standing by myself: I cannot see God.

God's essence is love; his feeling is peace and rapture and joy; his appearance is as light. Swedenborg described God as the Sun of the spirit world, whose light and heat radiate as love in gradations from the higher spheres to the lower spheres.' But he did not experience God speaking to him or directly shining upon him, lifting him up into a rapturous state. Neither did the Monsignor in Life in the World Unseen experience anything like it; he and his friends could at best have a visitation from God's representatives, coming down periodically from the higher spheres. When these visitors come down, they are accompanied by beams of light, beautiful music and wonderful sensations which fill the meeting hall for all to see and hear and touch .71 Franchezzo occasionally hears mysterious voices, which always guide and instruct him. He never mistakes them for the voice of God, but knows them to be directions and guidance coming from the higher spirits who preside over his activities.

We can conclude, with Lee, that only in the highest heaven do people live with God on an intimate basis. This, Lee asserts. is the unique privilege of Unification Church members:

The thing that is hugely different is the position in relation to God. Limits exist which determine how well people belonging to another religion can hear, feel or talk to God. But Unification Church members by all means reside in a position where they may breathe together with God.

Is this just a triumphalist theology? No. It is consistent with spiritual laws, as Lee goes on to describe the shame and punishment endured by even Unification Church members who commit sin. It is consistent with the meaning and value of the Blessing for cutting off the satanic lineage and bringing human beings into God's family. Thus, by opening the gate of the Blessing to the whole world, the opportunity to live in the complete love of God has become available to all humankind.

The second dimension of love, human love, is dramatically experienced in heaven as nowhere else. When Lee arrived at his home in the spirit world, he and his wife had a new marriage. In heaven, husbands and wives make love out in the open air, with the grass and flowers swaying in rhythm, the birds singing accompaniment, and all nature rejoicing. God answers their love with rays of brilliant light pouring down upon the couple and with strains of beautiful music; He embraces them and adds His love to theirs. On earth people hide their love-making in the bedroom and would feel shame and embarrassment should anyone else happen to look in, but love in heaven is regarded as beautiful to behold.

Swedenborg also taught that the pinnacle of heavenly love is marriage. Yet not even he could describe fully from direct experience what heavenly love is like. He knew in general that intercourse between husband and wife in the spirit world is similar to that on earth, though more interior and purer." But he did not know that it involved such a beautiful conjunction with the creation, nor that God Himself embraced the couple, nor that it is looked upon as a beautiful act which others can view without shame.

Yet Swedenborg did understand some things about conjugal love in heaven. He knew it had nothing to do with fornication or adultery, but must be chaste love for one spouse." He knew that it is guided and governed by spiritual love, conjoined with God's love. Hence he would assert what Lee experienced, that only those couples who had matured in their inner selves and who lived in accordance with God's will and desire can love each other in the true sense. There can be no deception or falsity. There must be genuine trust, compassion and forgiveness between husband and wife for their love to be comfortable and harmonious, able to receive the fullness of God's love.

In Lee's journeying and interviews with other spirits we can see another unique aspect of Life in the Spirit World and on Earth. While in the other accounts the narrators receive visitations from heaven's representatives who descend from the higher realms, Lee himself is heaven's representative, descending to other spirits from what may be the highest realm. He always comes in the position to teach Divine Principle; he always comes with the heart to help the others to advance towards heaven.

In Life in the World Unseen and especially in A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, the protagonists do sometimes act the part of ministering spirits to people in the dark realms below them. As Franchezzo describes it, the spirit world contains a vast hierarchical organization, with the higher spirits helping those on the next several rungs beneath them; and they in turn ministering to those beneath them, and so on down to the spirits who are close enough to the earth plane to be of direct service to its inhabitants and to those who dwell in the hells. Every repentant spirit takes his place in the work of helping others who committed similar sins, in order that he may atone for his own mistakes. Thus he has a place in the "great system of help for sinners ever being carried on in the name of the Eternal Father of all, who dooms none of his children to an eternity of misery.""

Yet nowhere else but in Lee's book do we travel with a heavenly messenger whose visits are so comprehensive, from Jesus in the highest level of Paradise to Hitler and other war criminals deep in the darkest hell. In comparison, the other narrators can visit but a small part of the spirit world.

We noted that most of the people whom Lee interviewed, even those living in the good spirit world, felt some remorse for their failures in life. We cannot assume that they would reveal this to just anyone. For example, when the Christians come to attend Jesus, or the Buddhists venerate Shakyamuni, they only bask in their sage's glory, never thinking that within his heart might be grief and worry. When Lee met Jesus and Buddha, their attitude was different. Lee came as the messenger from God and the representative of the True Parents. He could act as their confessor, their minister and their teacher.

What does Lee's exalted position teach us about the True Parents? Surely, if his narrative is true, then the True Parents are the most precious and most exalted beings in the cosmos. The True Parents' teaching is the highest teaching, above that of any religion. The True Parents alone can open the Kingdom of Heaven and make it possible for all people to experience God's original love. By attending the True Parents, their followers can share the glory of God and serve God together with them.

The True Parents show God's love to all people. From the greatest saints to the worst sinners, they show no partiality. Who else would have the overflowing love to want to save Hitler and Stalin? Attending True Parents is no different, no matter who one is. When Tojo began to repent, he asked Lee what he could do to be saved. Lee replied, "Let's work together to spread [True Parents'] words." When Lee met Hwal Lan Kim, the former president of Ehwa Women's University who was responsible for expelling many Unificationist students, he told her the same thing: "Go to all Christian women and bear witness that Rev. Sun Myung Moon is the Lord... the True Parents and the Savior."" Jesus wrote the same thing in his letter: "I will... offer my prayers and hard work for the sake of the direction of the True Parents and the providence of restoration."" Is that not also the very thing we who call ourselves Unification Church members must do on earth?

The road of restoration centers on the True Parents, and it is the same for everyone. Heaven is open, and centering on the True Parents it is welcoming everyone. Its delights are worth every effort, so dwellers on earth should strive to make themselves fit for life in the spirit world. That is the kerygma of Life in the Spirit World and on Earth. Readers who are members of the Unification Church will be confirmed in their faith and motivated both to improve their own spiritual standard and to work hard for the sake of God's will. Strangers to the church who pick up this book at a bookstore or in a library, particularly those who are already familiar with spiritual literature, should feel at once that they are on familiar ground, yet also be pleasantly surprised.

1. Sang Hun Lee, Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, recorded by Young-soon Kim (New York: Family Federation for World Peace & Unification, 1998). For consistency in citations of channeled works, we credit the spirit narrator as the author and list the earthly medium as the recorder.

2. On Blessings in the spirit world, see Taek-yong Oh, "Gate Opened for Blessing in Spirit World," Today's World 19/3 (March 1998): 16; Chung Hwan Kwak, "PreBlessing Prayer ai the 120 Million Couples Blessing," Today's World 19/6 (June 1998): 2.

3. [Robert Hugh Benson], Life in the World Unseen, recorded by Anthony Borgia (London: Psychic Press, 1981).

4. Franchezzo, A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, recorded by A. Famese (West Grove, PA: Association for Internal Mastery, 1993).

5. Betty J. Eadie, Embraced by the Light (New York: Bantam, 1994).

6. Emanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell (London: Swedenborg Society, 1958).

7. Exposition of the Divine Principle (New York: Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, 1996), p. 142.

8. Eadie's Mormon affiliation is an issue for hard-line Christian apologists who reject the theology of her near-death experience and even regard NDE's as such as counterfeit religion. Cf. Richard Albanes, Embraced by the Light and the Bible: NearDeath Experiences in Light ofScripture (Horizon Books, 1995).

9. Life in the World Unseen, p. 167.

10. [Robert Hugh Benson], More About Life in the World Unseen, recorded by Anthony Borgia (London: Psychic Press, 1984), pp. 125-36.

11. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, pp. 20-2 1.

12. Life in the World Unseen, p. 124.

13. Cf. More About Life in the World Unseen, pp. 119-24.

14. Life in the World Unseen, p. 84.

15. Heaven and Hell, pp. 419-20.

16. Life in the World Unseen, p. 148.

17. Embraced by the Light, p. 93.

18. Life in the World Unseen, p. 46.

19. Embraced by the Light, p. 3 1.

20. From transcripts of AOL and Prodigy discussion forums, June - July, 1996.

21. Emanuel Swedenborg, Conjugial Love (London: Swedenborg Society, 1989), pp. 6-18.

22. A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, pp. 10 1 -07, 244-45.

23. Heaven and Hell, pp. 389-405

24. Life in the World Unseen, p. 19.

25. Betty Eadie, transcript of Prodigy discussion forum, July 9, 1996.

26. A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, pp. 209- 10.

27. Ibid., p. 267.

28. Embraced by the Light, p. 129.

29. Ibid., p. 145.

30. Ibid., p. 47.

31. [Sang Hun Lee], Essentials of Unification Thought: The Head-Wing Thought (Tokyo: Unification Thought Institute, 1992), pp. 14-16.

32. Embraced by the Light, pp. 109-11.

33. Ibid., p. 120.

34. Ibid, p. 122.

35. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, p. 79.

36. Loc. cit.

37. Embraced by the Light, p. 117.

38. More About Life in the World Unseen, p. 125.

39. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, p. 142.

40. Their visit to a resentful businessman (Life in the World Unseen, pp. 76-78) evidently bore fruit some years later. Cf. More About Life in the World Unseen, pp. 108-15.

41. A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, p. 26.

42. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, p. 25.

43. Ibid., p. 27.

44. Ibid., pp. 117-20.

45. A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, pp. 170-75.

46. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, pp. 37-38.

47. A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, p. 172.

48. Ibid., pp. 139-42.

49. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, pp. 121-24.

50. Ibid., pp. 36-37.

51. Exposition of the Divine Principle, p. 357.

52. There is an apocryphal story that Young-oon Kim once had occasion to sit with Rev. Moon and relate Swedenborg's teachings, whereupon Rev. Moon remarked that his understanding of the spirit world was 80% correct.

53. Heaven and Hell, pp. 44-48, 50-51, 327-28, 336-37.

54. Ibid., p. 313.

55. Ibid., pp. 420-23.

56. Ibid, pp. 220-29.

57. Sang Hun Lee, "Theory of the Spirit World in Unification Thought" (Korean), Unification Thought Quarterly 33 (Summer 1995): 28-36; excerpted in Joonghyun Pak and Andrew Wilson, True Family Values (New York: HSA-UWC, 1996), p. 154.

58. Heaven and Hell, pp. 228-29.

59. Ibid., pp. 411-415.

60. Ibid., pp. 447-49.

61. Ibid., p. 165.

62. Conjugial Love, pp. 91-92.

63. Heaven and Hell, p. 49.

64. Ibid., pp. 328-29.

65. Ibid., p. 281.

66. Conjugial Love. pp. 66-67.

67. Ibid., p. 134.

68. Ibid., p. 88.

69. Ibid., pp. 138-40.

70. Heaven and Hell, p. 463.

71. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, p. 57.

72. A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, p. 142.

73. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, p. 3.

74. Ibid., p. 17.

75. Ibid, p. 43.

76. Heaven and Hell, pp. 77-82.

77. Life in the World Unseen, pp. 95-96.

78. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, p. 24.

79. Ibid., p. 14.

80. Ibid., pp. 34, 67-68, 70.

81. Heaven and Hell, pp. 269, 273; Conjugial Love, p. 53.

82. Heaven and Hell, pp. 269-82.

83. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, pp. 34-36, 54.

84. A Wanderer in the Spirit Lands, p. 86, cf pp. 263-65.

85. Life in the Spirit World and on Earth, p. 13 1.

86. Ibid, p. 135.

87. Ibid, pp. 14142. 

Dr. Andrew Wilson is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at the Unification Ibeological Seminary. His publications include World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts (199 1) and True Family Values co-authored with Joong Hyun Pak (1996). He is currently engaged in writing a textbook on character education.

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