How to Link with Love and Light: One of the Great Questions of Life

By Stephen Russell-Lacy

Readers may have doubts about the existence of God but nevertheless be interested in the possibility of love and light as a universal force within themselves.
Does meditation link us to a higher awareness?
Is the idea of universal spirit meaningful?
Can we rely only on ourselves during personal struggle?
Do we need an image of the divine?
This eBook introduces the perspective of Swedenborgian spirituality on the subject of the human aspect of transcendence.
If you see yourself as someone who is 'spiritual but not religious', this is written for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Stephen Russell-Lacy
• Release date: Jul 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781908649065

Stephen Russell-Lacy

Stephen Russell-Lacy has tried to combine three things in his working life. First there is his profession of clinical psychology. He worked for over thirty years as a psychotherapist with people experiencing emotional distress and training others in this activity. Second is his study of the fields of transpersonal psychology and the psychology of religion. And third is his involvement in teaching of the spiritual philosophy of Emanual Swedenborg. He currently runs residential workshops covering psychospiritual matters and is a tutor and course writer at the Swedenborg Open Learning Centre, Manchester, UK. He also edits Exploring Spiritual Questions and is a regular contributor writing about spiritual healing, the meaning of life, ethics and human consciousness.

Book preview

If you see yourself as someone who is 'spiritual but not religious', this is written for you.

Readers may have doubts about the existence of God but nevertheless be interested in the possibility of love and light as a universal force within themselves.

Does meditation link us to a higher awareness?

Is the idea of universal spirit meaningful?

Can we rely only on ourselves during personal struggle?

Do we need an image of the divine?

This eBook introduces the perspective of Swedenborgian spirituality on the subject of the human aspect of transcendence.

How to link with love and light? One of the great questions of life

Author: Stephen Russell-Lacy

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2021 S.Russell-Lacy

ISBN: 978-1-908649-06-5

Front cover illustration by Jonas Ferlin

Acknowledgment: The author is grateful to Revd Alison Southcombe for providing editorial comments.

Table of Contents

1 Is there such a thing as higher awareness?

2 Is love and light transcendent?

3 Does contemplation link us to transcendence?

4 Is there a humane side to transcendence?

5 Is the idea of 'the Lord' meaningful?

6 How do these ideas contrast with past thinking?

7. Summary

Recommended further reading

1 Is there such a thing as higher awareness?

Awe and wonder

Maybe you can vividly recall, with wistful longing, a wonderful place in your childhood. Perhaps one where there were times of peace and fleeting joy.

Or as an adult you may remember being in a beautiful setting. There might have been a sunset. Anyway, you felt calm and content and you were touched by a sense of awe as you took the whole scene in. People can hold special places as sacred. Perhaps there was one where you unaccountably felt as though you were part of the immense, living, creative Life. This is an experience that many can remember having at some time or other. Did you desire to be at one with nature and other human beings?

One view is to say these are experiences of the soul in harmony with Universal Spirit. How can we feel alone when we sense being part of a mysterious life force?

Is transcendence just a fallacy?

A very different understanding is based on a natural way of looking at things. Science teaches that knowledge only comes from information available to the senses, as interpreted using logic. Consequently, we are often told that the idea of any ultimate reality unseen by its measuring instruments is