Birthday Meeting: Lecture and Music: 'The Feeling of What Happens'

Date: Sat, 30/01/2010 - 4:00pm

Venue: Swedenborg Hall, The Swedenborg Society, 20 Bloomsbury Way, London WC1A 2TH

Talk by David Lister and music by Debussy, in honour of Emanuel Swedenborg's birthday (29th January 1688)

David's talk will explore Swedenborg's scientific discoveries in an attempt to understand what processes lie behind a human perception of reality.

Visual images, sounds, smells and sensations are all occurrences, or ‘happenings' accompanied by feelings or emotions. This dynamic reflects Swedenborg's division of the faculties of the brain into the ‘will' and the ‘understanding'; just as the heart and lungs are at once independent and necessarily conjoined, the will and understanding ‘are distinct from one another, but so created to be as one, and when they are one they are called the mind'. ‘One cannot think without affection'. Without emotions there can be no understanding of experience.

This talk explores the anatomical structures of the brain, which support these compulsive and rational functions. David will focus upon one of Swedenborg's remarkable visions of 250 years ago, which foresaw, with amazing accuracy, the parts of the brain responsible for the emotions. Besides being anatomically and functionally precise, the vision gives them a spiritual aspect, which David believes is lacking from modern scientific neurology.

David Lister is the current chairman of the Swedenborg Society and a member for the past 19 years. His diverse interests - scientific, spiritual and charitable- reflect those found in Swedenborg's writings. David was a medical missionary in India and then a surgeon in Denmark, before returning to England to practice as a GP for the latter part of his career. He is fascinated by Swedenborg's analogies - both spiritual and scientific - and the ways in which these might inform one another.

Refreshments will also be provided.