Emanuel Swedenborg From Scientist to Mystic

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In this episode of pplpod, we explore the life of Emanuel Swedenborg, the Swedish scientist and inventor who anticipated the neuron, then spent his last decades mapping heaven, hell, and other planets as a mystic. Born in Stockholm in 1688, the son of the controversial bishop Jesper Swedenborg, who believed angels were present in everyday life, he toured England, France, Germany, and the Netherlands and absorbed Enlightenment physics and mechanics. In 1714 he sketched a human-powered flying machine, and he went on to design submarines, automated weapons, and water pumps. After Charles XII died, the queen ennobled the family and the name became Swedenborg. A severe stutter led him to turn down a mathematics chair at Uppsala and pour his intellect into writing.

The episode follows his 1730s shift to anatomy in search of the soul's physical location. He identified the cortex as the origin of nerve fibers, mapped motor function, and pinpointed the role of the pituitary gland. Visions during his 1744 and 1745 travels culminated in a London tavern encounter, after which he left his post on the Board of Mines, taught himself Hebrew, and wrote Arcana Coelestia. He claimed the Last Judgment had occurred in the spirit world in 1757, rejected the Trinity and faith alone, and taught that true marriages continue in heaven. His 1759 live account of a Stockholm fire from Gothenburg, 400 kilometers away, drew fame, and Immanuel Kant first admired and then mocked him. He died on March 29, 1772, as he had predicted, leaving a legacy of vision, correspondence, and a blurred line between genius and madness.

In this episode we cover...

• Swedenborg's Stockholm upbringing, his bishop father, his grand tour of Europe, and his early inventions including the 1714 flying machine
• His ennoblement, his refusal of the Uppsala chair because of his stutter, and his turn to anatomy in the 1730s
• His discoveries on the cortex, motor function, and the pituitary gland, and The Animal Kingdom
• The 1745 London tavern vision, the Journal of Dreams, Arcana Coelestia, the 1757 Last Judgment, and his theory of correspondences
• The Gothenburg fire, the queen's secret, the widow's receipt, Kant's reversal, the letter to Wesley, his death in 1772, and his influence on Blake, Emerson, Jung, and Borges

Source credit: Research for this episode included transcript materials and supporting eighteenth-century Swedish, Enlightenment science, anatomical, theological, mystical, and biographical sources accessed October 31, 2026. Content is summarized and adapted for commentary and educational use.