A Genealogy of the Extraterrestrial in American Culture

consciousness that is highly mobile, able to pierce through veils opaque to waking consciousness
and subject to direct communion with other entities. It is not surprising that along with the
aforementioned abilities, subjects under mesmerism sometimes also claimed to communicate
with angelic entities and the spirits of the dead. The discourses that emerge through and about
communication with such entities, understood primarily as angels and the spirits of the dead
(roles dealt with by some commentators and practitioners as interchangeable) are fundamentally
influenced by the works of Emmanuel Swedenborg, to whom we now turn.
SWEDENBORG AND THE SWEET HEREAFTER
In 1788, a Stockholm scholarly society engaged in the study of animal magnetism prepared a
report for a French sister society in which examples of otherworldly communication were
described. 36
Frederica Hauffe, “the Seeress of Prevorst,” was the subject of a book published by
her physician in 1829. Later books detailing the spectral communiqués received by
somnambules include A. Cahagnet’s Arcnaes de la vie future devoilés (1847-8) and Dr. J.
Haddock’s Somnolism and Psycheism (1849), both prepared by students of a man whose
teachings and person were to become central elements in the doctrines of Spiritualism, and is
often recognized as the first contactee, Emmanuel Swedenborg. 37
While the French and English
generally pursued the therapeutic capacities of mesmerism (the two aforementioned works
standing as notable exceptions), the German and Swedish magnetists were centrally concerned
with the occult aspects of somnambulism—the previously discussed higher phenomena. The
teachings of Swedenborg were central to this line of inquiry.
Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), son of a Lutheran Bishop and professor, was a
respected scientist and practical engineer prior to his emergence as a philosopher whose primary
36 Brown.
37 J. Gordon Melton, “The Contactees: A Survey” in The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds, ed.
James R. Lewis (Albany: State University of New York, 1995) 1-13.
32