3

Can human souls, having been separated from their bodies, travel in time and see their childhood or other periods of their life in their bodies?

What do Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church and the mainstream Protestants that pray to Jesus Christ in their prayers, teach regarding this matter?

The Wikipedia article on afterlife there is the mention that in the afterlife there is no time, nor space, but that is only in the section on Emanuel Swedenborg, who didn't belong to the Catholics or Protestants.

brilliant
  • 9,903
  • 13
  • 61
  • 127
  • 2
    The Tardis (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) of aeviternity! – Ken Graham Apr 14 '21 at 15:29
  • @KenGraham Edward Feser the 21st century Thomist wrote a very user-friendly blog article comparing angel intellect with human intellect, which throws light on the nature of aeviternity. It's very insightful that Descartes accidentally described the angel intellect when he wrongly postulated that the human soul is like a "ghost in the machine". What I still want to pursue further: 1) what human souls feel in this angel-like existence after death but before resurrection and 2) the nature of time & memory relevant for this Q. – GratefulDisciple Apr 23 '21 at 19:11
  • Swedenborg also did not say that souls in the spiritual world can travel through time. The lack of time and space in the spiritual world that he mentions is more of a qualitative thing. There is still passage of events in the spiritual world, he says, and events there are still generally correlated with the earthly arrow of time. It's just that in the spiritual world there is no sense of extension in time or space as we know it in the material world. So in Swedenborg's system, it would still not be possible for spirits to travel to past or future earth times. – Lee Woofenden Sep 15 '21 at 11:37
  • @LeeWoofenden - "It's just that in the spiritual world there is no sense of extension in time or space as we know it in the material world" - What extensions exactly did Swedenborg mean? Can you, please, explain? – brilliant Sep 15 '21 at 11:42
  • If you tried to measure time or distance as we commonly do here on earth, you would not be able to do so. For example, the sun does not rise or set, but stays stationary in the sky, so there would be nothing to measure days by, even though angels do experience something like a day / evening cycle. – Lee Woofenden Sep 15 '21 at 11:49
  • @LeeWoofenden - Aaaah! I got it. Thank you for this explanation. (BTW, I remember once you and I had a big fight over some topic in chat. Hope there is no hard feelings.) – brilliant Sep 15 '21 at 11:51
  • 1
    It is long forgotten. And you're welcome. – Lee Woofenden Sep 15 '21 at 11:52

0 Answers0