Leon James

About the Author Leon James Jakobovits

Since 1971 Dr. Leon James (Jakobovits) has been Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii. He has also held academic positions at McGill University, Laval University, University of Wisconsin, and University of Illinois. Since 1962 he has conducted research, published articles and books, and taught courses in several scientific specialty subjects that include the following:

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social-personality theory and measurement; statistics and research design; psycholinguistics and ethnosemantics; ethnomethodology and intersubjectivity; discourse analysis; language learning and teaching; library and information science; driving psychology; road rage; sidewalk rage; air rage; the spiritual psychology of Emanuel Swedenborg; cyberpsychology; marriage and couplehood.

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He has been on the Editorial Board of various academic journals and regularly consults with safety organizations and institutions worldwide on driving psychology. He is considered an expert on “road rage”, “air rage” and “sidewalk rage”, and has given over one thousand newspaper interviews and media appearances. In 1997 he gave expert testimony to the Transportation Sub-Committee in the U.S. Congress on the topic of road rage and aggressive driving.

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In fifty years of scientific research and writing he introduced more than two thousand neologisms or novel expressions that refer to new scientific ideas that he discovered. Some of these expressions have been picked up by others and are in use today. The oldest and most successful of his neologisms is the expression “semantic satiation” which was the topic of his Ph.D. Dissertation at McGill University in 1962. Semantic satiation refers to the change or loss of meaning of a word when it is repeated beyond a certain frequency. He demonstrated how this neuro-semantic phenomenon applies to various situations, including vocabulary learning, doing arithmetic, enjoyment of popular songs, stuttering on the phone, bilingualism, remembering TV commercials, and focusing on visual displays. In the past few years semantic satiation has been researched in dozens of articles in psychology, instruction, business, art, music, and aesthetics.

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Another of his neologisms that entered into popular use is the expression “road rage nursery” to refer to the back seat of a car. This was meant to alert parents that how they verbalize and behave behind the wheel in traffic will function as a model for the children in the back seat when they grow up and start driving. An expression he coined that became very popular in the language-teaching field is “communicative competence”. This idea was meant to make a distinction between mere linguistic competence and the actual ability to use the language for communication.

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However most of his neologisms remained unaddressed by others. Some of these are: “cross-modality transfer effect”, “ethnosemantic hexagram series” (trigram, hexagram, ennead, double hexagram, electric couple), “existential neologisms”, “mental anatomy”, “the mental world of eternity”, “vertical community”, and “self-witnessing”. The full list of his neologisms with explanations is available in his Book titled: The Spiritual Dimension of Neologisms: How We Move Up And Down The Consciousness Layers Of Our Mind Now And In The Afterlife of Mental Eternity. Kindle eBook.

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For the past thirty years he has focused his research especially on the Writings of Swedenborg, looking for ways to transform Swedenborg’s ideas into the language and theory of modern scientific psychology. Leon James created the expression “theistic psychology” in 1990. He acknowledges E. Swedenborg (1688-1772) as the actual Founder of theistic psychology though Swedenborg himself did not use this expression. Several useful spiritual ideas emerge from this effort. Just four of these ideas will be mentioned here, as they are discussed throughout the author's books.

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(a) One is the novel principle, which is unheard of in modern psychology, that the spiritual world of the afterlife is the mental world of eternity. This may be the greatest discovery of his career. The consequence of this equation is that every human being is born into eternity and thereby is immortal. Every mind and its personality or self is immortal because it already exists in eternity. Therefore instead of “death” he discusses in his books the “three-day dying-resuscitation procedure” by which our spiritual body is disjoined from the dead physical body. We then immediately gain consciousness of the surrounds and begin to interact with the people who are already in the afterlife. Our spiritual body upon resuscitation has the same appearance as our former physical body, but this changes after a little while.

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(b) A second insight from Swedenborg to modern psychology needed a new name to express the idea, namely, the existence of the "vertical community". This idea describes how every individual’s mental life is anatomically connected to the mental life of those who are already in the afterlife. There is therefore a hitherto unknown anatomical interconnection from each human being to every other. This amazing new view expands the meaning of community from “horizontal community” that depends on geographical place and time, to “vertical community” that is independent of fixed time and place. The psychological implications of this discovery are numerous and remain to be followed up. The concept of a vertical community opens up whole new areas of study, research, and application in human mental health and in community organization.

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(c) The third new concept proposed for modern psychology is the idea of the "as-of self". This concept replaces the idea of the self, or more precisely, proposes the next phase of human evolution. When we think of ourselves as an “as-of self” we are able to overcome the illusion that our mental life is from ourselves. This illusion ignores the actuality of the vertical community, and this results in many debilitating symptoms in psychological functioning and interpersonal relations. Equally important, the “as-of self” concept clarifies the relationship between individual freedom and God’s omnipotence. Experiencing regeneration is possible with the as-of self concept because it allows us to separate ourselves from selfish loves and inherited evil inclinations. Psychologically we can now stop identifying with negative feelings and intentions, and this gives us the freedom and opportunity to adopt new altruistic traits. This process equips our personality with positive traits that will allow us to enjoy the life of heaven in the afterlife.

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(d) The fourth concept is the idea that mind has an anatomy and organic structure. Without organs the mind is not real. Hence arose materialism and reductionism in science whereby the mind was tied completely to the physical brain and not actually existing in its own realm or permanence. In that view, when the brain dies, so does the mind. This idea is so disturbing to people because it gives them impermanence and this is the experiencing of death. Everything changes when we consider the new proposal of mental anatomy, which restores scientific dualism to historical psychology. Now for the first time psychology of mind is discussed as anatomy of the spiritual body and its threefold system of affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor.

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Note: Dr. James started studying Swedenborg’s Writings in 1981. Full text access to most of his Swedenborgian books and articles is available at the Theistic Psychology Web Site: http://theisticpsychology.org/index.htm

https://web.archive.org/web/20191022075025/http://www.theisticpsychology.org/index.htm

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See also a list of Collected Papers by Leon James in 10 Volumes: http://www.theisticpsychology.org/Leon.James/sl-shelflist.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20160617024301/http://theisticpsychology.org/Leon.James/sl-shelflist.html

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But for those interested, some of his earlier pre-Swedenborgian works can be accessed here:

A Historical Autobiography of Leon James (1976)

http://www.theisticpsychology.org/articles/early/ccp1.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20170412074041/http://theisticpsychology.org/articles/early/ccp1.html

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Pre- and Post-Swedenborgian Discoveries and Inventions by Leon James (1960-1980)

http://www.theisticpsychology.org/articles/discoveries.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20160811044703/http://www.theisticpsychology.org/articles/discoveries.html

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Lecture Notes on The Psychology of Knowledge (1977)

http://theisticpsychology.org/articles/early/knowledge.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20170801235444/http://www.theisticpsychology.org/articles/early/knowledge.html

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Empirical Metaphysics and Physics: Common Conceptual Foundations (1971)

http://theisticpsychology.org/articles/early/empirical.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20160617000126/http://theisticpsychology.org/articles/early/empirical.html

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Essays on Nothing And Everything: Contributions to a Radicalist Philosophy of the Human Condition (1973)

http://theisticpsychology.org/articles/early/essay.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20170412072730/http://theisticpsychology.org/articles/early/essay.html

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The Universal Modes of Enactment in Human Experience (1974)

http://theisticpsychology.org/articles/early/enactment.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20190121132605/http://www.theisticpsychology.org/articles/early/enactment.html

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Recent Books by Leon James

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(2010). A Man of the Field: Volume 1. The Struggle Against Nonduality and Materialism. Eagle Pearl Press: Pleasanton, CA Basis of Religion Series. Print Edition. (Also Kindle Digital version in 2012)

(2010). A Man of the Field: Volume 2. The Spiritual Sense of the Writings. Eagle Pearl Press: Pleasanton, CA Basis of Religion Series. Print Edition. (Also Kindle Digital version in 2012)

(2014). A Man of the Field Volume 3: Spiritual Regeneration Disciplines For Daily Life. Eagle Pearl Press: Pleasanton, CA Basis of Religion Series. Print Edition. (Also Kindle Digital version in 2012)

(2012). The Conjoined Pair. Print Edition: Regeneration Media. CreateSpace Publishing.

(2012). Avatar Psychology and Mental Anatomy. Print Edition: Regeneration Media. CreateSpace Publishing.

(2015). Experiencing Regeneration: Equipping Our Personality for Living in the Afterlife. Kindle Edition. Amazon Digital Services, Inc. Also Print Edition. CreateSpace Publishing.

(2015). Jung and Swedenborg on God and Life After Death. Kindle Edition. Amazon Digital Services. Also Print Edition. Regeneration Media. CreateSpace Publishing.

(2016). Reality is Spiritual. Volume 1. Dreams and the Spiritual World: Integrating the Psychology of Jung and Swedenborg. Kindle Edition. Amazon Digital Services. Also Print Edition: Regeneration Media. CreateSpace Publishing.

(2016). Reality is Spiritual. Volume 2. The RTS Personality: Rational Theistic Self-analysis For Achieving Wholeness Here and in the Afterlife. Kindle Edition. Amazon Digital Services. Also Print Edition: Regeneration Media. CreateSpace Publishing.

(2017). Reality is Spiritual Series. The RTS Interviews. Volumes 3, 4, 5. Based on the Theistic Psychology of Jung and Swedenborg. Kindle Edition. Amazon Digital Services. Also Print Edition: Regeneration Media. CreateSpace Publishing.

(2018). Consciousness And Immortality: Spiritual Knowledge for Managing Our Destiny in the Afterlife of Eternity. Kindle Edition. Amazon Digital Services. Also Print Edition.

**James, Leon (2018). Semantic Satiation: What Happens When You Repeat a Word Over and Over Again. . Kindle Edition. Amazon Digital Services. Also Print Edition.

**James, Leon (2018). Moses, Paul, and Swedenborg: Stages of Growth in Rational Spirituality. Kindle Edition. Amazon Digital Services. Also Print Edition (2 volumes)

(2018). Theistic Psychology - Expanding The Narrative Series. A New Modern Synthesis Of The Ideas of Jung And Swedenborg. Kindle Edition. Amazon Digital Services.

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Volumes 1 to 4. Individuation And The Collective Conscious (Kindle)

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Volumes 5 to 8. Marriage, Regeneration, And Aphorisms In Theistic Psychology (Kindle)

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Volumes 10 to 12. Articles in Theistic Psychology (Kindle)

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Volume 1. Individuation And The Collective Conscious: Discovering Our Immortal Self In A Telepathic Universe. (Also in Print Edition)

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Volume 2: Personality And Afterlife Lifestyles: Getting Ready For Eternity (Also in Print Edition)

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Volume 3. Sacred Scripture, Dreams, And Archetypes: The Secret Connection. (Also in Print Edition)

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Volume 4. Correspondences, Synchronicity, And The Spiritual Discipline Of Self-Witnessing. (Also in Print Edition)

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Volume 5. Regeneration And The Vertical Community: How God Manages Our Psychological States. (Also in Print Edition)

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Volume 6. Natural and Spiritual Marriage: Moving Into Eternity Together. (Also in Print Edition)

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Volume 7. Sayings And Aphorisms In Theistic Psychology: Emanuel Swedenborg, Carl Jung, And Leon James. (Also in Print Edition.)

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Volume 8. Topics And References in Theistic Psychology

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Volume 9. Schematic Diagrams And Charts in Theistic Psychology

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Volume 10. Articles In Theistic Psychology (Part 1 of 3)

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Volume 11. Articles In Theistic Psychology (Part 2 of 3)

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Volume 12: Articles In Theistic Psychology: (Part 3 of 3)

(2018). Principles of Theistic Psychology Series. Kindle Edition. Amazon Digital Services.

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Volume 1. Introduction To Theistic Psychology

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Volume 2. Q&A On Theistic Psychology Print

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Volume 3. Developmental Levels of Thinking About Theistic Psychology

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Volume 4. Extracting Theistic Psychology From Sacred Scripture

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Volume 5. Research Methods in Theistic Psychology

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Volume 6. Personality And Spiritual Growth

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Volume 7. Character Reformation And Levels Of Consciousness

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Volume 8. Learning, Cognition, And Education

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Volume 9. Evolution And Stages Of Spiritual Development Print

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Volume 10. The Daily Emotional Spin Cycle And Yoga Print

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Volume 11. The Marriage Relationship: Wife-Centered Vs. Husband-Centered Print

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Volume 12. The Heavenly and Hellish Traits

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Volume 13. Religious Psychology And Rational Spirituality

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Volume 14. Scientific Meaning In Sacred Scripture Of Traditional Religions