This collection of essays highlights the influence of Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) on art, spirituality, and culture. Opening with an essay by Spanish-language writer and metaphysician Jorge Luis Borges, from which the collection draws its name, the volume includes a description of Swedenborg's influence on Fyodor Dosteovsky by Czleslaw Mloscz; a look at Swedenborg from a mystical perspective from Wilson Van Dusen; the transcendentalist connection with Ralph Waldo Emerson in an essay by Eugene Taylor; and Buddhist scholar D. T. Suzuki's describes similarities between Swedenborg's philosophy and Buddhism. Essays by Kathleen Raine on Swedenborg's poetic influence and Colin Wilson on the psychological perspective on Swedenborg's visions round out the collection.

The Reverend Doctor James F. Lawrence received his D. Min. from the Graduate Theological Foundation and has been a Swedenborgian minister for more than twenty years, most recently serving as pastor for the Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco.  He served for many years as the publisher of J. Appleseed, Inc., a Swedenborgian publishing house. Dr. Lawrence is currently the dean of the Swedenborgian House of Studies in Berkeley, California.