Main Concepts: Mental Psychology || Mental Anatomy || Mental Physiology || Mental Biology || Biology of Immortality || Biochemistry of Consciousness || Spiritual Psychology || Theistic Psychology || Rational Psychology || Body-Mind Correspondences || Regeneration and Spiritual Combat || Dying and Resuscitation || Medical View on Heaven and Hell || Rational Consciousness of God || Eternal Conjugial Love of Soul Mates || Second Death || Omniproprium and human quasi-omniscience || As-of-Self Freedom || Divine Psychologist || Vertical Community || Grand Human and Grand Monster ||
The Organic Mind
Discovering the Mental
World of Eternity
Dr. Leon James
Professor of Psychology
University of Hawaii
Go to: Part 1 || Part 2
Part 1 begins here
Table of Contents
Discovering of the Mental World of Eternity
Chart of the Anatomical Layers of the Mind
The Mental World of Eternity Viewed in Successive
Order
The Mental World of Eternity Viewed in Simultaneous
Order
Relationships Between Mental Layers
Mental Anatomy Notation System
Chart of Body-Mind Relationships for the Mental Body
and Physical Body
Chart of Mental Layers Grouped By Threes
Intersubjectivity in Virtual World and in Mental
World
Mental Anatomy of the Individual's Threefold Self
Exercise Homework: The Visible Body:
The ACS Sequence of Execution in Behavior
Personality Development and Spiritual Growth
Mental Physiology of the Threefold Self
The Biochemistry of Consciousness.
AWM Method of Consciousness Raising
Consciousness Raising From the Divine Psychologist
Exercise for Self-witnessing the Threefold Self on
the Daily Round
Self-witnessing Inventory for the Natural Mind
Body-Mind Correspondences in Popular Symbolisms
Exercise on Mind-Body Correspondences
Taxonomy of Unregenerate and Regenerate Loves in the
Natural Mind
The Anatomy of Spiritual Combat in Temptation
The Basic Psychodynamics of Living
What is Mental Psychology
Mental psychology is an everyday self-help tool for modifying our inherited hellish traits and acquiring heavenly traits.
Human beings are born with a temporary physical body and an immortal mental body. Our mind or mental organs are located in the mental body because mental events such as our sensations, our thoughts, and our feelings, are objects than can exist only in the mental world through our mental body (or “mind”). When we undergo the dying and resuscitation process, which takes about 33 hours to complete, we are separated from the physical world and are resuscitated in the mental world with our mental body. We then continue our immortal life in that world of eternity. It is then that we have to face our endless future, which consists of entering either of two worlds of existence, one called heaven, the other hell. No other option exists. It makes good sense therefore that each of us seriously examine the proposal of mental psychology in order to find out how we control this awesome outcome.
Mental psychology is a rational description and explanation of the biology of our immortality. In order to control our eternal outcome we need to understand that this outcome is not a judgment, reward or punishment, that is imposed on each of us by stronger forces. The outcome is a medical necessity because it is a biological process. Just as the outcome of having a ripe fruit to pick, is determined by a large number of prior biochemical and physiological procedures performed by the cells and fibers of the plant. The outcome of heaven or hell after our resuscitation is determined by the loves we have acquired, and especially the ruling love that controls all other loves underneath itself. After resuscitation every individual goes through mental experiences by which one comes to recognize our ruling love, which often lays hidden beneath the view of our daily conscious mind. This ruling love determines our choice for heaven or for hell. No one chooses for us or judges our past deeds and life connected to a physical body. We choose, or more precisely, our ruling love chooses.
We are unwilling to do anything else but what conforms to our ruling love, choosing heaven if it is a heavenly love, or choosing hell, if it is a hellish love. There are no in-between loves. Every human love is sourced either in our mental heaven or in our mental hell. We choose where we want our consciousness to be, which is always according to our ruling love. Loves are biological operations of our mental organs. We need to understand the mental physiology of love and the biochemistry that creates our consciousness. We need to understand what role God plays in this process and how that affects the outcome. We need to understand that we are born with inherited mental traits that predispose us toward the enjoyment of hellish traits and the aversion of heavenly traits. This universal imbalance creates easy pathways towards hellish loves and requires greater motivation to maintain heavenly loves. Mental psychology provides the knowledge by which each of us can manage this process to our ultimate and eternal advantage, avoiding being stuck forever in the atrocities of our hells.
Traditional and universal mental health sciences, programs and policies end at the death of the individual. The most important and critical phase following death is not dealt with. Hence the knowledge is lacking in both the professionals and the population. Mental psychology can restore this unfortunate attrition, providing a medical and psychological description and explanation of heaven and hell. Mental health knowledge can enlarge its scope by including mental psychology in its practice. Every individual needs mental health literacy that covers the period from birth to death, and from resuscitation to immortality when entering heaven or hell, which is called the second death.
Gaining a knowledge of how our mind works gives us the ability of rebuilding our character. Everyone possesses inherited mental traits that are positive, creative, and heavenly, as well as mental traits that are negative, destructive, and hellish. In their daily lives people uncontrollably oscillate between heavenly and hellish mental states. Observe some portions of your daily life and see how your mood changes from heavenly to hellish in an instant. For example, you’re relaxing, feeling in a good mood, thinking that everything is working out for you now. The phone rings at that moment and brings bad news. You react by going into shock, at first, then you start venting, then you start feeling bad, scared, confused as to what to do next. Your stomach starts spasming. Sweat breaks out all over your body. Etc. You went from heaven to hell in your mind from one moment to the next. This is typical, normal, and occurs throughout the life process for an adult.
Other examples of character weaknesses that people are routinely unable to control includes widespread symptoms of
- Depression
- Divorce
- Unhappiness
- being overweight and under-exercised
- feeling little enthusiasm for work
- worrying about the future
- feeling guilty about the past
- procrastinating and being late as habits
- inability to feel enthusiasm and the zest of life
- feeling pessimistic in general
- getting angry and taking it out on others
- neglecting duties and responsibilities
- acting ineffectively or irrationally
- feeling limitations
- feeling conflictual without resolution
- acting cruel to others
- feeling hatred, desiring retaliation and vengeance
- living at our lowest mental capacity
- being misled by others,
- etc.
These are common mental habits of most people, indicating that there is a general absence of knowledge of mental psychology.
One of the reasons that this knowledge has not been available is due to the scientific practices of the mental health sciences such as psychology and medicine. They employ a negative bias methodology that excludes from study anything that does not stop at death. The afterlife is excluded. God is excluded. If however the afterlife and God exist, this exclusion process is a bias that prevents mental psychology knowledge from becoming part of the explanations of human growth and development. Mental psychology is in the positive bias methodology, which assumes that God and the afterlife exist. Once this assumption is granted as a possibility, a wealth of new mental health knowledge becomes available to help people manage those character weaknesses that produce the list of everyday problems for the majority of people anywhere.
Mental psychology is based on mental anatomy and mental physiology. In the negative bias mode of scientific thinking the expression “mental anatomy” is viewed as a metaphor based on the anatomy of the body. But in the positive bias mode of scientific thinking, the word “mental” is a dualist concept that contrasts with “physical.” Those who think of “mental” in materialistic terms that are proper to the negative bias science, define it in relation to the physical brain. In other words, sensations, thoughts, and feelings are effects produced by the physical brain. In the positive bias mode, however, the “mental=brain” formula is called materialistic reductionism, and substitutes for it, substantive dualism, which refers to the existence two separate worlds, one physical, the other, mental.
The two-world perspective of dualism (this life and the afterlife), has been held by every human generations from the beginning to now. The development of mental psychology as a science is restoring dualism to the discourse of scientists. This is made possible by the fact that mental psychology brings forth for the first time a concrete proposal on mental anatomy and physiology, not as metaphors, but as actual structures of the mental organs. Knowledge of this anatomy gives us an entirely new collection of psychological principles and tools for dealing with human problems and development.
Mental psychology requires a theistic perspective because human anatomy and physiology follow spiritual cause-effect laws called correspondences. Once we allow for the possibility of God’s existence (positive bias science), we are bound by scientific thinking to specify in mechanistic detail the cause-effect operations by which an “omnipotent, omnipresent” God manages every detail in our mental organs, which give us the ability of integrating our sensing, thinking, and feeling into human consciousness and life. Mental psychology will have to specify the details of this relationship between God and every person. The idea of God’s omnipotence and omnipresence requires us to think about how God operates our mental life, and what is the specific purpose for which this is done. The concept of “self” and “human freedom” must be specified explicitly and rationally within the attributes that are given to God as omnipotent and omnipresent.
As a science, mental psychology is separate and independent of any other enterprise such as religion, philosophy, culture, belief system, etc. God is an accepted working idea in many places in society and culture, but mental psychology as science, cannot rely on or be associated with any of these non-scientific enterprises. Hence it is necessary in mental psychology to give a scientific meaning to God in both the physical and in the mental worlds.
Mental psychology is still a developing field, but its basis and foundation are now available to anyone who wishes to study it. At this point of development, mental psychology can give definitive and fairly precise answers to the following questions and issues.
- The anatomy of mental organs, their structure, their operations, their integrated interactions to produce activity in the physical body
- The relationship of correspondence between the anatomical systems in the physical body and the anatomical systems of the mental body that contains the mental organs
- The fairly precise description of the mental world of eternity that contains the mental body, how our life in it is immortal, and begins in conscious awareness immediately following our separation from the physical body by the dying and resuscitation process, which takes about 33 hours to complete
- A fairly precise description of the development of the natural mind, and how the spiritual mind is dependent for maturation upon this development
- A precise explanation of how God is involved in the process of regeneration, which is a lifelong process of facing daily temptations that involve us in choice-making between hellish and heavenly motives and enjoyments. Because God arranges the physical and social events for these temptations, God is known in mental psychology as the Divine Psychologist.
- A fairly precise description of how we experience life and consciousness in the mental world of eternity following death, including the mental state of unity called the conjoint self, which is the immortal life of heaven between soul mates in love with each other
- A fairly precise description of the vertical community, which shows how the entire human race is integrated, and specifically, how people already in eternity influence the mental development of people still connected to the physical world
- A research methodology called self-witnessing, which involves people in the daily practice of cooperating with the Divine Psychologist as they undergo regeneration of the three layers of the natural mind in sequence: first, the rational mind, next, the materialistic mind, and finally, the corporeal mind. We experience each of these three consciousness levels uncontrollably. Mental psychology gives us management control over this operation. The result is the gradual and progressive elimination of our hellish traits, and their replacement with heavenly traits. This allows us to live with less personal problems, and to achieve higher levels of human consciousness, productivity and usefulness to society, a more encompassing and fulfilling happiness, and a deeper capacity to love in relationships.
As you study this subject, I recommend that you share your cumulating thoughts and discoveries with your friends and acquaintances. Practice telling them what you understand. This will deepen your understanding and allow you to go on more easily with your study. Note what they are objecting to and what basis they have for the objections. See if you can come up with rational answers to their objections or confusions.
I strongly recommend that you print out the various diagrams, charts, and tables that you can find by scrolling through the pages (Select the diagram, give the Print command under the File menu, indicate “Selection” – this will print the diagram only. Do this for all the diagrams.) As you read through the text you will need to refer to the diagrams. This will make the study much easier, perhaps from a difficulty level of 12, for reading the text without the diagrams present for inspection, versus a difficulty level of 3, for reading the text with the diagram present for your inspection. This is a four to one ratio in difficulty. Make it easier on yourself. You will note that mental psychology uses a Mental Anatomy Notation System, and that the anatomical layer being discussed, is always indicated in parenthesis throughout the text. First, become familiar with the notation system and the anatomical layers. Commit them to memory and explain them to friends. Second, read the text and be sure to inspect the chart of layers, or the diagram being discussed, as you try to make sense of what is being explained. Always try to visualize the layers when one is being referred to.
By following these consistent study practices you will be rewarded with a clear, scientific, and practical knowledge of how your mind works, what you need to do to manage it, and how you prepare it to be a mind suitable for heavenly life in eternity.
Discovering of the Mental World of Eternity
Consciousness is the awareness of sensorimotor appearances in the mental world of eternity.
These appearances are instantiated by correspondence in our sensorimotor organ (S). These environmental appearances or phenomena come into objective existence as a result of the conjoint operation of the affective (A) and cognitive (C) organs. The formula is: A + C = S. For instance, consider some of your dreams in which something is happening to you and around you. You are the dreamer, so you are making up the details in the dream episode. You are conscious of your dream, of how you feel, and what is around you. This is shown by the fact that when you wake up, you sometimes can remember and describe the events and how you felt. Even when you can’t remember your dream, it does not mean you were not conscious of the dream, just that you can’t remember it. Most of the thousands of little details that we are conscious of while awake all day, we cannot remember.
Since you are conscious of your dream, we can call that your dream consciousness. It is a dream world of environmental appearances, and to the dreamer, real appearances. These appearances are instantiated by correspondence in the mental world of eternity, where your sensorimotor organ is located. Your dream consciousness actually sees the dream, and is actually in that dream world. This is common in the mental world of eternity. After the dying and resuscitation process, which together take about 30 hours, we become conscious of the actual environment of our spiritual body. Some people have called it the “spiritual world of the afterlife.” It is interesting to note that people who write about and discuss the “spiritual world” do not note the fact that the “spiritual world” is the mental world of eternity. And people who discuss the “mental” world, do not note that that the mental world is the world of eternity.
The reason is that this secret has not yet been assimilated. But now, recognition of this astounding discovery is likely to grow. You are among the first to hear about it. Something led you to find this document, and leading you to continue reading it. Some people are totally uninterested in our immortality in eternity. It doesn’t seem real to them. But to others, this constitutes fascinating information. You will understand why this difference exists, as you continue to read about The Organic Mind.
The discovery that the mental world we all know so familiarly and intimately, is the world of eternity, or the spiritual world of the afterlife, surely must rank with the greatest discoveries in the history of science. It is equal in significance to the discovery that the earth is but a relatively small planet around the sun, which is a star among the numberless galaxies in the physical universe. This idea attributed to Copernicus in the 15th century is considered as the beginning of the modern scientific view. Today, 600 years later, an equally world changing idea is coming to the intellectual consciousness of humanity. It is the idea that we are born into eternity, and we are in it forever. Dying is merely the separation from the physical body which is totally empty of any mental element such as our memories, our loves, our intentions, and our pleasures. From the moment of birth our mental organs are located in the spiritual body, and we awaken to their consciousness at resuscitation, which is the process of being separated from connection to the physical body.
The knowledge of human immortality has always existed among the evolving generations. Human consciousness of immortality was present since the beginning, the first generation of human beings on this earth. The founder of our educational philosophy and system in the Western World goes back 3,000 years to Aristotle. He wrote about our immortality as part of the scientific knowledge of the day. But it was not modern science. We cannot go back to Aristotle, Plato, or Pythagoras, and obtain from them a mental psychology for the modern mind today. They did not provide us with a modern scientific account of immortality, God, or the ultimate good and truth. As a result the modern march of science has ignored their knowledge, and in the course of time, that science became thoroughly materialistic. The negative bias of materialism or monism, denies a world of eternity outside time that can be the place or basis for our mental organs and consequently, our immortality. Now in the new mental psychology for the modern scientific mind, the appropriate rationale is given for immortality, God, and eternity.
The soul is a living spiritual bar code or spiritual DNA. It has the ability to use materials from the mental world of eternity in order to fashion them into mental organs capable of receiving the radiation of altruism love substance and rationality truth substance streaming out of the Spiritual Sun and permeating everything. Our spiritual body, which we have at birth, is a mental body and is immortal or eternal. Its organic structure and its function or quality is uniquely constructed by each soul. The operation of these mental organs constitutes our consciousness and our immortal life.
The genes of consciousness are unique to infinity. The uniqueness of each spiritual bar code forms an endless procession to infinity. God’s Divine Love and Omniscience work out the individual’s moments of consciousness from birth to endless immortality. Every detail is not only foreseen by Divine Omniscience, but provided for and blessed with a mental path traced from our first conscious sensation with our first breath of air that opens our lungs and allows the blood to be oxygenated from itself. The immortal human being then begins the unique life, the unique sequence of moments of consciousness, endlessly lived, enjoyed, and appreciated by every human being.
This unique progression of moments of consciousness belongs to the individual. It is mine, my own. Without it I am not. I cease to exist, without it. We are aware from rationality and science that a unique infinite progression for each human being ever born, requires an infinite Divine Mind to figure it out, and the omnipotence to carry it out, and keep it moving in the direction of ever greater perfection of human consciousness. Think of the moments of consciousness you had in the past few minutes. You had purposeful sensations, thoughts that were coherent or meaningful, and emotions or feelings that express your love or motive – what it is you’re trying to make happen, or what it is you are hoping for when you say something to someone. These moments of your consciousness required a past context that had to be set up – they were not random. God has to manage what exists. Creating things is not enough for the world to follow a progression towards the perfection of human consciousness. God must manage every detail of every event, or else it cannot work out, but can only tend more and more toward anarchy, corruption, destruction, chaos, and meaninglessness – and after that cessation of reality.
When human consciousness is immersed in meaninglessness, it ceases to exist. Consciousness is meaning. Meaninglessness is the annihilation of human consciousness. Human life is consciousness itself.
Built into this existential organic managerial framework is human freedom. Without freedom, there is no consciousness, consequently no human life. Human freedom is acting upon consciousness by means of meaning constructed by love.
Love is therefore the heart of consciousness. Everything of meaning, hence everything of human consciousness, belongs to love, is love’s own, and even is love itself garbed with thoughts, plans, and interpretations. Freedom is to think and do what we love. This is what we call good – to think, speak, and act according to our love, which is then satisfied, and we feel content and peaceful. It does not last because we have contradictory loves.
God’s management of an individual’s unique progression of consciousness requires a mental co-presence that is intimate and loving. God manages the train our thoughts, what comes into our consciousness, and what is blocked from coming into our conscious awareness. God manages each detail, like an author of novel must manage each detail of the setting and the progression of events, including the thoughts and loves or motives of the characters. Every detail that is written down or mentioned, must be coherently worked into the fabric or network of other events and characters. You can see that the author is co-present in the character’s mind. The author must know what the character is thinking, in order to write it down. The author makes it up. Makes it to fit with the context and the other pieces that have been progressing.
Because of this intimate co-presence of God in our mind I have coined the expression “the Divine Psychologist,” which reflects the role or function of that co-presence between God and the person. The Divine Psychologist is continuously managing both the stream of our consciousness and the stream of physical and social events that must go along with our living reality.
Chart of the Anatomical Layers of the Mind
The mental world of eternity, also called the spiritual world of the afterlife, is arranged in human anatomical layers, or “discrete degrees” or levels of functioning. Each layer provides its own level of sensorimotor (S), cognitive (C), and affective (A) operations.
The Mental World of Eternity Viewed in Successive Order
|
Anatomical Layers |
Explanation |
|
1 Spiritual Sun |
Aura around the
visible Divine Human, or God as He is outside of Himself, to be seen in
creation. Source of out flowing spiritual heat or altruism love substance and
spiritual light or rationality truth substance, which are the building blocks
of all created things, including the mind. |
|
2 Soul from conception
to birth |
Also called
"Heaven of Human Internals.” Above the consciousness of human beings.
Not comprehensible. Layer where exist the immortal souls of unborn or still
born human embryos. The soul is formed at conception from the substances that
are within the father's semen. |
|
3 Soul from birth to
eternity |
Inherited from the
biological father’s soul that is carried by correspondence in the semen and
its DNA. Created at conception. Forever unconscious to our direct awareness.
Also called “God’s abode” from which He manages all the layers below. Source
of all the individual’s uniqueness in qualities and potentials. Can be called
an immortal human plant, each created by God with a unique DNA. |
|
4 Spiritual Mind with three
organs: |
Also called the
“interior spiritual,” the “interior rational,” and the “celestial rational.”
It is the inmost or highest layer of operation for human beings, giving us
quasi-omniscience through God’s Omni-proprium that is willingly received in
the affective organ in this layer (4A). It is also called the third or
celestial heaven ("highest angels") or hell (lowest devils). It
remains unconscious until resuscitation at the death of the physical body. |
|
5 Spiritual Mind with three
organs: |
One degree lower.
It also remains unconscious until resuscitation thirty hours after the death
of the physical body. It is also called second or spiritual heaven (“spiritual
angels”). Though unconscious to our daily natural mind, it maintains the
interior framework of materialism in our natural mind (layer 8). |
|
6 Spiritual Mind with three
organs: |
Lowest of the
three degrees of the spiritual mind, also called the first or natural heaven
(“good spirits”). Though unconscious to our daily natural mind, it maintains
the interior framework of rationality in our rational consciousness (layer 7), allowing human beings to
construct languages and institutions. |
|
7 Natural Mind with three
organs: |
Called the “rational
consciousness .” Can contain spiritual truths (interior-natural layer 7i)
from Sacred Scripture, conscience, enlightenment, insight. Layer 7 is the
locus of reformation and regeneration. Before regeneration, the
exterior-rational layer (7e) is in the order of hell (opposite to layers 6,
5, 4), in which state we call “good” whatever pleases us. After regeneration,
layer 7 is in the order of heaven (in correspondence with layers 4, 5, 6), in
which state we call “good” only that which can exist in heaven, as revealed
in the spiritual truths (layer 7i). Once layer 7 is reformed and is
undergoing regeneration, the lower natural layers (8, 9) can also be
regenerated from their external hellish order to an interior heavenly order. |
|
8 Natural Mind with three
organs: |
Sometimes also
called the “sensual mind” and the “scientific mind.” It is based on
materialistic abstractions of sensory appearances in the lower layer.
Contains sense bound or materialistic ideas and interests. This is the everyday
self (“me”) that we know ourselves to be prior to reformation (in layer 7).
Contains inherited hellish traits that become habits of life. This layer can
become regenerated after layer 7 has been reformed and has begun to be regenerated.
|
|
9 Natural Mind with three
organs: |
Closest to the
physical body. Contains inherited hellish traits, such as the enjoyment of
unbounded life of pleasure, leisure, and entertainment, which lead to many evils
such as overeating, spreading sexually transmitted diseases, or giving in to
laziness or being unreliable as a way of life. Puts highest value in what is concrete
rock bottom (e.g., “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”). This layer
can become regenerated after layer 8 has undergone some regeneration. |
|
10 Spiritual Body with a spiritual
sensual and a spiritual corporeal, each with three corresponding sub-degrees |
Protective
covering that contains all the prior layers above in simultaneous order. Has
two sub-layers called the “spiritual sensual” (above) and the “spiritual
corporeal” (below). |
|
11 Limbus Covering with three
corresponding sub-degrees |
Inherited from the
mother. Contains all the prior layers above. Remains forever as a natural
base (in the physical world) for the mental body and its contents to which it
is connected from birth and subsequent development. Is made of intermediary
spiritual-natural substances. Does not disintegrate at death. |
|
12 Physical Body with a natural
sensual and a natural corporeal, each with three corresponding sub-layers |
Inherited from the
mother and formed in her womb. Temporarily connected by correspondence to the
mental body (layer 10) and the mind (layers 9 and above). The natural sensual
includes the five sensory systems and their physiological connections. The
natural corporeal includes the motor system and its neurological connections.
The physical body is part of the entire natural universe, and is made of
natural substances or physical matter and physical energy. Disintegrates at
death. |
The Mental World of Eternity Viewed in Simultaneous Order
You can see that the highest layer in successive order is the inmost layer in simultaneous order. The inmost of every human being is the Spiritual Sun, and the outermost is the physical body.
Note:
I recommend that you print out the two charts above so that you have them in front of you and refer to them as you read what follows. Having the two charts available to you as a printout will also allow you to practice memorizing the layers by carrying it around with you and looking at it for a few times every day. It always helps when you try to explain the chart to your friends, especially if you can reproduce the chart from memory. Ultimately you want to be able to reproduce the whole chart from memory. Then you will be able to think and reflect and reason with it as you would use a road map in unknown territory through which you decided to pass through. Be sure to look at the chart whenever any of the layers are mentioned in a sentence (e.g., 7C or 9A, etc.). If you do this persistently, you will soon be able to visualize each layer. As you continue reading mental psychology, you will be able to cumulate the information presented by organizing everything into its proper layer. Then you can think of these layers in your mind as you perform your daily activities. If you do this you will be enlightened, being able to be a dual citizen, a new state that provides incalculable benefits to you and those who are affected by what you do.
Relationships Between Mental Layers
Note that layers are grouped in four sequences of three:
layers 1, 2, 3 pertain to God
layers 4, 5, 6 pertain to our spiritual mind in eternity (unconscious until resuscitation)
layers 7, 8, 9 pertain to our natural mind in eternity (unconscious after death)
layers 10, 11, 12 pertain to three bodily containers of the layers above
Notice the sub-layers of the natural and spiritual mind. Layers 7, 8, and 9 combined make up the natural mind, and is also called the “external mind” when it is contrasted with the spiritual mind (layers 4, 5, and 6 combined), which is then called the “internal mind.” In other words, when we contrast the natural vs. the spiritual layers of the mind, we call the natural mind our “external mind” and we call the spiritual mind our “internal mind.” This is because the mental world of eternity is internal to the physical world of the body, which is external. The internal is said to be “within” the external, and “within” is the same as “above.” Thus, what is internal or within is also higher or superior in quality of operation.
In the mental world of eternity the top three layers (1, 2, 3) belong to God. The bottom three layers (10, 11, 12) are mere coverings and support for all the rest. The middle six layers constitute our mind, also called our “spirit.” Since mind is called spirit, the mental world of the mind is also called the spiritual world of eternity. Our mind and its organs (layers 4 through 9) are located outside time in eternity. Our physical body and limbus are located in time and place.
Layers 7,8,9 constitute our natural mind, while 4,5,6 constitute our spiritual mind. Our natural mind is built up by sensory input from the physical body (layer 12). Hence layers 9 and 8 contain ideas and experiences based on the physical body and world. Layer 7 however is capable of containing spiritual content from Sacred Scripture, from conscience, from enlightenment and insight.
At layer 8C we think and reason on the basis of content from the physical world, but at layer 7C we think and reason on the basis of content from the mental world of eternity. This distinction is the very basis for our regeneration and consequent attainment of a heavenly conjugial life in eternity.
Layer 7 is called the “interior” sub-layer of the natural mind, and layer 8 is called the “exterior” sub-layer of the natural mind. There is a world of difference between what is exterior and what is interior. For example, think of some physical examples. You wouldn't pay for the chicken you ordered if they give you cleaned up chicken bones. Nor would you pay for TV that has no inner components and is just an empty box. No one can survive on banana peels and coconut shells that have been cleaned of all their interiors. So you can see from this that the exterior is necessary for a protective covering, and that the interior is actually giving you what you want or need. Our exterior mind (layer 8) is what we know ourselves as, the "me" or the "I" or the "self." This self-concept is based on materialistic content from the sensory organs.
We do not know, or believe, that we have an upper layer, a more interior layer, in which we can become conscious of a different "me," a self that is far more important to me since it forms the basis of my immortal life in eternity. The exterior layer 8 thinking and reasoning can be rearranged or corrected with reformation (see Section xx). After reformation, which can take a few weeks or a few months, or longer, we become consciously aware of the existence of the interior layer in our natural mind (7). We recognize for instance, that our familiar voice of conscience and moral reasoning about right and wrong, resides in this interior layer, not in the exterior layer. This is an important mental discovery. Look for it. Examine rationally what it is you are feeling when you just know that something is right or wrong.
You will gradually come to realize what is involved in the mental state of "I just know this is wrong (or is right)." It is not something global or undifferentiated. For instance, you definitely know that it is wrong to have the habit of deceiving people. If you think about it rationally, within the positive bias, you will see that there must be a connection between your conscience and heaven, or the layers that are above your natural mind. These are the layers of your heavenly life in eternity and they influence your natural mind in a way to make it possible for you to attain there after resuscitation. So your conscience operations in layer 7C are connected by correspondence to the unconscious operations of layer 6C in your mind. This is what makes possible the "voice of conscience" since the "voice" speaks in natural words the spiritual operations in layer 6.
Spiritual operations or thinking and reasoning (layers 6, 5, 4), are based entirely on the information we acquire from the correspondences in Sacred Scripture, from conscience, and from insight or enlightenment. Exterior-natural operations (layer 8) are based entirely on sensuous information from the corporeal consciousness (layer 9) that is closest to the physical body (layer 12). For instance, at the corporeal-natural level of understanding the meaning of Sacred Scripture (layers 9), we read "blood of the sacrifice" and we think of gruesome physical things. If we read "blood" with a sensual understanding of Sacred Scripture, we abstract it into a symbol of God's forgiveness of our sins, which have been transferred to the sacrificial animal.
But if we read it through the rational level of understanding Sacred Scripture (layer 7), we see that "blood" discussed in Sacred Scripture is an exterior representative of something interior or spiritual in layer 6 or above. Once we realize this, or discover it, we begin to read Sacred Scripture from this layer (7C), so that reformation of the lower layers can take place through the spiritual truths. Your conscious awareness in layer 7C is being constantly enlightened while you study Sacred Scripture from this interior layer. This applies to the study of theistic psychology since it is the knowledge extracted from Sacred Scripture through the methodology of correspondences.
Layer 9 is the lowest or most external portion of the natural mind, and is closest to the physical body (layer 12), hence it is most like the physical body. Layer 4 is called the “inmost” or highest layer of the spiritual mind, layer 5 the “middle” layer of the spiritual mind, and layer 6 the "exterior" or lowest portion of the spiritual mind. This is the closest to the natural mind. Layers that are next to each other are more like each other than layers further away. They play an important transition function since what is intermediate contains something that pertains to the other two layers.
Layer 7 (interior-natural) corresponds to layer 4 (interior-spiritual). Layer 8 (exterior-natural) corresponds to layer 5 (exterior-spiritual). Layer 9 (natural corporeal) corresponds to layer 6 (spiritual-natural). Layers that correspond to each other, influence each other more.
There is also a correspondence between layers
4A, 5A, 6A
4C, 5C, 6C
4S, 5S, 6S
Our afterlife of immortality is consciously experienced in layers 6, 5, and 4. We enter one of these layers permanently at our “second death,” which occurs shortly after resuscitation.
Layers 10, 9, 8, 7 constitute the “world of spirits” where we are resuscitated. Layers 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 constitute the “spiritual world,” which is the mental world of the afterlife in eternity.
Layers 3 through 9 are inherited from the biological father; layers 10 and 11 from the mother.
Each layer of the mind contains three receptor organs: affective (A), cognitive (C), and sensorimotor (S). The affective organ is called “celestial” because it is a receptor of spiritual heat or good, which come out of layer 1 in infinite variety and quality. The cognitive organ is called “spiritual” because it is a receptor of spiritual light or truth, which come out of layer 1 in infinite variety and quality. The sensorimotor organ is called “natural” because it is a receptor of the combination of the affective (A) and cognitive (C) organs, expressing that joint operation in the external plane of that layer (S). The external plane of each layer (S) produces the sensuous appearances of the environment.
For instance, our conscious layer 7 contains a celestial feature in its affective organ (layer 7A); a spiritual feature in its cognitive organ (layer 7C); and a natural feature in its sensorimotor organ (layer 7S). The affective organ of our natural mind (what we intend and love every day) is therefore called a “celestial-natural” operation. Similarly, the cognitive organ of our natural mind (what we think and understand) is therefore called a “spiritual-natural” operation. And similarly, the sensorimotor organ of our natural mind (what we sensate and can move) is therefore called a “natural-corporeal” operation.
Again: when we are spiritual angels in the second heaven our mind operates at layers 5A, 5B, and 5C. The things we intend and love are spiritual-celestial operations (5A). The things we think and understand are spiritual-spiritual operations (5C). The things we sensate and move are spiritual-natural operations (5S).
Again, at layers 7C and 8C we can have “natural understanding,” i.e., understanding of “natural- rational truths.” We can also have at layer 7C (but not at layer 8C) “spiritual understanding,” i.e., understanding of “spiritual-rational truths” and “celestial-rational truths.”
It is also the case that the affective operations at all layers are relatively a celestial operation because it involves the reception of good or spiritual heat (love), and this is always celestial (layers 4A, 5A, 6A, 7A, 8A, 9A). The cognitive operations in all layers are a spiritual operation because it involves the reception of truth or spiritual light (wisdom), and this is always spiritual (layers 4C, 5C, 6C, 7C, 8C, 9C). The sensorimotor operations in all layers are a natural operation because it involves the expression of the affective and cognitive jointly in the lowest sub-layer, which is always natural (layers 4S, 5S, 6S, 7S, 8S, 9S).
Here are some further examples with which you can practice reading, understanding, and memorizing the anatomy chart:
4A = love or good (spiritual heat) in the celestial (upper) layer of the spiritual mind (celestial love or good)
5A = love or good (spiritual heat) in the spiritual (middle) layer of the spiritual mind (spiritual love or good)
6A = love or good (spiritual heat) in the natural (lower) layer of the spiritual mind (spiritual-natural love or good)
7A = love or good (spiritual heat) in the celestial (upper) layer of the natural mind (natural love or good)
4C = truth (or rationality) in the celestial (upper) layer of the spiritual mind (celestial-rational truth)
6C = truth (or rationality) in the natural (lower) layer of the spiritual mind (spiritual-natural truth)
7C = truth (or rationality) in the rational (upper) layer of the natural mind (natural-rational truth)
5S = outward appearances in the spiritual (middle) layer of the spiritual mind (spiritual appearances)
6S = outward appearances in the natural (lower) layer of the spiritual mind (spiritual-natural appearances)
8S = outward appearances in the natural (middle) layer of the natural mind (natural appearances)
9S = outward appearances in the natural (lower) layer of the natural mind (corporeal appearances)
Etc. You can practice with the rest of the sub-layers in the chart.
The immortal mental body with which we are born, contains our mind, that is, our mental organs, which are called the affective organ (A), the cognitive organ (C), and the sensorimotor organ (S). These three mental organs are in the spiritual-mental body in the same way that the physical body contains the circulatory system, the respiratory system, and the nervous-skeletal system.
The circulatory system in the physical body corresponds to the affective organ in the spiritual body, whose operations give us the subjective experience of feeling and willing. Feelings in the mental body correspond to the circulatory system in the physical body, because feelings nourish the life of experience. Feeling and willing give us
- an
affective consummatory life such as needs, wants, desires, satisfactions,
pleasures, interests, attractions, etc. (as well as their opposites),
and - an affective conative life such as intentions, motives, purposes, endeavors, resolve, compassion, love, etc. (as well as their opposites)
The respiratory system corresponds to the cognitive organ whose operations give us the subjective life of thinking, reasoning, and intelligence. Thoughts in the spiritual body, that is, the operations of the cognitive organ, correspond to the respiratory system in the physical body, because thoughts guide our feelings and clarifies them, just as oxygen cleans and purifies the blood. Thoughts give us
- a
cognitive appraising life through memory, imagination, words, meaning,
concepts, topics, knowledge, logic, common sense, conversation, etc.
and - a cognitive planning life through rational reasoning, inventiveness, predictions, hypotheses, fantasies, schedules, blueprints, management policies, etc.
The nervous-skeletal system corresponds to the sensorimotor organ whose operations give us the subjective life of sensing the environment outside the body and of acting upon that environment through motor determinations. Sensations and motor determinations in the mental body correspond to the nervous system in the physical body, because sensations give us the life of experiencing the world outside of us and motor determinations give us the ability to make our bodies move and interact with the environment. Sensations and motor determinations give us
- a
sensory noticing life such as seeing, hearing, tasting, touching,
pleasure, pain, heat, cold, etc.
and - a motor execution life such as moving, pushing, pulling, dancing, chewing, verbalizing, writing, drawing, etc.
Here is then a summary of the exact correspondence between mental anatomy and physical anatomy (try to memorize this after you studied the details given above):
- an affective consummatory life in the mental body (= circulatory veins in the physical body)
- an
affective optimizing life in the mental body (= circulatory arteries in
the physical body)
- a cognitive appraising life in the mental body (= respiratory inhaling in the physical body)
- a
cognitive planning life in the mental body (= respiratory exhaling in the
physical body)
- a sensory noticing life in the mental body (= nervous afferent input in the physical body)
- a motor execution life in the mental body (= nervous efferent output in the physical body)
The affective life of feelings cohere together as a cumulative whole called the affective self.
The cognitive life of thoughts cohere together as a cumulative whole called the cognitive self.
The sensorimotor life of sensations and motor determinations cohere together as a cumulative whole called the sensorimotor self.
Every person can therefore be studied, described, and understood as a threefold self.
Mental Anatomy Notation System
|
Examples of Mental |
Explanation |
|
9 |
Corporeal mind |
|
9A |
Affective organ of corporeal mind |
|
9C |
Cognitive organ of the corporeal mind |
|
9S |
Sensorimotor organ of the corporeal mind. Provides our corporeal consciousness. It is regenerated in conjunction with the opening and consociation of layer 4 in the spiritual mind |
|
-9A |
Unregenerate corporeal consciousness after resuscitation. It is part of the Grand Monster |
|
9eA |
External portion of the affective organ in the corporeal mind |
|
9iA |
Internal portion of the affective organ in the corporeal mind |
|
9iC |
Internal portion of the cognitive organ in the corporeal mind |
|
7eC |
External portion of the cognitive organ in the rational consciousness. It is the first rational, and needs to undergo reformation before regeneration of the other layers can begin. |
|
7iC |
Interior portion of the cognitive organ in the rational consciousness . It is opened by undergoing reformation in the external portion. This process proceeds with the opening and consociation of layer 6 in the spiritual mind |
|
7iA |
Interior portion of the affective organ in the rational consciousness. It is opened along with 7iC during reformation |
|
7iCv6S |
Interior portion of the cognitive organ in the rational consciousness . The sub-portion specified is virtual consciousness of layer 6S in the spiritual mind |
|
7iSv5S |
Interior portion of the sensorimotor organ in the rational consciousness . The sub-portion specified is virtual consciousness of layer 5S in the spiritual mind |
|
7iAv5A |
Interior portion of the affective organ in the rational consciousness . The sub-portion specified is virtual altruism of layer 5A |
|
8iA |
Interior portion of the affective organ in the materialistic consciousness . This process proceeds with the opening and consociation of layer 5 |
|
-8C |
Unregenerate materialistic consciousness after resuscitation. It is part of the Grand Monster |
|
Etc. (enter your own) |
(It’s useful to practice designating mental anatomical layers and structures. It is the basis of understanding mental psychology and how we think in daily life.) |
Where are the Layers of the Mind?
The layers of the mind are layers of functioning of the affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor operations. These mental operations occur in the spiritual body, not the physical body. When we are born the two bodies act together by correspondence but they are each located in their own world. The physical body is born and dies in the physical world. The mental body is born in the mental world of eternity and is immortal. At the death of the physical body, we continue our mental life in the spiritual body, but now detached from the physical connection.
The mental body (layer 9) is a mental body constructed out of spiritual substances from the Spiritual Sun (layer 1).
- The circulatory system in the mental body is called the affective organ.
- The respiratory system in the mental body is called the cognitive organ.
- The neural-skeletal system in the mental body is called the sensorimotor organ.
These three spiritual organs function at six distinct levels. For instance, the heart in the mental body is the center of the circulatory system. The heart is therefore known as one's ruling love. This is the chief love and controls all the sub-loves. Our loves or affections are arranged in a hierarchy (like an army or government) with the chief love or ruling love at the center, and controlling all other loves from the center to the periphery. The heart controls the system of arteries and capillaries reaching to every portion of the body. Similarly, the ruling love controls all the sub-loves to make sure that they are not opposed to the ruling love. The smallest capillaries in the extremities of the mental body are the operations of the variety of little affections that we all have, such as preferences, choices, attractions, aversions, etc. These sub-loves are expressed as the operations of arteries, capillaries, blood, lymph, gall bladder, liver, and other functions of the body relating to nutrition. The spiritual heart is the center of this affective circulatory control in the spiritual body. The operation of the spiritual heart is our ruling love.
The activity of the spiritual lungs in the mental body are the operations of our cognitive organ which we experience as thinking and consciousness. The respiratory system encompasses the lungs as the center and extends all around and throughout the body through the veins that carry used blood to the lungs for purification. The respiratory system thus extends to the organs that purify blood such as the kidneys and bladder. The respiratory system also encompasses the esophagus, mouth, and nose which are involved in carrying air to the lungs.
Our level of cognitive operation depends on which respiratory and purificatory organ carries out the operations that are most consistent with our ruling love.
We may prefer to immerse our consciousness in the mental functions of the spiritual kidney, for instance. This means that our ruling love desires to use the reasoning process as a way to face reality or to solve its problems. Or we may prefer to immerse our mentality in the spiritual operations of the vocal chords and tongue which are closer to the center of the lungs. The vocal chords, tongue, and lips in the mental body perform the mental functions of rationality, the positive bias in science, abstract reasoning, and taxonomic structures.
You can see from these few details that mental anatomy is a complex subject, just matching in complexity the physical anatomy and its biochemistry and genetics. Remember this rule: Every detail of anatomy and functioning in the physical body is matched one for one by a detail in the anatomy and functioning of the spiritual body. This is the basic mind-body issue that has been debated in psychology and philosophy for centuries. In the history of this controversy, the physical body is referred to as "the body" and our thoughts and feelings are referred to as "the mind." In theistic psychology "the mind" is the mental body which contains the three mental organs: the affective organ of feelings as the operation of the circulatory system; the cognitive organ of thoughts as the operation of the respiratory system. The sensorimotor organ of sensations and motor acts as the operation of the neuro-skeletal system
While we need to distinguish the three systems in the mental body we also need to remember that neither system can work alone or separately from the other two systems.
This means that we cannot do any thinking (respiratory system) unless the lungs are involved and engaged with the heart (affective loves). In order for us to interpret something, make sense out of it, plan something for it (cognitive respiration) we must have a motive or intention that initiates and controls the thinking. In the absence of all motives we are asleep or comatose. Our thinking is driven by our feeling or intending. The desire to stay alive (feeling heart) is necessary to think about anything. Thinking (cognitive) is driven by the desire to survive (affective). The spiritual lungs (cognitive thinking) cannot function unless the spiritual heart (affective ruling love) is connected to it and pumping blood into it and out of it. The operation of pumping spiritual blood in the mental body is the operation of our ruling love, as for instance, the desire to survive. This central motive (heart) controls all other sub-motives (capillaries, liver) in directing one's thinking and planning (lungs, kidneys, tongue).
When the heart (ruling love) and the lungs (rational thinking) act together and are engaged, they trigger the sensorimotor action. If the heart and the lungs, or the motivating goal and the plan, are disengaged, then no sensorimotor act follows and we are helpless. Another area where you can see this united action is by realizing that air and water belongs to respiration and purification, while nutrients in the blood belong to circulation and the provision of nutrients. The nutrients of the blood are constructed of nitrogen and oxygen, which are key components along with carbon, of all organic nutrients. So nutrients in the blood (ruling love and sub-loves) use air and water in the lungs and kidneys (interpreting and planning thoughts) to perform their function, individually as well as globally.
After resuscitation we begin our life of immortality in the spiritual body. Our consciousness is then in the celestial-rational mentality of layer 4 (third heaven) when our ruling love is focused on conjugial love, which is the love of a husband and wife conjoining their feelings and motives, or spiritual heart. When our ruling love is focused on understanding spiritual truths more and more purely or interiorly, our consciousness is in the spiritual-rational mentality of layer 5. When our ruling love is focused on the spiritual environment of external appearances and community organization, our consciousness is in the spiritual-natural mentality of layer 6. Swedenborg describes in detail what life is like in these three layers of eternity.
Prior to resuscitation our conscious mentality operates at the three layers called corporeal (9), sensuous-abstract or materialistic (8), and rational (layer 7). The inherited corporeal mentality (layer 9) is held up by a ruling love that is focused on domination of others, whose sub-loves include cruelty, arrogance, hypocrisy, deceitfulness, risk taking, pride, prejudice, avarice, selfishness, egotism, grossness. When the corporeal mentality is regenerated by a spiritual love it becomes purified and clean, as for instance the enjoyment of pleasure and comfort, the disciplining of one's body for health, strength and skill, the motive of craftsmanship, or the desire for glory in patriotic service. Layer 9 is less active after resuscitation than before because the environment of the mental body is created by the ruling love, while the physical environment is independent of our loves.
The diagram above shows how each society in the Grand Human and Grand Monster regions is an image of the whole and of the individual part. This may be called an instance of the principle of synecdoche. The ancients wrote that an individual person is a microcosm of the entire universe. The shape of the mental world of eternity is in the image of God as the Divine Human. From a logical perspective everything God creates must be in the shape of God since nothing that is God’s, can be given to created things, but always remains God’s. Hence since we have the human shape, and since we are created by God, it follows that God must have the Human shape. We can therefore use the expression “the Divine Human” to refer to God as God exists for human beings. This is to be distinguished from God-as-God outside creation, about which nothing specific can be known or understood as it is infinite in all ways, and the infin te cannot be known or comprehended by the finite.
For the same logical reasons everything about us, in general and in detail, is in the image of that corresponding part in the Divine Human, or the Divine Psychologist who is co-present in each mental organ as living altruism love substance (A) and living rationality truth substance (C), and from these two, living sensorimotor substance or consciousness (S). Consciousness produces the environment by built-in correspondences. First the mental environment around us is produced, then the physical environment around us is produced, though in different ways. The mental environment is produced instantaneously out of mental ether, and lasts as long as the love (A) and truth (C) are united and operating. The environment in the Grand Human is produced by our ruling heavenly love and its hierarchy of heavenly sub-loves (A).
The celestial cities in our eternity are magnificent in architecture and art, as grand as the ruling love wants to make the palaces, gardens, flora and fauna, as well as the personal and unique things in each house, the clothes, jewelry, art, design, and so on. Similarly, the infernal cities of our Grand Monster societies look horrid, cavernous, foul-smelling, and filled with hostile and poisonous flora and fauna. These things in the mental environment are automatically produced as the consciousness (S) engendered by the marriage of the ruling love (A) with thoughts and images (C) that correspond to it, beautiful and friendly if the loves are from altruism love substance uncorrupted and undistorted, but ugly and hostile if the loves are from altruism love substance corrupted and distorted.
The diagram above also shows that each society of individuals collects together somewhere in the regions of the Grand Human and Grand Monster. This is determined by the ruling love (A) and its hierarchy of sub-loves (A) that are operating in the affective organ. For instance, the couples who are in conjugial love congregate in the region of the heart and the reproductive organs of the Grand Human since these organs correspond to conjugial love. This love is the highest of all possible loves in the human race because so it is in the Divine Human. Conjugial love is the undistorted reception of altruism love or spiritual heat, and this operation takes place in layer 4. Our consciousness in this layer is called “celestial rational” and is the product of the wife’s loves united to the husband’s thoughts, and the reciprocal love of the husband united to the wife’s thoughts. The circulatory system of each is conjoined with respiratory system of the other.
This conjoint self, produced by the reception of conjugial love, is the highest form of life that human beings can enjoy. In that state we are celestial avatars for the Omniproprium. We are completely willing to give up all loves that belong to our self, and operate solely with the loves flowing in from the personality of the Divine Human. In this mental consciousness we are quasi-omniscient, instantly knowing everything there is to know about anything that we think about. There is also an endless progression of one’s happiness as a conjoint self, in social company with other conjoint selves, in one of the societies and cities of the Grand Human of eternity.
Studying mental psychology helps us in the process of preparing ourselves for the second death, which is the point where we enter either the Grand Human or the Grand Monster, as shown in the diagram below.
The diagram above shows the key markers of the journey from birth to endless eternity that every human being must take, compelled by the anatomy and physiology of immortal living. The physical world is the world on the outside of everything. Within the physical world, apart from any space, time, or size, is the mental world of eternity. This follow the rational principle that the finite cannot be in the infinite (as one would expect), but the infinite can be in the finite. But the meaning of “in” and “within” is not physical but correspondential in terms of discrete degrees.
The first “within” is the resuscitation zone of the mental world where people awaken at the completion of the dying-resuscitation process, an activity that takes about 33 earth hours to complete itself. We then awaken in our mental body. At birth a physical body is attached by correspondence to the mental body, and the two mature together. The living sensations, thoughts, and feelings occur only in the mental body organs, and not at all in the physical body. Hence upon resuscitation, we awaken in the same mental body we had since birth, and which contains our mental organs. The real “me” is the mental body within the physical body. There is nothing of “me” in the physical body, which is merely a temporary attachment encasing the mental body. This attachment allows us to see through the eyes of the physical body, and to be aware of all the sensory input. Our physical brain and body participate by correspondence to our sensing, thinking, and feeling in the mental body.
The diagram shows these markers:
(1) Our birth with a temporary physical body in the physical world, and a permanent, or immortal, mental body in the mental world of eternity.
(2) Upon dying we undergo separation procedures that take about 33 hours. This takes place in the resuscitation zones of the mental world.
(3) We undergo various experiences by which we come to recognize our ruling love and its sub-loves. When we acknowledge our ruling love, and recognize it as our own, we allow it to take complete charge of our mind. The ruling love (A) now separates out, or filters out, any love or sub-love that is incompatible with it. The ruling love tolerates the presence of only sub-loves that further its goals. Now the ruling love ejects all thoughts in the cognitive organ (C) that oppose it, leaving a totally adapted thinking and reasoning, that always goes along and justifies this ruling love. When this process is completed, the individual is ready to undergo the second death.
(4) This is the process of free choice. For the final phase of life, which will endure to eternity, the individual must enter one of the societies of the Grand Human or Grand Monster. This is completely determined by the ruling love. All ruling loves are sourced either in the Grand Human, being called heavenly loves, or sourced in the Grand Monster, being called hellish loves. The specific quality of the ruling love and its sub-loves determines the specific location or society. When people enter into one or the other, they have a sense of ‘homecoming.’ Everything looks and feels familiar. Love recognizes similar love, and they cheer each other.
(5) Those who are willing to live only in the Grand Human form the societies of sanity, reason, humanity, altruism love, truth, and all virtue and power.
(6) Those who are willing to live only in the Grand Monster form the societies of insanity, irrationality, degraded humanity, hatred of any altruism love, hatred of all truth, and devoid of all positive virtue and power.
Heaven and hell, good and evil, are therefore anatomical phenomena. Prior to dying and resuscitation, our natural mind is filled with both heavenly and hellish loves. If we have undergone regeneration these two types of loves have been separated, and the spiritual mind was matured. Now at our second death we are prepared to enter layers 6, 5, or 4 in our mental consciousness (Grand Human). Those who were unwilling to undergo regeneration do not have the spiritual layers opened or activated. Hence upon resuscitation, their consciousness is compelled to remain in the natural mind (layers 9, 8, 7). Now they have experiences by which the Divine Psychologist brings them to the recognition of what is their ruling love. Since this love is such as it was from birth, it is a hellish love bound to selfism. In consequence, all opposing loves, which are heavenly, are removed or made inoperative fro consciousness. Now their mental body takes on a new appearance, one that reflects the monstrous loves that are hidden and active within their mind.
Chart of Body-Mind Relationships for the Mental Body and Physical Body
The following
preliminary chart is an attempt to show the relationship between the six mental
layers (4 to 9) and the organs of the spiritual body. The same correspondences
exist in the physical body in relation to the mind, and in the body of the Grand Human. This is the collection of all mental states in
the human race. When all human mental states are described from a bird's eye
view, they arrange themselves in the anatomical structure and form of the human
body. This is the basis of all mind-body correspondences.
The Grand Human
contains all the organs of the body, both male and female. Swedenborg was given
this bird's eye view of the mental world of eternity so that he may describe it
objectively. Furthermore, he was allowed to travel spiritually throughout the
regions or organs of the Grand Human visiting a society located in the
"right eye" on one occasion, or a society located in the kidney
region, on another occasion. He describes what he saw in most of the organs,
showing how the mentality of the people in that society match the physiological
functions of the organs in which they are located.
When we are
resuscitated a few hours after death and separation from our physical body, we
begin a journey through the regions of the Grand Human, experiencing a
different mentality in each region, until we arrive in a region that perfectly
matches our ruling love. That becomes our eternal location from then on. We
have arrived home. The people in that society share the same ruling love, which
is why we arrive feeling as if it is our home and as if we have known the
people there all our lives. There is then a continuous and permanent exchange
of thoughts and feelings between all with all in that society.
This principle can
be rendered by the following formula:
spiritual geography = mental anatomy
The diagram above
shows that the mental body is within the physical body, and that they are
connected by correspondence. Barring physical malformations due to inheritance
or injury, the physical body is a point-by-point replica or copy of the mental
body, but constructed out of different substances. At birth we are two bodies,
one temporary and material, the other mental or immaterial, also called
“spiritual.” The mental body (or “spirit body”) contains the mental organs.
There are absolutely no mental operations possible in the physical body. This
is because mental objects are not physical material objects, but immaterial.
All objects, physical or mental, must be constructed out of something. The
mental organs are constructed by God at our birth using the eternal substances
streaming through the entire mental world of eternity, which is an expanse of
rational ether around the eternal Spiritual Sun, which is the first entry point
of the infinite God into the realm of the created. The Spiritual Sun is not
created, and is called uncreate. All the substances in it are uncreate, living,
Divine, eternal, infinite.
So it is the
infinite that creates the finite by transforming Itself into an externalized
form that can participate in the operation of created finite objects such as
mental organs and the mental body. A human being is therefore a mental body
equipped with mental organs. The mental organs operate to provide us with the
subjective consciousness of sensations, thoughts, and feelings. We are mental
beings temporarily trapped, or contained, with a physical “shell.” The
circulatory system of the physical body corresponds to the affective system in
the mental body. The respiratory system of the physical body corresponds to the
cognitive system in the mental body. The neuro-muscular-skeletal system of the
physical body corresponds to the sensorimotor system in the mental body. The
dying process is the physiological or surgical separation of the two bodies. It
lasts about 30 hours, after which we awaken in full conscious awareness in our
mental body. We appear the same as before, as you can see from the diagram. At
first our mental body reflects our physical body such as it was at death, but
very quickly there is a transformation in appearance to reflect who we are in
our natural mind. Former family or friends who have preceded us in the dying
and resuscitation process, can now see us and recognize us.
It is the mental
body that sensates through the physical body. What you see around you is what
you are seeing in your mental body, not your physical body. There are no
sensations in the physical body as it is inert, made of inert matter and only
electrical and chemical operations can take place in it. No sensations,
thoughts, and feelings can exist or operate in physical matter. Hence we sense
in the mental body through the physical body like a pilot senses the
environment through instruments by which they can see. Our physical instruments
in the body transfer by correspondence the information from the physical
sensory organs to the sensorimotor organ in the mental body. Then it is that we
can have the sensations of seeing, touching, hearing, tasting, smelling,
moving. These are felt in the sensorimotor organ of the mental body, not
in the physical body or its brain, which only contains electrical and chemical
operations, never mental.
Prior to
resuscitation all our sensations are therefore filtered through the physical
body. If the physical body malfunctions, the sensations in our mental body are
diminished. Even when the physical body operates perfectly, the sensations we
have from it is “gross” or filtered, not pure. As a result, upon resuscitation
we experience an amazing increase in the intensity and clarity of our
sensations that we not possible before while we were still attached by
correspondence to the physical body. All the modalities of the sensorimotor
system are now affording us a new and higher level of intensity in sensitivity
and intensity. We get a sense of this greater intensity and purity of
sensations when we remember a vivid dream in which we experienced pleasure or
pain. The pleasures are far more intense, and the pains far more terrifying.
The following chart
helps you locate the body-mind correspondences that unite the physical and
mental bodies.
|
LAYER |
CIRCULATORY
AFFECTIVE
ORGAN |
RESPIRATORY COGNITIVE
ORGAN |
NERVOUS-SKELETAL
SENSORIMOTOR
ORGAN |
|
4 |
4A HEART,
ARTERIES, REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS |
4C LUNGS,
BREATHING, LIPS, CHEEKS |
4S HANDS,
EYES, RIGHT BRAIN, CEREBELLUM, RIB CAGE, THIGHS |
|
5 |
5A STOMACH,
LIVER, MASTICATION, ASSIMILATION |
5C ESOPHAGUS,
MOUTH CAVITY, SMELL, TONGUE, TASTE |
5S INTERIOR
OF NOSTRILS, EARS, LEFT BRAIN |
|
6 |
6A NUTRITIONAL
EXCHANGE IN CELLS |
6C RESPIRATION,
OXYGENATION, AIR SACS |
6S |
|
7e
& 7i |
7A SPLEEN,
PANCREAS, BLOOD, ARTERIES, VEINS, CAPILLARIES |
7C DIAPHRAGM |
7S HANDS,
OUTWARD SKIN & LINING OF ALL INTERNAL ORGANS |
|
8 |
8A GALL
BLADDER, KIDNEYS, URETHRA, BLADDER |
8C TEETH |
8S NEURONS,
FEET, SKIN, BONES, CARTILAGE, MUSCLES, TENDONS |
|
9 |
9A INTESTINES |
9C FIBERS |
9S SOLES
OF THE FEET, HEEL |
|
AFFECTIVE circulatory / cardiovascular /digestive / endocrine |
COGNITIVE respiratory / pulmonary circulation / diaphragm / thoracic cage / mouth |
SENSORIMOTOR ORGAN nervous / skeletal / muscular/ integumentary / |
|
|
|
|
|
The physical body and the mental body correspond to each other in structure and function. By studying body-mind correspondences we can construct charts of the mental world of eternity. Knowledge of mental physiology can assist us in mental navigation and regeneration. |
||
Prior to resuscitation (before death) we operate in our conscious natural mind (layers 9, 8, 7) while the unconscious spiritual mind is being developed (layers 6, 5, 4). After resuscitation we are conscious in both minds, for awhile, but then we lose consciousness of the natural mind as we are immersed in the spiritual mind forever (6, 5, 5). But this occurs only of we have undergone regeneration of the natural mind through lifelong spiritual combats. We then continue our immortality in either layer 6 (called First Heaven), layer 5 (called Second Heaven), or layer 4 (called Third and Highest Heaven).
Something totally different happens when we are resuscitated and we did not undergo regeneration. In this case we cannot continue life in the spiritual mind, which is our conjugial heaven. Our spiritual layers (6, 5, 4) have been gradually shut down and paralyzed during our life in the natural mind where we made daily choices to turn our natural mind into the opposite order of the heavenly mentality.
During our life when we are still attached to the physical body, we make daily choices and acquire habits of life in both the heavenly and hellish mentality. You can observe this yourself if you monitor your emotions and thoughts for an hour or two during the day. One minute you feel enraged or vengeful against someone you don't like, or you are pretending to be busy on your job to give an impression, but you are not really accomplishing anything. These are choices and habits of your hellish mentality. A little later you get a call from a friend who needs comforting and support, and you give it out of caring, or you decide to clean up your room because you realize it's not good to be lazy. These are choices and habits of your heavenly mentality. Every day we operate either from a heavenly or from a hellish mentality in layers 9, 8, 7. Study the two mentalities so you can do some effective self-monitoring.
After resuscitation, those who have not been regenerated abandon their heavenly mentality in all three natural layers. Since their spiritual layers (6, 5, 4) have not been activated by spiritual combat in regeneration, they have only their natural mind to continue their life in the mental world of eternity. Now as they undergo further change called "the second death" their heavenly mentality in layers 9, 8, 7 are rejected and as it were expelled from their mind. Their consciousness will now forever be restricted to one of the three natural layers in the hellish mentality or disorder (-7, -8, -9).
Chart of Mental Layers Grouped By Threes
Today we too are familiar with life in the mental world of eternity because that is the only life we know or can know.
Try this exercise. Where you are sitting close your eyes and stay quiet for about one minute. Two minutes might be even more effective. When we close our eyes and not much is happening around us, the usual dominance of sensory input lessens in our consciousness or awareness. This also happens in the quiet of the few minutes before we fall asleep. Our sensorimotor focus greatly lessens as we almost forget about the physical body. Where are we then?
Our consciousness is then focusing more on the mental world of eternity -- the inner world, than on the outer world of time and physical place. The purpose of the exercise is to remind us through immediate experience that our sensations (S), thoughts (C), and feelings (A) do not exist in the outer world of the physical body, but in the inner world of the spiritual body.
The experience of becoming aware of our thoughts and feelings is itself the consciousness and awareness of the mental world of eternity. We live in the mental world of eternity as mental beings because we are mental beings. We are not physical beings. You can see that we are much closer to the mental body than to the physical body. Our "self" as a human being, as a unique immortal individual, is the spiritual body, and not at all the physical body.
This is because our sensations, thoughts, and feelings -- our very life and experience, are in the mental body as mental organs. The heart (our ruling love) and circulatory system (affections, loves, motives, intentions, desires, needs) constitute our affective organ (A). The lungs (our governing principle or truth) and the respiratory system (thinking, rationality, reasoning, planning, organizing) constitute our cognitive organ (C). The brain (sensory and motor coordination) and neuro-skeletal system (sensations, movements, regulation, integration, emotions) constitute our sensorimotor organ (S).
Prior to resuscitation our consciousness is located in the natural mind (layers 9, 8, 7), but after resuscitation our consciousness is located in the spiritual mind (layers 6, 5, 4). As a result of this anatomical condition our mental life and experience in the natural mind is constructed as an adaptation to the sensorimotor input. This input is physical in the form of neuro-chemical operations in the brain and neural system. Hence it is that the content of our corporeal consciousness (layer 9) is follows the structure of physical laws and "natural" reality. Our layer 9 thinking (9C) knows nothing about the layers above itself (8 or 7).
Hence it is that when our consciousness is in layer 9 our mentality is uncivilized. The laws that govern the animal world also governs our corporeal mind. In layer 9 thinking (9C) the law of the jungle appears as the only smart and safe way of behaving. We see it as reasonable to use force to dominate others, to get our way regardless of the "niceties" of "civilized" fair play.
Layer 8 thinking (8C) is more civilized because it thinks in abstractions from the physical input. We can see and understand that we must have law and order in order for the community to survive and thrive. We also admire and value victory or success acquired through hard work, discipline, planning, and postponement of immediate gratification for the sake of greater goals. Still, at this level of thinking (8C), our abstractions of the layer 9 input remain consistent with the reality of the physical world.
When we begin the
study of mental psychology and anatomy, most of us are thinking in layer 8C.
This means that the ideas we form about concepts such as the Divine
Psychologist, or the mental world of eternity, are natural ideas. The spiritual
idea is then reduced to a natural idea. Even though we think about God or even
talk to God, we still have a natural idea of God, like children do. Many adults
think of God in terms that are like those of children. It is not until our
consciousness is raised to layer 7C that we begin to think of God in a
spiritual way, rather than a natural way.
The corporeal and materialistic way (layers 9C, 8C) of thinking about the mental world of eternity is that it is not really a mental world but a physical world. The afterlife then begins not at death, but at some later date when the natural world is remade by God, and all those who had died are now "resurrected" and given new physical bodies that will be immortal. This is called "corporeal-sensual" because it thinks of the mental world as being reduced to the physical world. It is similar to materialism or "monism" in philosophy and science.
But when we begin thinking in layer 7iC by undergoing reformation to dualism, we can begin thinking about the mental world in a rational-scientific way. This reformation of our thinking substitutes spiritual ideas for the natural ideas.
Another illustration is the expression living luxuriously (physical activity) which corresponds to taking pleasure (mental activity). You can see that people who live in luxury (physical) do it because they value the pleasures it provides (mental).
The Vertical Community
The diagram above shows the arrangement of the vertical community. The word “vertical” is in contrast to “horizontal” community, such as we have through the physical body on earth. Societies on earth spread out horizontally on the available lands forming a physical geography for populations and cultures succeeding in time and history. But societies in the mental world of eternity spread out vertically, that is, mentally, and not physically. The mental world is a vertical world while the physical world is a horizontal world. Our contact or communication in horizontal communities depend on physical distance. We have to travel to other geographic locations to contact the people there, or else, have some other ways to contact – e.g., signals, messengers, mail, telegraph, telephone, radio, wireless, instant messaging, etc. It is quite different regarding our contacts or communication in the mental world of eternity after our resuscitation. There is no physical distance, no fixed space, in the mental world. In our mind, imagination, and dreams we create whatever space we need or want at the moment to satisfy some love or desire.
After resuscitation our loves have the power to instantiate around us anything imaginable. Anyone from anywhere in the mental world of eternity, who shares that same general desire with all its specific details, is co-present. All who share that specific desire find themselves automatically co-present. There is no fixed distance. The specifics of the loves and sub-loves localize the person in some particular region of the mental world. All who share that specific love hierarchy find themselves as if collected into a mental society in some region of the Grand Human or Grand Monster. This is then what we need to know and expect for ourselves after resuscitation. The loves we possess at resuscitation determine our location and co-presence with some mental community of citizens – either in the Grand Human or the Grand Monster.
The diagram above shows what happens to us from birth onward and how we are connected to the vertical community. The following is a description of the ideas in the diagram:
1
If you run your eyes up and down the middle of the diagram you can see three bodies. The larger middle body represents the shape and form of our natural mind – mental layers 9, 8, 7. The smaller body at the top represents the shape and form of the Grand Human – mental layers 6, 5, 4. These are the layers of our spiritual mind. The smaller dark body at the bottom represents the Grand Monster – layers -7, -8, -9. Note the minus sign indicates the order of hell. The unregenerate natural mind at resuscitation changes from 7, 8, 9 to -7, -8, -9. This occurs when all the heavenly loves are removed by the hellish ruling love the person is willing to keep or hold on to. Prior to this, the natural mind is marked 7, 8, 9 to indicate that prior to resuscitation the unregenerate natural mind possesses both hellish and heavenly traits, making a balance of freedom for people’s daily choices.
2
If you run your eyes on the left hand side from the bottom up you can see the upward pointing arrow marking the sequence of birth, infancy and childhood, adolescence, young adulthood. Then there is an inversion and development continues on a downward arrow from mature adulthood, to old age, to death and resuscitation.
3
The upward development is marked as the unregenerate natural mind. The downward development is marked the regenerating mind. Note that the upward development starts in layer 9e. This is the external (e) portion of the corporeal mind (9). Similarly, layer 8e refers to the materialistic mind, and layer 7e to the rational mind. Note that the upward development from infancy to young adulthood, operate by means of their connection to geographic locations in the Grand Monster regions. The development of the external portion of the corporeal mind (9e) is influenced by a connection to layer -9. This explains how cute little babies and toddlers can act like little monsters at certain times, as all challenged parents and care takers know full well. They also have their connections to the Grand Human, which can be seen at other times in the angelic faces of babies and loving cuteness of infants and toddlers.
But there is a difference in that the hellish loves from the Grand Monster are more conscious and in-rooted, as indicated by the fact that so many children and adolescents are beset with character problems and weaknesses. This means that the inherited hellish loves are more dominant than the heavenly loves. Most heavenly loves are actually held in aversion by most people prior to regeneration, while most hellish loves are adored and enjoyed so much that people are unwilling to let go of them, even if it hurts others and themselves. That’s a price they are willing to pay, which is irrational, ultimately leading to spiritual insanity when good is seen as bad, and bad is seen as good.
4
The downward development is marked as the regenerating natural mind: layers 7i, 8i, 9i. The letter (i) indicates that it is “interior” in contrast to the unregenerate external (e) development. When we are willing to cross the inversion point we do so from a love of our future heavenly life in eternity. First we must have the rational knowledge and understanding (7iC) of God and the regeneration process. Then we must desire (7iA) to re-arrange our thinking to fit with this love for God and heavenly immortality. The two together then create a new interior-natural consciousness (7iA + 7iC = 7iS), that is more inward and higher than the prior consciousness created by our own rational self-intelligence (7eA + 7eC = 7eS). This “reformation” of the rational mind is the inversion from unregenerate to regenerating. Once the rational mind is regenerating (7i), it gives us the ability to regenerate layer 8 and layer 9.
Note that the regeneration of the natural mind is takes place through a connection with the societies of the Grand Human. The interior-natural mind (7i) of the regenerating rational mind (7), is connected to the societies in layer 6 (sometimes called “the Lowest or First Heaven”). The regenerating materialistic mind (8i) is connected to the societies in layer 5 (sometimes called “the Middle or Second Heaven”). The regenerating corporeal mind (9i) is connected to the societies in layer 4 (sometimes called “the Highest or Third Heaven”). We are born with our spiritual mind (layers 6, 5, 4) located in one of the Grand Human societies, but it does not become our own unless we regenerate the natural mind (layers 7, 8, 9). To the extent that our natural mind is regenerated, to that extent our spiritual mind is operationalized and becomes our own at resuscitation.
If we regenerate only layer 7, we then enter layer 6 at our second death. If we regenerate layers 7 and 8, we enter layer 5 at our second death. If we regenerate layers 7, 8, and 9, we enter layer 4 at our second death. The expression “to enter” means that our consciousness is co-present with the consciousness of those who are in that layer. This occurs when there is a similarity or compatibility of loves.
5
The timing of the first death is determined by the Divine Psychologist. It occurs when the individual is such that no further regeneration is possible. The only purpose for our connection to the physical body is to allow us to regenerate the natural mind, which causes our spiritual mind to become active at resuscitation, so that we can assume our consciousness in that region of the mental world. By inheritance and situation some people are so restricted in their regeneration capacity that they must be disconnected from the physical body and its surrounding earthly horizontal community of influences. This may occur very early, even a few seconds or minutes after birth. The moment of birth is determined by the opening of the lungs to breathing. If the lungs are not opened, the fetus is stillborn. It is the same when the fetus does not survive advanced pregnancy. The souls of unborn fetuses are also immortal and they are gathered in layer 2. The souls that are born are gathered in layer 3. Our conscious life begins in layer 4.
The Divine Psychologist can work with them right after resuscitation so these early death individuals can have the experiences necessary to achieve an adult mental age. This is done through the instruction and supervision of people in layer 4 of the Grand Human who especially love children and parenting. When these people attain an adult mental age in the mental world of eternity, they meet their soul mate, fall in love, and together enter some society in the Grand Human where they are both welcomed as old friends.
The period between the first death and second death may vary from person to person after resuscitation. This is determined by the degree of change they must undergo in order to discover their ruling love (A) hidden within. If this ruling love is sourced in the Grand Monster (-9A, -8A, -7A), from prior connection to the unregenerated natural mind, then the person enters one of the societies in the Grand Monster. One’s loves determine one’s mental geography in eternity. If we are willing to undergo regeneration of all, or portions, of the natural mind prior to resuscitation, then the ruling love we discover in ourselves is sourced in the Grand Human, and our spiritual mind (6, 5, 4) is functional for our life there.
All humanity is connected and networked. No individual human being can exist alone. If our connection in the humanity network were to be broken we would cease to have mental states, thus becoming a plant. Every breath depends on air and oxygen. There is no breathing in empty space, hence no living. Without loves we have no thoughts, and without thoughts we have no conscious sensation or perception, consequently no human life. Since everything about us depends on having loves, what would be left of us if we were deprived of the source of loves? The vertical community is the mental network of eternity that connects all individuals who have ever been born, and will include all those still to be born in the future endless chain of human generations. The human matrix of interconnectedness forms an entity that is in the shape of the human body and mind. Throughout this endlessly expanding mental humanity there reverberates and circulates human loves. This affective circulation in the Grand Human is the source of our loves.
There are no loves we
can have, except from this affective circulation of the Grand Human.
The source of loves in this Grand Human is the Spiritual Sun of eternity. From this Source, which is a mentally visible aura that marks the presence of the Divine Human in creation, in the mental world of eternity, which is in the shape and anatomical structure of the Grand Human. From the Spiritual Sun flows out spiritual heat and spiritual light in endless variety and quality, inundating every part of the Grand Human, entering its circulation, and producing new human loves on a continuous basis to endless eternity and immortality of human beings. The source of all our loves is therefore the spiritual Sun through the Grand Human. Each of us has our own vertical community to which we belong from birth. It is marked on our spiritual bar code. Our soul (layer 3) is networked and wired in with the souls of the communities that belong to our own network. Through this vertical community comes down to our natural mind, the loves in our rational, materialistic, and corporeal mind (7A, 8A, 9A).
In order to preserve our individual freedom to choose the loves we want, the Divine Psychologist gives us the ability to modify, adjust, and change the loves that are circulating in our vertical community. This corresponds to the action of cells in our physical body that are bathed in blood and lymphatic fluid filled with all sorts of proteins and enzymes. Each cell takes in only what it wants, and then transforms the compound chemicals into totally different compounds and elements, some of which attach each other if present at the same time. This type of biochemical operation in our physical cells corresponds to the operations in our affective organ that is bathed in the mental stream of circulation of loves in our vertical community. We take in these loves, which are actually spiritual heat substance, and we transform them to our liking. Thus it is that the mental world of eternity contains not only the Grand Human, but also the Grand Monster. The two constitute perfect opposites between a hierarchy of undistorted loves in the Grand Human, and is opposite hierarchy of distorted loves in the Grand Monster. One is called eternal heaven, the other eternal hell.
There is a mental zone or ‘space’ between the Grand Human and the Grand Monster. It is the zone of birth and resuscitation. But at our second death we enter into our permanent location, either in the Grand Human if our ruling love is undistorted (for others as well as self), or in the Grand Monster, if our ruling love is distorted (for self alone). After the first death and resuscitation we go through a period of disentanglement between our opposite loves. Prior to dying and resuscitation we have the ability to undergo regeneration. This is the process by which the Divine Psychologist begins to disentangle our affective organ from the mess of opposite loves strangling each other. In this process we use our rational mind (7C) to monitor and control our materialistic mind, and through that, our corporeal mind and finally our physical body. This character reformation and regeneration involves the temptation-filled effort on a daily basis, of saying No to our selfism, and saying Yes to our altruism. By doing this over the course of our lifetime we cumulate more and more altruistic loves, and detach our enjoyment or attachment to more and more loves of selfism. By the time we resuscitate we have a regenerated natural mind (7, 8, 9) and fully operational spiritual mind (6, 5, 4). We are willing and eager to enter our Grand Human society and we ascend to our highest state of happiness and intelligence in conjugial love. Without this spiritual combat over a lifetime, we arrive after resuscitation with a dysfunctional spiritual mind that cannot operate. Our distorted ruling love in selfism opposes them. We are willing and eager to enter our vertical community in the Grand Monster, as we descend to our lowest mental state of insanity, cruelty, and bestiality.
Intersubjectivity in Virtual World and in Mental World
Consider the physical world. It is constructed by putting together time, space, and matter (which includes energy and force fields). There is only one mass of matter distributed in various quantities in time-space, such as galaxies, stars, space (or time-fields), planets, molecules, atoms, and sub-atomic particles. Note that there is only one space, and only one time dimension (running forward). When we talk about inter-galactic space, or about the space around a proton where the electrons whirl around rapidly, or about the space between one side of your room to the other – we are talking about the same space. There is only one and the same space in the physical world regardless of what matter is in it.
The above considerations hold for physical space because they are correspondences to how it is with mental space. Consider the mental world. There is only one mental world. Before I came to realize this I was under the false idea that we are each in our own mental world. I had thought that mental states such as feelings, thoughts, and sensations belong to the person, and each person is alone in their own private mental world. This idea is standard for both scientists and others. It is the common sense impression we all have, and therefore this is what our opinion is based on. But just as there is only one physical world, there is only one mental world. And just as there is only one and the same space in the physical world, there is only one and the same ‘space’ in the mental world. The two meanings of space correspond exactly and perfectly to each other, as the mental world is the cause of the physical world in every detail, point for point.
What is mental space? From a rational perspective space cannot be “nothing” or “emptiness.” This applies to both physical space and mental space. Physical and mental objects cannot exist and function in nothing. Parts must be separated and paths must exist between them to form composites and wholes such as objects that have a form or structure, and have function and use of some sort due to their quality or property in relation to space and motion. Physical space and mental space are both made of ether, which is a substance. So the idea of “emptiness” or “nothing” is replaced by the idea of substance, which is something, which has extension, so that objects can be constructed and exist in it.
The space of the mental world may be called mental ether. It is composed of rationality truth substance that continually flows out of the Spiritual Sun of eternity in the form of spiritual light within which is spiritual heat. This spiritual substance fills and inundates the mental world, creating mental space and creating building blocks for mental objects and their operations or activities. Human beings come into existence in the mental world. They start mental life in a mental body that contains mental organs. The mental body and its organs are constructed out of the building blocks that fill mental ether. This mental body is immortal because nothing in it can die, and everything in it is made of living immortal substances form the Spiritual Sun of eternity. Our individual unique mental body and its organs are constructed out of spiritual light and heat that abounds in the mental ether of eternity. Hence it is that human beings are born into eternity and immortality. We live in the mental world of eternity from birth onward to endless immortal life.
At our birth we find ourselves attached to a temporary physical body. We find ourselves trapped inside time-space and matter, even though nothing about us is physical. Nor can anything about us live in the physical world. Thoughts, dreams, feelings, memories, guilt pangs, pleasures – this is us, our life, our mental life, and absolutely none of it can exist in physical space or matter. It appears to our common sense that we see through our eyes, touch with our skin, hear with our ear, taste with our mouth. This is a subjective phenomenon. We need to find out what causes this subjective appearance. It is easier to see the actuality when we picture ourselves, our mind, our mental body and organs, as seeing through the eyes, hearing through the ears, sensing through the skin. In other words, think first about the mental body and the sensations it contains that we feel and experience. Second, think about the physical body as an instrument we use to detect (sensory) the physical environment and to act upon it (motor). Third, think about a mechanism that would allow us in the mental body to see, touch, and hear through the physical body.
This mechanism is called the laws of correspondences. This is a universal law of creation that establishes and connects the mental and physical worlds into cause-effect relations. Objects and their interactions in the physical world come into existence as effects of causes that are located in the mental world. Events and phenomena in the physical world of time correspond one-to-one to events and phenomena in the mental world of eternity. We can observe these laws of correspondences in action when we examine some familiar daily phenomena. Consider our facial expressions, and especially in infants and children who have not yet learned to simulate and control impressions given off. The face moves, changes, expresses specific emotions and feelings. You can recognize the emotion (e.g., happiness or pleasure) by the expression on the physical face. The muscles of the face act by correspondence with the feelings and emotions in the mental body. When we reach for bottle and bring it to our lips the physical movements of the arms, hands, and eyes, are moved by correspondence from our feeling of wanting to drink what’s in the bottle in front of us. When our car accelerates on the road, the cause of our going faster is not the extra gas from pushing the gas pedal with our foot. The cause is in the mental world, namely, a feeling of wanting to go faster. The foot pressing on the gas pedal is the corresponding effect of our feeling of wanting to go faster. The mental is the cause, while the physical is the effect.
Similarly, our ability to see with the physical eyes (and the associated neural pathways), is the effect, while the cause of the eye’s ability or function, is our feeling of wanting to see. If some people suddenly lost the feeling of wanting to see, they would be in effect blind. The desire to live and explore through the physical body must be constant, or else we lose those physical abilities. When we are deprived of food and drink, we experience pain, discomfort, and lower energy. These mental events are not produced by the physical food deprivation. When we burn our finger, the mental pain appears to common sense to be caused by the physical burn. When we ingest alcohol, the mental effects appear to be caused by the chemical. We need a better explanation, one that is in agreement with the laws of correspondences, by which we know that physical events cannot cause mental events, and that the actual order is the reverse of that.
(to be completed)
Mental Anatomy of the Individual's Threefold Self
The circulatory
system in the physical body corresponds to the affective organ in the
spiritual body, whose operations give us the subjective experience of feeling
and willing. Feelings in the mental body correspond to the circulatory
system in the physical body, because feelings nourish the life of experience.
Feeling and willing give us
- an affective consummatory life such as
needs, wants, desires, satisfactions, pleasures, interests, attractions,
etc. (as well as their opposites),
and - an affective conative life such as
intentions, motives, purposes, endeavors, resolve, compassion, love, etc.
(as well as their opposites)
The respiratory
system corresponds to the cognitive organ whose operations give us the
subjective life of thinking, reasoning, and intelligence. Thoughts in
the spiritual body, that is, the operations of the cognitive organ, correspond
to the respiratory system in the physical body, because thoughts guide our feelings
and clarifies them, just as oxygen cleans and purifies the blood. Thoughts give
us
- a cognitive appraising life through
memory, imagination, words, meaning, concepts, topics, knowledge, logic,
common sense, conversation, etc.
and - a cognitive planning life through
rational reasoning, inventiveness, predictions, hypotheses, fantasies,
schedules, blueprints, management policies, etc.
The nervous-skeletal
system corresponds to the sensorimotor organ whose operations give us
the subjective life of sensing the environment outside the body and of acting
upon that environment through motor determinations. Sensations and
motor determinations in the mental body correspond to the nervous system in the
physical body, because sensations give us the life of experiencing the world
outside of us and motor determinations give us the ability to make our bodies
move and interact with the environment. Sensations and motor determinations
give us
- a sensory noticing life such as seeing,
hearing, tasting, touching, pleasure, pain, heat, cold, etc.
and - a motor execution life such as moving,
pushing, pulling, dancing, chewing, verbalizing, writing, drawing, etc.
Here is then a
summary of the exact correspondence between mental anatomy and physical
anatomy (try to memorize this after you studied the details given above):
- an affective consummatory life in the mental
body (= circulatory veins in the physical body)
- an affective optimizing life in the mental
body (= circulatory arteries in the physical body)
- a cognitive appraising life in the mental
body (= respiratory inhaling in the physical body)
- a cognitive planning life in the mental
body (= respiratory exhaling in the physical body)
- a sensory noticing life in the mental
body (= nervous afferent input in the physical body)
- a motor execution life in the mental
body (= nervous efferent output in the physical body)
The affective life
of feelings cohere together as a cumulative whole called the affective self.
The cognitive life
of thoughts cohere together as a cumulative whole called the cognitive
self.
The sensorimotor
life of sensations and motor determinations cohere together as a cumulative
whole called the sensorimotor self.
Every person can
therefore be studied, described, and understood as a threefold self.
Our mental life is an organic process that begins at birth and continues endlessly in eternity. Life must have an organic basis. Mental life is carried out by mental organs. These organs are made of the substances from the Spiritual Sun. At birth, every human being lives in two bodies simultaneously that are connected together by correspondence. We have a physical body that is temporary and is made of natural substances from the physical sun. And we have a mental body that is permanent and is made of spiritual substances from the Spiritual Sun. Our mental body contains our mental organs.
We have three systems of mental organs, corresponding to the three systems of physical organs.
|
PHYSICAL BODY in time and space natural anatomy and
physiology |
MENTAL BODY or in the mental world of eternity mental anatomy and
physiology |
|
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM heart, blood vessels, blood, lymphatic,
digestive, reproductive, endocrine, biochemical, genetic |
AFFECTIVE ORGAN reception of spiritual heat, loves,
motives, intentions, enjoyment, pleasure, fun, perceptions, impulses,
preferences, conscience, attachments, relationships, togetherness,
conjunction, marriage, socialization of feelings and emotions,
value-attachment and ranking, goal-directedness |
|
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM |
COGNITIVE ORGAN |
|
NEURAL-SKELETAL SYSTEM brain, sensory organs, bones, joints,
muscles, skin, hair, nails |
SENSORIMOTOR ORGAN receptivity to sensory information,
experiencing sensations, maintaining situational vigilance, variety of motor
readiness, motor skills and habits of performance, speaking and listening,
writing and texting |
The above is a general classification of
mind-body correspondences.
The above indicates that the circulatory system in the mental body is nothing but the affective organ. Further, the respiratory system in the mental body is nothing but the cognitive organ. Finally, the neural-skeletal system in the mental body is nothing but the sensorimotor organ. This relationship of correspondence is an important research method for discovering and charting mental anatomy. The physical body is the window to the mind. The body is the visible mind. The temporary physical body is a perfect copy or model in physical matter, of the mental body which is permanent and eternal. By studying the anatomy of the physical body we are enabled to chart the development and evolution of the mind and its consciousness.
Male and Female Human Anatomy
The mental body (layer
10) is created by each unique soul (layer 3) that carries the immortal spiritual
DNA of every unique individual.
A female soul
creates female mental organs in this arrangement:
cognitive organ (C) within, affective organ
(A) on the outside.
A male soul
creates male mental organs:
affective organ within (A), cognitive organ
(C) on the outside.
Every sensation (S),
thought (C), and feeling (A) in a male anatomy must be different than any
sensation, thought, or feeling in a female anatomy. All human sensations (S),
thoughts (C), and feelings (A) are either female in origin or male. Male sensations (S) and consciousness of the
environment are produced by masculine thoughts (C), while female sensations (S) and consciousness of the
environment are produced by feminine loves (A). A woman’s world is
dominated by loves (A), while a man’s world is dominated by thoughts (C).
This difference in
mental operations of the mental body corresponds to the difference in physical
operations in the physical body. Medical theory and practice is far enough
advanced today to recognize that the research done on men is not a precise
indication of how the drug will affect women. It is known that the blood of
women contains hormones that men ordinarily do not carry. Certain diseases
affect mostly men, others mostly women. All this suggests that the physical
body and physiology of women is not like the physical body and physiology of
men. This is even more true of the mental body and the sensations (S), thoughts
(C), and loves (A) that occur there. These mental events must occur in the
mental world of eternity. They cannot occur in the physical world because they
are not physical, and only physical things can exist in the physical world.
Hence the human self and mind, with its sensations (S), thoughts (C), and
feelings (A), cannot exist in the physical body or brain, but must exist in the
spiritual body, which is a mental body, made of mental substances from the
Spiritual Sun (layer 1).
A woman’s consciousness of the world and her environment (S) is created by feminine loves (A) and feminine intelligence (C).
A man’s consciousness of the world and his environment (S) is created by masculine loves (A) and masculine intelligence (C).
Exercise Homework: The Visible Body:
Go to http://www.visiblebody.com/ and register. Then learn to use the Visible Body application. It takes several hours to explore all that it can do. While learning the anatomy of the body, keep thinking that these anatomical structures and interrelations are the visible mind.
Explore the circulatory system (Hide Others). See how it is in the shape of the body. You are seeing the affective organ, whose operations are the source of your feelings, loves, and motives -- hence our very life. Our very life is nothing but our loves, and your loves are the operations of the affective organ, which is the circulatory system of the spiritual body. The circulatory system or affective organ, is the central lifeline of everything human and living. The other systems of the mind are derivative of this and dependent on this for mental nourishment and consciousness. Explore the heart. You are seeing the ruling loves of a person, or of humanity as a whole. The ruling love disposes all other loves, and the loves together dispose all thinking and intelligence that belong to the cognitive organ or respiratory system.
Explore the respiratory system by itself (Hide Others). You are seeing the cognitive organ of thinking and reasoning, imagining and knowing. Explore how the heart and the lungs are connected and how they act together. You are seeing the interdependence between the affective (A) and cognitive organs (C), between how our thinking and reasoning (C) are influenced or determined by our motives and needs (A). Note that the heart in the mental body (our loves) could not live or survive on their own. If the blood is prevented from flowing through the lungs it cannot be oxygenated, and in that case all its nutrients are useless to the cells and everything dies. This is in exact correspondence to the interdependence between our loves (A) and our thoughts (C). Our loves (A) act upon our thoughts (C) in order to produce our sensations and motor determinations (S). The circulatory system acts upon the respiratory system to produce or enable sensory perception and motor action.
Moving your finger in the physical body (layer 12), requires a determination from your sensorimotor system (9S) in the mental body (layer 10). This sensorimotor determination to move your finger (layer 9S) is produced by the conjunction or co-action of your affective organ (9A) with your cognitive organ (9C). This may be expressed as:
9A --> 9C --> 9S --> 12 (finger moves)
There must first be a motive (A) in the circulatory system of the mental body in layer 9. For instance, you are typing at the keyboard and coming to the end of your sentence. Now your finger moves over to the period key and presses it. You had to have a motivation (A) to press that particular key. Your motivation was to end the sentence you were typing. This connects with the love (A) you have of communicating with someone or finishing writing something. This love you have is nothing else than the operation of your affective organ, which is the circulatory system of your spiritual body.
The love of communicating or completing your sentence, cannot exist on its own, cannot be anything on its own. In order for this love to have an existence in your affective organ, it must connect with thinks in your memory or knowledge that are in your cognitive organ (C). In the Swedenborg Reports this is called the connection between "the will and the understanding." or, the connection between "good and truth." This connection or conjunction is called the "spiritual marriage." It is the spiritual force in eternity that corresponds to the natural force of gravity in time. All movement and relative position in the physical world is ultimately determined by gravity. This corresponds to the mental world of eternity where the quality and level of all human consciousness is given by people's relative position in the Grand Human (S), which is the product of their love (A) conjoined with their understanding (C). The AC connection, or spiritual marriage, engenders the totality of our living (S). What we call "heaven" (Grand Human) or "hell" (Grand Monster) are the externalized sensorimotor (S) appearances produced by the internal marriage between our loves (A) and our thoughts (C). Love produces everything in eternity; in eternity everything is produced by our loves.
The ACS Sequence of Execution in Behavior
It helps to contrast
clearly the differences between the affective (A) and sensorimotor (S) parts of
the threefold self.
Often people use the
word "feeling" when they mean thinking (C), and vice versa. For
example, people say, "I feel that we should wait longer" when they
are discussing what they think (C). Sometimes feelings (A) are confused with
sensations (S). For example, "I feel hot flashes coming on" or
"I feel so tired." In both cases it is not the feelings (A) that are
discussed but the sensations (S). When we say "It feels so good" we
are talking about a sensation (S). When we say "I feel good today" we
are talking about an affective experience (A). The expression "I can't
stand it" refers either to a sensation (e.g., being tickled) (S), or to a
feeling (A) (e.g., feeling bad about the situation).
The sensorimotor
area of the threefold self includes these primary features of our everyday
life:
- sensing physical pleasures, or pain
- sensing excitement in the stomach or
other parts
- sensing being scared, or calm and
relaxed
- experiencing a healthy well being, or
being sick
- sensing physical attraction for someone
("vibes", "chemistry"), or the opposite
- coordinating one's movements with
partner, or acting independently
- expressing positive or negative emotions
through the tone of the voice, gesture, and face
- performing any activity with the body
- the appearance we have (expression,
clothes, activity)
- all our possessions are extensions of
our physical body and its sensorimotor sphere
- etc.
The affective
area of the threefold self includes these primary features of our everyday
life:
- feeling good and hopeful, or bad,
depressed
- feeling hesitant, unsure, or confident,
eager
- feeling apprehensive, anxious, or calm,
reassured
- feeling resistant, rejecting, or cooperative,
accepting
- feeling connected, or alienated
- striving to reach a goal, or having no
motivation
- perceiving from within that something is
right and good, or not (conscience, insight)
- feeling guilty, embarrassed, ashamed,
regretful, or not
- feeling calm, cool, and collected, or
the opposite
- etc.
Do you get the
difference? Note that the affective always comes first in the sequence of our
behavior. We do something because we are motivated to do it or we have a desire
to do it (affective). We are motivated to do something to achieve a
particular goal (affective). Every goal is defined by what we want
or desire or prefer to happen (affective). Therefore all human
action starts from a feeling -- what we want or intend to happen, together with
a goal that satisfies what we want.
The sequence of
execution in behavior is always ACS: A ---> C ---> S
(A) affective
(wanting to do something) ----> (C) cognitive (planning) ----> (S)
sensorimotor (executing or performing)
Once we have a
feeling, motive, or particular goal that we desire to happen (affective), the
next behavior in sequence is the cognitive self. Our thinking operations
(C) suddenly begin to figure out a plan or method of proceeding that will bring
about the desired goal (A), and thereby satisfy the feeling (A). It is
the feeling (A) that motivates, guides, and directs (A) the thinking and
planning (C). It is the feeling-intention or striving for the
goal (A) that keeps the sequence of mental operations (C) focused in a coherent
way so it may lead to the desired goal (A).
For example, you
become aware that you are thinking (C) about the candy bar in your pocket or
purse. What made your thoughts go in that direction? It had to be some kind of
feeling (A). When we sense hunger in the stomach (S), the sensation becomes the
occasion for a new motive (A), namely, the desire to satisfy the hunger (A).
This desire or feeling (A) then awakens our thoughts and memories (C) to think
about the candy bar (C). Another feeling or motive (A) can take over, namely, the
desire (A) to control one's weight. This new feeling (A) now directs the
cognitive to plan (C) a substitute for eating, or a way not to ingest certain
foods (S), and the sensorimotor then carries out (S) the motivated (A) plan (C)
(e.g., inhibits the hands from reaching for the candy bar). Either way, the
sequence of execution is always the same (ACS): affective, cognitive,
sensorimotor.
It is the reverse
with the sequence of reception which is always SCA:
A <--- C <---
S <---- environment
noticing or sensing
something in the environment (sensorimotor) ----> appraising it (cognitive)
----> evaluating it (affective)
Once the feeling or
desire (A) and the thinking about the candy bar in pocket or purse (C), are
placed together or conjoined, the hand starts reaching (S) for the candy bar or
the legs start waking (S) to the kitchen.
But then you stop
the hand or the legs from going further (ACS). "Wait. I'm on a diet and
I want to lose weight. Remember?" What's happening here? It's another
feeling (desire, motive) (A) that takes over and this new feeling (A) now
directs the thinking (C) and the moving in another direction (S).
So whatever we do
all day long minute by minute, has to do with sequences and loops of feelings,
thoughts, and sensorimotor executions of them (ACS). Note that the SCA sequence
happens along with the ACS sequence in alternating cycles. We notice something
(S), we think about it (C), and we react to it (A) (happy or sad, attractive or
repelling, etc.). This is the SCA cycle. Then we form the intention (A) of
holding it, so we see a way of grabbing it (C), and we reach for it (S) or
inhibit reaching (S). This is the ACS cycle. Note that the SCA cycle is called
"reception" while the ACS cycle is called "optimizing."
Reception (SCA) is passive (feminine, left hand and side), while optimizing
(ACS) is active (masculine, right hand and side). Thus both men and women have
a feminine side (receiving, satisficing, valuing) and a masculine side
(optimizing, giving, engaging).
Personality Development and Spiritual Growth
Note:
I recommend that you read and study the following statements. First, read
the whole piece at your normal pace. Second, reread at a slower pace trying to
figure out each statement. Third, reread it trying to see the cumulative
sequence as the argument builds. Fourth, practice presenting the whole argument
to someone, or to yourself.
As schematized in the above diagram:
- There are two categories of mental processes called ascending and descending. These apply both to the natural mind (layers 9, 8, 7) and to the spiritual mind (layers 6, 5, 4).
- For the natural mind (layers 9, 8, 7), the ascending process constitutes mental growth as personality development. The approximate overlapping stages are: infancy and childhood (ages 0-1) (layer 9), childhood and adolescence (ages 11-20) (layer 8), adolescence and young adulthood (ages 21-30) (layer 7).
- For the spiritual mind, the descending process (layers 4, 5, 6) constitutes spiritual growth and accompanies the ascending process of personality development in the natural mind (layers 9, 8, 7). Personality development in the natural mind (9, 8, 7) is accompanied by spiritual maturation in the spiritual mind (4, 5, 6).
- The sequence of personality development in the natural layers (ascending process) (9, 8, 7), cannot take place by itself but must be coordinated with the sequence of spiritual growth in the spiritual mind (descending process). Specifically, layer 4 (Third Heaven) is operationalized through the remains of layer 9 in infancy and childhood. Layer 5 (Second Heaven) is operationalized through the remains of layer 8 in teens and adolescence. Layer 6 (First Heaven) is operationalized through the remains of layer 7 in young adulthood. Spiritual growth (descending -- layers 4, 5, 6) depends on personality development (ascending -- layers 9, 8,7).
- The descending process for the natural mind constitutes regeneration (layers 7, 8, 9). Note that personality development is an ascending process (9, 8, 7), while regeneration is a descending process (layers 7, 8, 9).
- The ascending process for the spiritual mind constitutes spiritual maturation (6, 5, 4). Note that spiritual growth is a descending process (layers 4, 5, 6), while spiritual maturation is and ascending process (layers 6, 5, 4).
- During infancy layers 9 and 4 influence each other. The Divine Psychologist removes the heavenly remains from layer 9 and implants them into layer 4. This operationalizes our Third Heaven. During infancy we experience mental states in layer 9 called innocence of infancy. Babies can be observed to have heavenly moments during which their sensations (layer 9S) are ecstatic, their images and thoughts (layer 9C) are vivid and undistorted, and their emotions and feelings (layer 9A) are innocent, without rebellion, content to receive and to love. These feelings (9A) thoughts (9C), and sensations (9S) are called heavenly remains. As infants grow these heavenly remains would be altered and corrupted, which is why the Divine Psychologist protects them by storing them up in our Third Heaven (layer 4). When we get to our layer 4 we will experience those remains of layer 9. These remains of innocence of infancy form the innocence of those who live in the Third Heaven. This explains why these people appear as infants from a distance, as seen by Swedenborg, but as adults when approached.
- During childhood layers 8 and 5 influence each other. The Divine Psychologist removes the heavenly remains from layer 8 and implants them into layer 5. This operationalizes our Second Heaven. During childhood we experience mental states in layer 8 that are special to children being socialized. Children have amazing talents for learning languages and becoming expressions of their family and culture. They are driven by curiosity, play, and exploration of the environment. They learn to walk, talk, sing, draw, read, etc. with great facility. These motives and intentions (8A), thoughts (8C), and sensorimotor activities (8S) are laid aside by the Divine Psychologist as remains in our Second Heaven (layer 5).
- During adolescence layers 7 and 6 influence each other. The Divine Psychologist removes the heavenly remains from layer 7 and implants them into layer 6. This operationalizes our First Heaven. During adolescence we experience mental states in layer 8 that are idealistic and harmonious representations of the natural world and society. These feelings and attitudes (7A), thoughts and principles (7C), and skilled sensorimotor operations (7S) are form the remains that are implanted by the Divine Psychologist in our First Heaven (layer 6).
- During young adulthood there is the inversion in the natural mind from personality development (ascending -- layers 9, 8, 7) to regeneration (descending -- 7, 8, 9). In the spiritual mind there is a corresponding inversion from spiritual growth (descending -- layers 4, 5, 6) to spiritual maturation (ascending -- layers 6, 5, 4). This is when reformation takes place, after which regeneration begins. The new regenerated personality ("rebirth") in the natural mind (layers 7, 8, 9) is formed by means of the maturation of the corresponding spiritual layers (6, 5, 4).
- During mature adulthood the inversion in the natural mind continues with the regeneration of layer 8, assisted by the maturation of layer 5.
- During old age the inversion in the natural mind is completed with the regeneration of layer 9, assisted by the maturation of layer 4. At this point all the layers of the individual have been regenerated and matured. We are then ready for the dying process and resuscitation immediately after. We then dwell in the highest layer of the spiritual mind that has undergone full maturation -- in the First Heaven (layer 6), if only layer 7 has been regenerated prior to the dying process and resuscitation. In the Second Heaven (layer 5), if layer 8 has also been regenerated. And in the Third Heaven (layer 4), if layer 9 has also been regenerated.
- All regeneration is through spiritual combat against spiritual temptations that the Divine Psychologist arranges for us to experience in daily life events. The process will be illustrated with the three phases of marriage. The male dominance phase is an expression of the layer 9 mentality. Most marriages begin in this phase as it expresses tradition and social norms in nearly all societies today and in the past. The equity phase mentality in layer 8 often replaces the male dominance tradition, especially with the younger and modern generations. A husband who becomes spiritually enlightened through reformation, understands that his marriage is spiritual and eternal, and begins to practice the unity model when he forms the spiritual idea that to love the femininity of his wife means to protect her from being exposed to any disagreement between him and her. He will then learn to love to act from her will more than he loves to act from his own will (as was the case in the male dominance and equity phases).
- These three models constitute the ascending steps of marriage development. Once reformation takes place in layer 7 (assisted by layer 6), the implementation of the unity model must proceed through a descending process (7, 8, 9). Following reformation in layer 7C, the husband is regenerated in the entire layer 7 through spiritual-natural temptations and combat, assisted by the maturation of layer 6 (First Heaven). Following this, the husband's layer 8 or equity mentality is regenerated through spiritual-rational temptations and combat, assisted by the maturation of layer 5 (Second Heaven). Finally, the husband's layer 9 or dominance mentality is regenerated through celestial-rational temptations and combat, assisted by the maturation of layer 4 (Third Heaven).
- In the regeneration of the natural mind (layers 7, 8, 9) the last and most difficult to be regenerated is the corporeal or biological layer 9, assisted by the highest layer of the spiritual mind (layer 4). The husband begins to practice the unity model in layer 7, and this is called the young adulthood of marriage. Meanwhile the lower layers (8 and 9) have not been regenerated. Even though the unity husband is committed to agree with his wife in all things he finds an inner resistance to follow through with this model whenever his wife confronts him with a disagreement. He has to undergo spiritual-rational temptations in order to regenerate his layer 8, which is the external-natural layer of materialism and equity. Even after this layer is regenerated the husband experiences rebellion and disjunction in layer 9. Therefore he has to undergo celestial-rational temptations in order to regenerate layer 9 as well. After this he experiences no resistance to anything his wife wants or desires from him. They are now finally a unity couple in a spiritual marriage which will last forever.
The diagram above shows the ascending phase during infancy, there is the development of our corporeal thinking (9C), which allows the development of the motivation to acquire civic principles of life (9A).
In the ascending phase during childhood, there is the development of our materialistic thinking (8C), which allows the development of the motivation to acquire moral principles of life (8A).
In the ascending phase during adolescence, there is the development of our rational thinking (7C), which allows the development of the motivation to acquire rational and spiritual principles of life (7A).
(Inversion)
In the descending phase during young adulthood, there is the development of our motive to live by rational or spiritual principles of life, that is, to undergo reformation and regeneration (7A).
In the descending phase during mature adulthood, there is the development of our motive to live by moral principles of life (8A) that agree with spiritual principles (7C).
In the descending phase during old age, there is the development of our motive to live by civic principles of life (9A) that agree with spiritual (7C) and moral (8C) principles.
Mental Physiology
The study of mental psychology involves not only memorizing anatomical charts and developmental sequences. The second component involves the application of this anatomical knowledge to the daily practice of self-witnessing. Each of us is our own mental psychologist. Society expects individuals to manage their own mental world. No laws exist in any democracy around the world that make it illegal to love something, or to think about something. All laws of a country or community cover people’s physical body, and never their mind. It is recognized by all that the events of our mental world fall outside the jurisdiction of government and the law. This is also true of institutions like schools, the armed forces, businesses, and even casual friendships and co-workers.
But it is different with most parents, many teachers, spiritual guides, closed private groups, and best friends. In these situations people care about what the others think (C) and feel (A), as well as what they do or say out loud (S). In intimate relationships the mutual and reciprocal engagement of the entire threefold-self is involved – to the extent that it is sincere and not merely a “put-on” relationship. When we are motivated to undergo regeneration, self-witnessing our threefold-self helps us navigate through our experiencing, similarly to the way an accurate map helps you get to a destination. The destination in regeneration is eternal happiness with your soul mate in the mental world of eternity where you can construct your surrounding by means of your loves and thoughts.
If we don’t take charge of our mental world through regeneration, we are letting our spiritual mind to decay and lose its essential function. This is to allow your consciousness to exist in layers 6, 5, or 4, in the mental world of eternity. This is the rational consciousness that can receive altruism love substance and rationality that together, create the heavenly consciousness (S) and living in the eternity of our immortality. If we allow our spiritual mind to decay it will not function for us at our resuscitation, which occurs barely a few hours after our dying to this world. Now, awakened in our spiritual body, we cannot raise our consciousness to the spiritual mind. It is dead to us. We have therefore no other choice but to remain in the consciousness of our natural mind (7, 8, 9), such as it was before our resuscitation. But now we are no longer living in a physical environment with a physical body, through which our natural consciousness was formed. Our unregenerate natural mind is a material mind. It works only by correspondence to the material world. Now, after resuscitation, and conscious in the unregenerate natural mind, we look at the world around us, and it is an insane world, but we deny it, or won’t believe it. We want to keep pretending that we are still on earth somewhere, and all this mystery will somehow clear up soon.
But the mystery only deepens. Now we are experiencing emotions of incredible power. They feel irresistible. We are being pushed and pulled by loves that conflict with each other. This was possible in the natural mind while it was still attached by correspondence to the physical body, prior to resuscitation. But not any more -- once the attachment is cut off by the dying process. Our spiritual mind is perfectly suited for life in the mental world of eternity, but not our natural mind. The insanity of the conflictual emotions after resuscitation in the natural mind eventually dies down. The price: we have to give up any love that conflicts with our “ruling love.” All our loves in the affective organ at all six layers are arranged in a value hierarchy, so that each love has a rank relative to the other loves. A first rank love trumps a lower valued love. At the top of the love hierarchy is the ruling love.
The
Second Death
The process of regeneration involves self-witnessing our loves in daily life. The Divine Psychologist prevents us in our unregenerate mind to have consciousness of our actual love hierarchy. When we are resuscitated in an unregenerate natural mind we begin to undergo a physiological change that separates out the intertwining neural networks of the two love hierarchies every person possesses from birth. Our affective organ is the circulatory system of the spiritual body. The two types of nourishment for hellish loves and heavenly loves require different foods, different environments, different social life in eternity. In the mental world, conflictual loves destroy each other when co-present, and consequently they automatically separate, like oil and water in the physical world, or like fish swim away from an oil spill on the surface, or like a snake wriggles away from a burning bush. Opposite loves separate. But there is only one circulatory system in the spiritual body. The dominant love automatically does its work, and weeds out all the sub-loves that do not belong to its hierarchy. The loves that are weeded out are loves that draw in on themselves, contract, separate, and are as-if they had never existed as part of that individual.
This process of separation is called the second death.
The Divine Psychologist now activates the individual’s ruling love to come out into the open consciousness of the person. This new consciousness changes the appearance of the person. If the result of the separation process was a heavenly ruling love, all the hellish loves remaining after the person’s regeneration, are finally separated out from the personality. Because we are no longer “mixed good and bad,” but now all good, our appearance takes on the correspondence of an all good person with no bad inside. Altruism (A) and rationality (C), when conjoined, produce beauty and nobility of appearance (S) that we could easily call perfection in the human race. This is the beauty and appearance of the spiritual bodies that live in the Grand Human societies (layers 6, 5, 4 of the mental world of eternity, called the spiritual mind -- see diagram).
If the result of the separation process was a hellish ruling love, all the heavenly loves remaining in the person’s unregenerate natural mind, are now separated out from the personality. The appearance reflects this separation. A human being with only hellish traits and no heavenly traits, is a caricature of a human being. It is a beast of a human being. It is a human being sunk to the level of a wild animal. Such a person is insane and cannot be trusted. Such a person has no compassion and is filled with hatred and rage against anything that is good, like the innocence of children, or loyalty in marriage. The hellish mind is marked as -7, -8, -9 on the anatomical charts. These three layers of the mental world coalesce together in outward appearance and consciousness that is described by the title The Grand Monster.
That region of the mental world of eternity exists in every person’s mind. There is only one mental world of eternity, and every human being is in it since birth, and stays in it to endless eternity. Your mental world is the same as my mental world and the same as any person’s mental world. Our thoughts (C) and feelings (A), and our resultant consciousness (s), are all in the same mental world of eternity. The Grand Human (layers 6, 5, 4) and the Grand Monster (-7, -8, -9) are therefore in every person’s mind. Our consciousness travels across this endless mental landscape in accordance with the laws of correspondence. Our ruling love is our destination ticket. Regeneration is the mental work that we must do now and here in daily life, so that we may determine our future in eternity by acquiring a ruling love whose origin is rooted in the Grand Human regions.
The ruling love in the Grand Human is the love of others more than the love of self. We have this love from the reception of altruism love substance without distorting it or mixing selfism with it. Selfism is the love of self for the sake of self alone. It is the ruling love in the Grand Monster. Since we are born with this ruling love which we inherit from the parental line, it is medically of the utmost importance to get rid of this love pest, to eradicate it from the things we enjoy and take delight in. The Divine Psychologist does not give us consciousness of the devastating extent to which this hellish love rules our mental development and daily lifestyle choices as adults. It would be so devastating that we would have not motive to fight against it, and we would immediately plunge ourselves into the pleasures, enjoyments, and delights of the many sub-loves that the ruling love supports, fosters, and assists in our daily choices and activities.
The process of realizing how wicked and evil we can be in the apparent privacy of our mind, must be introduced only gradually by the Divine Psychologist. Self-knowledge is limited by self-love. When we undergo the second death in our unregenerate natural mind (-9, -8, -7) we abandon all limits of human compassion and reason. Nothing can stop the love of self for the sake of self alone, to gather around itself all sorts of sub-human and horrid loves. All of hell acts together as the Grand Monster, just as all of heaven acts together as the Grand Human. If you hang on to some hellish sub-love because it is “small and inconsequential in the larger scheme of things,” you are hanging on to all of hell, since all of hell is unified into one. This does not show here, in our natural mind while it is attached to the physical body. The Divine Psychologist prevents us from seeing this about our actual nature. We can hear and learn from teachers and authors that we have hell in us, but we don’t believe it, and can’t believe it. This is because hell feels good and is enjoyable, and what we love, that we call good and heaven.
But after the second death we come face to face with others around us who share the same hellish sub-loves. This looks like some real good fun for a short while, but like children at play, it soon turns into disagreements, and with bad children into fights, brawls, and the savage desire to tear each other apart limb by limb. Hell is love, but it is no pleasure or fun. The pleasure and fun we know here on earth is possible because we have both hellish and heavenly loves. Our desire to burn down an annoying neighbor’s house is held in check by our desire to stay out of jail. Our desire to deny someone’s rights is held in check by our desire to be an upright citizen. But take away this balance, as it is done after the second death, and you have no stopping point or limit to your nasty or selfish desires.
Mental
Nutrition
It helps if we fully
realize that living is an organic process and that regeneration, which is part
of living, is an organic process.
Think about how a plant grows as an organic process. Day by day, hour by hour, and second by second, the cells of the plant are active physiologically, exchanging their chemical waste for new food particles that reach them through the circulation within the plant cells, and between the plant structures, like the filaments of the roots that take in dissolved chemical nutrients, or the stalks and branches that carry the circulation upward to all the cells. Minute by minute the cells are reproducing and excreting from themselves more cells, that grow in size, which make the whole plant grow larger, and more mature, so it can deliver its flowers and fruit, which contains the seeds of the future plants. And thus the species evolves through many generations. All these operations are activated by sunlight, which provides the heat and energy for the motion of the exchanges within and between the cells. We all learn about these organic procedures in biology classes and in books. We are not told that these physiological details and procedures are, each and every one, an effect, caused by correspondence with the physiological details and procedures of our mental organs in the spiritual body. In other words, the mental world of eternity is the source and cause of the physical world of time. We can observe many details in the short term growth of a plant, or in the long term volcanic formation of an island chain in the ocean. These physical events are all effects. The causes are in the mental world.
This is the result of the fact that mental substances in eternity are durable and permanent (“eternal”), while physical substances in time are temporal or impermanent. The permanent must be the cause of the impermanent. You can see the same rational relationship with infinity and what is finite. God is infinite, and since there can be only one infinite, God is the only infinite. The infinite is therefore the cause of the finite. It is impossible and irrational for the finite to be the cause of the infinite. Mental substances are in the mental world of eternity, and hence they are the “permanent” things that cause the “impermanent” things to exist, and to form and grow. Mental anatomy is the cause of physical anatomy. Mental physiology is the cause of physical physiology. The two are in one-to-one, cause-effect correspondence, so that we can study our mental world by studying the physical body. This body-mind relationship of correspondence is the foundation of mental psychology.
The function of nutrition in the physical body comes about from its correspondence with the function of reception in the affective organ of our spiritual body. Our affective organ receives (“ingests”) and assimilates (“digests”) the inflow of altruism love substance from the Spiritual Sun in the mental world of eternity.
The
mental body of every human being is exposed and immersed in the spiritual heat
substance (“altruism”), and spiritual light substance (“rationality”), that
stream out of the Spiritual Sun. The entire circulatory system of the spiritual body, from head to toe, constitutes
the affective organ, which receives its nourishment from ingesting and
digesting spiritual heat, or altruism love substance. Spiritual heat substance
can also be called “love substance,” or affective
substance. All the physiological procedures of cell nourishment come from
being in correspondence with the physiological procedures of the affective
organ, or circulatory system in the spiritual body. This includes the digestive
system and its organs like the liver, pancreas, bile (see chart).
Mental self-witnessing is like the study of biology or medical students who are witnessing the cellular events of physical organs. Some medical study and knowledge is necessary as part of the modern educated person’s life style. Mental self-witnessing benefits from such medical knowledge since the procedures in the two worlds correspond and coincide, detail by detail. Future researchers in mental psychology will no doubt discover these correspondences, so that they may become part of everyone’s literacy. The ability to cooperate effectively in our mental regeneration process is at least as important and critical as the ability to maintain our physical body in working order.
When we study the activity of cells in the physical body we realize that this activity depends on the intake by all cells of two different categories of substances, namely, liquid and solid. For cell nourishment in your plant to be effective you have to find a way of getting these two substances to the plant for intake or feeding. These two substances must be able to unite. The large pieces of the solids have to be “dissolved” in water, so that they are small solids distributed throughout the water. Now the plant roots can take this liquid-solid mixture into its structure as food. If you give the plant only one of these, it will die. When the roots are laying in soil, you need only to add water on a regular basis, which then dissolves the solids in the soil into the mixture that the roots can take in.
These two categories of substances exist with life giving nutrition because they correspond to the two categories of substances that give life to our organs in the mental world of eternity. Altruism love substance corresponds to solids in the nourishment of physical cells, while rationality truth substance corresponds to the water or liquids. Rationality truth substance, or spiritual light, flows into our cognitive organ, while altruism love substance, or spiritual heat, flows into our affective organ. The two categories of substances are assimilated by each organ. Once they’ve been assimilated or incorporated by the organ, there results a strong tendency for these substances to unite. The affective operations, or feelings (A), seek to conjoin and unite with the cognitive operations, or thoughts (C). Let’s consider an illustration.
Mental Popcorn
You can do self-witnessing to find out what happens in your corner of the mental world when you take a snack with the physical body while you’re doing homework, or watching a program on TV. At one moment you’re conscious of a feeling in the corporeal consciousness (9A) that you identify (9C) as “I want some popcorn.” The consciousness of this feeling is activated or initiated by altruism love substance flowing into the affective organ of the corporeal consciousness (9A). Each layer of the mind is affected differently by the inflow of the same altruism love substance, and each person is affected uniquely at each layer. It is the Divine Psychologist who manages the physiology of your stomach and blood composition so that it can react by correspondence to the mental events in your affective organ. Your desire for having popcorn comes from a conglomerate or bundle of loves, such as
· the love of eating
· the love of the pleasure of eating
· the love of the happiness that comes with eating
· the love of sharing food with others
· the love of feeling independent by having popcorn when we want to
· the love of planning and stocking up on popcorn
· the love of paying taxes on popcorn as a worthwhile way of supporting the community
· the love of thinking about the history of popcorn and reading about it on the label
· the love of feeling full
· the love of getting thirsty with a lot of popcorn
· the love of chewing on popcorn
· the love of smelling the “theater butter” flavor on the popcorn
· the love of eating more popcorn than the others
· the love of hiding popcorn from others
· the love of throwing popcorn at someone
· the love of lying about having eaten popcorn
· etc. (add a few more you can think of)
You can see from this list that a single activity in the course of our day can have endless loves attached to it. Each of these loves are operations in your affective organ stirred to activation by the reception and assimilation of altruism love substance from the Spiritual Sun. Note that the same altruism love substance flows into all three layers of your natural mind (9A, 8A, 7A), and at each layer, activates a different love, different thinking, different consciousness and mentality. Unregenerate corporeal popcorn eating loves (9eA) are selfish and involve popcorn eating loves for the sake of self only (e.g., the love of not sharing the popcorn with others). Regenerating popcorn eating loves (9iA) involve popcorn-sharing loves attached to popcorn-eating loves. You can raise your popcorn-eating consciousness by thinking about 8S and 7S consciousness that can be attached to popcorn eating, like the love of planning for popcorn shopping and stocking up on it (8A), or the love of paying taxes on popcorn (7A).
There are natural, spiritual, and celestial popcorn eating temptations. For instance, suppose you’re eating popcorn with a friend while watching a movie. The bowl is between the two of you. You take a handful, get through with it, then you dip into the bowl communal bowl again. Your consciousness can be stuck in your unregenerate corporeal “dominance mode” (9eS), thinking constantly about sticking a bunch of popcorn at a time into your mouth, and eating faster, so you can get more popcorn into your stomach, than your companion does. Or, your consciousness may be on the “equity mode” (8eS), making sure you don’t take more than your share of half. Or, your consciousness might be in the interior portion of the rational consciousness (7iS), wanting to be careful that your companion gets as much as he or she wants, and feeling the regenerated interior delight of giving up some of the self for the sake of others (7iA and 7iAv6A).
Mental Physiology of the Threefold Self
The diagram shows the physiology of interaction between the three anatomical systems of the spiritual body. The affective organ is most prominent and covers the entire area of the spiritual body. No mental zone is left out as every zone must be nourished, and this is accomplished through the continuous circulation of interactions between the three systems of mental organs.
The Biochemistry of Consciousness.
Rationality truth substance, also called “truth” or “genuine truth”, is spiritual light within which is spiritual heat from the Spiritual Sun. We see the correspondence to this in the physical world. What we call “sunlight” flowing in from the sun millions of miles away, contains within itself heat. Light is on the outside, while heat is within it. When sunlight flows into a plant, there is a transfer of heat below the surface of the plant structures. This heat is necessary for cell operations, hence is a condition for life to continue. These physical organic operations correspond to the mental organic operations, for which spiritual heat is required.
Our mental anatomy and biochemistry is constructed out of the substances of spiritual heat and light form the Spiritual Sun. Our affective organ (A) is constructed specifically to be a receptor organ that admits into itself spiritual heat. Our cognitive organ (C) is the receptor that admits spiritual light. Together, our affective and cognitive organs (AC) are able to reunite the spiritual heat and the spiritual light substances that they each received separately. In the Spiritual Sun, hence in God, spiritual heat is called Divine Altruism love substance, and spiritual light is called Divine Rationality truth substance. In God these two Divine substances are fully united into one. When these two living infinite uncreate substances in God enter into the finite creation of the mental world of eternity, they separate, and separately enter our mental organs. Now they struggle to reunite in our mind. This occurs when our affective organ in the form of a feeling or intention (A), that is activated by the incoming spiritual heat, conjoins with a concept or idea (C), that is activated by the incoming spiritual light. This conjunction is called the spiritual marriage, and produces a spiritual child or “neo baby” that forms a unit of consciousness in our sensorimotor organ (S).
Consciousness is the flow of such units in our awareness. We construct our consciousness unit by unity into this flow of living or experiencing awareness that we call “my conscious living self.” It is the conjoint action of loves (A) and thoughts (C) that produce our consciousness (S). This subjectively appears to us as outside of our self, outside of our mental body as an environment. For instance, in our dreams we see things produced by our mind. This environment appears to our dream consciousness as outside of ourselves and includes space, objects, people, and events – all happening outside of our self, in the dream consciousness. After resuscitation we come into the consciousness of our spiritual mind (layers 6, 5, 4). Now we have our consciousness of the mental environment (S) that is produced by our loves (A) and thoughts (C) in the spiritual mind.
The mental world of eternity is filled with such units of consciousness, producing the appearance of objects, houses, gardens, cities, communities. This entire conglomeration is called the Grand Human. People are congregated according to the similarity or connection in their loves and thoughts, which allows them to produce a stable sensorimotor environment that coherently hangs together as individual and community life in eternity.
AWM Method of Consciousness Raising
Admit its possibility (affective)
Witness its meaning (cognitive)
Modify something in accordance with it (sensorimotor)
This applies to all concepts, ideas, and principles that have not been distorted by the filter of selfism. When spiritual heat (or altruism love substance) flows into the affective organ (A), it is filtered, transformed, adapted, digested, and assimilated to all the loves that are already operational in the organ. There is a specific process of affective growth in the hierarchy of our loves as we grow and mature. This filtering or adaptation process in the affective organ is uniquely carried out in each unique individual from birth to eternity. Although it is the same spiritual heat that flows into every human being, the adaptation process insures that a unique reaction will occur in each person. The compatibility between these unique filtering procedures determines the location of our spiritual community or dwelling place in eternity. Soul mates evolve reciprocal filtering procedures so the conjugial couple can form into one mental unity. Our immediate neighbors in our heavenly estates are closest to us in loves and thoughts.
The biochemistry of consciousness involves three general steps or phases.
First, we hear or see something that is meaningful, like a new idea, principle, or demonstration. This new perception, idea, or meaning comes from the activation of our cognitive organ (C) by the inflow of rationality truth substance (spiritual light). During the adaptation process there may be distortion by selfism and false beliefs or meanings in the cognitive organ (C). If this distortion is mild then we begin the process of consciousness raising by admitting the possibility of the new idea as genuine and true. This is an affective process. It is our love that admits the new idea, and if our loves are contrary to the new idea, it will not be admitted, and it will not raise our consciousness.
Second, we witness that meaning, which means that we make it fit into the meanings that are already there. We can just leave it there, hanging, or on a shelf so to speak, in which case it will not be raising our consciousness. To integrate the new idea is to link it to the ideas already there in such a way that the entirety retains coherence or integrated meanings.
Third, we modify something in our sensorimotor environment by acting on it through determination. For instance, if the new idea is about the benefits of exercising, we want to perform an action that corresponds to learning about the beneficial uses of exercising. The instant we perform the modification, our consciousness is raised. This means that we are operating from a higher perspective, more powerful ability, and more altruistic motivation. This positive consciousness involves experiencing heavenly mental states and capacities.
Consciousness Raising From the Divine Psychologist
Consciousness is the face of truth in our awareness. When we are beholding the face of un-truth we are not in consciousness, but are lacking of consciousness. Un-truth destroys truth in our mind, and since consciousness is the face of truth, we no longer have consciousness when we no longer face truth. Consciousness and reality are one in rationality or truth. What then do we have when we don’t have consciousness?
We have the life of the Grand Monster. This is the life of hell in the human mind. Hell is un-reality because it is anti-reality. A mad person takes a stand against the surrounding reality. By standers who are in reality can plainly perceive those who are in un-reality. They may speak with some coherence, especially if they have trained themselves to feign the behavior of sanity. Since insane people are able to train themselves to appear normal, it indicates that they are able to come in and out of reality, according to the love they are having. If they are having a love for escaping detection, they will be motivated to think thoughts and perform acts that they know are considered sane by society. This ability to think coherently and plan accordingly, indicates that they are able to come back into reality, long enough to carry out their insane purposes.
Mental states we have that are sourced in the Grand Monster plunge us into unreality. For instance, consider when people will swear. Often it has to do with expressing a negative emotion. Screaming and throwing things are additional forms of this explosive behavior that plunges us momentarily – for a second or two, into the rage and insanity of un-reality. When people allow it to build up over additional seconds or minutes, it becomes the insanity of rage which annihilates all semblance of humanity left in us, turning us into wild beasts that literally strive to tear their victim apart. Most of us in our unregenerate states prior to the inversion in layer 7i tolerate such anti-human states, and even enjoy the sensations and feelings we can get from it.
The un-reality of our
consciousness sourced in the loves of selfism is not something any of us can get
out of – by ourselves.
We would remain in the un-reality of the human hells forever. We would experience our birth and death in a hellish earth, much worse than now, and we would resuscitate in an unregenerate natural mind, thus in the Grand Monster (-7, -8, -9). Our spiritual mind would be forever undeveloped, non-functioning. The entire human race would be condemned to this awful state of born in hell and staying there forever. What saves us from this sorry and un-merciful fate is the co-presence of the Divine Psychologist in the interior layer of our rational consciousness (7i). This is the organ that gives us the ability to escape the materialism of the natural mind. It is here that the Divine Psychologist is co-present in our very consciousness. We share co-presence, which means conscious co-awareness. It is similar to meeting God face to face in an airplane and sitting together for a few hours, talking, exchanging ideas and emotions. The person next to you on the airplane is co-present with you for the duration of the flight. What happens around you in the cockpit you can both witness in your awareness. What you reciprocally say to one another, you can witness and report. This is co-presence.
Since the reality is that the Divine Psychologist is co-present in consciousness in the interior-natural mind (7iS) we can raise our consciousness to that level by admitting the possibility of this co-presence, witnessing it by reflecting on this in a rational way, and finally, modifying our behavior to agree with this possibility as a reality. Since we spend much of our daily regular consciousness in layers 9eS and 8eS, we are not able to experience the co-presence in layer 7iS – directly. But we can experience the co-presence indirectly by cognitive mysticism. For instance, it is common for people to pray on specific occasions of trouble or celebration. If is done from layer 8eC, it is only a social practice called “paying lip service.” If it is done from layer 8iC, it is a personal involvement in the consciousness that God is everywhere and that He can hear your prayer or hope. This is a mystical involvement that brings co-presence at the materialistic level of consciousness that is regenerating and interior (8iS).
There is a step up in consciousness from denying God and ridiculing prayer (8eC) (cognitive materialism), to mystically affirming God as everywhere and listening (8iC). There is another step up in consciousness from mystical ideas of God (8iC) to rational ideas of God based on mental anatomy and biochemistry (7iC). At this level we can empirically confirm the co-presence of God as the “Divine Psychologist” who is co-managing our mind for the purpose of effecting its regeneration, thus, to prepare every mind for eternal conjugial life in heaven (layers 6, 5, 4). The Divine Psychologist manages to insure that we are always in balance between hellish and heavenly loves, so that our choices can cumulate to weaken and abandon our hellish enjoyments. This is a lifelong medical process of disengaging and disentangling the neurons of our loves, some which are from selfism, and some from altruism. It is a surgical procedure that requires Divine omnipotence. Upon our willingness to cooperate hangs our fate, whether the Divine Psychologist manages to disentangle us before it is too late. Upon resuscitation all the tangles that have not been straightened, remain forever – only because at that point we no longer willing to part with them. They are sourced in the deranged layers of the natural mind (-7, -8, -9), which is the Grand Monster. Our loves always swim towards and end up in their roots.
Acknowledging the co-presence of the Divine Psychologist is therefore the main method of consciousness raising.
This acknowledging must take the form indicated above: AWM. First, we admit the possibility. This means we must love that possibility. We cannot admit it until we love it. Second, we witness the meaning of that co-presence by thinking about anatomically. Third, we modify our behavior to correspond to our idea of co-presence. This third step has many forms that we can experiment with. For instance, aving a mental dialogue with the Divine Psychologist. The topic does not matter. We need to want to express something to the Divine Psychologist, and we need to want to have an answer or response from the Divine Psychologist. The mental dialogue is not necessarily in a regular alternating turn format, as we do in face to face conversation with each other. Often new ideas or meanings spring into consciousness, and we realize that this was an answer because we can see that it is. We have the perspective or understanding on the topic that we wanted to know.
An additional form of acknowledging co-presence, is to mentally express thanks and gratitude to the Divine Psychologist for this or that in the course of the day. It is a way of recognizing the reality that every detail of your day is managed by the Divine Psychologist. Did you find the last parking spot this morning? Thank the Divine Psychologist for it. Remind yourself that it was not luck or chance. This afternoon you did not find a parking spot at the shopping market where you stopped. Thank the Divine Psychologist for providing spots for others. After all, you can think, if you had gotten the last parking slot, someone else would not have it right now. You can also talk to the Divine Psychologist so you can understand why you were not allowed to find a parking spot this time. In this way you are involving yourself in reality and your consciousness is raised.
Mental Self-witnessing
The practice of daily self-witnessing is done for the purpose of regeneration. Specifically, self-witnessing gives us the empirical facts about our mental life. Everyone has opinions and beliefs about themselves, and how they are. We can call this the “reputation you have of yourself.” Our reputation of our self may be accurate, but usually it is not. We often exaggerate our altruistic love and minimize our selfish love. When a wife or girl friend says to her husband or boyfriend, “You need to be more punctual and more neat around the house,” the man often denies being not neat or not punctual. The wife or girlfriend might say “You are angry with me,” and the man might say “No, I am not,” when he actually is. The self is no expert on the self. This is why we need objective views on our selves, and this is provided by others, how they see us, and experience us.
Self-witnessing data replaces reputation claims about our self. We need accurate data on the events that take place in our mental world. Prior to resuscitation, our mental world does not show to others who are also prior to resuscitation. Each individual is the sole source of empirical information on their own thoughts and feelings. Self-witnessing literacy refers to skills we can acquire to keep track of our threefold self in daily life. As this information comes to our consciousness and awareness, we are prompted by the Divine Psychologist to optimize it, to do something about it and with it. The purpose of self-witnessing is to give us the facts about our self so that we may exercise free choice about keeping them around as part of our mental world, or break company with them, and putting them on a regeneration list. We need to collect such self-witnessing facts on our self and organize them into categories of medical intervention and rescue.
It is the Divine Psychologist who rescues us, one by one, to the extent that each of us is willing to cooperate in the lifelong medical process of regeneration. This cooperation consists of exercising our judgment of right and wrong, or good and bad, with respect to every love that the Divine Psychologist brings to our attention through daily self-witnessing. We are not capable of doing this on our own. All we can do is to just go along with our loves, as if blown by a strong wind, or pulled by a strong current. It is the current of the Grand Monster to which each of us is attached from birth by our spiritual bar code. We would be long lost to that sorry fate were it not for the Divine Psychologist constantly pulling back on us, mitigating and reducing the intensity of the push and pull of our inherited ruling love of selfism. The love (A) and the thought (C) that we observe in our corner of the mental world (S), is a cleaned up and protected world, kept that way by the loving management of the Divine Psychologist. This protection can no longer be extended after our second death, when a new protection relationship begins, in which the Divine Psychologist is a hated figure and must keep in the unconscious regions of the person. This requires that all rationality and altruism be removed from the person. To leave some of this with the person would mean mental torture for that person to a degree that is not humanly possible to experience, and not be destroyed from all existence.
You will discover various methods of self-witnessing as your practice becomes a regular part of your day.
Exercise for Self-witnessing the Threefold Self on the Daily Round
A realistic way of keeping track of your threefold self on the daily round is to isolate them conceptually and focus in on one of the three during an observation period. The length of an observation period may be as short as a few seconds, or may last several minutes. Longer periods are possible with various recording techniques and systematic note taking and record keeping. When you just begin this mental practice I recommend that your observation periods be kept short. You can make a brief record of your observations immediately after, or review it in your mind and take notes about it later when you are in the mood for that kind of review.
Self-witnessing Inventory for the Natural Mind
The following annotated list or, Self-witnessing Inventory, can be used as a self-witnessing navigation chart. They allow you to disentangle the complicated knot of the many things that are going on in any typical social situation or realistic scene of life. Try to focus only, or mostly, on the specific item you select in advance for each observation situation.
(1)
Affective Observations
What am I trying to do here
What motivates me to be here, am I doing this for the sake of self only
Am I hurting someone by doing this and do I care
Why am I not stopping or leaving
What kind of enjoyment am I getting out of this, and how do I feel about enjoying this
How do I feel about myself wanting to engage in this activity or way of interacting and speaking
Etc.
(2)
Cognitive Observations
Is this good, what I am doing
Is it positive or negative, is it heavenly or hellish
Will I be sorry later for doing this
What’s wrong with what I am doing, who does it hurt
How long am I going to keep doing this
How can I stop doing this, put an end to it
Where did I learn to do this
Is what I am doing illegal, immoral, anti-social, psychotic
Would I do or say this if various others could see or hear it
Who else is doing this and what could be the effect on them
Etc.
(3)
Sensorimotor Observations
What did I just say
How did I express myself
How else could I have expressed myself
What did I just do
What else could I have done instead
How did the others react to what I said or did
Etc.
Stupidifiers
These are learned and acquired attitudes or habits of thinking and feeling. Our unique socialization and biography may lead us to emphasize particular categories, but all the categories are common for most people. Witness yourself performing these stupidifier practices. They are based on selfism and its irrational thoughts and reasoning patterns. Try to get a sense of how deeply you are involved in engaging in this type of stupidifying process every day.
Arrogance
One version of arrogance is shown when we decide to disregard authority and law because we are sure “we can get away with it.” This is a stupidifier, as shown by the fact that people who think this make foolish mistakes and get caught. Disregard for legitimate authority leads to the love of selfism in oneself. When this develops into a habit of life, it becomes a ruling love sourced in the Grand Monster. After resuscitation we are drawn by our ruling love to enter that “home” where our love lives. When we get there in conscious awareness we have a sense of reaching final home. All along we were living in this love of selfism, and now we have reached the roots of it. Now our life eternal hell begins in layers -7, -8, -9.
Another version of arrogance is to act like something doesn’t apply to us, when it applies to everybody. For example, allowing ourselves to eat unhealthy foods, or to practice binge drinking, or to have risky sex, etc., because we foolishly think it won’t apply to us.
Narcissism
Seeing things from our own perspective alone. Not letting the perspective of others to influence us, even when our perspective is wrong, incorrect, inappropriate, cruel, unfair. This makes us stupid, blind, and insensitive to the feelings and needs of others. The loves of selfism lead us to narcissism, self-centeredness, and the unwillingness to feel responsible for hurting others or inconveniencing them. For example:
often being late for things
promising to call, and then forgetting to
not hearing what another is saying
not caring what another wants or needs
willing to inconvenience others on a habitual basis
complaining about everything as a habit
etc.
Pessimism
Expecting things to turn out negatively as a habit
Focusing on the bad, ignoring the good
Interpreting what people are doing as insincere, even when they may be sincere
Compulsively thinking about all the things that can go wrong
Worrying as a habit
Disliking giving positive evaluation or ratings to almost anything or anyone
Denigrating or ridiculing the view of others when they are being optimistic
Being suspicious of people when there is no need for that, thinking the worse about them
Etc.
Entitlement
Feeling above the rules, above the fray, being owed special treatment, and resenting it if not
Wanting or insisting on special treatment that others are not getting
Etc.
Belligerence
Being feisty, making others feel bad or uncomfortable
Aggressive verbal manners (loud voice, angry face, rigid posture, threatening hand movements)
Accusatory in speech and tone of voice
Feeling criticized or attacked, even when not
Acting defensive, with a hostile attitude
Etc.
Inventory of States in Layer 9 Consciousness
Focused on what is corporeal, biological, and sensorimotor for the sake of physical usefulness to the whole individual (heavenly), or else for the sake of self without regard to social morality (hellish)
Heavenly traits are sourced in the Grand Human (GH) and connect us to specific societies there
Hellish traits are sourced in the Grand Monster (GM) and connect us to specific societies there
Our particular love and enjoyment for these activities keep us connected to each society specifically. This location or connection is indicated by the correspondence between the operation of our ruling love and the organ or structure of the body.
- liking to tease siblings and friends with little regard for their feelings (hellish)
- feeling empathy for those who are being teased (heavenly)
- feeling sympathy or compassion for those who are being teased (heavenly)
- enjoying playing practical jokes on others without considering how it affects them (hellish)
- bullying people at work or in public places (hellish)
- respecting others who are peaceful (heavenly)
- using physically intimidating, aggressive, or violent acts when challenged by others (hellish)
- swearing and cussing as a constant habit (hellish)
- maintaining eating patterns that are harmful to one's health (hellish)
- being a fan and in love with popular icons or idols, without evaluating the content involved or the ideology and lifestyle that are being promoted through them (hellish)
- practicing unsafe sex (hellish)
- pressuring women or girls to engage in sex when they are reluctant to do so (hellish)
- in exclusive relationships, seeing nothing wrong with occasional secret bouts of infidelity by the man (hellish)
- getting into costly debts with non-vital shopping when you can't afford it (hellish)
- feeling resentful when losing a game in fair competition (hellish)
- praying for gain or victory over others regardless of who deserves it more (hellish)
- taking and using what is not authorized when you can get away with it (hellish)
- lying and deceiving to get what you want without regard for justice or others who are involved (hellish)
- ignoring the voice of conscience (hellish)
- disliking to study and to improve oneself intellectually (hellish)
- preferring the easy way out and thus neglecting certain legitimate obligations (hellish)
- maintaining and displaying prejudice, intolerance, unfair discrimination (hellish)
- thrill seeking as an experience of great value regardless of how it affects loved ones (hellish)
- addicted to the excitement of taking excessive and unnecessary risks (hellish)
- for men: motivated to dominate their wife (hellish)
- with children, using physical violence or corporeal punishment that is cruel or mean (hellish)
- identifying with or promoting extreme political attitudes that are illegal, violent, or anti-social (hellish)
- forcefully imposing a dogmatic and authoritarian rules of life on others, in violation of their human rights (hellish)
- preference for unusual and cruel punishment for all people found guilty of certain crimes (hellish)
- enjoying it when punishing or making someone suffer in retaliation or vengeance (hellish)
- enjoying killing enemies (hellish)
- being cruel to animals (hellish)
- being over-indulgent with pets and children (hellish)
- unconditional attachment to blood relations or race (hellish)
- disowning adult children when they strongly disapprove of what they are doing (hellish)
- accepting harmful addictions as a permanent habit or way of life (hellish)
- sexually molesting children or contributing to their loss of innocence (hellish)
- enjoying flattery and prominence whether deserved or not (hellish)
- loving children only as an extension of themselves, not for their sake and individuality (hellish)
- refuses to study and think about abstract or rational things (hellish)
- male dominance perspective on family and society, seeing women as having less rights or privileges than men (hellish)
- abusive to women, children, animals (hellish)
- loves and enjoys vengeance and retaliation on enemies (hellish)
- loves being generous and loyal to family and friends (heavenly)
- likes to believe in magic or to hold on to superstitions (hellish)
- using physical threat and violence in daily life (hellish)
- prepares or plans for and engages in physical fights in public places, including the use of assault weapons (hellish)
- loves their own pets, but abuses other animals in general (hellish)
- Dressing up as Dracula, etc., enjoying
the idea of horrifying others
- Enjoying monstrous appearances or
distortions of the human face and body
- Throwing bottles out of the car for fun
and excitement
- Enjoying playing pranks and practical
jokes that annoy or disturb the victims
- Wanting the home team to win the
competition, even if unfairly (or whatever team we champion)
- Enjoying TV, movies, music,
entertainment, games, literature, etc. -- regardless of their content in
terms of altruism vs. selfism, respect vs. disrespect, accurate vs.
inaccurate, etc.
Exercise:
Now add a dozen or so additional items you can think of, either about you, or about others you know, or what is portrayed on TV, movies, and novels:
Inventory of States in Layer 8 Consciousness
Focused on what is materialistic, based on evidence from the senses, and attached to morality grounded in equity and legitimate authority (heavenly), or else, attached to immorality grounded in selfism and racism (hellish)
- watching your diet to keep your body healthy (heavenly)
- respecting laws, rules, and regulations (heavenly)
- studying and learning to improve yourself (heavenly)
- having a hobby in which you become skilled or expert (heavenly)
- respecting the property of others as a matter of principle (heavenly)
- being hypocritical in order to exploit someone innocent (hellish)
- planning fraud and conspiracy for selfish reasons (hellish)
- gaining skills to benefit self and to contribute to society (heavenly)
- serving in the military to do what's right for one's country (heavenly)
- working hard at one's career to benefit self, family, and the economy (heavenly)
- being sincere in one's jobs trying to do it as it is expected (heavenly)
- planting evidence or lying under oath (hellish)
- seducing women for selfish reasons, without caring about hurting them (hellish)
- rejecting loyalty to God, or denying that God exists (hellish)
- becoming a priest in order to manipulate and exploit believers (hellish)
- fooling people, pretending to have miraculous, magical, or psychic powers (hellish)
- adhering to the equity model of marriage, rejecting unity as unrealistic, abnormal, or not worth it (hellish)
- enjoying games when they bring people together, sports when they are fair and respectful, and entertainment when it is congruent with family values (heavenly)
- reading popular magazines, watching popular shows on tv without reflecting on their anti-unity values and without caring about the immorality it portrays in an attractive light (hellish)
- enjoying pornography as a habit and thinking that it is harmless to young people and to married people (hellish)
- regarding marriage, prefers the idea of "until death do us part" to the idea of "to endless eternity" (hellish)
- loving children as an inherent responsibility of human beings (heavenly)
- supporting the "green" movement and ideology from a desire to be community spirited, wanting to protect the environment for the sake of future generations (heavenly)
- values science, education, innovation because they are useful to people and society (heavenly)
- studies and understands the basics of how things work, loving to share the knowledge with others and applying it to fix things (heavenly)
- justifies acts of terrorism that kill innocent people because the terrorists actually believe they are doing the right thing (hellish)
- prays for their own team to win against the other team regardless of who deserves it (hellish)
- identifies freedom with doing what you want rather than what is right (hellish)
- .................
Exercise:
Now add a dozen or so additional items you can think of, either about you, or about others you know, or what is portrayed on TV, movies, and novels:
Inventory of States in Layer 7 Consciousness
focused on what is rational and spiritual, objectively without distorting the inflow of altruism love substance and rationality truth substance (heavenly), or else distorting it into what is self-serving and irrational (hellish)
- for the sake of good manners, feigning politeness when one feels the opposite (heavenly)
- pretending to be interested in order to spare someone's feelings (heavenly)
- striving to be a good effective soldier, killing without hating the enemy (heavenly)
- respecting laws as necessary for the good of society (heavenly)
- respecting people as something required by God (heavenly)
- likes and supports the unity model of marriage as eternal conjunction between soul mates (heavenly)
- maintains a strong motivation for character improvement (heavenly)
- fights mental addictions and habits until freedom from them is achieved (heavenly)
- respects all women as requiring and deserving a more gentle approach (heavenly)
- loves parenting as a God given duty and opportunity (heavenly)
- supports universal tolerance and human rights as part of being a human being (heavenly)
- considers physical or mental promiscuity as harmful to self and marriage (heavenly)
- values all the virtues, striving to love them (heavenly)
- enjoys selected entertainment with discrimination, for the sake of rest, relaxation, recuperation (heavenly)
- fights against the desire to pray for selfish things, asking for God's will to be done instead (heavenly)
- relies on God for strength, comfort, sanity (heavenly)
- considers diet, exercise, health, hygiene, and orderliness as heavenly uses to be loved (heavenly)
- strives to understand sacred scripture beyond its literal meaning, in a spiritual way (heavenly)
- strives to abandon authoritarianism, dogmatism, intolerance, and literalism, as inconsistent with God's perfect character and omnipotence (heavenly)
- supports having respect for all religions, viewing them as cultural variations of serving the one universal God (heavenly)
- sees theistic psychology as valuable for self and others because it helps with regeneration or character reformation (heavenly)
- realizes that there is a heaven and hell, and understands why they are both necessary (heavenly)
- believes that God wills only what is good, hence attributing evil to people not to God, and understanding that the evil is done from the people under God's law of permissions for the sake of good (heavenly)
- considering the ten commandments and other commandments of sacred scripture to be models of altruism and respect that we should strive to follow for the sake of life in heaven (heavenly)
- knows and understands that freedom is to will or intend what is heavenly, while to intend and enjoy what is evil is slavery to the ruling loves that are known as the lusts of the hells (heavenly)
- ...............
Exercise:
Now add a dozen or so additional items you can think of, either about you, or about others you know, or what is portrayed on TV, movies, and novels.
It takes a long time to generate lists such as the above! You might have to do on more than one sitting. Try to follow this rule I've followed for many years: If you think it, ink it. Write down the items that pop into your awareness as you go about your daily activities. When you have time add them to the list. This kind of procedure is effective in generating large inventories of items. Suppose you had to write down from memory all the things in your apartment. You will think of more and more items to add to the list as they pop into your awareness over several days. It is the same with inventories of your thoughts and feelings on the daily round. I once made an inventory of the things we need to do when driving a car, including our feelings, thoughts, and actions. See The Nine Zones of Your Driving Personality here: www.drdriving.org/articles/9zones-inventory.htm .
There is great value in making lists. It allows your rational consciousness (layer 7) to examine and inspect many things that are going on in your own mind in layers 8 and 9, things that you do not normally reflect on. What we don't reflect on disappears from our conscious awareness. What is not present to our awareness cannot be assessed and judged, hence we are stuck with them forever. They will never go away on their own because we love our habits, and what we love stays with us forever because love is an immortal substance organically engrained or embedded in our immortal mind. Making inventories of our traits is a necessary activity in the process of regeneration.
You will notice that as children we start out with a corporeal mentality (layer 9). As we get older we adopt the ways of thinking of our parents and peers. If the adults and peers around the children are immersed in the corporeal mentality, the children will grow up as adolescents and young adults being similar to their parents. Some adults continue in that corporeal mentality, passing it on to their children, but others change as they are motivated to upgrade themselves to a higher mode of thinking and feeling (layer 8).
Note also that all three layers of the natural mind contain both heavenly and hellish traits. This does not mean that they are in the same sub-layer since these two oppose and annihilate each other. This means that the hellish traits in any layer are separated from the heavenly traits in that layer. This separation within each layer of what is heavenly or hellish insures that they can exist in the same individual as we are preparing for our life after resuscitation. When we are resuscitated, a separation then takes place with the individual's mind so that all heavenly traits remaining in layers 8 and 7 are put to sleep, leaving the person free to join eternal life in the hells of the natural mind (layer 8, 7). In this case the spiritual layers (6 and above) have never been opened during life on earth. But if they have been operationalized through the process of regeneration, then the individual continues life in the spiritual layers of heaven (6, 5, 4), while everything in the natural mind is put to sleep.
Notice also this important feature:
Each of us moves across the three layers of the natural mind throughout the
day, depending on how a situation challenges us and how we react to it. For
instance, many people drive to work in heavy traffic during which they are
emotionally challenged by the action of other drivers. Frequently they engage
in venting hellish thoughts and fantasies of violence (layer 9C), and sometimes
they fly into rages (layer 9A), some of which result in physical assault or
using the vehicle as a weapon (layer 9S). When they get to the work they calm
down and immerse themselves in their work environment and co-workers during
which they operate in layer 8. Or they may be undergoing reformation and
regeneration in layer 7, in which case they no doubt will have to repent from
their hellish enjoyments in traffic. At any moment something can happen that
plunges you down into layer 9, or you may experience a reflective insight in
layer 7 that raises you to a higher level of being. As we progress in
regeneration we gain control over these plunges so that we stay steadily in
layer 7 where we can face spiritual combat.
Exercise:
Fill out the following inventory. Check it with the original above. Which ones did you get wrong? Why did you get them wrong -- what was your thinking?
|
Identify each
statement as belonging |
Layer |
Layer |
Layer |
|
|
|
|
Unregenerate Layer 8 Consciousness
Justifying unfair practices when it benefits self or one’s own
Unregenerate Layer 7 Consciousness
Body-Mind Correspondences in Popular Symbolisms
Beating the chest = feeling sorry, repenting or: being proud of oneself
Bitter, sour = unpleasant, not good, bad ("The relationship soured, and they became bitter enemies")
Burning, boiling = feeling angry, passionate
Clothes, vesture, linen = varieties of meanings
Covered = secret, having a plan to deal with it ("I've got it covered")
Darkness = lack of comprehension
Deaf = lack of cooperation, obedience ("He plays a deaf ear to it")
Deaf = not understanding or obeying ("Are you deaf?")
Death, to die = entering hell in the mind
Digest = to appropriate, to make one's own ("This story is too much for me to digest")
Dirty = morally corrupt ("He is a dirty cop")
Eating together = to get in touch with and communicate, to be conjoined, to consociate
Eating, drinking = to accept, to go along with, to apply or appropriate to oneself, to learn
Eyes = wisdom, perceptions, cognitive organ of thinking and understanding ("I see what you mean")
Face = the affections or emotions
Finger = power
Hand = proceeding power ("He's ruling with a strong head")
Head = what is inmost or highest in the mental world, life itself ("It's my head that is at stake")
Mouth = spokesperson
Nose = perception, intelligence, expertise ("she's got a good nose for it")
Reproductive organs = life in the highest heaven of our mind
Resurrection = resuscitation of the mind after death of the physical body
Right hand = having all the power ("He's the boss's right hand man")
Shoes, sandals, shoe laces = the lowest part of the natural mind called corporeal
Smell = to investigate ("I smell something fishy going on here")
Teeth = power ("that amendment has no teeth in it")
Tongue = religion, culture
Washing the body = repenting, cleansing or purifying the mind from selfism
Water = knowledge; also: Sacred Scripture ("living water" or spiritual truths))
Another illustration is the expression “living luxuriously” (body activity) which corresponds to having pleasure (mental activity). You can see that people who live in luxury (physical body) do it because they value the pleasures it provides (mental).
For more information and explanation on correspondences, see Correspondences in Our Thinking and Language.
By studying these correspondences you can realize two important things.
First, that all your daily ordinary thinking is done through correspondences.
Second, that correspondences are wired in relationships between your physical body operations and your mental operations.
For instance, head (physical) corresponds to inmost and highest (mental). You can see that the head is the highest part of the body and so it corresponds to the highest part of the mind (which is called "inmost"). Another illustration: face (physical) corresponds to emotions (mental). You can see that when people are emotionally involved or aroused their facial appearance changes in accordance with (or correspondent to) the quality of the emotion (happy, angry, sad).
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Exercise on Mind-Body Correspondences
Part 1
Consider these examples of mind-body correspondences in everyday speech. See if you can confirm the mental correspondence given by what you know from daily life:
|
Body Activity |
Mental Correspondence |
|
No sweat |
I will experience no problems doing it |
|
We’ll work something out |
We will come to a mental agreement |
|
Get outta here |
I can hardly believe what you are saying |
|
What are you sniffing for |
What information are you curious about |
|
Knock me down |
I can’t believe it |
|
It blew me away |
I was totally amazed |
|
He gets puffed up |
His personality gets feisty or fastidious |
|
We don’t’ see eye to eye |
We disagree |
|
Etc. (see below) |
|
Part 2
Practice describing the mental correspondence of the following physical acts:
- He had a hand in it
- He’s got a finger in every pie
- He is straight as a bucket
- He is a wolf
- He is very cheeky
- He’s a pain in the butt
- He is a dirty cop
- He came apart at the seams
- He smelled a rat
- Something fishy is going on here
- He always goes round and round
- Work with me on this
- It’s the furthest thing in my mind
- He bulldozes his way in
- He puts up a lot of barriers
- It’s a hot item for teenagers
- You can’t hide behind your daddy all the time
- They won’t know what hit them
- I’m this much away from blowing it
- He shrugged his shoulder
- He pointed a finger at the previous owner
- He was mesmerized by her
- I like to bump heads with him
- The two of us are hand and glove
- He toyed with her
- He swallowed it up and now we can leave
- Things are churning in my brain
In contrast, note
that some figurative speech is not an instance of mind-body
correspondences, as in the following examples:
He fingered the man who did it
He double crossed his partner
His business partners stabbed him in the back
He flew away from the coop
He thrashed her
The General used the pincer movement
Note that these types of figurative speech refer to one physical act by mentioning another physical act. For instance, the statement, that “the general used the pincer movement”, refers to “attacking the enemy” (physical act) by mentioning the “pincer movement” (physical act). Or, for instance, the statement, “He thrashed her” refers to a man beating a woman (physical act) by mentioning the “flailing movement of the hands” (physical act). The speech act, “He fingered the man who did it.”, uses one physical act (pointing the finger at someone) in order to refer another physical act (reporting someone as the guilty person). In contrast, the statement “Things are churning in my brain”, mentions a physical act (the brain churning) to actually refer to a mental act (the mind busy with ideas).
Part 3
Make up a Table of mind-body correspondences with entries that you made up, either by yourself or with a little help from friends. These are called “neologistic mind-body correspondences” (“neo” = new), in contrast to the “communal mind-body correspondences” that we acquire by socialization and group practices. Once you have your full Table, print out a list of just the expressions (body activity), and ask friends to figure out their mental correspondence. Describe how each expression was viewed by others, and give your explanation why that occurred.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Three Ways of Knowing God
If God exists, people must be able to know this without any doubt. There are three ways in which this certainty of God’s existence is acquired by people, namely, conscience, proof, and Sacred Scripture. The following table describes these three ways of knowing God within each of the three layers of the natural mind.
|
Three Methods by Which God is Known in the Natural Mind |
|||
|
|
CONSCIENCE |
PROOF |
SACRED SCRIPTURE |
|
Layer 7 Rational mind |
|||