Theistic Psychology: The Scientific Knowledge of God Extracted From the Correspondential Sense of Sacred Scripture Volume 18 Index by Dr. Leon James, University of Hawaii

Principles of Theistic Psychology:
The Scientific Knowledge of God
Extracted from the
Correspondential Sense of Sacred Scripture

THIS IS VOLUME 18
Version 64c
Subject Index, Section Headings,
Selections from the Writings, Reading List, Student Reports

Dr. Leon James
Professor of Psychology
University of Hawaii
leon@hawaii.edu

Published on the Web in 2004. Continuously updated and expanded. Last update: 2008

Please click to see the Publication Note, Permissions to Use, and Copyright Notice at the End of this file.

About the Author

volumes

Volume 1 Introduction to Theistic Psychology

Volume 2 Q&A on Theistic Psychology

Volume 3 Levels of Thinking About Theistic Psychology

Volume 4 Derivation and Function of Scientific Revelations

Volume 5 Research Methods in Theistic Psychology

Volume 6 Personality and Character

Volume 7 Character Reformation

Volume 8 Learning and Cognition

Volume 9 Spiritual Development

Volume 10 Health Behaviors

Volume 11 The Marriage Relationship and the Doctrine of the Wife

Volume 12 The Heavenly and Hellish Traits

Volume 13 Religious Psychology

Volume 14 Prayer as Revelation from God

Volume 15 Universal Sacred Scripture

Volume 16. Religious Mysticism

Volume 17 Religious Movements

Volume 18 Index to All Sections, Subject Index, Selections, Collateral Links, and Readings

Note: Student Reports on Theistic Psychology accessible here

Contents of Volume 18

Index to All Sections for the 18 Volumes
Selections to the Writings Sacred Scripture Keyed to Theistic Psychology Subjects
Readings, Citations, and Literature
Collateral articles and works available on the Web
List of Abbreviations for the Books of the Writings
Subject Index for the Combined 18 Volumes
Publication Note, Permissions to Use, and Copyright Notice
Who Was Swedenborg? For chronology, dates, publications, and records see Section 1.2.1 in Volume 1 at: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/ch1.htm#who-swedenborg
About the Author Leon James

Searching for something in theistic psychology?
Click to see the note at the end on how to do it efficiently

Online Books by Leon James

Principles of Theistic Psychology || Lecture Notes on Mental Anatomy || Moses, Paul, and Swedenborg || The Unity Model of Marriage || Swedenborg Encyclopedia of Theistic Psychology || The Levels of Human Consciousness in Relation to God and Eternity || Scientific Neologisms Coined by Leon James in Psychology For the Period 1958-2008 || A Man of the Field: Forming the New Church Mind || De Hemelsche Leer Commentary || The Doctrine of the Wife || Collection of Driving Psychology Articles || Road Rage and Aggressive Driving ||

This is Volume 18 The Index Volume to Principles of Theistic Psychology

Index to All Sections
Volumes 1 to 18

Click on the Volume you want, then you can get to any Section in that Volume.

Note: Quotations from the Writings of Swedenborg are given with parenthetical notes in italics that I insert in square brackets throughout the quoted text. These do not appear in the original. As well, longer paragraphs are arbitrarily sub-divided in smaller paragraphs.

For the original text of Swedenborg's Writings please consult the online copies available free in various places on the Web :

http://www.e-swedenborg.com/writings/booklist.htm

www.heavenlydoctrines.org

http://www.smallcanonsearch.com/

http://biblemeanings.info/

http://www.swedenborgproject.org/

http://www.sacred-texts.com/swd/index.htm

http://www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/index1a.html#can

Volume 1. Introduction to Theistic Psychology

1.0 The Psychology of God: Overview of Basic Topics

1.0.1 Topic 1. The Negative Bias in Science vs. The Positive Bias in Science

1.0.1.1 Dualism: Natural Science and Rational Science

1.0.1.2 Theism in Theistic Science: Universe Created and Managed by God

1.0.1.2.1 Born Into Eternity

1.0.1.2.2 Male Mind, Female Mind, and Conjoint Mind

1.0.1.2.2.1 The Mental Origin of Semen

1.0.1.3 Revelation: Divine Speech Exteriorizing as Sacred Scripture

1.0.1.3.1 What are Spiritual Temptations

1.0.2 Topic 2: The Spiritual World of Eternity

1.0.3 Topic 3: Divine Speech, Sacred Scripture, and Conjunction With God

1.0.3.1 Part A: Some Propositions to Remember

1.0.3.2 Part B: Degrees of Conjunction with God

1.0.3.3 Part C: Why This Is a Perfect World Despite Evil

1.0.4 Topic 4: Forms of Divine Speech in Our Conscious Natural Mind

1.0.5 Topic 5: Sensuous vs. Rational Spirituality

1.0.5.1 Part A (i): Why Doesn't God Make an Appearance at the United Nations?

Part A (ii): What About the Paranormal, Miracles, Telepathy, Magic?

1.0.5.2 Part B: Sensuous Consciousness of God Does Not Remain in the Afterlife

1.0.5.3 Part C: We are Dual Citizens in Discrete Layers

1.0.5.4 Part D: There is Only One Mental World in the Human Race

1.0.5.5 The Daily Discipline of Rational Spirituality

1.0.5.5.1 Recognizing Our Dual Existence

1.0.5.5.2 The Mental World is the World of Eternity

1.0.5.5.3 Our Life in Eternity

1.0.5.5.4 Why We Need Sacred Scripture

1.0.5.5.5 The Hidden correspondential sense of Sacred Scripture

1.0.5.5.6 Why We Need Theistic Psychology

1.0.5.5.7 The New Evolution in Rational Consciousness of God

1.0.6 The Negative and Positive bias in Science

1.0.7 What is Substantive Dualism in Science

1.1 Three Levels of Thinking About God

1.1.1 Level 1: Materialistic Science (Monism)

1.1.2 Level 2: Mystical Religion

1.1.3 Level 3: Theistic Psychology

1.1.4 Ten Rational Conclusions Derived From the Proposition That God Exists

(A) First Conclusion: God is a Person, at once Divine and Human

(B) Second Conclusion: God’s Omnipotence Must Control Every Event

(D) Fourth Conclusion: There are Two Worlds, One in Time-Space, the Other in Eternity

(E) Fifth Conclusion: Humans are Born Dual Citizens, In Time and in Eternity

(F) Sixth Conclusion: The Eternity of the Afterlife is Our Mental World Now

(G) Seventh Conclusion: We Are Born With Heaven and Hell in Our Mind

(H) Eighth Conclusion: Heaven is a State of Marriage Between Soul Mates

(I) Ninth Conclusion: Divine Speech as Sacred Scripture Produces
Consciousness and Enlightenment

(J) Tenth Conclusion: Salvation, Liberation, Peace, and Wisdom Are
Attained By Spiritual Discipline

1.1.4.1 How the Idea of God Makes Us Immortal

1.1.4.1.1 The Incarnation Event: God Enters the World of History and Science

1.1.4.1.1.1 Completion of the Creation of the Human Race

1.1.4.1.1.2 A Brief History of God and Humanity

1.1.4.2 The Three Benefits of Rational Spirituality:
Enlightenment, Empowerment, Rational Ecstasy

1.1.4.2.1 Spiritual Enlightenment

1.1.4.2.2 Spiritual Empowerment

1.1.4.2.3 Rational Ecstasy

1.1.4.3 How Divine Speech Descends In the Human Mind Through
Discrete Layers and Keeps It Functioning

1.1.4.3.1 Conceptual Charts of the Physiology of God and the Human Mind

1.1.4.3.2 Extracting the Content of Divine Speech Through Correspondences

1.1.4.3.2.1 What are Correspondences in Sacred Scripture?

1.1.4.3.2.2 Drinking Blood and Other Examples of Correspondences
in Sacred Scripture

1.1.4.3.2.3 Metaphors, Symbolism, Simile, Figurative Speech -- Are Not
Correspondences

1.1.4.3.3 Three Levels of Thinking About God: Energy, Person, Truth From Good

1.2 Mystical vs. Rational Approaches to Theistic Psychology

1.2.1 Who was Swedenborg?

1.2.1.1 Swedenborg's Autobiographical Letters

1.3 Rational Substantive Dualism

1.3.1 Substantive Dualism and Theism in Science

1.3.1.2 The Psychology of Religion in Nontheistic Psychology

1.3.2 Discrete Layers of Substances

1.3.3 The Substances of the Mental Organs

1.3.4 God's Mental Substances as the Framework of the Universe

1.3.5 Benefits of Understanding Theistic Psychology

1.4 Partial List of Scientific Revelations in the Writings of Swedenborg

1.5 Some of the People Who Have Acknowledged Swedenborg

1.5.1 Students Speak Out on Swedenborg

1.5.1.1 The Swedenborg Reports

1.5.1.2 The Negative Bias in Science

1.5.1.3 Outline of Swedenborg's Spiritual Psychology

1.6 Spiritual Psychobiology

1.6.1 Three Levels of Behavior

1.6.2 Swedenborg's Laws of the Spiritual World

1.6.3 Criteria for a Scientific Theory in Psychology

1.6.4 The Organic Basis of All Phenomena

1.6.5 The Method of Psycho-Biological Correspondence

1.6.6 Applications of Swedenborg's System

1.6.7 Behavioral Consequences of Swedenborg's System

1.6.7.1 The Anatomical Layers of the Mind

1.6.8 Sacred Scripture as the Source of Scientific Revelations

1.6.9 History of the Concept of Dualism in Science

1.6.9.1 Substantive Dualism

1.6.9.2 Prior Versions of Dualism in the Negative Bias

1.6.9.3 Dualism and Consciousness

1.6.9.4 Dualism in Descartes and Swedenborg

1.7 Swedenborg's Description of How We Are Resuscitated After Death

1.8 The Rationale For Theistic Psychology as Science

1.8.1 The "Bible Code" vs. the Method of Correspondences With Enlightenment

1.8.1.1 Horizontal vs. Vertical Extraction

1.8.2 Divine Speech and Its Functional Properties

1.8.3 The Content of Divine Speech

1.8.4 Three Types of Research in Theistic Psychology --
Extractive, Predictive, and Applied

1.8.4.1 Levels of Extractive Research

1.8.4.2 What is God Talking to Us About?

1.8.5 Why Study Theistic Psychology?

1.8.6 About Swedenborg

1.8.7 Should One Believe Swedenborg?

1.8.8 Scientific Proof that Sacred Scripture is Divine

1.8.8.1 The Secret Presence of Correspondences in Sacred Scripture

1.8.8.2 Cause-Effect Control by God

1.8.8.2.1 The Correspondential Sense of CL 270

1.8.8.2.2 The Correspondential Sense of CL 42

1.8.8.2.2.1 The Power of the Literal Sense that
Contains the Correspondential Sense

1.8.8.2.3 The Correspondential Sense of Pharaoh's Dream

1.8.8.2.4 The Correspondential Sense of DP 30

1.8.8.3 Correspondences in Our Thinking and Language

1.8.8.4 Daily Life Correspondences of Body Parts, Activities, and Functions

1.8.8.5 Numbers in Sacred Scripture

1.8.8.6 Types of People in Sacred Scripture

1.8.8.7 Geographic Terms in Sacred Scripture

1.8.8.8 Animals in Sacred Scripture

1.8.8.9 The Divine Origin and Power of Correspondences

1.8.8.10 The Scientific Status of Correspondences

1.8.8.11 Perception of The correspondential sense of Scientific Revelations

1.8.8.12 Natural vs. Spiritual Understanding of Correspondences

1.8.8.13 True Science -- Divine Scientific Revelations of Absolute Truth

1.8.9 Theistic Science: The Scientific Alternative to Creationism and Intelligent Design

1.8.9.1 Recent Court Decision in Pennsylvania on Teaching Religion
in the Public School Curriculum

1.9 Life in the Mental World of Eternity

Volume 2. Q&A on Theistic Psychology

2.0 Q&A on Theistic Psychology

2.1 What’s the difference between religion and theistic psychology?

2.2 What about evil, sin, hell, devil, and heaven in relation to theistic psychology?

2.3 Is theistic science really science?

2.3.1 Criteria for non-theistic Psychology as Science

2.3.2 Criteria for Theistic Psychology as Science

2.3.3 Can an atheist be an expert in theistic science?

2.3.4 Who is to tell us what are good traits and what evil?

2.4 What about the spiritual world and the afterlife—how can that be researched?

2.5 Is it possible that Swedenborg made it all up or was delusional?

2.6 What's the relation between the body, the mind, and the spiritual world?

2.7 Theoretical Implications of God's Omnipotence, Omniscience, and Omnipresence

2.8 What is God's Role in the Evolution of the Human Race

2.9 What is Divine Truth in relation to scientific revelations in theistic psychology?

2.10 How is the mind or consciousness related to the spiritual world?

2.11 What do surveys show about beliefs in God, heaven, hell, miracles, afterlife?

2.12 What About Creationism and evolution?

2.13 What is "Substantive Dualism" in theistic psychology?

2.14 What is Applied Theistic Psychology?

2.15 How is Theistic Psychology different From Mysticism, Spiritism, Psychic Research?

2.16 How is Spiritual Psychology Related to Theistic Psychology?

2.17 How Can You Do Research on God in Psychology?

2.17.1 The As-of Self Revealed to Humankind

2.18 Swedenborg's Rational Psychologychy

2.19 In What Style did Swedenborg Write the Writings?

2.20 Christian Psychology vs. Theistic Psychology

2.20.1 The Inner Scientific Sense of Divine Speech

2.21 Where can I read Swedenborg’s Writings and collateral works?

2.22. Why doesn't God Give Proof of His Existence by Showing Himself Regularly at Conferences and on TV?

Volume 3. Developmental Levels of Thinking About Theistic Psychology

3.0 Developmental Levels of Thinking About Theistic Psychology

3.1 The First Level of Comprehension--Paraphrasing and Summarizing

3.2 The Second Level Comprehension--Critical Analysis

3.3 The Third Level Comprehension--Spiritual Enlightenment

3.4 The Spiritual Sun

3.5 Consciousness as Substance

3.6 Choosing the Heaven or the Hell in our Mind

3.7 The Nature and Character of God: A Scientific Perspective

3.7.1 The Science of Correspondences

3.7.2 Evolution of Correspondences in Sacred Scripture and Divine Speech

3.7.2.1 The Most Ancient Sacred Scripture

3.7.2.2 The Old Testament Sacred Scripture

3.7.2.3 The New Testament Sacred Scripture

3.7.2.4 Sacred Scripture and the Mental Development of the Divine Child

3.7.2.5 Consciousness Raising Through Correspondences in Sacred Scripture

3.7.2.6 The Incarnation Event and the Evolution of Human Consciousness

3.7.2.7 The Stages of Theistic Psychology

3.7.2.8 Levels of Descent of Divine Speech

3.7.2.9 How Divine Speech Unifies the Human Race

3.7.2.10 A Level 3 Description of Co-Presence With God

3.7.3.0 Extracting the Hidden Higher Correspondences

3.7.3.0.1 Correspondences and Representatives (passages form the Writings Sacred Scripture)

3.7.3.1 The Scientific Content of the Creation Story in Genesis

3.7.3.1.1 Phase 1: The Mental States Prior to Regeneration

3.7.3.1.2 Phase 2: The Mental States That Start Reformation

3.7.3.1.3 Phase 3: The Mental States of Reformation

3.7.3.1.4 Phase 4: The Mental States That Start Regeneration

3.7.4 The Function and Power of Correspondences

3.7.4.1

3.8 Divine Speech or Sacred Scripture as the Source of Scientific Revelations

3.9 Three Experimental Proofs

3.10 Observational Facts About the Spiritual World

3.10.1 God, the Divine-Human

3.10.2 The Mind-Body Connection

3.11 The Purpose of Creation

3.11.1 God, Heaven, Hell, Mind, Body

3.12 Divine Love and Divine Truth as Substances

3.13 The Infinite Within the Finite

3.14 The Spiritual Within the Natural

3.15 The Universal Laws of Correspondences

3.16 The Origin of Species

Volume 4. The Derivation and Function of Scientific Revelations

4.0 Why the Writings Sacred Scripture Are Written in Correspondences

4.0.1 Methodological Issues About Enlightenment

4.0.2 Why Spiritual Meanings Cannot be Conveyed by Natural Expressions

4.0.3 The Method of Correspondences With Enlightenment

4.0.4 Methods of Extraction

4.0.4.1 The Method of Substitution

4.0.4.2 The Method of Rational Series

4.0.4.3 The Method of Mapping

4.0.5 External and Internal Revelation

4.1 Divine Management Principles

4.1.1 Divine Providence

4.1.2 The Laws of Permissions

4.2 The Grand Human

4.3 The Perizonius Thesis

4.3.1 Individual Thinking and Willing Affects the Entire Human Race

4.3.2 The Special Role of Science in the Salvation of Humankind

4.3.3 The Mechanism by Which the Race is Conjoined to God

4.3.4 Rational Consciousness and Levels of Regeneration

4.3.5 The Greatest of All Uses

4.4 The Method of Extracting Theistic Psychology From Sacred Scripture

4.4.1 The Process of Enlightenment and Regeneration: The Scientific
Meaning of Genesis 24 -- Rebekah and Isaac

4.4.2 The Topics of Genesis 24 in Relation to Theistic Psychology

4.4.3 Setting the Natural Mind Into Correspondence

4.4.4 The Spiritual-Rational Mind Is in Charge

4.4.5 Table Illustrating the Extraction Process

4.4.5.1 The Divinity of Doctrine Extracted From Sacred Scripture

4.4.6 Spiritual-Rational Mind Enlightens Our Conscious Natural Mind:
The Case of the Divine Child or Incarnation Event

4.4.6.1 Why the Divine Child Was Male

4.4.6.2 The Divine Marriage in the Divine Child's Mind

4.4.7 The Empowerment of the Conscious Natural Mind

4.4.7.1 The Basic Ennead Chart For Spiritual Geography and Mental Anatomy

4.4.7.2 Affective-Cognitive Integration Mechanisms: The Method of Trigrams

4.4.7.3 The Trinity as the Source for Being Human

4.4.7.4 The Operational Effect of Truth in the Thinking Process

4.4.7.5 The Process of Initiation in Truth

4.4.7.6 Spiritual Food

4.5 Scientific Revelations in Sacred Scripture

4.6 Sacred Scripture or Divine Speech

4.7 Dying and Resuscitation

4.8 The Second Death

4.9 Immortality or Life in Eternity

4.10 God, the Divine-Human

Volume 5. Research Methods in Theistic Psychology

5.0 Extractive, Predictive, and Applied Research

5.0.1 The Unique Properties of Sacred Scripture

5.0.2 Analyzing Divine Speech: The Scientific Sense of Genesis 22

5.0.3 The Binding of Isaac on the Altar

5.0.4 The Mental Struggles of the Divine-Human on Earth

5.0.5 The Meaning of Sacrifices in Worship

5.0.6 The Passion of Christ

5.0.7 Evolutionary Footsteps for the Human Race

5.0.8 The Scientific Meaning of Sin and Sacrifices

5.0.9 Three Types of Spiritual Perception

5.0.10 The Elevation of Consciousness

5.0.11 Thy Seed Shall Inherit the Gate of Thine Enemies

5.0.12 Invasion of the Hells

5.0.13 Universal Salvation of Everyone

5.0.13.1 Extracting Theistic Psychology From Sacred Scripture --
an Illustration

5.0.13.2 The Stage of Doctrinal Acquisition From the Writings Sacred Scripture

5.1 Anatomy of Mind and Levels of Consciousness:
illustration of Applied Research

5.1.1 The Mind's Three Discrete Degrees -- Burnham's Charts

5.1.1.1 The Mind's Two Organs--Will and Understanding

5.1.1.2 Three Degrees of Mind--Celestial, Spiritual, Natural

5.1.1.3 Internal and External Within Each Degree of Mind

5.1.1.4 Corresponding Degrees--Natural and Spiritual Minds

5.1.1.5 Anatomy of the Mind at Birth

5.1.1.5.1 The Incarnation Event and Regeneration

5.1.1.5.2 Thinking With Angels: Our Virtual Heavens

5.1.1.6 Altruism or the Love of Uses

5.1.1.6.1 The Method of Self-witnessing

5.1.1.7 The Genuine Human Shape and Form

5.1.1.8 Life in the Embryo

5.1.1.9 The Growth of the Mind

5.1.1.9.1 The Mind's Growth During Childhood

5.1.1.10 The Role of the Unconscious Spiritual Mind

5.1.1.11 Regeneration of the Adult Mind

5.1.1.12 The Adult Unregenerate Hellish Mind

5.2 The Two Forces Acting on Every Object

5.3 Ethical Issues in Theistic Psychology

5.3.1 Ethics of Science and Religion

5.3.2 Theistic Psychologists and Morality

5.3.3 Theistic Psychology and Media Content

5.3.4 Censorship and Theistic Psychologists

5.3.5 Theistic Psychologists View on War, Death Penalty, Abortion

5.4.0 The Mental Technology of Spiritual Self-Witnessing:
Predictive Research in Theistic Psychology

5.4.0.1 Cataloguing the Components of the External and Interior Social Environment

5.4.0.2 We Are Never Alone—The Vertical Community

5.4.0.2.1 The Universal Language in the Afterlife

5.4.0.3 Self-Witnessing Of The Threefold Self: Affective, Cognitive, Sensorimotor

5.4.0.4 Self-Witnessing As A Spiritual Discipline

5.4.0.5 Without Self-Witnessing Our Own Evils, They Cannot Be Removed

5.4.0.6 Metanoid Self-Witnessing Or Being An Audience To Yourself

5.4.0.7 Macro-Behaviors Are Regenerated By Means Of Micro-Behaviors

5.4.0.8 Examples From The Daily Round Archives

5.4.0.9 Teaching Self-Witnessing: Protection of Privacy Issues

5.4.0.10 Grading and Assessment Approaches

5.4.0.11 The Daily Round Archives Classification Scheme (DRA)

5.4.0.12 References on Self-witnessing Articles

5.4.1 Self-Witnessing Literacy Skills

5.4.1.1 Discovering Our Social and Mental Environment

5.4.1.2 Mental Literacy Skills

5.4.1.3 We Are Never Alone—The Vertical Community

5.4.1.4 Self-Witnessing Of The Threefold Self

5.4.1.5 Self-Witnessing As A Spiritual Discipline

5.4.1.6 The Motive of Spiritual Charity

5.4.1.7 Metanoid Self-Witnessing and Sudden Memory

5.4.1.8 Macro-Behaviors Are Regenerated by Means of Micro-Behaviors

5.4.1.9 The Daily Round Archives

5.4.1.10 Some Passages Concerning Self-witnessing and Regeneration

5.4.2 Cognitive Atlas: Keeping Track of Our Social Life

5.4.3 Discovery of Sudden Memory

5.4.3.1 Foreword One: Awakening and Re-awakening

5.4.3.2 Introduction One: Oscillation of Awareness

5.4.3.3 Experiment 1: Merely Witnessing Doing Nothing

5.4.3.4 Experiment 2: Observing the Process of Experiential Contraction

5.4.3.5 The Evidence: Navigational Performances

5.4.3.6 Reflective Awareness: Distinction Between Consciousness and Experiencing

5.4.3.7 Introduction Two: Self-Actualizing

5.4.3.8 Thinking as a Scanning Operation

5.4.3.9 Modes of Captivity Through the Daily Schedule

5.4.3.10 Memory and Social Identity

5.4.3.11 The Register of Captivity

5.4.3.12 The Consequences of the Daily Schedule: Things We Forget

5.4.3.13 Standardized Imaginings and the Reconstruction of Record

5.4.3.14 Sudden Memory: A New Discovery

5.4.3.15 Epilogue One: Rex's Wisdom

5.4.3.16 Epilogue Two: the Mode of Enactment in the Radicalist Register

5.4.3.17 Afterward

5.4.4 Origin and Analysis of Dreams

5.5 The Substitution Technique

5.5.1 The Parallelism Technique

5.5.2 The Alignment of Trines From Sacred Scripture

5.6 Constructing Dualist Concepts From Swedenborg's Writings: Illustration of
Applied Research in Theistic Psychology

5 .6.1 Full Text Searching of the Writings Online

5.6.2 Indexical Concordance Technique: The Writings vs. the Web

5.7 The Scientific Meaning of the Ten Commandments:
Illustration of Extractive Research

5.7.1 First Commandment: God is the Source of Everything

5.7.2 Second Commandment: Do Not Take the Name of God in Vain

5.7.3 Third Commandment: Keep the Sabbath Day Holy

5.7.4 Fourth Commandment: Honor Your Father and Mother

5.7.5 Fifth Commandment: Do Not Murder

5.7.6 Sixth Commandment: Do not Commit Adultery

5.7.7 Seventh Commandment: Do Not Steal

5.7.8 Eighth Commandment: Do Not Lie

5.7.9 Ninth and Tenth Commandments: Do not Covet

5.7.10 Summary Table For the Scientific Meaning of the Ten Commandments

5.7.11 Rise Above It--The Ten Commandments in All Religions

5.8 What the Bible Says: Illustration of Applied Research

5.9 Color Wisdom--A Universal Method for Tracking Spiritual Development:
Illustration of Applied Research

5.10 Spiritual Linguistics

5.11 Spiritual Numerology

5.11 Spiritual Discourse Analysis

Volume 6. Personality Theory

6.0 Personality Theory

6.0.1 The Conscious Self and the Development of the As-of Self

6.0.2 Woman Built From the Man's Rib

6.0.3 The Rebirth of the Fallen Proprium or Self

6.0.4 Innocence and the Choice of Salvation

6.0.5 Spiritual Growth: How the New Will is formed

6.0.5.1 The Role of Divine Speech in Building Up the New Will

6.0.5.2 Flow Chart of How the New Will is Created by Divine Speech

6.0.5.3 Self-assessment Using the Ten Commandments Chart

6.0.5.4 Spiritual Growth Method Based on Swedenborg and Gurdjieff

6.0.5.4.1 The Ugliness of the Proprium or What Is Our Own

6.0.6 The Birth of the Self in Infants

6.0.7 The Self in Childhood and Adolescence

6.0.8 The Self or Proprium in Adulthood

6.0.9 Death of Self and Rebirth of the New Proprium

6.0.10 The State of Reformation Begins Regeneration

6.1 The Awesome Power of the Affective Organ

6.1.1 The Affective--Cognitive Integration: The Circle of Love

6.2 What Determines Our Ultimate Fate in Eternity?

6.2.1 Wanting to Know the Future Through Psychic Prophecies

6.3 The Vertical Community of Minds

6.3.1 Human Consciousness and Mediated Divine Influx

6.3.1.1 The Formation of Habits

6.3.1.1.1 The Vertical Community and Mental Biology

(I) Mental Biology

(II) God's Omnipotence and the As-of-Self Free Will

(III) God's Omnipresence -- Not in Space, But Within It

(IV) Free Will, Heaven and Hell in the Levels of Our Mind

Part B: Where Am I Evil?

Part C: Born into Eternity

(V) The Divine Psychologist and Our Character Reformation

(VI) Societal Consequences of Individual Effort

(VII) The Spiritual Economics of Immortality

(VIII) Divine Speech Descends Through Discrete Degrees of Mind, and Forms Them

(IX) Correspondences to Divine Speech in Sacred Scripture

(X) Character reformation and the Psychology of Cooperation

Part A: The Process of Reformation

Part B: The Role of Temptations

Part C: In What Way Do We Need God?

Part D: The Role of the As-of-Self

(XI) Creating Our Own Hell and Heaven

(XII) Psychology -- Theistic or non-theistic

(XIII) Spiritual Consequences Within Our Natural Actions

(XIV) The Grand Human and the Grand Monster

(XV) Theistic Psychology Expressed in One Formulaic Idea

6.3.1.1.1.1 Passages from the Writings on the Vertical Community and Mental Biology

6.3.1.2 The Establishment of Habits and Personality Disorders

6.3.1.2.1 Anxiety and Depression

6.3.1.2.2 Taxonomy of Behavioral Disfunctions

6.3.1.2.3 Psychotherapy as Spiritual Geography:: The Grand Human [Grand Man]

6.4 Love of Self and the World for the Sake of Self

6.5 Love of Self and the World for the Sake of Others

6.6 Love of Ruling Over Others for the Sake of Self

6.7 Love of Ruling Over Others for the Sake of Others

6.8 Sexuality: Non-exclusive Love of the Sex vs. Exclusive Love of One of the Sex

6.9 Feelings Operate in the Spiritual Fibers of the Affective Organ

6.10 Will Power and the Affective-Cognitive Connection

6.11 Relationship, Biography, and Psychohistory

6.12 Theistic Astrology or Astronomica by David Chambers

6.13 The Limbus

Volume 7. Character Reformation

7.0 Character Reformation

7.0.1 The Method of Affective Realignment for Character Self-modification

7.0.2 The Affective--Cognitive Interaction

7.0.2.1 What is "Charity"?

7.0.2.2 Double State: Inwardly a Devil and Outwardly an Angel

7.0.3 The Role of the Sensorimotor Mind

7.0.4 The Source of Anxiety, Worry, and Depression

7.0.4.1 Psychobiology of Conscience

7.0.5 Struggle Between the Natural and the Spiritual Mind

7.0.5.1 The Law of Karma of Good and Evil

7.0.6 As-of Self Principles of Living: The Power of Self-Regulation

7.0.7 The Power of Affective Positivity: The Positive Bias Glow

7.8 Anger and the Spiritual Function of Mood

7.0.9 Sacred Scripture in Relation to the Mental World

7.0.10 Independent Empirical Confirmation of the Dual Meaning in Sacred Scripture

7.0.10.1 Extracting the Inner Sense of Deuteronomy Chapter 1

7.0.11 Moral Intelligence and Evolution

7.0.12 Self-Witnessing Exercises

7.1 Focusing or Attending to Corporeal Wisdom

7.2 Swedenborg's Character Reformation

7.2.1 Swedenborg's Journal of Dreams

7.3 Collective Behavior

7.3.1 The Vertical Community

7.3.2 Emotional Contagion

7.3.2.1 The Media -- Information, Entertainment, Advertising

7.3.2..2 Inherited Tradition -- Ritual, Song, Dance, Food

7.3.2..3 God Substitutes -- Idols, Gurus, Saints

7.3.3 The Grand Human

7.3.4 Leadership Qualities

7.3.5 The Hexagram of Consciousness and Reality

7.3.5.1 Level 1 Consciousness (Infancy) – Sensuous Incorporation

7.3.5.2 Level 2 Consciousness (Childhood) – Sensuous Absorption

7.3.5.3 Level 3 Consciousness (Adolescence) – Sensuous Belonging

7.3.5.4 The Inversion

7.3.5.5 Level 4 Consciousness (Young Adulthood) – Rational Acknowledgment of God

7.3.5.6 Level 5 Consciousness (Adulthood) – Rational Conjunction with God

7.3.5.7 Level 6 Consciousness (Old Age) – Rational Love of God

7.3.6 The Heavenly Law of Diversity and Unity

7.3.7 Subject Spirits

7.3.8 The Spirits of Mercury

7.3.9 Earths in the Universe

7.3.10 The Perizonius Thesis

7.3.1 1 The Perfection of the Created Universe

Volume 8. Learning and Cognition

8.0 Learning and Cognition

8.1 Thinking From Natural Ideas vs. Thinking From Spiritual Ideas

8.2 Thinking About God From Spiritual Ideas Rather Than Natural

8.3 How We Learn and Develop Rationality

8.3.1 Degrees of Truth and Levels of Mind

8.3.2 Test Your Logical Thinking

8.3.3 Literacy: The Universal Hierarchy of Basic Skills

8.3.4 Religious Curriculum

8.3.5 Individual Growth Recapitulates History and Evolution

8.3.6 Thinking From a Knowledge of the Three Degrees

8.3.7 The Trigrammatic Construction of the Universe

8.4 External and Interior Memory

8.5 Sudden Memory

8.6 Perception: Natural, Rational, Spiritual

8.6.1 Spiritual-Rational Perception

8.6.2 Wisdom and Perception

8.7 Inherited Spiritual Traits

8.7.1 Remains and the Levels of Good in Human Development

8.8 Universal Spirit Language and Thought

8.9 Anatomy of Mind and Levels of Consciousness

8.10 Principles of Theistic Psychology Education

8.10.1 Education With Dualist Concepts

8.10.2 Constructing Integrated Dualist Concepts

8.10.2.1 External and Interior Portions

8.10.2.2 Uses

8.10.2.2 Discrete Degrees

8.10.2.3 Correspondences

8.10.2.4 Top Down Integration Through Intermediaries

Volume 9. The Genes of Consciousness in Spiritual Development

9.0 Geography of the Spiritual World = Anatomy of the Mind

9.0.1 Discovering The Genes of Consciousness in Sacred Scripture

9.0.1.1 Duality Gene Structures

9.0.1.2 Trigrammatic Gene Structures

9.0.1.2.1 Graphic Concepts for Trigrammatic Genes

9.0.1.2.2 Rational Sets of Trigrammatic Concepts

9.0.1.3 Enneadic Gene Structures

9.0.1.4 Hexagrammatic Gene Structures

9.0.1.4.1 Mapping the Divine Child's Mental States

9.0.1.4.2 Using the Ennead Chart to Map the Mental Steps
to Unity in Marriage

9.1 Models of Spiritual Development Based on Sacred Scripture

9.1.1 Correspondences Hidden Within the Writings Sacred Scripture

9.1.2 The Scientific Meaning of Heaven

9.1.2.1 Heavenly Robotics -- In the Image and Likeness of God

9.1.3 The Divine History of Theistic Psychology

9.1.3.1 Individual Spiritual Development Recapitulates New Church History

9.1.3.2 New Church History and Degrees of the Mind

9.1.4 The Double Ennead Matrix -- Plotting Spiritual History and Individual Development

9.1.5 The Law of Recursiveness in the Growth of Consciousness

9.1.6 The As-of-self or Proprium

9.1.7 The Phases of Consciousness in Theistic Psychology

9.1.8 The Birth of the Rational--The Beginning of Being Human

9.1.9 The Doctrine of the Church and Theistic Psychology

9.1.10 Stages of Development in Theistic Psychology

9.1.11 Levels of Extraction from Sacred Scripture

9.1.11.1 List of Additional Diagrams in Theistic Psychology

9.1.12 The Two Heresies Possible in Relation to De Hemelsche Leer

9.1.13 What About the Dangers of Literalism

9.1.14 What is Theistic Psychology

9.1.15 Spiritual Styles of Writing

9.1.16 Intellectual Content in Relation to Degrees of Consciousness

9.1.17 Religious Phases of Behavior in Relation to Consciousness

9.1.18 Rational Consciousness is within Sensual Consciousness

9.1.19 Embedded Progression of the Six Degrees

9.1.20 The Four Ages of Ancient History

9.1.21 Summary Statements of the Style of Writing of Sacred Scripture

9.1.22 Spiritual Stumbling Blocks in Theistic Psychology

9.1.23 How to Use Spiritual Geography Maps

9.1.24 The Harmonizing Matrix

9.1.25 Jacob's Ladder

9.1.25.1 Descending and Ascending Paths

9.1.26 The Affective Mind, Cognitive Mind, and Sensorimotor Mind

9.1.27 Successive and Simultaneous Relations

9.1.27.1 First Step: Infancy Period of Regeneration

9.1.27.2 Second Step: Childhood Period of Regeneration

9.1.27.3 Third Step: Adolescence Period of Regeneration

9.1.27.4 The Inversion

9.1.27.5 Fourth Step: Young Adulthood Period of Regeneration

9.1.27.6 Fifth Step: Adulthood Period of Regeneration

9.1.27.7 Sixth Step: Old Age Period of Regeneration

9.1.28 Psycho-Dynamic Movements in Regeneration

Volume 10. Health Behaviors

10.0 Physiological Correspondences

10.1 The Daily Emotional Spin Cycle

10.1.1 Negative Emotions and the Vertical Community

10.1.1.1 The Sting and Torment of Conscience

10.1.1.1.1 How We are Regenerated

10.1.1.2 The Vertical Community: Laws of Social Interaction Among Spirits

10.1.2 The Threefold Self

10.1.3 Our Four Options

10.1.4 Getting to Know What the Options Are

10.1.5 The Negative Spin Cycle

10.1.6 The Positive Spin Cycle

10.1.7 The Others-Self Negative Spin Cycle

10.1.8 The Others-Self Positive Spin Cycle

10.1.9 The Two Bridges

10.1.10 Self-Regulatory Prompts for the Red Bridge

10.1.11 Self-Regulatory Prompts for the Blue Bridge

10.1.12 Option 1: Negative towards others and the world

10.1.13 Option 2: Positive towards others and the world

10.1.14 Option 3: Negative towards self

10.1.15 Option 4: Positive towards self

10.1.16 Design of Your Experiment

10.2 Supportive Driving -- Facing the Culture of Disrespect

10.3 Getting a Grip on Anger

10.4 Resistance to Flossing

10.5 Resistance to Medical Compliance

10.6 Medical Daily Round

10.7 Resistance to Exercising

10.8 Intolerance of Feeling Hungry

10.9 Resistance to a Healthy Diet

10.10.1 The Wisdom of Yoga Sayings

10.10.1.1 The Correspondential Meaning of Asanas (Postures)

10.10.1.2 The Correspondential Meaning of Mudras

10.10.1.3 The Correspondential Meaning of Breath and Breathing

10.10.1.4 Breathing Explained in the Writings Sacred Scripture

10.10.2 The Wisdom of Hindi Sacred Scripture Contained in Its Correspondential Sense

10.10.2.1 Quotes from the Bhagavad Gita and Their Spiritual Meaning

10.10.2.2 The Correspondential Meaning of the Upanishads

Volume 11. The Marriage Relationship and The Doctrine of the Wife

11.0 The Marriage Relationship

11.1 Marriages in Heaven or Conjugial Love

11.2 Marriages in Hell or Infernal Concubinage

11.3 The Conjoint Self and The Unity Model of Marriage

11.3.1 Three Levels of Unity in Gender Relationship

11.3.1.1 Mental Anatomy of Women and Men

11.3.2 Unity Through Reciprocity and Differentiation

11.3.3 Sensorimotor, Cognitive, and Affective Conjunction

11.3.4 Unity Model in Marriage: Ennead Chart of Growth Steps

11.3.5 Male Dominance Model of Marriage

11.3.5.1 How does the husband develop mental intimacy with his wife?

11.3.5.2 Political Semantics of the Male Dominance Model

11.3.5.2.1 "Nagging"

11.3.5.2.2 "Give him sex"

11.3.5.2.3 "Don't try to change him"

11.3.5.2.4 "Keep yourself attractive for him"

11.3.5.2.5 "That's how men are"

11.3.5.2.6 "Show that you appreciate him"

11.3.5.2.7 "Wives, submit to your husbands"

11.3.5.3 Does the Male Dominance Model Have a Biblical Grounding?

11.3.5.4 Hellish Marriages and the Female Dominance Model

11.3.6 The Spiritual Dimension to the Unity Model

11.3.6.1 Making Field Observations

11.3.6.2 The Ennead Charts of Marriage

11.3.6.3 Behavioral Indicators of One's Relationship Model

11.3.6.3.1 Gender Discourse Within the Three Models

Part 1: Sexy vs. Unsexy Conversational Style of Husbands

Part 2: Spiritual Dynamics Between Husband and Wife

Part 3: Conversational Rules for Husbands in Conjugial Interactions

Part 4: Characteristics of Husband's Threefold Self During Discourse --

Table 7aa

Part 5: Field Exercise: Monitoring Disjunctive vs. Conjunctive Discourse

Examples of Unity Values

11.3.7 Six Phases of Temptations for Husbands

11.3.7.1 Overcoming White Temptations

11.3.7.2 Overcoming Yellow Temptations

11.3.7.3 Overcoming Green Temptations

11.3.7.4 Overcoming Blue Temptations

11.3.7.5 Overcoming Brown Temptations

11.3.7.6 Overcoming Black Temptations

11.4 The Doctrine of the Wife For Husbands

11.4.1 The Surrendered Wife vs. the Surrendered Husband

11.4.2 The Surrendered Husband is The Ideal Elevated Man

11.4.3 The Self-Entrapment of Male Intelligence

11.4.4 Who Is Going To Do The Bills?

11.4.5 The Spiritual Physiology of Marriage

11.4.5.x Conjunction Dynamics in Marriage

11.4.6 Her Heaven, Not His

11.4.7 Divine Truth Within Which Is Divine Love

11.4.8 Is The Surrendered Husband Feminized?

11.4.9 The Conjoint Mind Is Both Masculine And Feminine

11.4.10 The Wife's Role in Heavenly Marriages

11.4.11 Spiritual Psychobiology of Marriage

11.4.11.1 The Source of Conjugial Love With Husbands:
The Inner Sense of CL 88

11.4.11.2 The Circle of Life In Marriage

11.4.11.3 Two Phases of Achieving Unity in Marriage

11.5 Preparation for Marriage

11.6 Conjugial Love and Children

11.7 The Marriage Relationship Based on Sacred Scripture Described in Modern Islam

11.7.1 The Definition of God

Volume 12. The Heavenly and Hellish Traits

12.0 The Heavenly and Hellish Traits

12.0.1 The Writings of Swedenborg (1688-1772)

12.0.2 The Fundamental Formula of the New Scientific Revelation

12.0.3 The Mind Is Not in Physical Space

12.0.4 Spiritual Substances Out of Which the Mind is Formed

12.0.5 The Three Anatomical Levels of the Mind

12.0.6 Love and Truth as Substances

12.0.7 The Geography of the Spiritual World

12.0.7.1 First Heaven--Spiritual-Natural Correspondences

12.0.7.2 Second Heaven--Spiritual-Rational Correspondences

12.0.7.3 Third Heaven--Celestial-Rational Correspondences

12.0.8 Three Degrees of Regeneration by Temptations

12.0.9 The Rational is the Beginning of Being Human

12.0.10 We All Meet in the Mind

12.1 Altruism or the Love of Being Useful

12.2 Character Virtues

12.3 Chastity and Conjugial Love

12.4 Wisdom of Innocence

12.5 Wisdom of Old Age

12.6 Selfishness or the Love of Domineering

12.6.1 Human Freedom--Heavenly and Hellish

12.6.1.1 Merit or Meritoriousness for Doing Good

12.6.1.2 Repentance

12.6.1.3 Falsification of Truth or Profanation

12.6.1.4 Regeneration

12.6.1.5 Temptations

12.6.2 The Necessity of Putting up the Effort As-of Self

12.6.3 Compelling Oneself to Do Good

12.6.4 The Role of Our Vertical Community

12.6.5 Spiritual Spheres Within the Mind

12.7 Character Flaws

12.8 Resentment, Envy, Avarice

12.9 The Love of Profanation

12.10 Arrogance, Cynicism, Relativism

12.11 Corporeality

12.11.1 Overcoming the Life of Corporeality

12.11.2 Spiritual Dangers of Sex Outside Marriage

12.12 The Love of Promiscuity and Adultery

12.12.1 Taxonomy of Adulteries

12.13 The Love of Corrupting Innocence

12.14 The Hatred of God and Heaven

12.15 The Love of Abusing Women

12.16 Taxonomy of Behavioral Dysfunctions

12.17 Psychotherapy as Biological Theology

Volume 13 Religious Psychology

13.0    Spiritual Geography = Mental Anatomy
            13.0.1      Religious Behaviorism vs. the Psychology of Religion
                        13.0.1.1    Salvation For Those Who Do Not Know Sacred Scripture
            13.0.2      The Writings of Swedenborg as Sacred Scripture
            13.0.3      Swedenborg's Mission in His Own Words
            13.0.4      Levels of Correspondences in Sacred Scripture
            13.0.5      Objections to Swedenborg as a Divine Revelator
            13.0.6      What Heaven is Like as Told by Eye Witnesses
            13.0.7      The Divine-Human is Universal, Beyond Christian
            13.0.8      Every Religion has the Same God
            13.0.9      The Church
            13.0.10    God's Incarnation Viewed Scientifically
            13.0.11    Theistic Psychology and the New Church Religion

13.0.11.1 The Beliefs of the New Church

                                    13.0.11.1.1    History and Evolution Leading Up to the Incarnation Event
                                    13.0.11.1.2    Neuro-Biology of God Man's Incarnation
                                    13.0.11.1.3    Neuro-Physiology of Heaven and Hell
                                    13.0.11.1.4    Contemporary Religious Expressions of the New Church

13.0.11.2 The Nine Zones of the Ennead Matrix of Rational
Spirituality in the New Church Mind

13.0.12 Theistic Psychology and the Islam Religion

13.1   Inherited Sin
            13.1.1 Inherited Traits From Parents
            13.1.2 Salvation and Sacrifice
            13.1.3 Correspondential Meaning of Animal Sacrifices
            13.1.4 Salvation and Glorification
            13.1.5 Salvation and Resurrection

13.2 Universal Salvation of the Human Race
13.3   Divine Revelation and Sacred Scripture
13.4   Heaven and Hell
13.5   Baptism, Rebirth, Reformation
13.6   Regeneration or Character Reformation
13.7   Doctrine of Life
13.8   The Benefits of Theistic Psychology
13.9    The Central Theme of Theistic Psychology
13.10 Theistic Psychology for the New Church Mind
                13.10.1    Self-Witnessing One’s Thinking and Willing
                13.10.2    Eating Practices
                13.10.3    Physical Exercising
                13.10.4    Sexuality
                13.10.5    Politics and War
                13.10.6    Entertainment
                13.10.7    Chart of Mental Characteristics of Angels and Spirits
                13.10.8    Diagram Showing the Four Windows of the Mind

13.11    Anatomical Diagrams of the Mind in Relation to God and Universe
                13.11.1    The Inmost Region: God, Infinite, Uncreate
                13.11.2    The Middle Region: Mind and the Spiritual World
                13.11.3    The Outermost Region: The Natural Mind and Hell

Volume 14. Prayer as Revelation From God

14.0 Prayer as Revelation From God

14.1 Talking to God

14.2 Asking for Things

14.3 Ritual Prayers

Volume 15. Universal Sacred Scripture

15.0 Sacred Scripture -- The Sole Source of Scientific Knowledge About God

15.0.1 Scientific Revelations in the Old Testament Sacred Scripture

15.0.1.1 The Scientific Meaning of Genesis

15.0.1.2 The Scientific Meaning of Psalms

15.0.2 Scientific Revelations in the New Testament Sacred Scripture

15.0.2.1 The Scientific Meaning of the Parables of Jesus

15.0.2.2 The Scientific Meaning of the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse)

15.0.2.3 The Scientific Meaning of the Lord's Prayer

15.0.3 Scientific Revelations in the Writings Sacred Scripture

15.0.4 Ancient Forms of Sacred Scripture and Their Derivatives

15.0.4.1 The Most Ancient Word and the Celestial Race Before the Fall

15.0.4.2 Correspondences From The Ancient Word and the Spiritual Race

15.0.4.3 Egyptian Hieroglyphics As Correspondences

15.0.4.4 Hindu Sacred Scriptures on the Nature of God

15.0.4.4.1 The Trinity of God

15.0.4.5 Buddhism as a Religion -- the Buddha and the Dharma

15.0.4.6 The I Ching System of Discrete Degrees

15.0.4.7 Greek Mythology As Symbolism For Mental States

15.0.4.8 The Hierarchical Order of Creation in the Kabala

15.0.4.9 The Correspondences in Yoga

15.0.4.10 Zoroastrian Sacred Scripture

15.0.4.11 The Correspondential Sense of Bahai or Baha'i Sacred Scripture

15.1 Faith and Charity

15.2 Charity or the Love of Being Useful

15.3 Consciousness Raising and Enlightenment

15.4 Miracles and Prophesies

15.4.1 Visions of Heaven

15.5 Persuasive and Blind Faith

15.6 Rational Faith and Rational Love

15.7 Fundamentalism and External Worship

15.8 Rational Spirituality and Internal Worship

15.9 Resurrection and Resuscitation of the Dead

15.10 Children in Heaven

15.11 Marriage in Heaven

15.12 The Clergy, Sacraments, and the Priesthood

Volume 16. Religious Mysticism

16.0 Religious Mysticism

16.1 Literalism and Dogmatism

16.2 Creationism

16.3 Anti-Semitism

16.4 The Millennial Doctrine

16.5 The Trinity of Three Divine Persons

16.6 Spiritual Warfare

16.7 The Second Coming

16.8 Sexless Angels?

16.9 The Dogma of Faith Alone

16.10 The Mystery of the Holy Spirit

16.11 The Laying on of Hands

16.12 Community and Fellowship

16.13 Christian Gentilism

16.14 Carnal Christians

Volume 17. Religious Movements

17.0 Religious Movements

17.1 Evangelism

17.2 Witnessing for Christ

17.3 TV Miracle Workers

17.4 Ecumenicalism

17.5 Pacifism

17.6 Universalism and Transcendentalism

17. 7 Nonduality, Mysticism, Shamanism, Spiritism

17.8 Theosophy and Astrology

17.9 Cults, Voodoo, Superstition

17.10 Popular Idols

In Volume 18

Index to All Sections for the 18 Volumes
Selections to the Writings Sacred Scripture Keyed to Theistic Psychology Subjects
Readings, Citations, and Literature
List of Abbreviations for the Books of the Writings
Subject Index for the Combined 18 Volumes

THIS IS THE END OF THE INDEX TO ALL SECTIONS WITHIN EACH VOLUME

Swedenborg Compendium
Selections to the Writings Sacred Scripture
Keyed to Theistic Psychology Subjects

(version 3b)

Note: Underlined words and sentences are not in the original. Bolded words in [ALL CAPS] in square brackets are topics, concepts, and subjects in theistic psychology. This compilation is by no means complete or representative!

See also these two sources arranged by topics with brief selections:
Warren, Samuel M. (1853). A Compendium of Swedenborg's Theological Writings. Available at: www.swedenborgdigitallibrary.org/comp/compendtc.htm
and
Smyth, Julian K. and Wunsch, William F. (1920). The Gist of Swedenborg. Available at:
sacred-texts.com/chr/swe/gos.htm

[ACKNOWLEDGMENT; OPENING OF INTERIORS]

For acknowledgement of the Church's truths and of the Lord leads to contact with the heavens, and consequently to an opening of a person's interiors towards heaven; and a subsequent rejection of them leads to a joining of the same truths to falsities arising from evil [((see Profanation))]. For everything a person acknowledges remains implanted in him; nothing present with a person which has entered through acknowledgement is destroyed. (AC 10287)

[ADDITIONAL ENTRIES] (see the end of the entries below)

[AFFECTIVE, PRIMACY OVER COGNITIVE]

the love of the will makes the man, and this love draws the understanding into consent (CL 498)

[ANGELS, QUASI-OMNISCIENCE]

SE 1625. CONCERNING THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE ANGELS. In regard to the knowledge of the angels of the interior heaven, a single example may suffice, taken from their knowledge of the structures and forms of the [human] body; for while any one, no matter what, of the viscera of the body is under consideration, they are enabled to know not only its whole structure and operation, but also all the experience which anatomy is able to detect in the smallest particulars, as whether it be true or genuine. Not only so, but they know in an instant whether what is stated respecting each of the viscera be correct, besides many interior things which no one of the human race can know, as I have sometimes found by experience. They are acquainted, too, with the correspondence which these things bear to things spiritual. Indeed, their knowledge is such that if men were aware of it they would be astounded, although matters of this kind had never been their study in the life of the body. It flows, as it were, spontaneously from the fact that by reason of an intelligence bestowed by the Lord, they know how everything is with the Grand Man in general and in particular, and the knowledge seems to be innate in them. But such knowledge they could never possess were it not that the whole heaven represents the whole man, with all his several parts, and unless the Lord were the life of that man, and thus life itself and unless also the universal heaven were organic. - 1748, March 22. They are thus in first principles, and from first principles, or things interior, and more interior, could comprehend the things which are without or below. (SE 1625)

[ANXIETY] see [SPIRITS]

[APPEARANCES; REAL APPEARANCES] see [CORRESPONDENCES]

[CHURCH]

the Church is from the Word, and its quality is according to its understanding of the Word (n. 76-79). (DP 256)

[CONJUGIAL LOVE] [DOCTRINE OF THE WIFE]

AC 5053. There are heavenly and celestial communities to which the organs and parts dedicated to generation correspond - every single one in both sexes. Those communities are distinct and separate from others, even as that province in a man or woman is rightly distinct and separate from all the rest. The reason those communities are heavenly and celestial ones is that conjugial love is the fundamental love of all loves, 686, 2733, 2737, 2738. It also serves an incomparable purpose and as a consequence affords a delight that surpasses all other delights, for marriages are the seed-beds of the entire human race, also the seed-beds of the Lord's heavenly kingdom since heaven consists of members of the human race. (AC 5053)

AC 5054. People who have had a very tender love of young children, such as mothers with that love, are in the province of the womb and organs round about it; that is, they are in the province of the cervix and ovaries. The life of those in that province is absolutely sweet and delightful, and their heavenly joy is greater than that of all others. (AC 5054)

AC 5055. But I have not been allowed to know the identity and essential nature of the communities that belong to specific organs of generation because those communities are far too internal for anyone in a lower sphere to discern. Those communities also correlate with hidden functions served by these organs, hidden and also unknown to science for the providential reason that things such as these, which in essence are utterly heavenly, must not suffer any damage from filthy thoughts. They must not be damaged by thoughts that accompany wantonness, whoredom, or adultery and that are aroused in most people by the mere mention of those organs. This being so, let me describe some things witnessed by me which took place further away. (AC 5055)

AC 5056. A certain spirit from another planet was once present with me. (Spirits from other planets will in the Lord's Divine mercy be spoken about elsewhere.) He asked me earnestly to intercede on his behalf to enable him to enter heaven. He said he was not aware of having done what was evil, only of having reprimanded inhabitants of that planet; for on his planet there are people who reprimand and chastise others when they do not lead correct lives. (Reference will be made to these people too when the inhabitants of other planets are dealt with.) That spirit added that after he reprimanded people he instructed them; and as he said this his voice seemed to crack. He also had the ability to arouse feelings of pity. The only answer I could give him however was that I was unable to help him in any way. Entrance into heaven, I told him, rested with the Lord alone; but if he was worthy he could entertain the hope of gaining it. At that point however he was sent back to be among upright spirits who belonged to his own planet; but those spirits said that he could not remain in their company because he was not like them. Nevertheless because his intense desire made him demand that he should be let into heaven, he was sent to a community of upright spirits belonging to our own planet. But these too told him that he could not remain with them. In addition to this his colour seen in the light of heaven was black, though he himself said it was not black but a ruddy brown.

[2] I was told that this is what people of this sort are like initially, before they are received among those who constitute the province of the seminal vesicles, for in these vesicles sperm (semen)* is gathered together along with the suitable fluid with which the sperm is combined. That combination places the sperm in the right condition, so that once it has been sent forth it is released from the fluid at the cervix and thus serves to bring about conception. This kind of substance also holds within it the endeavour and so to speak desire to fulfill the same purpose and so to cast aside the fluid that clothes it. Something similar to this was seen to happen to that spirit. He returned to me, but now he was dressed in humble clothing. He said he had a burning desire to enter heaven and recognized that now he was in a fit state to remain there. I was led to say to him that this was perhaps a sign that he would be received there shortly. At this point angels told him to cast aside his clothing, which in his desire to do so he cast aside so quickly that hardly anything could have been done more quickly. This represented the nature of the desires of those in the province to which the seminal vesicles correspond.
* In Latin semen is the sperm or seed within the seminal fluid, not - as in English - both the sperm and the fluid. (AC 5056)

[CORRESPONDENCES, REPRESENTATIVES, SIGNIFICATIVES, APPEARANCES, REAL APPEARANCES, MIND-BODY DUALISM, EXTRACTING THE CORRESPONDENTIAL SENSE OF SACRED SCRIPTURE, THE INTERNAL SENSE OF THE WORD OR ITS SPIRITUAL SENSE] (See also Section 1.8.8.1 for lists of correspondences.)

NJHD 258. In the Word there is a correspondential sense, which is called the internal sense. No one can know what the internal sense of the Word is, unless he knows what correspondence is. The whole and every part, even to the most minute, of the natural world, corresponds to spiritual things, and thence is significative of them. The spiritual things to which natural things correspond assume another appearance in the natural, so that they are not distinguished. Scarcely any one knows at this day, where, or in what part is the Divine of the Word, when nevertheless it is in its internal or correspondential sense, which at this day is not known. (NJHD 258)

WH 7. They are enlightened from the Word, who read it from the love of truth and good, but not they who read it from the love of fame, of gain, or of honor, thus from the love of self. They are enlightened who are in the good of life, and thereby in the affection of truth. They are enlightened whose internal is open, thus who as to their internal man are capable of elevation into the light of heaven. Enlightenment is an actual opening of the interiors of the mind, and also an elevation into the light of heaven. (WH 7)

AC 1. From the mere letter of the Word of the Old Testament no one would ever discern the fact that this part of the Word contains deep secrets of heaven, and that everything within it both in general and in particular bears reference to the Lord, to His heaven, to the church, to religious belief, and to all things connected therewith; for from the letter or sense of the letter all that any one can see is that - to speak generally -everything therein has reference merely to the external rites and ordinances of the Jewish Church. Yet the truth is that everywhere in that Word there are internal things which never appear at all in the external things except a very few which the Lord revealed and explained to the Apostles. (AC 1)

SS 4. Therefore in order to remove all doubt as to such being the character of the Word, the Lord has revealed to me the Word's internal sense. In its essence this sense is spiritual, and in relation to the external sense, which is natural, is as soul is to body. This sense is the spirit which gives life to the letter; it can therefore bear witness to the divinity and holiness of the Word, and convince even the natural man, if he is willing to be convinced. (SS 4)

NJHD 252. What is from the Divine descends through the heavens even to man; wherefore in the heavens it is accommodated to the wisdom of the angels who are there, and on earth it is accommodated to the apprehension of the men who are there. Wherefore in the Word there is an internal sense, which is spiritual, for the angels, and an external sense, which is natural, for men. Hence it is that the conjunction of heaven with man is effected through the Word. (NJHD 252)

AC 2987. Few know what representations and correspondences are nor can any one know this unless he knows that there is a spiritual world, and this distinct from the natural world; for there exists a correspondence between spiritual things and natural things, and the things that come forth from spiritual things in natural ones are representations. They are called correspondences because they correspond, and representations because they represent. (AC 2987)

In all and each of the things in nature and her three kingdoms there is an inward active force from the spiritual world; and unless this were so, nothing whatever in the natural world could act as cause and effect, and consequently nothing could be produced. That which is within natural things from the spiritual world is called a force implanted from the first creation; whereas it is an endeavor [conatus], on the cessation of which, action or motion ceases. Hence it is that the universal visible world is a theater representative of the spiritual world. (AC 5173).

NJHD 186. With a regenerate person truths from good form as it were a constellation by successive derivations, and continually multiply themselves round about (n. 5912). With a regenerate person, truths from good are disposed into such order, that the genuine truths of good, from which, as their parents, the rest proceed, are in the middle, whilst the rest succeed in order according to their relationship and affinities, even to the ultimates, where there is obscurity (n. 4129, 4551, 4552, 5134, 5270). With a regenerate person truths from good are arranged in the form of heaven (n. 3316, 3470, 3584, 4302, 5704, 5709, 6028, 6690, 9931, 10303); (NJHD 186)

NJHD 51. The chief science with the ancients was the science of correspondences, but this science at the present day has perished, nos. 3021, 3419, 4280, 4844, 4964, 4966, 6004, 7729, 10252. The science of correspondences existed among the eastern nations, and in Egypt, no. 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407. Their hieroglyphics were derived from that source, nos. 6692, 7097. Through the science of correspondences the ancients introduced themselves into the knowledges of spiritual things, nos. 4749, 4844, 4966. The Word was written by mere correspondences, and its internal or correspondential sense is from that source; and without the science of correspondences it is impossible to know that this sense exists, or yet what the quality of the Word is, nos. 3131, 3472-3485, 8615, 10687. How much the science of correspondences excels the other sciences, no. 4280. (NJHD 51)

AC 10240. The meaning of these words is revealed if correspondences are used to explain them; for they contain the arcana of heaven. By virtue of its correspondence 'water' means the truth of faith, which is clearly perceptible within the natural. 'The Spirit' means Divine Truth which flows in from the Lord by way of a person's internal into his external or natural, and from that Truth springs the life of faith which the person who is being regenerated possesses. 'Flesh' is the person's proprium or selfhood, which is nothing but evil. 'The Spirit breathes where it wishes' means that in His mercy the Lord imparts new life by means of Divine Truth. 'You hear its voice' means that this life is perceptible in the external or natural man, 'voice' meaning what is declared by the Word. 'You do not know where it comes from or where it goes away to' means that a person does not know how his regeneration is accomplished, for the Lord accomplishes it in hidden ways that are countless and beyond description.

[3] By virtue of its correspondence 'water' means the truths of faith, see 28, 739, 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668, 8568, 9323, 10238.

'The Spirit' means Divine Truth, from which the life of faith springs, 9229, 9818.

'Flesh' means a person's proprium, which is nothing but evil, 8409.

'Breathing' means the state of the life of faith, 9281.

'Voice' means what is declared by the Word, consequently truth derived from it, 9926.

'Hearing' means perception, 9311, 9926.

'Coming' and 'going away' or entering and departing mean the state of affairs from start to finish, 9927.

The hidden ways of regeneration are countless and beyond description, 3179, 3573, 5398, 9334(end), 9336.

What goes on in the internal man is not perceived while the person is in the world, only what goes on in the external or natural, above in 10236. (AC 10240)

AC 4280. And (what is incredible) the internal man itself thinks in no other way; for when the external man apprehends the Word according to the letter, the internal man apprehends it at the same time according to the internal sense, although the man while living in the body is not aware of this. Especially may this be seen from the fact that when a man comes into the other life and becomes an angel, he knows the internal sense as of himself without instruction. (AC 4280)

AC 4280. The Ancient Church, which was in representatives and significatives, knew these things very well. The knowledge of such things was their intelligence and wisdom, and this not only of those who were of the church, but also of those who were out of the church, as is evident from the oldest books of the Gentiles, and from the things which at this day are called fables; for significatives and representatives were derived to them from the Ancient Church. (AC 4280)

AC 10360. That a "bed" denotes doctrine is evident from the passages in the Word where a "bed" is mentioned, and also from the representatives in the other life, where when a bed appears and one lying on it, there is signified the doctrine in which he is; consequently beds appear there most highly adorned for those who are in truths from good. But no one can know that such things are signified by the above words of the Lord except by the internal sense, for the Lord spoke by correspondences, thus by significatives, because from the Divine. (AC 10360)

NJHD 261. The Word is written by correspondences, and thus by representatives.

The Word, as to its literal sense, is written by mere correspondences, thus by such things as represent and signify spiritual things which relate to heaven and the church (n. 1404, 1408, 1409, 1540, 1619, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2179, 2763, 2899). This was done for the sake of the internal sense, which is contained in every part (n. 2899). For the sake of heaven, since those who are in heaven do not understand the Word according to the sense of the letter, which is natural, but according to its internal sense, which is spiritual (n. 2899). The Lord spoke by correspondences, representatives, and significatives, because He spoke from the Divine (n. 9048, 9063, 9086, 10126, 10728).

Thus the Lord spoke at the same time before the world and before heaven (n. 2533, 4807, 9048, 9063, 9086). The things which the Lord spoke filled the entire heaven (n. 4637). The historicals of the Word are representative, and the words significative (n. 1540, 1659, 1709, 1783, 2686). The Word could not be written in any other style, that by it there might be a communication and conjunction with the heavens (n. 2899, 6943, 9481).

They who despise the Word on account of the apparent simplicity and rudeness of its style, and who fancy that they would receive the Word, if it were written in a different style, are in a great error (n. 8783). The mode and style of writing, which prevailed amongst the most ancient people, was by representatives and significatives (n. 605, 1756, 9942). The ancient wise men were delighted with the Word, because of the representatives and significatives therein, from experience (n. 2592, 2593). If a man of the Most Ancient Church had read the Word, he would have seen the things which are in the internal sense clearly, and those which are in the external sense obscurely (n. 4493).

The sons of Jacob were brought into the land of Canaan, because all the places in that land, from the most ancient times, were made representative (n. 1585, 3686, 4447, 5136, 6516). And thus that the Word might there be written, in which Word those places were to be mentioned for the sake of the internal sense (n. 3686, 4447, 5136, 6516). But nevertheless the Word was changed, for the sake of that nation, as to the external sense, but not as to the internal sense (n. 10453, 10461, 10603, 10604). In order that it may be known what the correspondences and representatives in the Word are, and what is their quality, something shall also be said concerning them.

All things which correspond are likewise representative, and thereby significative, thus that correspondences and representatives are one (n. 2896, 2897, 2973, 2987, 2989, 2990, 3002, 3225). What correspondences and representations are, from experience and examples (n. 2763, 2987-3002, 3213-3226, 3337-3352, 3472-3485, 4218-4228, 9280). The knowledge of correspondences and representations was the chief science amongst the ancients (n. 3021, 3419, 4280, 4748, 4844, 4964, 4966, 6004, 7729, 10252). Especially with the Orientals (n. 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10252, 10407); and in Egypt more than in other countries (n. 5702, 6692, 7097, 7779, 9391, 10407). Also among the Gentiles, as in Greece and other places (n. 2762, 7729). But at this day it is among the sciences which are lost, particularly in Europe (n. 2894, 2895, 2994, 3630, 3632, 3747-3749, 4581, 4966, 10252).

Nevertheless this science is more excellent than all other sciences, since without it the Word is not understood, nor the signification of the rites of the Jewish church, which are recorded in the Word; neither is it known what heaven is, nor what the spiritual is, nor in what manner spiritual influx takes place into what is natural, with many other things (n. 4280, and in the places above cited). All the things which appear before angels and spirits, are representatives, according to correspondences of such things as relate to love and faith (n. 1971, 3213-3226, 3449, 3475, 3485, 9481, 9574, 9576, 9577).

The heavens are full of representatives (n. 1521, 1532, 1619). Representatives are more beautiful, and more perfect, in proportion as they are more interiorly in the heavens (n. 3475). Representatives there are real appearances, being derived from the light of heaven, which is Divine truth, and which is the very essential of the existence of all things (n. 3485).

The reason why each and all things in the spiritual world are represented in the natural world, is because what is internal assumes a suitable clothing in what is external, whereby it makes itself visible and apparent (n. 6275, 6284, 6299). Thus the end assumes a suitable clothing, that it may exist as the cause in a lower sphere, and afterwards that it may exist as the effect in a sphere lower still; and when the end, by means of the cause, becomes the effect, it then becomes visible, or appears before the eyes (n. 5711).

This may be illustrated by the influx of the soul into the body, whereby the soul assumes a clothing of such things in the body, as enable all the things which it thinks and wills, to appear and become visible; wherefore the thought, when it flows down into the body, is represented by gestures and actions which correspond thereto (n. 2988). The affections, which are of the mind, are manifestly represented in the face, by the variations of the countenance, so that they may be seen therein (n. 4791-4805, 5695).

Hence it is evident, that each and all things in nature have in them a latent cause and end from the spiritual world (n. 3562, 5711). Since the things in nature are ultimate effects, which contain prior things (n. 4240, 4939, 5051, 6275, 6284, 6299, 9216). Internal things are represented, and external things represent (n. 4292).

Since all things in nature are representative of spiritual and celestial things, therefore, in ancient times, there were churches, wherein all the externals, which are rituals, were representative; wherefore those churches were called representative churches (n. 519, 521, 2896). The church founded with the sons of Israel was a representative church (n. 1003, 2179, 10149). All its rituals were external things, which represented the internal things of heaven and the church (n. 4288, 4874).

Representatives of the church and of worship ceased when the Lord came into the world, because the Lord opened the internal things of the church, and because all the externals of the church in the highest sense regarded Him (n. 4832). (NJHD 261)

AC 6653. For a concentration of the mind on any people in particular, or on any person in particular, narrows and restricts their ideas, and deprives them of a perception of the full range of the subject from one edge of it to the other. What applies to 'people' applies in a similar way to other terms, in that in the internal sense they mean entities unlimited by anything else, as is the case with nation (meaning good), king (meaning truth), prince (meaning a leading truth), priest (meaning good), son, daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother, sister, father, mother, and very many others. (AC 6653).

AC 5095. When the historical sense mentions a number of persons - as when Joseph, Pharaoh, the chief of the attendants, the cupbearer, and the baker are mentioned here - various things are indeed meant by them in the internal sense, yet only as all these exist in one person. (AC 5095)

AC 5225. the idea of a person is converted in the internal sense into that of some reality. For example, the idea of a man, husband, woman, wife, son, daughter, boy, or girl is converted into the idea of some truth or form of good. (AC 5225)

AC 878. That the "hand" signifies and represents power, is evident from the representatives in the world of spirits, where a naked arm sometimes comes into view, in which there is strength enough to crush one's bones and squeeze their inmost marrow to nothing, causing such terror as to melt the heart; and in fact this strength is actually in it. (AC 878)

AC 5717. There are some who not only relate to the most viscid substances of the brain, which are its excremental things, but also know how to infect them as if with poisons. When such spirits arrive they rush within the skull, and thence by continuity even into the spinal marrow. This cannot be felt by those whose interiors are not open. It has been given me plainly to feel the inroad, and also the effort to destroy me; but this was vain, because I was protected by the Lord. They strove to take away from me all the capacity of the intellect. I plainly felt their operation, and felt also pain from it, which however soon ceased. I afterward spoke to them, and they were compelled to confess whence they were. They said that they lived in dark forests, where they durst not injure their companions, because in that case their companions were allowed to treat them cruelly. Thus they are kept in bonds.

They are ugly, having the face of a wild beast, and hairy. I was told that they are such as had formerly slain whole armies, as we read in the Word; for they rushed into the chambers of everyone's brain, and inspired terror, together with such madness that they killed each other. At the present day such spirits are kept shut up within their own hell, and are not let out. These too bear relation to deadly tumors of the head within the skull. It was said above that they rush within the skull and by continuity therefrom even into the spinal marrow; but be it known that it is only an appearance that the spirits themselves rush in, they being borne along outside by a way which corresponds to the spaces in question within the body, which is felt within as if there were an inroad. This sensation is caused by correspondence, from which their operation is easily brought to bear upon the man to whom it is directed. (AC 5717)

SE 3515. But the sphere of those who have not yet received faith is to those who acknowledge and meditate upon interior things, continually repugnant, more so than that of all other spirits; whence for more than an entire day it was apparent to me with how much difficulty they are brought to the acknowledgement of the interior things of the Word [the Writings]; for they are not delighted or affected like others, by the exhibition of these interior things, but continually resist and fight against them, but in silence, without any open contradiction. They merely offer a general [internal] resistance; wherefore in the world they seem to be brought with more difficulty than others to the belief of those things which are of true faith. It was shown to me that their sphere conflicts with the sphere of those who are in faith, and who are yet so obstinate that they will not suffer themselves to be overcome. ... 1748, October 10.(SE 3515)

SE 1139. CONCERNING SPIRITS WHO ARE NOT WILLING TO HEAR AND ADMIT THE INTERIOR AND MORE INTERIOR THINGS OF THE WORD There are spirits who, although they are good, cannot as yet be admitted into heaven because they are not willing to hear and to admit the interior and more interior things of the Word; on this account they have thought evilly against me, and have interpreted everything as evil. For they who do not assent to interior things cannot learn the things which are of the interior and more interior man, since they do not know that there are interior, still less more interior things, such as those that concern the works of faith done from obedience to the Word. They call those things good which are done by the good, and are done from a good heart. But if it be said that good works ought to be works of charity, and that charity is of mercy and thus of the Lord the Savior, they grant it, but they have not thought so profoundly. Therefore, those who are of such a nature that they do not admit these things cannot as yet be introduced into the interior heaven by the way of cognitions. (SE 1139)

HH 175. Since all things that correspond to interiors also represent them, they are therefore called REPRESENTATIVES, and because they are varied in accordance with the state of the interiors of the angels, they are also called APPEARANCES. Nevertheless, the things that appear before the eyes of angels in the heavens and are perceived by their senses, appear and are perceived just as true to life as do things on earth to men, nay rather, much more clearly, distinctly and perceptibly. Appearances of this kind in heaven are called real appearances, because they have real existence. Appearances that are not real also occur, which are such as do appear but do not correspond to interiors.# These will be treated of in the following pages.

# With the angels all things that are visible are representatives (n. 1971, 3213-3226, 3342, 3475, 3485, 9457, 9481, 9576, 9577).

The heavens are full of representatives (n. 1521, 1532, 1619).

The representatives are more beautiful as they are more interior in the heavens (n. 3475).

As the representatives there are from the light of heaven they are real appearances (n. 3485).
The Divine influx is turned into representatives in the higher heavens, and therefrom in the lower heavens also (n. 2179, 3213, 9457, 9481, 9576, 9577).

Those things are called representative that appear before the eyes of the angels in such forms as are in nature, that is, such as are in the world (n. 9457).

Internal things are thus turned into external (n. 1632, 2987-3002).
What representatives in the heavens are; this made clear by various examples (n. 1521, 1532, 1619-1628, 1807, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1980, 1981, 2299, 2601, 2761, 2762, 3217, 3219, 3220, 3348, 3350, 5198, 9090, 10276).

All things seen in the heavens are in accordance with the correspondences and are called representatives (n. 3213-3226, 3342, 3475, 3485, 9457, 9481, 9576, 9577).
All things that correspond also represent and likewise signify what they correspond to (n. 2896, 2987, 2989-2991, 3002, 3225). (HH175)

NJHD 261. Representatives there are real appearances, being derived from the light of heaven, which is Divine truth, and which is the very essential of the existence of all things (n. 3485).

SE 5774. REAL APPEARANCES IN THE OTHER LIFE, FROM COMPARISONS. HEAVEN.
Real appearances in the other life are circumstanced, comparatively, (1) like life, which appears to be in man, when nevertheless it inflows; (2) like wisdom, intelligence, faith, love being from man, when nevertheless they inflow; (3) like man existing without a connection with the Lord through spirits and angels; (4) like the eye of the body seeing; in general, the body living, when yet it is the spirit in the body; so in very many other cases.

AC 3485. The representations that come forth in the other life are appearances, but living ones, because they are from the light of life. The light of life is the Divine wisdom, which is from the Lord alone. Hence all things that come forth from this light are real; and are not like those things that come forth from the light of the world. Wherefore they who are in the other life have sometimes said that the things they see there are real things, and the things which man sees are in comparison not real; because the former things live, and thus immediately affect their life, while the latter things do not live, thus do not immediately affect the life, except insofar and in such a manner as the things in their minds which are of this world's light conjoin themselves fitly and correspondently with the things of the light of heaven. From all this it is now evident what representations are, and what correspondences.

AC 1116. For the angels have most magnificent dwellings, such as cannot be described, as I have often seen. To their eyes so real is their appearance that nothing can be more real. But whence such real appearances come will be shown of the Lord's Divine mercy hereafter. (AC 1116)

AC 9917. This signification of "going in and going out" is from the representatives in the other life; for there they go, walk, advance, go in and out, just as in the world; but all these acts are done according to the state of the life of their thoughts and affections (as may be seen in the places above cited). That these acts also originate from their thoughts and affections, and are correspondences, and thus real appearances, they do not notice. (AC 9917)

EU 86. Distances in the other life are real appearances, which are presented by the Lord to be seen, according to the state of the interiors of angels and spirits (n. 5604, 9104, 9440, 10,146). (EU 86)

AC 3485. The representations that come forth in the other life are appearances, but living ones, because they are from the light of life. The light of life is the Divine wisdom, which is from the Lord alone. Hence all things that come forth from this light are real; and are not like those things that come forth from the light of the world. Wherefore they who are in the other life have sometimes said that the things they see there are real things, and the things which man sees are in comparison not real; because the former things live, and thus immediately affect their life, while the latter things do not live, thus do not immediately affect the life, except insofar and in such a manner as the things in their minds which are of this world's light conjoin themselves fitly and correspondently with the things of the light of heaven. From all this it is now evident what representations are, and what correspondences. (AC 3485).

AC 2588. They who are in the affirmative that the Word has been so written as to possess an internal sense which does not appear in the letter, can confirm themselves therein by many rational considerations; as that by the Word man has connection with heaven; that there are correspondences of natural things with spiritual, in which the spiritual are not seen; that the ideas of interior thought are altogether different from the material ideas which fall into the words of language; that man, being born for both lives, can, while in the world, be also in heaven, by means of the Word which is for both worlds; that with some persons a certain Divine light flows into the things of the understanding, and also into the affections, when the Word is read; that it is of necessity that there should be something written that has come down from heaven, and that therefore the Word cannot be such in its origin as it is in the letter; and that it can be holy only from a certain holiness that it has within it.

He can also confirm himself by means of memory-knowledges; as that men were formerly in representatives, and that the writings of the Ancient Church were of this nature; also that the writings of many among the Gentiles had this origin; and that it is on this account that in the churches such a style has been revered as holy, and among the Gentiles as learned, as examples of which the books of many authors might be mentioned. But they who are in the negative, if they do not deny all these things, still do not believe them, and persuade themselves that the Word is such as it is in the letter, appearing indeed worldly, while yet being spiritual (as to where the spiritual is hidden within it they care little, but for manifold reasons are willing to let it be so), and this they can confirm by many things. (AC 2588)

AC 2588. Things of the body cannot enter into those of the spirit, but only the reverse (AC 2588)

AC 2588. Every word, even to the smallest iota of all, in the Word, involves spiritual and heavenly things; and that the Word is in this manner inspired, so that when it is read by man, spirits and angels immediately perceive it spiritually according to the representations and correspondences. (AC 2588)

AC 10627. The external sense, which is the sense of the letter, must consist of pure correspondences; and it consists of pure correspondences when all the words, and all the connections of the words, signify in the internal sense things spiritual and celestial. (AC 10627)

AC 1080. Our Word, as to the sense of the letter, which is natural, makes one by influx and correspondences with the Words in the heavens, the senses of which are spiritual. (AC 1080)

AC 10400. [3] Let such observe as will, whether at the present day anyone knows otherwise than that the Divine itself of the Word is the sense of its letter. But let them consider also whether anyone can know the Divine truths of the Word in this sense except by means of doctrine therefrom, and that if he has not doctrine for a lamp he is carried away into errors, wherever the obscurity of his understanding and the delight of his will lead and draw him. The doctrine which must be for a lamp is what the internal sense teaches, thus it is the internal sense itself, which in some measure lies open to everyone (even if he does not know what the internal sense is) who is in what is external from what is internal, that is, whose internal man is open. For heaven (which is in the internal sense of the Word) flows in with such a man when he reads the Word, enlightens him, and gives him perception, and thus teaches him. Nay, if you will believe it, with man the internal man is of itself in the internal sense of the Word, because it is a heaven in the least form, and consequently when it is open it is with the angels in heaven, and is therefore also in like perception with them. This can also be seen from the fact that the interior intellectual ideas of man are not such as are his natural ideas, to which nevertheless they correspond.

[4] But of the nature of these ideas man is not aware so long as he lives in the body; but he comes into them spontaneously when he comes into the other life, because they are implanted in him, and by means of them he is forthwith in fellowship with the angels. From this it is evident that the man whose internal is open, is in the internal sense of the Word, although he is not aware of it. From this he has enlightenment when he reads the Word, but according to the light that he can have by means of the knowledges which he has. (But who these are, see n. 9025, 9382, 9409, 9410, 9424, 9430, 10105, 10324.) (AC 10400)

DE VERBO 26. The Word
I have examined the way spiritual angels frame the words of their speech, and I discovered that they frame them and utter them according to and in consequence of ideas having to do with the things they symbolize. For example, when they say or pronounce "horse and carriage," they then use an expression that carries the symbolic meanings of these things, such as using a word for horse that comes from ideas having to do with the intellect, and a word for carriage that comes from ideas having to do with doctrine from the Word. And so on with the rest of their expressions. Thus they speak according to the correspondence about the things they see, even as people do. In short, they give names to things in accordance with their correspondence.

[2] It has consequently now been revealed to these angels that they use correspondences in the words of their speech. This they did not know before, but they discovered it when they were in a natural state with me, by examining in that state the ideas they had of things in a spiritual state. In a word, the expressions of their speech or language are all formed in accordance with correspondences.

[3] I asked the angels how they would write "horses harnessed to a carriage." They said they would write simply l, and that this letter would express it. I then asked how they would write "understanding of doctrine." They said they would do so likewise by writing l, only then they would have a higher thought of it. This, too, made it apparent that the expressions of their language involve correspondences. But few of them had paid any attention to this, just as few in this world give any thought to spiritual light when the light of the intellect is referred to, or when enlightenment and seeing the light are mentioned, or as few give any thought to spiritual fire and heat when heavenly fire is alluded to as the fire that burns in the heart, not knowing that fire and its heat correspond to love in the heart, that is, in the will, and that light corresponds to truth in the intellect. (De Verbo 26)

HH 306. When the knowledge of correspondences and representations had been blotted out of remembrance then the Word was written, in which all the words and their meanings are correspondences, and thus contain a spiritual or internal sense, in which are the angels. (HH 306)

AC 1882. There are two kinds of visions that are not of the ordinary kind, into which I have been let solely that I might know their nature, and what is meant by its being said in the Word that men were "withdrawn from the body," and that they were "carried by the spirit into another place." (AC 1882)

AC 1883. As regards the first, namely, being withdrawn from the body, the case is this. The man is brought into a certain state that is midway between sleep and wakefulness, and when he is in this state he cannot know but that he is wholly awake. All his senses are as fully awake as in the highest wakefulness of the body; the sight, the hearing, and, wonderful to say, the touch, which is then more exquisite than it can ever be in the wakefulness of the body. In this state also spirits and angels have been seen to the very life, and also heard, and, wonderful to say, have been touched, and almost nothing of the body then intervened. This is the state of which it is said that they are "withdrawn from the body," and that they "do not know whether they are in the body or out of it."* I have been let into this state only three or four times, merely that I might know how the case is with it, and that spirits and angels are in the enjoyment of every sense, even touch in a form more delicate and more exquisite than that of the body.
* See 2 Cor. 12:3. (AC 1883)

AC 1884. As regards the other kind of vision-being carried away by the spirit into another place-it has been shown me by living experience what it is, and how it is done, but only two or three times. One single experience I may mention. Walking through the streets of a city and through the country, and being at the same time also in conversation with spirits, I did not know but that I was wide awake and saw as at other times, so that I walked on without mistake, and all the time being in vision, seeing groves, rivers, palaces, houses, men, and many other things. But after I had thus walked for hours, suddenly I was in the sight of the body, and became aware that I was in another place. Greatly amazed at this, I perceived that I had been in such a state as they were in of whom it is said that they were "led away by the spirit into another place;"* for while this state lasts there is no reflection concerning the way, even if it be many miles; nor is there reflection concerning the time, even if it be many hours or days; nor is there any feeling of fatigue. Moreover the person is led through ways of which he has no knowledge, even to the appointed place. This took place that I might know that a man can be led by the Lord without his knowing whence and whither.
* See 1 Kings 18:12; 19:8; Ezek. 3:12, 14; Acts 8:39. (AC 1884)

AC 1885. These two kinds of visions, however, are extraordinary, and were shown me merely to the end that I might know their nature. But the things I have habitually "seen" [as mentioned in the title to this work] are all those which of the Lord's Divine mercy you may see related in this First Part, and which are placed at the beginning and end of the several chapters. These are not visions, but things seen in the highest wakefulness of the body, and this for several years.* (AC 1885)

SE 825. There are spirits who depict the kidneys and the bladder in the human being

Spirits who depict the kidneys, ureters and bladder in man are at the left side of the face, but toward the front, at the opening between the side of the temples and the forehead, closer to the forehead. They are of the kind who are not concerned with inward matters, much less very inward ones, nor do they understand them. Therefore when I spoke of and questioned them about such subjects, they said they did not understand them, although other spirits had understood them well.

These same ones also easily become indignant, as if from a kind of envy. They were indignant, for example, that good spirits were standing by and present with me, and they wanted to irritate them in various ways, so as to drive them away. Thus they do many things out of indignation, they are restless in spirit, and are not content with their lot - so that some property of the urine can be traced to them.

They are present, and I am speaking with them - they grow angry, go away, come back - there are many of them, and in lines. They are not deceitful, because they do this from a kind of irritable jealousy but not from deceit, and are like those in the life of the body who are called simply bad-tempered. (SE 825)

SE 826. Moreover, at the left side appeared large swine joined together, by which are portrayed the earthy matters present in the urine, and being separated from the liquid. Thus depictions of earthy matters in urine are made by means of pigs so joined together, large ones, at the left side, not far off, on almost the same horizontal plane, if not somewhat higher. (SE 826)

SE 829. * # # These same spirits sometimes ruminate over things said previously, which they retain in their memory and then become angry, wanting to find out the reasons why they were said in that way. Thus there is a kind of stickiness in them, also [cf. 810, 812].
* This paragraph is inserted in accordance with the indications of the author. (SE 829)

SE 827. The same ones who are like Kidneys, ureters and bladders, do not understand man's thoughts well, either. They do not penetrate to any but those that are superficial. Sometimes they ask whether something was said about them, when it concerned others, or whether something is true, when it is quite otherwise. 1748, 18 February. (SE 827)

Se 828. There are also those who relate to the skin
There are spirits who relate to the outward human coverings also, but with these I have not spoken, only perceiving from them that they brought on warmth caused by exhalations through invisible pores. Now they are indeed speaking, saying it is they who cover all; but what they are like in other respects has not yet been revealed to me. 1748, 18 February. (SE 828)

SE 830. There are spirits relating to the large ventricles of the brain
The large ventricles of the brain are the chambers into which liquids flow from the spaces between the tissues, and from elsewhere, as is known. Thus they are, so to speak, the urinary bladders of the brain, where fluid, or lymph, is mingled with [animate] spirit and whence in turn, [animate] spirit and better elements are secreted, one after the other. (SE 830)

SE 831. Those spirits are above the head, quite high up - not directly overhead, but a little toward the front, very little. They are good spirits, and they, too, spoke with me, quite pleasantly; for they operate, even speak, with a very pleasant flowing motion. They said that they constantly aspire to come to heaven, for they are not aware that they had been in heaven, and then been removed so as to be better perfected, thus returning once again into heaven when the heterogeneous parts have been cast out from them.

The case is just as it is with that fluid in the ventricles, part of which is absorbed by the choroid plexus: part is expelled from them, part seeps elsewhere; part passes over into the third ventricle under the pineal gland and thus through the infundibulum toward the pituitary gland, where it is separated into three quantities, which are borne through various paths, canals and cavities, towards the jugular vein, going to meet the chyle coming up through the thoracic duct. Mingled together there, they are carried toward the heart, thence into the lungs, then back into the left ventricle [of the heart] and thus onward, part toward the head through the carotid arteries, part downward toward all the internal organs of the body.

All these events conspire to the purpose of forming the purer blood, or animate spirit, and thus the red blood, so that by a uniting of material and spiritual elements, they may bring about a harmonious life. 1748, the 18th day of February. (SE 831)

[DOCTRINE IS DRAWN FROM THE WORD] see also [CORRESPONDENCES]

Theistic Psychology is drawn (extracted) from the Writings. The Writings are the Word. Hence, doctrine = Theistic Psychology . Everything the Writings say about doctrine must be applied also to Theistic Psychology.

the doctrine which is delivered in the following pages” (NJHD 7)

Doctrine is worship (NJHD 6)

Doctrine “is from the correspondential sense of the Word” (NJHD 6)

i. The Writings cannot be understood without doctrine.

ii. Doctrine must be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Writings.

iii. But the Divine truth which must be of doctrine appears to none but those who are in enlightenment from the Lord. (SS 50)

the doctrine of the Church is to be drawn from the sense of the Letter of the Word and confirmed by it (n. 50-61 of the same work)(SS) (DP 256)

It is only by the Doctrine of the Church which is in enlightenment from the Lord, and by which the literal sense is read from within and therefore in true order, that a perception of the essential things of life is possible. (H. D. G. Groeneveld in DHL F.3, p.4)

The second danger arises when the Church has attention only for the letter of the Third Testament- and therefore closes out enlightenment from the Lord by which the letter is read from within, seeing such a reading does not seem to be in agreement with a reading of the Third Testament from without. (ditto, p.7)

[ENLIGHTENMENT]

That man has enlightenment who shuns evils because they are sins (DeVerbo 12)

Enlightenment is by the Word (DeVerbo 12)

[EARTHS IN THE UNIVERSE (EU); see also [SPIRITS]

Be it known that the sun of this world does not at all appear to any spirit, nor anything of its light; for to spirits the light of our sun is like thick darkness. This sun remains in perception with spirits solely from having been seen while they were in the world, and it is presented to them in idea as something that is intensely dark, and this behind them, at a considerable distance, in altitude a little above the plane of the head. The planets within our solar system appear in a fixed position relative to the sun: Mercury behind and a little toward the right; the planet Venus to the left, a little behind; the planet Mars to the left in front; the planet Jupiter in like manner to the left in front, but at a greater distance; the planet Saturn wholly in front at a considerable distance; the Moon to the left rather high up; the satellites also to the left, each relatively to its own planet. Such is the situation of these planets in the ideas of spirits and angels; and the spirits also appear near their own planet, but outside of it. (AC 7171)

[EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED BY SWEDENBORG IN SPIRITUAL WORLD; EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE; see also MEMORABLE RELATIONS]

HH 448. How this resuscitation is effected has both been told to me and shown to me in living experience. The actual experience was granted to me that I might have a complete knowledge of the process. (HH 448)

HH 449. As to the senses of the body I was brought into a state of insensibility, thus nearly into the state of the dying; but with the interior life and thought remaining unimpaired, in order that I might perceive and retain in the memory the things that happened to me, and that happen to those that are resuscitated from the dead.

I perceived that the respiration of the body was almost wholly taken away; but the interior respiration of the spirit went on in connection with a slight and tacit respiration of the body. Then at first a communication of the pulse of the heart with the celestial kingdom was established, because that kingdom corresponds to the heart in man.# Angels from that kingdom were seen, some at a distance, and two sitting near my head. Thus all my own affection was taken away although thought and perception continued.

# The heart corresponds to the Lord's celestial kingdom, the lungs to His spiritual kingdom (n. 3635, 3886, 3887).

[2] I was in this state for some hours. Then the spirits that were around me withdrew, thinking that I was dead; and an aromatic odor like that of an embalmed body was perceived, for when the celestial angels are present everything pertaining to the corpse is perceived as aromatic, and when spirits perceive this they cannot approach; and in this way evil spirits are kept away from man's spirit when he is being introduced into eternal life. The angels seated at my head were silent, merely sharing their thoughts with mine; and when their thoughts are received the angels know that the spirit of man is in a state in which it can be drawn forth from the body. This sharing of their thoughts was effected by looking into my face, for in this way in heaven thoughts are shared.

[3] As my thought and perception continued, that I might know and remember how resuscitation is effected, I perceived the angels first tried to ascertain what my thought was, whether it was like the thought of those who are dying, which is usually about eternal life; also that they wished to keep my mind in that thought. Afterwards I was told that the spirit of man is held in its last thought when the body expires, until it returns to the thoughts that are from its general or ruling affection in the world. Especially was I permitted to see and feel that there was a pulling and drawing forth, as it were, of the interiors of my mind, thus of my spirit, from the body; and I was told that this is from the Lord, and that the resurrection is thus effected. (HH 449)

TCR 771. In the chapter on the Sacred Scripture I showed that the literal sense of the Word is written by appearances and correspondences. Each of its details therefore contains a spiritual sense in which truth is illuminated by its own light, and the literal sense is in shadow. So to prevent the people of the new church, like those of the old church, going astray in the shadows obscuring the literal sense of the Word, especially as regards heaven and hell, how they will live after death, and on the present occasion about the Lord's coming, the Lord has been pleased to open the sight of my spirit, thus admitting me to the spiritual world. I have been allowed not only to talk with spirits and angels, with relations and friends, even with kings and princes, who have met their end in the natural world, but also to see the astonishing sights of heaven, and the pitiful sights of hell. So I have seen how people do not pass their time in some pu deep in the earth, nor flit around blind and dumb in the air or in empty space, but live as human beings in a substantial body, in a much more perfect state, if they come among the blessed, than they experienced previously when living in material bodies.

[2] So to prevent people from plunging yet deeper into erroneous ideas about the destruction of the sky we see and the earth we live on, and consequently about the spiritual world, as the result of ignorance, which leads to worshipping nature and this automatically to atheism - something which at the present time has begun to take root in the inner rational minds of the learned - to prevent then atheism from spreading more widely, like necrosis in the flesh, so as to affect as well the outer mind which controls speech, I have been commanded by the Lord to make known various things which I have seen and heard. These include heaven and hell, the Last Judgment, and the explanation of Revelation, which deals with the Lord's coming, the former heaven and the new heaven, and the holy Jerusalem. If my books on these subjects are read and understood, anyone can see what is meant there by the Lord's coming, a new heaven and the New Jerusalem. (TCR 771)

CL 39. (v) These facts have been fully confirmed by eye-witness.
I have so far considered it enough to confirm these propositions by intellectual, what are called rational, arguments: that a person lives on as a person after death, that a male is then a male and a female a female, that each person retains his own love after death, and his chief loves are sexual and conjugial. But people have from childhood been given by parents and teachers, and later by learned men and clergy, a firm belief that they will not live on as people after death, except on the day of the Last Judgment, and some have now spent six thousand years waiting for it. Moreover, many have placed this belief in the category of things which must be taken on trust and not understood. For these reasons it has been necessary to confirm the same propositions also by eye-witness accounts. If this is not done, the person who trusts only his senses will be led by the belief forced on him to say, 'If people lived on as people after death, I could see and hear them' and 'Who has come down from heaven, or up from hell, to tell us?'

But it has not been and still is not possible for an angel of heaven to come down, or for a spirit of hell to come up, and talk with a person, unless the inner levels of his mind, that is, of his spirit, have been opened by the Lord. This can only happen fully with those whom the Lord has prepared to receive the truths of spiritual wisdom. It has therefore pleased the Lord to do this with me, in order to ensure that conditions in heaven and hell, and how people live after death, should not remain unknown, be sunk in ignorance and finally buried in denial. The eye-witness proofs of the propositions mentioned above are too numerous to relate here; but they can be seen in my book HEAVEN AND HELL, also in the CONTINUATION ABOUT THE SPIRITUAL WORLD*; and later in my Apocalypse Revealed. But in so far as particularly concerns marriage, they will be found in the account of experiences subjoined to sections or chapters of this book. (CL 39)

SE 1706. CONCERNING AN INDETERMINATE STATE OF SPIRITS. I, together with the spirits around me, was in an indeterminate state, which state was such that they could not reflect at all upon themselves, but became, as it were, reduced to nothing in the universe, which accords with the popular idea of spirits. As relates to myself, I could scarcely tell whether I was in the body or out of the body, for I perceived nothing of the body, inasmuch as it was not given to reflect upon it.

Thus the perception I had was independent of the body, for the ideas were determined to a vague universality [in universum], and thus, as it were, dissipated, having no determination in myself. Determination in one's self causes that the subjects of it should seem to themselves to be such as they think themselves to be. In a word, the state was altogether different from the ordinary state, nor was there anything but bare speech, for the spirits spoke and I spoke, but the speech was as if it proceeded not from any particular man, but was a mere voice sent forth into vacuity. [Above] there appeared nothing but the celestial blue vault [sprinkled] with little stars. (SE 1706)

AC 1526. I was withdrawn from the ideas of particular things,* or those of the body, so that I might be kept in spiritual ideas. There then appeared a vivid glow of diamond light, and this for a considerable time. I cannot describe the light in any other way; for in its least parts it was like the sparkling of the diamond. And while I was kept in that light, I perceived the particular things, which are worldly and corporeal, as it were below me, and remote; by which I was instructed how great light those are in who are withdrawn from material ideas into those which are spiritual. Moreover, the light of spirits and of angels has been seen by me so many times, that many pages would be filled if all the experiences were recounted. (AC 1526).

TCR 461. The third experience. Once when I was in the spirit I travelled deep into the southern region in the spiritual world, and came into a park there; and I saw that this one was better than the others I had so far visited. The reason was that a garden means intelligence; and it is to the south that all are sent who are especially intelligent. It was this that was meant by the Garden of Eden, where Adam lived with his wife; so their being driven out implies that they were deprived of intelligence, and thus also of uprightness of life. As I was walking in this southern park I noticed some people sitting under a laurel-bush eating figs. I went up to them and asked them to give me some figs. They did so, and at once the figs in my hand turned into grapes. I was surprised by this, but an angelic spirit standing next to me said: 'The figs in your hand turned into grapes, because the meaning of figs by their correspondence is the kinds of good of charity and hence of faith in the natural or external man, and grape means the kinds of good of charity and hence of faith in the spiritual or internal man. As you love what is spiritual, so this happened to you. For in our world everything happens and comes into existence, and also undergoes change, in accordance with correspondences.'

[2] I was at once struck with a keen desire to know how a person can do good coming from God, and yet do it exactly as if of himself. So I asked those who were eating figs how they understood the point. They said that they could only understand this as meaning that God performs this inwardly in a person while he is unaware of it. For if he were conscious of it, and did it in that state, he would do only apparent good, which is inwardly evil. 'Everything,' they said, 'which comes from man comes from his self (proprium), and this is evil from birth. How then can good coming from God and evil coming from man be linked, and so jointly proceed to action? A person's self in matters of salvation is constantly seeking merit; and in so far as he does so, he takes away from the Lord His merit, which is the height of injustice and impiety. In short, if the good which God performs in a person were to flow into his willing and thence into his doing, that good would be utterly defiled and profaned, something God never permits. A person can of course think that the good he does comes from God, and call it God's good done by his means; still we do not understand that it is good.'

[3] Then I disclosed what I was thinking and said: 'You do not understand because your thinking is based upon appearances, and this sort of thinking if supported by argument is fallacy. The appearance and hence the fallacy you are involved in is because you believe that everything a person wills and thinks, and so does and says, is in him and consequently comes from him. Yet in fact nothing of this is in him, except the condition of receiving what flows in. Man is not life in himself, but he is an instrument for receiving life. The Lord is life in Himself, as He also says in John:

As the Father has life in Himself, so He granted to the Son to have life in Himself. John 5:26; and elsewhere, for instance 11:25; 14:6, 19.

[4] 'There are two things which produce life, love and wisdom, or, what is the same, the good of love and the truth of wisdom. These flow in from God, and are received by a person as if they were his own; and because they are felt like this, they also come from a person as if they were his. The Lord grants that they are felt like this by a person, so that what flows in affects him, and so by being accepted remains with him. But because all evil also flows in, not from God, but from hell, and accepting this gives pleasure, man being by birth such an instrument, for this reason only so much good can be accepted from God as there is evil taken away by the person as if by himself, which is achieved by repentance together with faith in the Lord.

[5] 'It can be plainly seen from a consideration of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch that love and wisdom, charity and faith, or to use a more general expression, the good of love and charity, and the truth of wisdom and faith, flow into a person; and that what flows in appears in a person as if it were entirely his own, and it proceeds from him as if it were his own. All the sensations produced in the organs of those senses come from an external source and are felt in the organs concerned. It is the same with the organs of the internal senses, the only difference being that these are affected by spiritual things, which are undetectable, flowing in, whereas the external senses are affected by natural things, which are detectable. In short, man is an instrument for the reception of life from God; it follows that he receives good to the extent that he desists from evil. Everyone is granted by the Lord the potentiality of desisting from evil, because he is granted the power to will and to have understanding; and whatever a person does from his will in accordance with his understanding, or what is the same thing, from his freedom to will in accordance with the power of reason in his understanding, is permanent. By this means the Lord brings a person into a state of being linked with Himself, and in this state He reforms, regenerates and saves him.

[6] 'The life which flows in is life coming forth from the Lord; this life is also called the Spirit of God, and in the Word the Holy Spirit, and of this it is said that it enlightens and quickens, in fact that it works on him. But this life varies and is modified depending on the organisation brought about by love. You can also know that all the good of love and charity, and all the truth of wisdom and faith flow in and are not actually in the person, if you reflect that when anyone thinks that man has such a capability from creation, he must inevitably think that God poured Himself into man, so that people are partially gods. Yet those who think this as a result of firm belief become devils, and in our world stink like corpses.

[7] 'Moreover, what is human action but a mind acting? What the mind wills and thinks, it does and speaks by means of its instrument, the body. When therefore the mind is guided by the Lord, so is its action and speech. Action and speech are guided by the Lord, when He is believed in. If this were not so, tell me if you can, why did the Lord in thousands of places in His Word order man to love his neighbour, perform the good deeds of charity, to produce fruit like a tree and keep His commandments, and to do both one and the other in order to be saved? Again, why did He say that a person would be judged according to his deeds or what he had done, those whose deeds were good going to heaven and life, those whose deeds were wicked going to hell and death? How could the Lord have said such things, if everything coming from a person was done to acquire merit and therefore wicked? You ought therefore to know that if the mind is charity, so too is action; but if the mind is faith alone, and this too is faith separated from spiritual charity, action also is that faith.'

[8] On hearing this those who were sitting under the laurel said: 'We grasp that you have spoken fairly, but still we do not grasp the point.' 'You grasp,' I answered them, 'that I have spoken fairly by means of the general perception which all people enjoy as the result of the light which flows in from heaven when they hear something true. Your failure to grasp the point is due to your own personal perception, which everyone has as a result of light flowing in from the world. In the case of the wise those two kinds of perception, internal and external, or spiritual and natural, act as one. You too can make them act as one, if you look to the Lord and put away evils.' Since they understood this, I took some shoots off a vine and held them out to them saying, 'Do you think this is from me or from the Lord?' They said it was from the Lord through me; and at once the shoots in their hands put forth grapes.

When I left, I saw a table of cedar-wood, on which was a book, under a flourishing olive-tree with a vine wound about its trunk. When I looked, I saw to my surprise that the book was the one written through me called ARCANA COELESTIA. I said that that book contained a full demonstration that man is an instrument for the reception of life, and was not himself life; and that life could not be created and so by being created be in man, any more than light could be created in the eye. (TCR 461)

AR 875:9 But when I departed, I saw a cedar table, upon which was a book, under a green olive-tree, the trunk of which was entwined with a vine. I looked, and behold, it was a book written by me, called The Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, and also concerning The Divine Providence; and I said that it was fully shown in that book, that man is an organ recipient of life, and not life. (AR 875:9)

AC 1880. As regards spirits and angels in general, who all are human souls living after the death of the body, I may say here that they have much more exquisite senses than men-that is, sight, hearing, smell, and touch-but not taste. Spirits however are not able, and angels are still less able, to see anything that is in the world by their own sight, that is, by the sight of the spirit; for the light of the world or of the sun is to them as thick darkness; just in the same way as man by his sight, that is, by the sight of the body, cannot see anything that is in the other life; for the light of heaven, or the Lord's heavenly light, is to man as thick darkness.

[2] But still when the Lord pleases, spirits and angels can see the things in this world through the eyes of a man. But the Lord does not grant this except in the case of one whom He enables to speak with spirits and angels, and to be together with them. Spirits and angels have been permitted to see the things in this world through my eyes as plainly as I could see them myself, and also to hear men talking with me. It has sometimes happened that to their great astonishment, some through me have seen their friends whom they had had in the life of the body, just as they had seen them before. Some have also seen their married partners, and their children, and have desired me to tell them that they were close by and saw them, and to give an account of their state in the other life, but I had been forbidden to tell them or reveal to them that they were seen in this way, and this partly for the reason that they would have called me insane, or would have thought such things to be delirious fancies of the mind; for I was well aware that although they would acknowledge it with the lips, they did not believe in heart in the existence of spirits, or that the dead are risen.

[3] When my interior sight was first opened, and through my eyes spirits and angels saw the world and the things that are in it, they were so amazed that they called it the miracle of miracles; and they were affected with a new joy, in that in this way communication was opened of earth with heaven, and of heaven with earth.

This delight lasted for months, but afterwards it became familiar, and now they do not wonder at all. I have been instructed that the spirits and angels who are present with other men do not in the slightest degree see the things of this world, but only perceive the thoughts and affections of those with whom they are.

[4] These things have shown that man was so created that while living on earth among men, he might at the same time also live in heaven among angels, and the converse; so that heaven and earth might be together, and might act as a one, and that men might know what is going on in heaven, and angels what in the world; and therefore that when men depart this life they would pass from the Lord's kingdom on earth into the Lord's kingdom in the heavens, not as into another kingdom, but as into the same as that in which they had been when living in the body. But in consequence of man's becoming so corporeal, he has closed heaven against himself. (AC 1880)

AC 3749. A certain spirit came to me without warning and flowed into my head (spirits can be identified one from another by whatever parts of the body they flow into). I wondered who he was and where he came from. But after he had stayed silent for some while the angels present with me said that he had been chosen from the spirits present with some learned person still alive in the world today. He - that is, the learned man - had sought the reputation of possessing more learning than others. At that point communication through this intermediary spirit with the thought of that man was also permitted. I asked the spirit what idea that learned man was able to have about the Grand Man and about its influx, and therefore about correspondence. He replied that he was able to have none.

After that I asked what idea did that man have of heaven. He said, None at all, apart from blasphemous ones, such as that those in heaven spend their time playing musical instruments like those on which country people are accustomed to produce a tune. Yet that individual is held in higher esteem than others and is thought to know what influx is, what the soul is, and what its interaction with the body is. He is also probably thought to have greater knowledge than others of what heaven is. This shows what those are really like who teach others at the present day; that is to say, using mere stumbling-blocks they oppose the goods and truths of faith, though publicly they declare something different. (AC 3749)

HH 299. I have also been permitted to know the source of human anxiety, grief of mind (animus), and interior sadness, which is called melancholy.

There are spirits not as yet in conjunction with hell, because they are in their first state; these will be described in the following pages where the world of spirits is dealt with. These spirits love things undigested and unprofitable, such as pertain to food becoming foul in the stomach. Consequently, they are present where such things are with man, because they find delight in them; and they talk there with one another from their own evil affection. The affection that is in their speech inflows from this source with man; and when this affection is the opposite of man's affection it becomes in him sadness and melancholy anxiety; but when it is in agreement it becomes in him gladness and cheerfulness.

These spirits appear near to the stomach [of the Grand Human], some to the left and some to the right of it, and some beneath and some above, also nearer and more remote, thus variously in accordance with the affections in which they are. That this is the source of anxiety of mind has been shown and proved to me by much experience. I have seen these spirits, I have heard them, I have felt the anxieties arising from them, I have talked with them; when they have been driven away the anxiety ceased; when they returned the anxiety returned; and I have noted the increase and decrease of it according to their approach and removal.

From this, it has been made clear to me why some who do not know what conscience is, because they have no conscience, ascribe its pain to the stomach.# (HH 299)

HH 440. As regards the first, namely, withdrawal from the body, it happens thus. Man is brought into a certain state that is mid-way between sleeping and waking, and when in that state he seems to himself to be wide awake; all the senses are as perfectly awake as in the completest bodily wakefulness, not only the sight and the hearing, but what is wonderful, the sense of touch also, which is then more exquisite than is ever possible when the body is awake. In this state, spirits and angels have been seen to the very life, and have been heard, and what is wonderful, have been touched, with almost nothing of the body intervening. This is the state that is called being withdrawn from the body, and not knowing whether one is in the body or out of it. I have been admitted into this state only three or four times, that I might know what it is, and might know that spirits and angels enjoy every sense, and that man does also in respect of his spirit when he is withdrawn from the body. (HH 440)

HH 441. As regards the second, being carried away by the spirit to another place, I have been shown by living experience what it is, and how it is done, but only two or three times. I wish to relate a single instance. Walking through the streets of a city and through fields, talking at the same time with spirits, I did not know otherwise than that I was fully awake, and in possession of my usual sight. Thus I walked on without going astray, and all the while with clear vision, seeing groves, rivers, palaces, houses, men, and other objects. But after walking thus for some hours, suddenly I saw with my bodily eyes, and noted that I was in another place. Being greatly astonished I perceived that I had been in the same state as those who were said to have been led away by the spirit into another place. For in this state there is no reflection upon the distance, even though it be many miles, nor any reflection upon the time, though it be many hours or days, neither is there any feeling of fatigue; and one is led unerringly through ways of which he himself is ignorant, even to the destined place. (HH 441)

HH 442. But these two states of man, which are his states when he is in his interiors, or what is the same, when he is in the spirit, are extraordinary; but as they are states known about in the Church, they were exhibited to me only that I might know what they are. But it has been granted to me now for many years to speak with spirits and to be with them as one of them, even in full wakefulness of the body. (HH 442)

D.WIS. 6. This, too, has been shown from heaven. It was granted me to be present with angels who presented this in a living way. By a wonderful fluxion into gyres, such as no words can describe, they formed an image of the heart and of the lungs, with all their interlacings, interior and exterior, and they then followed the flow of heaven, for heaven has a tendency to such forms because of the influx of love and wisdom from the Lord. They thus represented the particulars in the heart and the particulars in the lungs and their union, which they called the marriage of love and wisdom. And they said that it is the same through out the body, and in its particular members, organs, and viscera, with the things pertaining to the heart in them, and the things pertaining to the lungs in them; and that where these do not both act and each take its turn distinctly, no motion of life from any voluntary principle, and no sense of life from any intellectual principle is possible. (D.WIS 6)

SE 152. About the collective [energy] field of spirits

It is certainly difficult to understand what the collective field of spirits is, and what their impact upon human minds is, without being informed how spirits are differentiated most distinctly into kinds and species, and how their energy, which creates that field, responds to, and thus guides, every single thought and mental image in a human being.

[The relation of human minds to] the collective field of spirits is no different from that of the air, which is the grosser atmosphere and related to hearing, compared to the ether or purer atmosphere related to sight; or the dense clouds around the earth compared to the clear and serene region up above.

1) The [energy] field of spirits is now so corrupted, that whatever flows from the more inward heaven into their realm, which constitutes the third heaven,* becomes so distorted that whatever [is communicated] does not become known at all, but all and the least messages stream into human minds with an entirely opposite content.

2) Such is that field at this day, and so it has been growing and is growing toward the last day, when it will be dispersed. But in most ancient times, it was not so. It is also because of this field that revelations cannot come forth today as they did in ancient times, except by an extraordinary way, and that there is no such communication with the heavens as there once was.

3) For a period of some hours I was shown how the collective field operates into human minds, and in fact, when it was allowed, how I was not in the least able to stop them from taking away my thought, and from prevailing - such is the strength of that field today, when spirits are given the power to act.

4) The whole field utterly opposes the angels' endeavors; and the power of the angels, who all belong to God the Messiah, is increased so that they are able to overcome.

5) Astounding things would emerge if I should tell what filthy objects they portray when they are allowed to work by fantasies - which I would rather pass by, because it would be shocking to tell; they are nothing less than filthy.

6) Angels of the third level** can also be in that same realm, and because they are governed by the heaven of angels, they cannot be hurt at all.

7) A fact I have found noteworthy was that at times, I have heard a spirit speaking with me, and he was abruptly removed. Now I have been allowed to learn that he was snatched away by the collective field, that is, compelled to speak in accord with the field's action. I observed still more things that have slipped from my memory: for that field takes away whatever truth and goodness they find to be the most unpleasant. But if God the Messiah sees fit, [I will speak] more fully elsewhere about this collective field, in general and in details. 1747, the 14th day of September (old calendar).

8) The collective field can be compared with the ethereal atmosphere, in that this conveys to the eye the individual objects, like those on streets and in the countryside, in all the details of their forms and shapes - indeed, to a thousand eyes at the same time, or even tens of thousands - and in this way, to each of a person's thoughts, reasonings and fantasies individually. [The comparison is valid,] for [the collective field] lies inside of nature.
* I.e. in descending order.
** I.e. third in a descending order. (SE 152)

CL 498. That as to the understanding, the natural, sensual, and corporeal man is equally rational as the spiritual man, was demonstrated before me in the case of those satans and devils spoken of here and there in the Memorable Relations who, by leave, rose up out of hell and conversed with angelic spirits in the world of spirits. (CL 498)

((In other words, their mental state was experimentally altered from lower to higher, from insane to sane))

There was a certain one who had confirmed himself in the notion that nothing is of the Divine Providence, but that each and all things are of sagacity, and are also from fortune and chance. He granted that there is fortune, but knew not what it is. He was one of the subtle evil spirits, because he had been more given to thought than to speech and conversation. When he came into the other life he continued there his former life, as all do; he sought out and learned all things-even magical arts-that he supposed might be of service to him, and by means of which he might take such care of himself as to be fortunate from himself. I conversed with him, and he said that he was in his heaven when this was the case, and that there could not possibly be any other heaven than that which he made for himself.

But it was given to answer that his heaven is turned into hell as soon as the real heaven flows into it. He was then in the world of spirits, and when spirits are there they are in the delights of the loves in which they had been in the world (see n. 5852). But it then came to pass that heaven flowed into his delight, and he then suddenly felt hell, and said with horror that he had never believed this. I was told by good spirits that he was worse than the others because there was a more subtle influx from him than from the others. Afterward the same spirit was reduced into the state of his infancy, and the Lord showed the angels what his quality had been at that time, and also what was the then foreseen quality of his future life, and that every detail of his life had been led by the Lord, and that he would have plunged into the most atrocious hell if there had been even the least cessation of the continual providence of the Lord. This can be presented to view before the angels.

He was also asked whether he had ever thought about eternal life. He said that he had not believed in it, and that he had rejected everything of the kind, because he saw so much confusion, the righteous suffering, and the wicked glorying, with other such things; also because he saw that brute animals have similar senses and life, also discernment and sagacity; thus he had believed that he should die as they do. He said that he had been in the utmost amazement when he perceived that he lived after death. (AC 6484)

I have been shown by live demonstration the manner in which spirits flow in with a person. When they come to him they adopt everything his memory contains, thus everything he has learned and retained since early childhood. Then the spirits suppose that what they have adopted is their own and thus play the part so to speak of the person in the person; but they are not allowed to go beyond the interior parts forming the person's thought and will. They are not allowed to enter the exterior parts of actions and speech; for these are brought into play by means of a general influx from the Lord, without the intervention of specific spirits or angels.

But although the spirits play the part of the person in the person so far as what forms his thought and will is concerned, they are not actually aware of their presence with him. The reason for this is that they take possession of all that his memory contains and imagine that it does not belong to another but is their own. A further reason is that they are thus prevented from doing the person harm, for if the spirits from hell who are present with a person did not imagine the contents of his memory were their own they would try by every method to destroy the person, body and soul, since that is hell's essential delight. (AC 6192)

AC 8989. And he shall bring him to the door, or unto the door post. That this signifies a state of communication of truth confirmed and implanted with spiritual good, is evident from the signification of a "door," as being the introduction of truth to good (see n. 2356, 2385), here of truth confirmed and implanted, which is signified by a Hebrew manservant after a service of six years (n. 8976, 8984), and as "a door" denotes introduction, it also denotes communication, for one room communicates with another by means of a door; and from the signification of "door-post," as being the conjunction of such truth with good, for a door-post stands between two rooms and joins them together.

Who cannot see that this ritual for the menservants who remain contains in it some secret, and indeed a Divine one? for it was dictated and commanded by Jehovah from Mount Sinai. They who do not believe that there is anything more holy and Divine in the Word than that which appears in the letter, must needs wonder that these and many other things contained in this chapter and in the following chapters were dictated by Jehovah in a living voice; for in the letter they appear to be such things as are contained in the laws of nations-as this concerning menservants-that one who did not wish to go forth from service should be brought to a door or to a door-post, and should have his ear bored through with an awl by his master. In the sense of the letter this does not savor of anything Divine; nevertheless it is most Divine; but this does not appear except through the internal sense. The internal sense is that they who are in mere truths and not in the corresponding good, but yet are in the delight of the remembrance of spiritual goods (n. 8986, 8987), have some communication and conjunction with spiritual good. (...)

[3] In order that the arcana which are contained in this procedure with menservants that remain with their master may be opened still further, it must be told whence it is that "a door" and "a door-post" signify communication and conjunction. Angels and spirits have habitations which appear quite like those which are in the world (see n. 1116, 1626-1628, 1631, 4622), and-what is a secret-each and all things that appear in their habitations are significative of spiritual things; for they flow forth from the spiritual things which are in heaven, and which are consequently in their minds. Communications of truth with good are there presented to view by means of doors, and conjunctions by means of door-posts, and other things by the rooms themselves, by the courts, by the windows, and by the various adornments.

That this is so, a man at this day, especially one who is merely natural, cannot believe, because such things are not manifest to the senses of the body. Nevertheless that such things were seen by the prophets when their interiors had been opened into heaven, is evident from the Word. They have also been perceived and seen by me a thousand times. I have moreover frequently heard them say, when their thoughts were in communication with me, that "the doors of their rooms were opened," and when they did not communicate, that they "were closed." (AC 8989)

SE 3358. Continuation on the adulterous later descendants of the corrupted most ancient Church.
These dwell under the earth, under a great rock midway in the deep beneath the buttocks, and there they remain in their dreadful fantasies against the Lord, treating the Lord in most cruel ways. About these wicked things I am not permitted to write. They are at a very great depth beneath the buttocks, laboring with their fantasies, and I am allowed and let in order to hear this: it is an uproar that is heard, and also felt in both buttocks, causing them to twitch, as I now observe. (SE 3358)

SE 1719. For these reasons let men beware of giving heed to those opinions which some persons would fain publish and inculcate, that spirits are altogether devoid of sense, or that spiritual essences lack all that kind of affection which they enjoyed while living in their bodies. I know the contrary, which has been demonstrated to me by a thousand and a thousand most sensible proofs of experience, as I can solemnly declare and attest; and if men are unwilling to believe from the weight which they attach to their suppositions and opinions in respect to spiritual essences; let them take heed to themselves when they come into the other life, where experience will compel them to believe what they do not credit in this world. (SE 1719)

AC 1879. On one occasion while in bed I was told that evil spirits were conspiring against me with the intention of suffocating me, but as I was safe and felt secure under the Lord's keeping, I disregarded the threats and went to sleep. But awaking in the middle of the night, I felt that I was not breathing of myself, but from heaven, for there was nothing of my own respiration, as I plainly perceived. It was then said that the band of conspirators was present, and that it was composed of those who hold in hatred the interior things of the Word (that is, the very truths of faith, for these are the interiors of the Word), and who thus hate them because they are contrary to their fallacies, persuasions, and cupidities, which the sense of the letter might be brought to support.
[2] After their attempt had failed, their leaders tried to enter into the viscera of my body, and to penetrate even to the heart, and to this also they were admitted. This was all the time perceived by manifest sensation, for one to whom the interiors of the spirit are opened, gets at the same time a sensible perception of such things. But I was then introduced into a kind of celestial state, which was that I made no effort to repel these visitors, still less to avenge the injury. They then said that there was peace; but soon they were as if deprived of rationality, breathing out vengeance, and striving to carry out their purpose, but in vain. They afterwards dispersed of themselves. (AC 1879)

SE 152. CONCERNING THE GENERAL SPHERE OF SPIRITS

It is indeed difficult to understand what the general sphere of spirits is and the activity of spirits on human minds, unless there be given the knowledge of how they are most distinctly divided into genera and species, and that their activity, which forms the sphere, responds to each thought and imagination of man, and acts in this way. The general sphere of spirits is comparatively like the air or grosser atmosphere, which is that of hearing, to the ether or purer atmosphere, which is that of sight; or as dense clouds about the earth, respectively to the clear and serene region above.

(1) The sphere of spirits is now so perverse that when anything whatever is let down from the more interior heaven into that sphere, which constitutes the third heaven, it is so perverted that nothing is known, but each and all things inflow into human minds in an entirely contrary sense.

(2) Such is that sphere at this day, and it has so increased and is increasing until the last day when it will be dissipated. But yet in the most ancient times it was not so. This also is the reason why there can no longer be revelations at this day as in days of old, except in an extraordinary manner, and why there is not such communication with the heavens as formerly.

(3) For several hours it was shown me how the general sphere operates into human minds, and indeed that when it was permitted I could by no means resist spirits taking away my thoughts, and overpowering me. Such is the power of that sphere at this day when the opportunity of acting is given to spirits. (4) The whole sphere is utterly opposed to those things which the angels intend; and the power of the angels, who all belong to God Messiah, is increased so that they are able to overcome it. (5) It would be astonishing were I to relate what abominable objects they represent when they are permitted to act by phantasies, which I would rather pass over because it would be horrible to tell; they are nothing else than abominable. (6) Angels of the third degree can also be in the same sphere, but because they are ruled by the heaven of angels they can in no wise be injured.

(7) It was worthy of my observation that sometimes I heard a spirit speaking with me, and in a moment he was changed. It is now given me to know that he was snatched away by the general sphere, that is, compelled to speak according to the activity of that sphere. Still more things were observed which have escaped my memory, for that sphere takes away whatever is true and good which is especially displeasing to them. But God Messiah deeming it worthy, this general sphere will be treated more fully elsewhere, in general and in its particulars. 1747. Sept. 14, o.s. (SE 152)

SE 152a] The general sphere can be compared to the ethereal atmosphere in that it reflects the single objects, as of a meadow or field, in their details, together with their forms and figures, to the eye, and even to a thousand or ten thousand eyes at the same time. So [this sphere reflects things] distinctly to the single thoughts, reasonings, and phantasies of man, for this sphere is within nature. (SE 152a)

AC 3891. That not only does the universal heaven respire as one man, but also each of the societies in company, nay all angels and spirits, has been testified to me by very many living experiences, so as to leave me in no doubt on the subject. spirits are surprised that anyone should have any doubt concerning the matter; but as there are few who have any other idea of angels and spirits than as of that which is immaterial, whence they would be mere thoughts, and thus scarcely substances, still less would as men enjoy the senses of seeing, hearing, and of touch, and still less would have respiration, and thus a life like man‘s (although of an interior kind, such as is the life of a spirit relatively to that of a man) therefore I may here adduce yet further experiences.

Before falling asleep I was once told beforehand that there were some who were conspiring against me with the intent to kill me by suffocation; but I paid no attention to their threats, because I was protected by the Lord, and therefore I fell asleep without apprehension. But on awaking at midnight I was made very sensible that I did not respire from myself, but from heaven; for the respiration was not my own, and yet I respired. On many other occasions it has been given me to be sensible of the breathing or respiration of spirits, and also of angels, from the fact that they respired within me; and that my own respiration was nevertheless at the same time present, distinct from theirs. But no one can be sensible of this unless his interiors are opened, and he is thus brought into communication with heaven. (AC 3891)

AC 3892. I have been informed by the most ancient people, who were celestial men, and above all other men were in love to the Lord, that they had not external respiration such as their posterity had, but internal; but that they respired with the angels, with whom they were in fellowship because they were in celestial love. I was further informed that their states of respiration were altogether according to their states of love and of the derivative faith (n. 608, 805, 1118-1120). (AC 3892)

AC 3893. Angelic choirs were once celebrating the Lord together, and this from gladness of heart. Their celebration was sometimes heard as sweet singing for among themselves spirits and angels are possessed of a sonorous voice, and are heard by each other as well as a man is heard by a man; but human singing is not to be compared with that for a sweetness and harmony which are celestial.

From the variety of the sound I perceived that there were many choirs. I was instructed by the angels with me that they belonged to the province of the lungs and to their functions; for it is theirs to sing because this is the office of the lungs. This also was given me to know by experience. They were permitted to direct my respiration, which they did so gently and sweetly, and also so interiorly, that I was scarcely sensible of any respiration of my own. I was further instructed that they who are appointed to the involuntary respiration are distinct from those who are appointed to the voluntary respiration; and I was told that they who are appointed to the involuntary respiration are present with man during sleep; for as soon as he sleeps, the voluntariness of his respiration ceases, and he receives involuntary respiration. (AC 3893)

TCR 613. If anyone knows the relationship of heaven and hell, and how one is removed from the other, he can tell how a person is regenerated, as well as what a regenerated person is like. To make this intelligible I must first make the brief revelation that all in heaven turn their faces towards the Lord and look at Him, while all in hell turn their faces away from the Lord. So if one looks down from heaven into hell, one sees nothing but the backs of heads and people's backs. Indeed they even appear upside down like the people of the Antipodes, who have their feet up and their heads down, despite the fact that they walk upon their feet and can screw their faces round. It is the reverse direction in which the interiors of their minds face that produces this appearance. I can report these surprising facts from my own observation.

[2] By this means [that is, empirically by observation] it was revealed to me how regeneration takes place, exactly as hell is removed and is thus separated from heaven. For, as I said before, a person as regards his first nature, which he has from birth, is a hell on the smallest scale, and as regards his second nature, which he gets from being born again, is a heaven on the smallest scale. It follows from this that the evils in a person are removed and separated just as hell and heaven are on the large scale. As evils are removed they turn away from the Lord, and by stages turn upside down. This happens to the extent that heaven is planted in the person, so that he becomes a new man. For the sake of illustration I shall add that each evil in the person has a link with those in hell who have the same evil, and on the other hand each good in the person has a link with those in heaven who possess similar good. (TCR 613)

AC 1648. There is a speech of good spirits, and also of angelic spirits, which is a simultaneous speech of many, especially in circles or choirs, concerning which of the Lord's Divine mercy hereafter. The speech in choirs has often been heard by me; it has a cadence [labens], as if in rhythm. They have no thought about the words or ideas, for into these their sentiments flow spontaneously. No words or ideas flow in which multiply the sense, or draw it away to something else, or to which anything artificial adheres, or that seems to them elegant from self, or from self-love, for such things would at once cause disturbance. They do not inhere in any word; they think of the sense; the words follow spontaneously from the sense itself. They come to a close in unities, for the most part simple; but when in those which are compound, they turn by an accent to the next. These things are the result of their thinking and speaking in society; hence the form of the speech has a cadence in accordance with the connection and unanimity of the society. Such was once the form of songs; and such is that of the Psalms of David. (AC 1648)

SE4848. CONCERNING MAGICAL [WRITTEN] CHARACTERS. It was told, and almost exhibited to me, how it was with magical written-characters, to wit, that they [i. e. the magicians] wrote lines with varying direction, curvature and bend, and that, according to the direction, they, by means of those characters, cheated the eyes, and at the same time the thought, concerning the thing to be accomplished; and that they then disposed themselves according to some form of an interior heaven, or of the world of spirits, and so induced various persuasions, by influxes according to those forms: for all thought of man, spirit and angel takes place according to the form of heaven, which is incomprehensible, being known to the Lord alone. Magicians have learned something concerning that form, by much experience, especially the Ancients, the Babylonians and some in Egypt; and they, similarly, induced upon the minds of others whatsoever they wished. (SE 4848)

AC 7361. That such also was the speech of the most ancient people on this earth, has been given to me to know by conversation with some of them (see n. 607, 608). To make the matter clearer, I may again relate what has been given to me to know from experience about the speech of the most ancient of this earth; as follows. "There was shown me by a certain influx which I cannot describe, what was the nature of the speech of those who were of the Most Ancient Church, namely, that it was not articulate, like the vocal speech of our time, but tacit; and was produced not by external but by internal respiration. It was also granted me to notice the nature of their internal respiration, that it advanced from the navel toward the heart, and so through the lips, without sound, when they spoke; and that it did not enter into the ear of another by an external way, and strike upon what is called the drum of the ear; but by a certain internal way, and in fact by a way there which is now called the Eustachian tube.

[2] It was shown me that by such speech they could much more fully express the sentiments of the mind and the ideas of thought, than can possibly be done by articulate sounds or sonorous words, which likewise are directed by the respiration, but external; for there is no vocal word, nor anything in a vocal word, which is not directed by applications of the respiration. But with them this is done much more perfectly, because by internal respiration, which, being more interior, is also more perfect, and more applicable and conformable to the very ideas of thought. Moreover, they express themselves by slight movements of the lips, and corresponding changes of the face; for as they had been celestial men, whatever they thought shone forth from their faces and eyes, which were varied conformably; the face as to form and life, the eyes as to light. They could not possibly put on an expression of countenance that was not in agreement with what they were thinking. Simulation, and still more deceit, were to them a monstrous crime (n. 1118). As their speech was of this nature, and they had internal respiration, they could be in company with angels. (AC 7361)

AC 7362. The respiration of the spirits of the planet Mars has also been communicated to me. Spirits and angels breathe, (n. 3884-3894); and it was perceived that their respiration was interior, proceeding from the region of the chest toward the navel, and thence rolling itself upward through the breast, with an imperceptible breathing toward the mouth. From these and other proofs of experience it was made evident to me that they were of a celestial genius, and thus not unlike those who were of the Most Ancient Church on this earth. (AC 7362)

DP 298. Every man when he becomes a spirit, which takes place after death, for he then puts off the material body and puts on the spiritual, is introduced alternately into the two states of his life, the external and the internal. While he is in the external state he speaks and acts rationally, just as a rational and wise man does in the world; and he can also teach others many things that pertain to moral and civil life; and if he has been a preacher he can also teach things pertaining to spiritual life. But when from this external state he is introduced into his internal state, and the external is put to sleep and the internal awakes, if he is wicked the scene is changed. From being rational he becomes sensual, and from being wise he becomes spiritually insane; for he then thinks from the evil of his will and its delights, thus from his own intelligence, and he sees falsity only and does nothing but evil, believing that wickedness is wisdom and that cunning is prudence; and from his own intelligence he believes himself to be a deity and with his whole mind revels in wicked practices.

[2] I have frequently seen instances of such insanity; and I have also seen spirits introduced into these alternate states two or three times within an hour, and then it was granted them to see their insanities and also to acknowledge them. Nevertheless, they were unwilling to remain in a rational and moral state, but of their own accord they returned to their internal sensual and insane state; for they loved this more than the other because in it was the delight of their life's love. Who can believe that a wicked man is such beneath his outward appearance and that he undergoes such a transformation when he comes into his internal state? (DP 298)

SD 335. THAT WHEN THE PSALMS OF DAVID WERE READ, THEY HAD SUCH EFFECT IN HEAVEN THAT CERTAIN HEAVENLY BEINGS COULD NOT BUT BE AMAZED Some Psalms of David were read, and this in such a manner that by the mercy of God Messiah the interior and more interior senses were transferred into the perception of certain heavenly beings, who were so amazed that they declared with a loud voice that they never would have believed such things; even the dead, in the life after death, [were astonished] because with them also the Word operated in a similar manner. And in order that the difference might be observed, the [literal] sense of the Word was also brought forth for them, almost such as it had been in their life; when similar things were read, the sense was so different that they thence perceived scarcely anything whatever of heavenly life. Hence it can be concluded what efficacy is within the Word when God Messiah from mercy vivifies it; also what it is like when the letter is, as it were, dead, as when it is read by those who are dead. 1747, Dec. 13. (SD 335)

CL 326 Seeing them from my lodging I came into the spirit, and in the spirit I went out to them; and I approached the chief teacher, who lately had proposed the question concerning the soul.

When he saw me he said, "Who are you? I wondered, when I saw you approaching in the way, that now you came into my sight and the next moment passed out of sight, or that at one moment you were visible to me and suddenly became invisible. You certainly are not in our state of life."

To this I answered, smiling, "I am not a player of tricks, nor one who changes himself; but am an alternate, now in your light, now in your shade, and thus foreign and also native."

At this the chief teacher looked at me and said, "You say strange and amazing things. Tell me who you are."

I said, "I am in the world in which you were, and from which you departed, which is called the natural world; and I also am in the world to which you came and in which you are, which is called the spiritual world. I am therefore in a natural state, and at the same time in a spiritual state; in the natural state with men on earth, and in the spiritual state with you; and when I am in the natural state I am not visible to you, but when in the spiritual state I am visible. That I am so has been given by the Lord. To you, O enlightened man, it is known that the man of the natural world does not see the man of the spiritual world, nor the reverse; therefore when I let my spirit down into the body, I was not visible to you, and when I raised it out of the body I became visible." (CL 326)

SD 3464 I was thus during many years, from the period of childhood, introduced into such respirations, especially by means of absorbing speculations, in which the breathing seems to become quiescent, as otherwise the intense study of truth is scarcely possible. Afterwards, when heaven was opened to me, and I was enabled to converse with spirits, I sometimes scarcely breathed by inspiration at all for the space of a short hour, and merely drew in enough of air to keep up the process of thinking. Thus was I introduced by the Lord into interior respirations. I have also observed again and again, that when I was passing into a state of sleep, my respiration was almost taken away, so that I would awake and catch my breath. When I observe nothing of the kind, I continue to write and think, and am not aware of my respiration being arrested, unless I reflect upon it. This I may say has happened in instances innumerable. Nor was I at such times able to observe the various changes, because I did not reflect upon them. The design of all this was, that every kind of state, every kind of sphere, and every kind of society, particularly the more interior, might find in my own a fit representation, which should come into play without any reflection on my part, and that thus a medium of intercourse might be afforded with spirits and angels. (SD 3464)

TCR 135. The second experience.

On waking up one morning I saw the sun of the spiritual world shining brightly, and below it I saw the heavens at a great distance, as remote as the earth is from its sun. From these heavens inarticulate sounds were audible, which joined to form an intelligible utterance: 'God is one, He is man and His dwelling is in that sun.' This utterance passed down through the middle heavens to the lowest, and from there into the world of spirits, where I was; and I noticed that the angels' idea of one God as it gradually descended was turned into the idea of three Gods. This observation induced me to start a conversation with those who thought of three Gods. 'What a monstrous idea!' I said, 'Where did you get it?' (...) (TCR 135)

D. Love 15. XV. UNLESS USE BE THE AFFECTION OR OCCUPATION OF MAN, HE IS NOT OF SOUND MIND.

Man has external thought, and he has internal thought. A man is in external thought when he is in company, that is, when listening or speaking or teaching or acting, and also when writing; but he is in internal thought when he is at home and gives free rein to his interior affection. Internal thought is the proper thought of his spirit within himself; but external thought is the proper thought of his spirit in the body. Both remain with man after death, and even then it is not known what the quality of the man is until external thought is taken away from him; after that he thinks, speaks, and acts from his affection. The man who is of sound mind will then see and hear wonderful things. He will hear and see that many who in the world talked wisely, preached learnedly, taught with erudition, wrote knowingly, and also acted discreetly, as soon as the external of their mind has been taken away, think, speak, and act as insanely as crazy people in the world; and what is wonderful, they then believe themselves to be wiser than others.

[2] But that they may not continue in their insanity, they are at times remitted into externals, and thereby into their own civil and moral life in which they were in the world. When in company there and in heaven, a remembrance of those insanities is given them; and then they themselves see and confess that they spoke insanely and acted foolishly; but the moment they are remitted into their interiors, that is, into what is proper to their spirits, in like manner as before, they are insane.

Their insanities are of many kinds; which may all be included in this, that they will to have dominion, to steal, to commit adultery, to blaspheme, to do evil; to despise, reject, or deride what is honest, just, and sincere, and every truth and good of the church and heaven. And, what is more, they love this state of their spirit; for the experiment has been tried with many whether they would rather think sanely or insanely, and it has been found that they would rather think insanely.

Moreover, it has been disclosed that they are such because they loved self and the world above all things, and gave thought to uses only for the sake of honor and gain, and greatly preferred enjoyments of the body to enjoyments of the soul. In the world they were such that they never thought sanely within themselves except when they saw men.

There is this sole remedy for their insanity: to be put to work in hell under a judge. So long as they are at work there, they are not insane; for the works with which they are occupied hold the mind, as it were, in prison and bonds, to prevent its wandering into the delirious fancies of their lusts. Their tasks are done for the sake of food, clothing, and a bed, thus unwillingly from necessity, and not freely from affection.

[3] But on the other hand, all those who in the world have loved uses and who have performed uses from the love of them, think sanely in their spirits, and their spirits think sanely in their bodies; for with such, interior thought is also exterior thought, and from the former through the latter is their speech, and likewise their action. Affection of use has kept their mind in itself, nor does it suffer them to stray into vanities, into what is lascivious and filthy, into what is insincere and deceitful, into the mockeries of various lusts. After death they are of a like character; their minds are in themselves angelic; and when the outer thought is taken away, they become spiritual, and angels, and thus recipients of heavenly wisdom from the Lord.

From all that has been said, it is now plain that unless use be the affection or occupation of a man, he is not of sound mind. (D. Love 15)

TCR 162. [7] But a certain person who in the world had been a leading writer on the doctrine of justification by faith alone, came up boldly and said, "When I was in the world I did not falsify the Word. Together with faith I exalted charity and taught that a man in that state of faith in which he practices charity and its works is renewed, regenerated, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit; also that faith does not exist solitary, that is, separated from good works, as there can be no good tree without fruit, no sun without light, no fire without heat. I also rebuked those who said that good works are not necessary; and even obedience to the commandments of the Decalogue is not necessary; and I made repentance of great importance; and thus in wonderful manner applied everything in the Word to the subject of faith; and yet I made it clear and demonstrated that faith alone is saving."
Confident in this assertion that he had not falsified the Word, this man approached the table, and in spite of the warning of the angel he touched the Word; and suddenly out of the Word there went forth fire and smoke, and there was an explosion and a crash which hurled him to a corner of the room, where he lay like one dead for nearly an hour.

The angelic spirits were astonished at this; but they were told that although this leader had exalted more than others the goods of charity as proceeding from faith, yet he had meant nothing more than political social works, which are also called moral and civil, and which were to be done for the sake of the world and worldly prosperity, but by no means for the sake of salvation; also that he had assumed some hidden works of the Holy Spirit, of which man knows nothing, but which are generated in the act of faith in a state of faith. (TCR 162).

SE 1623. HOW INDURATION APPEARS. We read in a great many places that the heart is hardened; this hardening is also manifestly apparent, yea, it is felt, not indeed in the [literal] heart, for the heart signifies what pertains to the affections. It takes place, therefore, where first principles exist, to wit, in the brain. When the souls of the recently deceased appear after death in the world of spirits, the brains of some of them seem to be hardened, like things that you see elsewhere, so that the exterior or crustal portion is, as it were, hard and conglutinated. This is seen by a spiritual idea, and thus plainly exhibited, as also its softening. Thus it is without faith. Something similar it was given me to experience, namely, a hardness in the left region of the cerebrum, as if occasioned by somewhat large and hard lumps which were the seat of an obscure dull pain, and I was informed that it was thence perceived, namely, from these hardenings, that there yet remained something not belonging to true faith. It appears hence that an actual hardness does exist in the organicals [of the body] when faith is wanting, and that the greater the obduration, the less the conscience, so that those who have no conscience, manifesting itself in anxieties, seem to have their brain, after death, externally hardened, which was formerly soft, and this is attended with pains and torture. - 1748, March 21. (SE 1623)

SE 1624. Moreover, when I apprehended only the literal sense of the Word, there was a closing up, as it were, of the way to the understanding of interior things. Accordingly those who inhere only in the literal sense of the Word have the brain hardened and [its functions] so clogged that the way is not opened to an interior [interiori], much less to a more interior [intimiori] sense, and in this way a kind of crust or shell is induced, which is conglutinated from the corporeal or sensual things of the external man. The case is otherwise when a way is opened to the sense of interiors, or to the spirit, which way is opened by the Lord alone. While the mind dwells in the literal sense without penetrating beyond, then if it attempt to open a way from itself to interiors, continual scandals are present, which I am able to confirm from abundant experience. But such a man does not perceive what is implied in his opening a way to interiors, for he supposes that this is the only way in which it can be done; and accordingly he who is not led by the Lord can by no means perceive this and similar things, and therefore cannot believe it; which may appear from the case of spirits who lack that kind of perception. - 1748, March 21. Some of them know, but yet are unwilling to know, those, namely, to whom it was given by a lively experience to know the fact mentioned, and who were afterwards remitted [into another state]; when in this state of remission they have a kind of knowledge how the fact is, but they do not perceive it. (SE 1624)

AC 878. That the "hand" signifies and represents power, is evident from the representatives in the world of spirits, where a naked arm sometimes comes into view, in which there is strength enough to crush one's bones and squeeze their inmost marrow to nothing, causing such terror as to melt the heart; and in fact this strength is actually in it. (AC 878)

AC 2128. The idea of a Last Judgment as presented to the evil, which I have seen two or three times, was as follows. When the spirits around me had combined into mischievous societies, so as to exercise predominance, and did not suffer themselves to be so governed by the law of equilibrium according to order as not to annoy other societies in an excessive manner, and to begin inflicting injury upon them by their overpowering force, there then appeared a band of spirits of considerable magnitude, coming from the quarter in front, a little to the right and above, at the approach of which there was heard a hubbub that as it were rose and fell with a loud roar; and as soon as the spirits heard it they were seized with consternation and terror, the result of which was a confusion; and then the spirits who were in those societies were dispersed, one this way and another that, so that they dissolved away from one another, and no one knew where his companion was. While this lasted, it appeared to the spirits just as if it were the Last Judgment with the destruction of all things. Some uttered lamentations; some from fright as it were lost all heart; in a word, a sense of danger as of a final crisis seized on all.

[2] The sound of those advancing from the quarter in front was heard by them variously; by some as the sound of armed horsemen, and by others otherwise, according to their state of fear and the phantasy it excited. It was perceived by me as a continuous murmur, with undulations rising and falling, and indeed as of many together. I was instructed by those near me that such bands come from that quarter when societies have been evilly combined in this way, and that they know how to dissociate and dissever the one from the other, and at the same time to strike terror, so that nothing is thought of but flight; and that by means of such disjunctions and dispersions all are at last reduced by the Lord into order. I was also told that this is what is signified in the Word by the "east wind." (AC 2128)

AC 5717. There are some who not only relate to the most viscid substances of the brain, which are its excremental things, but also know how to infect them as if with poisons. When such spirits arrive they rush within the skull, and thence by continuity even into the spinal marrow. This cannot be felt by those whose interiors are not open. It has been given me plainly to feel the inroad, and also the effort to destroy me; but this was vain, because I was protected by the Lord. They strove to take away from me all the capacity of the intellect. I plainly felt their operation, and felt also pain from it, which however soon ceased. I afterward spoke to them, and they were compelled to confess whence they were. They said that they lived in dark forests, where they durst not injure their companions, because in that case their companions were allowed to treat them cruelly. Thus they are kept in bonds.

They are ugly, having the face of a wild beast, and hairy. I was told that they are such as had formerly slain whole armies, as we read in the Word; for they rushed into the chambers of everyone's brain, and inspired terror, together with such madness that they killed each other. At the present day such spirits are kept shut up within their own hell, and are not let out. These too bear relation to deadly tumors of the head within the skull. It was said above that they rush within the skull and by continuity therefrom even into the spinal marrow; but be it known that it is only an appearance that the spirits themselves rush in, they being borne along outside by a way which corresponds to the spaces in question within the body, which is felt within as if there were an inroad. This sensation is caused by correspondence, from which their operation is easily brought to bear upon the man to whom it is directed. (AC 5717)

AC 2130. In regard to the second subject, namely, the idea of a Last Judgment as presented to the good when they are being intromitted into heaven, I may relate how the case is. It is said in the Word that the door was shut, so that they could no longer be admitted; and that they had no oil, and came too late, and therefore were not admitted; by which things also there is signified the state of the Let Judgment. How these matters are and are to be understood, has been shown me.

[2] I heard societies of spirits, one after another, saying in a clear voice that the wolf had wanted to carry them off, but that the Lord rescued them, and that so they were restored to the Lord, in consequence of which they rejoiced from the inmost heart, for they had been in despair, and thus in fear, that the door had been shut, and that they had come too late to be admitted. Such thought had been infused into them by those who are called "wolves " but it vanished on their being admitted, that is, on their being received by angelic societies, for intromission into heaven is nothing else. The intromission was seen by me as though it were made and continued with one society after another up to twelve, and that the twelfth society was intromitted (that is, received) with more difficulty than the eleven that had preceded it. There were afterwards admitted eight additional quasi societies that I was told were of the female sex. When I had seen these things, it was said that this process of admission (that is, of reception) into the heavenly societies presents this appearance, and this continuously, in order, from one place to another; and also that heaven can never to eternity be filled, still less is the door shut; but the more there come thither, the more blessed and happy are those who are in heaven; because the harmoniousness is so much the stronger.

[3] After these had been admitted, it appeared as if heaven were shut; for there were a number more who desired to be intromitted (that is, received) next. But they were answered that they could not be received as yet; which is signified by those who came too late, by the door being shut, by their knocking, and by their lacking oil in their lamps. Their not being admitted was because they were not yet prepared to be capable of being among the angelic societies, where there is mutual love, for, as before said (n. 2119 at the end), they who in this world have lived in charity toward the neighbor are by degrees raised into heaven by the Lord.

[4] There were also other spirits who were ignorant of what heaven is, that it is mutual love, who also desired to be then admitted, supposing that admission is everything; but they were answered that it was not yet their time, but that they would be admitted at another time, when they were ready. The reason that the societies appeared to be twelve, was that by "twelve" are signified all things of the faith, as before said (n. 2129 at the end). (AC 2130)

LJP 287. [263.] Concerning simple substance, Leibniz said that his opinion regarding the monad was never like that of Wolff regarding simple substance. He said that he did indeed regard the monad as a unit, but that that unit contained within it simpler and purer substances by which the monad was formed and from which arose the changes of state in it, since if nothing were posited in it, it would be a vacuum, in which no change of state is possible, because a vacuum is incapable of being affected. Leibniz was consequently astonished that Wolff postulated his monad-which he called simple substance-to be created out of nothing, and if divided to collapse into nothing, and yet attributed to it changes of state. He was also astonished, too, that Wolff called some phenomena simple substances, including things which exist in nature, which anyone can see to be aggregates of substances, as, for example, the constituents in air and the ether, the elements in metals, and also souls. Wolff said that he hoped by the definitions of his simple substances to win over the hearts of theologians, who wish it to be believed that all things were created by God out of nothing, without any intervening means-not knowing at the time that his followers who established those principles in themselves would close to themselves the paths to angelic wisdom, which nevertheless is founded on natural truths. (LJP 287)

AC 2485. A certain one was with me whom I had not known during his life in the body. When I inquired whether he knew whence he was, he did not know; but by means of the interior sight he was led by me through the cities where I had been, and at length through the city from which he was, and then through its streets and squares, all of which he recognized, and at length into the street where he had dwelt; and if I had been acquainted with the houses, and how they were situated, I should have been able to know his house. (AC 2485)

AC 2743. A great dog like Cerberus was seen by me, and I asked what it signified, and was told that by such a dog is signified a guard lest anyone should pass in conjugial love from heavenly delight to infernal delight, or the reverse; for they who are in genuine conjugial love are in heavenly delight; but they who are in adulteries are also in a delight which appears to them as heavenly, but is infernal. By the dog is thus represented that those opposite delights must not communicate. (AC 2743)

AC 2744. I have been shown the way in which the delights from conjugial love advance on one side towards heaven and on the other towards hell. The advancement of delights towards heaven was an advancement into forms of blessedness and happiness constantly increasing, until they were beyond number or description. And the more interiorly they advanced the more countless and indescribable they became, even to the celestial forms themselves of blessedness and happiness of the inmost heaven, which is the heaven of innocence. And all this entails perfect freedom, for all freedom is attributable to love, so that perfect freedom is attributable to conjugial love, which is heavenly love itself. I was then shown the way in which the delights of conjugial love advance towards hell; that they move away from heaven little by little, which too entails apparent freedom, until scarcely anything human at all remains in them. The final deadly and hellish condition into which they ended was seen by me but I cannot describe it. A certain spirit who was with me at the time and who also saw those things hurried forwards to some sirens who were of this character, crying out that he would show them the nature of their delight. At first he had the idea of delight, but as little by little he went forwards his idea was made to continue, like the advancement of the delight, towards hell, and at length to end in such horror. Sirens are women who labour under the delusion that it is perfectly correct to commit whoredom and adultery, and who are also esteemed by others for being such as they are and for leading outwardly respectable lives. The majority of them come into the next life from Christendom. See what is said about them in 831, 959, 1515, 1983, 2483. (AC 2744)

AC 3720. That "wood" and "stone" have such a signification, is not only evident from the Word where they are mentioned, but also from the representatives in the other life; for they who place merit in good works, appear to themselves to cut wood; and they who place merit in truths, in that they have believed themselves to have been better acquainted with truth than others, and yet have lived evilly, appear to themselves to cut stones; which things have often been seen by me. From this I was assured what is the signification of wood and stone, namely that "wood" signifies good, and "stone" truth; and also from the experience that when a wooden house was seen, there was instantly presented an idea of good; but when a house of stone was seen, there was presented an idea of truth; concerning which I was instructed by angels. For this reason, when mention is made in the Word of the "house of God," there is presented to the angels the idea of good, and good of such a quality as is treated of in that connection; and when mention is made of a "temple," there is presented to them the idea of truth, and truth of such a quality as is treated of in that connection. From this again we can infer how deep and utterly hidden are the heavenly arcana in the Word. (AC 3720)

CL 381. The heavens are divided into two kingdoms, one of which we call celestial, the other spiritual. In the celestial kingdom love toward the Lord reigns, and in the spiritual kingdom wisdom arising from that love reigns. The first kingdom, where love reigns, is called heaven's kingdom of the heart; and the second kingdom, where wisdom reigns, is called heaven's kingdom of the lungs. It must be known that the whole angelic heaven in its entirety resembles a single person, and in the Lord's sight appears as a single person. Consequently the heart of that person forms one kingdom, and the lungs of that person form another. For present throughout the whole of heaven are general cardiac and pulmonary motions, and on that account particular ones in every angel; and the general cardiac and pulmonary motions come from the Lord alone, because from Him alone come love and wisdom. Indeed, these two motions are present in the sun where the Lord is and which originates from the Lord, and from that are present in the angelic heaven and in the universe. To judge the reality of this, rid yourself of notions of space and think of omnipresence, and you will be convinced. (CL 381)

AC 3884. As in the world it is quite unknown that there is a correspondence of heaven or the Grand Man with all things of man, and that man comes forth and subsists therefrom, so that what is said on the subject may seem paradoxical and incredible, I may here relate the things that experience has enabled me to know with certainty. Once, when the interior heaven was opened to me, and I was conversing with the angels there, I was permitted to observe the following phenomena. Be it known that although I was in heaven, I was nevertheless not out of myself, but in the body, for heaven is within man, wherever he may be, so that when it pleases the Lord, a man may be in heaven and yet not be withdrawn from the body. In this way it was given me to perceive the general workings of heaven as plainly as an object is perceived by any of the senses. Four workings or operations were then perceived by me. The first was into the brain at the left temple, and was a general operation as regards the organs of reason; for the left side of the brain corresponds to rational or intellectual things, but the right to the affections or things of the will.

[2] The second general operation that I perceived was into the respiration of the lungs, and it led my respiration gently, but from within, so that I had no need to draw breath or respire by any exertion of my will. The very respiration of heaven was at the time plainly perceived by me. It is internal, and for this reason is imperceptible to man; but by a wonderful correspondence it inflows into man's respiration, which is external, or of the body; and if man were deprived of this influx, he would instantly fall down dead.

[3] The third operation that I perceived was into the systole and diastole of the heart, which had then more of softness with me than I had ever experienced at any other time. The intervals of the pulse were regular, being about three within each period of respiration; yet such as to terminate in and thus direct the things belonging to the lungs. How at the close of each respiration the alternations of the heart insinuated themselves into those of the lungs, I was in some measure enabled to observe. The alternations of the pulse were so observable that I was able to count them; they were distinct and soft.

[4] The fourth general operation was into the kidneys, which also it was given me to perceive, but obscurely. From these things it was made manifest that heaven or the Grand Man has cardiac pulses, and that it has respirations; and that the cardiac pulses of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the heart and with its systolic and diastolic motions; and that the respirations of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the lungs and their respirations; but that they are both unobservable to man, being imperceptible, because internal. (AC 3884)

AC 4046. There appeared a number of spirits at a middle distance above the head, who acted in common by a kind of beating of the heart; but it was as it were a reciprocal undulation downward and upward, with a kind of cold breathing on my forehead. From this I was able to conclude that they were of a middle sort, belonging both to the province of the heart and to that of the lungs, and also that they were not interior spirits. The same spirits afterwards presented a flaming light, gross but yet luminous, which first appeared under the left side of the chin, afterwards under the left eye, and then above the eye, but it was dim and yet flaming, not shining white. From these things I was enabled to know their quality, for lights indicate affections, also degrees of intelligence.

[2] When I afterwards applied my hand to the left side of the skull or head, I felt a pulsation under the palm, undulating in a similar manner downward and upward; from which indication I knew that they belonged to the brain. When I asked who they were, they were not willing to speak. It was said by others that they do not willingly speak. Being at last compelled to speak, they said that if they did so their quality would be disclosed. I perceived that they were of those who constitute the province of the dura mater, which is the general integument of the cerebrum and the cerebellum. It was then disclosed of what quality they were, for I was permitted to know this by speaking with them. They were (as before when they had lived as men) those who had thought nothing about spiritual and heavenly things, nor had they spoken about them; because they were such as to believe in nothing except that which is natural, and this because they had not been able to penetrate further, but yet had not confessed this unbelief. Nevertheless like others they had worshiped the Divine, had said their prayers, and had been good citizens.

[3] There were afterwards others who also flowed into the heartbeat, but by an undulation not downward and upward, but crosswise; and others who flowed in not with a reciprocating action, but more continuously; and also others under whose action the beating jumped from one place to another. It was said that these had relation to the outer lamella of the dura mater, and that they were of those who had thought of spiritual and heavenly things solely from such things as are objects of the external senses, not conceiving of interior things in any other manner. These were heard by me as of the female sex. They who reason concerning the things of heaven, or the spiritual things of faith and love, from outward things of sense, and therefore from what is worldly and earthly, insofar as they make them a one and confound them together, wend their way more and more outward, even to the outer skin of the head, which they represent. Nevertheless provided they have led a good life, these are within the Grand Man, although in its extremes or outermost parts; for everyone is saved who is in the life of good from the affection of charity. (AC 4046)

AC 4050. A certain face was first seen by me above an azure window, but presently withdrew itself within. I then saw a little star near the region of the left eye, and afterward a number of ruddy little stars that sparkled with white. Afterwards I saw the walls of a house, but no roof, the walls being only on the left side; and lastly I saw as it were the starry heaven. As these things were seen in a place where there were evil ones, I supposed that some hideous sight would be presented to me, but the wall soon disappeared, together with the starry heaven, and then there appeared a well, out of which came forth as it were a bright white cloud or vapor; and something also seemed to be pumped up out of the well.

[2] I asked what these things signified and represented, and was told that it was a representation of the infundibulum in the brain, above which is the brain itself, which was signified by the starry heaven; and that what was next seen was that vessel, signified by the well and called the infundibulum; and that the cloud or vapor arising from it was the lymph that passes through and is piped out of it; and that this lymph is of two kinds, namely, that mixed with the animal spirits, which is among the useful lymphs; and that mixed with serosities, which is among the excremental lymphs.

[3] I was next shown the quality of those who belong to this province, but only those of the viler sort, whom I also saw running about hither and thither, applying themselves to those whom they saw, paying attention to everything, and reporting to others what they heard; and being prone to suspicions, impatient and restless, in close resemblance to the lymph which is therein, and is borne hither and thither; their reasonings being the fluids there which they represent. But these are of the middle sort.

[4] But those who have relation to the excremental lymphs are they who drag down spiritual truths to earthly things, and there defile them-as for example, those who when they hear anything about conjugial love apply it to whoredoms and adulteries, and thus drag down the things of conjugial love to these; and the same with everything else. These appeared in front at some distance to the right. But those who are of the good sort are similar to those described just above in n. 4049. (AC 4050)

AC 4530. Colors also are seen in the other life which in splendor and refulgence surpass the luster of the colors of this world to such a degree that scarcely any comparison is possible. These colors are produced by the variegation of the light and shade there; and as it is the intelligence and wisdom that come from the Lord which there appear as light before the eyes of angels and spirits, and at the same time inwardly illumine their understandings, in their essence these colors are variations or so to speak modifications of intelligence and wisdom. The colors there--not only those with which the flowers are adorned, the atmospheres made brilliant, and the rainbows varied, but also those which are distinctly presented in other forms-have been seen by me an almost countless number of times. They have their brightness from the truth which is of intelligence, and their effulgence from the good which is of wisdom, and the colors themselves are produced from the whiteness and the darkness thereof, thus from light and shade, like the tints of color in this world.

It is for this reason that the colors mentioned in the Word, such as those of the precious stones in Aaron's breast plate and upon his garments of holiness, and those of the curtains of the tent where the ark was, and those of the stones of the foundation of the New Jerusalem, described by John in Revelation, besides others mentioned elsewhere, represented such things as are of intelligence and wisdom. But what each of these colors represents shall of the Lord's Divine mercy be told in the explications. In general the colors seen in the other life have splendor and whiteness insofar as they come from the truth of intelligence; and they have refulgence and crimson insofar as they come from the good of wisdom. Those colors which derive their origin from these sources also belong to the provinces of the eyes. (AC 4530)

AC 4652. CONTINUATION CONCERNING CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GRAND OR WITH HEAVEN, HERE CONCERNING THE CORRESPONDENCE OF THE HEARING AND OF THE EARS WITH THAT MAN.

What is the nature of the correspondence between the soul and the body, or between the things of the spirit which is within man and those of his body which are without him, may be plainly seen from the correspondence, influx, and communication of the thought and perception, which are of the spirit, with the speech and hearing, which are of the body. The thought of a man who is speaking is nothing but the speech of his spirit, and the perception of the speech is nothing but the hearing of his spirit. When man is speaking, his thought does not indeed appear to him as speech, because it conjoins itself with the speech of his body, and is in it; and when man hears, his perception appears merely like hearing in the ear. This is the reason why most persons who have not reflected know no otherwise than that all sense is in the organs of the body, and consequently that when these organs fall to decay by death, nothing of sense survives, whereas the man (that is, his spirit) then comes into his veriest life of sensation.

[2] That it is the spirit which speaks and hears has been made very manifest to me from conversations with spirits. Their speech communicated to my spirit fell into my interior speech, and thence into the corresponding organs, and there terminated in an endeavor which I have sometimes plainly perceived. Hence their speech was heard by me as sonorously as the speech of a man. Sometimes when spirits spoke with me in the midst of a company of men, some of the spirits supposed that as their speech was heard so sonorously, they would be heard by the other people who were there present; but they were informed that such was not the case, because their speech flowed into my ear by an internal way, and human speech flows in by an external way. This shows how the spirit spoke with the prophets-not as a man with a man, but as a spirit with a man, that is, in him (see Zech. 1:9, 13; 2:2, 7; 4:1, 4, 5; 5:10; 6:4; and in other places).

But I know that these things cannot be comprehended by those who do not believe that man is a spirit, and that the body merely serves this spirit for uses in this world. Those who have confirmed themselves in this unbelief are unwilling even to hear about any correspondence, and being in denial, if they do hear of it they reject it, and are rather made sad that anything should be taken away from the body. (AC 4652)

AC 4658. To the interiors of the ear belong those who have the sight of the interior hearing, and who obey the things which its spirit there dictates, and give fit utterance to its dictates. What their character is has also been shown. A kind of penetrating sound was observed from below, near the left side even to the left ear. I noticed that it was spirits who were thus striving to come forth, but of what character they were I could not know. But when they had struggled forth they spoke with me, saying that they had been logicians and metaphysicians, and that they had immersed their thoughts in such things with no other end but that of hearing themselves called learned, and of thus coming to honors and wealth, and they lamented that they were now leading a miserable life because they had imbibed such things without any other use, and thus had not perfected their rational by their means. Their speech was slow, and had a muffled sound.

[2] Meanwhile two were speaking with each other above my head; and when it was asked who they were, it was said that one of them was a man most renowned in the learned world, and it was given me to believe that it was Aristotle. Who the other was, was not told. The former was then let into the state in which he was when he lived in the world; for everyone can be easily let into the state of his life which he had in the world, because he takes all the state of his life with him. But to my surprise he applied himself to my right ear, and there spoke hoarsely, but still sanely. From the meaning of what he said I observed that he was of a genius quite different from those schoolmen who first rose up, in that the things which he wrote he had hatched out from his own thought, and thereby had brought forth his philosophy; so that the terms which he invented, and which he gave to the subjects of his thought, were forms of expression by which he described interior things; and also that he had been stirred to such things by the delight of affection, and the desire of knowing the things which are of thought, and that he followed obediently what his spirit dictated.

For this reason he came to my right ear. It is different with his followers, who are called schoolmen, and who do not advance from thought to terms, but from terms to thoughts, thus in a contrary way. And many of them do not advance to thoughts, but stay in the mere terms, and if they apply these, it is to prove whatever they wish, and to impose on falsities an appearance of truth, in accordance with their desire of persuading. Hence to them philosophy is the means of becoming insane rather than of becoming wise, and hence they have darkness instead of light.

[3] I afterwards spoke with him about analytic science, and it was given me to say that a child speaks more things philosophically, analytically, and logically in half an hour than he would be able to describe in volumes (because all the things of human thought and thence of human speech are analytical, the laws of which are from the spiritual world), and that he who wishes to think artificially from terms is not unlike a dancer who wants to learn to dance from a knowledge of the motor fibers and muscles; but if while he dances his attention were fixed on this knowledge he could scarcely move a foot; and yet without this knowledge he moves all the motor fibers scattered throughout his entire body, and in adaptation to them the lungs, the diaphragm, the sides, the arms, the neck, and all the rest, for describing all of which volumes would not suffice; and the case is similar with those who desire to think from terms. These things he approved, saying that if things are learned in this manner, they proceed in inverted order, and he added, If anyone desires to be a fool let him proceed so; but rather let him continually think of use, and from within.

[4] He then showed me what idea he had of the Supreme Deity, namely, that he represented Him to himself with a human face and encompassed about the head with a radiant circle; and that he now knows that the Lord is that very Man, and that the radiant circle is the Divine going forth from Him, which flows not only into heaven, but also into the universe, and disposes and rules these; adding that He who disposes and rules heaven, also disposes and rules the universe, because the one cannot be separated from the other. He also said that he had believed in one only God, whose attributes and qualities had been distinguished by as many names as were worshiped as gods by others.

[5] A woman was seen by me who stretched out her hand, wishing to stroke his cheek. When I wondered at this, he said that when he was in the world such a woman was often seen by him, who as it were stroked his cheek, and that her hand was beautiful. The angelic spirits said that such women were sometimes seen by the ancients, and were called by them Pallases; and that she appeared to him from the spirits who, when they lived as men in ancient times, were delighted with ideas and indulged in thoughts, but without philosophy. And because such spirits were with him, and were delighted with him because he thought interiorly, they therefore presented to view such a woman representatively.

[6] Lastly he told what kind of idea he had entertained respecting man's soul or spirit, which he called pneuma - namely, that it was an unseen vital something, as of ether. And he said that he had known that his spirit would live after death, because it was his interior essence, which cannot die, because it can think; and further that he could not think distinctly concerning it, but only obscurely,. because he had no knowledge respecting it from any other source than from himself, and a very little also from the ancients. Moreover, Aristotle is among sane spirits in the other life, and many of his followers are among the foolish. (AC 4658)

AC 4792. As food and nourishment correspond to spiritual food and nourishment, therefore taste corresponds to the perception and affection of this food. Spiritual food is knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, for from these, spirits and angels live and are nourished, and they desire and have appetite for them just as men who are hungry desire and have appetite for food. Hence appetite corresponds to this desire. And wonderful to say, from this food they grow to maturity; for little children who die appear in the other life no otherwise than as little children, and also are such as to understanding; but as they increase in intelligence and wisdom, they appear not as little children, but as advancing in age, and at last as adults. I have conversed with some who had died in infancy, and were seen by me as young men, because they were then intelligent. From this it is evident what spiritual food and nourishment are. (AC 4792)

AC 4934. I have seen a bare arm, bent forward, which was possessed of such force and such power to inflict terror that I was not only horrified, but felt as if I might be crushed to atoms, even as to my inmost things, for it was irresistible. This arm has been seen by me twice; and from it I was given to know that the arms signify strength, and the hands power. A warmth was also felt exhaling from that arm. (AC 4934)

AC 5055. But I have not been allowed to know the identity and essential nature of the communities that belong to specific organs of generation because those communities are far too internal for anyone in a lower sphere to discern. Those communities also correlate with hidden functions served by these organs, hidden and also unknown to science for the providential reason that things such as these, which in essence are utterly heavenly, must not suffer any damage from filthy thoughts. They must not be damaged by thoughts that accompany wantonness, whoredom, or adultery and that are aroused in most people by the mere mention of those organs. This being so, let me describe some things witnessed by me which took place further away. (AC 5055)

AC 6200. To illustrate this by an example: When I thought of a man whom I know, then the idea of him, such as it appears when his name is mentioned before a man, was presented in the midst; but round about, like an undulating volatile something (undans volatile), was everything that I had known and thought about him from childhood; whereby the whole of him, such as he was in my thought and affection, appeared among the spirits In an instant. Moreover when I have been thinking about any city, then from that undulating sphere that was round about, the spirits instantly knew all that I had seen and known about it. The case was the same with matters of science. * Thought represented by an undulating sphere with a solid in the middle. When a stone is thrown into clam water it produces a concentric undulation. This however is only in a plane. But imagine a sphere or globe of some fluid medium with such an exciting object in the middle, and undulations going away from it in all directions. This may give some idea of the "material ideas in the middle" and the "volatile undulating sphere" all around it. (AC 6200.)

AC 1277. The case is the very same with men, as to their souls, which are constantly bound to some society of spirits and of angels. They too have a situation in the kingdom of the Lord according to the nature of their life, and according to their state. It matters not that they are distant from each other on earth even though it were many thousands of miles-still they can be together in the same society-those who live in charity in an angelic society, and those who live in hatred and such evils in an infernal society. In like manner it matters not that there be many together on earth in one place, for still they are all distinct in accordance with the nature of their life and of their state, and each one may be in a different society. Men who are distant from each other some hundreds or thousands of miles, when they appear to the internal sense may be so near each other that some of them may touch, according to their situation. Thus if there were a number of persons on earth whose spiritual sight was opened, they might be together and converse together, though one was in India and another in Europe, which also has been shown me. Thus are all men on earth, both generally and individually, most closely present to the Lord, and under His view and providence. (AC 1277)

SS 61. I have been permitted to converse with many after death who had believed that they would shine in heaven like the stars, because, as they said, they had regarded the Word as holy, had often read it through, had collected from it many things by which they had confirmed the tenets of their faith, and had thereby been celebrated in the world as learned men. On this account they believed they would be Michaels and Raphaels.

[2] Many of them however have been examined in respect to what was the love from which they had studied the Word, and some of them were found to have done so from the love of self, that they might appear great in the world, and be revered as dignitaries of the church; and others of them had done so from the love of the world, that they might get rich. When examined as to what they knew from the Word, it was found that they knew nothing of genuine truth from it, but only such as is called truth falsified, which in itself is falsity. And they were told that this was because their ends (or what is the same their loves) had been themselves and the world, and not the Lord and heaven. When men read the Word while themselves and the world are the ends in view, their minds cleave to themselves and the world, and this causes them to be constantly thinking from their own,* which is in thick darkness in respect to all things of heaven, in which state the man cannot be withdrawn by the Lord from his own, and thus be raised into the light of heaven, and consequently cannot receive through heaven any influx from the Lord.

[3] I have even seen them admitted into heaven, but when they were found to be devoid of truths, they were cast down; yet the conceit remained that they deserved heaven. Very different has it been with those who had studied the Word from the affection of knowing truth because it is truth, and because it is of service to the uses of life, not only to their own uses but also to those of the neighbor. I have seen these raised up into heaven, and thus into the light in which is Divine truth there, and at the same time exalted into angelic wisdom and its happiness, which is eternal life. (SS 61)

SS 64. It has been made plain to me by much experience that the spiritual angels are in the spiritual sense of the Word, and the celestial angels in its celestial sense. While reading the Word in its sense of the letter it has been given me to perceive that communication was effected with the heavens, now with this society of them, now with that, and that what I understood according to the natural sense, the spiritual angels understood according to the spiritual sense, and the celestial angels according to the celestial sense, and this in an instant. As I have perceived this communication many thousands of times, there remains with me no doubt about it. Moreover there are spirits beneath the heavens who abuse this communication; they recite some sayings from the sense of the letter, and immediately observe and take note of the society with which communication is effected. This I have frequently seen and heard. From these things it has been given me to know by actual experience that the Word in respect to its sense of the letter is the Divine medium of conjunction with the Lord and with heaven. (Concerning this conjunction by the Word see also what is said in Heaven and Hell, n. 303-310.) (SS 64)

SS 70. VII THE WORD IS IN ALL THE HEAVENS, AND IS THE SOURCE OF ANGELIC WISDOM

Hitherto it has not been known that the Word is in the heavens, nor could it be made known so long as the church was ignorant that angels and spirits are men like the men in this world, and that they possess in every respect like things to those possessed by men, with the sole difference that they themselves are spiritual, and that all things they possess are from a spiritual origin; while men in this world are natural, and all things they possess are from a natural origin. So long as this fact was hidden it could not be known that the Word exists in the heavens also, and is read by angels there, and also by spirits who are beneath the heavens. But that this might not be forever hidden, it has been granted me to be in company with angels and spirits, to converse with them, see what exists with them, and afterwards relate many things that I have heard and seen. This has been done in Heaven and Hell, published in London in 1758; in which work it may be seen that angels and spirits are men, and that they possess in abundance all things that men possess in this world. (SS 70)

SS 90. As the subject here treated of is the Divinity and holiness of the Word, to what has already been said we may add something worthy of mention. A small piece of paper marked with Hebrew letters, but written as the ancients wrote them, was once sent me from heaven. In those times some of the letters that now are partly formed with straight lines were curved, and had little horns that turned upward. The angels who were then with me said that they themselves discerned complete meanings from the very letters, and that they knew them especially from the curvings of the lines and of the points of each letter. And they explained what the letters meant when taken each by itself and what when taken together; and said that the H that was added to the names of Abram and Sarai means what is infinite and eternal. They also explained in my presence from the letters or syllables alone the meaning of the Word in Psalm 32:2, showing that the sum of their meaning is that the Lord is merciful even to those who do evil.

[2] They informed me that the writing in the third heaven consists of curved letters that are bent in various ways, and that each letter possesses a complete meaning; that the vowels there indicate a sound that corresponds to the affection, and that in that heaven they cannot utter the vowels i and e, but instead of them y and eu, but that they do use the vowels a, o, and u, because they give a full sound.* Further: that they do not pronounce any consonants as hard, but soft, and that it is from this that certain Hebrew letters have a dot in the center as a sign that they are to be pronounced as [hard, and are without this dot when] soft; and they said that hardness in pronouncing the letters is in use in the spiritual heaven because there they are in truths, and truth admits of what is hard, but not good, in which are the angels of the celestial kingdom or third heaven. They also said that these angels possess the Word written with curved letters that have significant points and little horns. This shows what is meant by the words of the Lord:
One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled (Matt. 5:18);

It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail (Luke 16:17).

(SS 90)

SS 113. It has been given me to know by much experience that by means of the Word man has communication with heaven. While I read the Word through from the first chapter of Isaiah to the last of Malachi, and the Psalms of David, I was permitted clearly to perceive that each verse communicated with some society of heaven, and thus the whole Word with the universal heaven. (SS 113)

SS 97. [5] Divine truth in the Word, and the quality of it, are described by the cherubs in the first, ninth, and tenth chapters of Ezekiel; but as no one can know what is signified by the several particulars of the description of them, except one to whom the spiritual sense has been opened, it has been disclosed to me what in brief is signified by all the things said about the cherubs in the first chapter of Ezekiel, which are as follows:

The external Divine sphere of the Word is described (Ezek. 1:4);
It is represented as a man (Ezek. 1:5);
And conjoined with spiritual and celestial things (Ezek. 1:6);
The natural of the Word, its quality (Ezek. 1:7);
The spiritual and the celestial of the Word conjoined with its natural, their quality (Ezek. 1:8-9)
The Divine love of the good and truth celestial, spiritual, and natural therein, severally and also together (Ezek. 1:10-11);
They all look to the one thing (Ezek. 1:12);
The sphere of the Word from the Lord's Divine good and Divine truth, from which the Word is alive (Ezek. 1:13-14);
The doctrine of good and truth in the Word and from the Word (Ezek. 1:15-21);
The Divine of the Lord above the Word and in it (Ezek. 1:22-23);
And from it (Ezek. 1:24-25);
The Lord is above the heavens (Ezek. 1:26);
And Divine love and Divine wisdom are His (Ezek. 1:27-28).

These summaries have been compared with the Word in heaven, and are in conformity with it. (SS 97)

AC 6494. For a number of years I have carefully observed whether fortune is anything, and I have found that it is, and that sagacity then availed nothing. Moreover all who have long reflected on this subject, know and confess this, but they do not know whence it is: scarcely anyone knows that it is from the spiritual world, when yet this is the source of it. I once played in company a common game of chance with dice, and the spirits who were with me spoke to me about fortune in games, and said that what is fortunate was represented to them by a bright cloud, and what is unfortunate by a dusky cloud; and that when a dusky cloud appeared with me, it was impossible for me to win; moreover by this sign they predicted to me the turns of fortune in that game. From this it was given me to know that what is attributed to fortune, even in games, is from the spiritual world; much more that which befalls man in relation to the vicissitudes in the course of his life; and that what is called fortune is from the influx of Providence in the ultimates of order, where it so comes forth; thus that Providence is in the veriest singulars of all things, according to the Lord's words, that not even a hair falls from the head without the will of God. (AC 6494)

AC 9827. All articles of clothing derive their signification from the part of the body which they cover; as for instance that which covers the breast, like the breastplate; that which covers the loins, like the breeches; that which covers the feet, like the stockings; that which covers the soles of the feet, like the shoes; and so likewise that which covers the head, like the miter, the tiara, the cap.

[2] That such is the case is evident from the representatives in the other life. When wisdom and intelligence are taken away from spirits, as is the case when angelic societies are removed from them, the covering of the head appears to be taken away from them; and as soon as this is done they become stupid, and have no perception of truth and good; but afterward, as intelligence and wisdom return, the head is again covered. (AC 9827)

For additional entries on Experiments see Swedenborg's Autobiographical Letters and statements in Section 1.2.1.1

[GOOD AND EVIL]

by evil is learned what is good, the quality of good being known from its opposite. All perception of a thing is according to reflection bearing on the distinctions that come from contraries in various ways and in various degrees.. (AC 7812)

[GRAND HUMAN OR GRAND MAN; SPIRITUAL GEOGRAPHY; MENTAL ANATOMY; ORGANS OF THE MIND]

ac 4223. But as regards this correspondence, the fact is that although the heavens above mentioned do indeed correspond to the very organic forms of the human body, and therefore it is said that these societies or those angels belong to the province of the brain, to the province of the heart, to the province of the lungs, or to the province of the eye, and so on, they nevertheless correspond chiefly to the functions of these viscera or organs. The case herein is as with the organs or viscera themselves, in that their functions constitute a one with their organic forms; for no function can be conceived of except from forms, that is, from substances, for the substances are the subjects from which they exist. Sight, for example, cannot be conceived of apart from the eye; nor breathing apart from the lungs. The eye is the organic form from which and by means of which the sight exists, and the lungs are the organic form from which and by means of which the breathing exists; and so with all the rest. It is the functions therefore to which the heavenly societies chiefly correspond; and as they correspond to the functions, they correspond also to the organic forms; for the one is indivisible and inseparable from the other, inasmuch that whether you speak of the function or the organic form by which and from which is the function, it comes to the same thing. Hence there is correspondence with the organs, members, and viscera, because there is with the functions; and therefore when the function is brought into exercise, the organ also is excited. The same is the case with everything that man does; when he wills to do this or that, in this manner or that, and is thinking of it, the organs then move in concurrence, thus in accordance with the intention of the function or use; for it is the use that commands the forms.

[2] This shows that the use existed before the organic forms of the body came forth; and that the use produced and adapted them to itself, and not the reverse. But when the forms have been produced, and the organs adapted, the uses proceed from them; and then it appears as if the forms or organs were prior to the uses, when yet such is not the case. For use flows in from the Lord, and this through heaven, according to order, and according to the form in which heaven has been ordinated by the Lord, thus according to correspondences. Thus does man come into existence, and thus also does he subsist. And hence again does it appear why it is that man corresponds to the heavens in regard to both generals and particulars. (AC 4223)

[HELL] see also [HEAVEN]

HH 541. Hell, like heaven, is divided into societies, and into as many societies as there are in heaven; for every society in heaven has a society opposite to it in hell, and this for the sake of equilibrium. But evils and falsities therefrom are what distinguish the societies in hell, as goods and truths therefrom are what distinguish the societies in heaven. That for every good there is an opposite evil, and for every truth an opposite falsity may be known from this, that nothing can exist without relation to its opposite, and what anything is in kind and degree can be known from its opposite, and from this all perception and sensation is derived. For this reason the Lord continually provides that every society in heaven shall have an opposite in some society of hell, and that there shall be an equilibrium between the two. (HH 541)

CL 75. The First Memorable Relation:
Once when meditating on conjugial love, my mind was seized with a desire to know what that love had been with those who lived in the Golden Age, and what it had been later with those who lived in the Ages that followed and which are named from silver, copper, and iron; and, knowing that all who had lived well in those Ages are in the heavens, I prayed the Lord that He would allow me to speak with them and be instructed. And lo, an angel stood by me and said: "I am sent by the Lord to be your guide and companion. First I will guide and accompany you to those who lived in the first age or period called GOLDEN"; and he added, "The way to them is hard. It lies through a dark forest through which no one can pass without a guide given him by the Lord."

[2] Being in the spirit, I girded myself for the journey, and we turned our faces towards the east. As we went on, I saw a mountain whose height extended above the region of the clouds. We passed through a great desert and came into the forest of which the angel had spoken. It was thick with trees of various kinds, and dark by reason of their density. The forest was intersected by many narrow paths, and the angel said: "These paths are so many tortuous paths of error, and unless his eyes are opened by the Lord to see the olive trees entwined with vine tendrils, and his steps directed from tree to tree, the traveler would wander off into the Tartarean shades which lie round about at the sides. This forest is such, to the end that it may guard the approach; for none but the primeval race dwells on that mountain."
[3] After entering the forest, ...(CL 75)

CL 183. The second Memorable Relation:
Seen by me in the eastern quarter was a grove of palm trees and laurels arranged in spiral gyres. I approached it, and entering, walked on its paths which wound around in several spirals. At the end of the windings, I saw a garden which formed the center of the grove. Separating the two was a small bridge, and on it, a gate on the grove side and another on the garden side. I drew near, and the gates were opened by a guard. To my question, "What is the name of this garden?" he answered, "Adramandoni," which means the delight of conjugial love. (...) (CL 183)

CL 326. To this I will append two narrative accounts [about Swedenborg's experiences in the spiritual world]. Here is the first:

After the question concerning the soul had been discussed in the school and answered, I saw the people going out in order, the headmaster in front, after him the older men, with the five young men who had responded to the question in the midst of them, and after them the rest. As they left the building, they went around to the sides, where there were walkways surrounded by bushes. And gathering there, they broke up into small groups, all of them circles of young men conversing on matters of wisdom, with one of the wiser men from the balcony in each.

Seeing them from my place of lodging, I entered a state of the spirit and in the spirit went out to them. And there I went over to the headmaster, who a little before had posed the question concerning the soul.
When he saw me he said, "Who are you? As I watched you approaching on the way here, I was astonished to see that one minute you would pop into view, the next minute drop out of sight, so that one moment I would see you and suddenly then not. Surely you are not in the same life-state as our people."

Gently laughing at this I replied, "I am not a marionette, nor a chameleon, but I am one who alternates, being sometimes in your light and sometimes not, so that I am an alien and at the same time a native."

[2] At this the headmaster looked at me and said, "These are strange and extraordinary things you are saying. Tell me who you are."

So I said, "I live in the world in which you once lived and from which you have departed, which is called the natural world; and I live as well in the world into which you have come and in which you are now living, which is called the spiritual world. I am as a result in a natural state and at the same time a spiritual one - in a natural state when I am with people on earth, and in a spiritual state when I am with you. Moreover, when I am in a natural state, I am not visible to you; but when I am in a spiritual state, I am. To be as I am is something I have been given by the Lord.

"Being an enlightened man, you know that an inhabitant of the natural world does not see an inhabitant of the spiritual world, or vice versa. Therefore when I conveyed my spirit into my body, you did not see me; but when I conveyed it out of my body, you did.

"You also taught in your school exercise that you are souls, and that souls see souls because they are human forms. But you know that you did not see yourselves or your souls within your bodies when you were in the natural world. This fact is due to the difference that exists between something spiritual and something natural."

[3] When he heard me mention a difference between something spiritual and something natural, he said, "What is the difference? It is not like the difference between something more pure and something less so? So what is something spiritual but a purer form of something natural."

But I replied, "That is not what the difference is, but it is as the difference between something prior and something subsequent, between which there is no finite relationship. For the prior is in the subsequent, as a cause in its effect, and the subsequent exists from the prior, as an effect from its cause. That is why the one is not visible to the other."
To this the headmaster said, "I have reflected and ruminated on the difference, but so far in vain. I would like to have some concept of it."

[4] So I said, "You shall not only have a concept of the difference between something spiritual and something natural, but you will even witness the difference." Whereupon I spoke to him as follows:

"You are in a spiritual state when you are with your own people, but in a natural state with me; for you speak with your associates in spiritual language, the common language of every spirit and angel, whereas with me you speak in my native tongue. Indeed, every spirit or angel in speaking with a mortal person uses the person's customary language, thus speaking French with a Frenchman, English with an Englishman, Greek with a Greek, Arabic with an Arab, and so on.

"So then, to learn the difference between something spiritual and something natural in terms of languages, do the following: Go over to your associates, say something there and remember the words. Then with these memorized, come back and repeat them to me."

So he did as I said, and returned to me with the words in his mouth, but when he uttered them he did not know what any of them meant. The words were altogether strange and unfamiliar, being words not found in any language of the natural world.

After he repeated this experiment several times, it became clearly apparent to him that people in the spiritual world all speak a spiritual language which has nothing in common with any language of the natural world, and that every person comes automatically into use of that language after death. At the same time he also then discovered that the very intonation of spiritual language is so different from the intonation of natural language that the intonation of spiritual language, even when loud, is not at all audible to a natural person, nor the intonation of natural language to a spiritual person.

[5] After that I asked the headmaster and some others standing by to go over to their associates and write down some thought on a piece of paper, and with that piece of paper come back to me and read it. They did as I said, and they returned with the piece of paper in hand; but when they went to read it, they were unable to make out what any of it meant, since the writing consisted only of some alphabetic letters with curly lines over them, each of which carried some meaning connected with the subject. (Because every letter of the alphabet carries some meaning there, it is apparent from what origin the Lord is called the Alpha and the Omega.)** As they again and again withdrew, wrote and returned, they discovered that their writing included and contained a countless number of elements which no natural writing could ever express. But they were told that this is because a spiritual person thinks thoughts incomprehensible and inexpressible to a natural person, and these cannot descend or be put into any other form of writing or language.

[6] Then, because the others standing by were unwilling to believe that spiritual thought so far surpasses natural thought as to be inexpressible in comparison, I said to them, "Try an experiment. Go over into your spiritual association, think on some subject, and holding the thought come back and express it to me."

So they went, thought, held the thought, and came back; but when they went to express what they had thought, they could not. For they did not find any natural mental concept equivalent to any spiritual concept. So neither did they find any word to express their thoughts, since ideas of 7the mind take form as words in speech. At that they then began to withdraw and return, to prove to themselves that spiritual ideas were higher than natural ones, being inexpressible, ineffable and incomprehensible to the natural man. And because spiritual ideas are so transcendent, they began to say that spiritual ideas or thoughts compared to natural ones were the essences of ideas and the essences of thoughts, and that they therefore expressed the essences of qualities and the essences of affections; consequently that spiritual thoughts were the germs and origins of natural thoughts. It also became evident from this that spiritual wisdom was the essence of wisdom, thus unintelligible to any person of wisdom in the natural world.

They were then told from the third heaven that there is a still more interior or higher wisdom, called celestial, which has a similar relationship to spiritual wisdom as spiritual wisdom does to natural wisdom; and that these levels of wisdom flow in succession in accordance with the heavens from the Lord's Divine wisdom, which is infinite. (CL 326)

CL 327. Following these events I said to the people standing by, "From the evidence of these three experiments you now see what the difference is between something spiritual and something natural; and also the reason why a natural person is not visible to a spiritual one, nor a spiritual person to a natural one - even though they are affiliated in respect to their affections and thoughts and so in respect to their presence. That, Headmaster, is why one moment you would see me on the way, and the next moment not."

After that we heard a voice from the higher heaven saying to the headmaster, "Come up here."

So he went up. And when he returned he said that like himself, the angels had not known before the differences that exist between something spiritual and something natural, owing to the fact that they had not previously been given an opportunity to contrast them in the case of a person who was at the same time in both worlds; and without the contrast these differences are not known. (CL 327)

CL 329. After the headmaster and the rest left me, some boys who were also present at the school exercise followed me home, and they stood by me there for a while as I was writing. Suddenly then they saw a cockroach scurrying across my paper, and they asked in astonishment what that little creature was to be so swift.

So I said, "It is called a cockroach, and I will tell you some wonderful things about it. In that living thing, small as it is, there are as many parts and organs as in a camel. It has, for example, a brain, a heart, air passages, sensory organs, motor organs and organs of generation, a stomach, intestines, and many other things; and each one is composed of fibers, ligaments, blood vessels, muscles, tendons, membranes, and each of these of still finer elements, which are too tiny for any eye to see."

[2] The boys then began to say that the little creature still looked to them as though it consisted only of a single substance.

But I said, "Nevertheless it has countless parts within. I tell you this to teach you that it is the same in every phenomenon that appears to your eyes as unitary, single, and irreducible, including your actions, and likewise your affections and thoughts. I can assure you that every particle of your thought and every drop of your affection is divisible to infinity, and according as your ideas are divisible, so are you wise.

"Be advised that everything divided becomes more and more multiple, and not more and more simple, because as something is divided again and again it approaches nearer and nearer to the Infinite in which are all things infinitely. This is something new I am telling you, which you have not heard before." (CL 329)

De Verbo 24. XXIV. THE WORD IN HEAVEN.
They have the Word in the spiritual kingdom in its higher region so written that it may be more and more intelligently understood by one who is intelligent, but simply by one who is simple, in which Word stands forth both interior and exterior intelligence, and the interior is written. This is effected by various points above the letters, the points signifying affections, and the series of points expressing the interior things of intelligence continuously to the more intelligent.

This Word was seen by me, that is, something of it was seen. Something also of the Word of the celestial kingdom was seen, in which still more arcana were described, but by various curves and spirals above and within the letters, which are peculiar to the celestial kingdom. These arcana are very transcendent, nor can they be comprehended by an angel of the spiritual kingdom, nor even thought of; wherefore it was said to them that they can no more approximate to the wisdom of angels of the celestial kingdom than can those who are in a natural sphere approximate to the intelligence of angels of the spiritual kingdom; and how far this transcends has frequently been tried. From experience it was made evident to me, that the intelligence of angels of the spiritual kingdom is ineffable and incomprehensible to those who are in the natural kingdom; and that the wisdom of the angels of the celestial kingdom is incomprehensible and ineffable to those who are in the spiritual kingdom. But as to the Divine wisdom of the Lord, this so transcends all wisdom that no ratio can be given; for all the intelligence and wisdom of angels is finite, but the Divine wisdom of the Lord is infinite; and there is no ratio between the finite and the infinite. The intelligence and wisdom of angels is finite, because angels are recipients, and all recipients are created, and so finite. (De Verbo 24)

D. Wisdom 1. That I might know in what light the learned in the world are at the present day, two ways were seen by me; one was called the way of wisdom and the other the way of folly. At the end of the way of wisdom there was a palace in light, but at the end of the way of folly there was something like a palace, but in shade. About three hundred of the learned were there assembled, and they were permitted to choose which way they would take, and two hundred and sixty were seen to enter the way of folly, and only forty the way of wisdom. Those who took the way of wisdom entered the palace that was in light, where there were magnificent things, and garments of fine linen were given them, and they became angels; while those who went in the way of folly wished to enter that which appeared like a palace in the shade, and behold, it was a theatre of actors, and there they put on stage garments and masks and talked nonsense and became fools. I was afterwards told that such and so numerous at the present day are the learned fools who are in natural light as compared with the learned wise who are in spiritual light; and that those have spiritual light who love to understand whether that which another says is true; while those have natural light who merely love to confirm what has been said by another. (D. Wisdom 1)

D. Wisdom 3. As there are two things, love and wisdom, that form the embryo in the womb, so there are two receptacles, one for love and the other for wisdom; so again there are two things in the body throughout, and these likewise are distinct and are united. There are two hemispheres of the brain, two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, two chambers of the heart, two hands, two feet, two kidneys, two testicles, and the rest of the viscera are doubled; and in every case what is on their right side has relation to the good of love, and what is on their left to the truth of wisdom. That these two are so joined together as to act as one mutually and reciprocally, a diligent investigator can see if he will take the trouble. The union itself stands forth to view in the fibers stretched to and fro and interlaced in the midst of their course; and this is the reason of the signification of "right" and "left" in the Word. From all this the truth is clear that love and wisdom, unitedly and harmoniously form each and all things in the embryo, and yet in these things they may be distinguished.

[4] 4. The receptacles are distinguished into three degrees with man, one within the other; and the two higher are dwelling-places of the Lord, but not the lowest.

Some one might possibly form a fallacious idea of the beginnings of the human form, which pertain to the seed of the man, because they are called receptacles. From the term receptacle one may easily fall into the idea of a vessel or a little tube. I desire therefore to define and describe that initial form, as it was seen by me and made clear to me in the heavens, as adequately as the expressions of natural language will permit. These receptacles are not tubular, or hollowed out like little vessels, but they are like the brain, of which they are an exceedingly minute and invisible type, with a delineation resembling a face in front, with no visible appendage. This primitive brain in the upper convex part was a structure of contiguous globules or little spheres, each little sphere being a conglomeration of like spheres still more minute, and each of these again of the very least. In front, in the flattened region of the nose, a kind of outline appeared for a face; but in the recess between the convex part and this flattened part there was no fiber; the convex part was covered round about with a very thin membrane, which was transparent.

Thus was seen by me and shown to me the primitive of man, the first or lowest degree of which was the structure first described, the second or middle degree was the structure secondly described, and the third or highest degree was the structure thirdly described, thus one was within the other. I was told that in each little sphere there were indescribable interlacings, more and more wonderful according to the degrees, also that in each particular the right part is the couch or receptacle of love, and the left part is the couch or receptacle of wisdom, and that by wonderful connections these are like partners and comrades, the same as the two hemispheres of the brain are.

[[2]] It was further shown in the light that fell brightly on it, that the structure of the two interior degrees was, in its position and flow, in the order and form of heaven, while the structure of the lowest degree in its position and flow, was in the form of hell. This is why it is said that the receptacles are distinguished into three degrees with man, one within another, and the two higher are dwelling-places of the Lord, but not the lowest. The lowest degree is such because man, from a hereditary taint, is born opposed to the order and form of heaven, and thus into evils of every kind; and this taint is in the natural, which is the lowest of man's life, and it is not wiped away unless the interior degree that has been formed for the reception of love and wisdom from the Lord is opened in him. But how this degree and the inmost degree are opened is taught by the Lord in the Word, and will be taught in what follows. But to gain light on this subject, see what has been said before about degrees, also about the brain.

These degrees are called higher, although they are interior, and for the reason that there is successive order of degrees and simultaneous order; things higher and lower are in successive order, but things interior and exterior are in simultaneous order, and the same things that in simultaneous order are interior, in successive order are higher; and the same is true of things exterior and lower. And as there are three degrees in man so there are three degrees of the heavens, for the heavens consist of men who have become angels. According to degrees in successive order, the heavens are seen one above another, and according to degrees in simultaneous order, one within another. From this it is that "high" signifies in the Word what is internal, and the Lord is called "Most High," because He is in inmost things.

Since, then, man in the beginning of his development is such a dwelling place of the Lord as has been described, and these three degrees are then open, and since everything that proceeds from the Lord as a sun is Man in least things and in greatest (as has been shown before in its place), so extension into any other form than the human is not possible; nor is extension possible except through rays of light from wisdom with heat from love in the midst; thus through vivified fibers, which are rays brought out into form. That there is a like determination is apparent to the eye.

[[3]] So many are the degrees of life with man; but with beasts the two higher degrees are lacking and they have only the lowest; consequently the beginnings of their life are not receptacles of the Lord's love and wisdom, but are receptacles of natural affection and knowledge, into which they are born. With clean beasts these receptacles are not reflected or turned contrary to the order of the flux of the universe, but are conformable to it; therefore from birth, as soon as they are brought forth, they are led into their functions and know them. For beasts have had no ability to pervert their affections, since they have not the intellectual faculty to think and reason from spiritual light, and to violate the laws of Divine order.

[5] 5. One receptacle is for the will of the future man and the other for his understanding; and yet nothing whatever of his will or of his understanding is present in the formation.

Will and understanding with man do not begin until the lungs are opened, and this does not take place until after birth; then the will of man becomes the receptacle of love, and the understanding becomes the receptacle of wisdom. They do not become such receptacles until the lungs are opened, because the lungs correspond to the life of the understanding, and the heart corresponds to the life of the will, and without the cooperation of the understanding and will, man has no life of his own, as there is no life apart from the co-operation of love and wisdom by means of which the embryo is formed and vivified, as has been said before. In the embryo the heart alone beats, and the liver leaps, the heart for the circulation of the blood, and the liver for the reception of nourishment; from these is the motion of the other viscera, and this motion is felt as pulsative after the middle period of gestation.

But this motion is not from any life proper to the fetus; one's own life is the life of the will and the life of the understanding; while the life of the infant is the life of commencing will and commencing understanding; from these only do the sensitive and the motor life in the body exist; and this life is not possible from the beating of the heart alone, but is possible from the conjunction of this with the respiration of the lungs. This is seen to be true in men, who have both will and understanding; when they fall into a swoon or are suffocating, and respiration stops, they become as if dead; they have no sensation, their limbs do not move, they do not think nor will, and yet the heart performs its contractions and the blood circulates.

But as soon as the lungs return to their respirations the man comes back into his activities and to his senses, and into his will and understanding. From all this a conclusion may be formed about the quality of the life of the fetus in the womb, in which only the heart performs its motions, and not yet the lungs, namely, that nothing of the life of the will and nothing of the life of the understanding is present in it; but the formation is effected solely by the life from the Lord by which man afterwards is to live. But about this more may be seen in the following article.

[6] 6. There is life in the embryo before birth, but the embryo is not conscious of it.

This follows from what has been said above; also that the life from which the embryo in the womb lives is not its life, but the Lord's alone, who alone is life. (D. Wisdom 3)

[INFLUX]

AC 5119. By reciprocal influx it is not meant that the exterior natural flows into the interior, because this is impossible; for exterior things cannot possibly flow into interior things; or what is the same thing, lower or posterior things into higher and prior ones (...) It appears as if the things which are in the world flow in through the senses toward the interiors, but this is a fallacy of sense; the influx is of interiors into exteriors, and by means of this influx, perception. (AC 5119)

[JUDGMENT; LAST JUDGMENT; RELIGIONS; RESUSCITATION)]

CORO 11. Judgment, which is the last phase of every Church, does not take place in the natural world, but in the spiritual world, into which all are gathered after death; and they are collected into heavens distinctly according to religion, thus according to faith and love. Judgment takes place in the spiritual world, for the reason that every man after death is a man; not a material man, as before, but a substantial man. Every man's mind, or spirit, is such a man: the body which he carried about in the world, is only a covering, and as it were sheath, which he has laid aside, and from which his spirit has disengaged itself. Now, since it was man's mind, or spirit, that thought in the material body, and then either from religion or not from religion, and in favour of God or against God, from truths of faith or from falsities of faith, that loved his neighbour or held him in hatred; and since the material body was only obedience; it follows that the mind, which is the substantial man, and is called the spirit, is what undergoes judgment, and, according to the intentions and acts of its life, is rewarded or punished. From these things it can be plainly seen that judgment, which is the last of every Church, takes place in the spiritual world, but not in the natural world. (CORO 11)

TCR 661. To this I will add two Memorable Relations. First: In the higher northern quarter near to the east in the spiritual world, there are places of instruction for boys, and for youths, and for men, and also for old men. All who die infants are sent to these places and educated in heaven; likewise all who are newcomers from the world and who wish to know about heaven and hell. This place is near the east, in order that all may be instructed by influx from the Lord; for the Lord is the east, because He is in the sun there, and the sun is pure love from Him; consequently the heat from that sun in its essence is love, and the light from it in its essence is wisdom; and these are inspired by the Lord from that sun into those who are instructed according to their ability to receive, and their ability to receive is according to their love of being wise. When their times of instruction are over, those who have become intelligent are sent away, and these are called disciples of the Lord. First, they are sent away to the west, and those who do not stay there go to the south, and some through the south to the east, and thus they are introduced into the societies where their abodes are to be.

[2] Once, when meditating upon heaven and hell, I began to wish for a universal knowledge of the state of each, knowing that one who knows universals is afterwards able to comprehend the particulars, because the latter are included in the former as parts in the whole." (TCR 661)

SE-WE 237. But because the Jewish Church, in itself, must be one and the same with the Church truly Christian, as was the earliest or infant Church, therefore, so that that Church might be portrayed as an inner one, Abraham depicts a belief that makes one righteous. The fact that belief was accounted to him because he had believed the promise concerning Isaac, who was to be the promised son [Gen. 15:4-6], could not have made Abraham righteous, unless at the same time he had believed that by the promised son was meant the Messiah, Who was to be born, and Who is the One Only promised Son. (SE-WE 237)

[LIMBUS; MENTAL BODY; SPIRITUAL BODY]

The natural substances of that mind-which, as we said, are by death left behind-form an epidermal envelope encompassing the spiritual body that spirits and angels have. It is in consequence of such an envelope, taken from the natural world, that their spiritual bodies have permanent existence, for the natural element is the outmost containing vessel. That is why there is no spirit or angel who was not first born a person in the world. (DLW 257)

[MEMORABLE RELATIONS INDEX; see also EXPERIMENTS]

TCR 851. (end) INDEX TO THE MEMORABLE RELATIONS

[This is the Author's Index. The figures refer to the numbered paragraphs]

I.
I heard certain new-comers in the spiritual world talking together about three Divine persons from eternity; and then a certain one who in the world had been a primate opened the ideas of his thought respecting that mystery, saying that it had been and still was his opinion that the three sit upon high thrones in heaven, God the Father upon a throne of the finest gold, with a scepter in His hand; God the Son at His right hand, upon a throne of the purest silver with a crown on His head; and God the Holy Spirit upon a throne of shining crystal, holding in His hand a dove, in the form of which He appeared when Christ was baptized, with lamps hanging around about them in triple order, glittering with precious stones; while at a distance innumerable angels were standing in a circle, worshiping and singing praises. He also spoke of the Holy Spirit, how He introduces faith, purifies and justifies. He said that many of his order favored his ideas, and he trusted that I also as a layman gave them credit. But as an opportunity to speak was then given me, I said that from my childhood I have cherished the idea that God is one. I therefore explained to him what the trinity involves, and what is signified by throne, scepter, and crown, where these in the Word are ascribed with God. To this I added that all who believe in three Divine persons from eternity must necessarily believe in three Gods; and, furthermore, that the Divine essence cannot be divided (n. 16).

II.

A discourse of the angels about God,-that His Divine is the Divine Being (Esse) in itself, and not from itself; and that it is One, the Same, the Itself, and Indivisible; also that God is not in place, but is present with those who are in place; and that His Divine love appears to the angels as a sun, the heat from it being in its essence love, and the light therefrom in its essence wisdom (n. 25).
That the proceeding Divine attributes which are creation, redemption, and regeneration, are attributes of one God, and not of three (n. 26).

III.

Perceiving that avast multitude of men are in the persuasion that all things belong to nature, and consequently that nature is the creator of the universe, in a certain gymnasium where there were persons of this kind I spoke with a certain gifted man respecting these three things: (1) Whether nature is a property of life, or life of nature; (2) Whether the center is from the expanse, or the expanse is from the center; (3) Respecting the center and the expanse of nature and of life; that the center of nature is the sun of the natural world, and the expanse itself of that center is its world; and that the center of life is the sun of the spiritual world, and the expanse itself of that center is its world. These propositions were discussed on both sides, and lastly it was shown what the truth is (n. 35)
5)

IV.

I was conducted to a kind of theater of wisdom where angelic spirits from the four quarters were assembled with an injunction from heaven to discuss three arcana: (1) What is the image of God, and what is the likeness of God. (2) Why is not man born into the knowledge proper to any love, when even the beasts and the birds are born into the knowledge proper to all their loves. (3) What do the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil signify. And further, they were to unite the answers to these three in one opinion, and refer this to the angels of heaven; this was done, the opinion was referred, and was accepted by the angels (n. 48).

V.

From evil spirits who were just above hell a sound was heard like the roaring of the sea; which was from a tumult that arose among them from their hearing it said above them that the Almighty God had bound Himself to order. A certain one ascending therefrom, addressed me sharply on the matter, saying that as God is omnipotent He is not bound to any order. And on being questioned about order, I said: (1) God is Order itself. (2) He created man from order, in order, and for order. (3) He created man's rational mind in accordance with the order of the spiritual world, and his body in accordance with the order of the natural world. (4) Therefore it is a law of order that man from his little spiritual world or little heaven should govern his little cosmos or little natural world, just as God from His great heaven or spiritual world governs His great cosmos or natural world. (5) Many other laws of order flow forth from these, some of which are recited. What afterward befell those spirits is described (n. 71).

VI.

Concerning the reasoning between certain Dutch and British in the spiritual world on the subject of imputation and predestination; on the one side, why God, since He is omnipotent, does not impute the righteousness of His Son to every man, and thus make them redeemed, for being omnipotent, He is able to make all the satans of hell angels of heaven; and even, if it be His good pleasure, He can make Lucifer, the dragon, and all the goats, to be archangels; and what is needed for this but a little word? On the other side, that God is Order itself, and that He can do nothing contrary to the laws of His order; because to act contrary to them would be to act contrary to Himself. Also much beside, about which they contended on this subject (n. 72).

VII.

I afterward spoke with others who had believed in predestination, deducing it from God's absolute power or omnipotence; saying that otherwise God would have less power than a king in the world who is a despot, and who can as easily change the laws of justice as he can turn his hands, and can act without restriction, like Octavius Augustus and also like Nero. To which it was answered, that God created the world and each and all things thereof, from Himself as Order, and thus impressed order upon them; also that the laws of His order are just as many as are the truths in the Word. Some of the laws of order were then recited, - what they are, and the nature of them, on God's part, and also on man's part. These cannot be changed, because God is Order itself: and man was created an image of His order (n. 73).

VIII.

I spoke with clergymen and laymen who had gathered together, concerning the Divine omnipotence; and they said that omnipotence is unlimited, and that limited omnipotence is a contradiction. To this it was answered, that there is no contradiction in acting omnipotently according to laws of justice with judgment. It is said in David that "Justice and judgment are the support of God's throne" (Ps. 89:14); and that there is no contradiction in acting omnipotently according to the laws of love and wisdom; but there is a contradiction in God's being able to act contrary to the laws of justice and love; which would be to act from what is not judgment and wisdom; and such contradiction is implied in the faith of the church of the present day, which is that God is able to make an unjust man just, and endow the impious with all the gifts of salvation and the rewards of life. With much more concerning this faith and concerning omnipotence (n. 74).

IX.

When I was once meditating upon the creation of the universe by God, I was led in the spirit to certain wise ones who at first complained of the ideas they had acquired in the world which related to the creation of the universe out of chaos, and creation out of nothing; because these ideas obscure meditation upon the creation of the universe by God, and degrade and pervert it. Therefore when asked for my opinion, I replied that it is idle to try to form any but a speculative conclusion about the creation of the universe, unless it is known that there are two worlds, the spiritual and the natural, and that in each of these is a sun; and that the sun of the spiritual world, in the midst of which is God, is nothing but love, and that from it are all spiritual things, which in themselves are substantial; while the sun of the natural world is nothing but fire, and from it are all natural things, which in themselves are material. From these knowledges it can be concluded in regard to the creation of the universe, that it is from God, and how. This was also slightly traced out (n. 76).

X.

Some satans of hell desired to talk with the angels of heaven, for the purpose of convincing them that all things are from nature, and that God is a mere word unless nature is meant. They were permitted to ascend. Then certain angels descended from heaven into the world of spirits to hear them. When the satans saw the angels they ran up to them furiously and said, "You are called angels because you believe that there is a God, and that nature is relatively nothing; this you believe although it is contrary to every sense; for which of your five senses has a sensation of anything but nature?" After these and many other bitter words, the angels called to the remembrance of the satans that they were then living after death, although formerly they had not even believed that they would so live; and then they caused them to see the beautiful and splendid things of heaven, and told them that these were there because all there believe in God; and afterward they caused them to see the vile and filthy things of hell, and told them that these were there because those there believe in nature. From seeing these things the satans were at first convinced that there is a God and that He created nature; but as they descended, the love of evil returned and closed their understanding from above; and when this was closed they believed as before, that all things are of nature, and nothing of God (n. 77).

XI.

A type of the creation of the universe was shown me in a living way, by angels. I was conducted into heaven; and it was granted me to see there all things of the animal kingdom, of the vegetable kingdom, and of the mineral kingdom, which were in every respect like the objects of those three kingdoms in the natural world. And then they said, All these things in heaven are created in a moment by God, and they continue to exist as long as the angels are interiorly as to their thought in a state of love and faith; and this instantaneous creation furnishes a clear proof of the creation of similar things, and even a similar creation, in the natural world, with the sole difference that natural things invest spiritual things, and that this clothing was provided by God for the sake of generations one from another, by which creation is perpetuated. Consequently, the creation of the universe was effected in a way similar to that in which it is effected every moment in heaven. Nevertheless, all the noxious and hideous things in the three kingdoms of nature (which are enumerated), were not created by God, but sprang up along with hell (n. 78).

XII.

In a conversation relating to the creation of the universe, with some who when in the world had been celebrated for learning, these spoke from the same ideas that they had formerly entertained. One of them said that nature created itself; another, that nature gathered its elements into vortices, and that by the collision of these the earth was formed; and a third that the origin of all things was chaos which in extent had equalled a great part of the universe; and that first there burst forth therefrom the purest elements, of which the sun and stars were formed; and afterwards those less pure, of which the atmospheres were formed; and at last the grosser matters, of which the terraqueous globe was formed. To the question, "What was the origin of human souls?" they answered, that the ether gathered itself into little individual globules, and that these infuse themselves into those who are about to be born, and make their souls; and that after death these globules fly away to their former company in the ether, and afterward return into others according to the doctrine of metempsychosis of the ancients. After this a certain priest, by solid arguments in favor of the creation of the universe by God showed all the things which they had said to be an absurd medley, and put them to shame. But still they held to their former delusions (n. 79).

XIII.

A conversation with a certain satan about God, and the angelic heaven, and religion; who, not knowing that he was not still in the former world, declared that God is the universe, and that the angelic heaven is the atmospheric firmament, and that religion is nothing but a bewitchment of the common people, besides other follies. But when it was brought to his remembrance that he was then living after death, and that he formerly did not believe in that life, for the moment he confessed that he was insane; but as soon as he turned and went away he was as insane as before (n. 80).

XIV.

I saw by night an ignis fatuus, often called a dragon, falling toward the earth. I noticed the place where it fell; the ground there was sulphurous,

Principles of Theistic Psychology: The Scientific Knowledge of God Extracted from the Correspondential Sense of Sacred Scripture

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This is Volume 18 The Index Volume to Principles of Theistic Psychology

Principles of Theistic Psychology:
The Scientific Knowledge of God
Extracted from the
Correspondential Sense of Sacred Scripture