Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 3749

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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.


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