6601. One morning I was shown plainly that any one idea or small affection had countless facets, and also that such ideas and affections reached into those communities round about me. I was kept for some time in some affection or other and in the thought that arose from it, during which time I was shown how many communities were in agreement with that affection and thought. There were five communities that revealed themselves by means of actual speech. They stated what they were thinking and also that they recognized that I had the same thoughts. In addition they said that they knew about things to which I myself paid no attention - the causes behind the matters we were thinking about, and also the ends in view. The rest of the communities, which were very many, to which my thought spread were not so plainly revealed; they were also more distant.
[2] The way thought extends from its objects - the things a person is thinking about - is like the situation regarding the objects of sight. From the latter rays disseminate themselves all around, reaching a considerable way out. Those rays enter a person's sight, and can do so at a longer or shorter distance, as the shine and glow of the object determine. For if it has a glow it can be seen from much further away than if it is dull and dark. Similar to this is inner sight, which belongs to thought, and what radiates from the objects of that sight. Its objects are not material like objects in the world, but are spiritual and therefore disseminate rays to such things as belong to the spiritual world - to truths and forms of good there, consequently to the communities which are imbued with those truths and forms of good. And just as a glow in the world radiates a very long way, so does good and the affection for it in the spiritual world; for a glowing flame corresponds to an affection for good. From all this it becomes clear that the character of a person's life matches exactly the communities into which his thought and affection extend as well as matching the nature and amount of that extension.
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