Table of Contents

i. [Introduction] §§1-2

I. There are two worlds: the spiritual world, inhabited by spirits and angels, and the natural world, inhabited by men. §3

II. The spiritual world first existed and continually subsists from its own sun; and the natural world from its own sun. §4

III. The sun of the spiritual world is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it. §5

IV. From that sun proceed heat and light; the heat proceeding from it is in its essence love, and the light from it is in its essence wisdom. §6

V. Both that heat and that light flow into man: the heat into his will, where it produces the good of love; and the light into his understanding, where it produces the truth of wisdom. §7

VI. Those two, heat and light, or love and wisdom, flow conjointly from God into the soul of man; and through this into his mind, its affections and thoughts; and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body. §8

VII. VII. The sun of the natural world is pure fire; and the world of nature first existed and continually subsists by means of this sun. §9

VIII. Therefore everything which proceeds from this sun, regarded in itself, is dead. §10

IX. That which is spiritual clothes itself with that which is natural, as a man clothes himself with a garment. §11

X. Spiritual things, thus clothed in a man, enable him to live as a rational and moral man, thus as a spiritually natural man. §12

XI. The reception of that influx is according to the state of love and wisdom with man. §13

XII. The understanding in a man can be raised into the light, that is, into the wisdom in which are the angels of heaven, according to the cultivation of his reason; and his will can be raised in like manner into the heat of heaven, that is, into love, according to the deeds of his life; but the love of the will is not raised, except so far as the man wills and does those things which the wisdom of the understanding teaches. §14

XIII. It is altogether otherwise with beasts. §15

XIV. There are three degrees in the spiritual world, and three degrees in the natural world, hitherto unknown, according to which all influx takes place. §16

XV. Ends are in the first degree, causes in the second, and effects in the third. §17

XVI. Hence it is evident what is the nature of spiritual influx from its origin to its effects. §§18-20

1. The Interaction of the Soul and Body

There are three opinions and traditions, which are hypotheses, concerning the Interaction of the Soul and Body, or the operation of the one upon the other, and of the one together with the other: the first is called Physical Influx, the second Spiritual Influx, and the third Pre-established Harmony.

The first, which is called physical influx, arises from the appearances of the senses, and the fallacies thence derived. For it appears as if the objects of sight, which affect the eyes, flow into the thought and produce it; in like manner speech, which affects the ears, appears to flow into the mind, and to produce ideas there; and it is similar with respect to the senses of smell, taste, and touch. Since the organs of these senses first receive the impressions that flow into them from the world, and the mind appears to think, and also to will, according as these organs are affected, therefore, the ancient philosophers and Schoolmen believed that influx was derived from them into the soul, and hence adopted the hypothesis of Physical or Natural Influx.

[2] The second hypothesis, which is called spiritual, and by some occasional influx, originates in order and its laws. For the soul is a spiritual substance, and therefore purer, prior, and interior; but the body is material, and therefore grosser, posterior, and exterior; and it is according to order that the purer should flow into the grosser, the prior into the posterior, and the interior into the exterior, thus what is spiritual into what is material, and not the contrary. Consequently, it is according to order for the thinking mind to flow into the sight according to the state induced on the eyes by the objects before them, which state that mind also disposes at its pleasure; and likewise for the perceptive mind to flow into the hearing, according to the state induced upon the ears by speech.

[3] The third hypothesis, which is called pre-established harmony, arises from the appearances and fallacies of the reasoning faculty; since the mind, in the very act of operating, acts together with and at the same time as the body. Still, every operation is first successive and afterwards simultaneous, and successive operation is Influx, and simultaneous operation is Harmony; as, for instance, when the mind thinks and afterwards speaks, or when it wills and afterwards acts: hence it is a fallacy of the reasoning faculty to establish that which is simultaneous, and to exclude that which is successive.

No fourth opinion concerning the Interaction of the Soul and the Body can be framed in addition to these three; for either the soul must operate upon the body, or the body upon the soul, or both uninterruptedly at the same time.

14. XII. The understanding in a man can be raised into the light, that is, into the wisdom in which are the angels of heaven, according to the cultivation of his reason; and his will can be raised in like manner into the heat of heaven, that is, into love, according to the deeds of his life; but the love of the will is not raised, except so far as the man wills and does those things which the wisdom of the understanding teaches.

By the human mind are to be understood its two faculties, which are called the understanding and the will. The understanding is the receptacle of the light of heaven, which in its essence is wisdom; and the will is the receptacle of the heat of heaven, which in its essence is love, as was shown above. These two, wisdom and love, proceed from the Lord as a sun, and flow into heaven universally and individually, whence the angels have wisdom and love; and they also flow into this world universally and individually, whence men have wisdom and love.

[2] Moreover, those two principles proceed in union from the Lord, and likewise flow in union into the souls of angels and men; but they are not received in union in their minds. The first received there is the light which forms the understanding, and by slow degrees the love which forms the will. This also is of Providence: for every man is to be created anew, that is, reformed; and this is effected by means of the understanding. For he must imbibe from infancy the knowledge of truth and good, which will teach him to live well, that is, to will and act rightly: thus the will is formed by means of the understanding.

[3] For the sake of this end, there is given to man the faculty of raising his understanding almost into the light in which the angels of heaven are, that he may see what he ought to will and thence to do, in order to be prosperous in the world for a time, and blessed after death to eternity. He becomes prosperous and blessed if he procures to himself wisdom, and keeps his will in obedience thereto; but unprosperous and unhappy if he puts his understanding under obedience to his will. The reason is that the will inclines from birth towards evils, even to those which are enormous; hence, unless it were restrained by means of the understanding, a man would rush into acts of wickedness, indeed, from his inherent savage nature, he would destroy and slaughter, for the sake of himself, all who do not favour and indulge him.

[4] Besides, unless the understanding could be separately perfected, and the will by means of it, a man would not be a man but a beast. For without that separation, and without the ascent of the understanding above the will, he would not be able to think, and from thought to speak, but only to express his affection by sounds; neither would he be able to act from reason, but only from instinct; still less would he be able to know the things which are of God, and by means of them to know God, and thus to be conjoined to Him, and to live to eternity. For a man thinks and wills as of himself and this thinking and willing as of himself is the reciprocal element of conjunction: for there can be no conjunction without reciprocity, just as there can be no conjunction of an active with a passive without reaction. God alone acts, and a man suffers himself to be acted upon; and he reacts to all appearance as from himself, though interiorly it is from God.

[5] From these considerations, rightly apprehended, may be seen what is the nature of the love of a man's will if it is raised by means of the understanding, and what is its nature if it is not raised; consequently what is the nature of the man. But the nature of a man, if the love of his will is not raised by means of the understanding, shall be illustrated by comparisons. He is like an eagle flying on high, which, as soon as it sees below the food which is the object of its desire, such as chickens, young swans, or even young lambs, casts itself down in a moment and devours them. He is also like an adulterer, who conceals a harlot in a cellar below, and who by turns goes up to the uppermost apartments of the house, and converses wisely with those who dwell there concerning chastity, and from time to time withdraws from the company there and indulges himself below with his harlot.

[6] He is also like a thief on a tower, who pretends to keep watch there, but who, as soon as he sees any object of plunder below, hastens down and seizes it. He may also be compared to marsh-flies, which fly in a column over the head of a horse whilst he is running, but which fall down when the horse stops, and plunge into their marsh. Such is the man whose will or love is not raised by means of the understanding; for he then remains below, at the foot, immersed in the unclean things of nature and the lusts of the senses. It is altogether otherwise with those who subdue the allurements of the lusts of the will by means of the wisdom of the understanding. With them the understanding afterwards enters into a marriage covenant with the will, thus wisdom with love, and they dwell together above with the utmost delight.