Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 4046

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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.


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