Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 4326

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4326. There was heard a sound as of muttered thunder that flowed down from on high above the occiput, and continued around the whole of that region. I wondered who they were, and was told that they were those who relate to the general involuntary sense, and was told further that they could well perceive a man's thoughts, but are not willing to expose and utter them-like the cerebellum, which perceives all that the cerebrum does, but does not publish it. When their manifest operation into all the province of the occiput had ceased, it was shown how far their operation extended. It was first determined into the whole face, then withdrew itself toward the left side of the face, and at last toward the ear on that side; by which was signified what was the nature of the operation of the general involuntary sense from the earliest times with men on this earth, and how it advanced. [2] Influx from the cerebellum insinuates itself especially into the face, as is evident from the fact that the animus has been inscribed on the face, and the affections appear in the face, and this for the most part without the man's will-such as fear, reverence, shame, various kind of gladness, and also of sadness, besides many other things, which are thereby made known to another in such manner that it is known from the face what affections are in the man, and what changes of animus and of mind. These things come from the cerebellum through its fibers, when there is no simulation within. It was thus shown that in the earliest times, or with the most ancient people, the general sense had possession of the whole face, and successively after those times only of the left side of it, and at last in still later times it emptied itself away from the face, so that at this day there is scarcely any general involuntary sense left in the face. The right side of the face together with the right eye corresponds to the affection of good, and the left to the affection of truth, the region where the ear is corresponding to obedience alone without affection. [3] For with the most ancient people, whose age was called the Golden Age, because they were in a certain state of perfection or wholeness, and lived in love to the Lord and in mutual love as angels live, all the involuntary of the cerebellum was manifest in the face, and they did not at all know how to present anything in the countenance other than exactly as heaven flowed into their involuntary conatus or endeavors and thence into the will. But with the ancients, whose age was called the Silver Age, because they were in a state of truth, and thence in charity toward the neighbor, the involuntary of the cerebellum was not manifest in the right side of the face, but only in the left. But with their posterity, whose time was called the Iron Age, because they lived not in the affection of truth, but in obedience to truth, the involuntary was no longer manifest in the face, but betook itself to the region around the left ear. I have been instructed that the fibers of the cerebellum have thus changed their efflux into the face, and that instead of them fibers from the cerebrum have been transferred thither, which now control those which are from the cerebellum, and this from an endeavor to form the expressions of the face according to the behests of man's own will, all of which is from the cerebrum. It does not appear to man that these things are so, but they are plainly manifest to the angels from the influx of heaven and from correspondence.


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