Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 5725

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5725. It has been granted me to learn by experience what an inundation or deluge is in the spiritual sense. Such an inundation is two-fold, one of cupidities, and the other of falsities. That which is of cupidities belongs to the will part, and is on the right side of the brain; but that which is of falsities belongs to the intellectual part, in which is the left side of the brain. When a man who has lived in good is remitted into his own, thus into the sphere of his own life, there then appears as it were an inundation; and when he is in this inundation he is indignant, angry, thinks restlessly, desires impetuously. This takes place in one way when the left side of the brain where there are falsities is inundated, and in another when the right side where evils are is inundated. But when the man is kept in the sphere of life which he had received from the Lord by regeneration, he is then entirely out of such an inundation, and is as it were in a serene and sunny, cheerful and happy state, thus far from indignation, anger, unrest, cupidities, and the like. This is the morning or springtime of spirits; the other is their evening or autumn. It was given me to perceive that I was outside this inundation, and this for quite a long time; while I saw that other spirits were in it. Afterward, however, I myself was immersed, and then I noticed the appearance of an inundation. In such an inundation are they who are in temptations. By it too I was instructed what the "flood" signifies in the Word-that the last posterity of the most ancient people, who were of the Lord's celestial church, were completely inundated with evils and falsities, and thus perished.


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