That this may be comprehended it is necessary for some things to be premised
which may as it were bear a torch in advance. The truth will appear from the
following propositions:
1. The spirit of man is equally a
man.
2. It has equally a heart and pulsation therefrom, and lungs and
respiration therefrom.
3. The pulsation of its heart and the respiration
of its lungs flow into the pulsation of the heart and the respiration of the
lungs with man in the world.
4. The life of the body, which is natural,
exists and subsists through that influx, and ceases by its removal, thus by the
separation.
5. Man then from natural becomes spiritual.
1. The spirit of man is equally a man.
Of this you will find many proofs in the work on
Heaven and Hell (n. 73-77,
311-316, 445-452, 461-469); also that every man as to his interiors is a spirit
(n. 432-444). To this it may be added, that everything spiritual is in its
essence man, thus everything of love and wisdom that proceeds from the Lord, for
this is spiritual. Everything spiritual, or everything that proceeds from the
Lord, is man because the Lord Himself, who is the God of the universe, is Man,
and from Him nothing can proceed except what is like, for the Divine is not
changeable in itself and is not extended, and that which is not extended,
wherever it may be, is such as it is. From this is the Divine omnipresence. Man's conception of an angel, of a spirit, and of himself after death, as
something like ether or air without a human body, comes from the conception of
the sensual learned, which is derived from the term spirit, as meaning the
breath of the mouth, also from their being invisible, and never evident to the
sense of sight; for the sensual think solely from the sensual-corporeal and from
what is material, and also from certain passages of the Word not spiritually
understood. Yet they know from the Word that although the Lord was a man as to
flesh and bones, still He became invisible to the disciples, and passed through
closed doors. They know also from the Word that angels have been seen by many as
men, who did not assume a human form, but they manifested themselves in their
own form before the eyes of their spirits which were then opened. That man,
therefore, may no longer remain in a fallacious idea respecting spirits and
angels and his own soul after death, it, has pleased the Lord to open the sight
of my spirit, and to permit me to converse face to face with angels and men that
have died, and to observe them and touch them, and to say many things about the
unbelief and fallacies of men who are still living. With these I have had daily
association from the year 1744 to the present time, a period of nineteen years. From all this it can be seen that the spirit of man is equally a man.
2. The spirit of man has equally a heart and pulsation therefrom, and lungs and
respiration therefrom.
This shall first be confirmed by experience, and
afterwards by reason. By experience:-The angelic heaven is divided into two
kingdoms, one called celestial and the other called spiritual. The celestial
kingdom is in love to the Lord, and the spiritual kingdom is in wisdom from that
love. Heaven is thus divided because love and wisdom in the Lord and from the
Lord are two distinct things, and yet are united; for they are distinct as heat
and light from the sun are, as has been said above. The angels of the celestial
kingdom, because they are in love to the Lord, have relation to the heart of
heaven; and the spiritual angels, because they are in wisdom from that love have
relation to the lungs of heaven; for the whole heaven, as has been said above,
is in the Lord's sight as one man. Moreover, the influx of the celestial kingdom
into the spiritual kingdom is like the influx in man of the heart into the
lungs. Thus there is a universal correspondence of heaven with these two
motions, that of the heart and that of the lungs, in every one. I have also been
permitted to learn from the angels that their arteries have a pulsation from the
heart, and that they breathe the same as men in the world do; also that with
them the pulsations vary with the states of love, and the respiration with the
states of wisdom. They themselves have touched their wrists, and have told me
so, and I have often perceived the respiration of their mouth.
[2] As the entire heaven is divided into societies according to the affections which belong
to love, and as all wisdom and intelligence is according to these affections, so
each society has its peculiar respiration distinct from the respiration of any
other society, likewise its peculiar and distinct pulsation of the heart;
therefore no one can enter from one society into another that is separated from
it, nor can any one descend from a higher heaven into a lower, or ascend from a
lower into a higher, without causing the heart to labor and the lungs to be
oppressed; least of all can any one ascend from hell into heaven; if he ventures
to ascend he pants like one in the agony of death, or like a fish lifted from
the water into the air.
[3] The most general difference in respiration and pulsation is according to the idea of God, for from that idea the differences of
love and of wisdom therefrom spring; and for this reason a nation of one
religion cannot approach nations of another religion. I have seen that
Christians could not approach Mohammedans on account of the respiration. The
most easy and gentle breathing is enjoyed by those who have the idea that God is
Man; and from the Christian world those who have the idea that the Lord is the
God of heaven; while those who deny His Divinity, as the Socinians and Arians
do, have a hard and rough breathing. As the pulsation makes one with the love of
the will, and the respiration makes one with the wisdom of the understanding,
therefore those who are about to come into heaven are introduced into angelic
life by harmonious respirations; and this is effected in various ways; and from
this they come into interior perceptions and into heavenly freedom.
[4] By reason: - The spirit of a man is not a substance that is separate from his
viscera, organs, and members, but it cleaves to them in close conjunction; for
the spiritual goes along with every fiber of these from outermosts to
innermosts; and thus with every fiber and filament of the heart and lungs;
consequently, when the bond between man's body and spirit is loosed the spirit
is in a form like that in which the man was before; there is only a separation
of spiritual substance from material. For this reason the spirit has a heart and
lungs the same as the man in the world, and for the same reason it has like
senses and like motions, and also speech; and there can be no senses or motions
or speech without heart and lungs. Spirits also have atmospheres, but spiritual. How greatly, then, are those deceived who assign to the soul a special seat
somewhere in the brain or in the heart, for the soul of man, which is to live
after death, is his spirit.
3. This pulsation of its heart and the respiration of its lungs flow into the
pulsation of the heart and the respiration of the lungs with man in the
world.
This, too, must be confirmed by experience and
afterwards by reason.
By
experience:-It is not known that during his life in the world man has a double
respiration of the lungs, and a double pulsation of the heart; because it is not
known that man in regard to his interiors is a spirit, and that a spirit is
equally a man. But it has been granted to perceive sensibly that these two
motions exist continually in man, and that these two motions of the spirit flow
into the two motions of the body. I was once admitted into these motions when
certain spirits were with me, who from a strong power of persuasion were able to
deprive the understanding of the faculty of thinking and at the same time to
take away the ability of breathing. That this might do me no harm I was brought
into the respiration of my spirit, which I then plainly felt to be harmonious
with the respiration of the angels of heaven. And from this it was clear that
heaven in general and every angel there in particular breathes; also that so far
as the understanding suffers, the respiration also suffers; for the power to
persuade that is possessed by some evil spirits in the spiritual world at the
same time suffocates, consequently this power is called suffocative in reference
to the body, and destructive in reference to the mind. On one occasion it was
also granted to the angels to control my respiration, and to diminish and
gradually withdraw the respiration of my body until only the respiration of my
spirit remained, which I then sensibly perceived. Moreover, I have been in the
respiration of my spirit whenever I have been in a state like that of spirits
and angels, and whenever I have been raised up into heaven; and oftentimes I
have been in the spirit and not in the body, at other times both in the body and
in the spirit. See the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 449) for an account of the
removal of the animation of the lungs and of the body, while the animation of my
spirit remained.
[2] By reason: - From these living experiences it can be seen
that since every man enjoys a double respiration, one within the other, he has
the power to think rationally and also spiritually from his understanding, and
by this is distinguished from the beasts; also that as to his understanding he
can be enlightened, raised up into heaven, and respire with the angels, and thus
be reformed and regenerated. Moreover, where there is an external there must be
an internal, and the internal must be in every action and in every sensation;
the external supplies the general and the internal the particular, and where
there is no general there is no particular. For this reason there is in man both
an external and an internal systolic and animative motion, and external which is
natural an internal which is spiritual. And thus the will together with the
understanding can produce bodily motions, and the understanding with the will
can produce bodily sensations. General and particular pulsations and
respirations exist also in beasts but with them both the external and internal
are natural, while with man the external is natural and the internal is
spiritual. In a word, such as the understanding is such is the respiration,
because such is the spirit of man; and the spirit is what thinks from the
understanding and wills from the will. That these spiritual operations may flow
into the body and enable man to think and will naturally, the respiration and
pulsation of the spirit must be conjoined to the respiration and pulsation of
the body, and there must be an influx of one into the other; otherwise no
transfer is effected.
4. The life of the body, which is natural, exists and subsists through that
influx, and ceases by its removal, thus by the separation.
A man after
death is just as much a man as before death, except that after death he becomes
a spirit-man, for the reason that his spiritual is adjoined to his natural, or
the substantial of the spirit to the material of the body, so fitly and unitedly
that there is not a filament or fiber or smallest thread of them in which the
human of the spirit is not in union with the human body. And as the life of the
whole and the life of the parts depend solely on these two most general motions,
the systolic motion of the heart and the respiratory motion of the lungs, it
follows that when these motions in the body cease, natural things, which axe
material, are separated from the spiritual things, which are substantial,
because they are no longer able to do the same work together; and in consequence
the spiritual which is the essential active withdraws from the particulars acted
upon, which are natural, and thus the man becomes another man. This, therefore,
is the death of man and this is his resurrection, about which some things from
living experience may be seen in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 445-452,
453-460, 461-469).
[2] It is known that when respiration ceases man
seems to be dead, and yet man is not dead until the motion of the heart also
ceases, and this commonly takes place later. That until this the man is not dead
is shown by the life of infants in the womb, and by the life of adults in swoon
or suffocation, in which the heart maintains its contractions and dilations,
while the lungs are at rest, and yet they live, although without sensation and
motion, thus without any consciousness of life. The reason of this is that the
respiration of the spirit then continues, but there is no corresponding
respiration of the body, and thus no reciprocation between the two vital
motions, that of the heart and that of the lungs; and without correspondence and
reciprocation there is no sensitive life, neither is there any action. What is
true of the natural life of man's body is true also of the spiritual life of his
mind. If the will and understanding, or love and wisdom, do not act conjointly,
no rational operation can take place. If the understanding or wisdom withdraws,
the will with its love becomes as it were dead; nevertheless, it continues to
live, though with no consciousness of itself, so long as the understanding only
ceases to act, as takes place when memory fails. But it is otherwise when the
will or love recedes; then all is over with the mind of man, as all is over with
him when the heart stops beating. That the separation of the spirit from the
body generally takes place on the second day after the last struggle I have been
permitted to know from the fact that I have talked with some deceased persons on
the third day after their decease, and they were then spirits.
5. Man then from natural becomes spiritual.
A natural man is wholly
different from a spiritual man, and a spiritual man from a natural man; the
difference is so great that they cannot be given together. One who does not know
what the spiritual is in its essence may believe that the spiritual is only a
purer natural, which in man is called the rational; but the spiritual is above
the natural, and as distinct from it as the light of midday from the evening
shadow in the time of autumn. The distinction and the difference can be known
only to one who is in both worlds, the natural and the spiritual, and who can
change alternately from one to the other, and be in one and then in the other,
and by reflection can look at one from the other. From this privilege, which has
been granted to me, I have learned what the natural man is and what the
spiritual man is who is a spirit. That this may be known it shall be described
briefly. In all things of his thought and speech, and in all things of his will
and action, the natural man has as his subject matter, space, time and quantity;
with him these are fixed and permanent, and without them he can have no idea of
thought and speech from it, and no affection of the will and action from it. The
spiritual man or the spirit does not have these as subjects, but only as
objects.
[2] The reason is that in the spiritual world the objects are
altogether similar to those in the natural world; there are lands, plains,
fields, gardens and forests, houses containing rooms, and in them all useful
things; moreover, there are garments for women and for men, such as are in the
world; there are tables, food, and drinks, such as are in the world; there are
also animals both gentle and destructive; there are spaces and times, and
numbers and measures. All these things have such a resemblance to the things
that are in the world that to the eye they cannot be distinguished, and yet all
these are appearances of the wisdom belonging to the understanding of angels,
and perceptions of loves belonging to their wills; for these objects are created
in a moment by the Lord, and in a moment are dissipated. They are permanent or
not permanent according to the constancy or inconstancy of the spirits or angels
in the things of which they are the appearances. This is why these things are
merely objects of their thoughts and affections, while their subjects are those
things of which these are the appearances, which, as has been said, are such
things as relate to wisdom and love, thus spiritual things. For example, when
they see spaces they do not think of them from space; when they see gardens
containing trees, fruits, shrubs, flowers, and seeds, they do not think of these
from their appearance but according to the things from which these appearances
spring; and so in all other cases.
[3] In consequence of this the thoughts of
the spiritual, and their affections also, are wholly different from the thoughts
and affections of the natural, and so different that they transcend natural
ideas and do not fall into them except in some measure into the interior
rational sight, and this in no other way than by withdrawals or removals of
quantities from qualities. This shows clearly that the angels have a wisdom that
is incomprehensible and also ineffable to the natural man. As their thoughts are
such so their speech is such, and so different from the speech of men that they
do not agree in a single expression. The same is true of their writing; although
as to its letters this resembles the writing of men in the world, no man in the
world can understand it. Every consonant in their writing expresses a distinct
meaning, every vowel a distinct affection. The vowels are not written, but
pointed. Their manual employments, which are innumerable, and the duties of
their callings, likewise differ from the employments and duties of natural men
in the world, and cannot therefore be described in the terms of human language.
[4] From these few instances it can be seen that the natural and the spiritual
differ from each other like shadow and light. Nevertheless, there are, various
differences; there are some who are sensual-spiritual, some who are
rational-spiritual, and some celestial-spiritual, also there are the spiritual
evil and the spiritual good. The differences are according to the affections and
the thoughts therefrom, and the appearances are according to the affections. From all this it is clear that man from natural becomes spiritual as soon as
the. lungs and heart of the body cease to be moved, and by this means the
material body is separated from the spiritual body.
(Divine Wisdom vii)
