THE DOCTRINE OF REFLECTION

We have stated that conscious life can result only when the forces of the spiritual world interact with the forces of the material world. The constant stream of sense impulses striking upon the cerebrum makes no distinct or meaningful impression upon the mind unless its flow is checked by some love that affects the mind from the spiritual world. That is what causes one to notice, to pay attention, and thus to become aware. The reason is, that regarded in themselves sense impulses have no meaning. They enter haphazardly through sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, in a confused and disordered stream of separate and unrelated impressions. They may be compared to flotsam and jetsam washed up by the tide. Yet they are the only materials out of which any idea of shape, or form, or tangible substance may be produced in the mind. Love selects from them whatever is in accord with its purpose, and orders it to form a mental picture that has significance. It is perceived either as delightful or undelightful, as something that imparts pleasure or pain. It is felt either as accordant with the life of our love, or as injurious to it. Sense-impulses therefore provide the material out of which form is produced; while love brings scattered parts into mutual relationship and reveals their quality, that is, their use. This perception of quality is that which causes the mind to notice, and thus to become conscious.

Love therefore produces reflection. It reaches out to hold and to increase any sensation that is delightful, and to shrink from that which is perceived as painful, and to try to escape from it. This spontaneous reaction is what we call the will; and the form that pictures it in the mind is called the understanding. These two combine to produce conscious life, and without them both no consciousness is possible.

This applies to animals as well as to human beings. The soul of every animal is a love which enables it to perceive the quality of sensations that impinge upon it from its material environment. This causes it to feel sensations either as pleasant or unpleasant, and thus to become aware of their relation to its physical life. However, it cannot reflect upon the quality of its love. That is because it is moved by only one love, and cannot compare it with other affections. Human beings, on the other hand, are affected by various loves. They can compare them and note their differences. They can distinguish between loves that are conducive to their well-being and happiness, and those that are not. They therefore can reflect upon the quality of spiritual forces and can picture them in the form of spiritual ideas. That is why people can become conscious of a spiritual world, and can perceive what are called human values. Reflecting upon these things, we can become aware of deeper longings, of delights which physical pleasures do not satisfy. This, because we, unlike animals, are endowed with an inner mind sensitive to the forces and the objects of a spiritual world, and are capable of perceiving their relation to our life.

Because consciousness requires the interaction between two worlds, we may be said to live in both worlds at the same time. Indeed, the spiritual world and the natural world are so intimately associated that the one cannot exist without the other. That is because the spiritual world is a world of causes, and the natural world is a world of effects. There can be no effect without a cause, and no cause without an effect. For this reason there cannot be two separate worlds, each existing by itself. There can be only a dual world, composed of two constantly interacting parts. For the same reason we cannot have two separate minds, one wholly sensual and natural, and the other purely spiritual. We must have two distinctly different organs of sensation, one sensitive to spiritual forces, and the other sensitive to material forces; but these can produce no mental consciousness except as they act in concert.

Why then is it, we may well ask, that we, to all appearance, live for a time in the natural world, being altogether oblivious of our spiritual environment; and then, when the body dies, awaken to all the wonders of the spiritual world while becoming altogether oblivious of things natural and material? It is indeed a remarkable provision of the Divine Providence that people on earth live solely in their own world, and spirits, after death, similarly live in theirs, in spite of the fact that both are under the constant influence of both worlds. This can be true only because in each world conscious life is determined by the plane on which reflection takes place.

During our life on earth, we are so dependent upon physical sensation that we cannot think apart from space and time. Our love, and therefore our attention, is focused upon the needs of the body and the natural world. We can conceive of that which is spiritual only in relation to these things. We feel affections as if they originated within ourselves, and can conceive of them only as abstractions. We may learn from revelation that we are constantly being influenced by spirits and angels, but this is a matter of knowledge, not of sensible experience. For this reason we are unaware of our spiritual environment, and we cannot visualize the spiritual world as existing outside of ourselves except in terms of space and time. The chief reason why this is so is that all sensation comes to us by way of the material body and its organs of sensation. The body may be compared to a glove through which all sensation must pass, and by which the sensation is rendered vague, general and imperfect. As long as one is in the body we can reflect only upon what we feel through this gross covering. We can be aware of nothing else. Indeed, we cannot even imagine how keen and how delightful sensation would be if this covering were removed. Consider how limited the range is of our sense organs. The eye responds only to those light waves that lie within the spectrum, although there are indefinite extensions of these waves beyond that which we know as red light in one direction, and what is called violet light in the other. So also the human ear is sensitive to only a few of the sound vibrations that fill the air around us, and even these must be of a sufficient intensity to be heard. So also with taste, smell and touch, all of which function only within a limited range, and remain oblivious to whatever lies beyond. It is true that sight may be considerably expanded by mechanical means, by the use of the microscope or the telescope. The ability to hear may be increased by electrical aids. All one's senses may be perfected by training and experience. But still much remains beyond the horizon of our perception. Consider also how the normal function of our sense organs may be impaired by accident or disease, which in extreme cases shuts out all sensation.

Nevertheless, during our life on earth, we can enjoy no physical sensation apart from love; and after death we can enjoy no spiritual sensation apart from the memory of bodily sensation. Every impulse that has reached the brain, whether it has been consciously perceived or not, is retained in the interior memory, and becomes the basis for all ideas of form or shape possible to the spirit in the after life. Furthermore, after the death of the body the spirit remains in constant communication with the world of nature, not immediately, but through the minds of people still living on earth. Whatever people picture in the imagination affects the spirits who are associated with them, performing for them the same function that physical sensation performs for people on earth. For this reason it is said that “heaven rests upon the human race as upon its foundation.” If the race on earth should perish, or if the bond of communication between the two worlds should in any way be broken, the angels and spirits would become unconscious as if in a swoon. And it is equally true that if people on earth were cut off from all influx from spirits and angels they would be moved by no love, no desire or interest, and would, in consequence, become unconscious.

The restriction imposed by the material body affects not only the ability to feel material objects, but also the ability to perceive spiritual things. We can respond to affections and thoughts only according to states of both body and mind. We experience moods of sadness or of elation for no discernible reason, and these qualify all our conscious life. Because our plane of reflection is in the natural world, we imagine that material things are the source of our happiness, and therefore we labour constantly to amass worldly possessions. Only by degrees can we learn to distinguish between that which is spiritual and that which is natural. We may learn of the existence of God, of heaven, and of truly human qualities as distinct from the things of earth, but at first we perceive this only as abstract knowledge. We continually gravitate to the delight of external sensations; and because we have to struggle to grasp the delight of heavenly things, the effort to do so cannot be long maintained. Yet the Lord, through the angels, and directly by the teaching of His Word, constantly stirs within us a sense of love to Him, of charity toward the neighbour, of delight in use. By these means He repeatedly calls to us, even as He called to Abram, so long ago, saying: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing” (Genesis 12:1, 2).

This is a call to withdraw the mind from the constant stream of bodily sensations, and from dependence upon ideas of space and time, that we may become aware of the qualities of love and wisdom, which at first appear only as abstract and intangible entities. This is essential if we are to acquire any concept of the difference between right and wrong, good and evil, truth and falsity. In no other way can we be gifted with a conscience whereby to form our character. Nevertheless, as long as we are on earth, we do not normally reflect upon these spiritual things. The needs and desires of the body are so immediate and so pressing that we cannot ignore them. They take precedence over the needs of the spirit. Try as we may we cannot think for long apart from them; and for this reason we cannot reflect while in the body, as we will be able to reflect after the body has been laid aside. We can indeed elevate our minds “almost into the light in which the angels are,” and so doing, from time to time we can catch a glimpse of heavenly joys that we may learn to strive for them. “People,” we read, “so long as they live in the world . . . cannot be elevated into very wisdom, such as the angels have, but only into higher light, even up to angels, and can receive enlightenment from their light, that flows in from within and illuminates. . . The natural mind may be raised up into the light of heaven in which angels are, and may [thus] perceive naturally, thus not so fully, what the angels perceive spiritually; nevertheless, our natural mind cannot be raised into angelic light itself” (Divine Love and Wisdom 256, 257).