Selection from Swedenborg's Spiritual Diary ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
I spoke with spirits [as to] how my writings concerning these things seem to be received when they become public; for evil spirits sometimes infused that no one would perceive these things, but that [men] would reject them. Now while in the street and talking with spirits, it was given to perceive that there are five kinds of reception: • First, [those] who wholly reject, who are in another persuasion, and who are enemies of the faith. These reject; for it cannot be received by them, since it [can] not penetrate their minds.
• Another class, who can receive these things as scientifics*, and are delighted with them as scientifics, and as curious things.
• A third class, which receives, intellectually, so that they receive with sufficient alacrity (Cheerful willingness; eagerness), but still remain [in respect to] life as before.
• A fourth class [receives] persuasively, so that it penetrates to the improvement of their lives; they recur to these in certain states, and make use of them.
•A fifth class, who receive with joy, and are confirmed. - 1748, August 27.
(Spiritual Diary 2955)
* Scientifics. Scientifica. All the things which are learned and stored up in the memory, and which can be called forth from it for the use of the sight of the mind, are called scientifics, and in themselves are the things which constitute the intellectual part of the natural or external man. ... In the Natural, there are scientifics of various kinds: there are scientifics relating to earthly, corporeal and worldly things; these are the lowest, for they are immediately from external sensual things or the things of the body: there are scientifics relating to the civil state, its government, statutes, and laws; these are a little more interior: there are scientifics relating to the things of moral life; these are more interior still; but those which relate to spiritual life, are the most interior of all. These are the truths of the Church, which, so far as they are only from doctrine, are nothing more than scientifics; but when they are from the good of love, then they ascend above scientifics, for then they are in spiritual light, from which light they view scientifics in their order beneath them. Man, by such degrees of scientifics, ascends to intelligence; for scientifics, through those degrees open the mind so that light from the spiritual world can flow in. - (Glossary of Terms and Phrases Used by Swedenborg John Stuart Bogg)The truths of the Church in the natural —
In the natural there are memory-knowledges of various kinds: there are memory-knowledges about earthly, bodily, and worldly things, which are the lowest, for these are immediately from the things of the external senses, or of the body; there are memory-knowledges about the civil state, its government, statutes, and laws, which are a little more interior; there are memory-knowledges about the things of moral life, which are more interior still. But the memory-knowledges which belong to spiritual life are more interior than all the former. These latter are truths of the church, which insofar as they are only from doctrine with a man, are nothing but memory-knowledges; but when they are from the good of love, they then rise above memory-knowledges, for they are then in spiritual light, from which they look at memory-knowledges in their order beneath them. By means of such degrees of memory-knowledges a man mounts to intelligence, for by means of these degrees memory-knowledges open the mind so that light from the spiritual world can flow in. From all this it is now evident what is meant by the presence of truths in the natural.
(from Arcana Coelestia 5934)