Sensual Men

Selection from New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
THE SENSUAL MAN, WHO IS THE LOWEST DEGREE NATURAL

He whose internal is so far external, that he believes nothing but what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands, is called a sensual man; this is the lowest natural man, and is in fallacies concerning all the things which are of the faith of the church.

The sensual is the ultimate of the life of man, adhering to and inhering in his corporeal. He who judges and concludes concerning everything from the bodily senses, and who believes nothing but what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands, saying that these are something, and rejecting all things else, is a sensual man. Such a man thinks in outmosts, and not interiorly in himself. His interiors are shut, so that he sees nothing of truth therein. In a word, he is in gross natural light, and thus perceives nothing which is from the light of heaven. Consequently he is interiorly against the things which are of heaven and the church. The learned, who have confirmed themselves against the truths of the church, are sensual.

Sensual men reason sharply and shrewdly, because their thought is so near their speech as to be almost in it, and because they place all intelligence in discourse from the memory alone. But they reason from the fallacies of the senses, with which the common people are captivated.

Sensual men are more crafty and malicious than others. The avaricious, adulterers, the voluptuous, and the deceitful especially are sensual. Their interiors are foul and filthy. By means thereof they communicate with the hells. They who are in the hells are sensual in proportion to their depth. The sphere of infernal spirits conjoins itself with man's sensual from behind. They who reasoned from the sensual, and thereby against the truths of faith, were called by the ancients serpents of the tree of knowledge. ...

Sensual things ought to be in the last place, not in the first, and with a wise and intelligent man they are in the last place and subject to the interiors; but with an unwise man they are in the first place, and have dominion; these are they who are properly called sensual. If sensual things are in the last place, and are subject to the interiors, a way is opened through them to the understanding, and truths are refined by a kind of extraction.

The sensual things of man stand nearest to the world, and admit things that flow from the world, and as it were sift them. The external or natural man communicates with the world by means of those sensuals, and with heaven by means of rationals. Thus sensual things administer those things which are serviceable to the interiors of man. There are sensual things ministering to the intellectual part, and likewise to the will part.

Unless the thought is elevated from sensual things, man possesses but little wisdom. A wise man thinks above the sensual. Man, when his thought is elevated above sensual things, comes into a clearer light [lumen], and at length into heavenly light [lux]. Elevation above sensual things, and withdrawal from them, was known to the ancients. Man with his spirit may see the things which are in the spiritual world, if he can be withdrawn from the sensual things of the body, and elevated by the Lord into the light of heaven. The reason is, because the body does not feel, but the spirit in the body; and so far as the spirit perceives in the body, so far is the perception gross and obscure, consequently in darkness; but so far as not in the body, so far is the perception clear and in the light.

The ultimate of the understanding is the sensual scientific, and the ultimate of the will the sensual delight. What is the difference between the sensual things that are common with beasts, and those that are not common with them.

The natural of man is external, middle, and internal; the external of the natural communicates with the world, and is called the external sensuous; the internal natural is what communicates with the internal man, which is in heaven; the middle natural is that which conjoins the two; for where there are an external and an internal, there must be a conjoining intermediate.

By the sensuous, which is the ultimate of the natural, is properly meant that which is called the "flesh," and which perishes when man dies, thus what has served man for his functions in the world; as the sensuous of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. That this sensuous is the ultimate plane, in which the life of man terminates, and on which it reposes as a base, is evident, for it stands forth directly in the world, and through it as the outermost the world enters, and heaven departs. But this sensuous is common to man with brute animals, whereas the external sensuous which man has not so much in common with them, and yet is an external sensuous, is that which man has in his memory from the world, and is constituted of merely worldly, bodily, and earthly things there. The man who thinks and reasons from these things alone, and not from interior things, is called a sensuous man. This sensuous remains with man after death, but is quiescent; and this external sensuous is what is properly signified by the "base."

The nature of this sensuous was represented by the bases of the ten lavers, which were set near the temple, and which are thus described:

Solomon made the ten bases of brass; four cubits the length of each base, and four cubits the breadth; three cubits the height. Upon the closures that were between the flights of steps were lions, oxen, and cherubs; and upon the flights of steps in like manner above. Moreover, each base had four wheels and tables of brass; and its four corners had shoulders: beneath the laver were the shoulders molten. The work of the wheels was like the work of a chariot wheel; their hands, and their backs, and their tires, and their spokes, were all molten. After this manner he made the ten bases; all of them had one casting, one measure, one proportion. Then he made the ten lavers of brass; each laver contained forty baths; each laver was four cubits   (1 Kings 7:27-39).

The nature of the external sensuous in man is here described by representatives, and especially the protection of the Lord lest man should enter into the things of heaven or of the church from his sensuous, thus from the world, because this is contrary to Divine order. For the world cannot enter into heaven, but heaven can enter into the world, which comes to pass when the Lord inflows through heaven with man, and enlightens him, teaches him, and leads him, by means of the Word. That to enter from the world into the things of heaven is contrary to Divine order, can be seen from those who enter from their sensuous, thus from the memory-knowledges which enter from the world, in that they believe nothing whatever.

What the sensuous man is, may again be briefly told. He is called a sensuous man who thinks only from such things as are in the memory from the world, and who cannot be raised toward interior things; such especially are they who believe nothing about heaven and the Divine because they do not see them, for they trust solely in the senses; and what does not appear before the senses they believe to be nothing. Such people closely approach the nature of brute animals, which also are led solely by the external senses; nevertheless they are cunning and skilful in acting and reasoning; but they do not see truth from the light of truth. Such were formerly called serpents of the tree of knowledge, and such for the most part is the infernal crew.

(New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 45; 50; AC 10236)