The Nature of the Correspondence Between the Soul and the Body

Selections from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

What is the nature of the correspondence between the soul and the body, or between the things of the spirit which is within man and those of his body which are without him, may be plainly seen from the correspondence, influx, and communication of the thought and perception, which are of the spirit, with the speech and hearing, which are of the body. The thought of a man who is speaking is nothing but the speech of his spirit, and the perception of the speech is nothing but the hearing of his spirit. When man is speaking, his thought does not indeed appear to him as speech, because it conjoins itself with the speech of his body, and is in it; and when man hears, his perception appears merely like hearing in the ear. This is the reason why most persons who have not reflected know no otherwise than that all sense is in the organs of the body, and consequently that when these organs fall to decay by death, nothing of sense survives, whereas the man (that is, his spirit) then comes into his veriest life of sensation.

Man is a spirit, and that his body serves him for uses in the world ... the spirit is man's internal, and the body his external.

They who do not apprehend how the case is with man's spirit and with his body, may suppose from this that thus the spirit dwells within the body; and that the body as it were encompasses and invests it. Be it known however that the spirit of man is in the whole and every part of his body, and that it is its purer substance, both in its organs of motion and in those of sense, and everywhere else; and that the body is the material part that is everywhere annexed to it, adapted to the world in which it then is. This is what is meant by man's being a spirit, and by his body serving him for uses in the world; and by the spirit's being his internal, and the body his external. From this also it is evident that after death man is in an active and sensitive life, and also in the human form, in like manner as in the world, but in greater perfection.

(from Arcana Cœlestia 4652; 4659)

Intellectual Sight

Selections from Arcana Cœlestia ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

The eye is the noblest organ of the face, and communicates more immediately with the understanding than do the rest of man's organs of sense. It is also modified by a more subtle atmosphere than the ear, and therefore the sight penetrates to the internal sensory, which is in the brain, by a shorter and more interior way than does the speech which is perceived by the ear. Hence also it is that certain animals, being devoid of understanding, have as it were two subsidiary brains within the orbits of their eyes, for their intellectual depends on their sight.

But with man this is not the case, for he enjoys the use of an ample brain, in order that his intellectual may not depend on the sight, but the sight on the intellectual. That the sight of man depends on the intellectual is very evident from the fact that his natural affections portray themselves representatively in the face, but his more interior affections, which pertain to the thought, appear in the eyes, from a certain flame of life and a consequent vibration of light, which flashes out in accordance with the affection in which is the thought; and this a man knows and observes, without being taught by any science, for the reason that his spirit is in society with spirits and angels in the other life, who know this from a plain and clear perception.

Every man as to his spirit is in society with spirits and angels

There is a correspondence of the sight of the eye with intellectual sight, plainly appears to those who reflect; for the objects of the world, all of which derive something from the light of the sun, enter through the eye, and bestow themselves in the memory, and this evidently under a like visual figure, for whatever is produced therefrom is seen inwardly. This is the source of man's imagination, the ideas of which are called by philosophers material ideas. When these objects appear still more interiorly they present thought, and this also under some visual figure, but more pure, the ideas of which are called immaterial, and also intellectual. That there is an interior light, in which there is life, and consequently intelligence and wisdom, and that this light illumines the interior sight, and meets the things which have entered in through the external sight, is very evident; and also that the interior light operates according to the disposition of the things present there from the light of the world. The things that enter through the hearing are also inwardly turned into forms like those of the visual images that come from the light of the world.

As the sight of the eye corresponds to intellectual sight, it also corresponds to truths, for all things that are of the understanding bear relation to truth, and likewise to good, in this way - that a man may not only know what is good, but also be affected by it. Moreover all things of the external sight also bear relation to truth and to good, because they bear relation to the symmetries of objects, consequently to their beauties and the derivative charms. A clear-sighted observer can see that each and all things in nature bear relation to truth and to good, and thereby he can also know that universal nature is a theater representative of the Lord's kingdom.

(Arcana Cœlestia 4407 - 4409)

Angelic Description of Conscience

Selection from True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg

We have heard in heaven that you have presented in succession your opinions about conscience, and that you have all regarded it as some mental pain which infests the head with heaviness, and from that the body, or infests the body and from that the head.

But conscience viewed in itself is not a pain, but a spiritual desire to act in accordance with whatever pertains to religion and faith.

Hence it is that those who feel delight in conscience are in the tranquillity of peace and interior blessedness when they are acting in accordance with their conscience, and in a kind of perturbation when they are acting contrary to it.

But the mental pain which you have believed to be conscience, is not conscience but temptation, which is a conflict of the spirit with the flesh

this conflict, when it is spiritual, has its origin in conscience; but if it is natural merely, it has its origin in those diseases which the physicians have just recounted. [TCR 665]

"But what conscience is may be illustrated by examples:
• A priest who has a spiritual desire to teach truths in order that his flock may be saved, has conscience; but he who has any other end in view, does not have conscience.
• A judge who regards justice exclusively, and executes it with judgment, has conscience; but a judge who looks primarily to reward, friendship, or favor, has not conscience.

Again,
• a man who has in his possession the property of another, the other not knowing it, and who is thus able without fear of the law or loss of honor and reputation, to keep it as his own, and yet, because it is not his, restores it to the other, has conscience, since he does what is just for the sake of what is just.

So again,
• one who can obtain an office but who knows that another who is also seeking it would be more useful to society, and yields the place to him for the sake of the good of society, has a good conscience. So in other things.

All who have conscience say whatever they say from the heart, and do whatever they do from the heart; for not having a divided mind they speak and act according to what they understand and believe to be true and good.

From all this it follows that a more perfect conscience may exist with those who have more of the truths of faith than others, and who have a clearer perception than others, than is possible with those who are less enlightened and whose perception is obscure.

A true conscience is the seat of man's spiritual life itself, for there his faith is conjoined with charity

therefore when such act from conscience they act from their spiritual life, but when they act contrary to conscience they act contrary to that life.

Moreover, does not everyone know from common speech what conscience is? When it is said of anyone: 'He has conscience,' does not that also mean that he is a just man? But on the other hand, when it is said of anyone, 'He has no conscience' does it not mean that he is also unjust?"

(True Christian Religion 666)