From The Doctrines For Spiritual Christianity
He who does not know the nature of heaven and hell cannot at all know the nature of man’s mind. His mind is his spirit which lives after death. The reason of this is that the mind or spirit of man is in, every detail in the same form as heaven or hell. There is no difference except that one is very great and the other very small, or that one is the type and the other an effigy; therefore, man with respect to his mind or spirit is either a heaven or a hell in its least form. (Divine Providence 299)
It is well known, or able to be known, that there is a spiritual world and that there is a natural world. In a universal sense the spiritual world is where spirits and angels dwell and the natural world where men dwell, but in a particular sense there is a spiritual world and a natural with every individual person, his internal man being for him a spiritual world, and his external man a natural world. The things that flow in from the spiritual world and present themselves in the natural are, in general, representations. And to the extent they agree with each other they are correspondences. (Arcana Coelestia 2990)
Charity and good works are two distinct things, like willing well and doing well. In every man there is an internal and an external. His internal is what is called the internal man, and his external what is called the external man. But one who does not know what the internal man and the external man are, may suppose that it is the internal man that exercises thought and will, and the external that speaks and acts. These latter belong, indeed, to the external man, and the former to the internal; yet they are not what essentially constitute the external and internal man. In common perception indeed man’s mind is his internal man, but the mind is itself divided into two regions; the one region which is higher and more internal is spiritual; and the other which is lower and more external is natural. The spiritual mind looks mainly to the spiritual world, and has for its objects the things that are there, either such as are in heaven or such as are in hell; for both are in the spiritual world. But the natural mind looks mainly to the natural world, and has for its objects the things that are there, whether good or evil. All of man’s action and speech proceeds from the lower region of the mind directly, and indirectly from its higher region, since the lower region of the mind is nearer to the bodily senses, and the higher region more remote from them. There is this division of the mind in man, because he was so created as to be both spiritual and natural, and thus a man and not a beast. All this makes clear that the man who looks primarily to himself and the world is an external man, because he is natural, not only in body but also in mind; while the man who looks primarily to the things of heaven and the church is an internal man, because he is spiritual both in mind and body. He is spiritual even in body, because his actions and words proceed from the higher mind, which is spiritual, through the lower, which is natural. For it is known that effects proceed from the body, and the causes that produce the effects proceed from the mind; also that the cause is everything in the effect. That the human mind is so divided is clearly evident from the fact that a man can act the part of a dissembler, a flatterer, a hypocrite, or an actor; and that he can assent to what another says and yet laugh at it; doing one from the higher mind and the other from the lower. (True Christian Religion 420 VII)
For living creatures both great and small mean such things as compose human affections, that is, such as are connected with the will, or else they mean such things as compose human thoughts, that is, such as are connected with the understanding. For everything without exception in the human being has connection either with his will or with his understanding. Things that have no connection with one or the other do not exist in the human being, and so are not part of the human being. Creatures that walk and also ones that creep mean affections in both senses, and so mean forms of good or else evils since these belong to the affections, whereas flying creatures, including insects with wings, mean such things as belong to thought in both senses, and so mean truths or else falsities since these belong to thoughts. (Arcana Coelestia 9331)
All wars, although they may be civil in character, represent in heaven states of the Church and are correspondences. Such were all the wars described in the Word, and such also are all wars at this day. The wars described in the Word are those which the Children of Israel waged with various nations, as with the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Philistines, the Syrians, the Egyptians, the Chaldeans and the Assyrians. Moreover, when the Children of Israel, who represented the Church, departed from their precepts and statutes and fell into the evils which were represented by those nations, for each nation with which the Children of Israel waged war signified some particular kind of evil, then they were punished by that nation. For example, when they profaned the holy things of the Church by foul idolatries they were punished by the Assyrians and the Chaldeans, because Assyria and Chaldea signify the profanation of what is holy. (Divine Providence 251)
Key Points From The Video
Hellish Influx and Its Manifestations: These influence the natural mind, giving rise to all evil: wars, selfishness, noxious life, and sterile qualities in the animal and mineral kingdom, all representing the collective state of humanity.
Heavenly Influx and Its Positive Impact: These, in contrast, influence the spiritual mind with goodness and truth, manifesting as peace, order, and harmony, just administration of laws, abstention from evil and removal of harmful irritants supporting fertility and growth.
Correspondence and Effects: Both hellish and heavenly influxes are effects of spiritual causes existing within internal and external aspects of the mind.
Spiritual Causes and Natural Effects: Outward changes stem from spiritual causes within the minds of individuals. The transformations are manifested in the faculties through correspondences.
Uniformity of Influx Across Worlds: Influx is consistent across worlds, but effects are perceived sensually, spiritually, or celestially.
Resistance to Change in the Natural Mind: Influences of evil and falsehood cause resistance to change. Positive tendencies indicate spiritual influence.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What is the unique aspect of the natural world compared to heaven and hell?
a. it is subject to influx from both heaven and hell
b. it is free from any spiritual influence
c. it is governed solely by physical laws
d. it is a realm of pure neutrality
Answer a )
2. What does the influx from hell give rise to in the natural mind?
a. every conceivable good
b. every conceivable evil
c. a state of perfect balance
d. a feeling of blissful ignorance
Answer b )
3. What is promoted by the influx from heaven, according to the material?
a. chaos and destruction
b. selfishness and greed
c. peace, order, and harmony
d. the pursuit of worldly power
Answer c )
4. What does the reformation and regeneration of the mind involve?
a. accumulating knowledge and wealth
b. achieving physical perfection
c. separating good from evil and truth from falsehood, subduing the latter to the heavenly governance of the former
d. denying the existence of the spiritual world
Answer c )
5. What do changes in the natural world stem from, according to the spiritual man?
a. random chance and unpredictable events
b. solely from natural causes
c. spiritual causes within the minds of individuals
d. external economic forces
Answer c )
Reflective Questions
1. How do you perceive the influence of both heavenly and hellish influx in your own life and in the world around you? Can you identify specific examples of these influences in your thoughts, feelings, and actions?
2. What are the specific areas in your life where you feel the most resistance to positive change? How can you cultivate greater receptivity to heavenly influences and overcome the inertia of the natural mind?
3. How can you actively contribute to the reformation and regeneration of your own mind and, by extension, the transformation of the world around you? What specific steps can you take to align your thoughts and actions with heavenly principles?
Experiential Integration
Daily Perception Shift Practice: Throughout the day, pay attention to the thoughts, feelings, and actions that arise within you. As you become aware of these thoughts, feelings, and actions, Ask yourself: Are they aligned with heavenly principles (love, wisdom, service)? Or are they influenced by hellish tendencies (selfishness, greed, hatred)? I
f you identify thoughts, feelings, or actions that are not aligned with heaven, consciously choose to redirect your attention and energy towards more positive and uplifting alternatives.
Visualise yourself surrounded by the light of heaven, and allow this light to guide your choices and actions.
Further Exploration
Few are aware of what representations and of what correspondences are. Nor can anyone know what they are unless he knows that there is a spiritual world and that this is distinct and separate from the natural world. For between spiritual things and natural things correspondences exist, and the manifestations of spiritual things within natural are representations. They are called correspondences because they correspond, and representations because they represent. (Arcana Coelestia 2987)
The human being is a spirit. It is owing to it that he thinks and wills. Consequently the spiritual world is where people are, and not at all removed from them. In short, every person in the interiors of his mind is in that world, in the midst of spirits and angels there, and he thinks because of its light, and loves because of its warmth. (Divine Love and Wisdom 92)
Similar things are represented by the wars of the present day, wherever they occur; for all things which take place in the natural world correspond to spiritual things in the spiritual world, and all spiritual things have relation to the Church. (Divine Providence 251{4})
The reason why ‘wise men from the east’ offered them was that among some in the east there remained from ancient times the knowledge and wisdom of the people of old, which consisted in their understanding and seeing heavenly and Divine realities within things in the world and on earth. For it was well known to the ancients that all things had a correspondence and were representative, and therefore had a spiritual meaning. (Arcana Coelestia 9293)
Reference is made very many times in the Word to earth or land, ground, field, seedtime, harvest, standing grain, threshing-floor, grain, wheat, and barley; and in those places they mean the kinds of things that are involved in the establishment of the Church and that are involved in the regeneration of a person who is in the Church, thus the kinds of things that are connected with the truth of faith and the good of love which constitute the Church. The reason why those kinds of things are meant lies in correspondence; for all things on this planet, including those in its vegetable kingdom, correspond to spiritual realities that exist in heaven, as is plainly evident from the things which appear there. For in heaven newly ploughed fields, open ones, gardens of flowers, fields ready to be harvested, land planted with trees, and similar things such as exist on earth are seen; and it is well known to those who are there that the realities composing heaven, thus those composing the Church, are what appear before their eyes in this kind of way. (Arcana Coelestia 10669{3})