Table of Contents

i. [Introduction] §§1-2

I. There are two worlds: the spiritual world, inhabited by spirits and angels, and the natural world, inhabited by men. §3

II. The spiritual world first existed and continually subsists from its own sun; and the natural world from its own sun. §4

III. The sun of the spiritual world is pure love from Jehovah God, who is in the midst of it. §5

IV. From that sun proceed heat and light; the heat proceeding from it is in its essence love, and the light from it is in its essence wisdom. §6

V. Both that heat and that light flow into man: the heat into his will, where it produces the good of love; and the light into his understanding, where it produces the truth of wisdom. §7

VI. Those two, heat and light, or love and wisdom, flow conjointly from God into the soul of man; and through this into his mind, its affections and thoughts; and from these into the senses, speech, and actions of the body. §8

VII. VII. The sun of the natural world is pure fire; and the world of nature first existed and continually subsists by means of this sun. §9

VIII. Therefore everything which proceeds from this sun, regarded in itself, is dead. §10

IX. That which is spiritual clothes itself with that which is natural, as a man clothes himself with a garment. §11

X. Spiritual things, thus clothed in a man, enable him to live as a rational and moral man, thus as a spiritually natural man. §12

XI. The reception of that influx is according to the state of love and wisdom with man. §13

XII. The understanding in a man can be raised into the light, that is, into the wisdom in which are the angels of heaven, according to the cultivation of his reason; and his will can be raised in like manner into the heat of heaven, that is, into love, according to the deeds of his life; but the love of the will is not raised, except so far as the man wills and does those things which the wisdom of the understanding teaches. §14

XIII. It is altogether otherwise with beasts. §15

XIV. There are three degrees in the spiritual world, and three degrees in the natural world, hitherto unknown, according to which all influx takes place. §16

XV. Ends are in the first degree, causes in the second, and effects in the third. §17

XVI. Hence it is evident what is the nature of spiritual influx from its origin to its effects. §§18-20

3. I. There are two worlds: the spiritual world, inhabited by spirits and angels, and the natural world, inhabited by men.

That there is a spiritual world inhabited by spirits and angels distinct from the natural world inhabited by men, has hitherto been deeply hidden, even in the Christian world, because no angel has descended and taught it by word of mouth, nor has any man ascended and seen it. Lest, therefore, from ignorance of that world, and the uncertain faith respecting heaven and hell thence resulting, man should be so far infatuated as to become an atheistic materialist, it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of my spirit, and to raise it into heaven and let it down into hell, and to exhibit to my view the nature of both.

[2] It has thus been made evident to me that there are two worlds, distinct from each other; one, in which all things are spiritual, whence it is called the spiritual world; and the other, in which all things are natural, whence it is called the natural world: and also that spirits and angels live in their own world, and men in theirs; and further, that every man passes by death from his world into the other, and lives in it to eternity. In order that Influx, which is the subject of this little work, may be unfolded from its beginning, it is necessary that some information respecting both these worlds should be provided; for the spiritual world flows into the natural world, and actuates it in all its parts, with both men and beasts, and also constitutes the vegetative principle in trees and herbs.

7. V. Both that heat and that light flow into man: the heat into his will, where it produces the good of love; and the light into his understanding, where it produces the truth of wisdom.

It is well known that all things universally have relation to good and truth, and that there is not a single thing in existence in which there is not something related to those two. On this account there are two receptacles of life in man: one, which is the receptacle of good, called the will; and another, which is the receptacle of truth, called the understanding; and, as good is of love and truth is of wisdom, the will is the receptacle of love, and the understanding the receptacle of wisdom. Good is of love, because what a man loves that he wills, and when he brings it into action he calls it good: and truth is of wisdom, because all wisdom is from truths; indeed, the good which a wise man thinks is truth, which becomes good when he wills and does it.

[2] He who does not rightly distinguish between these two receptacles of life, which are the will and the understanding, and does not form for himself a clear notion respecting them, strives in vain to comprehend the nature of spiritual influx. For there is influx into the will, and there is influx into the understanding. Into the will of man there is an influx of the good of love, and into his understanding there is an influx of the truth of wisdom, each proceeding from Jehovah God, directly through the sun in the midst of which He is, and indirectly through the angelic heaven. These two receptacles, the will and the understanding are as distinct as heat and light; for, as was said above, the will receives the heat of heaven, which in its essence is love, and the understanding receives the light of heaven, which in its essence is wisdom.

[3] There is an influx from the human mind into the speech, and there is an influx into the actions; the influx into speech is from the will through the understanding, but the influx into the actions is from the understanding through the will. Those who are only acquainted with the influx into the understanding, and not at the same time with that into the will, and who reason and conclude therefrom, are like one-eyed persons, who only see the objects on one side of them, and not at the same time those on the other; and like maimed persons, who do their work awkwardly with one hand only; and like lame persons, who walk by hopping on one foot, with the assistance of a staff. From these few observations it is plain that spiritual heat flows into the will of man, and produces the good of love, and that spiritual light flows into his understanding, and produces the truth of wisdom.