1. The Interaction of the Soul and Body

There are three opinions and traditions, which are hypotheses, concerning the Interaction of the Soul and Body, or the operation of the one upon the other, and of the one together with the other: the first is called Physical Influx, the second Spiritual Influx, and the third Pre-established Harmony.

The first, which is called physical influx, arises from the appearances of the senses, and the fallacies thence derived. For it appears as if the objects of sight, which affect the eyes, flow into the thought and produce it; in like manner speech, which affects the ears, appears to flow into the mind, and to produce ideas there; and it is similar with respect to the senses of smell, taste, and touch. Since the organs of these senses first receive the impressions that flow into them from the world, and the mind appears to think, and also to will, according as these organs are affected, therefore, the ancient philosophers and Schoolmen believed that influx was derived from them into the soul, and hence adopted the hypothesis of Physical or Natural Influx.

[2] The second hypothesis, which is called spiritual, and by some occasional influx, originates in order and its laws. For the soul is a spiritual substance, and therefore purer, prior, and interior; but the body is material, and therefore grosser, posterior, and exterior; and it is according to order that the purer should flow into the grosser, the prior into the posterior, and the interior into the exterior, thus what is spiritual into what is material, and not the contrary. Consequently, it is according to order for the thinking mind to flow into the sight according to the state induced on the eyes by the objects before them, which state that mind also disposes at its pleasure; and likewise for the perceptive mind to flow into the hearing, according to the state induced upon the ears by speech.

[3] The third hypothesis, which is called pre-established harmony, arises from the appearances and fallacies of the reasoning faculty; since the mind, in the very act of operating, acts together with and at the same time as the body. Still, every operation is first successive and afterwards simultaneous, and successive operation is Influx, and simultaneous operation is Harmony; as, for instance, when the mind thinks and afterwards speaks, or when it wills and afterwards acts: hence it is a fallacy of the reasoning faculty to establish that which is simultaneous, and to exclude that which is successive.

No fourth opinion concerning the Interaction of the Soul and the Body can be framed in addition to these three; for either the soul must operate upon the body, or the body upon the soul, or both uninterruptedly at the same time.

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

That a man is not life, but an organ recipient of life from God, and that love in union with wisdom is life; also, that God is love itself and wisdom itself, and thus life itself, has been demonstrated above. Hence it follows that so far as a man loves wisdom, or so far as he has wisdom within love, so far he is an image of God, that is, a receptacle of life from God; and on the contrary that so far as he is in the opposite love and thence in insanity, so far he does not receive life from God but from hell, which life is called death.

[2] Love itself and wisdom itself are not life, but are the Being [esse] of life. On the other hand, the delights of love and the pleasures of wisdom, which are affections, constitute life; for by their means the Being [esse] of life is manifested. The influx of life from God carries with it those delights and pleasures; just as the influx of light and heat in springtime conveys delight and pleasure into human minds, and also into birds and beasts of every kind, and even into vegetables which then put forth their buds and grow fruitful. For the delights of love and the pleasures of wisdom expand the mind and adapt it to reception, just as joy and gladness expand the face and adapt it to the influx of the cheerfulness of the soul.

[3] The man who is affected with the love of wisdom is like the garden in Eden, in which there are two trees, the one of life, and the other of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life is the reception of love and wisdom from God, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the reception of them from self. The man who receives them in the latter fashion is insane, yet still believes himself to be wise like God; but he that receives them in the former method is truly wise, and believes no one to be wise but God alone, and that a man is wise so far as he believes this, and still more so as he feels that he wills it. But more on this subject may be seen in the memorable relation inserted in the work on CONJUGIAL LOVE 132-136. ¹

[4] I will here add an arcanum confirming these facts from heaven. All the angels of heaven turn the front of the head towards the Lord as a sun, and all the angels of hell turn the back of the head to Him. The latter receive influx into the affections of their will, which in themselves are lusts, and make the understanding favour them; but the former receive influx into the affections of their understanding, and make the will favour them; these, therefore, are in wisdom, but the others in insanity. For the human understanding dwells in the cerebrum, which is behind the forehead, and the will in the cerebellum, which is in the back of the head.

[5] Who does not know that a man who is insane through falsities favours the lusts of his own evil, and confirms them by reasons drawn from the understanding; whereas a wise man sees from truths the character of the lusts of his own will, and restrains them? A wise man does this, because he turns his face to God, that is, he believes in God, and not in himself; but an insane man does the other, because he turns his face from God, that is, he believes in himself, and not in God. To believe in one's self is to believe that one loves and is wise from self, and not from God, and this is signified by eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; but to believe in God is to believe that one loves and is wise from God and not from self, and this is to eat of the tree of life (Revelation 2:7).

[6] From these considerations it may be perceived, but as yet only as in the light of the moon by night, that the reception of the influx of life from God is according to the state of love and wisdom with a man. This influx may be further illustrated by the influx of light and heat into vegetables, which blossom and bear fruit according to the structure of the fibres which form them, thus according to reception. It may also be illustrated by the influx of the rays of light into precious stones, which modify them into colours according to the arrangement of the parts composing them, thus also according to reception; and likewise by optical glasses and by drops of rain, which exhibit rainbows according to the incidence, the refraction, and thus the reception of light. It is similar with human minds in respect to spiritual light, which proceeds from the Lord as a sun, and perpetually flows in, but is variously received.

Footnotes:

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

Who does not see that the end is not the cause, but that it produces the cause, and that the cause is not the effect, but that it produces the effect, consequently, that these are three distinct things which follow one another in order? The end with a man is the love of his will; for what a man loves, this he proposes to himself and intends: the cause with him is the reason of his understanding; for by means of reason the end seeks for middle or efficient causes: and the effect is the operation of the body, from and according to the end and the cause. Thus there are three things in a man which follow one another in order, in the same manner as the degrees of altitude follow one another. When these three are established, the end is inwardly in the cause, and, by means of the cause, the end is in the effect: thus these three exist together in the effect. On this account it is said in the Word that every one shall be judged according to his works; for the end, or the love of his will, and the cause, or the reason of his understanding, are simultaneously present in the effects, which are the works of his body: thus in them is contained the quality of the whole man.

[2] Those who do not know these truths, and thus do not distinguish the objects of reason, cannot avoid terminating the ideas of their thought either in the atoms of Epicurus, the monads of Leibnitz, or the simple substances of Wolff. Inevitably, therefore, they shut up the understanding as with a bolt, so that it cannot even think from reason concerning spiritual influx, because it cannot think of any progression; for, says the author concerning his simple substance, if it is divided it falls to nothing. Thus the understanding remains in its own first light [lumen], which merely proceeds from the senses of the body, and does not advance a step further. Hence it is not known but that the spiritual is the natural attenuated; that beasts have rationality as well as men; and that the soul is a puff of wind, like that breathed forth from the chest when a person dies; besides several ideas which are not of the light, but of thick darkness.

[3] As all things in the spiritual world, and all things in the natural world, proceed according to these degrees, as was shown in the preceding article, it is evident that intelligence properly consists in knowing and distinguishing them, and seeing them in their order. By means of these degrees, also, every man is known as to his quality, when his love is known; for, as observed above, the end which is of the will, the causes which are of the understanding, and the effects which are of the body follow from his love, as a tree from its seed, and as fruit from a tree.

[4] There are three kinds of loves: the love of heaven, the love of the world, and the love of self; the love of heaven is spiritual, the love of the world material, and the love of self corporeal. When the love is spiritual, all the things which follow from it, as forms from their essence, derive a spiritual quality: so, also, if the principal love is the love of the world or of wealth, and, thus material, all the things which follow from it, as derivatives from their first origin, derive a material quality: so, again, if the principal love is the love of self, or of eminence above all others, and thus corporeal, all the things which follow from it derive a corporeal quality; because the man who cherishes this love regards himself alone, and thus immerses the thoughts of his mind in the body. Therefore, as just remarked, he who knows the reigning love of any one, and is at the same time acquainted with the progression of ends to causes and of causes to effects, which three things follow one another in order according to the degrees of altitude, knows the whole man. In this way the angels of heaven know every one with whom they speak: they perceive his love from the sound of his voice; from his face they see an image of him; and from the gestures of his body his character.