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Arcana Coelestia

5990. There are very many spirits at this day who desire to flow not only into man’s thoughts and affections, but also into his speech and actions, thus even into the things of his body; when yet the things of the body are exempt from the particular influx of spirits and angels, and are directed by general influx. In other words, when what is thought is determined into speech, and what is willed is determined into acts, the determination and transition into the body are according to order, and are not directed by any spirits in particular; for to flow into man’s bodily things is to obsess him. The spirits who will and intend this are those who in the life of the body had been adulterers, that is, who had perceived delight in adulteries and had persuaded themselves that they are allowable; and also those who had been cruel. The reason is that both the former and the latter are more corporeal and sensual than all others, and have rejected all thought about heaven, attributing all things to nature and nothing to the Divine. In this way they have closed up interior things against themselves, and have opened external things; and because in the world they had been solely in the love of these, therefore in the other life they long to return into them through man by obsessing him.

… But these external bonds cause them not to seem to be obsessed, although they are so as to their interiors, but not as to their exteriors. This is very manifest from such as they in the other life, where external bonds are removed. 

5985…It has often been given me to say to a subject that he thinks and speaks nothing from himself, but from others; and also that those others suppose that a subject cannot think and speak anything from himself; thus that he appears to them like one in whom there is nothing of life from himself. Upon hearing this the spirit who was the subject was very indignant. But in order that he might be convinced of the truth, it was given to speak with the spirits who were flowing in, who then confessed that a subject thinks and speaks nothing whatever from himself, and thus that he appears to them to be something scarcely animate. It also once happened that he who said that a subject is nothing, himself became a subject, and then the rest said of him that he was nothing, at which he was greatly enraged, and yet was thereby instructed how the case is.

5984. When the spirits who are in the world of spirits desire to have communication with a number of societies, they are wont to send forth subjects, one to each society. And I have observed that evil spirits sent out many round about and stationed them like a spider setting its web, the senders being in the middle. And to my surprise they know how to do this as from a kind of instinct; for they who had known nothing of such things in the life of the body, do it at once in the other life. From this also it is evident that communications are effected through emissary spirits.

5992. The angels, through whom the Lord leads and also protects a man, are near his head. It is their office to inspire charity and faith, and to observe in what direction the man’s delights turn, and insofar as they can, without interfering with the man’s freedom, moderate them and bend them to good. They are forbidden to act with violence and thus break the man’s cupidities and principles; but are enjoined to act gently. It is also their office to rule the evil spirits who are from hell, which is done in innumerable ways, of which the following only may be mentioned. When the evil spirits pour in evils and falsities, the angels insinuate truths and goods, which, if not received, are nevertheless the means of tempering. Infernal spirits continually attack, and the angels protect; such is the order.

5993… And as the whole of man’s life from his own is of the love of self and of the world, it is therefore a life of contempt for others in comparison with self, and of hatred and revenge against all who do not favor self. Thus it is also a life of cruelty; for he who hates, desires to kill, and is therefore most highly delighted with the destruction of others. Unless spirits of a like nature were applied to these evils (and such spirits must be from hell), and unless the man were led by them in accordance with the delights of his life, he could not possibly be bent toward heaven. At first he is bent by means of his delights themselves; and by these is also set in freedom, thus at last in the faculty of exercising choice.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.