9400. 'And said, Behold the blood of the covenant' means that by means of this truth the Lord's Divine Human is joined to heaven and to earth. This is clear from the meaning of 'the blood' as Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Human, dealt with above in 9393, 9399; and from the meaning of 'the covenant' as a joining together, also dealt with above, in 9396. The reason why it is a joining to heaven and to earth is that the Divine Truth which emanates from the Lord's Divine Human passes through the heavens, right on to mankind in the world; and on the way down it is adapted to suit each heaven, and ultimately mankind itself. Divine Truth on our planet is the Word, 9350-9362, which is composed in such a way that it has, in every detail, an inward sense intended for the heavens, and finally an outward sense, which is the literal sense, intended for mankind. From this it is evident that through the Word the Lord is joined to the heavens and to the world, 2143, 7153, 7381, 8920, 9094 (end), 9212 (end), 9216 (end), 9357, 9396.

[2] All this leads to the definite conclusion that without the Word on this planet heaven would not be joined to mankind, and neither therefore would the Lord, and if that conjunction did not exist the human race on this planet would entirely perish. For what composes a person's interior life is God's truth flowing in from the Lord. This truth is light itself, enlightening the person's inner sight, that is, his understanding; it is also the heavenly heat, held within that light, which is love, warming and bringing life to the will part in the internal man. Left without this light and heat therefore the inner being of a person would become blind and cold and it would die, in the same way that a person's outward being would if left without the heat and light of the worldly sun. But all this will seem to be absurd to those who do not believe that the Word is of such a nature, also to those who believe that life in a person is intrinsically his own and not something flowing in unceasingly from the Lord by way of heaven.

The life within a person is not intrinsically his but flows in from the Lord, see 4249, 4882, 5147, 5150, 5986, 6053-6058, 6189-6215, 6307-6327, 6466-6495, 6598-6626, 6982, 6985, 6996, 7055, 7056, 7058, 7147, 7270, 7343, 8685, 8701, 8717, 8728, 9110, 9111, 9223, 9276.

Before the Lord's eyes His Church, spread throughout the world, is like one human being, 9276, in the same way as heaven is, which is consequently called the Grand Man. The Church, where the Word exists, is like the heart and lungs in that human being, and all outside the Church receive life from it, even as the members, viscera, and all other organs of the body receive life from the heart and lungs, 2054, 2853, 7396.

6053. INFLUX AND THE INTERACTION OF THE SOUL WITH THE BODY

No one can have any knowledge at all or even be able to think about the influx of the soul into the body, or about the interaction of them, unless he knows what the soul is and also something about the nature of the soul. If nothing is known about what the soul is, nothing at all can be said about its inflow and interaction; for how can anyone think about two parts communicating with each other when there is complete lack of knowledge about the nature of one of them? The lack of knowledge, particularly in the learned world, about the whole nature of the soul may be seen from the fact that some people think it is something ethereal, others something flame-like or fiery, others something existing purely on the level of thought, others a general life-force, and others some natural force. Still greater lack of knowledge about what the soul may be is demonstrated by the varying places in the body to which people assign it. Some assign it to the heart, others to the brain - some to its fibres, others to the corpora striata, others to its ventricles, and others to its tiny glands. Others assign it to every part of the body, but these people's conception is of a vitality like that common to everything that has life in it. From this it is evident that people know nothing at all about the soul. This is the reason why the ideas they have peddled around regarding the soul are all guesswork. And since for this reason they cannot have any idea of what the soul is, very many cannot do other than suppose that it is no more than vitality that is dissipated when the body dies. This now explains why the learned have less belief than the simple in a life after death; and because they have no belief in it they cannot have any belief in anything belonging to that life, that is, in the celestial and spiritual realities constituting faith and love. This is also evident from the Lord's words in Matthew,

You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to young children. Matthew 11:15.

And again,

Those who see do not see, and those who hear do not hear, nor do they understand. Matthew 13:13.

For the simple do not think at all about the soul in the way that the learned do but believe that they will be alive after death. Concealed within their simple faith, though they are not conscious of it, is the belief that they will live there as people, seeing the angels, talking to them, and being filled with joy.