9284. 'It shall not be heard on your lips' means that they should not obey them or in any way affirm them. This is clear from the meaning of 'hearing' as obeying, dealt with in 2542, 3869, 4652-4660, 5017, 7216, 8361; and from the meaning of 'not being on the lips' - when it refers to teachings that present what is false, meant by 'the name of other gods' - as not affirming. The reason why the name of other gods was not to be mentioned or to be heard on their lips was in order that heavenly and Divine things which were the Lord's might be represented by all the statutes, judgements, and commandments that were decreed. And those things were indeed represented as long as they uttered Jehovah's name and worshipped Him; for then what was Divine and the Lord's was present, and heaven with Him. But when they uttered the name of other gods and worshipped them hellish things were represented, for spirits from hell were present, who wished to be worshipped as gods. This is the unceasing desire of those in hell, because self-love and love of the world reign there, see 3881 (end).

4652. CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE GRAND MAN, WHICH IS HEAVEN - continued

IN THIS SECTION THE CORRESPONDENCE OF HEARING AND OF THE EARS WITH HEAVEN

The nature of the correspondence that exists between the soul and the body - that is, between the things constituting a person's inward spirit and those constituting his outward body - may be clearly recognized from the correspondence, influx, and communication of thought and discernment, which are functions of the spirit, with speech and hearing, which are functions of the body. When a person is speaking, his thought is nothing else than the power of speech which his spirit possesses, while his discernment of speech is nothing else than the power of hearing which his spirit possesses. When a person speaks, his thought does not, it is true, present itself to him as speech because it links itself to and is present within the power of speech that his body possesses. And when he hears something his discernment of it seems to him to be simply a hearing within his ear. For this reason the majority of people who have not stopped to reflect on the matter do not know that all five senses are located somewhere else than within organs belonging to the body; so they think that when these organs cease to function through death no sensory perception remains, when in actual fact a person, that is, his spirit, then passes into a life of perfect sensory perception.

[2] The fact that it is the spirit which has the powers of speech and hearing has become quite clear to me from my conversations with spirits. Their speech was communicated to my spirit; it entered my own interior power of speech, and from there into the organs corresponding to it. What they communicated ended as an endeavour in me, which I have perceived clearly on several occasions. Consequently I have heard what they said in tones as clear as anything spoken by someone on earth. Sometimes spirits have spoken to me while I was among a group of people, and some of those spirits have imagined that, because I could hear so clearly what they - the spirits - said, those people present with me could hear them too. But I have told them that their speech was flowing into my ear by the internal route, whereas human speech comes in by the external route. From this one may see how a spirit spoke to one of the prophets - not as a man speaks to another man but as a spirit speaks to a man, that is to say, within him - as in Zechariah 1:9, 13, 19; 2:3; 4:1, 4-5; 5:5, 10; 6:4; and elsewhere. But I realize that these matters are unintelligible to people who do not believe that man is a spirit, the body serving him solely for functions to be performed in the world. Those who have become quite convinced that man is not a spirit refuse even to listen to talk about any kind of correspondence; and if they do listen they reject what they hear because they have a negative attitude Indeed they are unhappy if anything is said not to belong to the body.