5340. And he gathered together all the food of the seven years. That this signifies the preservation of truth adjoined to good multiplied during the first times, is evident from the signification of “gathering together,” as here being to preserve; for he gathered it together and put it in the cities and in the midst, and by this is signified that he stored it up in the interiors, thus that he preserved it, for it came into use in the years of famine; and from the signification of “food,” as being all that by which the internal man is nourished. That this is good and truth, is evident from the correspondence of the earthly food by which the outward man is nourished, with the spiritual food by which the internal man is nourished. Here therefore it is truth adjoined to good, for this is what is preserved and stored up in the interiors.

By the “seven years” are signified the first states when truths are multiplied (n. 5339). From this it is plain that the preservation of truth adjoined to good, multiplied during the first times, is signified by “he gathered together all the food of the seven years.” It is said “the preservation of truth adjoined to good,” but as few know what truth adjoined to good is, and still less how and when truth is adjoined to good, something must be said about it. Truth is conjoined with good when a man feels delight in doing well to the neighbor for the sake of what is true and good, and not for the sake of self or the world. When a man is in this affection, the truths he hears or reads or thinks are conjoined with good, as is usually noticeable from the affection of truth for the sake of that end.

5189. Some spirits once came in front of me, though not before I had detected a sphere emanating from those who were evil. That sphere led me to suppose that those who were approaching were evil spirits, but in fact they were the enemies of such spirits. I gathered they were their enemies from the antagonistic and hostile feeling they showed towards them. As they came they positioned themselves overhead and addressed me, saying that they were men (homo). I replied that they were not men endowed with bodies like those which people in the world possess, who are accustomed to call themselves men because of the form their bodies take, but that they were nevertheless men because a person's spirit is in a true sense the man. I detected no objection to this, for they supported what I had said and went on to say that they were men who were all different from one another. Because it seemed impossible to me that a community of people who were all different from one another could exist in the next life, I therefore discussed the matter with them. I said that if a common cause were to make them a unified whole they could form a community, since they would all accordingly have the same end in view. They then said that they were by nature such that each individual spoke differently from all the rest and yet all thought alike. This they also demonstrated by examples, from which it could be seen that the perception of all was the same but that their utterances were diverse.

[2] After this they spoke into my left ear, saying that they were good spirits and that this was their normal manner of speaking. I was told that these spirits arrive on the scene in large numbers, and that it is not known where they come from. I perceived that the sphere of the evil spirits was extremely hostile towards them, for evil spirits are subjected by them to harrying. Their community, which is a wandering one, was represented by a man and a woman in a room, dressed in a garment that was turned into a robe of bright blue. I perceived that they correlated with the Isthmus in the brain, which lies between the cerebrum and the cerebellum and through which fibres pass to spread out in various directions, acting in different ways wherever they go in external parts. In addition I perceived that they correlated with the Ganglia in the body into which nerves pass and from where they are distributed into numerous fibres, some of which go one way, others another, and in the outermost parts act in differing ways; yet they all have the same starting-point. Thus in the outermost parts they are seen to be different from one another; but so far as the end in view is concerned they are all alike. It is also a well known fact that a single force acting within the extremities can be made to vary in all kinds of ways, depending on the form those extremities take. Ends in view are also represented by the starting-points of fibres, like such starting-points in the brain, in which the fibres originate. The thoughts arising out of those ends are represented by the fibres leading from those starting-points, and the consequent actions by the nerves that are made up of the fibres.