10156. 'Who brought them out of the land of Egypt' means salvation from hell by the Lord. This is clear from the meaning of 'being brought out of the land of Egypt' as being delivered from hell, dealt with in 8866, 9197, thus being saved. 'The land of Egypt' means hell because that land in its true and proper sense means the natural level and the factual knowledge there; and 'being brought out of' the natural man and the factual knowledge there and being raised to the level of the spiritual man, to intelligence and wisdom there, also constitutes being brought out of hell. For a person is born natural, but becomes spiritual through regeneration; and if he does not become spiritual he is in hell. The knowledge which the natural man, that is, a person who has not been regenerated, possesses dwells in the light of the world, whereas the intelligence which the spiritual man, that is, a person who has been regenerated, possesses dwells in the light of heaven. And as long as a person sees things solely in the light of the world he is in hell; but when he sees them at the same time in the light of heaven he is in heaven.

[2] But people who possess no more than natural knowledge and as a consequence do not see things in any light other than the light of the world can have no belief at all in the things that belong to heaven. Furthermore if they wish to investigate these things with the light they see by, called natural illumination, they encounter a kind of thick darkness which blinds them and blots out everything heavenly. For that in the mind which appears to be thick darkness is in reality such. This explains why a merely natural man, however much he thinks himself to be more enlightened than others, at heart rejects Divine and heavenly realities. It is also the reason why so many learned people are made brainless by their knowledge; for more of them than of simple people refuse to accept the things that constitute the faith of the Church and of heaven. It is different with those who allow themselves to be raised by the Lord to the light of heaven. These are first raised above the factual knowledge which the natural man possesses, and then in the light of heaven they behold the things within their natural man, which are called known facts, and clearly distinguish them, choosing those that make sense and are consistent, and rejecting or setting aside those that make no sense and are inconsistent.

[3] In short, the situation is that as long as a person is merely natural his interiors, which behold things in the light of heaven, are closed, and his exteriors, which behold things in the light of the world, are open. At this time the person looks downwards, that is, to the world and towards self; for everything composing his will and thought inclines in that direction. And the direction in which a person looks is also that in which his heart, that is, his will and his love, is turned. But when a person becomes spiritual his interiors, which behold things in the light of heaven, are opened, and then the person looks upwards, which is brought about through his being raised up by the Lord, so that he looks to heaven and towards the Lord. In this direction also everything that composes his will and his thought - thus his heart, that is, his love - is raised.

[4] For the human being has been created in such a way that his internal man should conform to an image of heaven, and his external man to an image of the world, 6057, 9279, to the end that heaven and the world might be brought together in the human being. Thus through him the Lord would flow from heaven into the world and govern it, with each individual person in particular and with all in general, and in this way would join the two together and thereby cause the likeness of heaven to exist in the world as well. When however a person is interested only in the world heaven with him has been closed; but when he allows himself to be raised by the Lord heaven with him is opened and the world becomes subordinate to it. And when this happens hell is separated and removed from him, at which point the person knows what good is and what evil is, but not before. This is what is called 'the image of God' with a person, Genesis 1:26-27.

[5] These matters have been stated in order that people may know what the spiritual man is and what the natural man is, and that the merely natural man, if he is not made spiritual by the Lord, is an embodiment of hell, consequently that they may know why hell is meant by 'Egypt', when yet the natural level and the factual knowledge there are meant by it.

'Egypt' means factual knowledge, see the places referred to in 9340.

It therefore means the natural level, see those referred to in 9391.

It also means hell, 8866, 9197.

5114. 'And on the vine three shoots' means derivatives from this even to the final one. This is clear from the meaning of 'the vine' as the understanding part, dealt with immediately above in 5113; from the meaning of 'three' as complete and continuous even to the end, dealt with in 2788, 4495; and from the meaning of 'shoots' as derivatives; for since 'the vine' means the understanding part, 'shoots' means nothing else than derivatives from this. Because 'three' means that which is continuous even to the end, that is, which goes from first to last, 'three shoots' means derivative degrees extending from the understanding part to the final level, which is that of the senses. The first in the sequence is the actual understanding part, and the last is the senses. In general the understanding part is the sight which the internal man possesses and which sees by the light of heaven radiating from the Lord; and everything it sees is spiritual or celestial. But the senses, in general, belong to the external man; and here the sensory power of sight is meant because this corresponds to and is subordinate to the understanding part. The sensory power of sight sees by the light of the world radiating from the sun; and everything it sees is worldly, bodily, or earthly.

[2] In the human being there exist derivatives from the understanding part that dwells in the light of heaven; and they extend to the senses which dwell in the light of the world. Unless these derivatives existed the senses could not possess any life of a human quality. A person does not owe the life which his senses possess to what he sees by the light of the world, for the light of the world holds no life within it; he owes it to what he sees by the light of heaven, for this light does hold life within it. When the light of heaven falls on the perceptions a person has gained by the light of the world, it brings life to them and enables him to see objects in an intelligent manner, and thus as a human being. In this way a person possessing factual knowledge born from things which he has seen and heard in the world, and therefore from those which have entered in through the senses, comes to possess intelligence and wisdom, on which in turn he bases his public, private, and spiritual life.

[3] As regards derivatives specifically, the nature of their existence in a person is such that no brief explanation of them is possible. They exist as degrees, like steps, from the understanding part down to the senses. But no one can have any conception of those degrees unless he knows how they are related to one another, that is to say, that they are quite distinct and separate from one another, so distinct that interior degrees can come into being and remain in being without exterior ones, but not exterior degrees without interior ones. For example, a person's spirit can remain in being without a material body, as it also actually does when death separates it from the body. For a person's spirit exists in an interior degree, his body in an exterior one. Similarly with a person's spirit after death. If he is one of the blessed his spirit exists in a final and outermost degree when in the first heaven; in a more interior degree when in the second; and in the inmost one when in the third. When it exists in the inmost it exists at the same time in the other degrees, though these are inactive with him, almost as the human body is inactive during sleep, but with this difference that interiorly angels are at such times fully awake. Therefore as many distinct and separate degrees exist in the human being as there are heavens, apart from the final one, which is the body and the bodily senses.

[4] From all this regarding a person's spirit one may gain some idea of the way derivatives are related to one another from the first to the final one, that is, from the understanding part to the senses. A person's life, which he receives from the Lord's Divine, passes through these degrees from the inmost to the final one. At every degree there exists a derivative of that life which becomes increasingly general, until in the final degree it is the most general. Derivatives in the lower degrees are merely combinations - or to put it more appropriately, structured forms - of the individual and particular constituents of the higher degrees ranged consecutively, with the addition of the kinds of things drawn from purer nature, and after that from grosser nature, that can serve as containing vessels. Once these vessels are done away with, the individual and particular constituents of the higher degrees, which had received form in those vessels, move back to the degree immediately above. And because in the case of the human being there is a link with the Divine, and his inmost being is such that it can accept the Divine - and not only accept but also make Him its own, by acknowledging and having an affection for the Divine, thus by a reciprocal response to Him - and because he thereby has the Divine implanted within him, he can never die. Indeed what is eternal and infinite exists with him, not only through their flowing into him but also through his reception of them.

[5] From this one may see how uninformed and senseless in their thinking regarding the human being those people are who compare him to animals and imagine that he will not be alive after death any more than they are. Such people do not take into consideration the fact that with animals there is no acceptance of the Divine or any acknowledgement or affection leading to a reciprocal response to the Divine by making Him their own, or any consequent joining to Him. Nor do those people take into consideration the fact that, as the animal state is like this, the recipient forms of life which these possess are inevitably dissipated; for with animals that which flows into them passes through their organic forms into the world, where it comes to an end and melts away, never to make any return there.