267. The reason angels can accept so much wisdom is that their deeper levels are open, and wisdom, like any perfection, increases as one moves toward the deeper levels and as they are opened. ¹

In every angel there are three levels of life corresponding to the three heavens (see 29-40). People whose first level has been opened are in the first or most remote heaven. People whose second level has been opened are in the second or intermediate heaven. People whose third level has been opened are in the third or inmost heaven. The wisdom of angels in heaven is according to these levels; so the wisdom of angels of the third heaven vastly transcends the wisdom of angels of the intermediate heaven, and their wisdom in turn transcends that of angels of the farthest heaven (see above, 209-210, and on the nature of the levels, see 38).

The reason for these differences is that the elements of the higher levels are detailed, and those of the lower are general, the general ones being inclusive of the details. The ratio of details to generalizations is on the order of thousands or ten thousands to one, so this is the ratio between the wisdom of angels of a higher heaven and that of angels of a lower heaven.

However, the wisdom of these latter angels similarly transcends our wisdom, for we are engrossed in our bodies and their sensory operations, and these physical sensory faculties are on the lowest level of all. This fact enables us to see the nature of the wisdom of people who base their thinking on sensory information - that is, the ones we call sense-oriented people. Specifically, they have no access to wisdom, only to information. ² It is different, though, for people whose thoughts are raised above sensory matters, and even more for people whose deeper levels have been opened all the way into heaven's light.

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6948. 'And He said, Throw it to the earth. And he threw it to the earth' means an influx of the power of the Lord's Divine Natural into the sensory level. This is clear from the meaning of 'rod' as power in the natural, and - when used in reference to the Lord - as the power emanating from His Divine Natural, dealt with immediately above in 6947; from the meaning of 'throwing', or sending forth, as emanating, which is influx; and from the meaning of 'the earth' as the external part of the human mind, dealt with in 82, 917, 1411, 1733, here the sensory and bodily levels of it, which are the most external, for the rod was made into a serpent and 'a serpent' means the sensory and bodily levels of a person's mind.

[2] By the Lord's Divine power one should here understand Divine Truth emanating from the Lord, for power resides within Divine Truth to such an extent that it is power itself, 3091, 4931, 6344, 6423. Divine Truth emanating from the Lord flows into every person by way of his interiors into his exteriors, right down into the external sensory and the bodily levels, and everywhere it flows it stirs to life things attuned to it in their proper order - on the sensory level things attuned to it such as appear in the world around and on earth. But things that exist in the world around and on earth are different in appearance from what they really are, and so they are full of illusions. When therefore the sensory level relies solely on those appearances ¹ the thought which takes place there is inevitably opposed to any good or truth of faith because that thought is based on illusions, and when Divine Truth flows in the sensory level turns it into falsity. The fact that a person's thought is based on illusions if he does not rise above the sensory level but confines himself to that Level and thinks on it can be demonstrated by the following examples:

[3] There are for instance illusions regarding a person's life - that it belongs essentially to the body, when in fact it belongs to the spirit within the body. There are illusions about sight, hearing, and speech - that they belong to the eye, ear, tongue and mouth, when in fact the spirit is what sees, hears, and speaks, through those organs of the body. Then there are illusions about life - that it is innately present in a person, when in fact it flows into him; and illusions about the soul - that it is unable to exist within a human form, or to have human senses and affections. There are also illusions about heaven and hell - that the one is above a person and the other beneath, when in fact they are within him; illusions that there is an influx from objects to interior things, when in fact what is external does not flow into what is internal, but what is internal into what is external; illusions about life after death - that it is not possible without the presence also of the physical body; not to mention illusions involving natural phenomena which lead to conflicting conjectures made by so many people.

[4] Can anyone fail to see the predominance of illusions and consequently of falsities over truths simply from the dispute that had gone on for a long time about the circulation of the blood, which in spite of so much convincing evidence nevertheless remained open to doubt for a long time? That predominance of illusions may also be recognized from the dispute about the sun, that it revolved each day around this earth, and not only the sun but also the moon, all the planets, and the whole starry sky, and from the dispute which continues to exist regarding the soul - how it is joined to the body, and where it is seated there. When the illusions of the senses prevail in such matters, even though the true nature of these is evident from so many phenomena and effects, how much more will they prevail in the kinds of things that belong to heaven, which, being spiritual ones, do not make themselves plain except by means of correspondences?

[5] From all this one may now see what the sensory level of a person's mind is like regarded in itself and left to itself - that it is full of illusions and consequently falsities and so is opposed to the truth or good of faith. This is why when a person does not rise above the sensory level and sees things in the inferior light which shines on that level he is completely in the dark so far as things belonging to the spiritual world are concerned, that is, things which dwell in light from the Divine. And that inferior light on a sensory level is turned into thick and utter darkness when light from heaven penetrates it. The reason for this is that truths which belong to Divine light cannot exist together with illusions and consequent falsities; it snuffs them out and in so doing causes thick darkness.

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5146. 'And in the highest basket' means the inmost degree of the will. This is clear from the meaning of 'a basket' as a degree of the will, dealt with above in 5144; and from the meaning of 'the highest' as the inmost part, dealt with in 2148, 3084, 4599. The reason 'the highest' means the inmost part is that while a person is an inhabitant of space, interior things are seen by him as higher and exterior ones as lower. But when spatial ideas are laid aside, as happens in heaven and also in a person's interior thought, the idea of height and depth is also laid aside; for height and depth belong to spatial ideas. Indeed in the inner heaven not even the idea of interior things and exterior ones exists because even that idea has a spatial element attached to it. Rather, the idea in that heaven is of a state of greater or lesser perfection; for interior things exist within a greater state of perfection than exterior ones because interior things are nearer to the Divine and exterior ones more remote from Him. This is the reason why that which is highest means that which is inmost.

[2] Nevertheless no one can have a mental grasp of the relationship of what is interior to what is exterior unless he knows about degrees, regarding which see 3691, 4154, 5114, 5145. Man has no other notion of what is interior and consequently more perfect than the ever increasing purity of something the more one breaks it down. But greater purity and greater grossness can exist simultaneously in one and the same degree, owing not only to the expanding and condensing of it but also to the limitation of it and to the introduction of similar or else dissimilar elements into it. With an idea such as that regarding his interiors man cannot possibly do other than think that exterior things are attached in a continuous manner to interior ones, and so act entirely as one with them. But if a proper idea regarding degrees is formed one may grasp how interior and exterior things are distinct and separate from one another, so distinct that interior things can come into being and remain in being without exterior ones, whereas exterior things can never do so without interior ones. One may also grasp the nature of the correspondence of interior things within exterior ones, as well as the way in which the exterior things can represent interior ones. This explains why, other than hypothetically, the learned are unable to examine the question regarding the interaction of the soul and the body. Indeed it also explains why many of them believe that life belongs intrinsically to the body, and thus that when their body dies their interiors will die too since these are closely attached to the body. But in actual fact only the exterior degree dies; the interior degree survives and goes on living.