156. (vi) A PERSON'S SPIRIT IS HIS MIND, AND WHATEVER COMES FROM IT.

A person's spirit, regarded as an object, is nothing but his mind. It is this which lives on after death, and it is then called a spirit; if he is good, an angelic spirit and later an angel, if wicked, a satanic spirit and afterwards a Satan. Everyone's mind is his internal man, which is the real person and resides within the external man composed of his body. So when the body is cast off as the result of death, the internal man has a fully human form. Those, then, are in error who believe that a person's mind resides only in his head. There it is only in its beginnings, from which first emerge everything a person's understanding allows him to think and his will induces him to do. But in the body the mind is present in derivatives from those beginnings, and these have been so constructed as to permit sensation and action. Since it is inwardly attached to the bodily structures, it imparts to them sensation and movement, together with a feeling that the body thinks and acts of itself. Yet every intelligent person knows that this is a fallacy. Now since a person's spirit is allowed by his understanding to think and is induced by his will to act, and the body does not do so of itself but from the spirit, it follows that a person's spirit means his intelligence and the affection of his love, and everything which comes from it and acts.

[2] There are numerous passages in the Word to prove that a person's spirit means such things as are to do with the mind; their mere quotation will show anyone that this is so. The following are a few among many:

Bezaleel was filled with the spirit of wisdom, intelligence and knowledge, Exodus 31:3.

Nebuchadnezzar said of Daniel that an outstanding spirit of knowledge, intelligence and wisdom was in him, Daniel 5:12, 14.

Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom, Deuteronomy 34:9.

Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, Ezekiel 18:31.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for of such is the kingdom of the heavens, Matthew 5:3.

I dwell in a broken and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, Isaiah 57:15.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, Psalms 51:17.

I will give a cloak of praise in place of a depressed spirit, Isaiah 61:3.

Spirit also stands for the products of a wrong and unjust mind, as these passages prove:

He said to the foolish prophets, who run after their own spirit, Ezekiel 13:3.

Conceive chaff, bring forth stubble; as to your spirit, fire shall devour you, Isaiah 33:11.

A man who is in spirit a vagabond and utters a lie, Micah 2:11.

A generation whose spirit is not steadfast with God, Psalms 78:8.

A spirit of whoring, Hosea 4:12; 5:4.

That every heart may melt and every spirit be depressed, Ezekiel 21:7.

That which rises upon your spirit shall never be, Ezekiel 20:32.

Provided there is no deceit in his spirit, Psalms 32:2.

The spirit of Pharaoh was troubled, Genesis 41:8.

Likewise that of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel 2:3.

These and very many other passages plainly establish that spirit means a person's mind and what is to do with it.

9656. 'And they shall be paired from below, and at the same time paired up to its head' means a joining together from without and from within. This is clear from the meaning of 'being paired' as being made to act jointly; from the meaning of 'from below' as from without, since the Word portrays what exists outwardly as that which is below, and what exists inwardly as that which is above, 3084, 4599, 5146, 8325 (so that things deep down are more outward and those high up more inward, 2148, 4210, 4599); and from the meaning of 'the head', in the expression 'from below up to the head', as from within. The reason why 'the head' has this meaning is that the head is above the body, and by things above are meant those that are inward, as has just been stated; and in addition to this a person's inward powers are located in the head, for in it reside the beginnings of the senses and motions, and the beginnings are inmost because they are the source from which everything else flows. These beginnings are like wellsprings from which streams of water flow.

[2] This also goes to explain why inward things are portrayed in the Word as 'the head', as in Isaiah,

Jehovah will cut off from Israel head and tail, the branch and the bulrush in one day. Isaiah 9:14.

In the same prophet,

There will not be for Egypt [any] work which the head and tail, branch and bulrush will do. Isaiah 19:15.

This refers to the Church, the inward things of which are 'the head' and the outward ones 'the tail'.

[3] In the same prophet,

On all heads there is baldness; every beard is shaved off. Isaiah 15:2.

'Baldness on heads' stands for the absence of good and truth in inward things, 'beard shaved off' for the absence of good and truth in outward things. In Jeremiah,

You will be put to shame by Egypt, as you were put to shame by Asshur, and your hands will be on your head. For Jehovah has loathed your defences. Jeremiah 2:36-37.

This describes shame on account of the loss of the Church's forms of good and its truths, brought about by factual knowledge and by reasonings based on it, 'Egypt' being factual knowledge and 'Asshur' reasoning based on it. 'Hands on head' stands for covering over inward things owing to shame. Something similar occurs elsewhere in the same prophet,

They were put to shame and subjected to ignominy, and they covered their heads. Jeremiah 14:3-4; 2 Samuel 13:19.