THE HUMAN MIND

Definitions

1. It is the spirit see Divine Providence 196; 299; cf. Divine Love and Wisdom 199, 386, 387

2. Its laws are those of the spiritual world Divine Providence 299, 300. Cf. Divine Providence 307

a. Notice how the mind obeys those laws - time flies when you're having fun. The wish for spiritual distance. Turning our backs on the Lord - people forget Him or eternity soon after coming into eternity.

b. Positives - the ability of the mind to feel close to a far off loved one.

c. The mind is never old - for its laws are eternal.

3. The mind is spiritual, and the body is its external. Cf. Interaction of the Soul and Body 14; Heaven and Hell 356.

4. It is the intermediate between the soul and the body Conjugial Love 101; Interaction of the Soul and Body 8e

5. It is made up of will and understanding. Divine Love and Wisdom 372 et al.

a. These are now separated, but in the other world they are conjoined again Heaven and Hell 425; Arcana Coelestia 8250.

What makes up the mind?

1. Spiritual substances. Divine Love and Wisdom 257.

2. Made up, not of 102-odd elements, but of our loves and truths Divine Love and Wisdom 372; cf. Divine Providence 326:3; Arcana Coelestia 4390

3. Our affections and thoughts. Interaction of the Soul and Body 8

4. The human mind is nothing but a form of Divine good and Divine truth spiritually and naturally organized. True Christian Religion 224

5. The truth of faith and the good of charity constitute his more interior mind Arcana Coelestia 6158.

6. The soul is a superior spiritual substance, and receives influx immediately from God; the mind, an inferior spiritual substance, receives it from God mediately through the spiritual world. Interaction of the Soul and Body 8e.

7. Thus there are three influences on the mind: the soul, the spiritual world, and the natural world. Interaction of the Soul and Body 8.

a. Note the term natural nearly always refers to what comes to us through our senses, or through our heredity.

b. The term spiritual means what is living. It has spirit within it. Divine Providence 321.

So, what does this mean?

1. Think of knowledges as real substances.

2. They gather around affections. Bound into bundles around affection True Christian Religion 38.

a. The initial way we learn of something is from many different sources. Affections pull them together

b. First natural affections, later spiritual affections.

3. The mind has extension. It is like a landscape. When you learn new things, a new field opens up, and it grows grass and trees and flowers, and is peopled with animals and birds.

4. Think of a little child's mind as an empty space.

a. At first, its goods are a delight in toys, a love for his parents, a need for security, etc.

b. Note the hierarchy. Even to a little child, the security and love are more important than the toys.

c. As it learns, it receives fields into its mental landscape.

5. Journey to Brazil, Japan. A new field, a new set of affections and thoughts.

6. Get married, have a child, become grandparents, retire. Each opens up new vistas.

7. And when we are being regenerated, new loves are born of the Lord from within, creating new realms.

a. For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.

Can the mind be organized around the wrong affections?

1. Yes, indeed. We can learn the truths of the Writings because we are vain, and we are proud of ourselves above others. Then those truths gather around a selfish, maybe an evil affection.

2. Think of the great scientists who have used science for evil.

3. Such a mind, instead of being a heaven in least form, is a hell.

Memory

1. All memories are the storehouse of a sense impression (or a thought) together with the affection that belongs to it.

2. Note that through regeneration the memory is reorganized. We learned for bad reasons, and then the truths are shaken up and rearranged around good affections.

Degrees of the Mind

1. The mind is composed of discrete degrees of life

a. Delight in friendship is natural

b. Delight in love is spiritual

c. Things that belong to friendship are natural - communication, trust, shared ideas about values of this earth

d. Those that belong to love are spiritual - are not really articulate on this earth.

e. Degrees of attraction to the opposite sex.

2. Most general are natural, spiritual, celestial. cf. Divine Love and Wisdom 222, 236; 186, et al.

3. There are three degrees of the natural, and they are opened by education.

4. The higher degrees are opened by regeneration. Divine Love and Wisdom 237; Conjugial Love 305.

5. Note that the natural degree cannot flow into or order the higher degree, but the reverse can happen! It is called regeneration

a. A natural illustration: the rational mind can see that the sun doesn't set (while still enjoying the appearance that it does); but as Galileo found to his cost, the sensuous mind can only see the evidence on its level of thought.

6. The three degrees of the mind correspond to the three heavens. Divine Love and Wisdom 186; 239.

7. The spiritual mind is closed because of hereditary evil. It has to be opened by regeneration. Divine Love and Wisdom 269, 138, 270

8. How are the degrees of the mind opened? By receiving terminations into themselves. Arcana Coelestia 5145.

Summary

1. The whole education process is to allow the mind to assume an ordered form. If it comes to adult life in such a form, then it is prepared for regeneration.

2. The affections around which truths are arranged in the natural mind will be orderly, natural affections. These affections will have affinity for each other.

3. The truths in the interior mind will be remains, ordered around heavenly affections for truth. Inmostly there will be affections for good.

4. Through obedience to the Lord, and the temptations that follow, those natural affections become re-ordered around the spiritual affections which flow from within.

a. Note that there are spiritual affections hidden inside natural ones, because the natural ones correspond to spiritual ones!

b. The negative natural affections will be cast out. This is the story of the butler and the baker in Egypt.

5. Finally, this means that we cannot teach a spiritual truth! We can teach a natural truth which contains a spiritual one within, but only the Lord can inspire that life of truth from within and make it spiritual, living, in another person's mind! Divine Love and Wisdom 237; Arcana Coelestia 3185; 3207; cf. 5580, et al.

3207. 'And she took a veil and covered herself means appearances of truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'a veil', with which brides used to cover their faces when they first saw their bridegroom, as appearances of truth. For among the ancients brides represented affections for truth and bridegrooms affections for good. Or what amounted to the same, they represented the Church which was called 'the bride' by virtue of the affection for truth, while the affection for good received from the Lord was 'the bridegroom', on which account the Lord Himself is called the bridegroom in various places in the Word. Brides veiled their faces when first approaching their bridegroom to represent appearances of truth. Appearances of truth are not truths in themselves but are such as have the appearance of being truths, regarding which something is said below. The affection for truth cannot approach the affection for good except by means of appearances of truth, and these it does not discard until it is joined to it. Once joined it becomes truth wedded to good and becomes genuine truth to the extent the good is genuine.

[2] Good itself is holy because it is the Divine proceeding from the Lord, and flows in by a higher path or entrance within man. But truth, so far as its origin is concerned, is not holy because it flows in by a lower path or entrance, and at first belongs to the natural man. But when it is raised up from the natural man towards the rational man it is gradually purified, and at first sight of the affection for good is separated from facts, takes to itself the appearances of truth, and in this guise approaches good. This is a sign of the nature of its origins and that it could not endure the first sight of Divine good until it had entered the bridegroom's chamber, which was the sanctuary of good, and the two had become joined together. At that point truth no longer beholds good from or through appearances, but is beheld by good without any appearances.

[3] But it should be recognized that no truths with man, nor even with an angel, are ever pure, that is, free of appearances. Every single one is an appearance of the truth, but appearances are nevertheless accepted by the Lord as truths if they hold good within them. To the Lord alone do pure truths, being Divine truths, belong - for as the Lord is Good itself, so is He Truth itself. See however what has been stated already about truths and appearances of truth:

The coverings and the veils of the Tent of Meeting meant appearances of truth, 2576.

Truths with man are appearances steeped in illusions, 2053.

Rational concepts are appearances of truth, 2516.

Truths exist within appearances, 2196, 2203, 2209, 2242.

Divine good flows into appearances, and even into illusions, 2554.

Appearances of truth are adapted by the Lord as though they were truths, 1832.

In the Word things are expressed in accord with appearances, 1838.

What appearances are however becomes quite clear from those places in the Word where things are expressed according to appearances. But there are different degrees of appearances of truth. Natural appearances of truth are for the most part illusions, but when they reside with people who are governed by good they ought not in their case to be called illusions but appearances, and even in some respects truths, for good is held within them which holds the Divine within itself and causes them to be different in essence. Rational appearances of truth however are more and more interior. These occur in heaven, that is to say, they exist with angels who are in heaven; see 2576.

[4] To have some idea of what the appearances of truth are let the following serve by way of illustration:

i. Man supposes that he is reformed and regenerated by means of the truth of faith, but this is an appearance. He is reformed and regenerated by means of the good of faith, that is, by means of charity towards the neighbour and love to the Lord.

ii. Man supposes that because truth teaches, truth enables him to perceive what is good; but this is an appearance. It is good that enables truth to perceive, for good is the soul or life of truth.

iii. Man supposes that truth leads to good when he lives according to the truth he has learned; but it is good which flows into truth and leads truth towards itself.

iv. To man it seems as though truth perfects good, when in fact good perfects truth.

v. To man it seems as though the good actions of life are the fruits of faith, but they are the fruits of charity.

From these few illustrations one can know in some measure what appearances of truth are. Such appearances are countless.