1381. Souls and spirits who have not yet been allotted a permanent position in the universal human travel to different places, now here, now there; now they appear on one side and now on another; now up, now down. They are called roaming souls or spirits and resemble fluids in the human body that travel from the stomach, at one moment into the head, at another to other places, and remain on the move. 1 That is how these spirits act before they arrive at their designated place — a place suited to their overall state. It is their state that changes and wanders in this way.
Footnotes:
1. Apparently the "fluids ... that travel from the stomach" are the digested constituents of food that flow through the bloodstream. The spirits described here may be those mentioned in §§5173-5174; in an extended analog to human bodily processes, they are purified and become chyle, a fatty liquid that is drawn off the food passing through the intestines, then move from there into the blood and thus throughout the body. See also the further discussion of the spirits that correspond to the stomach of the universal human in §§5175-5179; Spiritual Experiences (Swedenborg 1998-2002) §§1021-1022, 1033-1035, 1742. [Editors]
