565. This leads to a description of the person who is rational and moral in a purely natural way. Regarded in essence he is sensual, and if he continues so, he becomes bodily or fleshly. This description will take the form of a sketch divided into sections. 1
The sensual is the lowest level of life in the human mind, firmly attached to and bound up with the five bodily senses. The term 'sensual man' is applied to a person whose every judgment relies upon the bodily senses, and who believes nothing but what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands, regarding these things as real and rejecting all else.
The interiors of his mind, which would allow him to see by the light of heaven, are shut off, so that he can see no truth at all that has to do with heaven and the church. Such a person thinks at the most superficial level with no inward enlightenment from any spiritual light, because he experiences the gross light of nature. Consequently he is inwardly opposed to anything to do with heaven or the church, even though outwardly he can speak in their favour, and with passion if he seeks power over others and wealth by their means. Educated and learned people who have become deeply convinced of false ideas are more sensual than others, the more so if they oppose the truths of the Word.
[2] Sensual men are sharp and clever in reasoning, because their thought is so close to their speech that it is virtually in it, being, so to speak, on their lips; and because in speaking they regard all intelligence as based solely on memory. They are clever at proving false ideas, and having done so believe them to be true. But their reasoning and proofs are based upon illusions produced by the senses, and these serve to attract the attention of and persuade ordinary people.
Sensual men surpass others in trickery and malice. Misers, adulterers and tricksters are especially sensual, even though they seem talented to the world's gaze. The interiors of their minds are foul and filthy, since through them they are in touch with the hells. In the Word they are called dead. The spirits in the hells are sensual, and the deeper their hell, the more sensual they are. The sphere emanating from spirits in hell links itself to a person's sensual faculty from behind. In the light of heaven the backs of their heads look as if hollowed out. Those whose reasoning has been based solely upon sense impressions were called by the ancients serpents of the tree of knowledge.
[3] Sense impressions should occupy the last place, not the first; in the case of a wise and intelligent person they do come last and are subject to what is more interior. But in the case of an unwise person they occupy the first place and dominate him.
If sense impressions are in the last place, they serve to open the way to the understanding, and truths are refined by the method by which they are extracted. These sense impressions are very close to the world and allow in what comes from the world, and they, so to speak, sift them. Sense impressions put a person in touch with the world, rational notions in touch with heaven. Sense impressions supply such things as may be of service to the interiors of the mind. There are sense impressions which supply the intellectual part and others which supply the voluntary part.
If thought is not raised above the level of sense impressions, a person's wisdom is very restricted. When a person's thought is raised above this level, he comes into brighter illumination, and eventually into the light of heaven, so that then he can perceive such ideas as flow down from heaven. The lowest level of the understanding is natural factual knowledge, the lowest level of the will the pleasure of the senses.
Fotnoter:
1. The following sketch repeats much of what was said in 402 above.
