5339. 'And in the seven years of abundance of corn the land yielded bunches' means initial states when series of truths were multiplied. This is clear from the meaning of 'seven years' as initial states (for seven years in which there was an abundance of corn came first, followed by seven years in which there was famine - 'years' meaning states, see 482, 487, 488, 493, 893); from the meaning of 'an abundance of corn' as a multiplication of truth, dealt with in 5276, 5280, 5292 ('the land yielded' meaning that this multiplication took place in the natural - 'the land' here being the natural, as immediately above in 5338); and from the meaning of 'bunches' as series.

The role which the series meant by 'bunches' play is this: With a person who is undergoing reformation general truths are introduced first, then the particular aspects of those general truths, and after that the specific details of these particular aspects. Particular aspects are ranged in order beneath general truths, and specific details beneath particular aspects, 2384, 3057, 4269, 4325 (end), 4329 (middle), 4345, 4383, 5208.

[2] These arrays or ordered arrangements of truths are meant in the Word by bundles, which at this point are called handfuls or 'bunches'. They are nothing else than truths which have been multiplied and are then arrayed in or arranged into series. With people who are regenerate these series follow the same ordered patterns as those in which the communities in heaven exist; but in the case of those who are not regenerate and are incapable of becoming such they follow the patterns in which the communities in hell exist. Consequently a person who is governed by evil, and by falsity rooted in evil, is a miniature hell, whereas one who is governed by good, and by truth rooted in good, is a miniature heaven. But more, in the Lord's Divine mercy, will be stated elsewhere about these series.

4325. The activity of the senses in general, or general sensory activity, is divided into voluntary and involuntary. Voluntary sensory activity belongs properly to the cerebrum, but involuntary to the cerebellum. These two forms of general sensory activity are combined in the human being; yet they are distinct and separate. The fibres which issue from the cerebrum establish voluntary sensory activity in general, and the fibres which do so from the cerebellum establish involuntary. The fibres from these two sources combine together in the two appendages called the medulla oblongata and the medulla spinalis, and through these pass into the body and there shape its members, viscera, and organs. The parts which envelop the body, such as muscles and skin, and also the sensory organs, for the most part receive fibres from the cerebrum, and through these a person has sensory awareness and also movement controlled by his conscious will. But the parts which are contained within that outer envelopment or enclosure and which are called the viscera of the body receive fibres from the cerebellum, and therefore a person does not experience any feeling in these, and they are not subject to his conscious will. This shows something of what sensory activity in general is, that is, what general sensory activity is, both voluntary and involuntary. In addition it should be recognized that the general whole must exist first before any individual part can do so; that no individual part can possibly come into being and be kept in being without the general whole, and indeed that it is kept in being within this; and that every individual part is conditioned by the nature and state of the general whole. The same applies to sensory activity in the human being, and also to movements.