1384. Wat de eerste soort betreft, die de engelen eigen is, en daarin bestaat, dat zij innerlijk gewaarworden, wat waar en goed is, en gewaarworden wat van de Heer komt, en wat van henzelf, en verder ook van waar en hoedanig datgene is wat zij denken, spreken en doen, wanneer het uit henzelf komt. Het werd mij gegeven met de zonen van de Oudste Kerk te spreken over hun innerlijke gewaarwording; zij zeiden dat zij niets uit zichzelf denken of denken kunnen, en niets uit zichzelf willen, maar dat zij bij alles, wat zij in het algemeen en in het bijzonder denken en willen en gewaarworden, wat van de Heer en wat van elders komt, en dat zij niet alleen gewaarworden, hoeveel van de Heer en hoeveel als van henzelf komt, maar ook, wanneer iets als van henzelf komt, waar het dan vandaan komt, van welke engelen, en verder van welke aard die engelen zijn, van welke aard hun gedachten, met alle verscheidenheid, en zo dus welke invloed het is, en ontelbare andere dingen meer. De innerlijke gewaarwording van deze soort zijn van een grote verscheidenheid; bij de hemelse engelen, die in de liefde tot de Heer zijn, bestaat een innerlijke gewaarwording van het goede en vandaar van al wat tot het ware behoort, en omdat zij uit het goede het ware gewaarworden, laten zij niet toe dat er gesproken, nog minder dat er geredeneerd wordt over het ware, maar zij zeggen: zo is het of zo is het niet. De geestelijke engelen echter, die ook innerlijke gewaarwording hebben, maar niet van dien aard als de hemelse engelen, spreken over het ware en het goede; niettemin worden zij het ware en het goede gewaar, maar met onderscheid, want de verscheidenheden van deze innerlijke gewaarwording zijn ontelbaar. De verscheidenheden rusten hierop, dat zij gewaarworden of iets komt van de wil van de Heer, of dat Hij het vergunt, of dat Hij het toelaat, waartussen een scherp onderscheid ligt.

4626. When any spirit is approaching, even though still a long way off and out of sight, his presence is detected, as often as the Lord allows it to be, from a certain kind of spiritual sphere. From that sphere one recognizes what his life is like, what his affection is like, and what his faith is like. Angelic spirits with keener perception know from his sphere countless things about the state of his life and faith, as has been demonstrated to me many times. When it pleases the Lord these spheres are also converted into odours; one smells quite distinctly an actual odour. The reason those spheres are converted into odours is that odour corresponds to perception and that perception is so to speak spiritual odour, from which also [natural] odour descends. But see what has been brought forward already on these matters - regarding spheres, in 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1519, 1695, 2401, 2489, 4464; perception, in 483, 495, 503, 521, 536, 1383, 1384, 1388, 1391, 1397, 1398, 1504, 1640; and odours produced by these, in 1514, 1517-1519, 1631, 3577.

3884. As the world knows nothing at all about the correspondence of heaven or the Grand Man with every individual part of man or about the truth that man comes into being and is kept in being from it, and as what is going to be said on these matters will seem paradoxical and unbelievable, let me refer to things which I have experienced and of which I am therefore firmly convinced. On one occasion when the interior heaven was opened to me and I was talking to the angels there I was allowed to observe the following activities there. (It should be realized that although I was present there in heaven I had not left my body at all, for heaven is within a person wherever he is situated. So when it pleases the Lord a person can be in heaven and yet not withdrawn from the body. In this way I was allowed to perceive the general activities of heaven as plainly as anything perceived by any of the senses.) On this particular occasion I perceived four activities taking place, the first being into the brain at the left temple. This was a general activity involving the organs of reason, for the left side of the brain corresponds to rational powers or those of the understanding, but the right to affections or powers of the will.

[2] The second general activity which I perceived was into the breathing of the lungs, which was gently controlling my own breathing. But it did so from what was interior and so I had no need to call on my own will to control my breathing or drawing of breath. I perceived plainly at that time the actual breathing of heaven. It is an internal breathing and not therefore perceptible to man, but flows in by means of a wonderful correspondence into man's breathing, which is external or of the body. And if man were deprived of that influx he would instantly fall down dead.

[3] The third activity which I perceived was into the systole and the diastole of the heart, which was at that time gentler in myself than it had ever been at any other times. The pulse rate was regular - round about three beats for every breath that was taken - yet such that beats ended in and so conditioned actions taking place in the lungs. How at the end of each breath taken the alternating actions of the heart fitted into those of the lungs I was allowed to observe to a certain extent. The alternate sounds of the pulse could be observed so easily that I was able to count them. They were separate and gentle.

[4] The fourth general activity was into the kidneys; this too I was allowed to perceive, though obscurely. From these activities it was evident that heaven or the Grand Man has heartbeats and draws breaths, and that the heartbeats of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the heart and its systolic and diastolic motions, and that the breathing actions of heaven or the Grand Man have a correspondence with the lungs and their breathing actions. But neither can be observed by man, being imperceptible because they are internal.