7442. 'And the houses of the Egyptians will be full of the noxious flying insects, and also the land on which they are' means that malevolent falsities will take possession of everything in the natural mind. This is clear from the meaning of 'filling' as taking possession of; from the meaning of 'the houses of the Egyptians' as the interior parts of the natural mind, dealt with above in 7407; from the meaning of 'noxious flying insects' as malevolent falsities, dealt with immediately above in 7441; and from the meaning of 'the land of Egypt' as the natural mind in general, dealt with in 5276, 5178, 5180, 5288, 5301.

[2] A brief statement needs to be made about what is implied in the meaning here - by the idea that even the interior parts of the natural mind will be taken possession of by the falsities arising from evil which are present in the outermost parts of that mind. What a person has flowing into him from the Lord by way of heaven flows into the interior parts of him, and then spreads right down to the lowest or outermost levels, where he becomes conscious of it. Consequently it comes right down into the level of the senses, and through this into parts of the body. If the level of the senses is filled with mistaken ideas based on illusions and appearances, and especially if they are based on falsities, the truths that flow in are turned there into similar ideas, since they are received there in accordance with the form imposed on them, see 7743. Also to the extent that truths are turned into falsities the interior parts of the mind serving as channels for the passage of truths are closed. Eventually the opening is only just large enough for the smallest amount of influx that the person needs to engage in reasoning and to use falsities to justify evils.

[3] This being the situation with a person, it is necessary when he is being regenerated for his natural to be regenerated right down to the sensory level. For unless that level is regenerated no reception of truth and good takes place, because - as stated above - truth that is flowing in is perverted there and the interiors parts are in those circumstances closed. Consequently when the exterior parts have been regenerated the whole person has been regenerated. This was what the Lord meant by His words to Peter when He washed his feet, in John,

Simon Peter said, Lord, You are not to wash my feet only, but also my hands and head. Jesus said to him, He who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet, and the whole person is clean. John 13:9-10.

'Feet' means the parts forming the natural, 2162, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952; 'washing' means purifying, 3147, 5954 (end); 'hands' means the interior parts of the natural; and 'head' means the parts forming the spiritual. These meanings show what precisely one should understand by 'he who has been washed has no need except to wash his feet, and the whole person is clean' - that a person has been regenerated when even the exterior parts forming the natural have been regenerated. When therefore a person has had even his natural regenerated everything on that level is subordinated to more internal levels. And when the contents of the more internal levels enter they flow into images on that level which serve as the general vessels to contain them, and through those images the person is made conscious of them. When this is the situation with a person, he has conscious feelings of an affection for the truth of faith and of an affection for the good of charity.

[4] But it is difficult for the actual level of the senses, which is the lowest of the natural, to be regenerated, because it is completely filled with material ideas formed from earthly, bodily, and worldly things. For this reason a person who is being regenerated, especially at the present day, does not undergo regeneration at the sensory level, only at the natural level immediately above it, to which the Lord raises him from the level of the senses when he thinks about the truths and forms of the good of faith. The ability to be raised from the sensory level is what is imparted to the person who is being regenerated by the Lord. Regarding what the sensory level is like, and the raising of thought above it, see 5084, 5089, 5094, 5125, 5118, 5767, 6183, 6201, 6310, 6311, 6598, 6612, 6614, 6622, 6624, 6844, 6845, 6948.

233. Investigating mysteries of faith by means of facts is as impossible as it is for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, or for a rib to control the tiniest fibres of the chest and the heart. Just as gross, indeed far more gross, is what is sensory and factual in comparison with what is spiritual and celestial. Anyone who wishes to probe merely the secrets of nature, which are countless, discovers scarcely a single one, and when he starts to probe he sinks, as is well known, into falsities. What then would happen if he wished to probe the secrets of spiritual and celestial life, where thousands and thousands of secrets exist for each one contained in the unseen parts of nature?

[2] To illustrate the point, let just one example be taken. Of himself man is incapable of anything other than doing evil and turning himself away from the Lord. Yet it is not the man who does so but the evil spirits residing with him. Yet again it is not the evil spirits who do it but the evil itself which they have made their own. All the same, man does that evil and turns himself away, and is blameworthy, even though his life comes from the Lord alone. On the other hand man of himself cannot possibly do good and return to the Lord. This is accomplished by angels. Yet the angels cannot do it, but only the Lord. All the same, man is capable as if of himself of doing good and of returning to the Lord. The truth of all this cannot possibly be grasped by the senses, formulated knowledge, or philosophy. If these are consulted they deny those things outright, even though they are inherently true. And the same applies with everything else.

[3] These considerations show that people who consult sensory evidence and factual knowledge in matters of belief plunge themselves not only into doubt but also into denial, that is, into thick darkness. And in plunging into thick darkness they also become immersed in every kind of evil desire, for in believing what is false they also do what is false. And when they believe that the spiritual and the celestial do not exist they believe that only the bodily and the worldly do so. So they love anything that belongs to self and the world, and this is how evil desires and evils themselves arise out of what is false.