Arcana Coelestia volume 7 - Swedenborg Foundation

ARCANA COELESTIA 4106unbearable. Those of them who correspond to the viscous phlegmof less vitality then keep the thought fixed in these anxieties.Moreover, when I have been in discourse with them, in order toknow their quality, they tried in various ways to burden theconscience. This had been the delight of their life; and it was givenme to notice that they cannot attend to reasons, and that they donot possess that more universal view of things that would enablethem to see the singular ones.5725. It has been granted me to learn by experience what aninundation or deluge is in the spiritual sense. Such an inundation istwofold, one of yearnings, and the other of falsities. That which isof yearnings belongs to the will part, and is on the right side of thebrain; but that which is of falsities belongs to the intellectual part,in which is the left side of the brain. When a man who has lived ingood is remitted into his own, thus into the sphere of his own life,there then appears as it were an inundation; and when he is in thisinundation he is indignant, angry, thinks restlessly, desiresimpetuously. This takes place in one way when the left side of thebrain where there are falsities is inundated, and in another whenthe right side where evils are is inundated. But when the man iskept in the sphere of life which he had received from the Lord byregeneration, he is then entirely out of such an inundation, and isas it were in a serene and sunny, cheerful and happy state, thus farfrom indignation, anger, unrest, yearnings, and the like. This is themorning or springtime of spirits; the other is their evening orautumn. It was given me to perceive that I was outside thisinundation, and this for quite a long time; while I saw that otherspirits were in it. Afterward, however, I myself was immersed, andthen I noticed the appearance of an inundation. In such aninundation are they who are in temptations. By it too I wasinstructed what the “flood” signifies in the Word—that the lastposterity of the most ancient people, who were of the Lord’scelestial church, were completely inundated with evils and falsities,and thus perished.5726. As death is from no other source than sin, and sin is allthat which is contrary to Divine order, therefore evil closes the very