Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 9110

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9110. From the above experience it was also made evident that the natural man cannot introduce himself into the spiritual, that is, ascend. But when a man is in faith and consequently in spiritual life, and is thinking, then the spiritual man descends, that is, thinks in the natural. For there is spiritual influx, that is, influx from the spiritual world into the natural, but not the reverse. (That physical influx is quite contrary to order, and contrary to nature, thus is impossible, see n. 3721, 5119, 5259, 5779, 6322, 8237.) Wherefore when the natural man that has been separated from the internal, comes into the sphere of spiritual life, he is seized first with blindness, then with insanity, and finally with anguish. It is also for this reason that those who are in hell have no inclination to look toward heaven (n. 4225, 4226, 8137, 8265, 8945, 8946).


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