Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 5991

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5991. I once saw some spirits who must be called bodily or physical ones. They rose up from a deep place on the side of the sole of my right foot. It looked to the eyes of my spirit as though they inhabited thoroughly physical bodies. When I asked who spirits like these might be I was told that they were those who in the world had been clever and very knowledgeable; but they had used their knowledge entirely to reinforce themselves in their opposition to the Divine, and so to the things of the Church. And since they had become fully convinced that everything could be attributed to natural forces, they had shut themselves off more than others from interior things, thus from things of the spirit. This is why they had a thoroughly physical appearance. Among them was one whom I had known when he lived in the world. At that time he had been one of those quite renowned for their clever abilities and their learning. But that cleverness and learning, which are the means to enable a person to think clearly about Divine matters, were for that man the means to think in opposition to them and to convince himself that they were valueless. For a person well endowed with cleverness and learning has more resources for proving his ideas than others have. Consequently the one I had known was interiorly possessed, though in outward appearance he seemed to be a decent and properly-behaved person.


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