Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 6599

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6599. The situation with those who think on the level of the senses and with those who think on a level that of above the senses may now be described from experience, as may the nature of the influx into both kinds of people. But before that one should know that a person's thought consists of distinct and separate ideas and that one idea follows another just as one word follows another in speech. But the ideas constituting thought follow one another with such speed that thought seems to a person while he is in the body to be continuous, and therefore without any separate divisions. In the next life however it is plain to see that thought is distinguished into separate ideas, for there they talk to one another by means of ideas, 2470, 2478, 2479. Now the nature of the situation with thought and its constituent ideas must be stated: A person's thought spreads out into the communities of spirits and angels round about him, and his ability to understand and perceive is determined by its extension into them, that is, by the influx from them. As a consequence of this, one idea that goes to make up thought contains countless facets, and more especially so one thought composed of ideas.


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