[2] The evil who had confirmed themselves in this opinion that they live from themselves, and consequently that whatever they think, will, and act is from themselves when shown that the case is exactly in accordance with the doctrine, said that they now believed. But they were told that knowing is not believing, and that believing is Internal, and is impossible except in the affection of good and truth, consequently is possible to none but those who are in the good of charity toward the neighbor. Being evil, the same spirits Insisted that they now believed because they saw. But examination was made by an experience familiar in the other life, namely, by their being looked into by angels; and when they were looked into, the upper part of their head appeared to be withdrawn, and the brain to be rough, hairy, and dark, which showed what is the inward quality of those who have only a faith of memory knowledge, but not a true faith; and that to know is not to believe. For the head of those who know and believe appears as human, and the brain well ordered, snow-white, and lucid; for heavenly light is received by them. But with those who only know and suppose that they thereby believe, and yet do not believe, because they live in evil, heavenly light is not received, consequently neither are the Intelligence and wisdom which are in that light; and therefore when they draw near to angelic societies, that is, to heavenly light, this light is turned with them into darkness. This is the reason why their brain appeared dark.

[2] Influx from the cerebellum insinuates itself especially into the face, as is evident from the fact that the animus has been inscribed on the face, and the affections appear in the face, and this for the most part without the man‘s will such as fear, reverence, shame, various kind of gladness, and also of sadness, besides many other things, which are thereby made known to another in such manner that it is known from the face what affections are in the man, and what changes of animus and of mind. These things come from the cerebellum through its fibers, when there is no simulation within. It was thus shown that in the earliest times, or with the most ancient people, the general sense had possession of the whole face, and successively after those times only of the left side of it, and at last in still later times it emptied itself away from the face, so that at this day there is scarcely any general involuntary sense left in the face. The right side of the face together with the right eye corresponds to the affection of good, and the left to the affection of truth, the region where the ear is corresponding to obedience alone without affection.

[3] For with the most ancient people, whose age was called the Golden Age, because they were in a certain state of perfection or wholeness, and lived in love to the Lord and in mutual love as angels live, all the involuntary of the cerebellum was manifest in the face, and they did not at all know how to present anything in the countenance other than exactly as heaven flowed into their involuntary conatus or endeavors and thence into the will. But with the ancients, whose age was called the Silver Age, because they were in a state of truth, and thence in charity toward the neighbor, the involuntary of the cerebellum was not manifest in the right side of the face, but only in the left. But with their posterity, whose time was called the Iron Age, because they lived not in the affection of truth, but in obedience to truth, the involuntary was no longer manifest in the face, but betook itself to the region around the left ear. I have been instructed that the fibers of the cerebellum have thus changed their efflux into the face, and that instead of them fibers from the cerebrum have been transferred thither, which now control those which are from the cerebellum, and this from an endeavor to form the expressions of the face according to the behests of man’s own will, all of which is from the cerebrum. It does not appear to man that these things are so, but they are plainly manifest to the angels from the influx of heaven and from correspondence.

[2] These are they who at this day constitute for the most part the general involuntary sense. In ancient times it was these who were the most celestial of all; but at this day it is these who are the most wicked of all, and this especially from the Christian world. They are very numerous, and appear beneath the occiput and at the back, where I have often seen and perceived them. For those who at this day relate to this sense are they who think deceitfully and devise evils against the neighbor, and put on a friendly countenance, nay, most friendly, with gestures of like import, and speak kindly as if endued with charity above others, and yet are the bitterest enemies, not only of him with whom they have intercourse, but also of the human race. Their thoughts have been communicated to me, and they were wicked and abominable, full of cruelties and butcheries.

[2] But there was given them an intermediate spirit, through whom they spoke with me; for such a general thing could not fall into speech except through others. When I spoke with them through the intermediate, I said (as was my opinion), that generals cannot present a distinct idea of anything, but only one so obscure that it is as it were no idea. But after a quarter of an hour they showed that they had a distinct idea of generals, and of many things in the generals; and especially by this, that they accurately and distinctly observed all the variations and changes of my thoughts and affections, together with the singulars of them, so that no other spirits could do it better. From this I was able to conclude that it is one thing to be in a general idea which is obscure, as are those who have but little knowledge, and are thus in obscurity in regard to all things; and that it is another thing to be in a general idea which is clear, as are those who have been instructed in the truths and goods which are insinuated into the general in their order and series, and are so well-ordered as to be distinctly seen from the general.

[3] These are they who in the other life constitute the general voluntary sense, and are those who by knowledges of good and truth have acquired the faculty of looking at things from the general, and thence contemplating things broadly together, and distinguishing instantly whether a thing is so. They do indeed see the things as it were in obscurity, because they see from the general the things that are therein, but as these are well ordered in the general, they are for this reason nevertheless in clearness to them. This general voluntary sense falls to none but the wise. That these spirits were of this character was also proved, for they viewed in me all things both in general and particular from which inference could be drawn, and from these they drew inferences so skilfully in regard to the interiors of my thoughts and affections that I began to be afraid to think any more; for they disclosed things which I did not know to be in me, and yet from the inferences made by them I could not but acknowledge them. Hence I perceived in myself a torpor in speaking with them, and when I took note of this torpor it appeared as if it were a hairy thing, with something in it speaking mutely; and it was said that by this was signified the general sensitive corporeal that corresponds to these spirits. On the following day I again spoke with them, and once more found that they had a general perception not obscure, but clear; and that as the generals and the states of the generals were varied, so were the particulars and their states varied, because the latter relate in order and series to the former.

[4] It was said that general voluntary senses still more perfect exist in the interior sphere of heaven; and that when the angels are in a general or universal idea, they are at the same time in the singulars, which are set in distinct order by the Lord in the universal; also that the general and universal are not anything unless there are particulars and singulars in them from which they exist and are so called, and that they exist just in so far as these are in them; and that from this it is evident that a universal providence of the Lord, without the veriest singulars being in it, and from which it exists, is nothing at all; and that it is stupid to maintain that there exists with the Divine a universal, and then to take away the singulars from it.

[2] It has been shown by living experience how these are opposed to the internal man. There were present very many spirits from this earth, who when they had lived in the world had been of this character, and there came into their sight spirits who relate to the internal sensuous man, and they at once began to infest them, almost as irrational persons infest those who are rational, by constantly speaking and reasoning from the fallacies of the senses, and from the illusions thence arising, and from mere hypotheses, believing nothing but what could be confirmed by external sensuous things, and moreover treating the internal man with contumely.

[3] But those who had relation to the internal sensuous man cared nothing for such things, and wondered not only at the insanity of the former spirits, but also at their stupidity; and wonderful to say, when the external sensuous spirits drew near the internal sensuous ones, and came almost into the sphere of their thoughts, the external sensuous began to breathe with difficulty (for spirits and angels breathe equally as do men, but their breathing is relatively internal, n. 3884-3895), and thus to be almost suffocated, so that they withdrew. And the further away they retired from the internal sensuous spirits, because they breathed more easily, the more tranquil and quiet it became with them; and again the nearer they approached, the more intranquil and unquiet.