Spiritual Experiences (Odhner) n. 364

Previous Number Next Number Next Translation See Latin 

364. There are not only fallacies of sense, but also much illusion and imagination prevailing among souls and spirits, consequently an apparent actuality

It is remarkable, but souls and spirits have sensation altogether as in the body - touch, as in the body, like when they feel their clothes. The same is true of strong desires and appetites, heat, cold, even sweat, which are just as actual as they are in the body, when yet they cannot be called anything but illusions. But because the sensation is as real as it is in the body, they are as if real. Conditions of this kind are brought on by a process of mental projection, as I can corroborate by very many instances.


This page is part of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg

© 2000-2001 The Academy of the New Church