498. And there followed voices, and thunderings, and lightnings.- That this signifies reasonings, from a disturbance of the affections and thence the thoughts, about good and evil, and about truth and falsity, is evident from the signification of voices, as denoting reasonings, concerning which we shall speak presently; and from the signification of thunderings and lightnings, as denoting conflicts and disturbances of the affections and thence of the thoughts about good and evil, and about truth and falsity. The cause of such conflicts and disturbances is this - that by influx out of the heavens, the externals of the evil are closed and their internals opened; and it was the externals that made a pretence of possessing goods and truths, whilst the internals thought evils and falsities. Their externals therefore being closed and their internals opened, there arise a conflict and disturbance of the affections and the thoughts about good and evil and about truth and falsity, and then reasonings follow. Such things, in the spiritual world, are heard like the voices of a multitude, murmuring, shouting, threatening, and fighting, and they appear at a distance thence, where they are not heard, like thunderings and lightnings; like thunderings, from the conflict of affections, and like lightnings, from the conflict of thoughts thence. Because these things arise from the flowing down of Divine Good and Truth out of the higher heavens into the lower parts, therefore voices, thunderings, and lightnings, when heard and seen by the good, signify Divine Truth in regard to perception and illustration, but it is otherwise when they are heard and seen by the evil. The signification (if these things may be seen above (n. 273, 353).