549. And their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when it striketh a man, signifies that the darkening and drawing away from seeing the truth is caused by the persuasion with which the mind is infatuated. This is evident from the signification of "torment," as being the darkening of the mind and drawing it away from seeing truth (see just above, n. 548); also from the signification of a "scorpion," as being persuasiveness infatuating and suffocating (concerning which see also above, n. 544). "Their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he striketh a man" signifies, therefore, that the darkening and drawing away from seeing truth is caused by the persuasion with which the mind is infatuated. Of the persuasiveness that infatuates and as it were suffocates, of what quality it is and whence it is, has been told above (n. 544). This persuasiveness is said to be infatuating, because it takes away the use of reason, even to the extent that the reason or the rational mind sees nothing except that which is said by the one who has this persuasiveness; for it at once calls up everything that agrees, and obscures everything that disagrees; and in consequence the mind is infatuated by being darkened and drawn away from seeing the truth. This persuasiveness is said to be suffocating because it deprives the understanding of the faculty to think freely and to extend its sight in every direction, as every rational man does, and when this is the case breathing becomes difficult; for everything of voluntary breathing is derived from the understanding, and consequently it adapts itself to the thought of the understanding, just as everything of the motion of the heart is derived from the will, and adapts itself to the affection of the will. That the breathing of the lungs corresponds to the understanding and its thought, and the motion of the heart to the will and its affection, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia (n. 1119, 3883-3896, 9281). That a strong persuasiveness has not only the power of infatuating but also of suffocating has been given me to know by real experience.