Arcana Coelestia (Elliott) n. 7359

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7359. Some spirits once came to me from there and positioned themselves towards my left temple. In that position they breathed their speech onto me, but I did not understand it. It was, as it flowed, rather gentle; I had not, so far as I could remember, experienced a gentler flow before. It was like a very gentle breeze. It blew first onto my left temple and the upper part of my left ear, and from there went on towards my left eye, and little by little towards my right eye. After that it passed down, especially from my left eye, towards my lips; and on reaching my lips it went into and through my mouth. Indeed it went through my Eustachian tube into my brain. When that 'breath' from those spirits reached my brain I then understood their speech, and this enabled me to talk to them. I noticed that while they spoke to me my lips were made to move, and my tongue also to a small extent. This happened because of the correspondence of inward speech with outward speech. Outward speech consists of articulated sound which falls on the external membrane of the ear, [called the ear-drum,] and is conveyed from there into the brain by means of small organs, membranes, and fibres inside the ear.


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