Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 1075

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1075. FROM THE CORTICAL AND STRIATED SUBSTANCES OF THE VISCERA CONCLUSIONS CAN BE DRAWN CONCERNING THE DIFFERENCE OF SPIRITS AS TO SPIRITUAL AND CELESTIAL THINGS The universal distinction of spirits is between those who are spiritual and those who are celestial; hence there are intermediate differences. Every member and viscus of the body is such, for in each and all of them there are fibers proper to each which arise from the blood vessels in different ways. Thus in the case of the eye the vitreous humor there is cortical substance, (as I suppose), but not striated; in the crystalline lens the substances are striated, but are of a harder quality. In the other viscera it is the same. There are similar substances in the coats of the intestines where there are labyrinthine windings of the vessels, besides other places. The capillaries themselves, as they are called, also derive their nature from those beginnings, so that they refer to their beginning at every point. It is similar as regards the spiritual or rational. In those things in which the beginning is not continued in this way, so that there are continued beginnings, the spiritual is of no account and of no use; it becomes torpid and is disjoined; besides very many other things.* 1748, Feb. 28. * The entry in the Index (s.v. Fibra) has: "The origins of the fibers in the brains and in the single viscera relate to celestial things, and the fibers thence derived to spiritual things."


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