Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 3320

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3320. It was also shown that every sense of the body has its own respiration; yea, its place of respiration: for when the voluntary respiration which is prevalent in wakefulness according to the state of wakefulness, ceases, then there is present only a natural respiration. Thus, just so much of this or that sense is wakeful or vigorous, when I am present among spirits, as the respiration is voluntary, which is regulated by the Lord: so that so much and such a sort, of the voluntary principle of the respiration is present as contributes to the quantity and quality of that sense, as was also granted to perceive from experience. Moreover, it was previously granted me to draw the same conclusion from a considerable experience, before I spoke with spirits, [to wit] that the respiration corresponds with thought; for instance, when in childhood [infantia] I wished to hold my breath [spiritum] purposely, when they prayed [were at prayers] in the morning and evening; also, when I wished the times of the respiration to agree with [those] of the heart, and so [observed] that then the understanding began to almost fade away [vanish] as it were; then afterwards, when I wrote in imagination, that I had observed that I held my respiration as if it were tacit.


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