Emmanuel Swedenborg's philosophy of the human organism

standing. The body represents the co-functioning or unity of will and understanding; likewise the mind, when will and understanding are united, respires as one man and so do individuals in society. Thus the correspondence between the unity of the will and understanding on the one hand and the heart and lungs on the other is a general representation of organism.

Within the organism each of the members and parts correspond to particular qualities. Swedenborg describes how in the Grand Man, the societies in the head excel in every good; those in the breast live in charity and faith; those in the eyes are gifted with understanding; those in the ears with attention and obedience; those in the nostrils with perception; those in the mouth and tongue with wise discourse; those who are in the kidneys are in possession of truth which examines and separates and corrects; those in the liver, spleen and pancreas are skilled in the purification of good and truth in various ways.

In the organism of his mind, Man also has memory. He has an external memory which belongs to the external or natural man and an internal memory which corresponds to his spiritual man, or inner mind. Everything which he has ever thought, willed, spoken, done or even heard is inscribed on the limbs and organs of this internal man to which the organs of his body correspond. A man therefore writes his whole life on his physique and this can be interpreted in the light of heaven, or the inner mind, as if read from a book. A deed is only the effect of the will and thought which live within it as its soul. Acts differ from one another according to the motive from which they are done.

Every action can thus be seen from two points of view; the outer, which is perceived with the bodily senses and the inner which is perceived by the inner senses of the mind. Inner perception is concerned with distinguishing the thought and will which an action expresses. This inner perception sees all actions in the light of heaven, which is to say, in relation to the whole social organism. If after bodily death, Man had perception it would be of the nature of inner perception; that is, it would only be concerned with inner significance, or with the thought and will which an act embodies. In Swedenborg’s writings, the life after death corresponds also to life in this world, but to this life seen from the view point of the inner mind. The inner mind is that sphere of

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