The Soul, or Rational Psychology

and scientific doctrines of Series, Orders, Degrees, and Modifications. Correspondence, as seen from the perspective of nature alone—and it was only on this level that Swedenborg had discovered it up to this time—consists of a mutual adaptation of inner and outer, higher and lower, coarser and more refined spheres or bodies. This adaptation allows for the reception, communication, and transfer of motions and affections from one to the other. It is, therefore, the name we give to that kind of interaction original: "intercourse" which is not a physical flowing in original: "bodily influx"; a philosophical term for the way one substance influences another, or to a union that exists not by a blending or merging of substances, but by being side-by-side original: "contiguity" and by the changing of states. It is the relationship of the flowing waves of ether to the eye; of the eye to the sensory fiber; of the fiber to the cortical gland Swedenborg used "cortical glands" to refer to the individual units of the brain's gray matter, which he believed were the primary seats of sensation and action; of the gland to the common sensory common sensoryThe sensorium commune, or the part of the brain where all sensory input was thought to be integrated; of the sensory to the imagination; of the imagination to the intellect; of the intellect to the soul; and of the soul to God. Through correspondence, the outer affects the inner without becoming one with it; through correspondence, things totally different in degree and in substance are nevertheless so adapted that motions or trembling vibrations in one may be continued through the other, or converted into some change in the other's state. In this way, the soul corresponds in general and in every specific detail to its body.

This doctrine of Correspondence, which Swedenborg learned from studying the human body and its relationship to the soul, was afterward applied by him to all things material and spiritual, and thus to both the natural and spiritual worlds.

* This description of the doctrine of Correspondence is limited to how it appears in nature or through natural observation. For a full explanation of the doctrine's real significance and its universal application, the reader should refer to the author's works Divine Love and Wisdom, the Doctrine of Sacred Scripture, etc.

Does it therefore follow that what Swedenborg presented in his theological writings as divinely revealed is, after all, reducible to purely natural and scientific knowledge? Swedenborg made no claims to any supernatural insight original: "illumination" while developing these doctrines of Correspondence, Degrees, and Series in his scientific works; and yet, the entire system of spiritual metaphysics found in his theological works rests logically on these very doctrines. The answer to this question is a matter of great importance, as it involves the whole nature of the insight Swedenborg claimed to have, and the relationship between his philosophical and his theological (or "inspired") writings.

We believe a brief answer may be stated this way: It is not the concept of Correspondence that is revealed or discovered supernaturally, but the knowledge of the specific things that correspond to one another.

Like the sciences of arithmetic, algebra, and logic, the science of Correspondence is a product of human reasoning. Indeed, Correspondence may truly be called the very logic of the universe, or of creation itself. But as mere logic or mere mathematics, it would be completely barren of results if there were no field of...