§297 heaven’s union with us 159
c. The difference between us and animals is that we can be raised by the Lord to himself, can
think about the Divine and love it, and so can be united to the Lord and have eternal life, which
is not true of animals: 4525 , 6323 , 9231. Animals are in the pattern proper to their lives and are
therefore born into things that are suited to their natures; but we are not, so we need to be led
into the pattern proper to our lives by cognitive means: 637 , 5850 , 6323. Thought descends into
speech and intention into actions for us according to a general infl ow: 5862 , 5990 , 6192 , 6211. On
the general infl ow of the spiritual world into the lives of animals: 1633 , 3646.
The reason we are controlled by the Lord through spirits is that we 296
are not in the pattern of heaven. We are in fact born into evils that are
from hell and are therefore exactly opposite to the divine pattern. This
means that we need to be brought back into the pattern, and we cannot
be brought back except through the agency of spirits. It would be different
if we were born into the good that accords with heaven’s pattern. Then
we would not be controlled by the Lord through the agency of spirits but
through the pattern itself and therefore through a general inflow.
This [general] infl ow determines the way things move from thought
and intent into act and therefore determines our speech and actions,
since these both do fl ow according to a natural pattern. So the spirits
who are with us have nothing to do with these processes.
Animals are also controlled through a general infl ow from the spiritual
world because they are in the pattern proper to their life, a pattern that
they can neither distort nor destroy, because they do not have a rational
faculty.c (On the difference between humans and animals see above, § 39 .)
To continue with the general topic of the union of heaven with the 297
human race, we need to be aware that the Lord fl ows into each one of us
according to heaven’s design, into our inmost natures as well as into our
outmost, and disposes us to accept heaven. He controls our outmost
natures from the inmost and the inmost from the outmost at the same
time, and in this way keeps everything about us in coherent connection.
This infl ow from the Lord is called a direct infl ow, while a second infl ow
that happens through the agency of spirits is called an indirect infl ow.
The latter is sustained by the former. The direct infl ow, an action of the
Lord himself, is from his divine human. It comes into our intentions,
and through our intentions into our understanding. This means it comes
into what is good in us and through that good into what is true in us, or
(which amounts to the same thing) into our love and through our love
into our faith. It does not happen the other way around, much less into