§353 the wise & the simple 195
c. The part of wisdom is to see and grasp whether something is true before one ratifi es it, not to
ratify what we are told by others: 1017 , 4741 , 7012 , 7680 , 7950. Seeing and grasping what is true
before it is ratifi ed is granted only to people who are moved by truth for its own sake and for the
sake of their lives: 8521. The light of ratifi cation is a natural and not a spiritual light; it is a sensory
light that can be found among evil people as well: 8780. Anything can be rationalized, even false
things, so as to appear to be true: 2482 [ 2477 ], 2490 [ 2480 ], 5033 , 6865 , 8521.
d. The sensory level is the outmost level of our life, attached to and embedded in our bodies:
5077 , 5767 , 9212 , 9216 , 9331 , 9730. We call people sense-centered if they evaluate and decide
about everything on the basis of their physical senses and do not believe anything unless they see
it with their eyes and touch it with their hands: 5094 , 7693. People like this do their thinking in
their most external minds, and not more inwardly within themselves: 5089 , 5094 , 6564 , 7693.
Their deeper levels are closed, so that they can see nothing of divine truth: 6564 , 6844 , 6845. In
short, they are in a crude natural illumination and can see nothing that comes from heaven’s
light: 6201 , 6310 , 6564 , 6844 , 6845 , 6598 , 6612 , 6614 , 6622 , 6624. So they are profoundly opposed
to whatever involves heaven and the church: 6201 , 6316 [ 6310 ], 6844 , 6845 , 6948 , 6949. Scholars
who have convinced themselves in opposition to the truths of the church are sense-centered:
6316. A description of the nature of sense-centered people: 10236.
opinions but had a longing for truth, sought it because of their longing,
and were moved inwardly when they found it. Because they are moved
by truth for its own sake, they see what is true before they make it a mat-
ter of conviction.c
[ 3 ] An example may serve to illustrate this. Some spirits were engaged in
a conversation about the reason why animals are born into all the knowl-
edge that is appropriate to their natures, while humans are not. They were
told that this is because animals are wholly engaged in the pattern appropri-
ate to their lives, while we are not; so we have to be led into that pattern by
means of insights and information. If we were born into the pattern of our
lives, which is loving God above all and our neighbor as ourselves, we would
be born into intelligence and wisdom and therefore into a trust in every-
thing true to the extent that our insights built up. The good spirits immedi-
ately saw and grasped that this was so, simply from the light of truth.
However, some spirits who had convinced themselves of faith alone and
had therefore pushed love and thoughtfulness aside could not understand
it, because the light of false convictions obscured the light of truth for them.
By false intelligence and wisdom we mean any intelligence and wis- 353
dom that is devoid of acknowledgment of the Divine. In fact, people who
do not acknowledge the Divine Being but put nature in place of the
Divine all think on the basis of their physical bodies. They are merely
sense-centered, no matter how scholarly and learned they are considered
in this world.d Their learning, though, does not rise any higher than the
things in front of their eyes in this world, things that they keep in their