3747.有几次，我与灵人们谈论我们这个时代的学者，他们只知道人有内在与外在的分别，并且是从主的圣言那里，而不是通过反思自己里面思维与情感的内层事物而得知的。他们竟不知道何为内在人，许多人甚至怀疑内在人是否存在，而且否认它的存在，因为他们过的是外在人的生活，而不是内在人的生活。我与这些灵人还谈论了许多误导学者们的事，如就器官、内脏、感官、欲望和情感而言，动物似乎和他们自己没什么两样。在我们讨论的过程中，有人说，在这类问题上，学者们知道的还不如简单人多，虽然他们觉得自己知道得更多。因为他们争论灵魂与身体的相互作用，甚至争论灵魂的性质，即它究竟什么样；而简单人却知道灵魂是内在人，并且肉体死后继续活着的，是人的灵；在肉体里面的，就是真正的人自己。
有人补充说，比起简单人，学者们更是将自己等同于动物，将一切事物归于自然界，几乎不将任何事物归于神性。他们也不反思一下，和动物不同，人能思想天堂、思想神，从而被提升超越自己，因而能通过爱与主联结；由于这些原因，人死后必永远活着。我们进一步提到他们尤其不知道这一事实：凡属于人的事物都可经由天堂追溯到主那里，并且天堂是大人，人里面的一切事物，和自然界的一切事物一样，都对应于这个大人。也许他们在听到和读到这些东西时，会觉得它们像悖论，除非经验证实它们的真实性，否则，他们就会把它们当作异想天开的事而加以拒绝。若他们听说，人里面有三个生命层级，就像天堂里面有三个生命层级一样，也就是说，有三层天堂，并且人如此对应于这三层天堂，以至于当他过着良善与真理的生活，并通过这种生活成为主的一个形像时，他本人在形像上就是一个小型天堂，情况也一样。
关于生命的这些层级，我还得到以下教导：生命的最终层级就是那被称为外在人或属世人的，外在人或属世人使在欲望和幻觉方面与动物相似。第二层级就是那被称为内在人或理性人的，内在人或理性人使人优于动物。因为他通过内在人能思想和意愿良善和真理，能掌管属世人，抑制并拒绝它的情欲和由此产生的幻想，此外还能在心里深思天堂，事实上深思神性，而这些是动物完全没有能力做到的。我被告知，生命的第三层级完全不为人知，然而，主正是经由这一层进入理性心智，而正是通过理性心智，人才能作为一个人去思考，拥有良知，拥有对良善与真理的觉知，而且被主提升向祂自己。不过，这些事与当代学者的观念相去甚远，他们只会争论内在人是否存在；只要这样做，他们就不可能肯定它的确存在，更不可能知道它是什么。
Potts(1905-1910) 3747
3747. I have occasionally conversed with spirits concerning the learned of our age-that they know only the distinction of man into internal and external, and this not from any reflection on the interior things of the thoughts and affections in themselves, but from the Word of the Lord; and that still they are ignorant what the internal man is, and that many even have doubts as to whether it exists, and also deny its existence, because they do not live the life of the internal man, but that of the external; and because they are so much led astray by the appearance as regards brute animals, in their seeming like themselves in respect to organs, viscera, senses, appetites, and affections. And it was said that the learned know less about such subjects than the simple, and that still they seem to themselves to know much more; for they dispute about the interaction of the soul and body, and even about the nature of the soul, as to what it is; when yet the simple know that the soul is the internal man, and that it is man's spirit which is to live after the death of the body; also that it is the real man which is in the body. [2] And further it was said that more than the simple, the learned make themselves out to be like the brutes, and ascribe all things to nature, and scarcely anything to Divine; and still further, that they do not reflect that as distinguished from brute animals man has a capacity for thinking about heaven, and about God, and thereby of being elevated above himself, consequently of being conjoined with the Lord by love; and thus that men cannot but live after death to eternity. And it was added that they are especially ignorant that all things whatsoever belonging to man depend on the Lord through heaven, and that heaven is the Grand Man, to which correspond all things in man in both general and particular, and also all things in nature; and possibly when they shall hear and read these things they will seem to them like paradoxes, and unless experience confirms them they will reject them as a fanciful affair; as they will also do when they shall hear that there are three degrees of life in man, as there are three degrees of life in the heavens, that is, three heavens and that man so corresponds to the three heavens that when he is in the life of good and truth, and by this life an image of the Lord, he is himself in image a little heaven. [3] I have been instructed concerning these degrees of life-that it is the last or ultimate degree of life which is called the external or natural man by which man is like animals as regards lusts and fantasies; that it is the second degree of life which is called the internal and rational man by which man is above animals, for it is through this that he is able to think and will what is good and true, and have dominion over the natural man, by restraining and also rejecting its lusts and the resultant fantasies, and also by reflecting within himself concerning heaven, nay, concerning Divine, which brute animals are altogether incapable of doing; and lastly that the third degree of life is that which is the most unknown to man, although it is that through which the Lord inflows into the rational mind, whereby man has the faculty of thinking as a man, and also has conscience, and perception of what is good and true, and also elevation by the Lord toward Himself. But these things are remote from the ideas of the learned of this age, who merely dispute whether a thing exists; and who, so long as they do this, cannot know that it does exist, and still less what it is.
Elliott(1983-1999) 3747
3747. I have spoken on several occasions to spirits about the learned of our own day who know of the distinction in the human being between internal and external but nothing more beyond this; nor do they know even this from reflecting on the interior aspects of their own thoughts and affections but from the Word of the Lord. They do not know what the internal man is, and what is more very many doubt and even deny the existence of it, the reason being that they are not living the life of the internal man but of the external. I have also spoken to those spirits about many a thing that may lead the learned astray, such as the fact that animals seem to be like themselves so far as organs, viscera, senses, appetites, and feelings are concerned. It has been said in our discussions that the learned know less about such matters than the simple, even though they seem to themselves to know far more. For they argue about the interaction of the soul and the body, and indeed about what the soul itself may be, whereas the simple know that the soul is the internal man and that it is a person's spirit which is going to live after death of the body, and also that it is the real person himself who is within the body.
[2] It has been added that the learned more than the simple equate themselves with animals, ascribing all things to natural forces and scarcely anything to the Divine. Nor do they stop to reflect that man, unlike animals, is able to think about heaven and about God, and in so doing to be raised above himself, and consequently to be joined to the Lord by means of love; and that for these reasons they must inevitably live for ever after death. We have gone on to refer to their particular ignorance of the fact that every single thing with man traces back to the Lord through heaven, and that heaven is the Grand Man to which every single thing in man corresponds, as does everything in the natural system. And when perhaps they hear or read of these things they will be to them so paradoxical that unless experience proved the truth of them they would reject them as something delusive. It is similar when they hear that there are three degrees of life in man just as there are three degrees of life in heaven, that is, there are three heavens, and that man corresponds to the three heavens in such a way that in image he is a small-scale heaven when he leads the life of good and truth and through that life is an image of the Lord.
[3] I have been told the following about those degrees of life: The ultimate degree of life is that which is called the external or natural man, which makes man similar to animals so far as his pressing desires and his delusions are concerned. The second degree is that which is called the internal or rational man which makes man superior to animals. For by means of the internal man he is able to think and to will what is good and true and to govern the natural man by controlling his desires and disregarding his resulting delusions, and on top of this by reflecting within himself about heaven, indeed about the Divine, which animals are quite incapable of doing. I have been told that the third degree of life is one which is totally unknown to man, and yet it is the degree through which the Lord enters into the rational mind, from which he has the ability to think as a human being, to have conscience, to have perception of what is good and true, and to be raised up by the Lord towards Himself. These considerations however are remote from the ideas of the learned of this present age, who do no more than dispute whether the internal man exists at all. And as long as they cannot be sure that it exists they are even less able to know what it is.
Latin(1748-1756) 3747
3747. Locutus sum aliquoties cum spiritibus de eruditis nostri saeculi, quod nihil sciant quam distinguere hominem in internum et externum, et hoc non (c)ex reflexione ad interiora cogitationum et affectionum apud se, sed ex Verbo Domini; et quod usque nesciant quid internus homo, et magis quod plures dubitent num sit, et quoque negent, ex causa quia non vivunt vitam interni sed externi hominis; et quod multum eos seducat, quod animalia bruta appareant illis similia quoad organa, viscera, sensus, appetitus et affectus:et dictum quod eruditi minus sciant de talibus quam simplices, et quod usque videantur sibi multo plura scire; disceptant enim de commercio animae et corporis, immo de ipsa anima quid sit, cum tamen simplices sciunt quod anima sit internus homo, et quod sit spiritus ejus qui post mortem corporis victurus est, tum quod sit ipse homo qui in corpore; [2] praeterea quod eruditi plus quam simplices assimilent se brutis, et adscribant omnia naturae et vix quicquam Divino; tum quod non reflectant quod homo, secus ac bruta animalia, possit cogitare de caelo et de Deo, ac sic elevari supra se, consequenter per amorem conjungi Domino, ac ita quod post mortem non possint quin vivant in aeternum; et quod {1}imprimis ignorent quod omnia et singula apud hominem dependeant per caelum a Domino, et quod caelum sit Maximus Homo cui correspondent omnia et singula quae in homine, et quoque singula quae in natura; et forte cum haec audituri et lecturi, quod illis talia paradoxa erunt ut nisi experientia confirmaret, rejicerent sicut quoddam phantasticum; similiter cum audituri {2}quod tres gradus vitae in homine sint sicut sunt tres gradus vitae in caelis, hoc est, tres caeli, et quod homo tribus caelis ita correspondeat ut sit in imagine ipse parvulum caelum cum in vita boni et veri est, et per illam vitam imago Domini. [3] Instructus sum de gradibus illis vitae, quod ultimus gradus vitae sit qui externus {3}seu naturalis homo vocatur, per quem homo similis est animalibus quoad concupiscentias et phantasias; quodque alter gradus sit qui internus et rationalis homo dicitur, per quem homo supra animalia est, nam per illum cogitare et velle potest {4}bonum et verum, et imperare naturali homini, ejus concupiscentias et inde phantasias inhibendo et quoque rejiciendo, et insuper {5}intra se de caelo, immo de Divino, reflectendo, quod animalia bruta prorsus nequeunt. Quod tertius gradus vitae sit qui ignotissimus homini, et quod sit usque ille per quem Dominus in mentem rationalem influit, unde ei facultas cogitandi sicut homo, et unde ei conscientia, et unde ei perceptio boni et veri, et quoque a Domino elevatio {6}versus Se:
sed haec remota sunt ab eruditorum hujus saeculi ideis, qui (t)modo disceptant num (x)sit, et tamdiu {7}non scire possunt quod sit, et minus quid sit. @1 alte$ @2 i sint$ @3 et$ @4 i quod$ @5 supra$ @6 i usque$ @7 i prorsus$