87、来自火星的一些灵人来到我这里，贴近我的左太阳穴。他们在那里向我呼出他们的言语，但我不明白它。它的流动极其柔和，我从来没有感觉到如此柔和的东西，就像最温柔的微风。它从上面吹向我的左太阳穴和左耳，接着吹向我的左眼，又逐渐移动到右眼，然后流下来，尤其从左眼流到唇部。一到达唇部，它就进入嘴，在口腔内行进；事实上，通过咽鼓管进入大脑。当这呼吸抵达那里时，我明白了他们的言语，并能与他们交谈。我发现，当他们与我交谈时，我的唇在动，我的舌也稍微在动。这是由于内在言语与外在言语之间的对应关系。外在言语由前往耳朵外膜，然后通过耳朵里面的小器官、膜和纤维被传达到大脑的清晰声音构成。
由此可知，火星居民的语言不同于我们地球居民的。它声音很小，几乎是无声的，并经过很短的途径进入内在听觉和视觉。它因具有这种性质而更完美、更充满思维观念，因而更接近灵人和天使的语言。言语中的实际情感也表现在他们脸上，思维表现在他们眼里；因为对他们来说，思维与言语，以及情感与面部表情行如一体。他们认为想一套，说一套，或意愿一套，脸上却表现另一套是一种罪恶。他们不知道什么叫伪善或伪装、欺骗、狡诈。
我们地球的上古之人的语言也是这样；在来世，我通过与他们中的一些人交谈而获知这一点。为说明这个问题，我想把我所听来的讲述如下：我通过一种无法描述的流注被指示，那些属于上古教会的人拥有哪种语言。也就是说，它不像我们这个时代的有声语言那样发出清晰的声音，而是静默的，是通过内呼吸而非外呼吸实现的；因此，它是思维的语言。我还被恩准觉察他们的内呼吸是什么样；它从肚脐向心脏行进，因而在他们说话时经过唇部，无需发出任何声音。它不是经由外在途径，敲击所谓的耳鼓进入别人的耳朵，而是经由如今叫咽鼓管的内在途径进入。我被指示，他们通过这种说话方式表达心灵感觉和思维观念，远远比清晰的声音或口头言语能表达得充分的多。这种语言同样靠呼吸来调节，这呼吸是外在的。因为没有一句话，确切地说，没有一句话的一个部分不是靠呼吸来调节的。不过，对这些人来说，语言要完美的多，因为它靠内呼吸来调节；而内呼吸因更内在，更适合并适用于思维观念，故更加完美。此外，它也借助唇部的轻微动作和面部表情的相应变化。事实上，由于他们是属天之人，所以，凡他们所想的，都从他们脸上和眼睛里闪耀出来。它们的变化是一致的，面部表情反映情感的生命，眼睛反映光。他们绝无可能表现出与他们所想的不一致的任何面部表情。他们因通过内呼吸，也就是人之灵本身的呼吸说话，故能与天使来往并交谈。
火星灵的呼吸方式被展示给我，我发觉他们的呼吸从胸腔向肚脐行进，从那里通过胸部以一种难以察觉的呼吸向上流到嘴口。这一点，连同我所经历的其它证据使我看出，他们具有属天的性情；因此，他们与那些属于地球上的上古教会之人没什么区别。灵人和天使都有呼吸(AC 3884, 3885, 3891, 3893)。
87. Spirits from Mars came to me and connected themselves to my left temple. There they breathed a communication toward me, but I could not understand it. The flow of their communication was very gentle-I had never felt one gentler, like the softest of breezes. It first reached my left temple and the top of my left ear, then moved on toward my left eye and gradually extended further toward the right, and flowed down, especially from my left eye, toward my lips; and once it reached my lips it followed a course into my mouth, and from a channel inside my mouth-the Eustachian tube 1in fact-it went into my brain. When the breath of their communication arrived there, then I became able to understand what they were saying and respond.
I noticed that when they were communicating with me my own lips would move and my tongue would also move a little. This is because there is a correspondence between inner and outer means of communication. By outer communication I mean that articulated sounds strike the membrane of the outer ear, and are then carried to the brain by means of the minute organs, membranes, and fibers that make up the inner ear.
[2] This showed me that the method of communicating used by the inhabitants of Mars differs from that of the inhabitants of our planet in that theirs is not dependent on sound but is almost silent, making its way into the inner hearing and sight by a more direct route; and for this reason the communication is more complete, richer in thought imagery, and closer to the communication of spirits and angels. They use facial expressions to signal the emotional content of what they are saying, and they use their eyes to signal its thought content, because their emotions and facial expressions act in unison, as do their thoughts and what they are saying. 2To them it would be utterly reprehensible to think one thing and say another, or to have one thing in their heart and another on their face. They do not know what hypocrisy is, or what fraudulence and deception are.
[3] Conversations in the other life with some of the earliest people from our planet have made it possible for me to know that they had a similar method of communicating. To shed some light on this, let me relate what I have heard, as follows: 3
By an inflow that I cannot describe, I have been shown how the people of the earliest church 4communicated. Specifically, it was not articulated like the verbal speech of our own times but silent, using not external but internal breathing. This means that it was a thought-based form of communication. I was also allowed to perceive what their internal breathing was like: when they were communicating, it moved from the region of their navel to their heart and then through their lips, but without a sound. Further, it did not enter other people’s ears from the outside and vibrate what is called the eardrum but came in by an inner route, in fact through what we now call the Eustachian tube.
I was shown that this mode of communication enabled them to express their thoughts and opinions much more fully than can possibly be done using the articulated sounds of audible speech. Audible sounds, too, travel on breath (external breath, though), in the sense that there is no word or even part of a word that can be conveyed without the use of breath. The communication they had was much better, though, because it relied on internal breathing; and since the pathway was internal the communication was more perfect, more expressive, and better suited to the actual concepts of thought.
In addition, they used subtle movements of the lips and corresponding changes of facial expression. Since they were a heavenly kind of people, whatever they were thinking shone out from their face and eyes, and these would keep changing in response to their thoughts; their facial expressions and the gleam in their eye would reflect the liveliness of their emotions. They were completely incapable of making any facial expression that was at odds with their thinking. Since their mode of communication used internal breathing, which is the breathing of the human spirit, they were even able to communicate and interact with angels.
[4] The way the spirits from Mars breathe was also communicated to me. 5I became aware that their breathing started from the lower chest region toward the navel and flowed up from there through the chest, accompanied by an imperceptible movement of breath toward the mouth. This, together with other evidence from my experiences, made it possible for me to tell that they were of a heavenly nature and were therefore not unlike the people of the earliest church on this planet.
Footnotes:
1. The Eustachian, or auditory, tube connects the interior of the ear with the throat; it opens during the act of swallowing. One of its functions is to allow for the equalization of pressure on both sides of the eardrum. Swedenborg is not implying that the Eustachian tube reaches the brain, but that the breath carrying the flow of speech of the spirits in question, after reaching the inner ear through the Eustachian tube, initiates a process by which their speech is detected and conveyed to the brain. Though the language here and in its earlier published form in Secrets of Heaven 7359 implies that the breath itself flows into the brain, in Swedenborg’s original written version of this experience in Spiritual Experiences (= Swedenborg 1998-2013) 3488, he speaks of the spirits’ speech entering “through the mouth and thence into my thought . . . through the Eustachian tube.” The language there suggests that he is speaking of the flow of speech and meaning to his thinking mind rather than of a literal flowing of breath into the brain. In Swedenborg’s discussion of the Eustachian tube in his anatomical works, he makes much of the fact that sound “goes by two ways to the same organ”; that is, it can be heard internally through the Eustachian tubes as well as from the outside via the ears: “This tube . . . forms a kind of bridge between the larynx and the ear; along which bridge, all sonorous vibrations . . . are conveyed to the ear” (The Soul’s Domain vol. 2, 297 note b [= Swedenborg [1744-1745] 1960, 358 note b]). Compare Secrets of Heaven 10587; Spiritual Experiences 1541, 1658, 3322. Today, physiologists generally recognize a different pair of pathways of sound to the cochlea of the inner ear, where it is converted into impulses in the auditory nerve that are received in the brain as sound. The first is the well-known pathway from the outer ear through the external auditory canal to the eardrum. The second is through the bony structures of the skull directly to the cochlea, bypassing the eardrum and its associated structures. However, though the Eustachian tube normally remains closed in human beings except when swallowing, it is possible under certain circumstances for the Eustachian tube to remain open, providing an alternate, inner pathway for airborne sound waves to travel to the eardrum and be picked up there and delivered to the brain as sound impulses via the auditory nerve. [SS, LSW]
2. Logically one would expect “as do their thoughts and their eyes,” but Swedenborg goes on to reinforce the current reading in the next sentence, where he again pairs the thoughts and the unspoken communication of the inhabitants of Mars rather than their thoughts and their eyes. [SS]
3. The extract is a lightly edited version of Secrets of Heaven 7361, which is in turn a lightly edited version of Secrets of Heaven 1118. [GFD]
4. [Swedenborg note] See note a on 85.
5. [Swedenborg note] - [Like us,] spirits and angels too have breathing: 3884, 3885, 3891, 3893.
87. Some spirits came to me from there and attached themselves to my left temple. There they breathed speech over me, but I did not understand it. Its flow was extremely gentle; I had never felt anything so gentle, like the gentlest of breezes. It first blew upon my left temple and my left ear from above; then it proceeded to my left eye, moving gradually to the right and then flowing down, especially from the left eye, to the lips. On reaching the lips, it entered the mouth, and travelling through the mouth proceeded, in fact through the Eustachian tube, into the brain. When the breath reached that point, I understood their speech and was able to talk with them. I noticed that when they were talking with me, my lips moved and to a small extent my tongue did also. This was due to the correspondence between inward and outward speech. Outward speech consists of articulate sounds travelling to the outer membrane of the ear, and then by means of small organs, membranes and fibres inside the ear being carried to the brain.
[2] It may be known from this that the speech of the inhabitants of Mars is of a different type from that of the inhabitants of our world. It has little sound, but is almost silent, following a shorter path to penetrate the inner hearing and sight. Being of such a nature it is more perfect, more full of the concepts of thought, and so closer to the speech of spirits and angels. The actual affection in the speech is pictured in their faces, and the thought in their eyes; for with them thought and speech, as well as affection and facial expression, act as one. They consider it a crime to think one thing and say another, or to wish for one thing and show something else by facial expression. They do not know what hypocrisy or deceitful pretence or guile are.
[3] I have been able to learn by associating with certain of the Most Ancient peoples of this world that they too could speak like this. To illustrate this I should like to report what I have heard, as follows.
'I was shown by a kind of influence which I cannot describe what speech was like among those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church.' 1It was not articulate, as speech in words is in our time, but silent. It was produced not by outer breathing, but by a kind of inner breathing, so it might be termed thought-speech. I was also able to grasp what inner breathing was like; it proceeded from the navel towards the heart, and so through the lips without making any sound when they spoke. It did not enter the other's ear by the external route, striking on what is called the ear-drum, but by an internal route, in fact by what is nowadays called the Eustachian tube. I was shown how by speaking like this they could express much more fully the decisions of the mind and the ideas of thought than can ever be achieved by articulate sounds or spoken words. Such speech is equally regulated by breathing, but this is outer breathing. For there is no word, or rather no part of a word, which is not regulated by the expiration of breath. But in the case of these people it was much more perfect, because it was regulated by inner breathing, which, because it is internal is more perfect, and better suited and adapted to the ideas of thought. Moreover it was helped by slight movements of the lips and corresponding changes of facial expression. For, since they were celestial people, whatever they thought shone out from their faces and eyes. These changed in conformity, the facial expression reflecting the affections of their lives, the eyes the light. They were never able to display a look on their faces which did not agree with what they were thinking. Since they spoke by means of inner breathing, the breathing of a person's very spirit, they were able to associate and talk with angels.'
[4] The way the spirits of Mars breathed was demonstrated to me, 2and I perceived that their breathing proceeded from the region of the thorax towards the navel, and from there flowed up through the chest towards the mouth with an imperceptible expiration. This, together with the other proofs I experienced, allowed me to see that they possessed a celestial character, so that they were not dissimilar from those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church in this world.
The first and most ancient church in this world was a celestial church, the leading one of all (Arcana Caelestia 607, 895, 920, 1121-1124, 2896, 4493, 8891, 9942, 10545). A church is called celestial when its principal feature is love to the Lord, but spiritual when its principal feature is charity towards the neighbour and faith (Arcana Caelestia 3691, 6435, 9468, 9680, 9683, 9780).
Footnotes:
1. The last paragraph is repeated with some changes from Arcana Caelestia 1118 -TR.
2. Spirits and angels breathe (Arcana Caelestia 3884-3885, 3891, 3893).
87. Spirits from Mars came to me and applied themselves to my left temple, where they breathed upon me with their speech; but I did not understand it. It was soft in its flow, softer I had never before perceived; it was like the softest aura. It first breathed upon my left temple, and upon my left ear from above; and the breathing proceeded thence to my left eye, and little by little to the right, and then flowed down, chiefly from the left eye to the lips; and when it reached the lips, it entered through the mouth, and through the passage within the mouth, and indeed through the Eustachian tube, into the brain. When the breathing arrived there, I then understood their speech; and it was granted to speak with them. I observed when they were speaking with me, that my lips were moved, and the tongue also a little; which was by reason of the correspondence of interior speech with exterior speech. Exterior speech is that of articulate sound finding its way to the external membrane of the ear, whence it is conveyed, by means of little organs, membranes, and fibers which are within the ear, into the brain. From this, it was granted, to know that the speech of the inhabitants of Mars was different from that of the inhabitants of our earth, namely, it was not sonorous, but almost tacit, insinuating itself into the interior hearing and sight by a shorter way; and being such it was more perfect, and more full of the ideas of thought, thus approaching nearer to the speech of spirits and angels. The very affection of the speech is also represented with them in the face, and its thought in the eyes; for the thought and the speech, also the affection and the face, with them act as one. They regard it as nefarious to think one thing and speak another, and to will one thing and show another in the face. They do not know what hypocrisy is, nor what fraudulent pretence and deceit are. That such was also the speech of the most ancient people on our earth, it has been given me to know by conversation with some of them in the other life; and that this matter may be made clearer, it is permitted to relate what I have heard, as follows: "It was shown me by an influx which I cannot describe, what kind of speech they had who were of the Most Ancient Church, namely, that it was not articulate, like the vocal speech of our time, but tacit, which was effected not by external respiration but by internal; thus it was the speech of thought. It was also granted to perceive what their internal respiration was, that it proceeded from the navel toward the heart, and so through the lips without being sonorous when they spoke; and that it did not enter into the ear of another by the external way, and beat upon what is called the drum of the ear, but by a certain internal way, and in fact by a certain passage now called the Eustachian tube. It was shown that by such speech they could much more fully express the feelings of the mind and the ideas of the thought, than can ever be done by articulate sounds or sonorous words; which speech is in like manner directed by respiration, but external: for there is no word, nor indeed anything in a word, which is not directed by applications of the respiration. But with them this was much more perfect, because it was effected by internal respiration, which is the more perfect, because more internal, and more applicable and better conformed to the very ideas of thought; and it is further effected also by the little motions of the lips and corresponding changes of the face. For, since they were celestial men, whatever they thought shone forth from their face and eyes, which were varied in conformity, the face as to form according to the life of the affection, and the eyes as to light. They could by no means present any other countenance than such as accorded with what they thought; and because they had speech by internal respiration, which is that of man's spirit itself, they were therefore able to associate and speak with angels. The respiration of the spirits of Mars was also communicated to me; 1and it was perceived that it proceeded from the region of the thorax toward the navel, and thence flowed upward through the chest with an imperceptible breathing toward the mouth. From this, as also from other proofs of experience, it was made plain to me that they were of a celestial genius; thus that they were not unlike those who were from the Most Ancient Church on this earth.
Footnotes:
1. That spirits and angels have respiration (Arcana Coelestia 3884, 3885, 3891, 3893).
87. Spiritus inde ad me veniebant, et se applicabant sinistro meo tempori, et ibi me afflabant loquela, sed illam non intelligebam; erat quoad fluxum molliuscula; molliorem non prius perceperam, erat sicut mollissima aura; afflabat illa primum sinistrum tempus, et sinistram aurem superne; et afflatus inde pergebat ad sinistrum oculum, et paullatim ad dextrum, et defluebat dein, imprimis a sinistro oculo, ad labia; et cum ad labia, intrabat per os, et per viam intra os, et quidem per Tubam Eustachianam in Cerebrum; cum afflatus illuc pervenit, tunc loquelam eorum intellexi, et loqui datum est cum illis: observabam, cum loquerentur mecum, quod labia apud me moverentur, et parumper etiam lingua, hoc propter correspondentiam loquelae interioris cum loquela exteriore: exterior loquela est soni articulati labentis versus membranam auris externam, et exinde mediis organulis, membranis et fibris, quae intus in aure, aufertur in Cerebrum.
Ex his scire datum est, quod loquela incolarum Martis diversa esset a loquela incolarum nostrae Telluris, quod nempe non sonora, sed paene tacita, se in auditum et visum interiorem per breviorem viam insinuans; et quia talis, quod perfectior esset, plenior ideis cogitationis, ita propius accedens ad loquelam spirituum et angelorum; ipsa etiam loquelae affectio repraesentatur apud illos in facie, et ejus cogitatio in oculis; nam cogitatio et loquela, tum affectio et facies, apud illos unum agunt; reputant pro nefario aliud cogitare et aliud loqui, ac aliud velle et aliud facie ostendere; non sciunt quid hypocrisis, ac quid simulatio fraudulenta et dolus.
Quod talis loquela etiam fuerit Antiquissimis in nostra Tellure, per conversationem cum quibusdam ex illis in altera vita datum est scire; utque haec res elucidetur, licet referre quae audita sunt, quae sunt sequentia, "Ostensum est mihi per influxum, quem describere non possum, qualis loquela fuerat illis qui ab Antiquissima Ecclesia 1: quod nempe non articulata, sicut loquela vocum nostri temporis, sed tacita, quae fiebat non per respirationem externam sed per internam, ita erat loquelacogitativa;appercipere etiam datum est, qualis illorum respiratio interna fuit; quod processerit ab umbilico versus cor, et sic per labia absque sonoro cum loquebantur; et quod non intraverit in alterius aurem per viam externam, et pulsaverit in quoddam, quod vocatur tympanum auris, sed per viam quandam internam, et quidem per quoddam ibi, quod vocatur hodie Tuba Eustachiana. Ostensum, quod per talem loquelam multo plenius potuerint exprimere sensa animi et ideas cogitationis, quam usquam fieri potest per sonos articulatos aut voces sonoras, quae loquela similiter dirigitur per respirationem, sed externam, nam nulla vox est, imo nec quicquam in voce, quae non dirigitur per applicationes respirationis; sed apud illos multo perfectius, quia per respirationem internam, quae quia interior etiam perfectior est, et ipsis ideis cogitationis applicabilior ac conformior; praeter etiam per labiorum motiunculas, et correspondentes faciei mutationes; nam, quoniam coelestes homines fuerunt, quicquid cogitabant, hoc e facie et oculis eorum elucebat, quae conformiter variabantur, facies quoad formam secundum vitam affectionis, et oculi quoad lucem; nusquam potuerunt alium vultum praeferre, quam secundum illa qua cogitabant: quia illis loquela fuit per internam respirationem, quae est ipsius spiritus hominis, ideo cum angelis potuerunt consortium habere et loqui."
Respiratio spirituum Martis etiam mecum communicata fuit 2, et perceptum, quod illorum respiratio procederet e regione thoracis versus umbilicum, et inde flueret sursum per pectus cum imperceptibili halitu versus os: ex quibus constare mihi potuit, tum quoque ab aliis experientiae documentis, quod coelesti genio essent, ita quod non essent absimiles illis qui ab antiquissima Ecclesia in hac Tellure.
Footnotes:
1. [NCBSP: In the Latin text, Swedenborg's footnote here refers back to footnote 1 of section 85.]
2. Quod Spiritibus et Angelis respiratio sit, Arcana Coelestia 3884, 3885, 3891, 3893.