4852. About the faculty of sense-perception and its thinking
I was held thinking like those who are engrossed in what appeals to the senses, and it was thinking so crass and so warped that it is impossible to describe. It was totally unfocussed and illogical. Then it was shown that most people today are such that they are incapable of thinking above the level of the senses. Consequently they cannot be diverted from what is sensual but think on the level of the senses when they are speaking and writing, and also when they are listening and looking, some even apart from these activities when they are talking to themselves as recluses do, [the thinking is separated from inner thought,] 1. And it was shown that when sense-perceptions cease, they have no thought at all but are taken up with a crass and warped mental image, empty, as it were, of anything, when yet they could then be in the light of heaven and think.
Footnotes:
1. See Index at Idea, and Sensuale.
4852. CONCERNING THE SENSUAL AND ITS THOUGHT.
I was held in such a thought as they are in who are in the sensual; and it was a thought so gross and also deformed that it cannot be described. It had nothing at all determinate or consecutive. It was then shown that many at this day are of such a character, and that they are not able to think above the sensual, thus to be withdrawn from the sensual, but that they think in the sensual when they speak and write, and also when they hear and see: also some persons besides these, when they speak with themselves, as solitaries do; and that, when sensuals are quiescent, they do not think at all, but are in a gross and deformed idea, as if bereft of the whole matter, when, yet, they might then be able to be, and to think, in the light of heaven.
4852. De sensuali et ejus cogitatione
Tenebar in cogitatione in quali sunt illi qui in sensuali, et erat cogitatio tam crassa et quoque deformis, ut non describi possit, nihil prorsus determinati nec continui; dein ostensum, quod plerique hodie tales sint, quod supra sensuale non possint cogitare, ita abducti a sensuali, sed quod cogitent in sensuali, tunc cum loquuntur et scribunt, et quoque cum audiunt et vident, aliqui etiam absque illis cum secum loquuntur, ut faciunt solitarii, [cogitatio separata est a cogitatione interiore;] et [ostensum] quod cum sensualia quiescunt, prorsus nihil cogitent, sed sint in idea crassa et deformi, omnis rei quasi inani; cum tamen tunc possent esse in luce coeli et cogitare.