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144 SWEDENBORG’S TRAVELS AND DIARIES. [Doc. 208.
those works which have been published.* I then noticed for
several years that there was a tacit respiration which is scarcely
perceptible ; about this it was also granted me afterwards to
think and to speak. In this wise I was introduced from my
infancy into such respiration, especially by intense speculations,
in which [external] respiration is quiescent: for otherwise no
intense speculation on the truth is possible. Afterwards also,
when heaven had been opened to me, so that I could speak
with spirits, I was so fully introduced into this respiration,
that for the space of almost an hour I did not draw any
breath: there was only so much air inhaled that I was able
to think. In this manner I was introduced by the Lord into
internal respiration. Perhaps also in my dreams ; for I noticed
again and again that after falling asleep, [external] respiration
was almost entirely withdrawn from me, so that on awakening
I gasped for breath. This kind of respiration, however, ceases
when I do not observe, write, or think on any [i. e. spiritual]
subject, and reflect only upon this, that I believe these facts ,
and that they take place in innumerable ways. Formerly I
was not able to see these varieties because I could not reflect
upon them ; but now I am able to do so, because each state,
each sphere, and also each society [of heaven], especially the
interior ones, have in me a suitable respiration, into which I
come without reflecting upon it. By this means it is also
granted me to be present with spirits and angels" ("Spiritual
Diary, " no. 3464).
We are instructed here how the opening of Swedenborg’s
spiritual sight and the separation of his intellectual faculty
from his body were effected. But as his understanding could
only gradually be emancipated from the limitations of the body,
and accustomed to breathe in the atmosphere of heaven, and
to see in the light of the angels, therefore the opening of his
spiritual sight was a very gradual process, as he declares in
the following passage: "I was elevated into the light of heaven
interiorly by degrees, and in proportion as I was elevated,
* Swedenborg means here "The Economy of the Animal Kingdom,"
"The Animal Kingdom," and "The Worship and Love of God," which
were published by him before 1748, when the above paragraph was penned.
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