Mind-Body, Body-Mind… What’s The Difference?
Report 2- Lecture 4: Sections 2.3 and 2.4
Steven Clarke, Paula MacCormac, Noah Purington and Charyse Iseri
PSY 459, Spring 2008, Generation 27
Dr. Leon James,
Instructor,
Section 1. Lecture Content- Sections 2.3 and 2.4
By: Steven Clarke
The Location of the Mental Layers
When we are born, we are born with a physical body that exists and dies in the physical world. We are also born with our immortal mind operating in the mental world of eternity. Through correspondences, actions in the physical world directly effect the growth and development of the spiritual mind in the mental world of eternity. In order to understand where the layers of the mind are located, it is important to first understand that the operations of these layers is made possible through the affective, cognitive and sensorimotor organs of the spiritual mind. The affective organ corresponds to the circulatory system of the physical body; the cognitive organ corresponds to the respiratory system and the sensorimotor organ corresponds to the nervous skeletal systems. Every organ that makes up the physical body has its counterpart in the mental spiritual body. The functioning of the three mental organs takes place within the six mental layers (9-4) through correspondences directly connected to the physical world. The mental states of all resuscitated humans in the spiritual world of eternity take the form of the Grand Human or Grand Monster. The anatomy of the Grand Human contains all the organs of both the male and female body. Upon resuscitation we travel through the different layers until we find the area that perfectly matches our ruling love, which then becomes our eternal home.
The Affective, Cognitive and Sensorimotor Organs
The affective organ of the mental anatomy is like the circulatory system of the physical anatomy, and it is the ruling love inside every human. At the center of this system, in correspondence with layer four of the mental anatomy, is the heart. As the heart is the main control of the circulatory system in the physical body, we can also think of the heart as the main Ruling love of the spiritual body. The affective organ operates throughout the layers of the mental anatomy in the form of sub-loves which are governed by the heart or ruling love. The operations of the sub-loves can be thought of as corresponding to the operations of the organs of the circulatory system which function with the heart, such as the arteries and capillaries. The cognitive organ of the mental anatomy is like the respiratory system of the physical anatomy, and it is the governing truth in charge of conciseness and thinking in every human. At the center of this system, in correspondence with layer five of the mental anatomy, are the lungs. The lungs are a source of respiration and purification of the blood in the physical body, where as in the mental anatomy they act as a means to carry out the cognitive functions corresponding best to those of the ruling love. The cognitive organ operates throughout the layers of the mental anatomy depending on how the ruling love decides to operate its consciousness at a particular level. The operation of the governing truth depends on the consistency with the ruling love. The sensorimotor organ of the mental anatomy is like the nervous skeletal systems of the physical anatomy, and it is the external appearances of humans. The combination of the ruling love and the governing truth acting together produces the reaction of the sensorimotor organ. In the physical body the heart and respiratory systems act together which in turn provide the ability for navigation through the physical world through locomotion. Prior to our resuscitation, our sonsorimotor organ’s navigation is through layers 9,8, and 7, or the corporeal, materialistic and rational layers of the natural mind. After resuscitation, we are either in layer 4, 5, or 6, or the celestial-rational, spiritual-rational, or spiritual- natural mentality governed by which ever layer our ruling love is focused on. Our immortal eternity is decided as we journey through the grand human and our ruling love focuses on the layer which matches the ruling love the best.
The Three Fold Self and Regeneration
The term three fold self means that at each layer of mental anatomy the affective, cognitive and sensorimotor organs work together to effect our feelings, thoughts, and sensations. In order to understand how we as humans spend time in each mental state on a daily basis, we can study the correspondence between the mental organs and layers in the mind-body relationships chart. The three fold self effects our dualist existence in the physical and mental world. Before we die our operations in the consiouse natural mind (9,8,7) act upon and influence the development and growth of the spiritual mind (4,5,6). If we successfully regenerate during our physical life, completing spiritual combats and discovering correspondences in sacred scripture, we are lead down the path of regeneration. Successful regeneration means we will live eternally in one of the heavenly layers (4,5,6). If we do not undergo resuscitation prior to our deaths, we will abandon the heavenly mentality and peruse the hellish mentality of layers 9,8,7 which we spent our lives living and focused on. When we die, for a short time we still operate in both minds, until our ruling love causes us to determine what our mental world of eternity shall be. It is possible to monitor which layers we are acting in during our daily lives, and we can monitor which traits are hellish and which are heavenly. Acting for the purpose of love of the self alone is hellish, where as acting for the love of the self and the world together is heavenly. Spiritual combat, studying correspondences in sacred scripture, and self monitoring of the three fold self across the layers of the mental anatomy is the path to a mental eternity in heaven.
My opinion, evaluation, and understanding of the material for lectures 2.3 and 2.4
It is hard to simply picture all the layers of the natural and spiritual mind and the correspondences between them, but the chart of the mind-body relationships aids in illustrating these connections. You are still only reading a chart, but the visual representation of the chart itself makes it easier to see and understand. The explanation of spiritual geography being equivalent to mental anatomy is a good tool for understanding how the affective, cognitive and sensorimotor organs correspond to the different layers of the mental anatomy as well. Comparing all of the spiritual organs throughout the layers of mental anatomy to the different bodily systems and their different organs within the physical body also made trying to understand the information and charts easier.
Section 2. Team
Presentation of
By: Charyse Iseri
The two presenters for readings were Praew O’Connell and Brilliant Gomez. In her presentation, Praew discussed the issues involved in the question “Where is the mind?”; as well as what the relationship between the mind-body issue in the physical body and the spiritual body is and the general correspondences between the three general systems of the body with the three general systems of the mind. In response to the question where is the mind, she basically stated that it is in the spiritual body. There are three different layers of the mind, which are layers of functioning of the affective, cognitive and sensorimotor operations. The affective organ is the circulatory system in the spiritual body, the cognitive organ is the respiratory system and the sensorimotor is the neural-skeletal system. Each of these three spiritual organs functions at six distinct levels. For example, the heart in the spiritual body is the center of the circulatory system; making it an individual’s ruling love. This love is the chief love and controls all of the sub-loves. The way in which all of our loves or affections are arranged is in the form of a hierarchy. So in the same way that the heart controls the system of arteries and capillaries throughout the entire body, the ruling love controls all of the sub-loves to ensure that they are in unison with each other. Another example would be: the lungs are the center of the respiratory system; and in the same way that our spiritual lungs in the spiritual body (operations of our cognitive organ) filter our thoughts, our physical lungs receive used blood and filter and purify it.
It is important to remember that every detail of anatomy and functioning in the physical body is matched one for one by a detail in the anatomy and functioning of the spiritual body— which leads into relationship between the mind-body issue. The physical body is born and dies in the physical world. The spiritual body (containing the mind) however, is born in the mental world of eternity and is immortal. When our physical body dies, we continue to live our mental life in the spiritual body detached from physical connection. This basic mind-body issue has been debated for centuries in psychology and philosophy; and basically, the physical body is seen as the “the body” and our thought and feelings are seen as “the mind.” As previously mentioned, the mind (according the Theistic Psychology) in the spiritual body contains the three mental organs; and it is essential to remember that none of the mental organs and their corresponding systems can operate alone or separate from the other two organ/systems. So to illustrate this mind-body relationship, a prime example would be how we cannot think about anything (cognitive organ/respiratory system) unless the lungs are involved and engaged with the heart (affective organ/circulatory system). Simply stated, our central motives (heart) control our sub-motives (capillaries, liver) in directing our thinking and planning (lungs, kidneys, tongue); further, when our heart and lungs act together, some kind of sensorimotor action will be triggered. All of the organs/systems work together.
Brilliant had discussed the relationship between our mentality or particular mental states and the body organs to which they correspond. In layer 4-celestial rational, the mentality themes in the heavenly order are receiving conjugial love from God, being in conjunction with God through his Divine Human Omniproprium, having love of innocence, children, fidelity and altruism, perceiving interior rational truths and inspiring in people good thoughts, dreams, and the love of good. The affective organs/circulatory system are the heart, arteries and reproductive organs; cognitive organs/respiratory system are the lungs, breathing, lips and cheeks; the sensorimotor organs/neural-skeletal system are the hands, eyes, right brain, cerebellum, chest and thighs. In layer 5-spiritual rational, the heavenly traits are discussing and reasoning about truths and doctrines, inspiring people who are seeking to understand truth and conscience and helping people in spiritual combat during regeneration efforts. The affective organs/circulatory system are the stomach, liver, mastification and assimilation; cognitive organs/respiratory system are the esophagus, mouth cavity, smell, tongue and taste; the sensorimotor organs/neural-skeletal system are the interior of nostrils, ear and left brain. In layer 6-spiritual natural, the heavenly traits are practicing the human virtues in community life, inspiring people with being useful, to acquire motor skills and have the rational foundations for aesthetics, art, sports and civic. The affective organs/circulatory system is the nutritional exchange in cells; cognitive organs/respiratory system are respiration, oxygenation and air sacs; a corresponding body part and/or function has not been discovered for the sensorimotor organ/neural-skeletal system. In layer 7-interior natural, the heavenly traits are practicing the unity model of marriage, being motivated to master the mental environment, having religious or spiritual view based on what is rationally understandable, cooperating with God in one’s regeneration, thinking from scientific dualism and theistic psychology and valuing sincerity, spiritual responsibility, rationality, diligence and altruism. The hellish traits are opposing the human virtues in community life and practicing vices, inspiring people with being selfish, to avoid healthy activity habits, to possess the desire and enjoyment of tearing down rational foundations for aesthetics, art, sports and civics in order to pervert and destroy them. The affective organs/circulatory system are the spleen, pancreas, blood, arteries, veins and capillaries; cognitive organ/respiratory system is the diaphragm; the sensorimotor organs/neural-skeletal system are the hands, outward skin or lining of all internal organs. In layer 8-exterior natural, the heavenly traits are practicing the equity model of marriage, being motivated to master the social environment, thinking from materialism and negative bias in science, having religious or spiritual views based on mystery, authority and persuasive ideas, loving legalism, egalitarianism and control, being concerned with parity, duty, honor, recognition and glory and valuing honesty, social responsibility and patriotism. The hellish traits are discussing and reasoning about truths and doctrines in order to falsify them, inspiring people to despise truths by denying and falsifying them and to weaken the conscience by ignoring it and tempting people in spiritual combat during regeneration efforts in order to get them to give in to their temptation. The affective organs/circulatory system are the gall bladder, kidneys, urethra and bladder; cognitive organs/respiratory system are the teeth; the sensorimotor organs/neural-skeletal system are the neurons, feet, skin, bones, cartilage, muscles and tendons. And last, in layer 9-natural corporeal, the heavenly traits are practicing the male dominance model or marriage, being motivated to master the physical environment, having a desire to punish and suppress freedoms, having spirituality based on superstition, magic and psychics, xenophobia and authoritarianism. The hellish traits are receiving conjugial love from God and perverting it to promiscuity and infidelity, being in disjunction from God through opposing and hating his Divine Human Omniproprium, having rageful hatred of innocence and children, having lust of infidelity, selfism, arrogance, being blind to all interior rational truths and inspiring in people wicked thoughts, frightening dreams and the lust of evil. The affective organs/circulatory system are the intestines; a corresponding body part and/or function has not been discovered for the cognitive organ/respiratory system; the sensorimotor organs/neural-skeletal system are the soles of the feet and heel.
Both presenters had mentioned good examples that better illustrated the mind-body correspondences. Brilliant shared the example of feeling like you cannot breathe when you experience love—loving someone or being loved, and how this feeling corresponds to the lungs and mouth. Other related phrases in correspondence to certain feelings may be, being at a loss for words or having butterflies in your stomach when you see or are around someone that you love, have feelings for, etc. I think it helps to try and understand the correspondences through these different phrases because it’s hard to establish a connection by just reading the chart.
Section 3. Team Presentation on Exercises- Sections 2.3 and 2.4
By: Noah Purington
A. Summarize the main ideas presented by the team
The main ideas presented by the teams were associating the spiritual organs with the natural organs and where they are located. The affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor organs have an impact on the natural organs when stressed in the spiritual mind as a side affect. If we are aware of these symptoms of pain in our natural organs we can self evaluate the situations we are in and detect spiritual conflict with our ruling loves and our behaviors. The spiritual mind is encompassed by everybody’s spiritual body within the grand human. The notion that the grand human is in the 1st layer (spiritual sun) of every person and every person is in the encompassing body of the grand human is interesting to ponder.
B. Describe what they did and how they interpreted it
The presenters shared about chart 2.4 which depicts the natural and spiritual organs of each layer, and the correspondence with our use of these organs in our everyday life. The esophagus and lips was used in class by a presenter as organs used to speak about desires. The connection was that the respiratory system or cognitive organs project air when a person speaks the desires that they wish. So the saying “I got a frog in my throat” correlates with the inability to know what to say in a certain situation.
C) Describe some of the ideas that needed a better justification or greater amplification.
I would have liked more clarification on how one knows what the condition of their spiritual organs are, and what are the signs of healthy spiritual organs. I understood the entire negative aspect of the signs of destructive behavior affecting the organs, but what are the positive signs of organs reaching higher performance?
D) What was the success of the approach they used?
The reiteration of the lecture notes was correct, but given the level of unfamiliarity of the examples in the notes did not solidify the concepts learned effectively. However during the question and answer time I asked the presenters “what is a personal experience you can remember that agrees with these principles?” Brilliant Gomez explained his relationship with his wife and the feelings involved with interacting with her. He said he has the butterflies in his stomach when in her presence or he feels a pain in his stomach when they disagree about something. This lead me to think that maybe people are more sensitive to correspondence when they are committed to a significant other and choose to think and engage their behavior outside of their direct self interest.
E) What improvements are needed in the procedures or in the instruction?
I think that if we used real people examples or created a scenario that displays the interaction of the different organs with each other as a means of understanding and deciphering between the functions would help a lot. I have noticed that we (the class) are learning two things: the principles of the Swedenborg writings and the application of these principles to our lives. The application to our lives part is not getting as emphasized however, as much as the strict regurgitation of the principles; so often there is minimal comprehension of the notes.
F) What are the limitations of these types of exercises?
The limitations of these kinds of exercises are the relevance to each student. The difficulty with exercises like this, as oppose to the kinds of exercises in a math class (for example), is that the math equations are right or wrong and do not take much abstract thought. But the exercises in this class demand a level of spiritual interest to find an answer. If the student is simply unwilling to engage in the class in a spiritual manner, then the answering of the questions will become very difficult.
G) Describe what happened when you did some of the steps of the exercises
As I did the exercises for lecture 4, I began to monitor all aspects of my life and search for connections with the Swedenborg charts and how people around me interact with the Swedenborg charts even being unaware of the 12 layers. I became very fascinated with the motives people have, which I think is influenced by the hellish traits in each layer. I have many friends that dwell in the layer 9 thinking of sensual behavior; but, I also have friends that dwell in the layer 8 thinking of logical behavior. I try to expose to them the possible notion that they are looking at the world in a “telescope” and not in “binoculars”. The concept of blending the two realms to create the accurate depiction of reality is not entertained for long, giving an answer that side steps the uncomfortable thought of false perception.
Section 4. Annotated Weblinks- Sections 2.3 and 2.4
By: Paula MacCormac
This site illustrates in detail the way in which Swedenborg examined the brain and its correspondences to spiritual anatomy. The physical body has correspondences to the spiritual body, which includes the different parts of the brain. Though the detailed anatomy of the brain and its correspondences to the anatomy of the spiritual brain were not discussed in class, this website helps to provide a more localized, in-depth examination of Swedenborg’s detailed research of mind-body correspondences.
http://www.baysidechurch.org/Studia/studia.cfm?ArticleID=119&VolumeID=31&AuthorID=43&detail=1
In this website, correspondences are further examined but not so much in a physiological sense. Swedenborg’s principle of correspondences is applied to not just anatomy but even our everyday lives and personalities. All of these have correspondences in the spiritual realm, and can be further explored with a substantial understanding of the different mind-body relationships.
http://www.thenewphilosophyonline.org/journal/article.php?page=1073&issue=104b
I find this short article to be helpful in understanding the relationships between our physical organs and our spiritual organs in our spiritual body. More specifically, this website explores the relation between anxiety and the stomach. It is interesting to read about how Swedenborg’s proposed principle of correspondences can be applied to emotions or feelings that can occur every day. Our feelings of anxiety and worry are said to be related to the region of the stomach.
http://www.shs.psr.edu/studia/index.asp?article_id=24
Although this website illustrates once again Swedenborg’s principle of correspondences, it also incorporates how meaning can be extracted from things like culture and religion. It is helpful in understanding and grasping Swedenborg’s concept of body-mind relationships because it shows how that very same concept is generalized and applied to many other aspects of life. When we are able to fully comprehend such aspects, we can begin to monitor and realize how our actions (how our body reacts and functions) correspond with the spiritual realm.
http://www.theisticscience.org/blomdahl/Sweden06.htm
This website again focuses on Swedenborg’s research on the brain. It illustrates Swedenborg’s “Theory of Localizations”. Basically, it explains what his theory is, and how the body parts cited in his theory correspond to reality. Further along the article, a chart is shown which contains dreams and their interpretations, based on physical anatomy and their correspondential meanings. It helps to apply Swedenborg’s methodology into a subject that other non-theistic psychologists have examined (e.g. Freud) so that we can compare and contrast the negative and positive bias in exploring our mind and body.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/theistic/ch10.htm#physiological-corrrespondences
This website is helpful in truly establishing a solid foundation of physiological correspondences. Specific examples such as anger and depression are explored, and how these relate to deficiencies or problems with our physical body (the problems of which are projected onto our feelings). It is especially helpful to examine the charts presented, and how we can change our hellish traits into heavenly ones just by changing the way we think when we encounter a particular emotion.
http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/LEONJ/leonpsy/instructor/gloss/relbehaviorism.html#acs
The affective, cognitive, and sensorimotor operations are illustrated in this website. It explains how the three layers of operations work and react, to examples such as alcohol and its effect on our physical body. Briefly, it touches on the concept of “loves” (ruling loves) and how they are organized.
http://www.theisticpsychology.org/articles/biological-theology-chart.html
The chart that is presented in this website is especially interesting to read and examine. It illustrates how biological theology can serve as the basis of clinical/therapeutic/educational practices in spiritual psychology. It shows how behavioral symptoms in each of the three operations (affective, cognitive, sensorimotor) relate to applications in rational/spiritual psychology, as well as justifications in biological theology in the last column.
http://www.newdualism.org/papers/I.Thompson/dualism-descartes-swedenborg.htm
This website illustrates the differences in thinking between Renee Descartes and Emmanuel Swedenborg regarding the mind and body. It helps to understand Swedenborg’s position on the subject when compared to Descartes, as Swedenborg believed that Descartes point of view ignore the central role of our ruling love as underlying all our intellectual activity. It also goes into detail about what “Dualism” really meant to Swedenborg.
http://www.theisticpsychology.org/articles/substantive-in-tp.htm
This website explores Swedenborg’s concept of “Substantive Dualism” and how Swedenborg was essential a “dual citizen” (of both the natural and spiritual world). This website illustrates on a more general plane the concept of mind and body – of the spiritual and physical world. It also explains how substantive dualism ties in with theistic psychology as a whole, as well as biological theology.