Part 2, Chapter VI

BIRTH

1.     Birth, or the opening of the lungs, marks the beginning of sensitive life or of consciousness.

    The receptacles formed in the embryo for the will and the understanding do not pertain to the fetus during formation, and do not pass over into man until he is perfectly formed for birth.⁽³⁹⁸⁾

    "Will and understanding do not begin with man until the lungs are opened, and this does not take place until after birth.... Without the cooperation of the understanding and the will, man has not any proper life (vita propria)." ⁽³⁹⁹⁾

    "After birth the lungs are opened and together with the heart begin the active life which is of the will and the sensitive life which is of the understanding of man. This and that life are not given from the separate operation of the heart nor from the separate operation of the lungs, but from their cooperation; nor do they exist apart from a correspondence, or in a swoon, or in cases of suffocation."⁽⁴⁰⁰⁾

    The lungs are opened by the inrush of blood from the pulmonary arteries. ⁽⁴⁰¹⁾ (For the uses performed by the lungs and their respirations, see D. Love v.2. They induce reciprocal motions in the entire organic body and all its parts. They also consociate the voluntary motor life, which is dependent on the cerebrum, with the natural motor life which is under the control of the cerebellum. They harmonize the bodily movements, produce speech and tones, etc. They purify the blood and feed it and renew it, etc.)p. 91

2.     At birth, the infant consists of soul, body, and a communication between the two.⁽⁴⁰²⁾ The mind is not yet formed. ⁽⁴⁰³⁾

    Potentially by creation, the three degrees of the mind exist in him from birth, but not actually until they are opened.⁽⁴⁰⁴⁾

    Man is born into the natural degree, and this grows in him by continuity with the increase of his knowledge and understanding, to the height which is called the Rational.⁽⁴⁰⁵⁾
 

    Reference reading: "Birth, Death, and Survival". by H.L Odhner, in New Church Life 1960; pp. 5-13. These articles show the reasons why all immortal spirits have been born in the natural world.

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398 D. Wis. V.

399 D. Wis. iii. (5), v., vi:8,9, cf iii. (6). See above, p. C 28.

400 D. Wis. vi.e; DLW 407,401; D. Wis. vii (heading), x. (4); AC 3887, 3889e; TCR 87, cf DLW 382, et al.

401 DLW 405, cf AK ii.457 (vii); I Econ.362, 364.

402 Canons, Redr., iv. 6-8, cf AC 1900.

403 HH 277:3.

404 DLW 239, 236, (heading).

405 DLW 237, 67.