Emmanuel Swedenborg's philosophy of the human organism

first cause of the world. Between the Infinite, into which no human mind can penetrate, and the finite world, which is the province of geometry, is the mathematical point. This point is beyond the sphere of geometry and accessible only to reason.

Now this point, which is the link between the Infinite and the finite, is pure and total motion. We however can only conceive this motion as potential, that is, as internal state or effort towards motion, in which there are no steps in space, no moments in time and no actual movement.

Although the motion which is the point is only potential and not any actual movement, we can only visualise it as if it were motion in space and could be represented by a geometrical figure. The most perfect form in space is circular. But since the circle itself is only the periphery and the whole point is pure motion, this motion must be envisaged as going circularly, from the periphery to the centre and also from the centre to the periphery, as a spiral continually returning upon itself.

The diagram (Fig. I) shows this spiral motion from the centre to the periphery and from the periphery to the centre. But as our imaginary space is three-dimensional, the movement must be within a sphere (Fig. II). We have a spiral vortical movement from the centre to the circumference and at the opposite pole of the sphere, from the circumference to the centre. The centre in both diagrams is the turning point between the inward and the outward movements of the spiral.

The point has the power of creating, through motion, other points like itself and these points are the cause of all finite things. Since, therefore, everything originates from the point, it must contain potentially within itself everything which actually exists in the world.

We cannot perceive motion with our senses except in the compound and composite things which make up our world. Motion however is the only means by which any new things can be produced; motion bridges the gap between the substantial things which we perceive and the point, which almost eludes our imagination. It is from the spiral motion of points among themselves, filling space with finite forms, that the first finite substances are produced. It is motion which determines their forms.

According to Swedenborg, everything in the created universe