Book Review of Heaven and Hell By the Rev. Dave Sonmor

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this Book Review is to introduce you to what is probably the most thorough and enlightening book ever written on the subject of life after death. Swedenborg’s observations are first hand, as his spiritual senses were opened by the Lord so that he could report accurately what was to be revealed to the world with the coming of the New Church. What I am able to give you here is just a cursory glance at what the book contains, as Swedenborg reported in great detail and with countless examples and explanations, all he had seen and heard in the spiritual world. I would strongly recommend that you obtain a copy of HEAVEN AND HELL from your nearest bookstore, or Library, or access it for free at: www.HeavenlyDoctrines.org  on the internet. I would also recommend the second edition of the George Dole translation, which is available in hard cover, paper back or large print hard cover. The book was first published by E. Swedenborg in Latin in London in the year 1758. Reverend David L. Sonmor

AUTHORS PREFACE

In Matthew 24:29 -31, the Lord is talking to His disciples about the end of the age, or the last time of the church. In concluding His predictions about the church’s successive states of love and faith, He says: Immediately after the misery of those days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give her light, and the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn; and they will see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a trumpet and a great voice, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

People who take these words literally can only believe that all these things are going to happen literally, just as described, in some final time called the Last Judgement. That is, the sun and the moon will become dark, the stars will fall from heaven, the sign of the Lord will appear in heaven, and He Himself will appear in the clouds, along with the angels with trumpets. Beyond this, even , according to predictions, elsewhere, they believe the whole visible world is going to perish, and then a new heaven and a new earth will emerge. There are many people in the church today who think this way. But such people do not know the arcana (hidden knowledge) underlying the very details of the Word. For, in the very details of the Word there is an inner meaning, one that deals not with natural, earthly matters like those in the literal sense, but with spiritual and heavenly matters.

This holds true not just for groups of words, but even for each single word. For the Word was composed using pure correspondences for the very purpose of having an inner meaning in every detail. The nature of this meaning can be ascertained from all the statements and explanations of it in ARCANA CAELESTIA, also from what has been summarized in the explanation of THE WHITE HORSE described in the Book of Revelation.

This is the sense in which we should understand what the Lord said about His coming in the clouds in the passage cited above. There the sun which will be darkened refers to the Lord in respect to love, the moon to the Lord in respect to faith. The stars refer to insights of what is good and true (or of love and faith), the sign of the Son of man in heaven to Divine Truth becoming visible, and the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven with power and glory to His presence in the Word and to revelation. The clouds refer to the literal meaning of the Word, the glory to the Words inner meaning, and the angels with a trumpet and loud voice to heaven where Divine Truth comes from.

On this basis we can determine what these words of the Lord would have us understand, namely that the Lord is going to open the Word in respect to its inner meaning at the end of the church, when there is no more love and therefore no faith; and that He is going to uncover arcana of heaven. The arcana which are uncovered in the pages that follow have to do with heaven and hell, and accordingly with man’s life after death.

Today’s churchman knows almost nothing about heaven, hell, or his own life after death, even though this is all described in the Word. It has gone so far that even many people born in the Church deny these things, and ask in their hearts, “Has anyone come back and told us?” To prevent so negative an attitude (which is particularly prevalent among people with much worldly wisdom) from infecting and corrupting people of simple heart and the simple in faith, it has been made possible for me to be right with angels and to talk with them as person to person. I have also been allowed to see what heaven is like and then what hell is like, this has been going on for thirteen years. So now I may describe heaven and hell from what I have seen and heard, hoping for the enlightenment of ignorance and the dispersion of disbelief by this means. The reason for the occurrence today of such direct revelation is that this is what “the Lord’s coming” means. E. Swedenborg

PART I

HEAVEN

Chapter 1
The Lord is Heaven’s God

This opening chapter establishes first and foremost who the God of heaven is. Swedenborg states that no one is recognized as God except the Lord, just as He taught in the Book of John, that, “He is one with the Father; that anyone who sees Him sees the Father; and that everything holy comes from Him.”

He says that angels of heaven have told him that in heaven they are incapable of dividing the Divine in three because they know and perceive the Divine as one and is one in the Lord.

In heaven there is communication of all thoughts so those trying to enter will be known if they think “three” and say “one.” People who have not separated what is true from what is good (or faith from love) all accept the concept that the Lord is the God of all creation, which includes our universe as well as the heavens. Those who deny the Lord and only recognize the father remain outside of heaven, in the world of spirits, as do those who claim to believe in an invisible, unknowable Reality or in to-days language, a cosmic force or nature itself creating itself.

Little children, who make up a third of heaven, believe at first that the Lord is their own father and later come to understand that He is the Lord of everyone.

Chapter 2
The Lord’s Divine Makes Heaven

It may be thought by some that the angels collectively make up heaven, but in reality it is from the Divine of the Lord which is flowing into them. In effect they are not in heaven but heaven is in them. The Divine good and the Divine truth from the Lord influence each other according to the way we accept them.

All life is from the Lord and everything in the universe returns back to what is good and true. The life of our love goes back to the good and the life of our intellect goes back to the true. So if everything good and true comes from the Lord, so does all life. The good from the Lord is heaven to angels and not anything from themselves.

Chapter 3
The Lord’s Divine In Heaven Is Love For Him And Charity Towards One’s Neighbor

This chapter uses an interesting analogy between the Divine of the Lord in heaven and the sun in our universe. It states that the Divine of the Lord operates in heaven similarly to the way the sun operates in the universe. Because Divine Love and Divine Truth work together to give life to the heavens, so also the warmth and the light of the sun work together to give life to the world.

Loving the Lord and loving the neighbor as seen in the light of heaven, is understood by the angels to mean loving what is good and what is true, and doing so intentionally.

Chapter 4
Heaven is Divided into Two Kingdoms

As there is infinite diversity in heaven no one community or angel is identical to any other. Heaven is divided overall into two kingdoms, regionally into three heavens and locally into countless communities. Collectively the angels who accept most inwardly the Divine which emanates from the Lord, make up the “celestial kingdom” and those who accept it less inwardly make up the “spiritual kingdom.” These are also referred to as higher and lower kingdoms in respect to their proximity to the Lord who is above all things.

The angels of the celestial kingdom are vastly superior to those of the spiritual kingdom because they accept the Lord’s Divine more inwardly. Those of the celestial kingdom know instantly whether what they hear is true, whereas those of the spiritual kingdom must first store it in their memory and then think about whether it is true or not. Although the inhabitants of the two kingdoms do not live together there is communication between them which conjoins them.

Chapter 5
 There Are Three Heavens

The three heavens are quite distinct from each other. There is an inmost or third heaven, an intermediate or second heaven and an outmost or first heaven. These three combine to form a single heaven, which is an image of the design of the Divine itself. This is also the design of human beings, who have an inmost (spirit), an intermediate (mind) and an outmost (body). In the creation story this is what is referred to when it is said that man was made in the image and likeness of God. There is also an inner and an outer aspect to each of the three heavens. The angels of the inner aspect have the capacity to intend and those of the outer the capacity to discern. One cannot possibly exist without the other. So it takes both kind to make up a heaven. To intend is to will and act and is likened to a flame and to discern or understand is like a light. These are downward extensions of the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom which constitute God.

The difference in the degree of love and understanding from the Lord, which is in the inhabitants of each of the three heavens, does not make it possible for them to have full access to the inhabitants of the other heavens. The three heavens are quite distinct from one another. However, people (angels) in the same heaven can communicate and associate with everyone in their own heaven.

The Lord joins all three heavens together by the direct and indirect influx of love and wisdom. Direct influx is from Himself and indirect influx is from one heaven into another. In this way the Lord makes the three heavens one. We can see a direct correlation of this with what occurs in our natural world in most aspects of human life, and especially in the sharing of love and knowledge. Man can receive intelligence and wisdom and can communicate from a process of rational thinking. This gives man the ability to join the Lord and live to eternity.

Chapter 6
The Heavens Are Made up of Countless Communities

Communities are established in accordance with the nature of the love and faith they are involved in. “People involved in similar good form a single community.” The distances between communities is based on the state of the love or good that is prevalent in them. “People who differ greatly are far apart; people who differ slightly are closer together; the likeness among them brings unity.” People within given communities are distinguished from each other in a similar way, with the wisest and most loving of them living in the center and the simpler, less outstanding ones toward the borders.. In the same way that people on earth recognize family members, relatives, and friends, all angels involved in similar forms of good recognize each other. They all have a similar general appearance.

Chapter 7
Each Community Is a Heaven in a Smaller Form
And Each Angel is a Heaven in the Smallest Form

In this chapter Swedenborg explains how the overall design of the Divine of the Lord is evident in all created things in the spiritual world, that is the heavens, the communities within those heavens and the inhabitants of those communities. The reason the smaller entities are in the same form as the heavens is because the good outcome of the love and faith is what makes heaven and because this “good” is within every community and angel in heaven.

Heaven is not outside of angels but is within the most inner elements of their being, which are precisely designed to accept all the elements of heaven that are outside of them. The angels accept them according to the quality of the good that is in them from the Lord.

Heaven is where the Lord is recognized, believed and loved. A diversity of worship of the Lord arises from the diversity of the good from one community to another. This diversity is a good thing as it is the source of heaven’s perfection. From this we can also see that the variety and diversity of religions and forms of worship of the Lord in the world is a good thing as we need to worship Him from a sense of freedom and not from a position of conformity and compulsion. People who are coerced into worshiping God are not truly worshiping Him, and those who coerce people in that way are not acting on behalf of the Lord but rather from selfish motivation.

Like the angels, our more inward elements are patterned after heaven and we become a true likeness of heaven to the extent that we are involved in the good of love and faith. People who have heaven in them have it not only in a general sense but also in the smallest aspects of their life, as the smallest aspects reflect an image of the larger aspects. This is because each person is their own love and their actual quality is determined by their ruling love. Love for the Lord is what rules in heaven, because there the Lord is loved more than anything else. As a result, the Lord is there the all in all, flows into each and all things, arranges them, clothes them with His own likeness, and so works things out that it is heaven where He is.

Chapter 8
Heaven, if Grasped as a Single Entity, Reflects a Single Person

A person is not a person by virtue of their earthly material elements, but by virtue of their ability to discern what is true and to intend what is good. These are the spiritual and celestial attributes, which constitute a person. What ever we think or discern we can speak with our mouth and whatever we intend we can implement with our body and limbs. This is how we express or do that which we discern and intend. If we want our activities to fulfil a useful function we must intend well toward others for the sake of the common good. If we act not for the sake of the good of others but only for our own sake then we do not fulfil a useful function. This is why people in heaven act as a unit; not from themselves but from the Lord. Because the good in the inhabitants of heaven is some aspect of the good of the Lord and is similar to that in all the inhabitants in the community and then of the heaven in which the community is located, the appearance of the individuals is like that of the whole community and the whole heaven in which they reside. This heaven is also similar in appearance to the good of the Lord which is the source of its good. Thus the whole heaven reflects a single person which is the Lord. Hence the whole heaven has the design and appearance of the Lord which is the appearance of a man, with head, torso and appendages. This is referred to as the “Greatest Man” or “Grand Man”. The three heavens, previously discussed in Chapter 5, correspond to the three parts of the body The Celestial or highest heaven makes up the head, the Spiritual or middle heaven makes up the torso and the lowest or Spiritual/Natural heaven makes up the arms and legs. Each heaven has a specific function and role to play in the operation of the whole body of Christ the Lord (God). Also each community and each inhabitant has a function and role to perform for the good of the whole body. This is just like all the parts and organs and viscera of the human body and is another example of why it was said that man was made in the image and likeness of God. Grasping this concept of the Grand Man as the form of heaven is crucial to understanding many of the things that will be said about heaven in future chapters. It sounds a bit complicated but when we think about it mankind has always had an image of God as being similar to the appearance of man. And since heaven is in the Lord it also would have the same appearance.

Chapter 9
Each Community in the Heavens Reflects a Single Person

All the good elements in everyone in heaven come from the same source, which is their love for the Lord. This is why the whole heaven is a likeness of Him. As each community is made up of people who have the same basic elements of love for the Lord it follows that the whole community has a similar appearance.

Chapter 10
Each Angel is in a Perfect Human Form

Based on the concept of God being the Grand or Greatest Man, it follows that heaven is a person in greatest or most complete form and a community is a person in a less complete form, so an angel is a person in least form. In order to get a picture of this we could imagine, in natural terms that it takes billions of angels to constitute a community, millions of communities to constitute a heaven and three heavens to constitute the Lord. Everything of truth and good from Lord God is shared with everything in His creation in order to create a wholeness and conjunction between God and His creation. But the various single elements of His creation can receive it only by degrees, which pass from Him down through the heavens and spiritual world to our universe and earth and everything therein including the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms. A rock does not receive it in the same degree as a human who in turn does not receive it in the same degree as an angel and so on. We all nevertheless exist because of the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of the Lord from and through which everything was created. Angels are completely people in form because they all began as people and therefore have the same faculty of being aware of their existence and the capacity to accept and choose to participate in whatever degree of goodness and truth they want. We might say that all angels are people who have graduated to a higher level of existence. There is nothing in their form that distinguishes them from people.

Chapter 11
Heaven As a Whole And in Its Parts Reflects a Person Because It Stems From the Lord’s Divine Human

This chapter title is a conclusion drawn from the previous chapters. All the angels of heaven see the Divine exclusively in human form. As heaven reflects a person because of the Lord’s Divine Human, angels refer to themselves as being “in the Lord.” Because they do not perceive an invisible God it is natural for them to say that the Lord alone is Person, and that they are people by reason of Him, and that each of them is a person to the extent that they accept the Lord, which is accepting the good and true that comes from Him. It is difficult for us to understand what it is to be a spiritual person because our whole concept of person is based on our natural perceptions and experiences of being persons. As all of our thoughts hinge on the experience of our natural bodies we tend to view spiritual entities from the same perspective. However it is not really our natural body that makes us a person but rather our inner aspects which contain what we believe and what we love that makes us a person, and in turn determines how we behave. The love and belief manifested as good and truth is what constitutes our life in the spiritual world and is the stuff that spirits and angels are made of. We are living and developing that spiritual life right now, but are not consciously aware of it. When our physical body dies, we then become aware of our spiritual body and the world in which it exists.

Chapter 12
There Is A Correspondence Between Everything In Heaven And Everything In Man

 The knowledge of correspondences is an angelic knowledge. However, it was known by the most ancient people who understood it implicitly and could see it in everything in their life. Many aboriginal people of today still carry a certain degree of this knowledge of correspondence between what is natural and what is spiritual. The people of the so called “civilized world” lost the ability to know this language as they became more and more involved in reasoning everything out from their own observations of nature and the world around them. Thus over the many milleniums of human existence we have moved ourselves away from heaven and focused on worldly things.

The basic premise of correspondences is that the whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world in even the most minute details. Now with the invention of electron microscopes we can see the same orderly composition in sub-atomic particles that we see in larger things with the naked eye, and not too many years ago we did not even know these things existed. It is vital to understand that the natural world emerges and is maintained from its source which is the spiritual world. Our natural world includes everything under the sun, which is affected by light and heat radiating from it. By contrast the spiritual world and everything that belongs to it are affected by its sun, which is the Lord God. Since we human beings are both a heaven and an earth in smallest form, on the model of the greatest we have a spiritual world and a natural world within us. This is what Swedenborg often refers to as the inner man and the outer man. Our spiritual world is comprised of our more inward elements, which belong to our mind and have to do with discernment and intention, whereas our more outward elements belong to our body which has to do with our senses and behavior. Therefore anything we do in our natural world that is directed by our inner world is called a correspondent. Swedenborg goes on to explain the correspondence of the two heavens with the heart and lungs which is a general correspondence of heaven with man. And then he gives a number of examples of more specific correspondences such as: “head” denotes discernment and wisdom, “nostrils” perception, “ears” obedience, “kidneys” examination of what is true, etc. Correspondence, however, includes more than just man. There is an inter- correspondence within the heavens. The second or middle heaven corresponding to the third or inmost heaven, and the first or outermost heaven corresponding to the middle one. The first (outermost) heaven corresponds to physical forms in man, called members, organs and viscera. So the human body is where heaven finally leaves off as humanity is the aspect of the natural world that can receive and understand and respond to that which comes from the heavens. It is what heaven stands on like a base. All correspondence that exists with heaven is associated with the Lord’s Divine Human which flows into all the elements of heaven and through heaven to mankind. This also clarifies why the Lord became Man, covering His Divinity with a human form from beginning to end. This happened because the Divine Human which had sustained heaven before the Lord’s coming was no longer adequate to keep everything going because it’s base, mankind, had undermined and destroyed the pattern by ascribing everything in existence to nature.

Chapter 13
Heaven Has a Correspondence with Everything on Earth

All things on earth, that is all things in the natural world are correspondences. They correspond to something spiritual in the spiritual world. In our world and universe everything fits into one of three categories or kingdoms, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom or the animal kingdom. Also things above the earth such as stars and moons and planets, the various atmospheres, the clouds, storms, rain and lightning also correspond to things in the spiritual world and are thus correspondences as well. This is the situation because everything here emerges and persists from the spiritual world with both worlds having their life from the Divine.

A correspondent is anything that exists and persists in nature as a result of the Divine design, which is a product of the Divine good that comes from the Lord. If we look closely at things of the animal and vegetable kingdoms we can see that they come from heaven. Everything of the animal kingdom has some innate intelligence. For example bees know how to gather nectar from flowers and build little cells in which to store it as food for themselves and their dependants. Also their wax and honey serve other animals such as bears and humans in many different ways. Animals and birds know the enemies they should avoid and the friends they should seek out because they can provide some use to them. They are born with all the knowledge they need to serve the uses for which they were created. They never destroy the elements to which they correspond in the spiritual world because they do not have rationality. Humans are different. We can think and reason and can corrupt things from the spiritual world that have been put into us, through living disorderly lives. Because of this we are born into complete ignorance and must be led back from there into the design of heaven by Divine means.

The vegetable kingdom too has its innate correspondence to spiritual elements. There is the growth of seeds into trees and plants which in turn produce more seeds so that they continually procreate and serve the uses for which they were created, part of which is to feed and clothe and protect members of the animal kingdom and also to replenish valuable organisms in the soil from which they have sprung so that their progeny can be nourished. A garden corresponds to heaven because of the variety of goods and uses it provides. Foods derived from plants such as grains, correspond to affections for what is good and true, because goodness and truth nourishes spiritual life in the same way that grains nourish natural life.

Chapter 14
The Sun in Heaven

The sun, high above heaven, is the Lord. Heaven’s light is the Divine Truth and it’s warmth is the Divine Good and these emanate from the Lord as if from a sun. The Lord’s appearance to anyone depends on the way He is accepted by the person. People, in the celestial kingdom, who accept Him with the good of love see Him like a sun; fiery and flaming. People in the spiritual kingdom who accept Him with the good of faith, see Him as a moon; lustrous and glimmering. This difference in appearance is associated with correspondences. Good, which is a form of love, corresponds to fire, and faith, which is a form of wisdom, corresponds to light.

 In this chapter Swedenborg also makes the observation that things seen in the right eye are associated to good, as everything on the right side of an angel or person corresponds to the good and everything on the left side corresponds to the true which comes from the good. Faith’s good is basically something true derived from something good. It is interesting to note that modern day anatomical studies show that the right side of the brain contains the elements associated with affections, which are forms of love and the left side is associated with matters of the intellect, which are forms of wisdom.

A brief explanation is given about the orientation of the sun and moon to those who are in the hells. “Whereas those in heaven turn constantly toward the Lord hence toward the sun which emanates perfect light, and those in the spiritual world turn toward the moon which provides reflected light, those in hell turn completely away from the Lord and thus from any light from Him and so toward the dark and gloomy nothingness of evil and falsity.” Everyone in the other life, through their own choices, direct their attention to the controlling forces in their life, which is toward that which they love. When we die and become fully aware of the spiritual world we exist in, we are held in a state of complete freedom to be ourselves and to choose, with no external influences from either heaven or hell, the kind of life we wish to live. Our choice will reflect the kind of interests and loves we have chosen while in the world. So whether we choose to love God or to reject God is very important in determining what our state will be to eternity.

Chapter 15
Light and Warmth In Heaven

Everything that issues forth from the Lord in heaven is the Divine Good and the Divine True. From this angels have light and warmth. The light is derived from the Divine True and warmth is derived from the Divine Good which are not natural elements but spiritual. In heaven the light varies according to the wisdom and intelligence of the angels involved in it. Thus it varies from kingdom to kingdom, from heaven to heaven from community to community and from angel to angel in infinite variety.

Each inhabitant (angel) has light to the precise degree that they are receptive of the Lord’s Divine Truth and are involved in intelligence and wisdom from the Lord. This is why heaven’s angels are often referred to as “angels of light”. Since the Lord in the heavens is the Divine True and everything that comes from Him is called “light”, this correspondence is also clear in the Bible which is His Word. “Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world, whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light’” (John 8:12). It is true also that wherever in the Word the word “light” is used, it corresponds to the Divine True.

With respect to humans, our spiritual light is the light of our discernment, that is, our skill in perceiving, discriminating or judging, which focuses on truths and brings us to conclusions that affect the way we behave.

Heaven’s warmth is essentially love which issues from the Divine Good. Like light it varies from location to location and recipient to recipient. Warmth in the hells is unclean and uncomfortable whereas warmth in heaven is pure and comforting. This difference is because heavenly fire refers to love for the Lord and the neighbor, whereas hellfire refers to love of self and the world. In the after life we are in warmth in keeping with the quality of our love. While we are living in the natural world we can experience a certain amount of spiritual warmth and love because we are both spiritual and natural beings. Heaven’s warmth constitutes the life of our intention or will, since it is of the Divine Good which comes from Divine Love. The angels’ very life comes from warmth, and not from light except as there is warmth in it. Life’s dependence upon warmth is obvious, since if warmth is taken away, life ceases. It is like winter time when there is light but no warmth so nothing grows until the warmth returns. The Divine–Good and the Divine-True, which occur in the heavens from the Lord as a sun is not in the Lord but is from the Lord. Within the Lord God or the essence of God is Divine Love, which is the reality from which all things arise. This is also evident in our universe as the light and warmth in our world are from the sun which in itself is only fire.

Chapter 16
The Four Major Regions in Heaven

Directions in heaven are different than they are on earth because the Lord is always seen in the east so the east is always in front its inhabitants. This is because their more inward elements, which consists of their loves, are always focused on the source of that love, which is the Lord. They can turn this way and that way but their inner focus remains the same. In a way it is similar to our state here in the world as we can turn in many directions but our inner focus still remains on that which we love.

In the heavens that make up the Lord’s celestial kingdom, the major regions are not the same as the ones that make up His spiritual kingdom. This is because the major focus of the angels in the celestial kingdom is toward the Divine Good, where the Lord is seen as a sun, whereas the focus of the angels of the spiritual kingdom is the Divine True where the Lord is seen as a moon, as described in Chapter four.

All people in the heavens dwell in different areas according to the major regions. To the east and west live the people who are involved in the good of love; to the east the ones in clear perception and to the west the ones in veiled perception. To the south and north dwell those who are involved in wisdom from love’s good; to the south those in wisdom’s clear light, and to the north those in wisdom’s veiled light. The major regions indicate the kinds of things prevalent among the people living there. Specifically “East” means love and it’s good in clear perception; “West” means the same in veiled perception; “South” means wisdom and intelligence in clear light and “North” means the same in veiled light. Since these regions also have this meaning in the Word’s internal sense, there is a complete accord with this phenomena in heaven. There are directly opposite regions in the hells.

Chapter 17
Changes of State of Angels in Heaven

By “changes in the states of angels, we understand their changes are in love and faith, hence in wisdom and intelligence and which is the state of their life. This is not like people here on earth whose change in state is centered far more on physical changes as we go from infancy to childhood to adolescence to young adulthood to full adulthood to middle age and finally old age. We also go through the daily changes of morning, noon evening and night, and the yearly changes of spring, summer, fall and winter. We go through changes in location, changes in occupation, and so on. As well, during our life on earth we are constantly subjected to influences both good and evil when dealing with matters of love and faith. Here, we are in a state of growth spiritually and are continually fluctuating: morally, between what is good and what is evil, intellectually, between what is true and what is false, and behaviorally, between what is right and what is wrong. Angels no longer have to deal with this broad range of differences and influences as evil and falsity is no longer a part of their life, Angels’ states therefore fluctuate between intense love and mild love and intense wisdom and moderate wisdom. This is because their thought and action is always directed towards the Lord. For angels it is no longer a matter of “if” I shall love, but a matter of “how much” shall I love. It is not a matter of “shall I be wise and intelligent or foolish and ignorant,” but is a matter of “to what degree shall I be wise” and “to what degree shall I understand”.

It is not a matter of angels being stuck in one particular mode as there is constant change in their states. The states people are in, in heaven, correspond to the physical states we experience here in the world. There we will go through sequences with regard to changes in our understanding of some spiritual truth, with a range similar to the range of changes in light from dawn to dusk. Also with regard to affections, the range goes from mildly warm to very hot. You know it just dawned on me that we experience some of those same changes of state here when we focus totally on what is true and what is good.

Chapter 18
Time in Heaven

Even though everything in heaven happens in sequences as it progresses on its continuum of good and truth or love and wisdom, the angels have no concept or sense of time. This is because there are no connections to the things like rotation of the earth to the sun that we experience here, which results in the changes in time and season. There, time is replaced by changes in state. In the Bible, whenever time or anything associated with it is mentioned, it corresponds to various spiritual states.

With no concept of time, angels’ have a different concept of eternity than we do. They see it as an infinite state where we see it as an infinite time. The only connection with time that angels experience is that when they experience something pleasant, it seems to have been short or to have passed by quickly, whereas when they experience something unpleasant or uncomfortable it seems to drag on longer. Again we experience a somewhat similar thing here when we sit through a boring meeting and the minutes feel like hours and the actual time is really not relevant.

We might believe that our ability to think would cease if the concepts of time and space and matter were removed since all of our thinking seems to be based on them. But in fact, those things all place limitations on our ability to think. Thus when they are removed we enter into a state in which the extent of our thought process is unlimited. There are no barriers or boundaries, we can go as far as we desire in getting to a state of wisdom.

Chapter 19
Representations and Appearances in Heaven

Angels have all the senses that we humans have, and in fact more sensitive ones: for the light in which they see is far clearer than the light in which we see. The things angels see in heaven are largely similar to what we see here in our world. However they are more perfect in form and are more abundant. The occurrence of objects in heaven is confirmed by what prophets such as Ezekiel and Daniel and John saw and reported in the Bible. The things became visible to them when heaven was opened to them and their spiritual sight was opened by the Lord.

The things angels see are representations of various forms of divine phenomena as no angel has the ability to fully comprehend what is divine. Therefore what they see and in turn what we see spiritually are only appearances as our mind and spirit has to deal with it using our non-divine faculties. Swedenborg gives an example of what angels’ see in consequence of correspondences: To angels involved in intelligence, there appear gardens and parks full of every kind of tree and flower. The trees are set in a very beautiful design, twining into arched entrances and with walks here and there. Everything is so beautiful that there is no way to describe it. People stroll there who are engaged in intelligence. They gather flowers, make wreaths, and adorn little children with them… The fruits on the trees reflect the “good” of the love that engages these intelligent angels. They see this kind of thing because a garden and a park (as well as trees and flowers) correspond to intelligence and wisdom.

Chapter 20
The Clothes Angels Are Seen Wearing

Since angels are people who live together as people on earth do, they have clothes, houses, and many similar things. The difference is that what they have is more perfect as they live in a more perfect state. Like everything else in the heavens, the clothes angels wear correspond. Their clothes correspond to their intelligence so every one is seen dressed in accord with their intelligence. The most intelligent have clothes that gleam with the brightness of a flame, those less intelligent have shining white clothes and those with still less intelligence have clothes of various colors. The clothes also correspond to what is true as all intelligence comes from the Divine-True. The angels of the inmost heaven do not have clothes because they are in a state of complete innocence and innocence corresponds to nakedness.

When angels, described in various parts of the Bible, appear to people on earth, they present themselves as being clothed; for example in Matthew 28 …an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning and his garment was as white as snow.”

Clothes in the Word refer to things that are true, and to the resulting intelligence. as in: Revelation 3: 4 and 5, “The people who have not defiled their clothes will walk with Me in white. Whoever conquers will be clothed in white garments.” Angels use and handle their clothes just as we do. However their clothes change with their change of state, so we might say they have clothes suitable for all occasions. They say their clothes come from the Lord. You can imagine what the clothes of the people in hell look like.

Chapter 21
Angel’s Homes in Heaven

Homes like, clothes, vary depending on the individual’s state of life. There are splendid ones for those in the most deserving states and less splendid ones for those in lower states. They have houses because they are people and have the same spiritual/psychological needs as we do here, such as privacy, relaxation, and feelings of comfort and security. If they did not have a place of their own they would feel like street people who have to exist out in public under the watchful and critical eyes of all who pass them by. They do not live in the upper atmospheres of our physical universe as some suppose. They do not fly about like birds, They are people not wispy spirits with no substance. They live in houses located in communities where all are in similar states of good and truth. Their communities have avenues and streets and public areas, just as ours do. There are palaces so noble as to defy description.

With regard to correspondences, it is not just the palace or home that corresponds to what the angels have more deeply within them from the Lord; it is each and every thing both within them and outside of them. The house itself corresponds, broadly, to their “good,” the particular things in the house to different elements that constitute that good, and the outdoor things to the true elements that stem from what is good.

The homes that angels live in are not constructed, but are given to them freely by the Lord; to each in accordance with their acceptance of what is good and true. They change slightly in keeping with changes of the state of their lives.

Chapter 22
Space In Heaven

There is no actual space in heaven, only the appearance of space and place. Travel from place to place is simply a change in state. Here when we say we have changed our mind about something it doesn’t mean that the thing has changed, but our thought concept of it has changed so it will appear to be different to us. This is somewhat similar to the change in state that occurs with angels in heaven, only it is a change in their spiritual concepts and perceptions, which occurs. People who are in similar states are near to one another and dwell in the same community. The route from one place to another or to one person or another is longer or shorter depending on ones willingness to reach it. It is somewhat like the fact that spaces do not exist for our thoughts here in the world, where what we think becomes present to us. In the Word, places and distances and anything to do with space means things which involve state. For example length means state in respect to what is good, width means state in respect to what is true and height means their being distinguished as to their level. The reason that things are measured and seen in relation to state and not in relation to space or distance is that the Lord is present with every individual in proportion to love and faith, with everything seeming near or far in proportion to His presence.

Chapter 23
Heaven’s Form, Which Patterns Associations And Communications There

The degree to which a person is in the form of heaven determines how wise they will be. We are in heaven’s form because our outer form or body is modeled on the same structure as the world and our inner form, or spirit, is modeled on the structure of the heavens. Our bodies are made up of minerals and substances that are found throughout the earth. Our various parts function and react to forces such as heat and light and physical pressures. We grow from seed and go through phases of development and decay just like plants and other animals do. Eventually we die and return to the same matter that we sprang from. Our spirit is made from the same materials and substance that the heaven’s are made from. The essence of heavenly materials is love and wisdom and the endless varieties of forms they take to structure the heavens and the people who dwell there. Human beings have destroyed the model of the heaven in their spirit by evil elements in our intention and consequent false elements of our thought, thus introducing the elements of hell into our thought and intention, which is the opposite of love and wisdom. For this reason we are born into complete ignorance and must have the form of heaven restored in us by being taught about matters relating to heavenly order. The Word contains all the laws of Divine order, which are written in the commandments. We are set free from our ignorance and the influences of falsity and evil to the extent that we learn and live by God’s rules of life. This is how the form of heaven is made anew in us. The degree to which our understanding of the commandments and laws grows depends upon the communities of heaven or hell that we choose to associate with; if with that which is good and true, it becomes angelic; if with which is evil and false it becomes hellish.

Chapter 24
Governments In Heaven

Governments exist in heaven in order to maintain order. The governments in the celestial heavens are different than the ones in the spiritual heavens. They vary according to the forms of service appropriate to each community. There is no government in heaven that is not a government of mutual love. The Lord’s celestial kingdom is called the kingdom of justice because everyone there is involved in the good content of love to the Lord from the Lord. Any action arising from this love is called “just.” Through the Lord’s guidance and teaching, everyone knows and perceives the true things which are called “judgements” so they are written on their hearts and do not have to be discussed or dealt with as they are intuitively known and understood by all in their community.

The governments in the Lord’s spiritual kingdom are called “judgement”, because they are involved in spiritual good which is essentially true, and what is true is a property of judgement just as what is good is a property of justice. Justice and judgement are mentioned in the Word where they correspond to celestial good and spiritual good: There will be no end to peace on the throne of David and on his kingdom until it is established , and until it is founded on judgement and justice from now even to eternity. (Isaiah 9:7)

All forms of government in the heavens agree in that they focus on the public good as their main objective. Individuals receive their own good from the common good. Officials of the governments are ones who, more than others are involved in love and wisdom as they intend what is good for everyone and also know how to provide that it happens. This form of governance also happens on a much smaller scale in households.

There are governments in hell as well, but there everyone wants to rule over others and so there is much violence and hostility. This is what love of self is like. It results in chaos as the very worst and least wise do the ruling.

Chapter 25
Divine Worship In Heaven

Divine worship in heaven is outwardly much like worship of the Divine on earth, with teachings, sermons and special buildings. The teachings are consistent in essentials, but in the higher heavens they are characterized by a deeper wisdom. In effect, Divine worship in heaven is characterized primarily by a life of charity and faith in accord with the teachings. Sermons function simply as a means of instruction in matters pertinent to life.

Clergymen are not required in the celestial heavens because the people there are engaged in good which comes from love, and they see and perceive true things from that love, but have no need to be advised of them or to discuss them. Sermons there, are used to introduce them to even deeper truths, which they immediately comprehend and embrace as part of their being. All clergy are appointed by the Lord and have the gift of proclaiming. The teachings in sermons focus on life and are filled with wisdom. The essential element of all the teachings is acknowledgement of the Lord’s Divine Human.

Chapter 26
The Power of Heaven’s Angels

Understanding and intention make up our spiritual being and activate our body to perform its functions. These are governed by the Lord through angels and spirits. We cannot take one step without inflow from heaven. Angels have the power to withstand hoards of evil spirits and to hurl them back into hell with sheer force of will and a look. The Bible cites some instances of angels using such power, for example: “The angel stretched out his hand against Jerusalem to destroy it; but the Lord repenting of his evil, said to the angel who was destroying the people, ‘It is enough; withdraw your hand,’ and David saw the angel who struck the people.” (II Samuel 24:15-17) Angels have no power of their own as all their strength is from the Lord. They have the strength because they admit that it is not their own, but comes from the Lord. The degree to which an angel is true and good from the Divine determines the extent of their power. No two are identical. All power belongs to true things that stem from what is good. It is the same with faith and love. In the spiritual world no power belongs to false things that stem from what is evil, so all that is good and true is protected from what is evil and false.

Chapter 27
The Language of Angels

There is a single language for everyone in heaven. It is not learned as it is native to all. It flows from their thought and affection. The sound or tone of the words used in their speech corresponds to the affection they are expressing and the speech units they use come from the thought they wish to express. Speech is therefore, “Affection sounding and thought speaking.” Every thought comes from an affection, which belongs to love, and the concepts or ideas in thoughts are the various forms in which general affections are meted out. Angels know from conversation what another person is like for they can pronounce nothing that does not agree with their loves or the affections from which their speech flows. An angels love and wisdom come together and are expressed in speech. Angels can express in just a few words what for us would take the equivalent of many written pages. .The language of the spiritual world is instinctive in everyone who arrives there, so when we die and enter that world we can immediately understand and speak it. Even the language of hypocrites is like the language of angels as far as words are concerned, but in regard to affections and resulting thought concepts it is completely opposite, so when the inward quality of their speech is perceived it sounds like the gnashing of teeth and is terrible.

Chapter 28
Angels’ Speech With Man

Angels who have occasion to speak with people in the world do so in the person’s own language or other languages the person knows. This is because of the bond established when the angel or spirit comes to the person. The bond is with the person’s spiritual thought. It is because mankind has alienated itself from heaven that the Lord has arranged it so that every individual has angels and spirits present with them so that a bond is established and maintained. The speech of angels and spirits with man is just as audible to us as our speech with another person, however, it is not audible to other people in the vicinity. This is because the speech of the angel or spirit comes first to the persons thought and then by an inner path to the physical ear.

Only people who are involved in true things that stem from good are ever allowed to talk to angels. They are ones whose inward reaches have, by means of things Divinely true, been opened all the way to the Lord. The Lord flows in to such people and so too does heaven. The number of people who have this bond with angels is very limited at this time in history (17th and 18th Centuries), however, the most ancient people of this world were all directly involved with heavens angels. That was the “Golden Age”. In them heaven and earth made a one. Since that era it is only seldom that anyone talks with angels, though some have talked with spirits who were not in heaven. It was through spirits that the Prophets through whom the Word came and it was in effect dictated to them and thus written.

Chapter 29
Written Materials In Heaven

Written materials are not used as a primary means of communication in heaven, but they do exist and are produced. Incidents noted in the books of Ezekiel and Revelation verify this. (Ezekiel 2:9-10 and Revelation 5: 1)The Word in essence is the Divine-True, which is the source of heavenly wisdom for both men and angels. It was dictated by the Lord and travels through the heavens in order to reach the human race in the natural world. It is so written as to be understood by both the wisdom of angels and the intelligence of man. It is the same word, however, its natural or literal meaning does not exist in heaven where its inner spiritual meaning is clearly understood.

In the inmost heaven writings are made up of various curved and rounded letters which are in keeping with its forms. There are no straight lines or spaces separating the letters. They flow together to convey their message. This kind of writing was carried into the Hebrew language and writing, where each jot, tittle, curve and tip has special meaning.

In the lower heavens writing is more like that in the world but still are not comprehensible to man because they are in angelic language. Numbers are also sometimes written to convey certain things that are more hidden than alphabetic writing. Numbers in the Word carry specific spiritual or inner meaning. Both the numbers and the sequence they are in carry special meaning.

Chapter 30
The Wisdom of Heaven’s Angels

Only if we love what is related to Divine and heavenly wisdom can we get some sense of the nature and scope of the wisdom that angels attain and enjoy. One important factor is that angels live in the light of heaven, which illuminates the inner sight of their mind and eyes. They are also in heaven’s warmth which is the Divine-Good or Divine Love which is the source of their affection and desire to become wise. Hence all of their thoughts and affections flow in accordance with heaven’s form. Their speech is the speech of wisdom which flows directly and freely from their thought and affection. There are no external influences to divert their learning from the Divine flow of heavenly wisdom.

Another thing that contributes to angel’s wisdom is the agreement of their wisdom with everything they see and perceive with their senses. Their thoughts are not limited by ideas and influences from time and space which belong to nature but are rather associated to goodness and truth which belong to the spirit.

The wisdom of angels in heaven is matched to the level of the heaven in which they reside, which is either the outermost heaven, the intermediate heaven or the inmost heaven. The reason for these distinctions is that the elements present on the higher level consists of details while on the lower levels they are generalities. This range of levels allows everyone to be an individual and to exist at the level of their interest and choice and also to grow and to increase in their knowledge throughout eternity, in accordance with their desire. No two angels have exactly the same degree of wisdom and this variety is part of the nature of heaven just as our individuality is an integral part of human life in the world. This chapter also goes on to show several comparisons between the wisdom of angels at the various levels. Angels at all levels are constantly becoming more perfect in wisdom as they continue to grow spiritually. However, none can ever reach the level of Divine Wisdom which belongs to the Lord and is His wisdom and therefor He is its very source and containant.

Chapter 31
Angel’s State of Innocence In Heaven

Heaven exists secretly in people within their innocence and so is not visible to others. This chapter approaches the subject in three steps: 1. The innocence of children. 2. The innocence of wisdom and 3. The innocence of the heavenly state of life. The innocence of childhood is not a complete form of innocence because it lacks inward thought, and so, does not yet know what good and evil, and truth and falsity are, and knowledge of these things is necessary as internal thought stems from it. Without this knowledge their innocence is based on a degree of ignorance and thus is incomplete unlike the mature innocence of angels in heaven. Infants lack self-generated discretion, intention or will and thus have no purpose of anything evil or false. They ascribe everything they have to their parents and do not worry about food or clothing or what is going to happen. They listen and obey. Their innocence is strictly of an outward nature. Their mind is just beginning to develop and later will have the factors of understanding and intention and consequently thought and affection.

All children are under the Lord’s protection with an inflow from the inmost heaven where the state is one of pure innocence. This is why innocence shines out of their faces and in some of their motions. This also elicits in parents a special love, which is called storge [A Greek word meaning parental affection]. The innocence of wisdom is genuine because it is inward and belongs to the mind itself. Thus to intention (will) and understanding. Innocence is a matter of being led by the Lord rather than by self. All people in heaven are in innocence and reside in various states or communities depending on the extent ie. the nature and degree, of the good that the residents of these heavens are involved with, which, in turn, determines the state of the heaven they are in.

Innocence is the inner reality of the good which angels live in. This is why no one can enter heaven unless they have innocence as the Lord said, “Let the children come to Me for such is the kingdom of heaven. I tell you truly, everyone who does not receive the kingdom of heaven like a child, will not enter it.”

Genuine marriage love derives its visible form from innocence since it comes from the bonding of the good and the truth which the two minds of the husband and wife are involved in.

Chapter 32
The State Of Peace In Heaven

Peace of mind in the people of the world is the only thing that, even remotely, resembles the peace of heaven. Peace and innocence are the two inmost elements of heaven and come directly from the Lord. We learned in the previous chapter that innocence is the source of everything good in heaven. Here we learn that peace is the source of all the delight experienced from involvement in that good. Both what is good and what is delightful belong to love and come from the Lord’s Divine Love. From peace everything angels experience is felt as heavenly joy and is received in them in the form of blessings, pleasantness and happiness. The Lord in heaven as well as in the Holy Scriptures is referred as being “The Prince of Peace”. As peace means the Lord and heaven (also heavenly joy and the delight of what is good), the greeting of ancient times was “Peace be with you”, as it still is today.

Angels experience heaven's peace in an unconscious manner, through a pleasure of heart when engaged in activities of goodness, and they have a sense of fitness or wellbeing when they hear something true that is in harmony with that good. They also experience peace through an excitement of mind when they feel a bonding with the Divine of the Lord. The nature and degree of peace in any particular community in heaven varies in proportion to the innocence of the people living in it, which in turn determines the level or state of peace.

When we are being regenerated we experience to a small degree something akin to heavenly peace as there is a bonding of good and truth in our life at that time. That peace is like the morning or dawn in springtime, when we waken after a long night and find everything is beginning to grow and live anew as if awash from the dew falls of heaven.

Chapter 33
Heaven’s Bond With The Human Race

There is a bond or connection between people on earth and both heaven and hell. These bonds are associated by our intention and understanding and our choices to behave and speak well or badly. Here in the world we have both good spirits and bad spirits with us at all times which maintains this bond. We are not aware of the presence of these spirits nor are they aware of us, but each time we make a choice as to act good or to act badly or to speak honestly or to lie or speak irreverently we go toward the spirit associated with our choice. This keeps us in a balance between good and evil and thus in a state of complete freedom. We are born with a tendency toward evil because being natural we are greatly affected by the material things of the world and things that satisfy the physical and sensual desires of the body. In addition, we cannot be compelled to go toward the good because it is contrary to the nature of love to force itself on people. Whenever we freely choose anything good or true as opposed to evil or false, the choice is made freely and so is grafted into our intention and will and becomes a part of us. This choice for good leads us away from evil and reduces the influence evil can have on us. The spirits connected to a person are of the same quality as the person himself in affection or love. But the good spirits are put in connection with him by the Lord, while the evil ones are invited by the person himself.

The spirits that are with us change regularly as we change in respect to our affections at various periods of our life. In early childhood the prominent affection is based on innocence, in later childhood it becomes an affection for learning, in young adulthood it is concentrated on intelligence and matters of good and truth and in old age it is focused mostly on wisdom and innocence.

In addition to the bond with spirits that provides an indirect flow, there is a direct inflow from the Lord into us. The Divine inflow is constant, and among good people is received into what is good, but not among evil people. Among these latter it is either rejected, stifled, or corrupted. This is the cause of their evil life, which spiritually is understood is a death. Spirits who are with us do not consciously affect us by means of thoughts and memory, but only from their affections into our affections. It is our affection for either good or evil, which determines our inward thoughts and consequent behavior. Thus we have choice in all that we do. The thought part stems from the situation we are in and our experience with it, and the decision part is based on our affection for one side or the other. We always have choices in how we will respond to everything we become involved with.

Chapter 34
Heaven’s Bond With Man Through The Word

…There is a connection of the natural world with the spiritual world; and this is the source of the correspondence of all the things that exist in the natural world with all the things that exist in the spiritual world. There is also a connection and a correspondence , of all the elements of man and all the elements of heaven.

We human beings have a connection and bond with the Lord, but only an association with angels because, like angels, we have the faculties of intention and understanding and can become angels after we pass into the spiritual world, if we have lived according to the Lord’s Divine design, which constitutes heaven.

Swedenborg then goes on with a lengthy explanation of how heaven is connected with the human race through the Bible by using the passage from the book of Revelation Chapter 21, which describes the Holy City Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven. I will try to convey the gist of his discourse.

When we read the Bible or hear it being read, we automatically hear the natural words and our thoughts are centered on the natural events and people being described. As we mature and start thinking about the moral and religious meaning of the passages, our spiritual mind looks for the inner message that is held within the story. The angels, who are present with us do not see or hear the natural story at all but only the deep spiritual lesson within it. Still their thoughts make one with ours, because the natural words correspond to the spiritual message. This is much like sitting and listening to someone giving a speech and you hear the message they are imparting, as well as the words that are spoken. Parables and metaphors and “for examples” carry this likeness, as well.

This is how people are bonded to heaven through the angels by means of the Word. By being in association with angels when reading the Bible we are bonded with the message like soul and body, the inner sense being the soul and the natural sense being the body. This is what the Word of God is like throughout. The literal meaning acts as a base or foundation upon which we build our spiritual understanding. The Word also bonds Non-Christians who do not use the Bible, but never-the-less recognize something Divine and live in a charitable way. The Lord’s church is universal and exists in all people who live in this way.

Chapter 35
Heaven And Hell Are From The Human Race

Contrary to the belief of many Christians and the teaching of their churches, there is not one angel in heaven, that was created at the beginning, nor was there any devil in hell who was created an angel of light and then cast down. All individuals, both in heaven and hell have come from the human race.

Swedenborg tells us that he has talked with thousands of people in both heaven and hell, including all the people he was acquainted with before they died, some who had died long ago and some very, very recently, and many said they were amazed when they realized they were still alive and just as human as ever. Those whose focus had been outward, that is directed primarily toward themselves and the world, tended to keep that focus which basically leans toward hell. Those whose focus was more inward and directed toward the Lord and the neighbor, tended to accept the spiritual state of their existence more readily and looked toward heaven. People who accept the world and not heaven with it, accept hell. We can conclude that heaven is from the human race because angels minds and human minds are alike,…Both enjoy the faculty of understanding, perceiving and intending; both are designed to accept heaven. For the human mind is just as discerning as the angelic mind. The reason it is not so discerning in the world is that it is in an earthly body, within which a spiritual mind thinks in a natural fashion. But it is quite different when it is released from the tie of the body. Then it no longer thinks in a natural way, but in a spiritual way; and when it does it thinks about matters unintelligible and inexpressible to the natural person--- so it discerns like an angel. This allows the conclusion that the inside of man, which is called his spirit, is essentially an angel, which, once released from its earthly body is just as much in the human form and is an angel. But when the inside of a person is not opened upward but only downwards, then after the ultimate release from the body it is in a human form, but in a dreadful and diabolical one. For it cannot look up toward heaven but only down toward hell.

The human race in its outward form has the capacity to restore itself and reproduce its form thus being “the locus of the seedbed of heaven.”

Chapter 36
The Heathen Or People Outside The Church In Heaven

People who are born and remain outside of the Christian church can be saved, because of the fact that the Lord’s mercy is universal. And it is no fault of theirs that they have not been made aware of the life and nature of Him. No one is born for hell. Or we might say that everyone is born for heaven regardless of the origins of their human family.

Every true religion has in it an element of recognition of the Divine. And has some form of worship and idea of how the Divine essence they know is to be worshipped. When its adherents think about this and desire an association or connection to that Divine-ness, their interest, becomes love, and, they are thus, led by the Lord, who is love itself.

Many non-Christians (Gentiles) lead moral lives for the sake of what they consider to be Divine, and this kind of life is a spiritual or inwardly motivated and oriented, life. Such people basically live a heavenly life here on earth, and those who have heaven in themselves while in this world are accepted into heaven when they die.

Gentiles may not have the truths of faith that Christians have, with respect to the Lord and what is Divine, but because of their love of use to the neighbor they ultimately accept these truths after they enter the spiritual world. Many of them enter heaven more readily than many Christians do because through the moral life they lead they can absorb all the elements of faith and accept them. It is a matter of Divine Truth that there is no salvation apart from the Lord, but this has to be understood as meaning that there is no salvation except from the Lord. In other words our churches and ministers do not mete out salvation, the Lord does! Unlike many Christians the heathen Gentiles are not involved in arguing about who is right and who is wrong in their belief systems. They have a quality of life and love through which they are far more tolerant of the variety of beliefs that exist throughout the world of mankind. They are not elitist and seem to understand that variety is an important element of both earthly and heavenly life. Swedenborg goes on to give examples of conversations he had with people of Chinese origin who practiced Chinese folk religions and with Africans whom he said were the most beloved Gentiles in heaven because of their quick acceptance of heavens good and true elements. The Lord’s Church is distributed all over the whole world---it is universal---in that it includes all people who live in the good of charity in accord with their religious persuasion; that the Church, where the Word is known and the Lord is known through it, is to those who are outside that Church like the heart and lungs in a person, from which all the members of the body live---differently in keeping with their forms, locations, and connections.

From all this, a reasonable minded person can see that heaven is not just for Christians as there are others who also have what it takes to become angels. It would also be ludicrous to think that there were no angels prior to the age of Christianity, when there is mention of them even in the early parts of the Book of Genesis as well as throughout both the Old and New Testaments.

Chapter 37
Children In Heaven

This is such an enlightening and important subject to so many people that have lost children, that I will present the chapter in its entirety as written in the edition translated by Reverend George Dole.

329. Some people hold the belief of that only children born within the Church enter heaven, not children born outside the Church. The reason they give, is that children within the Church have been baptized, and by baptism have been introduced into the faith of the Church. These people do not know that no one gains heaven or faith by means of baptism. Baptism simply serves as a sign and reminder that the person needs to be reborn, and that the person born within the Church can be reborn because the Word is there, in which are Divine truths for regeneration. The Lord also is known there and He is the source of regeneration. May they know then, that every child, wherever born,--- within the Church or outside it, of godly or of godless parents---every child is accepted by the Lord when he dies and is brought up in heaven. According to the Divine design, he is taught and filled with affections for what is good. By means of these, he is filled with insights into what is true. Then, as he is made complete in understanding and wisdom he is introduced into heaven and becomes an angel. Every one who thinks rationally is capable of understanding that no one is born for hell, but everyone for heaven; and that the individual himself is at fault for entering hell, with children being incapable of guilt as yet.

330. Children who die are just as much children in the other life. They possess the same childlike mind, the same innocence within their ignorance, and the same gentleness in all respects. They are only in beginnings in order to become angels, for children are not angels, but do become angels. Actually everyone who departs this world finds himself in a similar life state- the child in a child’s state, the adolescent in an adolescent’s state, the young adult, the adult, the aged, in the state of a young adult, an adult, or an elderly person--- although later each individual’s state does change. The state of children has an advantage over that of the others in this respect, that children are in innocence, and evil is not yet rooted in them by their real life. Their innocence is of such a nature that all elements of heaven can be grafted into it, for innocence is a container for the true that belongs to faith and the good that belongs to love.

331. The state of children in the other life is much better than that of children in this world, since they are not clothed with an earthly body, but with one like an angels’. An earthly body is intrinsically heavy. It does not accept basic sensations and basic impulses from the more inward or spiritual world, but from the more outward or natural world. So children in this world learn to walk, to control their movements and to talk. Even their senses, such as sight and hearing, are opened only by practice. It is different with children in the other life. Because they are spirits, they act immediately in accord with what is within them, walking without practice. They even talk---at first, to be sure, from general affections that are not resolved into thought concepts. But before long they are introduced into these as well, which can happen because their more outward aspects are at one with their more inward ones.

332. As soon as children are revived, (which happens immediately after their decease), they are borne into heaven and entrusted to angels of the feminine gender, who, during their physical life had loved children tenderly and had also loved God. Because they had in the world loved children with a virtually maternal tenderness, they accept these as their own. And the children, from their inborn nature, love them as though they were their own mothers. Each woman has as many children as she wants from her spiritual parental affection. This heaven appears in front in of the area of the forehead, right on the line or ray along which angels look toward the Lord. It has this location because all children are under the care of the Lord. Also the heaven of innocence, which is the third heaven, flows in among them.

333. Children vary in their native qualities. Some have the nature of spiritual angels, some the nature of celestial angels. Children of celestial nature appear toward the in right heaven; children of spiritual nature appear toward the left. In the Grand Man, who is heaven, All children are in the region of the eyes. Those of a spiritual nature are in the region of the left eye, and those of a celestial nature in the region of the right eye. This is because the Lord appears in front of the left eye, to the angels in the spiritual kingdom and in front of the right eye to angels in the celestial kingdom. Since children are in the province of the eyes in the Grand Man or heaven, we can see that they are under the Lord’s direct observation and care.

334. Let us describe briefly how children are raised in heaven. From their guardian, they learn to talk. Their first speech is simply an affectional sound that gradually becomes clearer as thought-concepts become involved. For thought-concepts stemming from affections are the basis of all angelic speech. First of all, there are subtly instilled into their affections (all of which spring from innocence) the kinds of things that are presented to their sight, quite delightful things. Because they are from a spiritual source, elements of heaven flow in simultaneously within them, and the infants’ more inward levels are opened by this means. So day by day they become more perfect. Once this first stage is completed they are transferred to another heaven, where they are educated by teachers; and so the process continues.

335. Children are taught mainly by means of representatives suited to their native gifts---representations so beautiful and so filled from within with wisdom at the same time, that no one could ever believe it. In this way, step by step, an understanding is instilled in them which draws its soul from what is good. At this point I may describe a pair of representations that I have been privileged to see, which may be taken as typical of other representations. At the outset, they were portraying the Lord rising from His tomb, and at the same time the union of His Human with the Divine. This happened in such a wise way that it surpassed all human wisdom, yet at the same time it was in the innocent style of infants. They presented a concept of a tomb, but not a concept of the Lord with it, except so indirectly that one could scarcely tell that it was the Lord, as though He were a great way off. This is because there is something funereal about the tomb which they were dispelling by this means. After this, they carefully let into the tomb something airy that looked thin and water-like, by which they indicated (albeit with a suitable indirectness) the spiritual life inherent in baptism. After this, I saw their depiction of the Lord’s descent to those who were bound and His ascent with them to heaven, all done with matchless care and reverence. The childlike aspect was that they let down little cords, not at all obvious, very delicate and slight with which they supported the Lord in His ascent. Ever present was a holy fear lest any element in the portrayal border on anything that did not contain something spiritual and heavenly. There are other portrayals in which they are engaged, by which they are guided to recognition of what is true and affections for what is good, for example plays adapted to the minds of children.

336. I was also shown how delicate their understanding is. While I was praying the Lord’s Prayer, and they were flowing into my thought-concepts from their own understanding, I sensed that their inflow was so delicate and mild that it was composed almost entirely of affection. At the same time, though, one could notice that their understanding had been opened by the Lord, for what came from them seemed to be flowing through them. The Lord flows into children’s concepts above all from their inmost realms, for nothing has closed these, as is the case with adults---no principles of falsity against understanding what is true, no life of evil against accepting what is good and thus becoming wise.This leads to the conclusion that children do not enter the angelic state immediately after death, but are led into it step by step by means of insights into what is good and true, all in keeping with the whole heavenly design. For the slightest elements of the inner nature of every one of them are known to the Lord. So they are led, in accord with each and every shift in their own tendency, toward acceptance of things true derived from what is good, and of things good derived from what is true.

337. I have also been shown how everything has been instilled into them by means of pleasant and charming things suited to their gifts. I have been allowed to see children most beautifully clothed with garlands of flowers glowing in the loveliest heavenly hues around their breasts and their slender arms. Once I was allowed to see some children and their nurses, with some virgins in a garden park---not a wooded park, but one with banks of laurel with most elegant gateways and paths giving access to its inner areas. The children themselves were garlanded with the same flowers, and as they entered the shrubbery over the entrance became more joyfully radiant. We can thus ascertain the quality of their delights, and can also ascertain that they are led into the good elements of innocence and charity by means of charming and pleasant things by the Lord.

338. I have been shown by a means of communication common in the other life, what children’s concepts are like when they see any particular object. It was as though each and every thing was alive, so that life is inherent in the individual concepts of their thought. I could also see that children on the earth have virtually the same concepts when they are involved in their play, not yet having the kind of considered opinion adults do about what is inanimate.

339. It was stated above that angels are either of a celestial or of a spiritual bent. The ones of a celestial bent are clearly distinguished from the ones of a spiritual bent. The former think, speak and act a little more gently so that almost nothing is noticeable except a fluent something stemming from a love of what is good, for the Lord, and toward the neighbor. The latter do not function so gently; instead, something rather like fluttering wings is noticeable in certain situations among them. This is evident from their indignation, among other things.

340. Many people manage to suppose that children remain children in heaven and are like children compared to angels. People who do not know what an angel is have managed to confirm this opinion by the likenesses in churches here and there where angels are portrayed as children. But the actual situation is quite different. Understanding and wisdom constitute an angel. Just as long as children do not possess these attributes, they are with angels but are not themselves angels. But once they become understanding and wise, they become angels. Further---which surprised me---they do not then look like children, but like adults. For at that point they are no longer of a childlike nature, but of a more mature, angelic nature. This is inherent in understanding and wisdom. The reason that children look more mature as they become more perfect in understanding and wisdom is that understanding and wisdom are spiritual nourishment itself. So the very things that nourish their minds are nourishing their bodies as well. This stems from correspondence, for the form of their bodies is nothing more than the outward form of their inward elements. It is worth knowing that children do not mature beyond the beginning of young adulthood, and remain at that point to eternity. To let me be quite sure that this is the case, I have been allowed to talk with some people who were reared as children in heaven and grew up there. I have talked with some when they were children, and then with the same people when they were young adults. And I have heard from them about the course of their lives from one age to the other.

341. On the basis of statements above (nn. 276-283) about the innocence of angels in heaven, we may establish that innocence is what accepts all the elements of heaven, and that the innocence of children is therefor the matrix of all affections for what is good and true. The statements we refer to are the following: that innocence is a willingness to be led by the Lord and not by oneself, that a person is involved in innocence to the extent that he is moved out of his own selfhood, and that the measure of his freedom from his selfhood is the measure of his involvement in the Lord’s “Selfhood.” The Lord’s “Selfhood” is what is known as the Lord’s righteousness and worth. The innocence of children, however, is not real innocence, because thus far it lacks wisdom. Real innocence is wisdom; For to the extent that a person is wise he loves to be led by the Lord---which is the same as saying that a person is wise to the extent that he is led by the Lord. [2] So infants are led from the outward innocence in which they are first involved (which is known as the innocence of infancy) into inward innocence, which is the innocence of wisdom. This latter innocence is the goal of all their instruction and advancement. So when they attain the innocence of wisdom, the innocence of childhood which had served them as a matrix in the interim is bonded to them. [3] The nature of children’s innocence was depicted to me as something wood-like, almost devoid of life, which is brought to life as they are perfected through the agency of insights into what is true and affections for what is good. Afterwards, the nature of real innocence was depicted by a very beautiful child, very much alive and naked. Actually innocents who are in the inmost heaven and therefor nearest the Lord, look quite like children in the sight of other angels. And some are naked, since innocence is portrayed by nakedness which does not occasion shame. This is what we read about the first man and his wife in the Garden (Genesis 2:25); this is also why, when their state of innocence came to an end, they were ashamed of their nakedness, and hid (Genesis 3:7, 10, 11). In summary, the wiser the angels are the more innocent they are, and the more innocent they are, the more they look like children to themselves. This is why “infancy” in the Word indicates innocence.

342. I have talked with angels about children--- whether they were free of evils because they did not have any realized evil like adults. But I was told that they are just as much involved in what is evil, that they too are actually nothing but evil. But, like all angels, they are withheld from what is evil and held in what is good by the Lord, so completely that it seems to them that they in their own right are involved in what is good. For this reason, after they have become mature in heaven, to prevent them from involvement in the false idea that the good they have is from themselves and not from the Lord, they are occasionally allowed to slip back into their inherited evil elements, and are left in them until they know and realize and believe that this is in fact the case. One particular person who died as an infant and grown up in heaven held this kind of opinion. [2] He was the son of a certain king. So he was allowed to slip back into his inborn life of evil things; and I saw then from his life-sphere that he had a passion for dominating others, and took to adultery lightly. For him, these were evils he had acquired by heredity from his parents. But once he recognized that this was his own quality, he was again accepted among the angels he had been with before. [3] In the other life a person never suffers punishment because of inherited evil, because it does not belong to him. That is, he is not at fault for being what he is in this respect. Rather he suffers punishment because of the realized evil that does belong to him---that is, the amount of inherited evil he has made his own by his life activities. This remission of grown-up children into the state of their hereditary evil is not to make them suffer punishment, but to let them know that in their own right they are nothing but evil, and that they are delivered from the hell within them into heaven because of the Lord’s mercy. So they know that they are not in heaven because of their own worth, but because of the Lord. This prevents them from showing off in front of others because of the good within them, for this is in opposition to the good of mutual love, just as it is in opposition to the true content of faith.

343. Several times when numbers of children were with me in groups at the same time (these were still wholly in a child like state), they sounded like something soft and disorganized, as though they were not yet coordinated as they would be when more mature. Surprisingly, some spirits who were with me could not refrain from urging them to speak (this kind of desire is innate in the spirits). But every time, I noticed that the children balked and did not want to talk. The refusal and resistance---accompanied by a kind of resentment---are things I have often perceived When they were given the ability to talk, they kept saying only that it wasn’t so. I was taught that this is what children’s temptation is like, to accustom and introduce them not only to resisting what is falsity and evil, but also to not thinking, speaking, or acting solely at the prompting of someone else. This has the ultimate goal of their not letting themselves be led by anyone but the Lord alone.

344. From the matters just cited we can draw conclusions as to the nature of the upbringing of children in heaven. Specifically, it is a matter of their introduction, by means of understanding what is true and wisdom in what is good, into the angelic life, which is love to the Lord and mutual love, both containing innocence. How different this is from the upbringing of children on earth in many cases can be deduced from the following example. I was in the street of a large city, and saw some small boys in a fight. People crowded around, looking on with great pleasure, and I was told that the parents themselves urged their children into these fights. The good spirits and angels who were seeing these events through my eyes were so repelled that I could feel their horror---particularly at the fact that parents were egging their children into such situations. They said that parents in this way snuff out at this early age all mutual love that infants have from the Lord, and lead them into attitudes of hatred and vengefulness. As a result, by their deliberate behavior they shut their children out of heaven, where there is nothing but mutual love. Let any parents who wish their children well, then, beware of this kind of behavior.

345.Let us now state the nature of the difference between people who die as adults and people who die as children. People who die as adults have a plane acquired from the earthly, material world, and take it with them. This plane is their memory and its natural, physical affection. This remains settled and then quiesces (becomes dormant), but all the while it is serving as an outmost plane for their thought after death, since their thought inflows into it. As a result , the nature of this plane and the way the rational corresponds with its contents determine the nature of the person himself after death. In contrast, children who died in childhood and were brought up in heaven do not have this kind of plane. Instead they have a “natural-spiritual” plane. This is because they draw nothing from the physical world and the earthly body. Consequently, they are incapable of involvement in such crude affections and their resultant thoughts; in fact they draw everything from heaven. Particularly, children do not know that they were born in the world, so they believe they were born in heaven. This means that they do not know what a birth other than a spiritual one is---a spiritual birth being one that occurs by means of insights into things good and true, and by the intelligence and wisdom that make a person a person. Since these things come from the Lord, they believe that they belong to the Lord Himself, and love this fact. Still, the state of people who have matured on earth can become just as perfect as that of children who grow up in heaven, if they put away bodily and worldly loves (which are the loves of self and the world) and accept spiritual loves in their place.

Chapter 38
Wise And Simple People In Heaven

This chapter points out the difference between heavenly intelligence and earthly intelligence. Heavenly intelligence comes from a heavenly love of what is true, whereas earthly intelligence is measured by knowledge of worldly matters and how readily a person can learn and explain them.

The light of heaven, from which Divine truth emanates, reaches the inmost elements of human minds, which have an innate affection for what is true. It does not reach them if, they are closed by the person, because of a greater interest and love of self and the world, and thus for their own glory. People in heaven who incorporate Divine truths into their life activities become involved in what is good and it becomes a part of their intention and love. Thus they are deemed to be wise, for what they know is used for good. These angels “shine like the sun” and influence others spirits in a very positive way by turning then to the Lord.

Anything a person acquires in the world (including intelligence) does endure, and he takes it with him after death. Further, it is increased and filled---but within, not beyond the level of his affection and desire for what is true and good.

The author then goes on to describe what true, counterfeit and false intelligence and wisdom are. The first, “true intelligence and wisdom,” are: seeing what is true and good, thereby seeing what is false and evil, and distinguishing them clearly, doing this by a more inward insight and perception. This learning process, originating in our earthly life, continues on forever and is a continuous angelic activity and source of heavenly delight. It is based on loving what is true and good for its own sake and comes from the Lord.

The second, “counterfeit, intelligence and wisdom,” are: believing that things are true and good because other people say so, and thereafter corroborating it. Because we can corroborate things that are false just as easily as we can corroborate what is true it is an unsure basis upon which to determine that something is true or false. It applies only to adults who have had the opportunity to weigh the things they have heard from others, and confirm or reject them, from life experience. If we weigh these matters in light of what the Lord has taught us and not just from our outward experience of things, then it becomes a function of our inner spiritual mind, and becomes true intelligence and wisdom.

The third, “false, intelligence and wisdom,” are: every kind that is devoid of a recognition of what is Divine…and recognize only nature instead. With these people everything is looked at only from a physical/natural view. No consideration is given to the possibility of Divine attributes to living things. They deny the Divine when it is brought to their attention, and credit everything to nature and their own abilities. Many people, of this nature, in this world are considered to be intelligent and wise, but in the spiritual world they are ignorant and foolish. There are people who are not considered worldly wise here, who in the spiritual world are brilliant, and they are people who recognize the Divine in faith and life.

Chapter 39
Rich And Poor People In Heaven

Contrary to many opinions people have about who can enter heaven; The rich or the poor? Heaven exists for all people who live a life of faith and love. Because a persons spirit is like the primary or ruling love in their life it is the motivation they have, to do what is good, with the resources at their disposal, that determines their state in the spiritual world; not the resources themselves. Having a lot of money or wealth in itself does not establish a persons spiritual state. It is what they do with that wealth that indicates where their love lies and hence whether they are in heaven or in hell. If they use their wealth just for personal power and prestige then they are not living a heaven like life, but if they use it for good and charitable purposes, then they are. We should keep in mind, when considering this, that it is not an either or situation. We learned earlier on that there are an infinite variety of communities, both in heaven and in hell, so a person would be in a community that reflects the degree of either goodness or evil that they are involved in.

The “rich” in heaven are those who are involved in knowledge about what is good and what is true, and these knowledge’s are the riches themselves. The “poor” in heaven are those who do not have deep knowledge about good and truth but still long for them. Neither of these situations is static. The people in them are continually improving their involvement and consequently their position.

Chapter 40
Marriages in Heaven

The marriage of men and women in heaven is different there than it is on earth. There it is the bonding of the predominant aspects of the minds of the man and the woman into one mind; the predominant aspect in the female mind being affectional and the predominant aspect of the male being thoughtful. These aspects are seen in angels to be goodness and truth or intention and discernment, and in the celestial heavens as love and wisdom. This bonding is representative of the union of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom in the Lord. There is no greater reciprocal love than that which exists between what is true and what is good. People who are involved in this kind of true marriage love are in fact involved in Divine Good as a result of understanding Divine truths. In this situation the union is so complete that the two actually are one.

On the other end of the scale there are marriages in hell, but as they are the union of what is evil with what is false, it is not hard to see that it is a chaotic situation, as each would want to be dominant over the other.

In the spiritual world people (spirits and angels) live in communities where they have similar qualities, intellectual interests, desires and loves as the other inhabitants, and are involved in similar forms of good and truth. Potential partners find it easier to meet their mate in the heavens than on earth because of the fact that they become a part of the same community and then if they are wholly compatible to the extent that their minds can be joined into one, at the first sight of each other they see themselves as married partners and are so conjoined by the Lord. Their union does not have the purpose of producing children or progeny as such unions do on earth. What it does generate though is what is good and what is true. They do not have wedding ceremonies, as we do, but they do have marriage banquets and celebrations, which vary from community to community.

Married couples who have lived together in true marriage love meet after they die and continue to live together providing they both desire to do so.

The delights of marriage love in heaven increase endlessly until it reaches the state of blessedness and joy found in the inmost heavens, the heaven of innocence, and from there it just keeps getting better and better.

Chapter 41
Angels’ Occupations In Heaven

Angel’s live in communities, each of which perform certain uses in the over all plan and function of the heavens. As each community has a specific role, in the grand plan, the occupations of the angel’s within it are such that they fulfill the uses of the whole community. So we can see that there would be an infinite number of occupations which angel’s might be involved in, in dealing with ecclesiastical, civil, and domestic concerns, which have been discussed in previous chapters. Everyone there actively serves a use, for the Lord’s kingdom is a kingdom of uses. The quality or value of any occupation or work is determined by the use it serves within the community, and thereby, within the whole Divine design. There are communities that take care of infants, others that take care of educating young children, older children, others that look after people who have just arrived in the world of spirits and are in various states of need for orientation and protection. Some communities watch over people on earth to prevent them from being overwhelmed by evil influences from which they could not defend themselves.

Ecclesiastical employment, requires people who loved truth in the world because of the use that it serves all people and not just for their own benefit. Civic concerns require people who loved their country and the common good more than their own. In heaven they are involved in various forms of employment that govern and maintain the useful purposes involved in having a peaceful, productive, useful and harmonious living environment. Domestic employment involves the development and maintenance of the dwellings and public environs, meeting places, recreation and worship facilities and so forth in which the angels live and associate. Each community has the need for these three forms of employment and those who work in them are all compatible with each other as they all work and live for the same goods and truths and the overall use that is manifested for the Lord’s sake. From this it is evident that people who only love themselves and the things of the world above the use they can serve others do not have a place in the heavens.

Chapter 42
Heavenly Joy And Happiness

Heavenly joy and happiness is virtually incomprehensible to people in this world. Although there is much speculation on the subject, it really must be experienced, in order to be understood at all. We tend to envision it in terms of our natural, worldly experience, so, unless we can think of it in spiritual terms, we cannot really comprehend it. Also, joy and happiness belong in the realm of feelings and affection and not to that of the intellect so therefor it is hard to describe. It is just something we feel and experience.

We all have experiences or periods of intense joy, from time to time, when we feel strong compassion for other people in certain situations, or are elated by experiencing something like a beautiful sunset or piece of music. These approach the level of heavenly joy particularly when they involve other people, such as when an infant takes its first steps or speaks its first words, or seeing two people resolve long term differences and become friends again. But these experiences of joy are generally brief and fleeting. We see happiness as more of a long term state of being in which we generally feel safe and content and enjoying our life in which we have friendly or loving relationships and a minimum of dissention or suffering or pain. Consider what it would be like to live in an environment where there was never any dissention or suffering or pain or fear because everyone there, including yourself, cares more for others and the well being of the whole community, than they do for themselves. In such a community happiness would be a constant state for everyone and joy would be a normal part of everyday experience.

In heaven joy comes from its source which is the Lord, and so experiencing the Lord is experiencing joy. Happiness results from being active and serving uses to others and through that means, serving the Lord. These are not fleeting occurrences but are permanent states which also have in them heavenly delights which are numerous and varied and are closely connected with uses that are the good things of love and charity.

People who are in heaven progress steadily toward the springtime of life, and the more thousands of years they live, the more pleasant and happy the springtime. This goes on forever, with the increase keeping pace with the growth and level of their love, charity and faith…In a word, growing old in heaven is growing young. People who have lived in love to the Lord and in charity toward the neighbor become such forms , or such beauties, in the other life. All angels are such forms, with a variety beyond counting. They constitute heaven.

Chapter 43
The Vastness Of Heaven

We can get an idea of the vastness of heaven if we consider that it is formed from the human race and includes every person, from the beginning of creation, who has lived a life that was involved in what is good. This also includes all children who have died which, over time, would constitute at least a quarter of the human race that has been born on this planet. (If we consider that human life actually begins at conception, then it is possible that the number would be still greater.)

In closing this section of the preview, Part I, I would like to comment on the positive and optimistic attitude that this book brings to the whole subject of life after death. Through it we can now look at people, such as those who were born with serious physical and mental disabilities through brain or organ damage or deficiency, and whom we see as never having a chance for a real and meaningful human life, and be confident that when they eventually die they are still in a state of infancy but that does not preclude them from becoming fully human to the point of angel-hood. We also see hope for people who are born into environments of poverty and social depravity or ignorance who are not excluded from a heavenly life because of a lack of opportunity or knowledge or things that are beyond their comprehension and control. We see hope for those who appear to have generally messed up their lives. Because now it appears to be possible that if their love and faith and hopes and dreams were basically for goodness, truthfulness and the wellbeing of others around them, and were the primary focus and intent of the things they were doing, then they to can be serving the Lord in a heavenly environment.

End Part I

Note: We will now move into the Part II of the book which is, “The World of Spirits” which is where we all enter when first we die. We will see how this part of the spiritual world functions as a kind of clearing house or sorting place for people to find their way to the life-style they desire. We will see how the activity of judgement happens and how we end up in either heaven or hell. I would be pleased to hear from any readers who might like to comment or question what I have presented thus far. This may be done through my “Guest Book" or "Message Board". Dave

Part II

The World Of Spirits And Man’s State After Death

Chapter 44
What The World Of Spirits Is

The World of Spirits is both a place midway between heaven and hell and a person’s “midway” state after death. It is where a person first arrives after death. The state of heaven in us is the bonding of what is good with what is true in us; and the state of hell in us is the bonding of what is evil with what is false in us. The World of Spirits is where the determination of our intention and clearness of discernment, or understanding, takes place. Hence the bonding takes place in the world of spirits. Here it becomes clear whether it is based on what is good and what is true or on what is evil and what is false. We all have both of these pairings in us but the ones that are most acceptable to us are the ones that become bonded to each other and determine whether we will go toward heaven or toward hell. In heaven we cannot have a divided mind because in the spiritual state what we intend we will discern. In heaven if we intend what is good we will discern what is true, whereas in hell, if we intend what is evil we will discern what is false. In the world of spirits false elements are taken away from good people and they are given true ones that are appropriate for and fit with their goodness. By the same token true elements there are taken away from evil people and they are given the false ones that are appropriate for and fit in with their evil.

Our perception of the amount of time, (which we can gauge only by our earthly standards) that we are in this middle state varies according to the state of our inner spiritual elements and what needs to be done to get it sorted out. In the early stages we associate with people we knew while in the world, but gradually the associations we develop will depend more on our spiritual state than on social interests carried over from our life here.

Chapter 45
Everyone Is A Spirit, As Far As Their More Inward Reaches Are Concerned

Our immortality is possible only because we are spiritual beings. It is the spirit in us that allows us to live in the human manner; that is, to be able to think with reason in order to make choices, and to experience love in all of its many and various forms. All of the rational life that is discernable in the body belongs to the soul. We, along with the angels, have an inmost, highest level through which the Divine elements of the Lord flows into our being and thus initiates and maintains life in us eternally. When our body dies the spirit then becomes aware of its spiritual environment as the life of the world is no longer the primary or dominant influence on us.

Chapter 46
Man’s Awakening From the Dead And Entrance Into Eternal Life

When our body dies the person we are does not die. We are a person not because of our body but rather because of our spirit. For the spirit does the thinking in a person, and thought together with affection constitutes the person. This transfer of our person or self, when spoken of in the Bible refers to resurrection and continuity of life. The action of the soul leaving the body is called the “awakening”. Swedenborg was actually taken through the whole process of “awakening” in order that he could describe it in detail. He felt the more inward breathing of his spirit take over from his physical breathing and became consciously aware of the presence of angels, two at his head and two at his feet. He smelled an aromatic odor, which he said is present to keep malicious spirits from coming near. The angels with him did not speak but their thoughts could communicate with his thoughts, and when he accepted them they knew that his spirit was ready to be led out of his body. The actual drawing of soul from the body is done by the Lord. For the person involved, the awakening is perceived to be a covering over the eyes being rolled off by the angels who are present. The angels offer to teach the person about the spiritual life, but if the person is not receptive of the idea he will estrange himself from them and finds himself in company with good spirits, who also offer him every assistance. If the person estranges himself from the good spirits he eventually joins spirits who, “wholly fit in with his life in the world, among whom he finds his kind of life. Then, remarkably, he leads the kind of life he led in the world.” This introductory stage lasts only the equivalent of a few days. People who have not believed in a life after death often are embarrassed, and refuse to accept the reality of their death and continued existence. Hence they continue in their state of denial and gravitate toward spirits who are of a similar disposition and belief. They choose to reject heaven and the Lord, just as they had while in the world.

Chapter 47
After Death, People Exist In A Perfect Human Form

As we are human because of our spirit, which is our thought and affection or, discernment and intention, we exist in the spiritual world in a perfect human form. The reason why the spirit’s form is the human form, is that as far as his spirit is concerned, man has been created in heaven’s form; for all the elements of heaven and it’s design are brought together in the elements of man’s mind. This is the cause of his ability to receive intelligence and wisdom. The main reason people do not grasp the ideas that; they are basically spiritual beings, that there is a heavenly life available to us after death and that the Lord God is responsible for all life, is that they are unwilling to do so because such ideas oppose the false concepts they have determined to be their “truths”. Thus they close off heaven’s route to their rational capacity---a way that can still be opened if only his intention does not resist. In the world of spirits our face takes on the form and likeness of our affections, thus we are recognized by others who knew and had affection for us in the world, and we also recognize them. It takes longer for the faces of hypocrites to change because they have spent their lifetime deceiving others and it takes many steps to change the practice. It is worth knowing that the more inwardly a person has loved Divine truths and has lived by them, the more beautiful is his human after death.

Chapter 48
After Death, A Person Is Engaged In Every Sense, Memory, Thought
And Affection He Was Engaged In In The World:
He Leaves Nothing Behind Except His Earthly Body

This is our “Book of life”, in which everything we have done, experienced and learned has been recorded in our spiritual mind. Nothing remains hidden. However, even though we retain possession of our natural memory after death, the simply natural elements it contains are not brought out again in the other life. Instead, it is the spiritual elements connected to the natural ones by their correspondences. These are the intention and affection that was attached to the speech and the actions we were involved in. We can there become continuously more and more aware and rational with respect to our spiritual loves, intelligence and interests. This is done: namely, on the highest or third level by a spiritual love of the good and the true that belong to heaven and the church, on the second level by a love of what is honest and upright, and on the first level by a love of what is just and fair.

Chapter 49
A Person’s Quality After Death Is The Same As The Quality Of His Life In The World Was

There are many places in the Word where it is stated that man will be judged and rewarded by his deeds and works. For example: Matthew 7:21-23,24; 16:27, Luke 13:25-27; Revelation 2:23, 14:13, 20:12-13, 22:12; Jeremiah 25:14, 32:19; Hosea 4:9 and Zechariah 1:6. Deeds and works means the way they are seen on the inside as well as the way they appear on the outside. They come out of our intention and thought. It follows from this that the quality of the intention and thought, which produce a deed or work, determines the quality of the deed or work. Many thousands of people can and do perform similar deeds and works but each is differentiated by the intention of the doer. Briefly stated; after death we are our love or intention. We basically stay the way we were in the world with respect to our ruling love. Those who have a heavenly and spiritual love enter heaven and those who have a physical, self centered, worldly love without a heavenly one, enter hell. We do not retain our faith if it is not based on heavenly principles. And, putting our love into action is what lasts, and that is truly what our life is all about.

Chapter 50
After Death, Everyone’s Life Pleasures Are Changed Into Things That Correspond To Them

All of our pleasures belong to our ruling love. While in the world they are experienced and expressed through worldly activities, but in the spiritual world they are experienced and expressed in spiritual ways, which correspond to their spiritual roots. In heaven our pleasures all relate to a love of the Lord and in hell they relate to a love of self.

Chapter 51
Man’s First State After Death

Initially, because of our experience of physical earthly life our state carries with it a great deal of the outward aspects of life that have been so prominent in our existence. The more inner spiritual aspects have been virtually unknown to us. Everything around us appears to be just like they were in the world. However, some experience with it, shows us that it is not the same. For instance, whenever we think of someone else they become present with us, and so loved ones such as parents, spouses, mentors and good friends, who have previously died, that we think about, are immediately there with us and communicate with us. Married couples stay together depending on the degree to which they were compatible while living together. If there is conflict in any relationships then a separation will take place in the next state they go through. In the first state we are oriented to the world of spirits by our friends and associates with whom we are compatible. Intermittently we are led into thoughts we previously had about our soul’s state after death and also about heaven and hell. In developing an awareness of the spiritual environment we begin to understand that it is our inward life that really determines the quality of our life and spirit, so we can no longer deceive our-self or others. There we cannot intend, inwardly, one way and speak and behave in another way. The quality of our love can also be seen in the areas or paths that we choose to explore and examine. In this first state our spirit’s more inward elements are revealed and set into order so they can serve as a base or underpinnings for the deeper spiritual things we will soon be dealing with.

Chapter 52
Man’s Second State After Death

When our initiation into the world of spirits is completed we are ready to move into the next stage in which we will become conscious of the true nature of our spirit. This is done primarily for our own edification as it will help us to determine where our love truly lies and where we will be most compatible with everlasting life. In this new state we become involved in our more inward concerns which concentrate our focus on our intention and the thoughts associated with it. This is like the times, during our life here on earth, when we have been introspective and distanced our thoughts from merely worldly and selfish concerns, and focused on who we really are and what our inner life is all about. This is the actual state of our spirit in a spiritual environment, when completely free of any earthly or material interference or encumbrances. If we here discover that our spirit is, basically, influenced by what is good and what is true, then we direct our attentions toward environments and people-spirits that are supportive and nurturing of those qualities.

However, if we find that we are more interested in deception and evil and selfishness we seek out what is superficial and holds us in our external/natural self interests. Being self-centered, we would avoid introspection and the people and environments that encourage it and separate ourselves from them and move toward the hellish environments that feeds our natural outward interests. People who choose this direction move into the hells most suited to their nature and have no need to enter a third state, which involves preparation for a heavenly life.

Chapter 53
Man’s Third State After Death

This is a state of instruction and preparation for ones spirit after death. It is only for those who will enter heaven as those who enter hell cannot be taught because of their own self-interest and egotistical attitudes. The good spirits are prepared by means of insights into what is true and good at the spiritual level. A person is in heaven when he recognizes what is Divine and does what is fair and honest and at the same time, behaving this way because it is commanded in the Word. This means behaving fairly and honestly for the sake of the Divine, and not for the sake of self and the world as goals. To do this one must be taught such basic things as that God exists, that heaven and hell exist and there is life after death. Knowing these things is essential to being able to think spiritually. The teaching is done, in the world of spirits, by angels from a wide variety of communities as they are dealing with people-spirits from multitudes of different cultures, ages and levels of understanding. Many have settled themselves in false notions but have still led good lives. For settled false notions cling tenaciously; and true matters cannot be, seen, and therefore cannot be accepted, until the false notions are shattered. The communities where instruction takes place are organized in an orderly fashion as are all things in heaven. The foremost communities contain spirits of those people who died as children and were then raised to the stage of early maturity in heaven by angels. People who died as adults and who were involved in an affection for what is true and good, and who acknowledge and love the Lord are in communities behind the children. Muslims, who have lived a moral life are in the next group of teaching communities. Various heathen groups are located back of the Muslims. All of these people are easily brought to a recognition of the Lord, because deep within them they have felt that God is visible to them in the human form. All are taught in a manner that they can readily understand, and it does not take very long because basically they believe in what is true and good. Once the instruction is complete they are ready for entrance into heaven. They are dressed in angelic garments and led , by the Lord, to their own community where they are immediately recognized and greeted with joy.

Chapter 54
No One Enters Heaven By Direct Mercy

There is Divine mercy which is “a pure mercy toward the whole human race, to save it.” This Divine mercy is available to everyone, but we must open ourselves to be receptive of it. This requires that we acknowledge the existence of God and live our life in accordance with the laws that He has set out for us, which is to love him and to love the people who coexist with us in the world. We have the freedom to choose this path or to reject it. If we reject it there is no “direct mercy” that saves us. We can see that if there was a direct mercy imposed on us there would be no human freedom, thus there would be no love as it is the nature of love to not impose itself on anyone. We know from our own human experience of love that it is not possible to force it on someone and no one can force us to love them. If people could be saved by Divine mercy then everyone would be saved, even people in hell. Think what this would do to the human race. We would have no purpose in living a helpful, useful loving life here, as there would be no advantage to doing so if we were automatically saved at the end of our life. Our basic human nature to put our personal needs first would run rampant throughout the world and the biggest and meanest of us would rule and enslave everyone else. No one would have any loving relationships. No one would be prepared to enter heaven because we would not have had the chance to develop a love for heaven and the Lord, or a love for others. The Bible pictures for us the struggle the human race has had, from the beginning of time, in overcoming our inherent inclination toward selfishness and the worship of worldly things. We all face this struggle and must learn to put God first in our lives, because when we do that we are putting love first and love is our salvation.

Chapter 55
Leading A Heaven Bound Life Is Not As Hard As People Believe

Many people think that living a life that leads to heaven requires completely renouncing the world and giving up everything associated with our physical bodies and its needs and appetites. That is, to try to live like spiritual beings. If God had meant for us to live like hermits and disassociate ourselves from others He would not have designed our world and life in the manner that we experience it. We must live a life in the world and in association with other people in order to have the opportunity to experience love and that includes receiving it and sharing it. Love is the spiritual food that nourishes the spirit within us, which is our soul and we reflect that love in our moral and civic life. Almost everyone outwardly behaves in honest and fair ways so what distinguishes the good from the evil? It is the motivation or intention that is associated with the behavior. If we act that way just for selfish reasons and our own benefit then it is connected to evil. However, if we act honestly and fairly with others, because that is what God has told us to do in His laws about loving Him and our neighbors, then what we are doing is good. It is a life of charity and is of a heavenly nature, which connects us with heaven and the Lord. Thus it is easy to live the heaven bound life, just as Jesus told us, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Part III

Hell

Chapter 56
The Lord Governs The Hells

There is a balance or equilibrium between heaven and hell which is necessary for all things to exist. As it has been clearly shown that the Lord rules the heavens it is obvious that He must also rule the hells in order to maintain the equilibrium between the two. Our freedom of thought and intention depend on this spiritual balance, so if the Lord did not have the means to keep the evils and falsities of the hells in check, they would quickly overwhelm and control us. This balance exists in the structure of communities in heaven and hell as every community has an exact opposite. This structure maintains the spiritual balance. It is somewhat like Isaac Newton’s physical law that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

Chapter 57
The Lord Does Not Cast Anyone Into Hell; Rather The Person Himself Does

God does not ever turn away from any person nor does He cast anyone away from Himself, which would be toward hell. To do so would be to go directly against the Divine nature which is to love everyone and have everyone live in conjunction and harmony with Him and with each other. The people who egotistically puts themselves first and thus narcissistically love themselves more than anyone or anything else, turn themselves away from the Lord and thus cast themselves into hell. They are in a hellish life in the world and continue that same life hell of their own free choice and will. The punishments that they endure in associating with people like themselves are built into the evils they practice and falsities they adhere to.

Chapter 58
All People Who Are In The Hells Are Involved In Evil Things
 And Consequent False Things as A Result Of Their Loves Of Themselves And The World

Much has been said, throughout this review, on what hell is like. This has come about in comparisons to what exists in heaven. Consequently, in order to avoid a lot of repetition, from here on I will give you only the headings of each chapter and a minimal amount of commentary. I will limit further quotations and dialogue to new concepts and new information contained in the text.

Self-love is willing well to oneself alone and not willing well to anyone else except for one’s own sake---not the church, the country or any human community and then doing them good only for the sole sake of one’s own reputation, prestige and glory. A person who loves himself does love people who belong to him as well--- specifically his children and relatives and more broadly the people who cooperate with him, whom he calls “his people.” Love of the world is wanting to channel other peoples wealth to oneself through any possible means, putting one’s heart in riches, and letting the world lead one back and away from what is Divine.

Chapter 59
What Hell-fire And Gnashing Of Teeth Are

Spiritual warmth is the warmth of our life because it stems from what we love. Self-love and love of the world are associated with hell-fire, so if we are involved primarily in them, then spiritually we exude an aura of hell-fire. Gnashing of teeth is the constant clash and struggle of false elements with each other.

Chapter 60
The Malice And Unspeakable Arts Of Hellish Spirits

Within a minute a person can actually turn over more things in his mind, sort them out and draw conclusions from them, than he can express in speech or writing in half an hour. We can see from this how much more capable a person is when in the spirit---how much more when he becomes a spirit! For the spirit is what he thinks. This ability is with evil spirits as well as with angelic ones. So the manifestation and communication of their false ideas and malicious attacks is instantaneous. Their so called art is their ability to take what is good and what is true and manipulate it into appearances of what is evil and false. So that other people are deceived by them. It also can allows them to take their own false ideas and manipulate them into an appearance of truth. People in the heavens are not subjected to or exposed to these manipulations, as these practices are confined to the world and to hells and the inhabitants thereof.

Chapter 61
The Appearance, Location And Abundance Of Hells

We cannot see with our natural eyes the things of the spiritual world. Angelic spirits see clearly what is in the heavens but do not see what is in the hells because everything there is hidden beneath the heavens. The opposites of bright, heavenly mountains and hills are deep dark crevices and caverns. The opposites of heavenly plains are hellish plains located upside down beneath them. The people living in these regions are there according to the quality of their love. The loftiest mountains are home to the celestial angels and the deepest crevices are home to the vilest devils. The abundance of hellish communities is similar to the abundance of heavenly ones.

I do not think that this necessarily means that there is an equal number of evil spirits and good spirits, because physical amounts of things or quantities are of no account in the spiritual world, only qualities are a reality. Consequently, it is possible to surmise that there can be far more people from earth entering heaven than are entering hell. There was a time when the balance was in danger of tipping in favor of the hells and that is when God intervened and came into the world as our Lord and Saviour and prevented the destruction of all mankind. Through Christ’s action and defeat of evil and temptation, He overcame the hells and so delivered man.

Chapter 62
The Balance Between Heaven And Hell

Through science we know that there is a balance in all things of nature and its mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. In the natural world, the thing that acts and the thing that reacts are called “force” and “inertia”; but in the spiritual world the thing that acts and the thing that reacts are called “life” and “intention.” In that world, life is a living force, and intention is a living inertia, and the actual balance is called “a free state.” The balance for us is a balance between good and evil and truth and falsity. The balance for angels in the heavens is a matter of the extent to which they wanted to be involved in something good or lived involved in something good in the world---that is, how much they turned away from what is evil. On the other hand, the balance of spirits in hell is a matter of the extent to which they wanted to be involved in something evil in the world or lived involved in something evil in the world---that is, then, how opposed to the good they were in heart and in spirit. The Lord assures that nothing of evil can enter the world of spirits or the heavens so that the residents of all will always be in freedom to live the kind of life they have chosen. The devils of hell are constantly trying to attack the good spirits and angels and so the Lord prevents them from reaching them and thus the balance is maintained.

Chapter 63
Man Is In A Freedom By Means Of The Balance Between Heaven And Hell

The freedom everyone born into the world has, is the ability to intend either the good or the evil, and to choose one rather than the other. Thus it is possible for us to think, speak and act either badly or well, honestly or dishonestly, fairly or unfairly. Anything that does not gain entrance when someone is in freedom does not last, because it is not a part of his love or intention. Anything that is not a part of a person’s love or intention is not part of his spirit. While we are in this world there are spirits from hell and angels from heaven that are with us at all times and we are involved in our evil and good aspects by means of them. I believe that a child who is born with some physical/mental deficiency, and yet lives into adulthood, or a person whose mental development is arrested due to some accident or illness is held spiritually in a state of freedom throughout the rest of their life, and are protected by angels so that they cannot be influenced by evil spirits who seek to gain control of them. Then, when their spirit is released from their body they can be introduced into the goodness of heaven. No one is kept out of heaven because of influences or circumstances that were beyond their control. This is because everyone is born for heaven.

For the final statement of this review I will let the author speak for himself.

602. In closing, we need to make some mention of the inborn notion of life after death, a notion which results from the inflow of heaven into man. There were some very ordinary people who in the world had lived involved in what is good derived from faith. They were brought back into the same state they had been in the world (this can be accomplished for anyone when the Lord grants it). I was then shown what kind of concept they had had of man’s state after death. They said that in the world some intelligent people had asked them what they thought about their souls after the end of life in the world. They said they did not know what the soul was. They went on to ask what they believed about their state after death; they said they believed they would live as spirits. They asked what kind of belief they had about “the spirit”; they said it was the person. They kept asking how they knew this; they kept saying that they knew it because it was so. The intelligent people were amazed that these ordinary people had such faith when they themselves did not. I could see from this that there is an instinctive idea of life after death in every individual who is involved in a bond with heaven. The only source of this instinctive idea is an inflow from heaven—more precisely, through heaven from the Lord—by means of spirits attached to the individual from the world of spirits. People have this if their freedom for thinking has not been quenched by acquired premises about the human soul, premises reinforced by various means, which state either that the soul is pure thought or that it is a vivified principle whose seat they look for in the body. In fact, the soul is nothing more than the person’s life, and the spirit is the actual person. The earthly body he carries around in the world is simply a servant through which the spirit—the real person—acts suitably in a natural world. 603. The statements in this book about heaven, the world of spirits, and hell, will be obscure to people who find no delight in knowing spiritual truths; but they will be clear to people who do find this delight. This is particularly true for people involved in an affection for what is true for its own sake—that is, for people who love what is true because it is true. In fact anything that is loved brings light with it into the mind’s concepts—especially when what is true is loved, for everything true is in the light.

Music: Fragments of My Soul © 1999 Bruce DeBoer