4 THE WORLD OF SPIRITS

Relation of Spirits to the "Grand Man"

The angelic heaven is the end of creation and manifests the purposes of the Creator. It is therefore in the very image and likeness of the Lord. The Writings describe the heavens as a Grand Man—a Maximus Homo. For viewed spiritually, it has the human form, in that it reflects all the possible uses or functions of which human life is capable.

The World of Spirits, on the other hand, is as it were outside of the Grand Man, for it is not a permanent state or a final end in itself. It is a preparatory state—an entrance gate or vestibule, such as the alimentary canal is for the human body.¹

The experiences of a spirit after death are strangely paralleled in remarkable detail in the digestive process. As food is first greeted by the soft lips, so the celestial angels of the resuscitation welcome the new spirits; and as the tongue then tastes and gently disjoins the parts of the food, the spiritual angels assort the spirits and instruct them through the universal spiritual language of ideas. The food is then loosened by the saliva even as friendly good spirits free the new soul from external entanglements with other spirits. Good spirits of a blunter sort will inform the novitiate of the sterner truth that he has passed the "jaws of death" and is now a spirit, and under spiritual laws of judgment; somewhat like the teeth close on the food and break it up into smaller portions.

The bolus of food that is swallowed passes into the stomach; like novitiate spirits, good and bad together, enter the world of spirits—the forum of all states, the place of preparation and gradual judgment.² The gastric juices and their enzymes seem to function much as the angels of the first heaven who instruct newcomers by arousing a desire for interior truth, thus separating the good from the evil.³

Evil spirits also arouse disturbances in the world of spirits, just as indigestion and anxieties affect the stomach and intestines. Food which cannot be digested in the stomach represents spirits who are confined in "the lower earth" of the world of spirits in a state of arrested development.⁴

Spirits in the world of spirits usually undergo three states. The first is one of externals, much like that in the world.⁵ The second state is one of internals, when the interior aims and confirmed loves of the spirit's life gradually become manifest, and the good are separated from the wicked. The third state is one of instruction. This is confined to the good, and is directly preparatory for life in an angelic society. These states have their analogies with the process of digestion. Evil spirits, upon whom instruction and discipline fail to have effect, correspond to the refuse which is cast off through the large intestines and the kidneys. But good spirits are represented by the aliments (like sugars and proteins) which are absorbed by the veins and led by the portal system into the liver; as well as by the chyle which is gathered up by the lacteals and which then, through the thoracic duct, is poured into the bloodstream. The liver, where many important uses are carried on for the blood, seems clearly to correspond to the places of instruction which are at the entrances to heaven; and the same seems true of the lacteals and chyle-duct.

The Intermediate World

The world of spirits is not heaven, nor is it hell, but is a place or state intermediate between the two; a world in which spirits are explored and prepared. "The time of their stay there is not fixed. Some merely enter it, and are soon taken into heaven or are cast into a hell; some remain only a few weeks (septimanas), some several years, but not more than thirty. These differences in time depend on the correspondence or non-correspondence of man's interiors with his exteriors."⁶

Ideally, the preparation of a spirit for heaven should be completed during his life on earth. And mention is made in the Writings of spirits who enter heaven immediately after their resurrection is accomplished. There are also cases of men whose evils are so confirmed and uninhibited that their passions at once overpower them and they plunge themselves into hell a few days after death.⁷

But such instances are rare. Therefore there must be a state of preparation in which departed spirits may remain until their character is so unified that they can join a society in heaven or in hell, according to the ruling love which they have made their own in their bodily life. Even the literal sense of Scripture alludes to such a state: as when John at Patmos tells of "the souls under the altar" who were awaiting redemption.⁸ An impassable gulf between heaven and hell is mentioned in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. And in the Epistle of Peter it is hinted that Christ after His crucifixion "went and preached unto the spirits in prison."⁹ The Apostolic Church believed in such an intermediate state in which the spirits of men were held in abeyance until the Lord should return to judge the quick and the dead.

As previously noted, the Christians developed many strange ideas about this intermediate state. Some teachers conceived that spirits before the day of bodily resurrection would only be flitting and formless breaths. Some taught that man slept in the grave till the "Last Day." Others, with the authority of the Roman church, taught that spirits had a distinct existence and that before they could enter heaven the souls of the pious had to be tormented in the fires of "Purgatory" until they were purged of carnal impurities or until they were released because of the intercessions of their friends on earth. In either case, it was thought that the heaven of the faithful would not become a complete reality until after the day of Judgment, when the earth would be destroyed and renewed. Since Swedenborg's time—and through the influence of his Writings—there have been many attempts to spiritualize these concepts, but with little effect on the official dogmas of the churches.

Only from the Writings can we learn the real nature of this intermediate state and the need for it. And the first thing we learn is that spirits, when they rise from death, find themselves in a world as real as ours to every sense, and in the company of vast numbers of other spirits who live in communities or towns as on earth. The appearance of this world of spirits varies. In this it is like the mind of man, the contents of which is marvelously ordered in many interlinking spatial series which yet do not interfere with each other. In the spiritual world, "not only have all the things which are in the natural world an existence," but "innumerable others besides" which mortal eye has never seen nor ear heard.¹⁰

Spirits live in social intercourse, and indeed in communities which resemble towns or cities, where a variety of uses are carried on. Christians often imagine that spirits flit about in some indefinite cloud-land; and if you tell them what the Writings reveal, they might cry out, "What! cities and houses in the air?" They are afraid that if they think of spirits as complete men and women living in a tangible environment, they would make the spiritual world too gross and material. Hence they prefer to think of that world as empty and dark.¹¹ But the non-material world is not empty. It is more truly substantial and more perfectly equipped than ours. It is not a dream world or a state of ecstasy, but a busy human world of mutual uses, of effort and achievement, and all the means whereby soul can serve soul and communicate the wealth of wisdom and the joys of love.¹²

In outward aspect, the world of spirits may appear to the newcomer as a valley which winds between hills and mountains and stretches out into various plains.¹³ From this world there is a path and entrance to each heavenly society, and on the sides openings, like caves or dark abysses, leading down to the gates of the hells. These gates and paths are closed and inaccessible except when some spirit is ready to enter. The breath of heaven—the sphere of angelic delight—which is felt when an entrance to some heaven is opened, is torture to the nostrils of evil spirits, or spirits not prepared. And similarly, the delights of hell ascending from the openings of the underworld are felt as nauseous and fetid stenches from which good spirits flee.¹⁴ "The heavens are visible to spirits in the world of spirits only when their interior sight is opened; although they sometimes see them as mists or bright clouds" above them. Angels, being in an interior state of life, "are above the sight of those who are in the world of spirits. But spirits who dwell in the plains and valleys see one another."¹⁵

A newcomer may thus be informed that this world into which he has entered is situated between heaven and hell—heaven being above, hell underfoot. For it appears as a place. In fact it is a place, but a spiritual place.¹⁶ And its reality is to every sense greater than that of the physical world. The senses of the spirit are keener than man's, even though the spirit can no longer sense earthly things, but only spiritual things in earthly forms.¹⁷

The World of Spirits is not a physical place. What there appears as travelling from place to place is really only a change of state.¹⁸Indeed, the world of spirits, inwardly viewed, may be described as the composite natural mind of mankind. All the countless societies there are wonderfully ordinated according to natural affections, good and evil, and communicate either with some heaven or some hell.¹⁹ And the spirits of all men still living on earth are present (though generally invisibly) among the departed spirits of these societies. It is however told that if a man is deeply immersed in abstract thought, so that he is as it were in the spirit, his spirit may appear among those of his society, walking about silently meditating without noticing the other spirits. But as soon as he is addressed by them, he vanishes.²⁰

Man has spiritual freedom—or freedom of choice—by virtue of his rational mind which is the third or highest degree of the natural mind in which his conscious life is active during earth life. And while the interior degrees, or the spiritual and celestial minds, opened by regeneration, correspond to the heavens, the rational mind, in the process of its formation, corresponds to the World of Spirits.²¹ For the rational mind is at a middle point from which the ways to heaven and hell diverge. It is as it were the rudder or balance wheel of man's life. Yet man is not born rational, although he has the faculty to become rational. He is born corporeal and sensual, and as he progresses in knowledge he becomes natural and at length rational.²² As to his hereditary sensual will every man is from birth in some infernal society.²³But as to his rational mind, which is his real and responsible self, he is in the midst of the World of Spirits. He is not confined to any one society; for his affections and thoughts extend their roots into innumerable societies which are indirectly connected, some with heaven and some with hell; and to these he is bound as if by elastic cords of sympathy and dependence.²⁴ Through them he draws the life which directs and stimulates his mind. To change his state, and thus his place in the intermediate world, he must break some of these bonds and strengthen others. If he insists on leading himself he becomes more and more enmeshed in the cupidities and false persuasions which draw him towards hell; although the Lord still "as it were leads him by the hand, permitting and withholding as far as man is willing to follow in freedom."²⁵ But if he suffers the Lord to lead his affections and thoughts he is eventually extricated from evil societies and drawn towards heaven.

Nothing of this appears to man while in the world. But when he becomes a spirit, his spiritual companions become visible and audible, and he lives among spirits of his own kind as among friends or neighbors.

The Function of Memory

We must ponder the fact that even on earth our real life is mental: for man actually lives among the knowledges of his memory. They are the solid ground on which the house of his life is built.²⁶ If one reflects one must realize that these knowledges mark the borderlines of each man's consciousness, which is widened continually by new experiences and by what he learns from others. His mind becomes a little world — a microcosm — in which there are all manner of changes and new creations, but which still possesses a certain basic stability, continuity, or individuality, which never greatly changes because it is imbedded in his irradicable memory. But it is also true that a man interprets whatever he experiences in terms of his own memories and concepts. It is colored by his prejudices and beliefs. As he walks through life, much that he sees and hears he simply ignores because he is not interested in it. Certain other things, however, such as ideas of places, often acquire a symbolic meaning and overtone because they are closely associated with his own loves, endeavors, and delights; and these ideas become fundamental to the life of his thoughts. He returns to them again and again, and dwells on them and in them. They come to correspond intimately to his life, his use, and his states of natural affections. Without this familiar field of ultimate mental objects he would feel lost and distressed. It is his mental environment in which alone he feels at home.

It would be a cruel thing if death suddenly and ruthlessly deprived us of this basic foundation of memory which seemingly connects our mental life into a whole. Our spirit, waking from death, would then not feel any continuity or identity with his former self, nor any responsibility for his past performance.

It is for this reason, in the mercy of the Lord, that the spirit is only by degrees weaned from his earthly environment. His first experiences, on awakening into the World of Spirits to resume his life on the third day after death, are so deceptively like his former life that he knows no other than that he is still on earth.

There seems to be little reason to doubt but that this preliminary state is due to the persistent activity of the spirit's "corporeal memory." But this memory with its associated corporeal affections, soon grows dim. It remains indeed. It is not really lost. But it becomes quiescent, as if asleep. It no longer figures as an active factor in the spirit's mental and sensory life. In other words, the spirit—before long—ceases to recall the things which the physical environment impressed upon his senses or mere custom made him remember. Instead, his spiritual senses begin to take in the things of the spiritual world about him. And his experiences in that new world are retained in what the doctrine calls "the interior memory," of which man on earth had been unaware.

The closing of the corporeal memory does not imply that its use is over. It still serves as the ultimate record of his life, which can never change. Indeed, it is inscribed on the very body of the spirit.²⁷ For this corporeal memory is so organized during our life on earth that in it the whole of man's acquired character and ruling love are rooted.²⁸ Only for the sake of examination and judgment is it opened in the other life. Nothing of it is reproduced there "but the spiritual things which have been adjoined to the natural ones through correspondences; which, however, . . . appear in a form altogether as in the natural world . . ,"²⁹ Natural objects as such "cannot be reproduced in the spiritual world," but they can be represented. Yet with spirits from other earths it is sometimes reactivated when speech with men is permitted them.³⁰

Normally no spirit from our earth whose corporeal memory is active, is allowed to be with men. If spirits were to use their own corporeal memory while with men, dire consequences would follow. The spirits would become foolish, and be reduced to "a state of death." Men would become obsessed (as in Old Testament times). Eventually, the human race would perish.³¹ Utter confusion would result in a man's mind, because the sequence of man's thinking would be disturbed and ideas would suggest themselves without order, conscious intent, or association. Occasionally this occurs—perhaps because of the aroused memory state of some newly risen spirit. And the man would then think the spirit's thought to be his own or feel as if he had already, some time in the past, experienced what he is seeing, although he had never seen it before. This deceptive "second memory" led some of the ancients to the idea that their souls, after some thousands of years, would be reincarnated and "return into their former life, and into every thing they had done."³² Some spirits are indignant that they cannot recall much which they had known. Yet nothing of their memory is lost, and by permission it can be recollected.³³

When the corporeal memory of a spirit has become quiescent, his interior memory is opened. He enters thereby into a more vivid and abundant life and into new faculties which make spiritual life unique and almost indescribable in its perfection. So for instance, he comes into the ability to perceive the thoughts of other spirits whose ideas are within his range, and thus comes to know the quality of their faith and disposition at their first approach, without any communication by spoken words.³⁴ In this way spirits can share each other's knowledge as if it was all their own; although some do not retain what they thus learn.³⁵

Spirits with Men

But the spirit also spontaneously acquires the peculiar "prerogative" of using the memories of men as if they were his ownl³⁶He comes into this marvelous faculty unawares and does not know—unless instructed—that he is constantly borrowing the ideas of men's minds. He does not even know that he is present with men. He hardly realizes that his field of knowledge suddenly widens immensely to include at least a passing knowledge of things he never before knew. All this seems instinctive to the spirit, and creates in him no surprise. And it should be noted that the ideas and concepts which he thus gains from men do not generally appear as coming through his own spiritual senses or from his environment, but are felt as products of his own thought. Such is the case even with angels. For "man's natural thought is a plane in which all the things of angelic wisdom terminate. It is a foundation like that of a house. Into this plane all the things which the angels think fall."³⁷

This is an arcanum which is revealed only in the Writings. It is said that the angels can benefit from the intelligence of a man whether he is awake or asleep, and also that many men can at the same time serve as a "plane" for one angel, what is absent in one man being supplied from another, by the Lord's provision.³⁸

But a spirit who is thus sharing human ideas, perhaps from many men widely apart, at the same time feels himself in the company of other spirits, conversing with them and gaining from them further information and other ideas. He partakes with them in various occupations, exactly as on earth. In other words: besides enjoying a mental life of thought and affection which is as it were "telepathically" communicated both from his companion spirits and from every changing human mind with which he is more or less closely associated, the spirit has a complete and full sensory life from his spiritual environment. His surroundings usually appear relatively stable and permanent, except when the spirit changes his state and thus progresses from one society to another—which often appears to him as a journey from place to place.³⁹ In the world of spirits this environment bears a remarkable resemblance to the cities or communities in which he lived on earth. "They who dwelt in cities in our world, dwell also in cities there," while country dwellers find themselves in rural surroundings.⁴⁰

"Well," some one might be tempted to exclaim, "that is easily explained: The other life is only a sort of memory-survival. The material ideas—the memories of the familiar objects we used to sense on earth—simply persist as an echoing background for our spiritual experiences after death."

It was so that the ancient Greeks pictured the life of the departed shades who relived their earthly recollections in Hades or the Elysian Fields. And this may in a sense be true of that introductory state (mentioned above) ⁴¹ which lasts a few hours or at most a few days after the resurrection—before the corporeal memory sinks into a permanent sleep because it is no longer fed by the bodily senses. But it is not true of the environment of the world of spirits proper, in which the newcomer is likely to remain, perhaps for a year, perhaps for twenty or thirty years.⁴² The Writings do not give sanction to the idea that what a spirit sees and feels around him in his settled abode—objects such as houses, forests, mountains, and fields, as well as other spirits—is any mere projection or revival of his own corporeal memory. They give instead a totally different explanation, as may appear from the following entry in the Spiritual Diary:

"There appear, with spirits, cities similar to the cities in the world—a London, an Amsterdam, a Stockholm, etc. The cause of this is that every man has with him spirits [who are] in the other life, and these possess the interiors of the man, thus all the things of his memory. They do not indeed see the world through his eyes, but still [they see it] inwardly in him from his ideas. Hence there appear to them the ideas of similar houses, edifices, streets; and they appear just as if they were the very things. . . . Hence it is that spirits who are with men of some one city have the idea of the same city."⁴³

This is the case with the spirits who are most nearly attending some particular man and who constantly dwell in his ideas to the point that they put on a great part of his memory. In the state of their externals, the novitiate spirit's surviving natural affections tend to bring him into close but unconscious spiritual association with the men on earth who are in the same affections and who endeavor to carry out similar uses. He remains with those of his own religious community, his own family, function, city and nation. But all spirits seek resting-places for their thought in material ideas. Swedenborg (whose relationship with spirits was of course unique) relates that certain spirits wanted him to remain in one room which they preferred to the others. Some spirits chose one, some another of his journals as their special focus of thought or "ultimate of order." Others tried to induce him to wear a certain garment or to use a special tea cup!⁴⁴ But especially he found that all spirits were attached to some idea of a definite place, around which their sensory life and thus their thoughts and affections could center. If they are unable to find such an ultimate of order, they are bewildered, not knowing where they are.⁴⁵So strong can such an attachment to a place be that they may instil in a man who is away from home a feeling of nostalgia or home sickness.

Cities in the Other Life

The cities which spirits inhabit are never in detail identical with their earthly counterparts, or even the same as any one man's conception of them. What is derived from the men on earth is only a certain raw material unconsciously selected by the spirit, out of which the Lord creates the environment which best corresponds to the spirit's mental state. The houses, like the inhabitants, are constantly changed. Swedenborg realized that the existence of such spiritual cities would seem incredible to men, "because such a thing does not fall into sensual ideas, but only into rational ideas enlightened by spiritual light, and that neither did they then know that the spiritual appears before a spirit as the material does before men, and that all things which exist in the spiritual world are from a spiritual origin. ... It is the same with the houses of a city, which are not built as in the world but rise up in a moment created by the Lord, like all the rest. . . ,"⁴⁶

It is the Lord that builds the house;⁴⁷ but it is the spirits who according to their states determine its form and character, its beauty or squalor. A spiritual city is a composite representation of the states and thought-settings of thousands of spirits who have some natural affection or use in common. Each spirit visions not only the image of his own affection therein, but also the concrete forms corresponding to the other spirits who at that juncture are his associates.

Even while we live on earth our mind or spirit never actually touches or sees the world of matter: we only know and see the inner world of sensation, imagination, and reflection. We live in a sphere of ideas, although these ideas are as yet tempered by an environment of space, matter, and time, and thus bound down to the inexorable sequences of physical effects. In the other life, however, this dependency is broken, and the spirit's sense of reality is based on his mutual relationship with other spiritual beings—other minds.

It is therefore a mental relationship which a newcomer into the world of spirits sees and senses as a city—partly familiar, partly new—into which his life is fitted in so far as his active natural affections lead him. Spirits first settle down in societies of their own nationality, race, or religious practice, and there they seek occupations resembling those they had on earth. Such occupations are as objective as those on earth, filled with details and no doubt with natural anxieties. Each individual occupation, trade, or profession is a form either of charity or of selfishness. Those who are selfish develop an extraordinary cunning and a desire to control other spirits. But so long as they are bound to some office or use and are not openly wicked they are able to join in the life of the spiritual commonwealth.

Each "city" represents a network of mutual uses and activities which stem from habits and sociable affections which have been ingrained in the inhabitants. National traits are also marked even after death. Yet there is a striking fact to be noted: spirits have lost all recollection of their native tongue or the language of "words." Instead their thought flows spontaneously into the universal spiritual language of ideas.

Cities in the world of spirits may be found very different from their earthly counterparts. Certain Dutch cities had streets covered with roofs to protect them against inspection.⁴⁸ Other cities are described as double or triple, formed in levels, one below the other.⁴⁹ Some cities, like London, appear in duplicate, one above, the other below. In the upper city the good live in the middle but the evil in the circumference; while in the city below (which is much the same as to the layout of the streets) the evil would occupy the center which periodically sank down towards hell.⁵⁰ At the time of the last judgment in 1757, Swedenborg was conducted to a strange mountain which enclosed a city containing an immense multitude of spirits, mostly monks — far too many for the apparent "size" of the mountain. The inhabitants were from various ages since the first rise of papacy. Those from the Dark Ages lived on the lowest level from where they ruled the rest.⁵¹ Seemingly these spirits all had the same city (which changed considerably during the centuries) as the ultimate basis of their sensory life. But there was no interference between the activities of those of older and more recent ages, for the spiritual law is that when spirits differ in opinions and manners they "turn to different quarters" and disappear from each others' sight; and then even their houses may vanish with them.⁵² This explained why so many spirits could appear in the same space—as if passing through each other!⁵³

Societies in the world of spirits are in constant flux or change, especially after a general judgment such as occurred in 1757. Since that time, the increase in travel and communication has supplied men in the world with a broader outlook, and local loyalties and provincial and national customs are less distinct. Most large modern cities have their cosmopolitan and international colorings, and few have any religious homogeneity. Even in Swedenborg's day, he reports, there was in the world of spirits no city corresponding to Hamburg, because of the cosmopolitan nature of that ancient trading and shipping center.⁵⁴

The close connection between the inhabitants of these spiritual towns and countries and their earthly counterparts, is indicated by Swedenborg's testimony that on a certain occasion a conspiracy in the earthly city where he was, was quelled by the Lord who caused the seditious spirits of the corresponding city in the world of spirits to be driven out, and other spirits brought in in their place.⁵⁵

Spirits — and Man's Memory

Enough has been said in the above paragraphs to indicate that the life of spirits is based on that of mankind, even as the life of man depends on that of spirits. When man leaves the natural world, "then, because he is a spirit, he no longer subsists on his own basis, but upon a common basis, namely, the human race."⁵⁶"Many men can at the same time serve as a plane for one angel" or one spirit. "The Lord so arranges things that what is absent in one may be present in another."⁵⁷ Spirits may have access to all the immeasurable riches of men's memories to use as their own. They enter into the peculiar power of using our knowledges without disturbing our own thinking or evoking our consciousness of the items of memory that they borrow.⁵⁸ If closely conjoined with men the spirits think and will all that man thinks and wills, and whatever the spirits think and will the man then also thinks and wills. Yet both are utterly unconscious of this participation. Spirits do not see the man, except in cases of open intercourse as with Swedenborg.⁵⁹ But it is specially provided that although spirits can insinuate their special affections or cupidities, they must adopt man's persuasions while they are with him!⁶⁰ And, after all, it is man who through his choice "summons to himself" the spirits who agree with his affections.⁶¹ In dreams they may stir up the contents of our imagination without our feeling their affections or seeing any logic or order in the dream; or—we may be quite unconscious of the ideas which the spirits use as their own. For several spirits may use our memory or parts of it at the same time, each taking from its mazes what he needs for perfecting his thought. Spirits can speak among themselves "from man," unaware that they are not using their own memory.⁶² And in certain cases, each of these spirits may so fully take on the memory of a man—with all his persuasions, civil and moral and religious—that each at the moment believes himself to be the man! This is ordained as a protection for man, lest spirits become aware that they are with men, and do them harm.⁶³

It might seem that such a use of man's memory might result in a man's having a divided mind — a fragmentation of his identity, a double personality — or cause other symptoms such as attend schizophrenia, a disease of the brain. But only bodily disorder can now bring this about. Besides, the integrity of the spirit's personality is always preserved even when he adopts a man's memory; for this is much like our own experience when we temporarily identify ourselves with a sympathetic character or with an author's point of view while we are reading a book. The widening of our range of knowledge derived from many sources does not cut up our mind or life into incoherent bits.

Yet, in the course of their "vastation," spirits do undergo all manner of unusual states — temptations and penalties, phantastic visions, even hypnotic obsessions by other spirits. Such states are samples of clinical methods available in the other life for spirits whose minds need correcting. Eventually a spirit may even forget his own position in the world, whether that of king or pauper. But it is specially noted that when a spirit adopts a man's memory so that he "seems to be the man" and "comes into his faculty of understanding," it is "with this difference that he retains his own life, that is, the life of his love or cupidity, which causes him to feel in a different manner."⁶⁴

The continuity of our personality is derived from our ruling love. In this world it may appear that our natural thought is what gives us individuality. But in the other life the truth becomes evident—that the real person, the spirit, is the distinctive affection which selects and organizes the thought. The spirit's thought does not travel by associations of space and time, as ours does when one memory suggests another. He thinks from affection or cupidity— or from the interior memory, which is his inner nature or character. By an indescribable mode, there comes to his mind's sight all that in man's memory, which harmonizes with his affection. And he suddenly knows all the ramifications of man's ideas far more acutely than the man.⁸⁵ Indeed, man's unique power of analytic thought is due to the subconscious association of his mind with spirits, and the influx of spiritual light into the minds of all rational creatures.⁶⁶

The spirits who are "with man" do not see the man.⁶⁷ But in assuming things from his memory they may see and adopt the idea which the man has of himself. They may also adopt the whole field of conceptions that the man may wrongly or rightly entertain of some other person, living or dead. And so they may for the time believe themselves to be a certain apostle or saint or prophet of famous character—such as Paul or Mohammed or even the Holy Spirit! Thus they can come to feel themselves admired and perhaps worshipped, often to their great delight.

The underlying law is that in the spiritual world one appears as to one's active state, and the active state of spirits proximately attending men is presented in forms taken from the man's memory. Such an impersonating spirit thus appears to other spirits like the person with whom he is consociated—similar in dress, in looks, in demeanor, and in opinions. Simple spirits may thus often be deceived by the make-belief that they are dining with the apostles or are received in audience by Mohammed.

Normally, spirits do not know the man with whom they are consociated. But an exceptional case is related by Swedenborg. He attended a council of prominent Christians in the world of spirits, and found that the presiding prelate was consociated with a Doctor [Ernesti] of Leipzig, the editor of a theological review in which Swedenborg had been attacked.⁶⁸ Swedenborg asked him to inform his earthly counterpart that by attacking the New Church doctrine he was robbing the Lord of Divinity. To this the spirit quite properly replied, "I cannot do this, because I and he, as to this matter, make almost one mind. But he does not understand the things that I say, while I understand clearly all that he says; for the spiritual world enters into the natural world and perceives the thoughts of men there; but not vice versa. . . ."⁶⁹

What interests us in this case is not that Swedenborg—in a facetious challenge—gave the spirit a message for the man on earth which he knew could not be delivered; but that the spirit knew all but the name of the man with whom he was consociated. For this he could not convey except from the memory of Swedenborg who uniquely was both a spirit and a man.

MEETING OF FRIENDS IN THE OTHER LIFE

When spirits first enter into the world of spirits, they appear as they did in the world. Their face and tone of voice, their dress and manners, and even their opinions, are the same. For they are as yet in a state of their externals.⁷⁰ While in this "first state"—which seldom lasts more than a year—a spirit can be recognized by those of his children, relatives, friends, and acquaintances who have gone before him. The very sphere of his life conduces to this recognition.⁷¹ And since there is no such thing as space or distance in the spiritual world, any mutual affection or longing can bring them together. "Whenever any one . . . thinks about another he brings his face before him in thought, and at the same time many things of his life; and when he does this the other becomes present, as if he had been sent for or called."⁷² "That man's spirit is his ruling love, is shown in all intercourse in the other life, for as far as one acts and speaks in accord with another's love, so far he appears entire, with full, joyful, and lively countenance; but so far as he acts and speaks against the other's love, so far his face begins to change, be obscured and indiscernible, and finally it totally disappears as if it had not been there."⁷³

It is also taught that there is a substantial sphere being exhaled from every part of a spirit or angel which conveys his activities to the spiritual atmospheres about him and "produces a perception as of his presence with others." This is similar to the sphere encompassing every man; yet it is "not material" but spiritual.⁷⁴

When the spirit first resumes his life after death, his natural affections, his habits, tastes, beliefs, longings and loyalties are aroused. The Lord in His mercy provides that such affections, which are often contradictory and conflicting, often cherished without understanding and tied up with errors and falsities, should not be removed or suppressed suddenly. For man's whole personality is inwoven in these affections. In the world of spirits the Divine providence therefore operates—not to destroy man's natural affections—but rather to gently unravel the tangled web of human life and revamp its many loose threads into well-matched and integrated patterns. This is meant in the prophecy, "A bruised reed He shall not break, and smoking flax He shall not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth."⁷⁵

Thus it is quite a matter of course that spirits after death should be drawn into communities of their like. And since a novitiate spirit would otherwise miss the friends and relations which he had on earth, he is brought into association with such as have died and with many whom he knew only by reputation.⁷⁶

It is revealed concerning the people of some celestial races that when they died they rejoined their families in heaven, and so were, literally, "gathered to their fathers." Those of such a celestial genius were distinguished by the hereditary characteristics common to families.⁷⁷ But those who, like our own race, are of the spiritual genius, are further individualized by the formation of their understanding, and thus by features derived from the environment, from education and association, by which family traits are varied into great diversity.⁷⁸ Relatives will indeed—if the desire is present—meet and greet each other in the world of spirits with deep emotion. But unless there are found spiritual affinities or common ruling loves, they can be together only in the "first state" of the world of spirits—which is the state of externals. We are told of a tearful encounter of an adult with his brother who had died as an infant and grown up in heaven. In such a case there could be no recognition; and it is allowed only as the Lord grants, for some special purpose.⁷⁹ As a rule, however, those already in heaven or in hell do not meet newcomers, unless these are tied to them by interior sympathies or similitudes. It is possible for an angelic spirit who is already in heaven to meet friends, relatives, and others in the world of spirits, by his being remitted into a state similar to his life in the world—"which is easily done."⁸⁰

What causes such a meeting of spirits is a meeting of minds— an intent thought that springs from a strong affection. The one thought of then becomes instantly present "before the internal sight."⁸¹ But life in the other world might become unbearable if the wish-thought of any irresponsible spirit could at any time compel one's presence. It is only "when the Lord permits" angels or spirits to call another to mind, that this spirit "unfailingly" appears present to sight and touch.⁸² No doubt a responsive affection is then aroused. And when this affection ceases, or "as soon as a spirit disagrees in opinion with another, he vanishes," perhaps along with the houses and surroundings of that spirit.⁸³ It is however a common occurrence that spirits meet from a mutual desire to discuss their differences; as is described in many of Swedenborg's "memorable relations."

The Writings warn us against the tragedies that might ensue in the other life for those who on earth have nurtured a smoldering hatred for some one. For an evil love may arouse a wish to see or pursue one's enemy, and this also leads to spiritual encounters of various sorts.⁸⁴

The Friendship of Love

Whether interiorly conjoined with a society of heaven or with some society of hell, all who have been friends or acquaintances on earth, and especially wives, husbands, brothers or sisters, generally "meet and converse together whenever they so desire."⁸⁵Very commonly there is mutual rejoicing over such reunions.⁸⁶The newcomer is of course eager to know something of this strange new world into which he has come, and his friends might then answer his questions so far as they can, and conduct him as a guest to various places, such as cities and parks, to please him.⁸⁷ And they might also seek to introduce him into their own society.

Here certain dangers lurk. External friendships are formed in the world for various reasons, such as personal admiration, pleasant companionship, business advantage, similarity of taste and common interests. Such relationships can be broken off if internal incompatibilities, rooted in character, should become manifest.⁸⁸

But the case is different if a person has become so enticed by flattery or become in some other way so dominated by another as to blind himself to the inward quality of his friend. And he is thus committed to a "friendship of love" which accepts a person without any proper judgment as to his character or any realization of his dissimilitude. The tragedy here lies in the fact that, owing to man's heredity, evil is contagious like a plague. "Evils can be inspired into the good, but not goods into the evil."⁸⁹ Through a friendship of love, a spirit may, by misplaced loyalty, family pride, storge, hero worship, sexual enticement, or sentimental pity, be bound to another even some time after death.

In such a case the interiors of a good spirit may be shut up and he may follow his evil friend or relative into some hell where he may for a time "suffer hard things," until at last his eyes are opened and the impossible hope of infusing good into an evil spirit is dissipated; so that he can be led back upon the way of reformation—"but with more difficulty than others."⁹⁰

The possessive storge of a parent may be such that he utterly disregards whether his children be angelic or satanic. One case is mentioned in the Writings when the father had to be "bound" before his children could be released from his dominating influence.⁹¹

Societies of Friendship

There are many "societies of friendship" among newcomers in the world of spirits. Such are composed of many who are associated solely from a delight in conversing—not caring whether their companions are good or evil so long as they are entertaining!⁹²These think only of their own pleasure, and tend to induce stupor and take away other people's enjoyment.⁹³ An internal contempt for others, a lascivious lust, or a love of idleness may for a time be concealed by social modesty among such spirits.⁹⁴

And "societies of interior friendship" may also be formed— pietistic groups who call each other brethren and believe themselves the "elect," but who despise and condemn all outside of their communion.⁹⁵

Among good people true friendship stems from a charity which acts from justice and with judgment⁹⁶ and is attended by mutual respect for each other's freedom. It does not lead to domination or mental subjection. Nor does it judge the internal state of another, but loves each one according to the civil, moral, and spiritual good to which that man's life testifies.⁹⁷

The Meeting of Husbands and Wives

Special teachings are given in the Doctrine concerning the meeting of married partners in the other life.⁹⁸ "Almost everyone who has lived in marriage in the world, after death either meets with his wife, if she died first, or awaits her."⁹⁹ Usually they then "congratulate each other" that they are now safely past the death which had beforehand seemed such a frightening ordeal.¹⁰⁰ Having so much in common, they remain together and mutually explore each other's affections. This seems to be the case even with those whose minds are discordant; but these sooner or later feel a growing uneasiness and difficulty in breathing; and as they pass into "the state of their internals," they may break out into open enmity, quarrelling, and even combat! For some feel delight in having a partner to blame or at least to foil and outwit.

As the internal affections become manifest, the couple perceive the nature of the love and inclination which they had for each other.¹⁰¹ If this is concordant and sympathetic the marriage is confirmed by a far deeper conviction that they had been born for each other, and with a tender joy such as they had never known before. "The marriages of the angels of heaven are all provided by the Lord, who alone knows the similitude of souls that is to endure to eternity; and then the consort at first glance recognizes his mate. . . "¹⁰²

In a marriage of love truly conjugial, the partners "think and breathe what is eternal." Even if one such partner dies, his or her spirit still "dwells continually with the spirit of the one not yet deceased, and this until the death of the latter, when they meet again and reunite and love each other the more tenderly in that they are in a spiritual world." One may speculate that the one already in heaven may have to be reduced into a state of his externals for his first meeting with the other partner who as yet is a novitiate spirit.¹⁰³

But since genuine conjugial love is so rare on earth and the marriage choice is often very limited; and since marriages and other sex relations present such wide varieties, including marriages of convenience and external allurement, as well as sexual promiscuity or perversion, strange things may happen in the world of spirits. A man who has married again meets his partners in succession and may resume his life with the first wife while in the state of externals, unless their discordance is plainly evident; in which case he may look for his second wife. It is to be presumed that this floundering uncertainty is absent with those who have been in a marriage truly conjugial, for such a marriage is not broken by death, since their spirits still cohabit, and are interiorly conjoined with the same heavenly society.¹⁰⁴

The doctrine indeed states of heaven, that "there are no marriages elsewhere; beneath heaven there are only wedlocks [connubia] which are joined and dissolved." The love of sex so strongly dominates some spirits that they cannot await the other consort, whether male or female, but are conjoined meanwhile to another spirit who simulates the partner.¹⁰⁵

Such simulation, or impersonation, is also common in the case of famous characters such as Mohammed, Abraham, Jacob, and the apostles.¹⁰⁶ There are simple spirits who love to act or pretend or who enjoy being honored or who have a sincere hero-worship. These, from various motives, enact such roles and sometimes even come into the phantasy that they are such personages. In certain cases they are in position to impart needed instruction to their deluded audience. For the sake of this use are they suffered so to act.¹⁰⁷

Obviously, such pretense is possible only before spirits who are still in the state of their externals. Yet spirits more advanced may again and again slip back into external states, and this especially if they seek to hide their real nature and delay the inevitable judgment. Such a delay was possible before the Last Judgment was performed at the end of the Christian Church — possible especially for spirits who in the world had gained status and influence and who were held up as patterns of moral conduct, of piety and of learning.¹⁰⁸ But since that judgment every spirit has become subject to an inexorable evolution of character which he cannot long stay or disguise.¹⁰⁹

COMMUNICATION BY THOUGHT AND SPEECH

Among the peculiar powers into which the novitiate spirit enters, is that of instinctively knowing the quality of other spirits at their first approach, even if they do not speak.¹¹⁰ He "perceives" their good and their evil, their faith and disposition. And within a society, what is known to one spirit is also at once communicated to the rest — and this "not by speech but by influx." But some spirits retain what is thus communicated, while others do not.¹¹¹

At first this suddenly acquired faculty fills novitiate spirits with astonishment.¹¹² But there are so many marvels confronting the newcomers that they soon come to accept them as the norm. Even in this world of ours there are so many things beyond comprehension which we accept as commonplace. Each rising generation dismisses with boredom many new inventions which still astound and mystify their elders. After all, it is life itself that is the great mystery—the fact of consciousness and the marvel of human desire and the rational processes of thought. Our knowledge of the eye's construction and of the electro-chemical changes within the optical centers help hardly a whit to explain why the mind can receive a meaning out of the sensory impulses. And how are the tremblings of the tiny bones of the ear somehow interpreted by us into perceptions of the states of emotion and thought which our neighbors entertain?

Essentially, all communication of knowledge or thought or beauty or joy is a mystery which we have ceased to wonder over. Here on earth we are accustomed to regard such communication as impossible unless conveyed through the natural world of spatial forms and fixed matter. Yet the fact is that the sentient mind lives above the physical changes within the sensories of our brain. The mind is the interpreter and supreme judge of the world of outward sense. It stands within its memory-world, and evaluates its meanings, accepting its testimonies or rejecting them. Nor can the immortal mind be thought of as forever boxed up in solitary confinement within the limited individual experience of its corporeal memory. But when it becomes a spirit, its horizon is no longer confined by spaces, but opens to spiritual extensions limited only by the finite affections in accordance with which the spirit selects his objects of thought.

Thus the barriers of ignorance which on earth cast men into artificial groups, are lowered in the other life; and a new kind of society is formed, bound by a community of affections.

Since thought, in the other life, is conveyed directly and as it were inadvertently, it may be surprising to learn that spirits and angels also have speech. Although "before a spirit speaks it is known from the thought alone what he intends to say; for the thought inflows more quickly than the speech."¹¹³

It is a law of the spiritual world that no one can speak except as he thinks.¹¹⁴ Nevertheless, thought has one use, speech another. Thought is freely communicated among spirits in a variety of ways, especially where there is a community of affections.¹¹⁵ Even on earth, we sometimes—sympathetically and perhaps telepath-ically—know the thoughts of those whom we love. But spirits feel this thought of their earthly kindred as an enrichment of their own thought—as if they originated it. Speech, on the other hand, is necessary to convey a thought as coming from another. If the ideas of others should always appear as our own, there would be utter confusion in our thinking! And for the same reason, spirits, in order to converse, must look directly at each other; otherwise no ideas are communicated.¹¹⁶

The spiritual world, in contrast to the world of nature, may indeed be described as a purely mental world; for it is the mind of man that becomes the spirit after death. Yet in itself that spiritual realm is quite as completely furnished with spiritual things as the corresponding natural world is with material things. It is a world, not a dream or a phantasy. The immortal spirit is there present as a complete spiritual man, having body, brain, and senses, as well as every spiritual organism of thought and affection.¹¹⁷ He lives in a world which has all the discrete degrees and planes necessary for life—including spiritual ultimates which are seen as lands and waters, and spiritual "intermediates" or atmospheres which consist of discreted substances or least forms originating in the spiritual Sun.¹¹⁸

Even as the minds of spirits and angels are not identical with their spiritual bodies, neither is the thoughts of their minds identical with their speech. Their speech indeed originates from their minds, but it "proceeds from the whole of them, thus not only from the thought but also from the whole body, for the entire spirit is his love, whence their speech comes."¹¹⁹ Their bodies and senses are spiritual. For there are both interior spiritual things (of affection and thought) and exterior spiritual things (of knowledge and sensation). And these latter are created by the Lord to invest and embody the interior things. They not only form that body by which every spirit can sense spiritual things; but when the love and wisdom of angels "descend into the lower sphere in which angels are as to their bodies and sensations,"¹²⁰ they also cause to come into existence extensive representative creations around the spirits, which seem like replicas of nature.¹²¹ Thus the oral instruction which good spirits give to the well-disposed is often accompanied by marvelous visualizations or representations which affect the interior sight. It seems to unfold before them in pictorial forms appearing in utmost reality and vividness, in colors and forms and as objects which by their symbolism convey interior perceptions and heavenly moods which even the spirits fail adequately to express in words.¹²² These representations seem, however, to be distinguished from the spiritual creations which surround the spirits as a real environment.¹²³

Speaking is a bodily function. But spiritual speech is utterly different from earthly languages. It is "not one of material words, but of spiritual words, which are ideas modified into words in a spiritual aura"—indeed, in the lowest atmosphere there, which serves as the spiritual air.¹²⁴ "It is distinguished into words equally as is human speech; it is also uttered and heard with equal sound"; yet "it affects not only the ears but also the interiors of the mind."¹²⁵

The speech of ideas is universal among all spirits, good and evil, of every age and from every habitable spot in the universe.¹²⁶ It is not learnt but is instinctive with every one, because it is implanted in all men.¹²⁷ Yet there are differences in types and degrees of ideas, which make the speech of some spirits and angels unintelligible or obscure to others. As a rule, spirits cannot hear angels.¹²⁸

Subconsciously, a man is continually using this "speech of ideas" in his interior rational thinking. Special attention should be paid to that very important factor in the human mind which is represented by his "subconscious intellection" — the hidden faculties of thinking. All mental proficiency comes from the spiritual world, from the fact that spirits and angels stimulate and guide what goes on in those inner recesses of the memory which we cannot ourselves consciously control. Whatever of genius there is in a man comes from his ability to utilize the spontaneous operations of that "super-conscious" level of the mind. Whatever we make as it were of second nature enters into the interior memory and is no longer a matter of worry or stress. And this makes for ease and smoothness in our mental life, and relieves our energies for new conscious efforts.

But a man cannot analyze the contents of the subconscious parts of his memory, although he may feel that his wisdom of life resides thus beyond scrutiny. Even the ideas of man's "interior natural memory," or his memory of rational abstractions (which are presented to spirits as immaterial ideas in visual appearances)¹²⁹ are with man indistinguishable. Yet these ideas are the "initiaments" or primitives of words and terms with men, and constitute "the universal of all languages." "Such as is our thought apart from words, such is the speech of spirits with each other, and it is in fact not only thought (which they also have) but is their speech with one another."¹³⁰

It is therefore an error to imagine that man thinks in words.¹³¹He thinks in ideas which may or may not fall into corresponding words. This was the reason why, when spirits conversed with Swedenborg, their ideas usually fell into the words of the earthly languages with which he was familiar.¹³²

The ideas of a man's mind are like vast spheres of associated concepts within every word we use; and they become quite distinct and "discreted" or divided up into untold particulars when man becomes a spirit.¹³³ They serve as spiritual "words," in which every least sound or articulated letter has a distinct meaning, so that more can be conveyed in a moment than man can utter in an hour. This enables spirits to speak upon various subjects with marvelous acuteness and perspicuity, and to reason with incredible power and persuasiveness.¹³⁴ Indeed, spirits can also make calculations at incredible speeds.¹³⁵

Swedenborg testifies that when he was among spirits in the state of a spirit, he also could speak with them in their own speech, and was then ignorant of his own languages or his own sphere of ideas.¹³⁸ But when he returned into his natural state, the spirits, if still with him, communicated in his own vernacular. If he then strove to retain in his memory the spiritual expressions, whether as sounds or as alphabetic writing, he found them utterly meaningless. But he learnt that each letter or sound in the language of spirits had a distinct correspondence and that their words were formed spontaneously. The letter L, for instance, meant both "a horse and chariot" and "the understanding of doctrine." Not one angelic expression coincided with any earthly word. Yet some spiritual expressions—like other spiritual objects—had an external resemblance to some natural words of different meaning—as was the case with the words "bono," "vita," "vitam velle"—or only as to sound, as "rua raha" or "scapuleja." The name of a certain nuptial garden was, for instance, "Adramandoni."¹³⁷

* * * * *

In a sense "it is impossible to be alone" in the spiritual world.¹³⁸Not only is one's thought attended to by spirits far and near, but the immaterial sphere which wells forth spontaneously from each spirit is irrepressible, beyond one's control, and reveals one's character to others.¹³⁹ Yet spirits, like men, enjoy a degree of personal privacy. They do not only have an active or "speaking thought," the ideas of which form the words of their speech. But they have also in their minds a realm of silent thought which they do not necessarily reveal, although it is involved in all that they say. While it is a law in the spiritual world that one must "speak as he thinks," yet he may choose to be silent.¹⁴⁰

A spirit speaking from his reason, and one speaking from his memory, may sound much alike. And spirits may thus pretend to learning as in the world.¹⁴¹ Yet "there is nothing covered which shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known."¹⁴²

The whole tendency of life is to express itself in its own corresponding forms. The laws of the other life lead spirits to that state in which their inmost affections shall be known. Spiritual speech is adapted to reveal, not to conceal. And this is aided by the fact that it is the interior memory from which the spirit now reflects— a memory which is not ordered in the categories of space and time, but in the order of the delights of his affections.¹⁴³ Every event or new contact in the world of spirits conduces to a further self-revelation.¹⁴⁴ Insincere speech soon becomes impossible; it is seen as futile and foolish, since the real intent easily shines through.¹⁴⁵Yet in the places where newcomers gather there occur many phantasies which deceive the uninstructed or unwary.¹⁴⁶ Premeditated deceit is not permitted in the world of spirits. The deceitful have a "tacit speech" which however can be recognized as such.¹⁴⁷

And good spirits, like the angels, "have no desire to conceal from others what they think, since they think nothing unkind toward the neighbor."¹⁴⁸

It is difficult to describe how much fuller and richer the mental life of a spirit becomes when the interior vistas of his memory are opened. For while his "corporeal memory" is rendered quiescent, his "interior natural memory" is aroused into consciousness. And— as shown above—it is the interior ideas and abstract concepts (which man on earth can with difficulty hold in focus) that constitute the speech of spirits—audible as "words."

Yet this "interior natural memory" is but the servant of another memory which the Writings generally refer to as "the interior memory." This memory is entirely unconscious to man while on earth, and makes a one with his real affections and interior character. Into it are gathered, unbeknownst to man, all that has ever affected him, even though he has never bestowed any reflection upon it. All his past states, attitudes, thoughts and rational experiences, all that he has confirmed or accepted as allowable, all the wealth of his various moods and reactions — all are inscribed with incredible accuracy in this book of his inner life which is gradually opened after death.¹⁴⁹ All things spoken or done from the will are preserved in the interior memory in organic and spiritual reality.¹⁵⁰ It is beyond the sphere of fear, embarrassment, prudence, shame or compulsion. It has no external inhibitions, for it is the memory of a man's love. It is this most perfect interior memory which spirits use to store all their experiences in the spiritual world to all eternity.¹⁵¹ And when spirits become angels, this memory becomes even more perfectly retentive.¹⁵² The inner purpose of life is not the enrichment of the memory or the multiplication of knowledges or the creation of a form of society that is maintained without the labor of man; nor is it the constant refinement of thought or even the quest of truth. But the purpose of human life—to which all lesser ends minister—is the communication of love. And this communication of love is the object for which the spiritual language, into the use of which spirits pass unawares, is adapted.¹⁵³

The character of the interior memory of a good man was described by the Lord when He said, "Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."¹⁵⁴ And since all states return after death, these spiritual treasures are then opened to conscious realization.

Notes

¹ AC 5173ff, SD 1742, 5162-5169

² AR 791, 204, AC 5174

³ HH 496, AR 153

⁴ AC 5392f, 4805,4728

⁵ This state may last for nearly a year. HH 498

⁶ HH 426

⁷ HH 491, 513, AC 2595, SD 5495

⁸ Rev. 6:9

⁹ 1 Peter 3:19

¹⁰ LJ 27, LJ post. 314-323. Some of the arcana of the spiritual world which novitiate spirits learn, are noted in AC 4321

¹¹ CL 207:5, AC 1533

¹² LJ 27, LJ post. 314-323

¹³ HH 429

¹⁴ AC 7161:4, 5394e, 4628e, CL 431e, HH 429

¹⁵ HH 583

¹⁶ HH 421f, 428

¹⁷ AC 5078:3,4

¹⁸ AC 1376f, 10734, SD 4087, 3941, 5646, HH 534:3

¹⁹ AR 153:2/TCR 281

²⁰ DLW 252, HH 438, SD 5645, DP 307:2

²¹ DLW 237, HH 430

²² DLW 67

²³ DP 83: 2

²⁴ AE 1174:2

²⁵ AE 1174:2

²⁶ SD min. 4645f, AC 4588, Cp SD 3635, 3672. For a general treatment, see AC 2469-2494.

²⁷ HH461, SD 5493

²⁸ SD min. 4645f, Eccles. 11:3

²⁹ HH 463f, 461, SD 5552

³⁰ HH 122, DLW 88, AC 10809, 10751

³¹ AC 2477f

³² HH 256, 298, AC 2478, SD 3285, 3917

³³ AC 2479, seq., HH 464, seq.

³⁴ AC 1388

³⁵ AC 6813, 5853, 5857, 1388-1394. The general doctrine is given in AC 5846-5866, 5976-5993. The topic is discussed in Spirits and Men, Academy Book Room, Bryn Athyn, Pa., 1958.

³⁶ AC 5853,5857, SD 5607, 5617

³⁷ SD 5608, 3022, LJ 9

³⁸ SD 5617

³⁹ TCR 78:2

⁴⁰ LJ post. 12, SD 5092, 5716

⁴¹ Mem. 5

⁴² HH 498, 426, AR 866

⁴³ SD 5094, cp 5716

⁴⁴ SD 3753, 3894, cp 4530

⁴⁵ SD 3605, 3644, 3857

⁴⁶ LJ post. 12

⁴⁷ AC 6487, cp. SD min. 4692

⁴⁸ TCR 805

⁴⁹ LJ post. 12, 19, SD 5249ff

⁵⁰ Ibid., SD 5039

⁵¹ SD 5249

⁵² SD 5252, 5531f

⁵³ SD 2338, cp 5249

⁵⁴ TCR 816

⁵⁵ SD 5093

⁵⁶ LJ 9

⁵⁷ AC 5857ff, SD 5608-5617

⁵⁸ SD 5607, 5617. The remarkable fact seems to be that the spirits most closely associated with us are often doing what we are doing at the time. They sleep (SD 3231f, 3418), dream (SD 7, 664, 2436, 3792), and eat (SD 3566) at the same time as man. But guardian spirits who insinuate dreams into a man, are awake while the man sleeps. (SD 3231f., AC 1977ff). To confirm this, Swedenborg—as a spirit—was allowed to induce dreams upon a man who was sleeping. (SD 3181)

⁵⁹ AC 5853, 1880

⁶⁰ SD 4001, 3782f, 4114 ¹/₂, AC 5858ff

⁶¹ AC 5851, De Ver. xiii, HH 298

⁶² HH 292:2

⁶³ SD 1928, 1938, 2928, AC 5853, 5858ff, 5862, TCR 137

⁶⁴ SD 400, 4259

⁶⁵ AC 6200

⁶⁶ TCR 454, 475, DP 317

⁶⁷ AC 1880, 5862, HH 292

⁶⁸ Neue Theologische Bibliothek, Leipzig 1766, no. 8

⁶⁹ TCR 137:8, 12

⁷⁰ HH 457, 493, CL 355

⁷¹ HH 494, 498, AC 1114, 3815, 10130, CL 406

⁷² HH 494, AR 937:2, TCR 64, AE 628, SD min. 4618e. Called the "presence of internal sight", HH 121.

⁷³ HH 479:4, 194

⁷⁴ DLW291, AC 10130:2

⁷⁵ Isa. 42:3

⁷⁶ SD 2771, CL 273

⁷⁷ AC 2732, 2739, 483e; cp AE 988e, SD 834, CL 205

⁷⁸ Cp. DP 277a:4

⁷⁹ AC 2304:2, HH 340, SD 3545

⁸⁰ HH 427, cp SD 1331f, AC 1636

⁸¹ HH 494, 194, 121, AE 628, 282e, DP 29, AC 6893, SD 4139a

⁸² DP 326, AC 5229

⁸³ AC 9213:5, HH 194, SD 5252

⁸⁴ SD 2771, AC 6893

⁸⁵ HH 427

⁸⁶ HH 494£

⁸⁷ HH 495

⁸⁸ TCR 446

⁸⁹ TCR 120, 448, SD 2774f

⁹⁰ TCR 448, SD 4524, 2774

⁹¹ CL 406f

⁹² AC 4804, 4054, SD 4439, cp CL 5

⁹³ SD min. 4716, SD 4796

⁹⁴ SD min. 4777

⁹⁵ AC 4805, SD min. 4749, SD 4796, 4801

⁹⁶ TCR 448, 459:13

⁹⁷ Char. 46-71

⁹⁸ CL 45-54

⁹⁹ De Conj. 50

¹⁰⁰ HH 494

¹⁰¹ CL 47-49, HH 494, cp 427

¹⁰² Ibid., CL 316:3, 229, De Conj. 53

¹⁰³ CL 321, 216. That this is possible is indicated in note 80, page 113 above, and in another connection in SD 1321-1331.

¹⁰⁴ CL 49, 321

¹⁰⁵ CL 192e; De Conj. 52, cp CL 320,321

¹⁰⁶ TCR 829f, 834, cp CL 6

¹⁰⁷ LJ post. 71f, 79-83, TCR 829, cp CL 6:3

¹⁰⁸ LJ 69-71

¹⁰⁹ AE 754:3, LJ 64, LJ Post. 176f

¹¹⁰ AC 1388

¹¹¹ AC 6813, 1390

¹¹² AC 1389

¹¹³ AC 1640e, 443

¹¹⁴ HH 498. The speech of hypocrites always betrays them. AR 294, DP 224:3

¹¹⁵ AC 5383, 4126, 1389ff, AE 674:3, 675:3

¹¹⁶ Inv. 42, AC 10130:5

¹¹⁷ TCR 38, DP 279:6, 319

¹¹⁸ DLW 174-178, AE 1210e, 121le

¹¹⁹ SD 5557, cp 5564

¹²⁰ AE 926:2

¹²¹ AE 582:2, AC 1764

¹²² AC 4528:2, cp SD 5943

¹²³ SD 4214f, DLW 322, 432, TCR 78; Can., God iv, 12 (margin); AE 1211:4

¹²⁴ AC 7089:2, DLW 176

¹²⁵ HH 235, 238

¹²⁶ AC 2476, 2472, 6996:2, SD 5589, 5591

¹²⁷ AR 29, HH 236, 243

¹²⁸ AC 6996:2

¹²⁹ AC 6987:3, 3223, 4408, cp 10604:2, SD 5589

¹³⁰ AC 1641, 6987:2, SD 2142, 5585. On the language of spirits and angels, see further, SD 5585-5597.

¹³¹ SD 5102, 5588, 3637

¹³² SD 5590, 5585, 2137, CL 326:4, AC 1637:2

¹³³ Ibid., AC 6599, SD 3050, 5588, 4342, CL 329

¹³⁴ AC 1641, SD 5589

¹³⁵ SD 5956. AC 10771, cp 10708, EU 167

¹³⁶ CL 326, De Ver. 5, 6, SD 5102:3, 5770, 5589, AC 9094, 3346, cp 6210, AR 961, HH 255, 239:2

¹³⁷ These instances are given in SD 6063, 6090, 4866, LJ post. 324, De Ver. iii (9) , xxvi, and CL 183

¹³⁸ AC 816, SD 1484, 1864

¹³⁹ AC 10130:2, 9606, AR 294

¹⁴⁰ AC 9283, 6987, 8250:2, SD 5588, 1483

¹⁴¹ SD 5589 1/2

¹⁴² Luke 12:2

¹⁴³ AC 9386, 9723, 4901, 2469 seq., DP 193, HH 461ff

¹⁴⁴ SD 1169

¹⁴⁵ AC 830

¹⁴⁶ AE 575:3

¹⁴⁷ SD 2848, 2046f, cp AC 1695

¹⁴⁸ AC 5695, 4799:2, 6655:2

¹⁴⁹ AC 3020, 2473f, 3843:2, 9386, 9394:5, SD 2594, HH 463, 467

¹⁵⁰ AC 9386, DP 279

¹⁵¹ AC 9922:2, SD 3143f

¹⁵² SD 3234, AC 6931, 2493

¹⁵³ AC 1388

¹⁵⁴ Matt. 6:20

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