Emanuel Swedenborg

“ Hence it is, that they can have no idea of their soul or spirit as of a man, but as of wind, or air, or a breath without form, in which there is yet something vital. This is the reason why they do not believe they shall rise again till the end of the world, which they call the Last Judgment, when the body, though mouldered into dust, and scattered by every wind, will be brought together again and conjoined to its soul or spirit. ”

“ For these are the loves which first led to the establishment of empires and kingdoms, within which there are few who do not desire to acquire dominion, and to possess the goods of others, for there are few who do what is just and fair from a love of justice and fairness, still less who do good from charity itself, but most from fear of the law, the loss of life, of gain, of honour, and of reputation for the sake of these. ”

“ The state of life is the state of the affections as to love and faith. In regard to a spirit, or, what is the same, a man as to his spirit, being able to see the things that are on an earth, I may also explain how the case therein is. Neither spirits nor angels are able, by their own sight, to see anything that is in the world; for to them the light of the world, that is, solar light, is as thick darkness: just as man by his bodily sight cannot see anything that is in the other life; for to him the light of heaven is as thick darkness. ”

“ Among them the very affection of the speech is also represented in the face, and its thought in the eyes; for with them thought and speech, and affection and the face, act in unity. They account it infamous to think one thing and speak another, and to will one thing and show another in the face. They know not what hypocrisy is, nor fraudulent simulation and deceit. The same kind of speech prevailed amongst the Most Ancient inhabitants of our Earth, as it has been given me to learn by conversation with some of them in the other life ”

“ I was further informed that such speech was contrived by those inhabitants of Mars,—though not by all,—who make heavenly life to consist in knowledges alone, and not in the life of love; and that when they become spirits they retain it. These are they who were specially signified by the bird of stone; for to produce a speech by alterations of the face and motions of the lips, with a removal of the affections and a withdrawal of the thoughts from others, is to deprive speech of life and make it like an image, and by degrees to produce the same effect on themselves. ”

“ It has been told me by the angels that the Most Ancient inhabitants of our Earth dwelt in the same manner, that is to say, distinguished into clans, families, and households, and that all in those times were content with their own goods; and that it was an entirely unknown thing for one to enrich himself with the goods of others, or to assume dominion from the love of self ”

“ In the other life the quality of every spirit manifests itself by an influx, which is the communication of his affection. Goodness of disposition manifests itself by gentleness and sweetness; by gentleness, because it is afraid to hurt, and by sweetness, because it loves to do good. I could distinguish very clearly between the gentleness and sweetness of the influx proceeding from the good spirits of our Earth, and the gentleness and sweetness of the influx from the spirits of Jupiter. ”

“ They say this, because truths with them are without light from heaven, and to those who see without light from heaven, falsities may appear as truths, and truths as falsities. Hence so great blindness has fallen on many on our Earth, that although a man does not practise truths or live according to them, they say nevertheless that he may be saved by faith alone, as if a man were not man from the life and according to it, but from the knowledge of such things as belong to faith, apart from the life. ”

“ What would this be for the Creator of the universe, for whom the whole universe, even if it were completely filled, would not be enough, for He is Infinite. In conversing with the angels on this subject, they have told me that they have a similar idea of the fewness of the human race relatively to the infinity of the Creator; but that, nevertheless, they do not think from spaces, but from states, and that according to their idea, earths numbering as many myriads as could ever be conceived in thought would still be as absolutely nothing to the Lord. ”

“ But I know that those who hitherto have at heart denied heaven and hell, and the life after death, will still persist in confirming themselves against them, and in denying them; for it is easier to make a raven white than to make those believe who have once at heart rejected faith; the reason is, that they always think about such matters from a negative, and not from an affirmative, standpoint. Nevertheless, let those facts that have already been stated, and that yet remain to be stated, concerning angels and spirits, be for those few who are in faith. ”

“ He who believes, as every one ought to believe, that the Divine created the universe for no other end than the existence of the human race, and of a heaven from it (for the human race is the seminary of heaven) , cannot but believe that wherever there is an earth, there are human beings. ”

“ They do not fear death there, except on account of leaving their conjugial consorts, their children, or their parents, for they know that they shall live after death, and that they do not quit life because they go to heaven; wherefore, they do not call death dying, but being heaven-made. Those on that earth who have lived in truly conjugial love, and have taken such care of their children as becomes parents, do not die of disease, but tranquilly as in sleep, and so pass from the world into heaven. The age of man there is generally thirty years, according to the years of our Earth. ”

“ That the principal reason was for the sake of the Word, is because the Word is the Divine Truth itself, which teaches man that there is a God, that there is a heaven and a hell, that there is a life after death; and which teaches, besides, how man ought to live and believe in order that he may come into heaven, and thus may be happy to eternity. ”

“ The spirits of the earth Mercury do not tarry in one place, or among assemblies of the spirits of one system, but wander through the universe. The reason is that they have reference to the memory of things, which requires to be continually enriched; therefore it is granted them to wander about, and everywhere acquire knowledges. If, while travelling in this manner, they meet with spirits who love material, that is, corporeal and terrestrial things, they shun them, and betake themselves to where they do not hear such things. ”

“ These spirits, whilst they had lived as men on their earth, had dwelt separated, every household and family, and thus every clan, apart, and therefore knew not what it was to dwell together in society. ”

“ The Lord of the universe, who is our Lord, they do not call the One only Lord, as all the others do, but the Supreme Lord, for the reason that they call themselves lords. They call the sun of the world the face of the Supreme Lord, and believe that He has His abode there; wherefore they also adore the sun. The other inhabitants hold them in aversion, and are unwilling to have intercourse with them, both because they adore the sun, and because they call themselves lords, and are worshipped by their servants as mediatory gods. ”

“ I was further permitted to tell them that their idea concerning a trinity and unity together agrees with the Esse and Existere of the Lord's life when He was in the world. The Esse of His life was the Divine Itself, for He was conceived of Jehovah, and the Esse of every one's life is that of which he is conceived; the Existere of life from that Esse is the Human in a form. The esse of the life of every man, which he has from his father, is called the soul, and the existere of life thence derived is called the body. Soul and body constitute one man. ”

“ But as soon as thought concerning the Last Judgment flows in, this idea is changed into the material idea concerning their earthly body, that it is again to be conjoined to their soul; for they do not know that every man is a spirit as to his interiors, and that this it is which lives in the body and in each of its parts, and not the body which lives of itself; and that it is the spirit of every one from which his body has its human form, and which, consequently, is principally the man, and in a similar form, but invisible to the eyes of the body, yet visible to the eyes of spirits. ”

“ But to lead a spirit outside of his own globe through variations of the state of his interiors, and to cause the variations to proceed successively until a state is reached which agrees or coincides with the state of those to whom he is being led, is in the power of the Lord alone; for there is needed a continual direction and foresight from first to last, both on the journey thither, and on the return journey, especially when this is to be effected with a man who is still as to the body in the world of nature, and thereby in space. ”

“ They then spoke plainly with me, saying, that the inhabitants of their earth speak in the same way among themselves. They were then told that this is evil, as by so doing they block up the internals, and recede from them to the externals, which also they deprive of their life; and especially because it is not sincere to speak in this manner. For they who are sincere do not wish to speak or even to think anything but what others, yea, what all, even the whole heaven, might know. ”

“ The spirits of Mercury, more than other spirits, possess the knowledges of things, both of those which are within this solar system, and those which are beyond it in the starry heaven; and whatever things they have once acquired they retain, and recollect them as often as similar ones occur. From this also it may manifestly appear that spirits have memory, and that it is much more perfect than that of men; and further, that spirits retain what they hear, see, and apperceive, and especially such matters as they are delighted with, as these spirits are with the knowledges of things ”

“ Those who live in their hot climates go naked, except for a covering about the loins; nor are they ashamed of their nakedness for their minds are chaste, and they love their own consorts only, and abhor adulteries. They were greatly surprised that the spirits of our Earth, on hearing of their manner of walking and of their being naked, should deride and think lasciviously, without in the least attending to their heavenly life, but only to such details. ”

“ Distances in the other life are not as distances on the Earth. In the other life distances are altogether according to the states of the interiors of each one. They who are in a similar state are together in one society and in one place. All presence there results from likeness of state, and all distance results from unlikeness of state. Hence it was that I was near to that earth when I was brought by the Lord into a state similar to that of its spirits and inhabitants, and that being then present I conversed with them. ”

“ It is to be borne in mind, that the idea which any person entertains on any subject is, in the other life, exhibited to the life, and through it every one is examined as to the character of his thought and perception on matters of faith; and that the idea of the thought concerning God is the chief of all, for through it, if genuine, conjunction is effected with the Divine, and consequently with heaven. ”