Some merely enter it and are immediately either taken up into heaven or cast down into hell; some remain there only a few weeks, and others several years; but none remain more than thirty years. These differences in the time of their stay depend upon the correspondence or want of correspondence of their inner and outer minds.1

The first state of man after death is like his state in the world, because his life is still external. He has therefore a similar face, speech, and disposition, thus a similar moral and civil life; so that he thinks that he is still in the world, unless he pays close attention to the experiences he meets with, or remembers what was said to him by the angels when he was raised up, namely, that he is now a spirit.

All are recognised by their friends, relatives, and acquaintances when they first come into the other life, and they talk and afterwards associate with them according to their intimacy in the world. I have frequently heard those who have come from the world rejoicing at seeing their friends again, and their friends also rejoicing at their arrival. . . .

Almost all are anxious to know whether they will go to heaven, and many believe that they will, because they have led a moral and civil life in the world; they do not reflect that both the wicked and the good lead a similar life outwardly, doing good to others in the same manner, going to church, hearing sermons and praying; and they have no idea that outward deeds and acts of worship are of no avail, but only the internal states of mind from which the external acts proceed.2

No one in the spiritual world is allowed to think and will in one way, and to speak and act in another. There must be complete sincerity, and the first stage for most spirits is a training to this.

1

"Heaven and Hell," p. 218 (Everyman edition). 'Op. cit., pp. 266-7-8.

All who have lived a good life in the world, and acted conscientiously, being such as have acknowledged the Divine Being and loved Divine truths, especially those who have applied them in life, when they are brought into the state of their inner minds, feel as if they had been awakened out of sleep, and like those who pass from darkness into light. The light of heaven, or interior wisdom, illumines their thought, and goodness, or interior affection, inspires their deeds. Heaven itself flows into their thoughts and affections with an interior blessedness and delight, of which they before knew nothing....1

But the state of those who have lived an evil life in the world, who have had no conscience, and have consequently denied the Divine Being, is altogether different. . . . For they are then in a state of freedom to act according to the thoughts of their will, being separated from the outward circumstances which restrained and checked them in the world. In a word, they are deprived of rationality, because the reason which they possessed in the world did not reside in their inner minds.. Such being their character when they are in this second state, they are brought back at short intervals into the state of their external life, and then to the recollection of what they had done when they were in the state of their internal life. Some are then ashamed, and acknowledge that they have been insane; but some are not ashamed, and some are indignant because they are not allowed to remain always in the state of their external life.2

Man's character remains essentially what it was while he was in the world. The will, however, is the essential thing, not the actions. Those with good wills are separated in the second stage from those with bad wills, and the latter proceed to the infernal societies to which they are allied. The good enter a third stage

1

"Heaven and Hell," p. 273.

Op. cit., pp. 273-4

of instruction, which is a preparation for heaven. The instructors are angels-i.e. advanced human spirits, and "the heathen are instructed by angels who had been of their own nation." Children who die are brought up and instructed in heaven or an advanced part of the World of Spirits, not being in need of much purgation.

There are innumerable societies and grades in heaven, but there are three main divisions-the inmost or celestial, the middle or spiritual, and the lowest or natural heaven, corresponding to divisions in the mind of man, and in each of these heavens there is an exterior and an interior region, corresponding to the Understanding and the Will in the individual mind.

It is not commonly possible for spirits in one heaven to communicate with those in another, but it occurs sometimes:

I have also seen others who were permitted to descend from a higher heaven, and they were deprived of their wisdom to such an extent that they did not know the character of their own heaven. It is otherwise when the Lord, as is frequently the case, raises angels from a lower heaven into a higher one, that they may see its glory; for then they are previously prepared and are encompassed by intermediate angels through whom they have communication with those among whom they come.2

The smaller heavenly societies consist of some hundreds of angels, others of some thousands, and some of myriads. Many angels live apart in separate houses and families; these are more immediately under the 1 "Heaven and Hell," p. 282. Op. cit., p. 16.

Divine guidance of the Lord, and are the best of the angels. Space is represented by difference in goodness or the state of the spirits' love. Those are far apart who differ much, those are near who differ little, for similarity brings them together. Moreover, those who resemble each other in goodness know each other, although they never met before.1

The hells correspond to the heavens, and are made up of many societies. They are ruled by the general outpouring of Divine Good and Truth from the heavens, which checks and restrains the effort which issues from the hells as a whole, and angels are appointed to restrain the insanities and disturbances. Punishments are according to the nature of the evil. But God "never turns away His face from men, never drives them from His presence, never casts anyone into hell and is never angry with anyone." 2 Evil is bound up with its own punishment, and they cannot be separated. And the root of all evil is self-love.

As to the location of the Spiritual Worlds, Swedenborg affirms their non-spatiality. They are conditions, not places. Change of place is merely change of state. One person becomes present to another when he intensely desires his presence, for thus he concentrates his thought upon him and puts himself in his state of mind. Conversely, aversion removes one person from another. Thus when several are together they see each other as long as they agree, and lose sight of each other when they disagree. But though this is so, the appearances are spatial, for there are hills and valleys

3

1 "Heaven and Hell," p. 19. "Op. cit., p. 303. Op. cit., p. 83.

and other natural features. The spirits have spiritual bodies-which in the good and intelligent are brighter than the noonday sun on earth-and they have garments and live in houses. The garments represent the mind. The less intelligent in heaven are clothed in white but of less brilliance. The still less intelligent have garments of different colours. But the angels of the inmost heaven are naked.

The houses in heaven are like earthly ones but more beautiful. They have many chambers, and courts with gardens. There are cities, with streets and squares; architecture like ours, but beyond it; for it is from heaven that we derive our own pale copies. The ornamentation was such as "I lack both knowledge and words to describe." The highest angels live on mountain tops, others lower down according to the state of their minds.

All institutions, says Emerson, are the lengthened shadow of one man. Thus the followers of Swedenborg shut the door which he opened, discouraging any communication with the other world on the part of anyone else, no doubt lest heterodoxy should arise. But Swedenborg himself did not claim uniqueness or forbid others to seek the experience given to him:

Man was so created that during his life on earth amongst men he might, at the same time, also live in heaven amongst angels, and during his life amongst angels he might, at the same time, also live on earth amongst men; so that heaven and earth might be together, and might form one; men knowing what is in heaven, and angels what is in the world.1

"Arcana Coelestia," Howitt's "History of the Supernatural," vol. ii., p. 391.