Emanuel Swedenborg A Journey Into The World Of Spirit Between Heaven And Hell

[Music] welcome to the reality revolution i'm your host brian scott today will be another first for the podcast we're going to explore emmanuel swedenborg i originally became interested in emmanuel swedenborg after reading william blake while i was researching neville goddard william blake is somebody the neville goddard always cites in his work and when you read the william blake literature he refers to emmanuel swedenborg in the same way that neville refers to william blake in researching emmanuel swedenborg i became overwhelmed with the sheer amount of literature that was available and what to make of it i became more interested because he has a concept of the afterlife that may jive with the description that's given by neville goddard a different sort of afterlife that's described than other spiritual disciplines but there's so much he wrote so many books emmanuel swedenborg was born in 1688 and died in 1772. he was a swedish pluralistic christian theologian scientist a philosopher and a mystic he is best known for his book on the afterlife heaven and hell he had a prolific career he was an inventor and a scientist in 1741 of 53 he entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience these dreams and visions it culminated in a spiritual awakening which he received a revelation that he was appointed by jesus christ to write the heavenly doctrine supposedly to reform christianity according to the heavenly doctrine the lord had opened swedenborg's spiritual eyes so that from then on he could freely visit heaven and hell to converse with angels and demons and other spirits and the last judgment had already occurred the year before in 1757 over the last 20 years of his life he wrote 18 theological works and several more that were unpublished and he termed himself a servant of the lord in which he published many different books some followers of the heavenly doctrine believe that of his theological works only those that were published by swedenborg are fully divinely inspired there is a swedenborgian religion that has formed around this that you will find in prevalent and mostly ivy league schools but the thing was he was a big time scientist at the beginning and then later he started writing these stuff and it was all in latin you read the stories about what he was writing in latin and when people got a hold of it was amazing they were blown away by his descriptions of heaven and hell and what the afterlife was really like and his transition from scientist to mystic is a really fascinating part of his story that is talked about by many biographers it's interesting when i was reading les miserables he is mentioned as someone who had lapsed into madness there are a number of documented events where he showed psychic ability knowing of a fire that had happened in another town which was later verified or speaking with the queen of sweden about a long-lost brother who had died knowing specific information that only she and him would have known or finding a lost document so it's interesting that his claims had veracity when other people had confirmed some of the stuff that he could do but there was so much to it i didn't know what to make of it or if i even should add it as a story or podcast but there is a description here and all i will say is make of it what you will this does not have to be accurate it could be totally inaccurate as some people think he could have just been writing a poem but he starts to describe the afterlife and what it's like after death and the different deaths in heaven and hell i still think it syncs with what we're talking about a little bit we create our death in many ways if we have a health sort of life now we have a hell sort of afterlife which may be another existence in another plane it could be in reincarnation it refers to karma there could be coincidences and synchronicities with many other philosophies here make of it what you will it's knowledge that you may want to have and so we'll check out the first chapter of it it's interesting this particular book which we're reading from the story of heaven and hell is very interesting to read about the the story lines and people found it in the 1780s uh in latin and when they had finally translated it some people were just blown away and one huge fan of his work was johnny appleseed that john chapman the guy that went around and planted apple trees he also would give people copies from this book so i just wanted to get your opinions of it and have a place to discuss this and this concept of the afterlife as written by emmanuel swedenborg and we can make of it what we will what the world of spirits is the world of spirits is neither heaven nor hell but a place or state between the two it is where we first arrive after death being in due time either raised into heaven or cast into hell from it depending on our life in this world the world of spirits is a place halfway between heaven and hell and it is also our own halfway state after death there is a vast number of people in the world of spirits because that is where everyone is first gathered where everyone is examined and prepared there is no fixed limit to our stay there some people barely enter it and are promptly either taken up into heaven or cast down into hell some stay there for a few weeks some for a number of years though not more than 30. the variations in length of stay occur because of the correspondence or lack of correspondence between our deeper and our more outward natures in the following pages i will be examining just how we are led from one state into another and prepared after we die just as soon as we arrive in the world of spirits we are carefully sorted out by the lord evil people are immediately connected with the hellish community their ruling love had affiliated them within the world and good people are immediately connected with the heavenly community their love and thoughtfulness and faith had affiliated them within the world even though we are sorted out in this way we are still together in that world and can talk to anyone when we want to to friends and acquaintances from our physical life especially husbands and wives and also brothers and sisters i've seen a father talking with his sick sons and recognizing them i've seen many other people with their relatives and friends however since they were of different character because of their life in the world they parted company after a little while however people who are coming into heaven from the world of spirits and people who are coming into hell do not see each other anymore they do not even recognize each other unless they are of like character because of a likeness in love the reason they see each other in the world of spirits but not in heaven or hell is that while they are in the world of spirits they are brought into states like the ones they were enduring their physical lives one after another after a while though they settle into a constant state that accords with their ruling love in this state mutual recognition comes only from similarity of love for likeness unites indifference separates in these pages where it says spirits it means people in the world of spirits where angels mean people in heaven each of us is inwardly a spirit anyone who thinks through carefully can see that it is not the body that thinks because the body is material rather it is the soul because the soul is spiritual the human soul whose immortality has been the topic of many authors is our spirit it is in fact immortal in all aspects it is also what does the thinking in our bodies matter that is proper to the body is an addendum and almost an attachment to the spirit its purpose is to enable our spirit to lead its life and perform its services in a natural world that is material in all respects and essentially lifeless since matter is not alive only spirit we may conclude that whatever is alive in us is our spirit and that the body can only serve it exactly the way a tool serves alive an activating force since everything that is alive in the body everything that acts and feels because of life belongs to the spirit alone and none of it belongs to the body it follows that the spirit is the actual person in other words we are essentially spirits and have much the same form as well you see everything that is alive and sensitive within us belongs to our spirit and there is nothing in us from head to toe that is not alive and sensitive this is why when our bodies are separated from our spirits which is called dying we still continue to be human and to be alive we may gather that inwardly we are spirits from the fact that we depart from our bodies which happens when we die we are still alive and just as human as ever to convince me of this the lord has allowed me to talk with almost all the people i had ever met during their physical lives with some for a few hours with some for few weeks and months and with some for years this was primarily so that i could be convinced and could bear witness i may add here that even while we are living in our bodies each one of us is in a community with spirits as to our own spirits even though we are unaware of it good people are in angelic communities by means of their spirits and evil people are in hellish communities further we come into those same communities when we die people who are coming into the company of spirits after death are often told and shown this our revival from the dead and entry into eternal life when someone's body can no longer perform its functions in the natural world in response to the thoughts and affections of its spirit which it derives from the spiritual world then we say that the individual has died this happens when the lungs breathing in the heart's systolic motion have ceased the person though has not died at all we are only separated from the physical nature that was useful to us in the world the essential person is actually still alive i say that the essential person is still alive because we are not people because of our bodies but because of our spirits after all it is the spirit within us that thinks and thought and affection together make us the people we are we can see then that when we die we simply move from one world into another this is why in the inner meaning of the word death means resurrection and a continuation of life the deepest communication of our spirit is with our breathing and our heartbeat thought connects with our breathing and affection and attribute of love with our heart consequently when these two motions in the body cease there is an immediate separation it is these two motions the respiratory motion of the lungs and the systolic motion of the heart that are essential ties once they are severed the spirit is left to itself and the body being now without the life of its spirit cools and decays after this separation our spirit stays in the body briefly but not after the complete stoppage of the heart which varies depending on the cause of death in some cases the motion of the heart continues for quite a while and in others it does not the moment it says stop we are awakened but this is done by the lord alone being awakened means having our spirit led out of our body and into the spiritual world which is commonly called resurrection the reason our spirit is not separated from our body until the motion of the heart has stopped is that the heart answers to affection and attribute of love which is our essential life since all of us derive our vital warmth from love consequently as long as this union lasts there is a responsiveness and therefore the life of the spirit is still in the body i have not only been told how the awakening happens i have been shown by firsthand experience the actual experience happened to me so that i could have a full knowledge of how it occurs i was brought into a state in which my physical senses were inoperative very much then like the state of people who are dying however my deeper life and thought remained intact so that i could perceive and retain what was happening to me and what does happen to people who are being awakened from death i noticed that my physical breathing was almost suspended with a deeper breathing a breathing of the spirit continuing along with a very slight and silent physical one but first then a connection was established between my heartbeat and the heavenly kingdom because that kingdom corresponds to the human heart i also saw angels from the kingdom some at a distance but two sitting close to my head the effect was to take away all my own affection but to leave me in possession of thought and perception i remained in this state for several hours then the spirits who were around me gradually drew away thinking that i was dead i sensed a sweet odor like that of an embalmed body for when heavenly angels are present anything having to do with a corpse smells sweet when spirit sense this they cannot come near this is how evil spirits are kept away from our spirit when we are being admitted into eternal life the angels who were sitting beside my head were silent simply sharing their thoughts with mine when these are accepted by the deceased the angel knows that the person's spirit is ready to be led out of the body they accomplish this sharing of thoughts by looking into my face this is actually how thoughts are shared in heaven since i had been left in possession of thought and perception so that i could learn and remember how awakening happens i noticed that at first the angels were checking to see whether my thoughts were like those of dying individuals who are normally thinking about eternal life they want to keep my mind in these thoughts i was later told that as the body is breathing its last our spirit is kept in its final thought until eventually it comes back to the thoughts that flowed from our basis or ruling affection in the world especially i wasn't able to perceive and even to feel there was a pull a kind of drawing out of the deeper levels of my mind and therefore of my spirit from my body and i was told that this was being done by the lord and is what brings about our resurrection when heavenly angels are with people who have been awakened they do not leave them because they love everyone but some spirits are simply unable to be in the company of heavenly angels very long and want them to leave when this happens angels from the lord's spiritual kingdom arrive through whom we are granted the use of light since before this we could not see anything but could only think i was also shown how this is done it seemed as though the angels rolled back a covering from my left eye toward the center of my nose so that my eye was opened and able to see to the spirit it seems as though this were actually happening but is only apparently so as this covering seemed to be rolled back i could see a kind of clear but dim light like the light we see through our eyelids when we are first waking up it seemed to me as though this clear dim light had a heavenly color to it but i was later told that this varies after that it felt as though something were being rolled gently off my face and since this was done i had access to spiritual thought this rolling something off the face is an appearance for it represents the fact that we are moving from natural thinking to spiritual thinking angels take the greatest care to shield the awakening person from any concept that does not taste of love then they tell the individual that he or she is a spirit after the spiritual angels have given us the use of light they do everything for us as newly arrived spirits that we could ever wish in that state they tell us at least to the extent that we can grasp it about the realities of the other life however if our nature is such that we do not want to be taught then once we are awakened we want to get out of the company of angels still the angels do not leave us but we do leave them angels really do love everyone they want nothing more than to help people to teach them to lead them into heaven this is their highest joy when spirits leave the company of angels they are welcomed by the good spirits who are accompanying them and who also do all they can for them however if they had led the kind of life in the world that makes it impossible for them to be in the good company of good people then they want to get away from these as well this happens as long and as many times as necessary until they find the company of people their earthly life has fitted them for here they find their life and remarkable as it may sound they then lead the same kind of life they had led in the world this first stage of our life after death does not last more than a few days though in the following pages i will be describing how we are then brought from one state into another until finally we arrive either in heaven or in hell i have talked with some people on the third day after their death i talked with three whom i had known in the world and told them that their funeral services were now being planned so that their bodies could be buried when they heard me say it was so they could be buried they were struck with a kind of bewilderment they said they were alive and that people were burying what had been useful to them in the world later on they were utterly amazed at the fact that while they had been living in their bodies they had not believed in this kind of life after death and particularly that this was the case for almost everyone after death we are in a complete human form years and years of daily experience have witnessed to me that after separation from the body the human spirit is a person and is in a similar form i've seen this thousands of times i have heard such spirits and i have talked with them about the fact that people in the world do not believe that they are what they are and that scholars think people who do believe are simpletons spirits are heartsick over the fact that this kind of ignorance is still common in the world and especially in the church this is why almost all people who arrive from this world are as astonished as they can be to find that they are alive and they are just as human as ever that they are seeing and hearing and talking that their bodies are still endowed with the sense of touch and that nothing at all has changed when we first enter the world of spirits which happens shortly after the reawakening just described our spirit has similar face and tone of voice as it did in the world this is because at that point we are in a state of our external concerns with our deeper concerns not yet uncovered this is our initial state after decease later though our face changes and becomes quite different it comes to look like the ruling affection in which the deeper reaches of our minds were engaged in the world the kind of affection characteristic of the spirit within our body because the face of our spirit is very different from the face of our body we get our physical face from our parents and our spiritual face from our affection which it images our spirit takes on this face after our physical life is over when the outer coverings have been removed this is our third state i have seen some newcomers from the world and have recognized them by their faces and voices but when i saw them later i did not recognize them people who were engaged in good affections had lovely faces while people who were engaged in evil affections had ugly ones seen in its own right our spirit is nothing but our affections whose outward form is our face the reason our faces change is that in the other life no one is allowed to pretend to affections they do not really have so we cannot put on a face that is contrary to the love we are engaged in we are all refined down to a state in which we say what we think and manifest in expression and act what we intend it does not need to be known that our human form is lovelier after death to the extent that we have more deeply loved divine truths and have lived them since our deeper levels are opened and formed according to both our love of these truths and our life so the deeper the affection and the more it accords with heaven the lovelier the face this is why the angels who are in most heaven are the loveliest because they are forms of heavenly love on the other hand people who have loved divine truths more outwardly and have therefore lived by them more outwardly are less lovely since only the more outward aspects radiate from their faces and the deeper heavenly love which means the form of heaven as it is in its own right does not shine through these more outward forms you can see something relatively dim in their faces not enlivened by a light of their inner life shining through short all perfection increases as you move inward and lessens as you move outward as the perfection increases or lessens so does the beauty i have seen faces of angels of the third heaven so beautiful that no painters with all their skill could render a fraction of their light with their pigments arrival a thousandth part of the light and life that show in their faces the faces of angels of the outermost heaven [Music] though can be mirrored to some extent finally i should like to offer a secret no one has ever known before namely that everything good and true that comes from the lord and makes heaven is in the human form this is true only of the greatest whole but also of every least part this form influences everyone who accepts what is good and true from the lord and it causes everyone in heaven to be in a human form according to that acceptance this is why heaven is consistent with itself in general and in particular why the human form is the form of the whole of each community and of each angel i need to add that this is also the form of the details of thought that come from heavenly love in angels the secret may not fit well into the understanding of anyone on earth but it is clear to the understanding of angels because they are in heaven's light after death we enjoy every sense memory thought and affection we had in the world repeated experience has witnessed to me that when we move from the natural world into the spiritual which happens when we die we take with us everything that pertains to our character except our earthly body in fact when we enter the spiritual world or our life after death we are in a body as we were in this world there seems to be no difference since we do not feel or see any difference this body is spiritual though so it has been separated or purified from earthly matter further when anything spiritual touches and sees something spiritual it is just like something natural touching and seeing something natural so when we have become a spirit we have no sense that we are not in the body we inhabit it in the world and therefore do not realize that we have died as spirit people we enjoy every outer and inner sense we enjoyed in the world we see the way we used to we hear and talk the way we used to we smell and taste and feel things when we touch them the way we used to we want wish crave think ponder are moved love and intend the way we used to studious types still read and write as before in a word when we move from the one life into the other or from the one world into the other it is like moving from one physical place to another and we take with us everything we owned as persons to that point that it would be unfair to say that we have lost anything of our own after death which is only a death of the earthly body we even take with this our natural memory since we retain everything we have heard seen read learned or thought in the world from earliest infancy to the very end of life however since the natural objects that reside in our memory cannot be reproduced in a spiritual world they become dormant the way that they do when we are not thinking about them even so they can be reproduced when it so pleases the lord i will have more to say soon though about this memory and its condition after death nevertheless the difference between our life in the spiritual world and our life in the natural world is considerable in regard both to our outer senses and the way they affect us and to our inner senses and the way they affect us people who are in heaven have far more delicate senses that is they see and hear and also think more discerningly than when they were in this world this is because they are seeing in heaven's light which vastly surpasses the world's light and the hereby way of spiritual atmosphere that vastly surpasses the atmosphere of the earth the difference in their outer senses is like that between something clear and something hidden by a cloud or like noonday light and the dimness of evening as for our keeping our whole memory when we leave the world i have been shown this by many examples and have seen and heard a great deal worth talking about i should like to cite a few examples in sequence there have been people who denied the crimes and transgressions they had committed in the world to prevent them from believing they were blameless everything was disclosed and drawn out of their own memory and sequence from beginning of their life to the end most of these transgressions were acts of adultery and promiscuity there were people who had deceived others with malicious skill and had stolen from them their deceptions and thefts were also recounted one after the other many of them known to practically no one in the world other than themselves they even admitted them because they were made plain as day along with every thought intention pleasure and fear that mingled in the minds at the time there were people who had taken bribes and made money from judicial decisions they were similarly examined from their own memories and everything was recounted from first taking office to the end the details of amount and value of the time and of their state of mind and intention all consigned to their remembrance together were brought to view a hundred or more instances in some cases remarkably enough the very diaries in which they had recorded these deeds were opened and read to them page by page there were men who had lured virgins to dishonor and violated their chastity they were summoned to a similar judgment and the details were drawn out of their memory enlisted the actual faces of the virgins and other women were present as though they were there in person along with the places the words and the thoughts it was done as instantaneously as when something is actually being witnessed firsthand sometimes these presentations lasted for hours there was one man who thought nothing of slandering others i heard his slanders recounted in sequence as well as his blasphemies along with the actual words the people they were about and the people they were addressed to all these were presented together as lifelike as could be even though he had very carefully kept them hidden from his victims while he was living in the world there was one man who had defrauded a relative of his legacy by some devious pretext he was exposed and judged in the same way remarkably the letters documents they exchanged were read aloud to me and he said that not a word was missing the same man had also secretly killed a neighbor by poison just before his own death which was disclosed in the following way a trench seemed to open under his feet and it was opened a man came out through from a tomb and screamed at him what have you done to me then everything was disclosed how the poisoner had talked amicably with him and offered him a drink what he had thought beforehand what happened afterwards once this was uncovered the murderer was condemned to hell in a word all their evils crimes thefts wiles and deceptions are made clear to every evil spirit they are drawn from their own memories and exposed there is no room for denial because all the circumstances are presented together i also heard that angels have seen and displayed from the memory of one individual everything he had thought one day after another over the course of a month with never an error recalled as though he himself were back in those very days we may gather from these instances that we take our whole memory with us and that nothing is so concealed in this world that it will not be made known after death made known in public where being faced with our deeds after death angels who have been given to the task of examining look searchingly into the face and continue their examination through the whole body beginning with the fingers first of one hand and then of the other continuing through the hole when i wondered why this was so it was explained to me the reason is just as the details of our thought and intention are inscribed in our brains because that is where the beginnings are so they are inscribed on the whole body as well since all of the elements of our thought and intention moved out into the body from the beginnings and take definition there in their outmost forms this is why the things that are inscribed on our memory from our intention and consequent thought are inscribed only on the brain but also on the whole person where they take form in a pattern that follows the pattern of the parts of the body i could therefore see that our overall nature depends on the nature of our intention and consequent thought so that evil people are their own evil and good people are their own good we may also gather from this what is meant by our book of life mentioned in the world it is the fact that all our deeds and all our thoughts are written on our whole person and seem as though they are read from a book when they are called out from our memory they appear in a kind of image when our spirit is looked at in heaven's light i should like to add to this something noteworthy about the memory that we keep after death something that convinced me that not just the general contents but even the smallest details that have entered our memory do last and are never erased i saw some books with writings in them like earthly writing and was told they had come from the memories of those people who had written them that not a single word was missing that had been in the book they had written in the world i was also told all the least details could be retrieved from the memory of someone else even things the person had forgotten in the world the reason for this was explained as well namely that we have an outer and inner memory the outer proper to a natural person in the inner proper to a spiritual person the details of what we have thought intended said and done even what we have heard and seen are inscribed on our inner or spiritual memory there's no way to erase anything there since everything is written at once on our spirit itself and on members of our body as noted above this means that our spirit is formed in accord with that what we thought and what we have done intentionally i know these things seem paradoxical and hard to believe but they are true nevertheless let no one believe that there is anything we have thought or done in secret that will remain hidden after death believe rather that absolutely everything will come into broad daylight i've talked with any number of people who were regarded as learned in the world because of their knowledge of such ancient language as hebrew and greek in latin but who had not developed their rational functioning by means of the things that were written in those languages some of them seemed as simple as people who did not know anything about those languages some of them seemed dense though their steel seemed to pride as though they were wise than other people spirits and angels have memory just as we do what they hear and see and think and intend and do stays with them and through their memory they are constantly developing their rational ability forever this is why spirits and angels are being perfected in intelligence and wisdom through experiences of what is true and good just the way we are i've been shown that spirits and angels have memory by a great deal of experience as well i have seen everything that they had thought and done called up from their memory both in public and in private when they were with other spirits i've also seen people who had been focused on some truth from simple virtue become steeped in insights and in a consequent intelligence than taken up into heaven it should be realized though they are not stepped in insights and a consequent intelligence beyond the level of the affection for what is good and true then engage them in the world in fact each spirit and angel retains the amount and kind of affection she or he had in the world and this is afterward perfected by being filled in this too goes on forever since everything is capable of infinite variation and enrichment by different means so it can be multiplied and bear fruit there is no end to any instance of goodness since its source is the infinite our nature after death depends on the kind of life we led in the world any christian knows from the word that our life is still with us after death since it says in many places that we will be judged according to our deeds and works rewarded accordingly further anyone who thinks on the basis of what is good and from real truth cannot help but see that people who live well enter heaven and people who live evil lives enter hell however people who are intent on evil do not want to believe that their state after death depends on their life in the world they think rather especially when their health begins to fail that heaven is granted to all on the basis of mercy alone no matter how people have lived and that this depends on a faith that they keep separate from life it does say in many places in the world that we will be judged and requited according to our deeds and works i should like to cite a few passages here i will give to all according to their works revelation 2 23. i saw the dead small and great standing in the presence of god and books were open and the dead were judged according to what was written in the books according to their works the sea gave up those who had died in it and death and hell gave up the people who were in them and they were all judged according to their works revelation 2013. everyone who hears my words and does them i will compare to a prudent person but everyone who hears my words and does not do them is like a foolish person matthew 7 24. jehovah deals with us according to our ways and according to our works zechariah 1 6 works and deeds though does not mean works indeed solely the way we look in the outward form it also includes their deeper nature everyone knows really that all our deeds and our works come from our intention and thought for if they did not come from there they would be no more than motions like those of machines or robots so a deter work in its own right is simply an effect that derives its soul and life from our volition and thought it follows then that the quality of the volition and thought that caused the deed or work determines the quality of the deed or work if the thought and intent are good then the deeds and works are good but if the thought and intent are evil then the deeds and works are evil even though they may look alike in outward form a thousand people can behave alike that is can do the same thing so much alike that in outward form one can hardly tell the difference yet each deed and its own right is unique because it comes from a different intent take for example behaving honestly and fairly with an associate one person can behave honestly and fairly with someone else in order to seem honest and fair for the sake of self and to gain respect another person can do the same for the sake of worldly profit a third for reward and credit a fourth to curry friendship a fifth out of fear of the law and loss of reputation in office a six to enlist people in his or her cause even if it is an evil one a seventh in order to mislead and others for still other reasons but even though all of their deeds look good for behaving honestly and fairly toward a colleague is good still they are evil because they are not done for the sake of honesty and fairness not because these qualities are loved but for the sake of oneself and the world because these are loved the honesty and fairness are servants of this love like the servants of a household whom their lord demeans and diminishes and dismisses when they do not serve we may gather from this what is meant by works and deeds in the word a great deal of my experiences has testified to the fact that we are love or intention after death all heaven is differentiated into communities on the basis of differences in the quality of love and every spirit who is raised up into heaven and becomes an angel is taken to the community where her or his love is when we arrive there we feel as though we are in our own element at home back to our birthplace so to speak angels sense this and associate there with kindred spirits when they leave and go somewhere else they feel a constant pull a longing to go back to their kindred and therefore to their dominant love this is how people gather together in heaven the same applies in hell there too people associate according to loves that oppose heavenly ones both heaven and hell are made up of communities and they all are differentiated according to the differences of love we may also gather that we are our love after death from the fact that anything that does not agree with our dominant love is then removed and apparently taken away from us for good people what is removed and apparently taken away is everything that disagrees and conflicts with the result that they are admitted to their love it is much the same for evil people except that what is taken away from them is everything true well for good people everything false is taken away either way the result is that ultimately everyone becomes his or her own love this happens when we are brought into our third state which will be discussed below once this has happened we constantly turn our faces toward our love and have it constantly before our eyes no matter which way we face all spirits can be led wherever you want as long as they are kept in their dominant love they cannot resist even though they know what is happening and think they will refuse spirits have often tried to do something in opposition but without success their love is like a chain or rope tied around them with which they can be pulled and which they cannot escape it is the same for people in this world our love leads us as well and it is through our love that we are led by others it is even more so when we become spirits though because then we are not allowed to present a different love or pretend to a love that is not ours we come into heaven if our love is heavenly and spiritual and into hell if our love is carnal and worldly without any heavenly and spiritual dimension my evidence for this conclusion is all the people i have seen raised into heaven and cast into hell the ones who were raised into heaven had lives of heavenly and spiritual love while the ones who were cast into hell had lives of carnal and worldly love heavenly love is loving what is good honest and fair because it is good honest and fair and doing it because of that love if we love these things for their own sakes and do or live them we are also loving the lord above all because they come from him we are also loving our neighbor because these things are our neighbor who is to be loved carnal love though is loving what is good and honest and fair not for their own sakes but for our own sake because we can use them to gain prestige position and profit in this case we are not focusing on the lord and our neighbor within that is good and honest and fair but on ourselves in the world and we enjoy deceit when the motive is deceit then whatever is good and honest and fair is actually evil and dishonest and unfair this is what we love within the outward appearance since these loves define our lives we are all examined as to our quality immediately after death when we arrive in the world of spirits we are put in touch with people of like love if we are focused on heavenly love we are put in touch with people in heaven and if we are focused on carnal love we are put in touch with people in hell further once the first and second states have been completed the two kinds of people are separated so that they see no longer or recognize each other we actually become our own love not only as to the deeper levels of our minds but outwardly as well in face body and speech people who are carnal loves look coarse dim dark and misshapen while people who are heavenly loves look lively clear bright and lovely our first state after death there are three states that we pass through after death before we arrive in neither heaven or hell the first state is one of more outward concerns the second is one of more inward concerns and the third is one of preparation we go through these states in the world of spirits some people however do not go through these states but are either raised into heaven or cast into hell immediately after their death the people immediately raised into heaven are ones who have been regenerated and thus prepared for heaven in this world people who have been regenerated and prepared to this extent need only to slough off their natural uncleanliness along with their bodies and are immediately taken into heaven by angels i've seen people taken up an hour after their death on the other hand people who have been profoundly malicious but have outwardly warned a guise of goodness people who have therefore filled their malice with guile and used goodness as a means of deception are cast directly into hell i've seen people like this cast into hell immediately after their death one of the most deceitful went headfirst feet last for others it is different there are also people who are sent off into caves right after their death and in this way are segregated from people in the world of spirits they are alternately brought out and sent back in these are people who have treated their neighbors maliciously under the pretext of civic behavior there are few such people though compared to the number of people who are kept in the world of spirits and prepared there for either heaven or hell according to the divine plan as to the first state the state of more outward concerns we arrive in this immediately after our death everyone has more outward and inward aspects of the spirit we use the outer aspects of our spirit to adapt our bodies in the world especially our faces speech and behavior to our interactions with other people the more inward aspects of our spirit are the ones proper to our intentions and consequent thought which rarely show in our faces speech and behavior we are trained from infancy to present ourselves as friendly benevolent and honest and to conceal the thoughts of our own intentions so we acquire habitual lifestyle that is outwardly moral and civil no matter what we are like inwardly as a result of this habitual behavior we scarcely know our own inner natures and pay no attention to them our first state after death is like our state in this world since we are then similarly involved in outward concerns we have similar faces voices and character we lead similar moral and civil lives this is why it still seems to us as though we were in this world unless we notice things that are out of the ordinary and remember that angels told us we were spirits when we were awakened so the one life carries on into the other and death is only a passage since this is what we are like as spirits immediately after our life in the world our friends and people we had known in the world then recognize us spirits perceive who we are not only from our faces and voices but also from the aura of our life when they come near in the other life whenever we think about someone we call up that individual's face in our thought along with many details about her or his life and when we do this the other is called to us things like this happen in the spiritual world because thoughts are shared there and because space is not what it is in the natural world this is why as soon as we arrive in the other life we are all recognized by our friends and relatives and by people we have known in one way or another further we talk with each other and continue to see each other in keeping with our friendship in the world i've heard many people who had just come from the world overjoyed to see their friends again and their friends overjoyed they had arrived it often happens that married partners meet and welcome each other joyfully they stay together as well but for a longer or shorter time depending on how happily they had lived together in the world ultimately unless they had been united by real marriage love which is a union of minds from heavenly love they separate after having been together for a while if the minds of the partners disagreed however and if they were inwardly repellent to each other they break out into open hostility and sometimes actually fight with each other still they are not separated until they enter the second state which will be described shortly since the life of newly arrived spirits is not unlike their life in the world and since they do not know anything about life after death heaven or hell except what they have learned from the literal meaning of the word and some sermons drawn from it once they get over their astonishment at being in a body and enjoying all the senses they had in the world seeing familiar things around them they find themselves wanting to know what heaven and hell are like and where they are consequently their friends tell them about the state of eternal life and take them around to various places into the company of different people they go to different cities to gardens and parks then from time to time they are led into thoughts they had during the physical lives about the state of the soul after death and about heaven and hell this brings them to the point of resentment that they had been so ignorant about such matters and also that the church had been so ignorant almost all of them want to know whether they will make it into heaven many of them think they will because they led moral and civic lives in the world not reflecting that both evil and good people lead similar outward lives being similarly helpful to others going to church listening to sermons and praying similarly utterly unaware that outward behavior and outward worship accomplish nothing whatever only the inner realities that gave rise to these outward ones are effective scarcely one in thousand even knows what the inner realities are or that they are the focal point of heaven and the church for us even fewer realize that the quality of our outward actions is determined by the quality of our intentions and thoughts and the love and faith within them from which our actions arise even when they are told they do not grasp the fact that thinking and intending actually make a difference they attach importance only to speaking and acting many of the people who are coming into the other life from the christian world are like this nowadays all the spirits who arrive from the world are put in touch with some community in heaven or some community in hell however this applies only to their deeper natures and their deeper natures are not apparent to them as long as they are focused on their outward concerns this is because their outward concerns cloak their inner ones especially for people more deeply involved in evil however they come out in the open when they arrive in the second state because their deeper levels are open and their outer ones become dominant this is the first state after death it lasts a few days for some people months for some and a year for some but rarely more than a year for anyone the difference particular individuals depends on the harmony or discord between their inner and outer natures no one is allowed to think and intend one way and speak and act another way in the spiritual world everyone must be an image of his or her affection or love which means we must be outwardly what we are inwardly this is why the outer concerns of a spirit are first stripped off and brought into order so that they may serve as a plain responsive to the inner ones our second state after death our second state after death is called a state of our deeper interests because then we are given access to the deeper reaches of our minds or of our intentions and thoughts while the more outward interests that engaged us in the first state became dormant anyone who is observant of our life and our words and actions can recognize that we all have more outward and more inward natures or more outward and more inward thoughts and intentions we can recognize this from the fact that we are involved in civic life we think about other people in terms of their reputation or what we have picked up about them when they were the subjects of conversation however we do not talk with them the way we think about them and even if the others are evil people we still behave courteously toward them this is particularly noticeable in pretenders and sycophants whose words and deeds are holy at odds with their thoughts and intentions and in hypocrites who talk about god heaven and salvation of souls the truths of the church the welfare of the country and their neighbors as though they were motivated by faith and love when at heart they believe otherwise and love no one but themselves we need to know that our basic quality is determined entirely by the quality of our inner natures not by what we are like outwardly apart from that inner nature this is because our inner reaches are our spirit and since it is from the spirit that the body lives our life is the life of our spirit consequently whatever we are like in our inward natures that is what we are like to eternity since our more outward natures belong to the body they are separated after death and any elements of them that cling to the spirit become dormant serving only as a plane for deeper concerns we can see from this what really belongs to us and what does not for evil people the contents of the outer thought that gives rise to their words and the outer intent that gives rise to their actions do not really belong to them what belongs to them is the contents of their deeper thought and intentions once the first state has been completed the state of more outward concerns described in the proceeding we our spirits are brought into the state of our deeper concerns or into the state of those deeper intentions and consequent thoughts we are engaged in when we were left to ourselves in this world and our thinking was free and unfettered we slip into this state without realizing much as we did in the world when we drew the thought nearest to our speech the immediate source of our speech back toward our inner thought and let it pause there a while so when we as spirits are in this state we are being ourselves and living our real life since thinking freely from our own affection is our very life and our very self when spirits are in this state of their deeper concerns then it is obvious what kind of people they really were in the world they actually behave in accord with their own nature people who were inwardly devoted to the good in the world then behave sanely and wisely more wisely than when they were living in the world in fact because they have been freed from any connection with the body and therefore with the earthly things that darken and cover with a kind of cloud in contrast people who were focused on evil in the world then behaved foolishly and insanely more insanely than when they were in the world in fact because they are in freedom and are no longer constrained as long as they were living in the world they were outwardly sensible because this was how they were imitated rational people so when the outer layers are stripped off their inner insanity is unveiled an evil person who outwardly pretends to be good can be compared to a brightly polished jar with a cover on with all kinds of filth hidden inside just as the lord said you are like whitewashed subcultures that look lovely on the outside but are inwardly full of bones of the dead and all uncleanliness matthew 23 27 when spirits are in this second state they actually look exactly the way they were inwardly in the world the things they had done and said in secret are made public too because now since outward factors are not restraining them they see the same things openly they keep trying to do the same things without any of the fear for the reputations they had in the world further they are then led into many states of their evil so that they look to angels and good spirits like the people they really are since evil spirits plunge into all kinds of evils when they are in this second state it is normal for them to be punished often and severely there are many kinds of punishments in the world of spirits there is no respect for rank for whenever someone was a king or servant in the world every evil brings its own punishment with it they are united so whatever is involved in something evil is involved in the punishment of the evil as well still no one suffers any punishment for evil things done in the world only for current evil deeds it boils down to the same thing though and makes no difference whether you say that we suffer punishments because of our evil deeds in the world or that we suffer punishments because of our evil deeds in the other life because after death we all return to our life which means that we are involved in the same kinds of evil which is because our nature is determined by the kind of physical life we led the reason they are punished is that fear of punishment is the only means of taming their evils in that state encouragement does not work anymore or teaching or fear of the law or fear for their reputation because they are acting from their nature which cannot be compelled or broken by anything but punishments good spirits are never punished though even though they had done bad things in the world this is because their evils do not come back i've also been granted a knowledge that the evils are of a different kind or nature they do not stem from any deliberate resistance to what is true they are not from any evil heart except the one they acquired by heredity from their parents which blind pleasure drove them into when they were involved in outward concerns separated from inner ones every individual comes to the community where her or his spirit was in the world each of us as to spirit is actually unified to some community either heavenly or hellish evil people to hellish communities and good people to heavenly ones our third state after death is a state of instruction for people who are entering heaven our third state after death or the third state of our spirit is one of instruction this state is for people who are entering heaven and becoming angels but not for people who are entering hell because these ladder cannot be taught as a result their second state is also their third and ends they're turning straight toward their own love and therefore toward the hellish community that is engaged in a love like their own once this has happened their intentions and thinking flow from that love and since it is a hellish love they intend only what is evil and think only what is false these are their pleasure further this results in their rejecting everything that is good and true that it served their love as means good people though are brought from the second state into a third which is a state of preparation for heaven by means of instruction not everyone is taught in the same way or by the same communities of heaven people who have been raised in heaven from infancy are taught by angels of the inner heavens because they have not absorbed false notions from distortions of religion or befound their spiritual life with impurities drawn from rank and wealth in the world most people have died as adults are taught by angels of the outmost heaven because these angels are better adapted to them than our angels of the more inward heavens these latter focus on a deeper wisdom that the deceased cannot yet accept muslims though are taught by angels who once adhered to that religion but have turned to christianity other non-christians too are taught by their own angels all the teaching there is from doctrine drawn from the world and not from the word apart from the doctrine christians are taught on the basis of a heavenly doctor that is in complete agreement with the inner meaning of the word the others like the muslims and non-christians are taught on the basis of doctrines suited to their grasp these differ from heavenly doctrine only in that spiritual life is taught through a mortal life in accord with the good tenets of their own religion which was the basis of their life in the world teaching in the heavens differs from teaching on earth in that information is not consigned to memory but to life since spirit's memory is in their life they actually accept and absorb whatever agrees with their life and do not accept much less absorbed what does not agree this is because spirits are affections and therefore have a human form that resembles their affections since this is their nature they are constantly breathing in a desire to know what is true for the sake of constructive living the lord in fact sees to it that we love the constructive activities that suit our gifts this love is intensified by our hope of becoming angels this means that for each of us an affection for what is true is united to an affection for usefulness to the point that they act as one a true understanding of use is sown in this way so that the truths we learn are true perceptions of what is useful this is how angelic spirits are taught and prepared for heaven there are various ways in which an affection for the truth suited to usefulness is distilled many of them are known in the world primarily by depictions of useful activities these can be presented in thousands of ways in the spiritual world with such grace and charm that they permeate spirits all the way from the deeper levels of their mind to the outer levels their bodies and therefore affect the whole person as a result spirits virtually become their constructive lives so when they arrive in the communities their instruction has prepared them for they are in their own life when they are engaged in their useful activities we may gather from this that awareness which is an outward form of truth does not get anyone into heaven rather what gets us in is the useful life that is granted through knowledge after spirits have been prepared for heaven in these learning sites which does not take long because they are surrounded by spiritual concepts that comprehend a great deal at once they are dressed in angelic clothing usually wide is linen taken to a path that leads upward to heaven and turned over to a guardian angel there then they are accepted by other angels and put in touch with their communities and with the host of blessings the lord then takes each angel to her or his community this happens in various ways sometimes with detours no angel knows the paths along which they are taken only the lord when they arrive at their own communities their inner natures are opened and since they are in harmony with the inner natures of the angels who are members of the community they are recognized instantly and accepted with joy it's not so hard to lead a heaven-bound life as people think it is some people believe it is hard to lead the heaven-bound life that is called spiritual because they have heard that we need to renounce the world and give up the desires attributed to the body and the flesh and live spiritually all that they understand by this is spurning worldly interests especially concerns for money and prestige going around in constant devout meditation about god salvation and eternal life devoting their lives to prayer and reading the word in religious literature they think this is renouncing the world and living for the spirit and not for the flesh however the actual case is quite different as i have learned from an abundance of experience in conversation with angels in fact people who renounce the world and live for the spirit in this fashion take on a mournful life for themselves a life that is not open to heavenly joy since our life does remain with us after death know if we would accept heaven's life we need by all means to live in the world and to participate in its duties and affairs in this way we accept a spiritual life by means of our moral and civic life and there is no other way a spiritual life can be formed within us no other way our spirits can be prepared for heaven this is because living an inner life and not an outer life at the same time is like living in a house that has no foundation that gradually either settles or develops gaping cracks or trotters until it collapses what follows will make it possible to see that it is not all that hard to lead a heaven-bound life who can't lead a civic and moral life after all we are introduced to it in infancy and know it from living in the world we do in fact lead this kind of life whether we are evil or good since no one wants to be called dishonest or unfair almost everyone practices honesty and fairness outwardly even to the point of seeming genuinely honest and fair or seeming to act from genuine honesty and fairness spiritual people have to live in much the same way and can do so just as easily as natural people the difference being that spiritual people believe in the divine being and act honestly and fairly not just because it follows civil and moral laws but also because it follows divine laws in fact since they are thinking about divine laws when they act they are in touch with heaven's angels and to the extent they are they are united to them and their inner person which is essentially a spiritual person is open when this is our nature the lord adopts and leads us without our realizing it and whatever things we do that are honest and fair the deed of moral and civic life come from a spiritual source doing what is honest and fair from a spiritual source is doing it from genuine honesty and fairness or doing it from the heart the laws of spiritual life the laws of civil life and the laws of moral life are handed down to us in the ten commandments the first three commandments contain the laws of spiritual life the next four the laws of civil life and the last three the laws of moral life outwardly purely natural people live by these same commandments just the way spiritual people do they worship the divine go to church listen to sermons wear devout faces do not kill or commit adultery or steal or bear false witness do not cheat their colleagues or their goods however they behave this way solely in their own interest in order to look good in the world inwardly these same people are exactly the opposite of what they seem to be outwardly because at heart they deny the divine they play the hypocrite in their worship in their private thinking they scoff at the holy rights of the church believing that they are serve only to restrain the simple masses this is why they are wholly cut off from heaven since they are not spiritual they are not moral or civic people either for even though they do not kill they hate everyone who gets in their way and burn with vengefulness because of their hatred so if they are not constrained by civil laws and the outward restraints exercised by their fears they would kill because this is what they crave it follows that they are constantly killing even though they do not commit adultery still because they believe there is nothing wrong with it they are constantly adulterous and actually do committed as much as they can and as often as they have the opportunity even though they do not steal still since they do not covet other people's assets and regard cheating and malicious devices as legally justifiable they are constantly stealing in their minds the same applies to other commandments of moral life not bearing false witness or covering the goods of others all who deny the divine are like this all who do not have some conscience based on religion their nature shows obviously in similar people in the other life when they are let into the inner nature after their outer nature has been stripped away as they are separated from their heaven at that point they act in unison with hell so they keep in company with the people who live there it is different for people who are at heart have acknowledged the deity and have attended to divine laws in the deeds of their lives living both by the first three commandments of the decalogue and by the others as well when they are let into their inner nature after their outer nature is stripped away they are wiser than they were in the world coming into their inner nature is like coming from darkness into light from ignorance into wisdom from a sad life into a blissful one because they are in the divine and therefore in heaven i have mentioned this to let it be known that each kind of person is like though both may lead the same kind of outward life we can now see that it is not so hard to lead the life of heaven as people think because it is simply a matter of recognizing when something attractive comes up that we know is dishonest or unfair that this is not to be done because it is against the divine commandments if we get used to thinking like this and from this familiar form a habit then we gradually are united to heaven to the extent that we are united to heaven the higher levels of our minds are opened and to the extent that they are opened we see what is dishonest and unfair and to the extent that we see this these qualities can be dispelled for no evil can be banished until it has been seen this is a state we can enter because of our freedom since everyone is free to think in this way however once the process has started the lord works his wonders within us and causes us not only to see evils but to refuse them and eventually to turn away from them this is the meaning of the lord's words my yoke is easy and my burden light it is important to realize though that the difficulty of thinking like this and also of resisting evils increases to the extent that we deliberately do evil things in fact to that extent we become used to doing them until ultimately we no longer see them when we come to love them and to excuse them to gratify our love and to rationalize them with all kinds of self-deceptions and call them permissible and good this happens though to people who in early adulthood plunge into all kinds of evil without restraint and at the same time at heart reject everything divine i was once shown in the way to heaven and their way to hell there was a broad path leading off to the left or north there seemed to be a great many spirits traveling along it in the distance though i could see a fairly large boulder where the broad path ended then two paths led off from the boulder one to the left and the other on the other side to the right the path to the left was narrow and confined leading around through the west to the south and therefore into the light of heaven the path the right was broad and open leading obliquely down toward hell at first everyone was clearly following the same path as far as the large boulder at the fork but at that point they parted company the good turned to the left and started along the path that led to heaven the evil did not see the boulder at the fork but fell over it and hurt themselves when they got up they rushed along the broad path to the right that led toward hell later the morning of all this was explained to me the first path the broad one where so many good and evil people were traveling together chatting with each other like friends with no visible difference between them pictured people who live similarly honest and fair outward lives with no visible difference between them the stone at the fork or corner where the evil people stumbled from which they rushed along the path to hell pictured divine truth which is denied by people who are focusing on hell in the highest sense this stone meant the lord's divine human nature however people who acknowledged divine truth and the divine nature of the lord as well were taken along the path that led to heaven paths in the other life picture the thoughts that flow from our aims or intentions the paths that are presented to view their answer exactly to the thoughts of our aims and our course follows the thoughts that flow from our aims this is why you can tell the quality of spirits and of their thoughts from their paths this also showed me the meaning of the lord's words enter through the narrow gate for broad as the gate and open the way that leads to destruction and there are many who walk along it confined is the path and narrow the gate that leads to life and there are few who find it matthew 7 13. the way that leads to life is not narrow because it is difficult because so few people find it as stated the bolder i saw at the corner where the broad common path ended and the two ways seemed to lead an opposite direction showed me the meaning of the lord's words have you not read what is written the stone that the builders rejected has become the head of the corner whoever falls over the stone will be shattered luke 20 17-18 the stone means divine truth and the rock of israel means the lord in regard to his divine human nature the builders are the people of the church the head of the corner is where the fork is and to fall and be shattered is to deny and perish i've been allowed to talk with some people in the other life who had distanced themselves from the affairs of the world in order to live in devotion and sanctity and also with some who had mortified themselves in various ways because they thought this was renouncing the world and taming the desires of the flesh however most of them had wound up with a gloomy kind of life from this they had distanced themselves from that life of active thoughtfulness that can be led only in the world so they could not associate with angels the life of angels is cheerful and blessed it consists of worthwhile activities that are deeds of thoughtfulness particularly people who have led a life withdrawn from worldly concerns are aflame with a sense of their own worth and constantly crave heaven they think of heavenly joy as their reward with no knowledge whatsoever of what heavenly joy actually is when they are with angels and are let into that joy which has no sense of merit and consists of activities and public duties and in bliss at the good that is accomplished through them they are as bewildered as though they were seeing something totally alien to their faith since they are not open to these joys they move off and associate with people who have led the same kind of life in the world there are other people who have lived outwardly devotional lives constantly in churches and at prayer they have mortified their souls while constantly thinking about themselves how they are worthier and more estimable than others and will be regarded as saints after their death they are not in heaven in the other life because they have done all this with themselves first in mind since they are polluted divine truths by the self-love they immerse them in some of them are so deranged that they think they are gods so they are with similar people in hell some of them are ingenious and crafty and are in hells for their crafty people who used their skills and wiles to construct outward appearances that would lead the masses to believe them possessed of a divine sanctity i have mentioned all this to let it be known that the life that leads to heaven is not one of withdrawal from the world but a life in the world and the life of piety apart from a life of thoughtfulness which is possibly only in the world does not lead to heaven at all rather it is a life of thoughtfulness a life of behaving honestly and fairly in every duty every affair every task from our deeper nature and therefore from a heavenly source the source of this life is within us when we act honestly and fairly because we are doing so in accord with divine laws so that is the first chapter of this book by emanuel swedenborg of heaven and hell and so some thoughts that come up as i read this emmanuel swedenborg is writing this in the 1700s so if he was given the divine opportunity to see these heavens and hells he's seeing it through his own lens and perspective just as we do when we dream or we see things our souls will create an image of what we're seeing to better understand it he may not have the same understanding that we do of the universe such as planets things like that neville goddard points out that hell does exist and that it's earth so what might be happening is when he sees people going to hell they're just reincarnating on earth in another time or experience the way that neville goddard describes and the people who are going to heaven are moving up to a higher level of consciousness in fact this chapter would verify or confirm the information in the law of one that when you become service to others 51 of the time of your life when you're thinking outwardly about things other than yourself which is talked about repeatedly in this text that you move on to the next level of consciousness and it is very much like heaven you do end up with the power of angels and so his best way of describing this is that you are essentially an angel and that you return to hell you're just returning back to that same things into the wheel of karma that you are creating this is also reminiscent of the discussion of recapitulation by carlos castaneda i refer you to that particular episode as well there's a practice in recapitulation i think that is important for everybody to do go through your life go through your life all the way from birth even the most insignificant moments carlos castaneda explains that the toltec wisdom is to literally go into a box like you're dying re-experiencing what death will be like in the future letting your life flash before your eyes what happens at the moment of death according to carlos castaneda is that we have our life flashes before our eyes and we get stuck and locked in to dimensions because of all these memories and so the the highly advanced toltecs once they were able to recapitulate kind of release all those memories they're able to move past it we may be getting stuck into these heavens and hells that exist and are fed on by higher spirits according to carlos castaneda because we're stuck in our memories and we have these things come up and we get sucked back into the hell of earth or we can move on once we kind of let go of these things and focus beyond ourselves but i think there's two things that we can do that would allow us to live in heavens in a future after life that is confirmed by this material if you believe that it has some level of validity and that is to find love towards others and then when you do this when you move towards love of others that it will help you and also to go back over your memories and let these go you're going to have things that you've done in your darkest moments you need to become aware of them and you need to release them you need to be aware of them and come to a spiritual understanding of them so you can do these two things if you move towards love which is a movement towards affection for others if you are simply worried about yourself and only taking actions that help or benefit yourself then you're going to move back into a third density service to self planet which is essentially a hell essentially it's kind of close to what we're at now the earth is the third density planet and it could become service to others but it's very much service to self in many ways and according to the law of one material there are competing factions and if you become service to self just enough you will move into a higher density of hell so there are communities of hells that make sense and as neville goddard explains you enter a human body in the next life you live your life the same way so all of this is interesting not necessarily sure i believe all of it but i do believe what we're reading is fascinating words from somebody who wrote this in the 1700s and he was understanding something that is so far beyond what we would understand anybody would understand when looking in the afterlife but he's filtering it through that 1700 lens and it would be interesting we had a new modern-day swedenborg that came along and looked at it differently now the william blake material as a footnote does criticize swedenborg in a joking manner when he says in his discussion of heaven and hell when william blake says that swedenborg is only talking to the angels and he's not talking to the demons and we might know a lot more about what's really going on if he would talk to the demons that's the only thing that blake says so do i believe there are demons and angels i do believe there's different levels of beings but i do think we're locked into these biblical explanations often i do think that this is a lot more complicated and a lot more complex than what we understand but this is filtered through somebody that is deeply into the bible and describing these things in biblical terms and i don't know if it's real it's certainly a part of his imagination as neville also says there is no fiction so there it may be truth in this and there may be different afterlifes what about the afterlifes of other aliens how does that work so i do believe that this has some merit to it because it really is what we love now is what we're going to experience in our afternoon life so if you focus on love and true love and find that love and let go of your past and deal with it effectively then good things will happen and we can live a heavenly life now and we can enter into a heavenly existence when we incarnate into new bodies in the future so i'd love to get your interpretation of this text if you think it's ridiculous or you have any further information about swedenborg i would love to get it maybe there's something i haven't heard or maybe it turns out he's a complete wackadoo or racist who knows there i have done a little bit of research so i don't know but i thought i could share this with you all and as a community we can talk about this some more because i'd love to get your guys's perspective in any case i'm imagining heaven for everybody that's listening love you all so much and welcome to the reality revolution

Channel: Brian Scott

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Keywords: emanuel swedenborg, heaven and hell, emanuel swedenborg (author), cory bradford-watts, heaven & hell, swedenborg foundation, swedenborg and life, emanuel swedenborg heaven and hell, emanuel swedenborg off the left eye, emanuel swedenborg heaven, emanuel swedenborg beliefs, emanuel swedenborg youtube, a journey into the world of spirit, swedenborg what happens when you die, swedenborgianism, brian scott, reality revolution, what happens when we die?, off the left eye, afterlife

Id: 6SlODUNQ8nE

Length: 84min 56sec (5096 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 12 2021