A Spiritual and A Natural World with Man

Selection from Heaven and Hell ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
There is a correspondence of all things of heaven with all things of man

At the present day it is not known what correspondence is. There are several reasons for this. The chief one is that man has withdrawn himself from heaven by the love of self and the world. For he who loves himself and the world above all things regards only worldly things because they are pleasing to the external senses and gratify his inclination, and he does not regard spiritual things because they are pleasing to the internal senses and gratify the mind. Therefore he casts these aside, saying that they are too high to think about. The case was different with the ancient peoples. To them the knowledge of correspondences was the chief of all knowledges. By means of it they also derived intelligence and wisdom, and, by means of it, those who were of the Church had communication with heaven, for the knowledge of correspondence is an angelic knowledge. The most ancient people, who were celestial men, thought from correspondence itself, like the angels. So they also spoke with angels, and so the Lord was frequently seen by them and instructed them. But at the present day, that knowledge has been so completely lost that it is not known what correspondence is.

Since, then, without a perception of what correspondence is, it is impossible for anything to be known clearly about the spiritual world, or of its influx into the natural world, or even of what the spiritual is in relation to the natural, or anything with clearness about the spirit of man which is called the soul and of its operation into the body, or yet of the state of man after death, it is necessary, therefore, to explain what correspondence is and what is its nature. So also is the way prepared for what is to follow.

First, it will be stated what correspondence is. The whole natural world corresponds to the spiritual world, not only the natural world in general but also in every particular. Therefore, whatever in the natural world comes into existence from the spiritual world is said to be in correspondence with it. It must be known that the natural world comes into existence and continues in existence from the spiritual world, precisely like an effect from its effecting cause. By the natural world is meant everything in its whole extent that is under the sun, receiving heat and light from it; and all things that continue in existence therefrom belong to that world. But the spiritual world is heaven, and all things in the heavens belong to that world.

Since man is both a heaven and a world in least form after the image of the greatest: —

... man has been created that he may come into heaven and become an angel. Consequently, he who has good from the Lord is an angel-man.

It may be mentioned what a man has in common with an angel and what he has in addition to what angels have.

A man has this in common with an angel, that his interiors are equally conformed to the image of heaven and that he, too, in so far as he is in the good of love and faith, may become an image of heaven. In addition to what angels have, a man has these things, that his exteriors have been formed according to the image of the world, that so far as he is in good, the world with him is subordinated to heaven and serves heaven, and that then the Lord is present with him in both worlds, just as if he were in his heaven. For the Lord is in His Divine order in both worlds, since God is order. ( n. 57)

... there is, therefore, with man both a spiritual and a natural world. Interior things which belong to his mind and relate to the understanding and the will, make his spiritual world, while exterior things which belong to his body and relate to its senses and actions make his natural world. Consequently, whatever in his natural world, that is, in his body and its senses and actions, comes into existence from his spiritual world, that is, from his mind and its understanding and will, is said to be a correspondence thereof.

What correspondence is, may be seen from the human face. In a face which has not been taught to dissemble, all the affections of the mind come to view in a natural form as in their image. This is why the face is said to be the index of the mind; that is, it is man's spiritual world presented in his natural world. In the same way, the things pertaining to the understanding present themselves in speech, and those pertaining to the will present themselves in the movements of the body. All things, therefore, that are done in the body, whether in the face, in speech or in bodily movements, are called correspondences.

From these observations may also be seen what the internal man is and what the external man. Namely, the internal is what is called the spiritual man, and the external, what is called the natural man; also that the one is distinct from the other as heaven is from the world; and further, that all things that take place and come into existence in the external or natural man, take place and come into existence from the internal or spiritual.

(from Heaven and Hell 87-92)

The States of Men After Death

Selection from a Memorable Relation in True Christian Religion ~ Emanuel Swedenborg
What the States are of Those Who Have Lived Well
and of
Those Who Have Lived Wickedly

Some things respecting the state of those who have confirmed themselves in falsities of doctrine from the Word, and especially those who have done this in support of justification by faith alone. The successive states of such are as follows: —

(1) After death and when they are reviving in spirit, which usually takes place on the third day after the heart has ceased to beat, they seem to themselves to be in a body so like that which they had in the world that they do not know but that they are still living in the former world, yet not in a material body, but in a body that is substantial and that appears to their senses to be material; but it is not.

(2) After some days, they see that they are in a world where various societies are formed, which world is called the world of spirits, and is intermediate between heaven and hell. All the societies there, and they are innumerable, are wonderfully arranged in accordance with good and evil natural affections; the societies arranged in accordance with good natural affections communicating with heaven, and those arranged in accordance with evil affections communicating with hell.

(3) The novitiate spirit or spiritual man is conducted and transferred into various societies, both good and evil, and is examined as to whether he is affected by what is good and true, and how, or by what is evil and false, and how.

(4) If be is affected by what is good and true, he is led away from evil societies, and is led into good societies, and into different ones until he comes into a society that is in correspondence with his natural affection, and there he enjoys the good that corresponds to that affection, and this until he has put off his natural affection and put on a spiritual affection, and then he is raised into heaven. This takes place with those who in the world had lived a life of charity, and thus a life of faith also, which is believing in the Lord and shunning evils as sins.

(5) But those who have confirmed themselves in falsities by means of reasonings, especially by means of the Word, and so have lived a merely natural and thus an evil life (for evils accompany falsities and adhere to falsities), inasmuch as they are not affected by what is good and true, but by what is evil and false, are led away from good societies and into evil societies and into different ones, until they come into some society corresponding to the lusts of their love.

(6) But because these in the world had feigned good affections in externals, although in their internals there were only evil affections or lusts, they are kept by turns in their [good] externals. Those who in the world had presided over communities, are appointed over societies here and there in the world of spirits, either over a whole society or a part according to the extent of the offices they had filled in their former life. But as they have no love for what is true or what is just, and cannot be so far enlightened as to know what is true and just, after a few days they are deposed. I have seen such transferred from one society to another, and official authority everywhere given them, but always taken away after a short time.

(7) After frequent dismissals, some from weariness do not wish, and some from fear of losing their reputation do not dare, to seek office any more; and therefore they withdraw and sit in sadness and afterwards are led away into a desert, where there are huts into which they enter, and there some work is given them to do, and as they do it they receive food. If they do not do it, when they become hungry they receive no food and are thus compelled by necessity. The food there is similar to the food in our world, but is from a spiritual origin, and is given from heaven by the Lord to all according to the uses they perform. To the idle none is given because they are useless.

(8) After a while they become disgusted with work and leave their huts. If they had been priests they wish to build; and immediately heaps of cut stone, bricks, beams, and boards appear, also piles of reeds and rushes, of clay, lime, and bitumen. When they see these a strong desire to build is kindled in them, and they begin to construct a house, taking now a stone, and then a stick, then a reed and then some mud, and placing one upon the other without order, but to their sight in regular order. But what they build during the day falls down at night; and the next day they gather up the material from the rubbish and build again; and this goes on until they grow tired of building. This takes place from correspondence. The correspondence is that they have heaped up texts from the Word to prove what is false in faith, and their falsities do not otherwise build the church.

(9) Afterward from weariness they go away and sit solitary and idle; and as no food is given from heaven to the idle, as before said, they begin to grow hungry, and to think of nothing but how to get food and satisfy their hunger. While they are in this state persons come to them from whom they ask alms; but these say, "Why do you sit here idle? Come home with us, and we will give you work to do and will feed you." Then they rise up gladly and go home with them, and each one is there given his own task, and for doing it he receives food. But since none of those who have confirmed themselves in the falsities of faith are able to do works that have a good use, but are able to do only such works as have an evil use, and are unable to do these faithfully, but only fraudulently and also unwillingly, they abandon their work, caring only to visit, talk, walk about, and sleep. And as they can no longer be induced by their masters to work they are dismissed as useless.

(10) When they have been dismissed their eyes are opened and they see a road leading to a certain cavern. When they come to it a door is opened and they enter and ask if there is food there; and when told that there is they beg permission to remain there, and they are told that they may, and are introduced and the door is closed behind them. The overseer of the cavern then comes and says to them, "You can go out no more; you see your companions; they all labor, and according to their labor food is given them from heaven; I tell you this, that you may know." Their companions also say to them, "Our overseer knows for what work each one is fitted, and assigns such work to each one daily. The days you do this work, food is given you, and if you do not do it, neither food nor clothing is given. If anyone does harm to another, he is thrown into a corner of the cavern upon a bed made of accursed dust, where he is sorely tortured, and this until the overseer sees in him some sign of repentance, and then he is released and is ordered to do his work."

He is also told that everyone, after his task is done, is permitted to walk about, to talk, and afterward to sleep. And he is conducted further into the cavern where there are harlots, and each one is allowed to select one of these, and to call her his woman; but promiscuous harlotry is forbidden with penalties. Of such caverns, which are nothing but eternal workhouses, hell consists. I was permitted to enter into and see some of them, in order that I might make the facts known. All who were there seemed degraded; not one of them knew who he had been or what his employment had been in the world. But the angel who was with me said to me, "This man was in the world a servant, this a soldier, this a general; this was a priest; this a man of rank, and this a man of wealth, and yet not one of them knows but that they had been, then as now, slaves and boon companions. This is because they had been inwardly alike, although outwardly unlike, and all in the spiritual world are affiliated according to their interiors."

In regard to the hells in general, they consist solely of such caverns and work-houses; but those where satans are differ from those where devils are. Those are called satans who had been in falsities and consequently in evils; and they are called devils who had been in evils and consequently in falsities. Satans in the light of heaven appear livid like corpses, and some black like mummies; but devils in the light of heaven appear dusky and fiery, and some black like soot; while in features and bodily form they are all monstrous. But in their own light, which is like the light of burning charcoal, they do not look like monsters but like men. This is granted to render them capable of association.

(from True Christian Religion 281)

The Interaction of the Soul with the Body

Selection from Emanuel Swedenborg's Spiritual Diary
CONCERNING THE INTERACTION OF THE SOUL WITH THE BODY

Nothing can be known concerning the interaction of the soul, unless it is known what the soul is. It is impossible to speak of the interaction of something known, as is the body, with a thing entirely unknown as to all its quality. Who, at this day, knows anything as to what the soul is? Do not some regard it as a flaming something? some as an ethereal something? others a thinking something, [existing] in some such way as in a subject? others as a pure thinking something, without a substantial form by which [to exist]? What manner of opinion is held concerning the soul, is plainly manifest from this, that they assign it a seat in some part of the body: some in the heart, some in some part of the head, in the corpus striatum in the stomach, in the striated substance, yea, in the little pineal gland! Yea, indeed, from this it is plain, that, at this day, it is entirely unknown what the soul is, since [men] believe that, after death, it remains indeed, but is kept in a certain somewhere (Pu) till the judgment-day. If it should be asked whether it has any form, it is feared to reply thereto consequently, [they believe], also, that it has no quality.

Since, therefore, the soul is such an unknown thing, it is not wonderful that there cannot be known anything concerning its state, and concerning influx, and concerning interaction - as it is called.

As respects the soul, concerning which it is said that it lives after death, it is no other than the man himself, who lives in the body, thus the purer part of the man, which is conjoined with the body, so that, by means of the body, it may perform the functions it ought, in the world. From this the body lives. This, after death, is called a spirit. It likewise appears, then, entirely in a human form; it has the senses, to wit, touch, smell, sight, and hearing, much more exquisitely than in the world. It has appetites, cravings, desires, affections, loves, similar to those which [it had] in the world, but in a less coarse state. It then thinks, as in the world, but more clearly; speaks with others, and is in society; and, this being the case, if [the spirit] does not reflect upon the fact that he is in another life, he knows no otherwise than that he is in the world - as I have heard on several occasions. This is the soul of man; and, because that is the interior man, to whose service was formed the body, which, in the world, is supposed to be, and is called, the man, the interiors of this, also, relate to man, as may be evident from the angels. These are in interiors, and appear in like manner as men do, which is also known from the Word, when they appeared to men. Thence at least, it is evident, that the angelic form is the human form.

The reason that souls appear in the human form, is, because the universal heaven does not conspire to another form, and because, in heaven, the case is such, that the universal heaven acts into the least particulars there, and the least particulars into the universal [heaven]; hence it can never be otherwise than that everyone there, whether angel or spirit, is in the form of a man.

From these things it is now plain what the soul is; and, inasmuch as, respecting the quality of the soul, and what it is, man is entirely ignorant in his thought, it is preferable that it should not be named soul, but, instead thereof, spirit, since this is the soul of man which lives after death; or, if you prefer, instead of spirit, let it be called the interior man; for it is the man himself, which lives. That the matter is so circumstanced, I ought to know thoroughly, from an eight to nine years almost constant association with spirits and angels

(from Spiritual Diary 4616-4618)