More than perhaps any other seer of history, (Emanuel) Swedenborg details a life after death which consists of real experiences in a world in many basic ways quite similar to the natural world. Angels in heaven do not have an ethereal or ephemeral existence but enjoy an active life of service to others. They sleep and wake, love, breathe, eat, talk, read, work, recreate, and worship. They have a genuine life in a real spiritual body and world.
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"The angelic heaven is the end for which all things in the universe were created...The human race will never cease, for were it to cease, the Divine work would be limited to a certain number, and thus its looking to infinity would perish.
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"Heaven does not consist of angels created such to begin with, nor does hell come from any devil created an angel of light and cast down from heaven. Both heaven and hell are from mankind, heaven consisting of those in the love of good and consequent understanding of truth, and hell of those in the love of evil and consequent understanding of falsity...
"Hell and heaven are near to man, yea, in man. Hell [is] in an evil man, and heaven in a good man. Every one comes after death into that hell or into that heaven in which has been while in the world...
"Angels and spirits are entirely above or outside of nature, and are in their own world, which is under another sun. Since in that world spaces are appearances...angels and spirits cannot be said to be in the ether or in the stars. In fact, they are present with man, conjoined to the affection and thought of his spirit...The spiritual world is wherever man is, and in no wise away from him...
"His life in this world is wholly continued there, and is of the same quality as it had been in this world. This I can assert...for I have talked, after their decease, with almost all with whom I had been acquainted in the life of the body, and thus by living experience it has been given me to know what lot awaits every one, namely, a lot according to his life...
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"The first state of man after death resembles his state in the world, for he is then likewise in externals, having a like face, like speech, and a like disposition, thus a like moral and civil life...He is made aware that he is not still in the world only by giving attention to what he encounters, and from his having been told by the angels when he is resuscitated that he had become a spirit. Thus is one life continued into the other, and death is merely transition. This first state of man after death continues with some for days, with some for months, and with some for a year, but seldom with any one beyond a year.
"The second state of man after death is called the state of his interiors because he is then let into the interiors of his mind...[or] his will and thought. His exteriors, which he has been in during his first state, are laid asleep. When the spirit is in the state of his interiors it becomes clearly evident what the man was in himself when he was in the world, for at such times he acts from what is his own. He that had been in the world interiorly in good then acts rationally and wisely, and even more wisely than in the world, because he is released from connection with the body, and thus from those earthly things that caused obscurity and interposed, as it were, a cloud. But he that was evil in the world then acts foolishly and insanely, and even more insanely than in the world, because he is free and under no restraint.
"The third state of man after death...is a state of instruction. This state is for those who enter heaven and become angels...Good spirits...are lead from the second state into the third, which is the state of their preparation for heaven by means of instruction. One can be prepared for heaven only by means of knowledges of good and truth...since one can know what spiritual good and truth are...only by being taught. [This third state] is not for those who enter hell, because such are incapable of being taught, and therefore their second state is also their third, ending in...[being] wholly turned to their own love, thus to that infernal society which is in a like love.
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"Spirits...possess far more exquisite sensations than during the life of the body. I know...[this] by experience repeated thousands of times. Should any be unwilling to believe this, in consequence of their preconceived ideas concerning the nature of spirit, let them learn it by their own experience when they come into the other life, where it will compel them to believe...Spirits have sight, for they live in the light, and good spirits, angelic spirits, and angels, in a light so great that the noonday light of this world can hardly be compared to it...Spirits also have hearing, hearing so exquisite that the hearing of the body cannot be compared to it...They have also the sense of smell...They have the most exquisite sense of touch...They have desires and affections...
"Spirits think with much more clearness and distinctness than they had thought during their life in the body. There are more things contained within a single idea of their thought than in a thousand of the ideas they had possessed in this world. They speak together with so much acuteness, subtlety, sagacity, and distinctness, that if a man could perceive anything of it, it would excite his astonishment. In short, they possess everything that men possess, but in a more perfect manner, except the flesh and bones and the attendant imperfections. They acknowledge and perceive that even while they lived in the body it was the spirit that sensated, and that although the faculty of sensation manifiested itself in the body, still it was not of the body...When the body is cast aside, the sensations are far more exquisite and perfect...
"Man after death is as much a man as he was before, so much so as to be unaware that he is not still in the former world. He has sight, hearing and speech as in the former world. He walks, runs, and sits, as in the former world. He lies down, sleeps, and awakes, as in the former world. He eats and drinks as in the former world. He enjoys marriage delight as in the former world. In a word, he is a man in each and every respect...Death is not the extinction but the continuation of life...
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"In the heavens there is no inequality of age, nor of rank, nor of wealth. As respects age, all there are in the bloom of youth, and remain in it to eternity. As to station, all there regard others according to the uses they perform. The more eminent look upon those in lower station as brethern, and do not put the dignity above the excellence of the use...[And]...the Lord is father of all. As regards wealth...this is there the gift of attaining wisdom; according to this, riches are given to them in sufficiency.
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"Those that are in heaven are continually advancing towards the spring of life, with a greater advance towards a more joyful and happy spring the more thousands of years they live. This [goes on] to eternity, with increase according to the growth and degree of their love, charity, and faith. Women who have died old and worn out with age, if they have lived in faith in the Lord, in charity to the neighbor, and in happy marriage love with a husband, advance with the succession of years more and more into the flower of youth and early womanhood, and into a beauty that transcends every conception of any such beauty as is seen on the earth. Goodness and charity are what give this form and thus manifest their own likeness, causing the joy and beauty of charity to shine forth from every least particular of the face, and causing them to be the very forms of charity...In a word, to grow old in heaven is to grow young.
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"In heaven, as in the world, there are foods and drinks, there are festive meals and banquets. With the principal persons there are tables spread with sumptuous delicacies, with choice and delicious viands, werewith they are exhilarated and refreshed in spirit. There are also sports and exhibitions, and entertainments of music and song, and all these in the brightest perfection. Such things give them joys...
"There is a certain latent vein within the affection of the will of every angel which draws the mind on to do something. By this the mind tranquillizes and satisfies itself. This satisfaction and this tranquillity induce a state of mind receptive of the love and use from the Lord. And from the reception of this comes heavenly happiness, which is the life of their joys...Heavenly food in its essence is nothing else than love, wisdom, and use together...Wherefore, in heaven, food for the body is given to every one according to the use that he performs...
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"All who [go to heaven]...are prepared...in the wolrd of spirits, which is in the midst between heaven and hell. After a certain time [they] desire heaven with a ...longing, and presently their eyes are opened, and they see a way which leads to some society in heaven. They enter this way and ascend, and in the ascent there is a gate, and a keeper there. The keeper opens the gate, and thus they go in. Then an examiner meets them, who tells them from the governor, that they may enter in still further, and inquire whether there are any houses which they can recognize as their own, for there is a new house for every novitiate angel. If they find any, they give notice of it and remain there. But if they do not find any, they come back and say they have not seen any. Then they are examined by a certain wise one there, to discover whether the light that is in them agrees with the light of that society, and especially whether the heat does.
"The light of heaven in its essence is Divine truth, and the heat of heaven in its essence is Divine good, both proceeding from the Lord as the sun there. If any other light and any other heat than the light and heat of that society is in them, they are not received...They depart thence, and go in the ways which are opened among the societies in heaven, and this till they find a society which agrees with them in every respect with their affections, and here they take up their abode to eternity. They are here among their like, as among relations and friends whom, because they are in similar affection, they love from the heart...They are in the enjoyment of their life, and in a fullness of bosom delight derived from peace of soul. There is in the heat and light of heaven an ineffable delight, which is communicated. Such is the case with those who become angels...
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"As heaven is from the human race...angels, therefore, are of both sexes. From creation woman is for man and man is for woman, thus the one belongs to the other, and this love is innate in both. A man is a man after death and a woman is a woman...These two are so created that they urgently strive...for such conjunction that they may become one...As this conjunctive inclination is inscribed upon all things, and upon every single thing of the male and of the female, it follows that this inclination cannot be obliterated and die with the body. There are marriages in heaven as well as on earth. But marriages in heaven differ widely from marriages on the earth.
"Those that have regarded adulteries as abominable, and have lived in a chaste love of marriage, are more than all others in the order and form of heaven, and therefore in all beauty, and continue increasingly in the flower of youth. The delights of their love are ineffable, and increase to eternity.
"Seperations [of pairs married on earth] take place after death because conjunctions formed on earth are seldom formed from any internal perception of love, but from an external perception which hides the internal. An external perception of love has its cause and origin from such things as pertain to the love of the world and of the body. Wealth and large possessions especially are of the love of the world. Dignities and honors are of the love of the body. Besides these there are various seductive allurements, such as beauty, and a simulated propriety of manners, sometimes also unchastity. Moreover, marriages are contracted within the district, city, or village of one's birth or abode, where there is no choice but such as is restricted and limited to the families that are known, and within these limits, to such as are of corresponding station. It is for these reasons that marriages entered into in the world are for the most part external, and not at the same time internal.
"Yet internal conjunction which is that of souls constitutes marriage itself. This conjunction is not perceivable until a man puts off the external and puts on the internal, which he does after death. Hence...seperations then take place, and afterwards new conjunctions with those who are similar and homogeneous, unless these had been provided on earth, as they are in the case of those who from early youth...loved and desired and asked of the Lord a legitimate and lovely companionship with one, and...spurned and detested wandering lusts as an offense to their nostrils...
"Two married partners are not called two but one angel...
"Married partners enjoy similar intercourse with each other as in the world, only more delightful and blessed, but without prolification. In place of it, they have spiritual prolification, which is of love and wisdom...
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"Heavenly joy...is the delight of doing something that is useful to ourselves and to others...
"Some think that heaven consists in a life of ease, in which they are served by others. But...there is no possible happiness in being at rest as a means of happiness, for so every one would wish to have the happiness of others made tributory to his own happiness. When every one wishes this, no one would have happiness. Such a life would not be an active life, but an idle one, in which they would grow torpid...
"The angels know no greater happiness than in teaching and instructing the spirits that arrive from the world. [They delight] in being of service to men, controlling the evil spirits about them lest they pass the proper bounds and inspiring the men with good, and in raising up the dead to the life of eternity...From all this they perceive more happiness than can possibly be described...
"There are in heaven more functions and services and occupations than can be enumerated. In the world there are few in comparison...
"In heaven...employment or occupation corresponding to...use is in much the same condition of life as...in the world...
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"Heaven in itself is so full of delights that viewed in itself it is nothing else than blessedness and delight.
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"In ancient times the number [entering heaven] was very great, because men then thought more interiorly and spiritually, and from such thought were in heavenly affection. In the following ages not so many [entered heaven] because in the process of time man became more external and began to think more naturally, and from such thought to be an earthly affection...
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"The immensity of the heaven of the Lord is shown also by this, that all children, whether born within the church or our of it, are adopted by the Lord and become angels. The number of these amounts to a fourth or fifth part of the whole human race on the earth. Every child, wherever born, whether within the church or out of it, whether of pious or impious parents, is received by the Lord when it dies, and is brought up in heaven, and is taught and imbued with affections for good, and through these with knowledges of truth, in accordance with Divine order. As he becomes perfected in intelligence and wisdom [he] is brought into heaven and becomes an angel...
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"Again, how immense the heaven of the Lord is can be seen from this, that all the planets visible to the eye in our solar system are earths, and moreover, that in the whole universe there are innumerable earths, all of them full of inhabitants...
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"In hell as in heaven, there is a form of government...There is a rule, and there is subordination, without which society would have no coherence. But the subordinations in heaven are totally different from the subordiantions in hell. In heaven all are like equals, for one loves another as brother loves brother. Nevertheless one sets another before himself in proportion as he excels in intelligence and wisdom. The very love of good and truth causes every one, as it were of himself, to subordinate himself to those who are superior to him in the wisdom of good and the intelligence of truth. But...subordinations in hell are those of despotic authority, and consequently of severity. He who commands, rages fiercely against those who do not favor all his commands. Everyone regards another as his enemy, although outwardly as a friend, for the sake of banding together against the violence of others. This banding together is like that of robbers. They who are subordinate continually aspire to rule, and also frequently break forth in revolt, and then the conditions there are lamentable...
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"...to receive the life of heaven a man must...live in the world and engage in its business and employments, and by means of a moral and civil life...receive the spiritual life."
The Essential Swedenborg (1688-1772)
edited and with comment by Sis Synnestvedt
(c)1970 by Twayne Publishers, Inc.
(c)1977 by Swedenborg Foundation, Inc.
New York, N.Y.