[AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTORY NOTE]

The HEAVENLY ARCANA - the matters in Sacred Scripture or the Word of the Lord that have been disclosed - stand in explanatory sections entitled THE INTERNAL SENSE OF THE WORD. As for the nature of that sense, see what has been presented on the subject from experience in 1767-1777, 1869-1879, and in addition in the main body of the work, in 1-5, 64-66, 167, 605, 920, 937, 1143, 1224, 1404, 1405, 1408, 1409, 1502 end, 1540, 1659, 1756, 1783, 1807.

The MARVELS -- things seen in the world of spirits and in the angelic heaven - have been placed in sections before and after each chapter. In this first volume the sections are:

1. Man's awakening from the dead and his entry into eternal life, 168-181.

2. The entry into eternal life of one who has been so awakened, 182-189.

3. Man's entry into eternal life - continued, 314-319.

4. The nature of the life of a soul or spirit at that time, 320-327.

5. Some examples of what certain spirits had thought during their lifetime about the soul or spirit, 443-448.

6. Heaven and heavenly joy, 449-459.

7. Heaven and heavenly joy - continued, 537-546.

8. Heaven and heavenly joy - continued, 547-553.

9. The communities that constitute heaven, 684-691.

10. Hell, 692-700.

11. The hells of people who have gone through life hating, desiring revenge, and being cruel, 814-823.

12. The hells of people who have gone through life committing adultery and acts of unrestrained lust; also the hells of deceivers and witches, 824-871.

13. The hells of the avaricious; then the filthy Jerusalem and the robbers in the desert. Also the utterly foul hells of people who have lived wholly engrossed in the pursuit of pleasures, 938-946.

14. Other hells that are different from those mentioned already, 947-970.

15. Vastations, 1106-1113.

[NCBSP editor's note: The table of contents for Volume 2 of this translation may be found in section 1114.]

320. CHAPTER 4

THE NATURE OF THE LIFE OF A SOUL OR SPIRIT

As regards, in general, the life of souls, that is, of people who have recently died and become spirits, much experience has made it clear to me that when a person enters the next life he is not aware of being in that life. He imagines that he is still in the world, indeed that he is still within his physical body, insomuch that when he is told he is a spirit he is absolutely dumbfounded. He is dumbfounded because, for one thing, he is still in every way a man as regards sensations, desires, and thoughts, and for another, he did not during his lifetime believe in the existence of the spirit, or as is the case with some, that the spirit could possibly be such as his experience now proves.

1224. From these considerations it is clear what these names mean in the internal sense, namely that the Ancient Church, which was an internal Church, was endowed with wisdom, intelligence, knowledge, and cognitions of truth and good. Such things are contained in the internal sense even though merely names occur from which nothing is seen in the literal sense, apart from these being just so many origins, or fathers of nations, and so nothing of a doctrinal nature is seen, still less anything spiritual and celestial. The same applies in the Prophets where lists of names are sometimes given which in the internal sense mean real things following one after another in a lovely order.