[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.]

443. SOME EXAMPLES OF WHAT CERTAIN SPIRITS HAD THOUGHT DURING THEIR LIFETIME ABOUT THE SOUL OR SPIRIT

In the next life one is enabled to have a clear perception of the opinions which people have held during their lifetime about the soul, about the spirit, and about life after death; for when they are kept in a state as though they were still in the body their thought is similar to what it had been in the body. And such thought is communicated just as plainly as if they uttered it aloud. On one occasion I perceived from someone who had departed the earthly life only a little while before that - as he himself admitted - he had indeed believed in the existence of the spirit, but that as a spirit he would be leading a shadowy existence. His reason far believing this was that if the life of the body were withdrawn nothing would be left apart from something shadowy. Indeed he focused life in the body; consequently his idea of the spirit was of a phantom. And he confirmed this idea in himself from seeing that animals also possessed life that was virtually the same as human beings. Now however he was amazed to see that spirits and angels dwelt in the greatest light, and in the greatest intelligence, wisdom, and happiness, accompanied by perception such as almost defied description. So their life is very far from being shadowy, but is bright and very clearly discernible.