26. In order that I should know that all people who have been born from the beginning of creation, and have died, are in heaven or in hell, I have been permitted to speak with some who lived before the flood, with some who lived after the flood; with some of the Jews who are known from the Word of the Old Testament; with some who lived in the Lord's time, with many who lived in the following centuries up to the present; and in addition with all whom I had known in bodily life and had since died. I have also talked with children, and with many from non-Christian peoples. This experience has fully convinced me that there is not a single person who was ever born a human being from the earliest time of this planet's creation who is not in heaven or in hell.

6118. 'Saying, Give us bread' means a plea for the sustainment of spiritual life. This is clear from the meaning of 'giving', when it has reference to 'bread', as sustaining; and from the meaning of 'bread' as spiritual life. In a specific sense 'bread' means the good of love and charity; but in a general sense it means spiritual life, for in this case bread is used to mean all food, as shown in 2165. When used to mean all food in general, it is spiritual life; for in the spiritual sense food in general is all the good of love and all the truth of faith. These two are what compose spiritual life.