1. I. THE WORLDS IN SPACE

By the Lord's Divine mercy I have had my interior faculties, which belong to my spirit, opened, so that I have been enabled to talk with spirits and angels, not only those in the vicinity of our earth, but also with those near other worlds. Since therefore I was desirous of knowing whether there were other inhabited worlds, and what they and their inhabitants were like, I was allowed by the Lord to talk and mix with spirits and angels from other worlds. With some this lasted a day, with others a week, with yet others for months. I was informed by them about the worlds they came from and in the vicinity of which they were, about the life, behaviour and religious practices of their inhabitants, and other matters worth relating about them. Since I was allowed to gain my knowledge in this fashion, I can describe them from what I have heard and seen.

[2] It needs to be known that all spirits and angels are from the human race; ¹ they are near their own world, ² and know what happens there; and they can inform someone whose interior faculties are open sufficiently to be able to talk and mix with them. A human being is in essence a spirit, ³ and associates with spirits at the interior level. ⁴ Consequently anyone whose interior faculties are opened by the Lord can talk with them, exactly as a man can with another man. ⁵ I have been permitted to do this daily for the last twelve years.

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4623. But it should be recognized that with spirits the life of their senses is of two different kinds - that which is real and that which is not real. One is distinguished from the other by the fact that everything seen by those in heaven is real, whereas everything seen by those in hell is not real. Whatever comes from the Divine, that is, from the Lord, is real since it comes from the Essential Being (Esse) itself within things and from self-existent Life; but whatever comes from a spirit's proprium is not real since it does not come from the Essential Being (Esse) within things nor from self-existent Life. Those who have an affection for goodness and truth have the Lord's life, and so the life that is real, within themselves; for the Lord is present within goodness and truth through the affection for these. But those who are governed by evil and falsity through their affection for these have the life of the proprium within them and so the life that is not real; for the Lord is not present within evil and falsity. The real is distinguishable from that which is not real by this - that the real is in actual fact what it appears to be, whereas that which is not real is not in actual fact what it appears to be.

[2] Those in hell have the five senses no less than anyone else, and are not aware of things being in reality or in actual fact anything other than what they perceive them to be with their senses. Yet when the angels look at the selfsame things these look to them like phantoms which then disappear, while the spirits themselves do not look like human beings but like monsters. I have also been allowed to talk to those in hell about this matter, and certain of them have said that they believe things are real when they can see and touch them, adding that the senses cannot mislead one. But I have been led to reply that no matter how real such things were seen to be by those spirits they were not real because those spirits themselves were governed by what was contrary or opposed to the Divine, that is to say, by evils and falsities. Furthermore, insofar as evil desires and false notions existed with those spirits, every thought they had was nothing else than an illusion. And when illusions lie behind one's view of anything, one sees real things as those which are not real, and those which are not real as those which are real. Also, unless the Lord in His Divine mercy gave them the use of the five senses they would not have any life that depends on sensory experience, nor therefore any life at all; for the whole of life involves the use of the senses. But to include every experience I have had in these matters would fill up very many pages.

[3] Let people therefore be on their guard when they enter the next life, so that they are not deceived; for evil spirits know all kinds of ways to deceive the eyes of those recently arrived there from the world. Or if they are unable to delude them, those evil spirits nevertheless try by means of their deceptions to convince recent arrivals that nothing is real but that all things, including those in heaven, are no more than mental abstractions.

2379. 'And brought Lot into the house to them' means that the Lord affords protection to those with whom the good of charity is present. This is clear from the representation of 'Lot' as those with whom the good of charity is present, dealt with above, and from the meaning of 'bringing into the house to them' as affording protection. 'Being brought into the house' means being brought into good; and those who are brought into good are brought into heaven; and those who are brought into heaven are brought to the Lord and are consequently protected against every assault on their souls. As to his soul, anyone with whom good is present is in communion with angels; and so while living in the body he is nevertheless in heaven, though he is not directly conscious of it and is unable to perceive angelic joy because he is engrossed in bodily things and undergoing preparation [for heaven], see 1277.