5130. 'But remember me' means the reception of faith. This is clear from the representation of 'Joseph', who says this about himself, as the Lord as regards the celestial within the natural, dealt with in 5086, 5087, 5106; and from the meaning of 'remember me' as the reception of faith, for remembering and being mindful of the Lord do not flow from anything other than faith. Consequently 'remember me' implies a desire to receive faith. As regards faith, anyone who receives and possesses faith is constantly mindful of the Lord. This is so even when he is thinking or talking about something other than Him, or else when he is carrying out his public, private, or family duties, though he is not directly conscious of his mindfulness of the Lord while he is carrying them out. Indeed that mindfulness of the Lord present in those who possess faith governs their whole being, but that which governs their whole being is not noticed by them except when they turn their thought specifically to that matter.

[2] This may be illustrated by many aspects of human character. One who is governed by some love, whatever this may be, is thinking constantly about things connected with that love. This is so even when other matters occupy his mind, conversation, or action. This is quite evident in the next life from the spiritual spheres which surround everyone individually. From those spheres alone one can detect what the faith is and what the love is that are present in all who are there, even though they may be thinking or talking about something completely different, 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1520, 2489, 4464. For that which governs a person's whole being produces the sphere surrounding him and reveals to others what his life is. From this one may see what is meant by the statement that one ought to be thinking constantly about the Lord, salvation, and life after death. All who possess faith that is grounded in charity do so, as a consequence of which they do not entertain evil thoughts regarding their neighbour, and that which is just and fair is present in every aspect of their thought, speech, and action; for that which governs the person's whole being enters every particular aspect of it, both leading it and controlling it. Indeed the Lord holds the mind to those concerns that are charitable and are therefore matters of faith, and in so doing He fits every single thing in the mind into its proper place. The sphere of faith grounded in charity is the sphere which reigns in heaven, for the Lord flows in with love, and by means of love with charity, and as a consequence with truths which are the truths of faith. This explains why those in heaven are said to be in the Lord. The subject in what follows next is the rebirth of the sensory power subject to the understanding part represented by 'the cupbearer'; and as the rebirth of this is the subject, so also is the reception of faith. Indeed sensory awareness, like the rational, is born again by means of faith, but by faith into which charity is flowing. Unless charity flows into faith and imparts life to it, faith cannot possibly exist throughout a person's whole being, for it is what a person loves that reigns in him, not what he merely knows and retains in his memory.

4464. 'Only on this [condition] will we consent to you: If you will be as we are' means acceptance of their semblance of religion. This is clear from the meaning of 'consenting' as acceptance, and from the meaning of 'being as they are' as being interested only in external things and not in internal ones, for they would in that case have been as they were, see just above in 4459. There it was shown - in 4459 - what an interest only in external things is and what an interest in internal ones is. Here the reason why a person ought to be interested in internal ones is going to be stated. Anyone who reflects may see that man has communication with heaven by means of internal things, for the whole of heaven dwells within internal things. Unless a person is in heaven as regards his thoughts and affections, that is, as regards the thoughts in his understanding and the affections in his will, he cannot go to heaven after death, since he has no communication with it at all. During his lifetime a person secures that communication by means of truths in his understanding and goods in his will, and unless he secures it then he cannot do so subsequently, since his mind cannot be opened after death to interior things if it has not been opened to them during his lifetime.

[2] Man is not immediately conscious of the fact that a spiritual sphere surrounds him, the nature of which is determined by the life of his affections. That sphere the angels are able to perceive more clearly than any aroma reaching the keenest sense of smell in the world. If in his life he has been interested only in external things, that is to say, in the pleasures that are gained from hatred against the neighbour, from consequent revenge and cruelty, from committing adultery, from self-aggrandizement and consequent contempt for others, from unseen acts of robbery, from avarice, from deceit, and from luxuriousness, and other vices like these, the spiritual sphere which surrounds him is as offensive as the aroma in the world coming from dead bodies, dung, stinking refuse, and other things such as these. Anyone who has been leading a life like this takes that sphere with him after death; and being entirely surrounded by that sphere he cannot exist anywhere else than in hell where such spheres belong. Concerning spheres in the next life and their origins, see 1048, 1053, 1316, 1504-1519, 1695, 2401, 2489.

[3] People however who are interested in internal things - that is to say, who have taken delight in expressing good-will and charity towards the neighbour, and most of all who have found blessedness in love to the Lord - have a pleasing and lovely sphere surrounding them, which is the heavenly sphere itself; and for that reason they are in heaven. All the spheres which are perceived in the next life have their origin in the loves and in the affections deriving from those loves which have governed them. Such spheres have their origins as a consequence in their life, for their loves and affections derived from these loves constitute their life itself. And because they have their origins in their loves and affections derived from these they have their origins in the intentions and the ends in view which cause a person to will and to act in the way he does. For everyone has as his end in view that which he loves, and therefore a person's ends determine what his life is and constitute the essential nature of it; and this is the main source of the sphere around him. That sphere is perceived most perfectly in heaven the reason being that the sphere emanating from ends in view exists throughout the whole of heaven. These considerations show what someone is like whose interest is in internal things and what someone is like whose interest is in external ones, and why a person ought not to be interested only in external things but to be interested in internal ones also.

[4] But someone who is interested only in external things pays no attention to internal ones - no matter how skillful he may be in the conduct of public affairs and no matter how great a reputation he has earned for being learned - because he is the kind of person who does not believe in the existence of anything which he does not see with his eyes or feel by touch, and therefore does not believe in heaven or in hell. And if he were told that he was going to enter the next life immediately after death, where he will see, hear, speak, and enjoy a sense of touch more perfectly than when in the body he would reject it as an absurdity or sheer fantasy, when in actual fact that happens to be the truth. His reaction would be the same if anyone were to tell him that the soul or spirit which lives after death is the real person and not the body which he carries around in the world.

[5] From this it follows that those who are interested only in external things pay no attention at all to what is said concerning internal things, when yet it is these that make people blessed and happy in the kingdom which they are going to enter and in which they are going to live for ever. Such unbelief is present in most Christians, as I have been allowed to know from those to whom I have spoken who have entered the next life from the Christian world. For in the next life they are not able to conceal what they have thought since thoughts are laid completely bare there; nor are they able to conceal what ends they have had in view, that is, what they have loved, for this reveals itself through the sphere surrounding them.