168. XIV. THE FIFTH WORLD IN THE STARRY SKY, ITS SPIRITS AND INHABITANTS

On another occasion I was taken to yet another world in space outside the solar system. The journey was by means of changes of state lasting for nearly twelve hours without a break. I was accompanied by a number of spirits and angels from our world, with whom I conversed as we progressed on our journey. I travelled at one time obliquely upwards, at another obliquely downwards, but constantly towards the right, which in the next life is towards the south. In only two places did I see any spirits, and in one I spoke with them. This progress or journey allowed me to observe how immense in the Lord's heaven for angels and spirits. The uninhabited regions allowed me to deduce that it is so immense that, if there were many tens of thousands of worlds, each containing as large a population of human beings as ours, there would still be room enough for them to live for ever without filling it up. I reached this conclusion by comparing it with the extent of the heaven surrounding our world and designed for it, which was so small in comparison that it would not equal one hundred millionth part of the uninhabited space.