Vision is the innermost revelation, which is of perception. Visions are according to the state of humankind. The visions of people whose interiors are closed, are totally different from what is shown to people whose interiors are open. For example, when the Lord appeared to the whole congregation on Mount Sinai, His appearance was a vision varying according to the states of the witnesses, appearing differently to the people than for Aaron, and differently from Aaron as to Moses. So also, the vision was totally different as exhibited to Moses and to the prophets. There are several kinds of visions, and they are more perfect, in proportion to how interior a person is. For the Lord it was the most perfect, because He had a perception of everything in the world of spirits, and in the heavens, and had immediate communication with Jehovah. This communication is described in the internal sense by 'the vision' in which Jehovah appeared to Abram in Genesis 15:1.

'Vision' in Zechariah 13:4 signifies falsities.

(参照: Arcana Coelestia 1786)

308. There is also a union of heaven through the Word with people who are outside the church, where the Word is not found; for the Lord's church is everywhere and exists with everyone who acknowledges something divine and lives considerately. People like this are taught by angels after their decease and accept divine truths. ¹ There will be more on this below in its proper chapter, where we discuss non-Christians.

In the Lord's sight, the universal church on earth is like a single individual just as heaven is (as noted above in 59-72). However, the church where the Word is and the Lord is known through it is like the heart and lungs of that person. It is common knowledge that the viscera and members of the whole body get their life from the heart and lungs by various routes. So too the human race that is outside the church where the Word is gets its life in the same way and constitutes the members of that person. Heaven's union through the Word with people who are at a distance can be compared to light that spreads in all directions from a center. The divine light is in the Word, and the Lord is present there with his heaven. People who are far off also receive light from that presence. It would be different if there were no Word, which can be more fully understood by reference to what has been presented above about the form of heaven that determines its gatherings and communications.

Still, this arcanum is understandable to people who are in spiritual light but not to people who are only in natural light. People who are in spiritual light, that is, see quite clearly countless things that people who are in natural light alone either do not see at all or see only as a single vague entity.

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