[AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTORY NOTE]

The HEAVENLY ARCANA - the matters in Sacred Scripture or the Word of the Lord that have been disclosed - stand in explanatory sections entitled THE INTERNAL SENSE OF THE WORD. As for the nature of that sense, see what has been presented on the subject from experience in 1767-1777, 1869-1879, and in addition in the main body of the work, in 1-5, 64-66, 167, 605, 920, 937, 1143, 1224, 1404, 1405, 1408, 1409, 1502 end, 1540, 1659, 1756, 1783, 1807.

The MARVELS -- things seen in the world of spirits and in the angelic heaven - have been placed in sections before and after each chapter. In this first volume the sections are:

1. Man's awakening from the dead and his entry into eternal life, 168-181.

2. The entry into eternal life of one who has been so awakened, 182-189.

3. Man's entry into eternal life - continued, 314-319.

4. The nature of the life of a soul or spirit at that time, 320-327.

5. Some examples of what certain spirits had thought during their lifetime about the soul or spirit, 443-448.

6. Heaven and heavenly joy, 449-459.

7. Heaven and heavenly joy - continued, 537-546.

8. Heaven and heavenly joy - continued, 547-553.

9. The communities that constitute heaven, 684-691.

10. Hell, 692-700.

11. The hells of people who have gone through life hating, desiring revenge, and being cruel, 814-823.

12. The hells of people who have gone through life committing adultery and acts of unrestrained lust; also the hells of deceivers and witches, 824-871.

13. The hells of the avaricious; then the filthy Jerusalem and the robbers in the desert. Also the utterly foul hells of people who have lived wholly engrossed in the pursuit of pleasures, 938-946.

14. Other hells that are different from those mentioned already, 947-970.

15. Vastations, 1106-1113.

[NCBSP editor's note: The table of contents for Volume 2 of this translation may be found in section 1114.]

537. HEAVEN AND HEAVENLY JOY - continued

A certain spirit once positioned himself on my left side and asked whether I knew how he could get into heaven. I was allowed to reply that admission into heaven belongs to the Lord alone, for He alone knows a person's character. Many people coming from the world are like this spirit; their one request is that they may enter heaven, without knowing at all what heaven is and what heavenly joy is. They do not know that heaven is mutual love, and heavenly joy the joy resulting from this. Consequently those who do not know this are first of all acquainted with what heaven is and what heavenly joy is, even by actual experience. This was also the case with a certain spirit who had recently come from the world and who had a similar desire for heaven. So that he might perceive the nature of heaven, the interiors of his being were opened so as to give him some feeling of heavenly joy. Once he had felt it he began to moan and to writhe about, pleading that he be set free and saying that he could not live in such agony. So the interiors of his being that had been turned in heaven's direction were closed again, and in this way he was restored. This shows the nature of the pangs of conscience and of the agony that afflict those who, when admitted for only a short while, do not really belong in that place.

443. SOME EXAMPLES OF WHAT CERTAIN SPIRITS HAD THOUGHT DURING THEIR LIFETIME ABOUT THE SOUL OR SPIRIT

In the next life one is enabled to have a clear perception of the opinions which people have held during their lifetime about the soul, about the spirit, and about life after death; for when they are kept in a state as though they were still in the body their thought is similar to what it had been in the body. And such thought is communicated just as plainly as if they uttered it aloud. On one occasion I perceived from someone who had departed the earthly life only a little while before that - as he himself admitted - he had indeed believed in the existence of the spirit, but that as a spirit he would be leading a shadowy existence. His reason far believing this was that if the life of the body were withdrawn nothing would be left apart from something shadowy. Indeed he focused life in the body; consequently his idea of the spirit was of a phantom. And he confirmed this idea in himself from seeing that animals also possessed life that was virtually the same as human beings. Now however he was amazed to see that spirits and angels dwelt in the greatest light, and in the greatest intelligence, wisdom, and happiness, accompanied by perception such as almost defied description. So their life is very far from being shadowy, but is bright and very clearly discernible.