3386. 'And he said, She is my sister' means rational truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'a sister' as rational truth, dealt with in 1495, 2508, 2524, 2556. By rational truth is meant, as stated just above, that which is seen as the truth, in whatever form people grasp it mentally or see it rationally. Isaac's saying that Rebekah was his sister, as Abraham on a previous occasion in Egypt had said that Sarah was his sister, Genesis 12:11-13, 19, and after that in Gerar, Genesis 20:2, 5, 12, embodies a similar arcanum, as may be seen from the explanation given at those two points. And because a like event took place on three occasions, and also these are recorded in the Word, it is clear that it holds an arcanum of supreme importance within it which cannot possibly be known to anyone except from the internal sense. What this arcanum is however is evident from what follows.

1380. The fact that place, change of place, and distance in the next life are also an illusion has been made clear to me from the consideration that by means of delusions spirits can in an instant be taken up on high, as high as possible, and in the same instant taken into the depths, as well as being taken, so to speak, from one end of the universe to the other. Indeed by means of delusions witches and magicians in the next life induce others to believe that when they are in one place they are also simultaneously in another, or even in many places. In this way they pretend to be present everywhere. People who have aspired to great heights during their lifetime, as well as people who were deceivers, often appear overhead. Yet they are still in hell underfoot. As soon as their arrogance is taken away from them they sink down into their own hell, as I have been shown. This is not an appearance but an illusion, for, as has been stated, there are two types of changes of place - the first being that in which every spirit and angel remains all the time in his own position, which is an appearance; and the second being that in which each appears in a place which is not his actual position, which is an illusion.