We tend to think of “truth” as something dry, cold, lifeless: information that is valid and important, but not something moving or inspiring. Yet Swedenborg’s works say repeatedly that divine truth - truth from the Lord - was the actual agent of creation, is the ongoing agent in sustaining life, and is, in fact, the Lord Himself. That is difficult to conceive: How can truth make something? How can truth sustain something? How can truth be a person?

But imagine if you could mix elements of dreaming and being awake. In this scenario, you would have the usual control over your thoughts and feelings, and your thoughts and feelings would be continuous, as they are when you’re awake. But the reality around you would be able to bend and shift the way reality does in dreams. If you wanted to climb a skyscraper, jump from it to fly over the Grand Canyon, then dive to the ocean floor, you could do so, with the full experience of reality you have in a deep dream. If you wanted to see your grandmother, who died five years ago, she would be there, to hug you and talk to you and share your tears. Other friends and loved ones would be just a thought away, and you’d be surrounded by beauty limited only by your own imagination. And while all this was happening, your physical body would lie there sleeping.

In such a state, your physical body and physical surroundings are not a factor - in fact, you could say they don’t actually exist in that internal world. The “body” you experience, the surroundings you see, the things you hear and see and taste, all are simply products of your thoughts. So your thoughts actually create the world you live in, and go on creating it every moment.

In a typical dream, of course, that world is a product of only your own thoughts. So imagine that such a world could be shared by many people, or even everyone. In such a world, when you talk to your grandmother, it really is your grandmother, and she is having a similar “dream” experience of talking to you. When you see your friends, they really are your friends, experiencing similar dream-like states.

A number of books and movies have been based on such a concept. In the books and movies, though, the goal typically is to get back to “reality,” meaning back to the physical world. Often, the death of the physical body would mean the death of the dream worlds, too.

But think about it. With all the power you can have in the dream world, the things you can do and people you can see, why would you want to go back to the stiff, limited world of physical reality? And what if the death of the physical body did not snip the thread to the alternative world, but instead freed you to enter it fully?

Such a world is actually close to spiritual reality, as described in Swedenborg’s works. The big difference is that ultimately the “dream” is the Lord’s, and His thoughts and His affections are the ones constantly forming and empowering it, like a great tapestry of potential experience. As humans we are like swirls in the fabric, patterns that can be more or less aligned with those divine thoughts and feelings. Each swirl is unique in the way it weaves together the threads of divine thought, and thus has a unique set of experiences. And the miracle of miracles is that we are free to swirl as we will; that’s what we were created to do. In fact, the whole reason for physical reality - which is a projection of spiritual reality into dead material - is to separate us from divine thought enough to actually experience that freedom.

That divine thought is what Swedenborg means by “divine truth.” It carries all the possibilities for all of our lives, and is by its nature exquisitely, infinitely loving, since it carries the Lord’s love to us and strives constantly to coax us into alignment.

It’s also incredibly powerful, because the more we align ourselves with the Lord’s thoughts, the more we can receive His love and the more truly alive we can be - we can be swirls following the grain of the fabric, and that much more a part of the whole. Also, the more we align ourselves, the more we can see the patterns of the fabric around us - we can see the Lord’s plans for us and everyone else in the world, and fit in to serve His goals. Mentally this is like being in light, and Swedenborg’s works say the divine truth is the actual light of heaven.

So why does “truth” sound so cold and dry? The problem is in us, of course. We’re born into the physical world and our senses are filled by physical things, so we tend to think of “truth” as the aspects of divine thought that can be projected into the physical world. And those aspects are the coldest and driest, with the love awaiting us on the spiritual level.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 219, 411 [4], 434, 594, 748, 948 [3], 950; Apocalypse Revealed 193; Arcana Coelestia 4687 [3], 4724, 5321 [2], 6880, 6996 [3], 7004 [2], 7056 [2-3], 7058 [2], 7270 [2-4], 8200, 8705 [3], 9407 [1-3], [13], 9410 [5], 9905, 10026, 10060; Canons of the New Church 15; Heaven and Hell 13, 127, 137 [2-4], 232, 347; On the Athanasian Creed 145; The Apocalypse Explained 130 [2], 412 [2], 700 [2], 768 [15], 997 [2-3]; The Doctrine of Life for the New Jerusalem 32 [1-6]; The White Horse 14; The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine 25; True Christian Religion 39, 85, 86-88, 142, 224)

950. Clothed in linen pure and glistening white. That this signifies by means of Divine truth, or the Word from the spiritual sense, is evident from the signification of linen, as denoting truth; and when said of the Lord or of the Word, as denoting Divine truth. This is called pure because of its being genuine; and glistening white from the light in heaven, which light is glistening; for all things that are there are glistening white from it.

The Divine truth proceeding from the Lord is that which appears before the eyes of the angels as light, because the Divine truth enlightens their understanding, and that which does this is light before their eyes. Such is the Divine truth in heaven, and such is the Word in its spiritual sense. Whereas the Divine truth on earth is such as the Word is in the sense of the letter. In this there are but few genuine truths, such as are those in heaven, but there are appearances of truth. The natural man cannot receive any others. But still genuine truths, such as are those in heaven, lie stored up in the appearances of truth there; for they are those that are contained in the spiritual sense of the Word. From these things it is evident that by the angels going out of the temple, clothed in linen pure and glistening white, is signified that the evils and falsities that have devastated the church were made manifest by means of Divine truth, or the Word from its spiritual sense.

[2] There are many reasons why the spiritual sense of the Word is now disclosed. One is, that the churches in the Christian world have falsified all the sense of the letter of the Word, and this even to the destruction of the Divine truth in heaven, whereby heaven is closed. Therefore, in order that heaven may be opened, it has pleased the Lord to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, wherein is Divine truth such as it is in heaven. For by means of the Word there, conjunction of man with the Lord, and thence with heaven, takes place. When the Word is so far falsified as to destroy its genuine truth, then conjunction perishes, and man is separated from heaven. Therefore, in order that he may again be conjoined with heaven, Divine truth such as it is in heaven has been revealed; and this is confirmed by the spiritual sense of the Word wherein is that Divine truth.

A second reason is, that the falsities that have inundated the church, and devastated it, cannot be dissipated except by genuine truth in the Word opened. Falsities and the evils therefrom, and evils and the falsities therefrom, can by no means be seen except from truths themselves. For falsities and evils, so long as genuine truths are not present, appear as in a kind of light.

They have light from what they confirm by reasonings from the natural man, and the sense of the letter, explained and applied according to appearances before that man. But when genuine truths are present, then falsities and evils first appear; for the light of heaven, which is in genuine truths, dissipates the delusive light of falsities, and turns it into darkness.

A third reason is, that the New Church, meant by the holy Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, is conjoined with heaven by means of the Divine truths of the Word contained in its spiritual sense. For the Word is conjunction, but it is then conjunction, when a man perceives the Word in the same way as the angels do.

That linen signifies truth will be seen in the following article.

Continuation concerning the First Precept:-

[3] Thou shalt not make to thyself other gods, involves also that men should not love themselves and the world above all things; for what a man loves above all things is his god.

There are two entirely opposite loves, the love of self and love to God, also the love of the world and the love of heaven. He who loves himself loves his proprium; and a man's proprium is nothing but evil. Hence also he loves evil in its whole extent; and he who loves evil hates good, and thence also God. He who loves himself above all things immerses his affections and thoughts in the body, and, consequently, in his proprium, from which he cannot be raised by the Lord. And he who is immersed in the body and in his proprium is in bodily ideas, and in merely bodily pleasures, and, consequently, in thick darkness as to higher things. Whereas, he who is raised up by the Lord is in light. And he who is not in the light of heaven, but in thick darkness, since he sees nothing of God, he denies God, and acknowledges as God either nature, or some man, or idol, and also affects to be worshipped himself as a god. Consequently, it follows that he who loves himself above all things worships other gods. It is similar with him who loves the world, but in a less degree; for the world cannot be loved to such an extent as the proprium; therefore the world is loved from proprium and for the sake of proprium, because it is serviceable to it.

By the love of self is especially meant the love of ruling over others from the sole delight in ruling, and for the sake of position, and not from the delight of uses, and for the sake of the public good. And by the love of the world is especially meant the love of possessing worldly goods from the mere pleasure of possession, and for the sake of riches, and not from delight in the uses arising from them, and for the sake of good therefrom. Neither of these loves has any limit, and as far as scope is given, each rushes on endlessly.