278. Of the influx of life with man in particular.

There is one only fountain of life, from which all live both in heaven and in the world (n.1954, 2021, 2536, 2658, 2886-2889, 3001, 3484, 3742, 5847, 6467).

This life is from the Lord alone, illustrated by various things (n. 2886-2889, 3344, 3484, 4319-4320, 4524, 4882, 5986, 6325, 6468-6470, 9276, 10196).

The Lord is life itself, may be seen (John 1:1; 1:4; 5:26; 14:6).

Life from the Lord flows in with angels, spirits, and men, in a wonderful manner (n. 2886-2889, 3337-3338, 3484, 3742).

The Lord flows in from His Divine love, which is of such that it wills that what is its own should be another's (n. 3742, 4320).

All love is such; thus the Divine love is infinitely more so (n. 1820, 1865, 2253, 6872).

Hence life appears as if it were in man, and not as inflowing (n. 3742, 4320).

Life appears as if it were in man, because the principal cause, which is life from the Lord, and the instrumental cause, which is the recipient form, act as one cause, which is felt in the instrumental (n. 6325).

The chief of the wisdom and intelligence of the angels consists in perceiving and knowing that the all of life is from the Lord (n. 4318).

Concerning the joy of angels perceived and shown by their discourse to me, from this that they do not live from themselves, but from the Lord (n. 6469).

The evil are not willing to be convinced that life inflows (n. 3743).

Doubts concerning the influx of life from the Lord cannot be removed, so long as fallacies, ignorance, and the negative reign (n. 6479). All in the church know that all good and truth is from heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord, and that all evil and falsity is from hell; and yet the all of life has relation to good and truth, and to evil and falsity, there being nothing of life without them (n. 2893, 4151).

The doctrinal of the church derived from the Word teaches the same thing (n. 4249). Nevertheless man does not believe that life inflows (n. 4249).

If communication and connection with spirits and angels were taken away, man would instantly die (n. 2887).

It is evident from hence, that the all of life flows in from the first esse of life, because nothing exists from itself, but from things prior to itself, thus each and all things exist from the First; and because everything must subsist from the same source from which it first existed, since subsistence is perpetual existence (n. 4523-4524).

Angels, spirits, and men, were created to receive life, thus they are only forms recipient of life (n. 2021, 3001, 3318, 3344, 3484, 3742, 4151, 5114, 5986). Their forms are such as the quality of their reception (n. 2888, 3001, 3484, 5847, 5986, 6467, 6472). Men, spirits, and angels, are therefore such as are their forms recipient of life from the Lord (n. 2888, 5847, 5986, 6467, 6472). Man is so created, that in his inmost, and hence in those which follow in order, he can receive the Divine, and be elevated to the Divine, and be conjoined with the Divine by the good of love and the truths of faith, and on this account he lives to eternity, otherwise than beasts (n. 5114).

Life from the Lord flows in also with the evil, thus also with those who are in hell (n. 2706, 3743, 4417, 10196). But they turn good into evil and truth into falsity, and thus life into spiritual death, for such as the man is, such is his reception of life (n. 4319-4320, 4417). Goods and truths from the Lord also continually inflow with them, but they either reject, suffocate, or pervert them (n. 3743). They who are in evils, and thence in falsities, have no real life; the quality of their life (n. 726, 4623, 4747, 10284, 10286).

4623. But it should be recognized that with spirits the life of their senses is of two different kinds - that which is real and that which is not real. One is distinguished from the other by the fact that everything seen by those in heaven is real, whereas everything seen by those in hell is not real. Whatever comes from the Divine, that is, from the Lord, is real since it comes from the Essential Being (Esse) itself within things and from self-existent Life; but whatever comes from a spirit's proprium is not real since it does not come from the Essential Being (Esse) within things nor from self-existent Life. Those who have an affection for goodness and truth have the Lord's life, and so the life that is real, within themselves; for the Lord is present within goodness and truth through the affection for these. But those who are governed by evil and falsity through their affection for these have the life of the proprium within them and so the life that is not real; for the Lord is not present within evil and falsity. The real is distinguishable from that which is not real by this - that the real is in actual fact what it appears to be, whereas that which is not real is not in actual fact what it appears to be.

[2] Those in hell have the five senses no less than anyone else, and are not aware of things being in reality or in actual fact anything other than what they perceive them to be with their senses. Yet when the angels look at the selfsame things these look to them like phantoms which then disappear, while the spirits themselves do not look like human beings but like monsters. I have also been allowed to talk to those in hell about this matter, and certain of them have said that they believe things are real when they can see and touch them, adding that the senses cannot mislead one. But I have been led to reply that no matter how real such things were seen to be by those spirits they were not real because those spirits themselves were governed by what was contrary or opposed to the Divine, that is to say, by evils and falsities. Furthermore, insofar as evil desires and false notions existed with those spirits, every thought they had was nothing else than an illusion. And when illusions lie behind one's view of anything, one sees real things as those which are not real, and those which are not real as those which are real. Also, unless the Lord in His Divine mercy gave them the use of the five senses they would not have any life that depends on sensory experience, nor therefore any life at all; for the whole of life involves the use of the senses. But to include every experience I have had in these matters would fill up very many pages.

[3] Let people therefore be on their guard when they enter the next life, so that they are not deceived; for evil spirits know all kinds of ways to deceive the eyes of those recently arrived there from the world. Or if they are unable to delude them, those evil spirits nevertheless try by means of their deceptions to convince recent arrivals that nothing is real but that all things, including those in heaven, are no more than mental abstractions.