422. The world of spirits is a place halfway between heaven and hell, and it is also our own halfway state after death. I have been shown that it is a halfway place by seeing that the hells were underneath it and the heavens above it, and that it is a halfway state by learning that as long as we are in it, we are not yet in either heaven or hell.

A state of heaven for us is the union of what is good and true within us, and a state of hell is a union of what is evil and false within us. When the good in a spirit-person is united to the true, then that individual arrives in heaven, because as already stated that union is heaven within us. On the other hand, when the evil is united to the false within us, then we arrive in hell, because that union is hell within us. The process of union takes place in the world of spirits because then we are in a halfway state. It amounts to the same thing whether you say the union of intellect and will or the union of the true and the good.

69. The people composing the first heaven. The first heaven was a gathering of all on whom the last judgment took place. It did not take place on those in hell nor on those in heaven, nor on those in the world of spirits (on which see HEAVEN AND HELL 421-520); and not on any person still alive; but only on those who had made themselves a kind of heaven, mostly on mountains and rocks. These are also those whom the Lord meant by the goats, which He placed on the left (Matthew 25:32-33). From this it can be established that the first heaven was composed not only of Christians, but also of Mohammedans and heathens, all of whom had made themselves such heavens in their own locations.

[2] I shall give a brief description of their nature. They were those who in the world had put on an outward show of a holy life, though lacking any inward basis, but who had been upright and honest because they were compelled by civil and moral laws, but not the laws of God. Thus they were external or natural people, not internal or spiritual people. They included those who possessed the church's teachings and were able themselves to teach, though they did not live in accordance with what they taught; also those who held various offices and performed services, though not for the sake of being of service. It was these and those like them all the world over, who lived after the Lord's coming, that made up the first heaven. This heaven there fore had the same nature as the world and the church on earth, which is composed of those who do not do good because it is good, but because of legal penalties and fear of losing their reputations, honours and advantages. Those who do good for no other reason fear not God but men, and have no conscience.

[3] In the first heaven composed of the Reformed the greater number were those who had believed in salvation by faith alone, not by a life of faith, which is one of charity, and who had been eager to be highly regarded by men. While all these were formed into communities, they had their interiors closed so that they could not be seen; but they were opened up when the Last Judgment was at hand. Then it was learnt that they were inwardly obsessed by every kind of evil and falsity, being opposed to the Divine and in reality in hell. For each person immediately after death is attached to people like him, the good to those like them in heaven, the wicked to those like them in hell, but they do not go to join them until their interiors are revealed. In the meantime they can associate with those who resemble them in externals.

[4] But it should be known that all who were inwardly good, and so spiritual, were separated from them and raised into heaven. All who were not only inwardly but also outwardly wicked were also separated from them and cast into hell. This has happened from the earliest times following the Lord's coming and down to the last, when the judgment took place. The only ones who were left to form their own communities which made up the first heaven, were those whose nature was such as described above.