430. There are two doors in each of us as well, one facing hell and open to evil and false things from hell, the other facing heaven and open to good and true things from heaven. The door of hell is opened for people who are involved in what is evil and its consequent falsity, though just a little light from heaven flows in through the cracks, which enables us to think, reason, and talk. On the other hand, the door of heaven is opened for people who are focused on what is good and therefore on what is true. There are actually two paths that lead to our rational mind, one from above or within, through which the good and the true enter from the Lord, and one from below or outside through which the evil and the false infiltrate from hell. The rational mind itself is at the intersection of these two paths, so to the extent that light from heaven is let in, we are rational; but to the extent that it is not let in, we are not rational even though we seem so to ourselves.

I have mentioned these things so that our correspondence with heaven and with hell may be known. While our rational mind is in the process of being formed, it is responsive to the world of spirits. What is above it belongs to heaven, and what is beneath it belongs to hell. The higher things open, and the lower close against the inflow of evil and falsity, for people who are being readied for heaven; while the lower things open, and the higher close against the inflow of goodness and truth, for people who are being readied for hell. As a result, these latter can only look downward, toward hell, and the former can only look upward, toward heaven. Looking upward is looking toward the Lord, because he is the common center that everything in heaven faces. Looking downward, though, is looking away from the Lord toward the opposite center, the center toward which everything in hell faces and gravitates (see above, 123, 124).

307. We may turn now to the basic proposition that the Lord controls the hells by means of opposites, and that with evil people who are still in this world, he controls them in hell as to their deeper natures, but not as to their more outward natures.

As to the first, that the Lord controls the hells by means of opposites, I explained in 288-289 that heaven's angels do not get their love and wisdom, or desire for what is good and resultant thought about what is true, from themselves, but from the Lord. I noted that the goodness and truth flow from heaven into hell, and that the goodness there is turned into evil and the truth into falsity because the inner reaches of people's minds there are turned in the opposite direction. Since everything in hell is the opposite of everything in heaven, it follows that the Lord is controlling the hells by means of these opposites.

[2] Second, the reason that with evil people who are still in this world, the Lord controls them in hell is that as to our spirits we are in the spiritual world, each in some community. We are in a hellish community if we are evil, and in a heavenly community if we are good. Since our minds are inherently spiritual, they can be with spiritual people only, people we will join after death. I have also mentioned and explained this above [298, 299].

We are not located there the way spirits are who have been enrolled in a community, though. We are in a constant state of reforming, so depending on our life and the way it changes, the Lord moves us from one community in hell to another if we are evil, while if we are allowing ourselves to be reformed, he leads us out of hell and up into heaven. There too, we are moved from one community to another. This goes on until we die, at which point we are no longer transferred from community to community, because we are no longer in a state of reforming. Instead, we settle in the one where our life places us; so when we die, we are enrolled in our own location.

[3] Third, the Lord controls evil people in this world one way as to their inner natures and another way as to their outer natures. The Lord controls the inner levels of the mind as just described, but he controls the outer levels in the world of spirits that is halfway between heaven and hell. This is because most of us are not the same outwardly as we are inwardly. Outwardly we can impersonate angels of light even though inwardly we may be spirits of darkness. As a result, our outer and inner natures are controlled differently; the outer are controlled in the world of spirits and the inner are controlled either in heaven or in hell as long as we are in this world. Consequently, when we die we arrive first in the world of spirits and are conscious in our outer nature. We lay that nature aside in the world of spirits, and once we have done so we are taken to the place where we are enrolled.

On the world of spirits and its nature, see Heaven and Hell 421-535 (published in London in 1758).

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.