457. When we first enter the world of spirits (which happens shortly after the reawakening just described), our spirit has a similar face and tone of voice as it did in the world. This is because at that point we are in the state of our external concerns, with our deeper concerns not yet uncovered. This is our initial state after decease. Later, though, our face changes and becomes quite different. It comes to look like the ruling affection in which the deeper reaches of our minds were engaged in the world, the kind of affection characteristic of the spirit within our body, because the face of our spirit is very different from the face of our body. We get our physical face from our parents and our spiritual face from our affection, which it images. Our spirit takes on this face after our physical life is over, when the outer coverings have been removed. This is our third state.

I have seen some newcomers from the world and have recognized them by their faces and voices; but when I saw them later, I did not recognize them. People who were engaged in good affections had lovely faces, while people who were engaged in evil affections had ugly ones. Seen in its own right, our spirit is nothing but our affections, whose outward form is our face.

The reason our faces change is that in the other life no one is allowed to pretend to affections they do not really have, so we cannot put on a face that is contrary to the love we are engaged in. We are all refined down to a state in which we say what we think and manifest in expression and act what we intend. This is why our faces all become forms and images of our affections; and this is why all the people who have known each other in the world still recognize each other in the world of spirits, but not in heaven or hell, as already noted (427). ¹

Footnotes:

3631. On one occasion also I was shown in a wholly living way the communities which constitute the province of the face and which flow into the muscles of the forehead, the cheeks, the chin, and the neck. I was shown which particular communities they were, what those communities were like, the manner in which they flowed in, and how they communicated with one another. To make it a living presentation they were allowed by flowing in - in varying ways - to produce the likeness of a face. In a similar way I have been shown which ones they are, and what those communities are like which flow into the lips, the tongue, the eyes, and the ears. And I have also been allowed to talk to them, and so become thoroughly informed. From this it has also become clear to me that all who enter heaven constitute the organs or limbs of the Grand Man, and also that heaven is never shut, but that the more people there are in heaven the stronger is the endeavour, the stronger the force, and the stronger the activity. In addition it has become clear that the Lord's heaven is vast, so vast as to surpass all belief. Compared with heaven the inhabitants on this planet are very few, little more than a pond in comparison with the ocean.