493. Our first state after death is like our state in this world, since we are then similarly involved in outward concerns. We have similar faces, voices, and character; we lead similar moral and civil lives. This is why it still seems to us as though we were in this world unless we notice things that are out of the ordinary and remember that angels told us we were spirits when we were awakened (450). So the one life carries on into the other, and death is only a passage.

180. That there are degrees of love and wisdom is still more plainly apparent from the love and wisdom of angels in comparison to the love and wisdom of people. People know that the wisdom of angels is in comparison indescribable. We will see in subsequent discussions that it is also incomprehensible to people when they are caught up in a natural love. The reason it appears indescribable and incomprehensible is that is in a higher degree.