Preface

THE first two volumes explained [the first] fifteen chapters of Genesis and said what is contained in their inner meaning. Attached to each chapter [in those volumes] was a record of what the Lord in his divine mercy has given me the opportunity to see and hear in the world of spirits and the heaven of angels. Now comes the third volume, which includes similar reports likewise attached to each chapter. The article appended to the present chapter, Genesis 16 [§§1966–1983], concerns visions and dreams (including prophetic dreams) in the Word.

I know few will believe that anyone can see into the other world or report from there on the state of souls after death, because few believe in the resurrection, and even fewer of the well-educated than of the naive. It is true that they say with their lips that they will rise again, because this accords with official theology, but they deny it at heart.

[2] Some even confess openly that they would believe it if someone were to rise from the dead and they were to see, hear, and touch the person. If this happened, though, it would be an isolated experience and would fail to convince those who at heart deny the resurrection. A thousand objections would occur to them and harden them in their negative frame of mind.

Some do claim to believe they will rise again, but on the day of the Last Judgment. The picture they have formed of this is that everything in the visible world will cease to exist on that day; and since they have been awaiting it in vain for so many centuries, they too are dubious. What is meant by the Last Judgment mentioned in the Word, however, will be summarized at the end of the next chapter, Genesis 17, the Lord in his divine mercy willing [§§2117–2133].

[3] These attitudes indicate what kind of people make up the Christian world today. The Sadducees told of in Matthew 22:23 and the verses that follow openly denied the resurrection, but they acted better than people today who deny it at heart but claim they do not (since it is the official teaching, as noted) Their words contradict their beliefs, and their beliefs contradict their words.

To prevent them from growing even more firmly entrenched in this misguided opinion, the Lord in his divine mercy has given me the privilege of experiencing the next world in spirit while bodily present in this world (since a human being is a spirit clothed with a body). There I have spoken with souls recently revived after death, and in fact with almost everyone I knew during physical life who had since died. Every day now for several years I have also talked with spirits and angels and seen astounding sights that it has never occurred to anyone to imagine. No illusion of any kind was involved.

[4] Many people say that if someone comes to them from the other life, they will believe, so we shall see now whether they can be persuaded despite their hard hearts.

This I can assert positively: People who come into the next life from the Christian world are the worst of all. They hate their neighbor, they hate the religion, they deny the Lord (since it is the heart rather than the mouth that does the talking in the other world), not to mention the fact that they are more adulterous than anyone else. Because heaven is starting to move away from people inside the church, then, clearly the last days are at hand, as I have learned for certain.

To learn about the identity and nature of the Word’s inner meaning, see the statements and illustrations in the first two volumes, §§1–5, 64, 65, 66, 167, 605, 920, 937, 1143, 1224, 1404, 1405, 1408, 1409, 1502 at the end, 1540, 1659, 1756, 1767–1777 and 1869–1879 (particularly), 1783, 1807; and in the present volume, §§1886–1889.

1886. Genesis 16

THIS chapter has to do with Hagar and Ishmael, but until now no one has recognized what they represent and symbolize on an inner level. No one could have recognized it, because so far the world (even the scholarly world) has supposed that the stories of the Word are mere narratives, with no deeper implications. They have said that every jot is divinely inspired, but they do not mean much by it. All they mean is that the contents have been revealed [by God] and that some amount of doctrine relevant to their theology can be drawn from it and used by teachers and students. Because the stories have been divinely inspired (the world reasons), they have divine force in people's minds and do them more good than any other history.

Taken at face value, however, the narratives do little to improve us. They have no effect at all on our eternal life, because in the other world historical detail is obliterated from memory. What good would it do us there to know about Hagar the slave, about the fact that Sarai gave her to Abram, about Ishmael, or even about Abram? In order to go to heaven and partake of its joy (that is, of eternal life), our souls need only what belongs to and comes from the Lord. This is what his Word is for, and this is what it contains in its depths.

1983. What evil spirits want more than anything else, what they burn to do, is to attack and harass us as we sleep; but that is a time when the Lord guards us with special care. Love does not sleep.

The spirits who harass us undergo terrible punishments. More times than I can tell I have heard their punishments, which consist of mutilation, as reported in §§829, 957, 959. This takes place under the heel of the left foot and sometimes lasts for hours at a time.

Sirens, who are inwardly devoted to sorcery, are the main ones to attack us by stealth during the night. They try to inject themselves into our deeper thoughts and feelings, but angels from the Lord always stop them, and eventually they are frightened off by severe punishments.

Sirens have also talked to various people by night exactly as though it was I who was speaking. Imitating my speech so perfectly that it could not be distinguished from mine, they have made foul suggestions and foisted falsehoods on their victims.

[2] One time I had the pleasantest possible night of sleep, filled entirely with sweet peace. When I woke up, though, certain good spirits started to chastise me for molesting them. They accused me of treating them so horribly that, in their words, they thought they were in hell. "I know nothing at all about it," I answered. "I was sleeping very peacefully, so I could not have bothered you in any way." Dumbfounded at this, they finally perceived that the sirens had used their sorceries to do it. The same demonstration was repeated later to teach me what that mob of sirens was like.

[3] For the most part sirens are women. During bodily life they poured all their energies into attracting friends by subtle wiles, using outward appearances to worm their way in and employing every available method to ensnare others' minds. They enter into everyone's desires and pleasures, but with ulterior motives, particularly that of gaining control. The result in the next life is that by their very nature they seem inherently capable of anything, imbibing and inventing various deceitful skills, which they seize on so readily. Just as sponges absorb water whether polluted or pure, they absorb both profane and sacred means and put them to work for the purpose (again) of gaining control.

I was allowed to sense how foul their deeper dimensions are, how defiled with adultery and hatred. I was also allowed to sense how powerful their aura is. They prepare themselves internally to sway others' minds, in an effort to coordinate their own inward and outward powers in pursuit of their aims. Then they forcefully compel spirits to think exactly the way they themselves do.

[4] They do not appear to use reasoned argumentation; but there is still a certain accumulated force of argument, infused with negative emotion, that fills the same function. They also accommodate to others' personalities, gain access to their lower minds (which they take on as their own), and either entice or overpower them by the use of persuasion.

There is nothing they work harder at than destroying our conscience, and once it is destroyed, they take possession–total possession, in fact–of our inner depths, although we remain unaware of it. Outward possession no longer exists, as it once did, but inward possession by these spirits does. People on earth who are devoid of conscience are possessed in this way; deep down, their thinking is nearly as crazy, but they veil and conceal it with a superficial decency and false integrity for the sake of their status, prosperity, and reputation. Such people can recognize this tendency in themselves if they will only pay attention to the nature of their thoughts.