321. We need to realize that to all outward appearances, the spiritual world is just like the physical world. You can see lands there, mountains, hills, valleys, plains, fields, lakes, rivers, and springs like the ones in our earthly world; everything, then, that belongs to the mineral kingdom. You can see parks as well, gardens, groves, and woods, with all kinds of trees and shrubs with their fruits and seeds, smaller plants, flowers, herbs, and grasses; everything, then, that belongs to the plant kingdom. You can see all kinds of animals, birds, and fish--everything that belongs to the animal kingdom. The people there are angels and spirits.

This is prefaced to let it be known that the whole spiritual world is just like the whole physical world, the sole difference being that things there are not static and stable the way they are in a physical world because there is nothing of nature there. Everything is spiritual.

455. A certain person who during his lifetime had been one of those very well-versed in the Word had adopted the idea that heavenly joy consisted in glorious light, like the light produced when rays of sunshine look golden. Thus for him also heavenly joy consisted in a life of idleness. So that he might recognize that he was mistaken he was granted such light and found himself in the midst of it. So delighted was he then that, as he himself said, it was as though he was in heaven. But he was unable to stay there for very long, since he eventually grew tired of it, and it ceased to give him any joy.