1. I. THE WORLDS IN SPACE

By the Lord's Divine mercy I have had my interior faculties, which belong to my spirit, opened, so that I have been enabled to talk with spirits and angels, not only those in the vicinity of our earth, but also with those near other worlds. Since therefore I was desirous of knowing whether there were other inhabited worlds, and what they and their inhabitants were like, I was allowed by the Lord to talk and mix with spirits and angels from other worlds. With some this lasted a day, with others a week, with yet others for months. I was informed by them about the worlds they came from and in the vicinity of which they were, about the life, behaviour and religious practices of their inhabitants, and other matters worth relating about them. Since I was allowed to gain my knowledge in this fashion, I can describe them from what I have heard and seen.

[2] It needs to be known that all spirits and angels are from the human race; ¹ they are near their own world, ² and know what happens there; and they can inform someone whose interior faculties are open sufficiently to be able to talk and mix with them. A human being is in essence a spirit, ³ and associates with spirits at the interior level. ⁴ Consequently anyone whose interior faculties are opened by the Lord can talk with them, exactly as a man can with another man. ⁵ I have been permitted to do this daily for the last twelve years.

Fotnoter:

7800. The planet Jupiter is not indeed visible to those who are in the next life; but spirits from it are. They appear out in front on the left, some distance away, and constantly in that position. In that position also lies the planet as it exists in the idea spirits and angels have of it. The spirits of each planet are separated from those of others and are close to their own globe. The reason why they are separated is that they differ in nature from the others and occupy a different province in the Grand Man; and spirits with a different nature from others appear in positions as far away from them as their nature is different. This situation in which all spirits and angels appear separated and divided, occupying different positions and placed at various distances from one another in the next life, is due to the differences in their natures and dispositions; for position corresponds to state, 2625, 2837, 3356, 3387, 4321, 4882, 5605, 7381.