41. Anything that is man's own has no life in it; and when depicted visually it looks like something hard as a bone and black. But anything that comes from the Lord does contain life. It has that which is spiritual and celestial within it, and when depicted visually it looks human and alive. It is perhaps incredible, but nevertheless absolutely true, that every expression, every idea, and every least thought of an angelic spirit is alive. In even the most detailed areas of his thought there is an affection that comes from the Lord, who is life itself. Consequently all that derives from the Lord has life within it, for it contains faith in Him, and is here meant by 'a living creature'. It then has the outward appearance of a body, meant here by that which is moving, or creeping. To man these matters remain arcana, but since the subject here is the living and moving creature, they ought at least to be mentioned here.

2751. Bunched together - up above, in front of my left eye - there were spirits such as during their lifetime had in secret and with much cunning plotted against others. They were adulterers who, having arrived there only recently, were still in the world of spirits. It was their custom to send out from their bunch, in this direction and in that, some of their number, so that they might plot not only against conjugial love, but also against what is good and true, and most of all against the Lord. Those sent out come back to them and report what they have heard; and in this way they all take counsel. Thinking I was a spirit, because I spoke using the language of spirits, they also sent one to me. When this emissary spoke he said things that were completely scandalous, mostly against the Lord, so that he himself consisted so to speak of nothing but scandals. Aware of which bunch and what scum he was from I replied that he should refrain from uttering such things. As regards the Lord, I said, I knew without any shadow of doubt that He was one with the Father; that the whole of heaven was His; that all innocence, peace, love, charity, mercy, and also all conjugial love were derived from Him, as well as everything good and true; all of which things were Divine. And I knew that Moses and the Prophets, that is, every single detail of the Word in its internal sense, had reference to Him, and that all the religious observances of the Jewish Church were representative of Him. Since I was so certain of these matters as to have no doubt at all, what more could he want? On hearing all this, with shame he went away. He was told these things in order that he might report them to the adulterers who constituted that wicked bunch from which he had been sent.