1093. Having great power.- That this signifies to whom belongs Omnipotence, both in the heavens and on earth, is evident from the signification of great power, when said of the Lord, as denoting Omnipotence. Omnipotence here signifies great power, because the term "great power," but not "Omnipotence," can be applied to an angel, which is according to the idea that man has of angels; but when by an angel is meant the Lord as to His proceeding Divine, then great power means Omnipotence. Omnipotence is also the Lord's because He is the God of heaven and of earth, and both heaven and earth were created by means of the Divine that proceeds from Him as a Sun, and by it also heaven and earth are maintained in existence and subsist. The proceeding Divine is what is called in John, "The Word, which was with God, and which was God," by which all things were made that were made, and by which also the world was made (chap. 1:1, 2, 10). The Omnipotence of the Lord both in the heavens and on earth is meant by the great power of the angel, because it is afterwards said that the earth was lightened with His glory; for when the Last Judgment was accomplished upon those who are meant by the harlot of Babylon, then the darkness was removed which had gathered between heaven and earth. But more will be said upon this subject below.

[2] Continuation concerning the Athanasian Creed.- It is evident from what has been said, that the thoughts of man are extensions into societies either heavenly or infernal, and that unless they were extensions they would have no existence. Man's thought is like the sight of his eyes, and, unless this had extension beyond itself, there would be either no sight, or blindness. But it is man's love that gives his thoughts their determination into societies, good love into heavenly societies, and evil love into infernal societies. For the whole heaven is arranged into societies, according to all the varieties of the affections that belong to love, generally, specifically, and in particular; while hell is arranged into societies according to the lusts (cupiditates) of the love of evil, opposite to the affections of the love of good.

[3] Man's love is comparatively like fire, and his thoughts are like the rays of light from it; if the love is good, then the thoughts, which are like rays, are truths; if the love is evil, the thoughts which go forth like rays are falsities. Thoughts from good love, which are truths, tend towards heaven; but thoughts from evil love which are falsities, tend towards hell, and are so completely conjoined with, and as it were ingrafted upon homogeneous societies, that is, such as are in similar love, that a man becomes entirely one with them.

[4] Man, by means of love to the Lord, is an image of Him. The Lord is Divine Love, and He appears as a Sun before the angels in heaven. Light and heat go forth from that Sun, light being the Divine Truth, and heat the Divine Good; the whole heaven, and all the societies of heaven, are from these. The Lord's love with a man who is an image of him, is as fire from that Sun, from which fire, light and heat similarly go forth; the light is the truth of faith, and the heat is the good of love, each of them being from the Lord, and each implanted in the societies with which such a man's love acts in unison. That man from creation is an image and likeness of God, is evident from Genesis (1:26); and He is an image and likeness of the Lord by means of love, because by means of love man is in the Lord and the Lord in him (John 14:20, 21). In a word, the very least thought that can exist is received in some society, not by the individuals or angels of the society, but by the affection of love from which and in which that society is; for this reason the angels are not conscious of the influx, neither does that influx disturb the society in any way.

[5] From these considerations the truth is evident that man is in conjunction with heaven while he lives in the world, and also in consociation with angels, although both men and angels are ignorant of it. They know nothing of this is because a man's thought is natural, and an angel's thought spiritual, and these make one only by correspondence. Since man by means of the thoughts of his love, is inaugurated into societies either of heaven or hell, therefore, on his entrance into the spiritual world, which takes place immediately after death, his character is known merely from the extension of his thoughts into societies, and in this way every one is explored. Man is also reformed by the admission of his thoughts into the societies of heaven, and he is condemned by the immersion of his thoughts in the societies of hell.

461. After Death, We Enjoy Every Sense, Memory, Thought, and Affection We Had in the World: We Leave Nothing Behind except Our Earthly Body

Repeated experience has witnessed to me that when we move from the natural world into the spiritual, which happens when we die, we take with us everything that pertains to our character except our earthly body. In fact, when we enter the spiritual world or our life after death, we are in a body as we were in this world. There seems to be no difference, since we do not feel or see any difference. This body is spiritual, though, so it has been separated or purified from earthly matter. Further, when anything spiritual touches and sees something spiritual, it is just like something natural touching and seeing something natural. So when we have become a spirit, we have no sense that we are not in the body we inhabited in the world, and therefore do not realize that we have died.

[2] As "spirit-people," we enjoy every outer and inner sense we enjoyed in the world. We see the way we used to, we hear and talk the way we used to; we smell and taste and feel things when we touch them the way we used to; we want, wish, crave, think, ponder, are moved, love, and intend the way we used to. Studious types still read and write as before. In a word, when we move from the one life into the other, or from the one world into the other, it is like moving from one [physical] place to another; and we take with us everything we owned as persons to the point that it would be unfair to say that we have lost anything of our own after death, which is only a death of the earthly body.

[3] We even take with us our natural memory, since we retain everything we have heard, seen, read, learned, or thought in the world from earliest infancy to the very end of life. However, since the natural objects that reside in our memory cannot be reproduced in a spiritual world, they become dormant the way they do when we are not thinking about them. Even so, they can be reproduced when it so pleases the Lord. I will have more to say soon, though, about this memory and its condition after death.

Sense-centered people are quite incapable of believing that our state after death is like this because they do not grasp it. Sense-centered people can think only on the natural level, even about spiritual matters. This means that anything they do not sense - that is, see with their physical eyes and touch with their hands - they say does not exist, as we read of Thomas in John 20:25, 27, 29. The quality of sense-centered people has been described above in 267, and in notes there.