722. 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. This symbolizes John's being carried away in a spiritual state to people in whom everything of the church had been destroyed.

A wilderness symbolizes a church in which there is no longer any truth, thus where everything in it has been destroyed (no. 546). And to be in the spirit means, symbolically, to be in a spiritual state as a result of Divine influx, as said in no. 36 above. Consequently, John's being carried away in the spirit into the wilderness means symbolically that he was carried away in a spiritual state to people in whom everything having to do with the church was destroyed.

Imagine having your mother touch your cheek. Then imagine having your spouse or someone you love romantically touch your cheek. Then imagine having a baby touch your cheek. Then imagine having someone you hate and fear touch your cheek. They're very different feelings, aren't they? They all involve the same nerve endings, stimulated in basically the same ways, but with emotional content that varies to every point of the compass. This is because the sense of touch communicates and actually conveys emotion, communicates and conveys love (both good and bad) between people. That's why the Lord so often touched people as a way of healing them; through touch he could convey His love, which is life itself, to the people he touched. It's also why the people of Israel were not to touch the Ark of the Covenant -- their base loves would be conveyed to the holiness represented by the Ark.