Conjugial Love

whose essence is said to be love, my heart began to pound violently. A general feeling of unease took over my whole body, and I was so inwardly tormented original: "excruciated" that I threw myself flat on the ground. While I was in this situation, one of the attendants came from the judgment hall with an order to carry me gently back to my own light and heat; and when I arrived there, my spirit and my heart immediately returned to me."

The Fourth person said that he also had imagined heaven to be a place of blessedness that did not depend on the state of one's own heart original: "affections". "As soon as I entered the spiritual world," he said, "I asked some wise people if I might be allowed to go up into heaven. I was told that everyone has this freedom, but that I should be careful how I used it, lest I should be cast down again. I ignored this warning and ascended, fully confident that everyone was equally qualified to receive the fullness of heavenly bliss. But alas! As soon as I reached the borders of heaven, my life seemed to leave me. From the violent pains and anguish that seized my head and body, I threw myself flat on the ground. I writhed there like a snake brought near a fire. In this state, I crawled to the edge of a cliff and threw myself off. Some people standing near where I fell picked me up, and with proper care, I soon came to myself again."

The other five people then gave a wonderful account of what happened to them during their own ascents into heaven. They compared the changes they felt in their lives to fish being pulled out of the water into the air, or birds being raised from the air into the vacuum of space original: "ether". They declared that after suffering so much pain, they no longer had any desire to go to heaven. They only wished to live a life that matched their own desires original: "affections", among people like themselves, in any place at all.

"We are well informed," they added, "that in the world of spirits where we are now, everyone goes through a period of preparation—the good for heaven and the wicked for hell. After this preparation, they find paths open to communities of people like themselves, with whom they will live forever. They enter these paths with the greatest delight because the environment matches their love."

When the people in the first group heard these stories, they also admitted that they had never thought of heaven as anything other than a place where they would start enjoying never-ending pleasures. Then the angel with the trumpet spoke to them: "You see now that the joys of heaven and eternal happiness do not come from the place, but from the state of a person's life. A state of heavenly life comes from love and wisdom. Since it is 'use' In Swedenborg’s theology, "use" refers to performing a meaningful service or function for the benefit of others. that contains love and wisdom, and in which they are established and remain, a state of heavenly life comes from the union original: "conjunction" of love and wisdom in 'use.' It amounts to the same...