PHYSIOLOGICAL CORRESPONDENCES
BY
“THE states
of spirits and angels, with all their varieties, can in no wise be understood
without a knowledge of the human body; for the Lord’s kingdom is like a man.”
(S.D. 1145 1/2.)
“That heaven as a whole is like
one man is an Arcanum not yet known in the world; but in heaven it is mostly
certainly known. To know that, and the
specific and particular things concerning it, is the chief of the intelligence
of the angels there; very many things also depend upon it, which without that
as their general principle do not enter distinctly and clearly into their
minds.” (H.H. 59.)
“The chief of
the intelligence which angels have is to know and perceive that all of life is
from the Lord, and that the whole heaven corresponds to His Divine Human, and
consequently that all angels spirits, and men correspond to heaven; also to
know and perceive how they correspond.
These are the chief things of the intelligence in which angels are above
men; things which are in the heavens, and hence also those which are in the
world.” (A.C. 4318.)
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The
correspondence of the whole heaven with the Divine Human, and of individual men
with the heavens, is the subject of these studies.
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To the lips is
assigned the three-fold duty of expressing the thoughts and feelings to the
sight by means of their motions and changes of form; or modifying and
articulating the voice, and thus communicating the activities of the mind to
the ear; and of receiving and drawing in the food by which the body is
nourished. To the last use we will
attend first, leaving the others till we have studied the correspondence of the
lungs and of the face.
The use of the lips in receiving food is most evident in infancy, during the period in which nourishment is obtained by sucking. Afterwards, in drinking, they have a similar duty through the whole of life. In these operations the lips apply themselves to the mother’s breast, or to the cup, and in conjunction with the cheeks, tongue, and fauces, by alternate expansions and contractions,
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draw out the
pliant food, and introduce it into the mouth.
Such food needs not mastication ; the function of the lips is merely to
draw it in and introduce it, and then it is received by the soft parts of the
mouth, and is quickly conducted to its destination. The lips have a similar use in laying hold of
and drawing into the mouth solid food that is presented to them, and in caring
for this they have the further duty, in cooperation with cheeks and tongue, of
pressing it between the teeth, and compelling it to submit to the grinding
process by which its interior parts are opened and separated.
It is, perhaps, worthy of mention also that on the inner surfaces of
the lips are little glands, which begin the process of moistening and
lubricating the food, to aid in digestion and in its passage to the
stomach. Undoubtedly there are also
absorbents, by which a small amount of the purest part of the food is taken at
once into the circulation of the body, and introduced into its life and uses.
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To see the correspondence of these uses of the lips, on a grand scale
and in perfection, we must think of the great community from which men derive
their humanity, and which, because it receives the Divine Influence immediately
and the greatest measure, Swedenborg calls the “
This Greatest Man is the heavens.
It includes all good men, recipients of good life from the Lord, who
have lived upon any of the earths in the starry universe from the beginning of
time. [Of these, “the inhabitants of
this world are very few comparatively, and almost as a drop of water in
comparison with the ocean.” (A. C.
3631.)]
Of this Greatest Man the Lord is the Life. It is formed to receive His life, and to live
from Him; and it is Man because He is
The nourishment of the heavens is of two kinds; they receive an
influence of love and wisdom, or
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of warmth and
light, immediately from the Lord; and they receive additions of new members
from the earths.
These two kinds of nourishment are comparatively like the inflow of
life from the soul into the human body, from which every particle of the body
draws its gift of human life, and the additions of new particles from the
food. Both kinds of nourishment are
necessary to useful activity. Continual
inflow of truth, and new opportunities of use are also necessary, to those
whose happiness is by their very constitution made to depend upon eternal
progress.
New things, necessary to the growth and happiness of the heavens, are
as food supplied from the earths. Like
food the comers from the earth must be received by the heavens, examined,
sorted, instructed, and trained to heavenly states, as by a kind of digestion,
before they can be assimilated; and this is the function of the world of
spirits.
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“The life of man,” Swedenborg says, “when he dies, and enters into the other life, is like food, which is received softly by the lips, and afterwards is passed through the mouth, fauces, and œsophagus into the stomach; and this according to the nature derived from his works during the life of the body. Most are treated gently at first, for they are kept in the company of angels and good spirits; which is represented in food that it is first softly touched by the tongue.
“The food which is soft, in which
is sweetness, [essential] oil, and spirit, is immediately received by the
veins, and borne into the circulation; but food which is hard, in which is
bitterness and foulness, and little nutritiveness, is more hardly treated, and
is cast down through the œsophagus into the stomach, where it is corrected by
various methods and tortures. What is
still harder, more foul, and worthless, is thrust into the intestines, and at
length into the rectum, where first is hell, and at last is cast out,
and becomes excrement.[1][1]
“Resembling this is the life of man after
death. First man is kept in externals;
and because he had lived a moral and civil life in externals, he is with angels
and good spirits. But afterwards
externals are taken away from him, and then it appears what
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he
was within as to thoughts and affections, and at length as to ends; according
to these his life remains.
“As long as they are in this
state, in which they are like food in the stomach, they are not in the Greatest
Man, but are being introduced; but when they are representatively in the blood,
then they are in the Greatest Man.”
(A. C. 5175,5176.)
The angels, then, who softly receive man
at his entrance into the spiritual world, who cooperate with the Lord in
drawing him out of the world and introducing him into the spiritual world,
are in the province of the lips. Perhaps
we see some effect of their presence even before the moment of death, in those
whose feelings and thoughts are strongly drawn towards the other world as the
time of death comes near; and especially in those for whom open vision of
spiritual things, more or less distinct, produces an anticipation of the
peaceful gladness which we commonly see represented in the face after the
natural life ceases.
Swedenborg says that celestial angels, who belong to the kingdom of
the heart, come to per-
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son at the
time of death, and take charge of his affections and thoughts; and that at
their approach an aromatic odor is perceived, and then all spirits leave
the person exclusively to their care.
(H. H. 449.)
The office of the lips and tongue, and of
those in the corresponding provinces of the heavens, is twofold: they are organs
of speech and organs for receiving food.
As organs of speech their use is spiritual, and as organs for receiving
food it is celestial. As Swedenborg
writes, —
“The tongue affords entrance to
the lungs and also to the stomach; thus it presents a sort of court-yard to
spiritual things and to celestial things; to spiritual things because it
ministers to the lungs and thence to speech, and to celestial
things because it ministers to the stomach, which supplies aliment to
the blood and the heart.”
(A. C. 4791.)[2][2]
It is noteworthy that the angels who first receive man at death do not
speak; but sit silently looking into his face, communicating their own
affection. They apply themselves to him
from
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love of
introducing him into the joys of heaven, and of adding new members to heavenly
societies. From this love they hold his
thought fixed upon the future life, and lead it by various happy things
into as full sympathy with their own thought as is possible. Then the Lord separates him
from the body and he awakes in the world of spirits.
After he is raised up, if the new spirit belongs to the very few who by
instruction in heavenly truth and by training in heavenly love and usefulness
are already prepared to enjoy the life of heaven, these angels receive him
among themselves, and by ways in their own societies, like
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the absorbing vessels of the lips,
and especially of the tongue, they introduce him at once into heaven, and lead
him on the way to his permanent home.
In this work the angels of the tongue and the
cheeks cooperate with those of the lips.
If the new spirits be interiorly open, gentle, and good, they are most
kindly treated by the angels of these provinces. Those of the tongue, especially,
delight to perceive the new varieties of goodness and truth which are introduced
from the world, and are eager to convey the pleasing intelligence of
their arrival, and if possible the spirits themselves, to the societies which
will be enriched by them; for the tongue abounds in porous papillæ, which erect
themselves on the approach of food, to touch it, and to feel its quality; and
if there be in it that which is spirituous and aromatic, to absorb it for the
immediate benefit of the brain and the whole system.[3][3]
“The angels love every one,
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and desire nothing more than to
perform kind offices to all, to give them instruction, and to take them into
heaven, in which consist their supreme delight.” (H. H. 450.)
The angels of all the societies desire to receive new members; and being
informed by the tongue of the advent of those who are suitable for their
respective societies they prepare to welcome them. Their eagerness and desire excite appetite
in all the intermediate receiving societies, and all combine to invite and
guide the new spirits to their destination.[4][4]
With such
soft welcomes are good, open-minded spirits received, and especially is such
kindly embrace extended by angels to those who leave this
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world in infancy and
childhood. No harsher treatment do they
need than to be separated from evil spirits, and taken up at once into heavenly
societies, to be made wise with the wisdom of angels.
The work of
reception which we have been describing is done in the province of the mouth of
the Greatest Man, in what Swedenborg calls “the first state of man after death”
(H. H. 491). And spirits who are
interiorly open, and whose thoughts and feelings appear frankly, undergo no
treatment less gentle than this. But
with the greater part even of good men, at the present day, the interiors have
never been consciously opened. They have
done good works, perhaps from good principles; but they have attended, as
others have, only to the appearances of their lives before men; which, like the
hulls and skins of various grains and fruits, must be broken up with some
force, that their real life, their purposes and intentions as well as their
outwards acts, may be disclosed. This
disclosure is necessary both for a fair judgment of the characters of the new
spirits, and as the first step
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towards the separation
of good from evil, either in the same or in associated persons.
The love of introducing good spirits into heaven, and the love of
perceiving the interior quality of new goodness and conveying a knowledge of it
to the heavens, urge, therefore, the opening of the whole life of the new
comers. We see an image of their
operation in the action of the tongue and lips upon the food, which they press
gently, subdivide, and examine, and bring into contact with all the soft
absorbing surfaces of the mouth. And if
in this examination hard morsels are discovered which do not open to gentle
pressure, these are quickly conducted between the teeth, by the pressure of
which they are broken up, and all their contents disclosed for examination; or,
if they cannot be broken, they are rejected as worthless. So the angels who are in the love of
receiving good spirits, and conducting them to heaven, presently lead those
spirits whose interiors are closely concealed by externals into the province of
other angels whose function is to open the interior memory of life.[5][5]
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These angels whose use is in some respects similar to that of the gates
of pearl, in conjunction with the angels of the tongue, guard the way to the
greater part of the world of spirits, and of heaven and hell. They know that all new comers are now to
be judged,¾not according to their professions, but their lives. They say to them, therefore, “None are
received here whose quality is not known; and the quality of every one is known
from his life; now, [how have you lived?
What good have you done?
What evil have you resisted? And
what evil have you done and what did you love to do and think?” Thus they open the whole memory of the
life. (H. H. 462)]
No doubt many other simple truths or facts concerning the other life
they hold and press home in the same way.
They are not in themselves sensitive, except to the resistance of
spirits to this opening. They deal
simply with matters of fact. They do
not judge of the quality of the things they discover; this is the duty of the
tongue. Their work is, as warders,
to compel those who approach
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to show their
true colors, to warn the tongue and lips if any are present who will not do so,
and lips if any are present who will not do so, and to assist in shutting out
such, and any others whose quality is too repugnant to the life of the Greatest
Man. We are told by the Scriptures that
some who are admitted will be spewed out of the mouth. No doubt some will be ejected with disgust as
soon as their quality is perceived. Perhaps these are the lukewarm, who
can be received neither in heaven nor in hell[6][6], but are beneath the hells, in a
state almost without life.[7][7]
(A. R. 204 ; A. E. 1158.)
There are some other particulars in regard to the action of the teeth
which should be considered before we leave them. The teeth hold the food, and bite it off; in
which they correspond to the truth that all men must die, and that the purpose
of their life is to be prepared for heaven, and to be added to the
heavens. Compared to the gentle drawing
of all the thoughts and affections towards heaven, inspired by the angels of
the lips, this is stern teaching ; but it is neces
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sary for those
who cling to the world, and are unwilling to die. It is such truth as we apply to men to
separate them from their worldly pursuits and attachments, and to turn them
towards heaven. The angels of the
incisors must influence us to do this.[8][8]
This is the duty of the twice four front teeth, which have no part in
the grinding of food, but only in the breaking off. The next four teeth, called “canine,” or “eye
teeth,” are, in man, much like the incisors, and join in their work ; adding,
perhaps, a special duty of holding the food and in the carnivora, of penetrating
and rending it.
Then came the bicuspids (2X4), whose use it is to break or cut up the food into small pieces, ready for grinding ; and then the molars
(2X4 + 4+4), which separate all the particles.
As the incisors correspond to the truth that all must die and enter the
spiritual world, the grinding teeth, in their several degrees, represent the
further truth that there all are judged according to their works; and
all therefore the lives
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of all must
there be opened and explored, to show their real quality. Such truth, also, we apply in [the world
to bring out the fitness or unfitness of men for various uses and positions
in society.][9][9]
The teeth are in two sets, the upper and the lower. The upper are fixed in the head; the lower,
exactly similar in number and character, are fitted into the moveable jaw, and
press, each one against its correlative above.
The upper teeth correspond to truth founded in the nature of the
world they guard; the lower to similar truth applied to the individual
cases presented. The upper say to
those who approach, “All men are created for life in the spiritual world ;
there are none in heaven who have not once lived upon the earth, and there
died.” The lower add, “You also are born
for the same end; you too must die.” The
upper say, “Here all are judged by their life, by what they have done and what
they have loved to do and to think.” The
lower continue in turn, “You, too, are to be judged according to your lives;
now, what have you done, and
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what have you loved to do and to think?” And thus they compel the opening of all
the particulars of the life.[10][10]
They also have a delicate tact for hypocrisies and concealments
; just as the natural teeth have for even the smallest hard particles which
come between them, and they feel just where the pressure is necessary.
Swedenborg speaks of the teeth as corresponding to the “sensuals of the
understanding” (A. R. 435), or to truth held merely naturally and
obediently, without interior understanding.
And the work of those who are in the teeth of the Greatest Man is not
the work of intelligence, or of interior perception ; it consists in strong compulsion, and is
performed by those who hold Divine Truth firmly and uncompromisingly, but
not intelligently. They who are in
tender states cannot do this work ; but leave it to those whose life it is to
insist upon submission to the rules.
They are simple, honest doorkeepers, who admit all who present
themselves for admission, on the one con-
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dition that
there shall be no concealment of who they are, or what they have done ; but
their lives shall be open for judgment.
Swedenborg often speaks of the disputes of the evil as sounding like
gnashing of teeth ; because they hold literal truths or falsities in the
memory, and clash them together in a kind of clamorous argumentation (H. H.
575). The teeth in the hells seem to be
related especially to the cruel, tearing teeth of the carnivora ; and their
purpose is to injure others, and to claim all things that can minister to self-love
and love of the world. The gnashing
of the teeth is the angry clashing of assertions of fact, or of literal
statements, by which they urge such claims against one another and against the
Lord and the heavens.
Of some who cause pain in the teeth,[11][11] he says, “Hypocrites who have spoken
holily of Divine things, with affection of love concerning the public and the
neighbor, and testified what is just and right, and still have despised these
things in their heart, and also laughed at them, when it
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was allowed them
to flow into the parts of the body to which they corresponded from the
opposite, produced pains in the teeth, and on their near presence so
severe that I could not bear it” (A. C. 5720).
Which appears to have been because the truths which they held in the
memory and produced from the memory were like teeth, and their interior
contempt for them was like death to the life and support of the teeth.
Again he says that “ those who have been rich in the life of the body,
and have dwelt in magnificent palaces, placing their heaven in such things, and
have despoiled others of their goods under various pretences, without
conscience or charity, . . . exhaled a sphere of fetor of teeth” (A. C.
1631). Which, apparently, was because
with them a life of pleasures was substituted for a truly heavenly life, and
the principles which insist upon interior exploration of those pleasures before
they are received into the life were neglected and allowed to become foul and
to decay.
A similar consequence follows from the habit of
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thinking over
things that seem pleasant, in an indolent fashion, like food retained in the
mouth, and rolled with the tongue, without regard to its rightness or
usefulness ; from which our principles decay, as the teeth do when not kept
clean and bright.
The pains and dangers which children pass [through in cutting their
teeth, correspond to the natural reluctance and difficulty in forming
principles by which apparently pleasant things are thoroughly examined, and the
evil resolutely rejected.][12][12]
A child’s first principles are scarcely more than his parent’s words, held
without thought. These are succeeded by
natural principles better understood, as the first set of teeth, lightly
rooted, are replaced by those that are larger and firmer.
When old people pass from the state of parents to that of grandparents,
and leaving the disciplinary stage of life, pass again into a child-like state,
they become indulgent, and lose their teeth spiritually as they do
naturally.
In this view, soundness of the teeth would cor-
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respond with the
love of having enjoyments of life thoroughly good ; especially with the love of
thoroughly good work, and not of what merely appears well. And unsoundness of the teeth would correspond
to content with good appearances, and work that will pass.
The dentist’s work, spiritually, is to point out the
carelessness of such principles of love to the Lord and the neighbor to make
them sound. Such suggestions are like
fillings of gold and silver.[13][13]
Artificial teeth seem like the conventional standards which must
replace the natural when they are gone.
There is an influx from the heavens into man, and
from every province of the heavens into the corresponding organ of
his body. It is from this influx
that his mind lives and loves and acts, and that the
body also lives and performs its functions.
The desire of the angels to receive new
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members, and
introduce them into the uses and the happiness of the heavens, flows into our
minds as a desire for the elements of which angelic spirits can be formed in
us. It causes us to apply our minds to
any source from which we can drink wisdom, and to drink it in for
examination. It gives us an interest
also in good works, from which we can get instruction and encouragement in
regard to good life. It incites us to
attend to these things, to receive them, taste them, be affected by the
goodness of them, and to absorb this into our affections and lives. Therefore Swedenborg says that the use which
the tongue performs in tasting, absorbing, and preparing nutriment for the
body, “corresponds to the affection for knowing, understanding, and being wise
in truths.” (A. C. 4795.) [14][14]
That heavenly spirits are formed in us by thus receiving genuine wisdom
and the goodness of wisdom is plain to every one. And it is also evi-
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dent that the
influx of the angels’ love of receiving new angelic spirits must produce in us
individually a desire for the heavenly elements of which such spirits are
formed.
In this influx all angels who belong to the provinces of the digestive
organs combine ; and, indeed, in a general way, the whole heaven, since all
angels desire to receive new brothers ; and this hunger of flows into us,
and is felt as a hunger for wisdom. Specifically, those in the province of
the lips impart to us the power of application to new truths ; those in
the province of the tongue inspire the capacity for tasting and discerning
the quality of new ideas, before we finally adopt them ; and those in the
province of the gums and teeth, who coöperate so effectively with the tongue in
its explorations, inspire the desire to open the interior quality of
whatever is presented, and to receive nothing that we do not thus know,
and that does not agree with our life.[15][15]
We may hear thoughts which do not especially
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concern us, and
may look at them with much or little interest, perhaps merely because
others value them; but not until we think of them as relating to us, and desire
to receive them into our lives, and so apply our minds to grasp them and
understand them, - not till then do we do that which is represented by taking
food with our lips, masticating it with the teeth, and tasting it with the
tongue. And then, if we assent and
resolve to adopt it , we spiritually swallow it. Sometimes, also, people swallow what they do
not understand, or even what they do not like, with very little mastication.
Yet, as thorough mastication is essential to good digestion of food, so
the thorough understanding of the knowledge of life which we receive is
essential to its proper assimilation.
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The office of the salivary glands is to secrete a watery liquid which
mingles with the food, softens and moistens it, and reduces it almost to a
semi-fluid state, so that it passes easily through the fauces and the œsphagus
to the stomach. The saliva has other
subsidiary uses, which will be considered presently ; but this is the most
important.
Water is, throughout the three kingdoms of nature, the vehicle of
circulation ; it is the means of conveying into the veins of animals, the
fibres of plants, and the minute interstices of the rocks, the materials needed
for their nourishment and growth.
As to its cleansing properties, water corresponds to the truth which
distinguishes right from wrong. As to its nutritive and mobilizing properties,
it corresponds to the same truth teaching what it is
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right to do, and
thus giving the means of motion to those desires which, without such truth,
would lie helplessly inert.
The saliva, therefore, which is almost pure water, having only about
one per cent. of solid material, represents the instruction first given to new
spirits as to the world into which they have come, as to what it is allowable
and possible for them to do, and as to the state of their friends who have gone
before, — instruction which gives them freedom to go withersoever they desire.
The fluid is secreted by large glands
lying behind and under the lower jaw, and under the tongue, which summon, according
to their need, copious streams from the general circulation, which corresponds
to fresh information concerning the state and wants of the heavenly man and the
world of spirits.
The purer saliva, whose office is to
mingle intimately with the food, to dissolve such portions as admit of ready
solution, and convey them at once into the circulation, and to soften other portions
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to a semi-fluid
condition so that they may easily pass to the stomach, corresponds specifically
to instruction concerning heaven and heavenly life, the purpose of which is to
introduce immediately into heaven those who are fitted for it, and to assist
others on the way to heaven.
The viscid element of the sub-maxillary saliva, and still more
evidently the mucus discharged by the follicles of the mouth, has for its
specific office to lubricate the food, so that it may pass easily through the
œsophagus to the stomach ; and corresponds to instruction which serves to
introduce spirits to societies in the world of spirits, where they remain for
further preparation. The salivary glands
correspond to societies of spiritual angels who love to acquire and communicate
such instruction.
In regard to this instruction, which, it will be observer, is given
immediately after the spirit passes the province of the lips, we read as
follows :?
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“When the celestial angels are with a resuscitated person, they do not leave him, because they love every one ; but when the spirit is such that he can no longer be in company with the celestial angels, he desires to depart from them; and when this is the case, angels from the Lord’s spiritual kingdom come, by whom is given to him the use of light, for before he saw nothing, but only thought. . . . The angels are extremely cautious lest any idea should come from the resuscitated person but what savors of love ; they then tell him that he is a spirit. The spiritual angels, after the use of light has been given, perform for the new spirit all the offices which he can ever desire in that state, and instruct him concerning the things of the other life, but so far as he can comprehend them. But if he is not such as to be willing to be instructed, the resuscitated person then desires to depart from the company of those angels ; but still the angels do not leave him, but he dissociates himself from them ; for the angels love every one, and desire nothing more than to perform kind offices, to instruct, and to introduce into heaven ; their highest delight consists in that. When the spirit thus dissociates himself he is received by good spirits, and when he is in their company, also, all kind offices are performed for him ; but if his
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life in the world had been such that
he could not be in the company of the good, then also he wishes to remove from
them, and this even until he associates himself with such as agree altogether
with his life in the world, with whom he finds his life, and then, what is
wonderful, he leads a similar life to what he led in the world. This beginning of man’s life after death
continues only for a few days.” (H. H.
450, 451.)
In the posthumous treatise concerning
the “Last Judgment,” pp. 125-133, we have the following account of the
reception and instruction of new spirits : ?
“When a man after death comes into the spiritual world, which usually takes place on the third day after he has breathed his last, he appears to himself in a similar life to that in which he had been in the world, and in a similar house, room, and bed-chamber, in a similar dress and covering, and in similar companionship in the house ; if he was a king or prince, in a cottage ; rustic things surround the one, splendid the other. This takes place with every one after death, for the purpose that death may not seem to be death, but a contin-
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uation
of life, and that the last state of the natural life may become the first of the
spiritual life ; and that from this he may go on to his goal, which will be
either in heaven or in hell. . . . When new comers into the spiritual world are
in this first state, angels come to them for the sake of wishing them a happy
arrival, and at first are much amused in conversation with them, since they
know that they do not then think otherwise than that they are still living in
the former world. Therefore, they ask
them what they think about the life after death ; and the new comers answer
according to their former ideas ; some that they do not know ; some that they
are ghosts or a kind of ethereal beings ; some that they ate transparent,
aerial bodies ; some that they are flying specters, either in the ether and the
air, or in the waters, or in middle of the earth ; and some that souls like
angels are in the stars ; some of the new comers deny that any man lives after
death. After listening to these replies,
the angels say, ‘Welcome! we will show you something new which you have not
before known or believed, namely, that every man after death lives as man in a
body exactly as he lived before.’ To
this the new spirits rejoin, ‘ This is impossible! Whence has he a body ? Does it not lie with all there is of it dead
in the
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grave
?’ The angels laughingly answer, ‘ We
will give you ocular proof of it.’ And
they say, ‘ Are you not men perfect form ?
Examine and feel yourselves ; and yet have left the natural world. That you have not known this till now is
because the first state of the life after death is exactly like the last state
of the life before death.’ Hearing this,
the new guests are astonished, and exclaim from joy of heart, ‘ Thanks be to
God that we are alive, and that death has not annihilated us.’ I have very often heard new comers instructed
thus as to their life after death, and gladdened by their resurrection.”
Then follow examples of instruction by the angels concerning the consummation
of the age, the destruction of the world, and the end of the Church ; and,
presently, leading the new spirits out, the angels showed them the Sun of
Heaven, and beautiful representatives of the instruction of angels and spirits
from the Lord in the Sun, and of the possible influx of Divine Truth also to
man on the earth. And then also they
showed how the evil spirits were multiplying in that time, before the Last
Judgment, and cutting off the light of heaven from the minds of men on the
earth.
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All these things are of the instruction given by angels to introduce
new spirits into the life of the spiritual world.
Those soluble
portions of the food which are in a condition to be readily absorbed correspond
to spirits who readily receive instruction concerning heaven and are in a state
to conform to it at once. The portions
not readily dissolved or absorbed correspond to those who need more gradual
initiation.
The small amount of organic substance contained in the saliva has an
important subsidiary use in beginning the preparation of some elements of food
which are not yet ready for absorption.
The sweetness of fruits is in a form that can be absorbed at once, But the sweetness of sugarcane needs a
chemical combination with a little more water, to be reduced to the same
form. Starch and gum also, which are
chemically akin to cane-sugar, need the same addition to become food like the
sugar of fruit. And the organic
substance in the saliva, by its very presence, stim
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ulates this chemical
change, some portions of the sugar and the starch undergoing the change almost
instantly upon coming in contact with it.
The chemical union of a little more water with these substances can
hardly correspond to anything else than the reception of a little necessary
truth into life. And the organic
substance from the glands, which stimulates this reception, seems to correspond
with the influence of angels who by encouragement or by warning immediately
open eyes of some who are already in good to purer truth, and perhaps to
humbler acknowledgment that self is nothing, and the Lord everything,
is this kingdom.
By no means the whole of the soluble portion of the food is absorbed in the mouth ; a large part, dissolved or dissolving in the saliva, is carried into the stomach ; much of it goes even further, into