Soul-Body Interaction, Believed to Occur either by a Physical Inflow, or by a Spiritual Inflow, or by a Preestablished Harmony.

§§1–2 / [Author’s Introduction]

1. §3 / There are two worlds: a spiritual world where spirits and angels live, and an earthly world where we live.

2. §4 / The spiritual world came into being and is kept in existence from its sun, and the earthly world, from its sun.

3. §5 / The sun of the spiritual world is pure love from Jehovah God,

who is at its center.

4. §6 / Warmth and light emanates from that sun; the essence of that emanating warmth is love, and the essence of the emanating light is wisdom.

5. §7 / Both spiritual warmth and spiritual light fl ow into us. The warmth fl ows into our will and gives rise there to a love for doing what is good, and the light flows into our understanding and gives rise there to the truth that leads to wisdom.

6. §8 / These two—spiritual warmth and spiritual light, or love and wisdom—fl ow together from God into the human soul, flow through our soul into our mind and its feelings and thoughts, and flow from there into our physical senses, speech, and actions.

7. §9 / The sun of our earthly world is nothing but fire, and is the means by which this earthly world came into being and is kept in existence.

8. §10 / This means that everything that emanates from the physical sun is in and of itself dead.

9. §11 / What is spiritual wears what is physical the way we wear clothes.

10. §12 / It is spiritual elements clothed in this way that enable us to live as rational and moral beings—that is, to live spiritually on this earthly level.

11. §13 / How receptive we are to this infl ow depends on the state of love and wisdom within us.

12. §14 / Our understanding can be lifted into the light (that is, the wisdom) that angels enjoy to the extent that our rational ability has been cultivated; and our will can be elevated into the warmth, or love, of heaven, depending on how we live our lives. However, the love in our will becomes elevated only to the extent that we will and do what the wisdom in our understanding teaches us.

13. §15 / It is totally diff erent for animals.

14. §16 / Unknown until now, there are three levels in the spiritual world and three in this earthly world, and these shape the way all infl ow happens.

15. §17 / Purposes are on the fi rst level, means on the second, and results on the third.

16. §18 / This shows us the nature of spiritual infl ow, from its origin to its results.

§§19–20 / [Concluding Accounts]

3. 1 There are two worlds: a spiritual world where spirits and angels live, and an earthly world where we live.

UP to the present time, the world—even the Christian world—has been oblivious to the fact that there is a spiritual world where spirits and angels live, quite distinct from the earthly world where we live. This is because no angel has come down and told us about it explicitly, and no one has gone up and seen it. To keep ignorance of that world and a consequent uncertainty about heaven and hell from deluding people so completely that they become materialistic atheists, the Lord has graciously opened the sight of my spirit, both raising it up into heaven and sending it down into hell to show me visibly what each realm is like.

[2] This has enabled me to see that there are two worlds and that they are distinct from each other. There is one where everything is spiritual and which is therefore called “the spiritual world,” and one in which everything is earthly, and which is therefore called “the earthly world.” I have been shown that spirits and angels live in their world and that we live in ours, and also that everyone crosses by death from our world into the other and lives there to eternity.

Knowledge of the existence of these two worlds is prerequisite if we are to trace inflow from its source, which is our present task. The spiritual world does in fact flow into the earthly world and animate it in detail both in humans and in animals. It is also what allows trees and plants to grow.