The Swedenborg Library Vol 1/Chapter 4

by Emanuel Swedenborg

IV.

RESURRECTION.

HE drawing forth of the spirit from the body, and its introduction into the spiritual world, is what is commonly called resurrection. The spirit of man is not separated from the body until the motion of the heart has ceased, because the heart corresponds to the affection which is of love, and love is the very life of man; for every one has vital heat from love. Therefore so long as this union continues [i. e. the union between the body and the spirit], correspondence is maintained, and thence the life of the spirit in the body. (H. H. 447.)

After the dissolution of the body, the spirit appears in the spiritual world in the human form altogether as the man appeared in the natural world. He possesses the faculty of seeing, hearing, speaking and feeling, as he did in the world; and he is endowed with every power of thought, will and action, as he was when in the world. In a word he is a man in all respects, even to the most minute particular, except that he is not encompassed with the gross body which he had in the world. He leaves this when he dies, nor does he ever resume it.

This continuation of life is meant by the resurrection. The reason that men believe they shall not rise again before the last judgment, when, as they think, the whole visible creation will be destroyed, is, that they do not understand the Word; and because sensual men place all their life in the body, and imagine that unless the body be re-animated, a man can have no existence hereafter.

The life of a man after death is the life of his love and faith; hence the nature of his life to eternity is determined by the quality of these during his life in the world. With those who had loved themselves and the world supremely, this life is the life of hell; and with those who had loved God supremely and their neighbor as themselves, it is the life of heaven. The latter have faith, but the former have not. The life of heaven is called eternal life; and the life of hell is called spiritual death.

That man continues to live after the death of the body, is plainly taught in the Word; as when it is said that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matt. xxii. 31); that Lazarus after death was carried into heaven, and that the rich man lifted up his eyes in hell (Luke xvi. 22, 23, and the following verses); that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are in heaven (Matt. viii. 11; xxii. 31, 32; Luke xxii. 37, 38); and when Jesus said to the thief on the cross, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise (Luke xxiii. 43).—N. J. D. 225-227.

TAUGHT BY EXPERIENCE.

How resuscitation is effected has not only been told me, but also shown me by living experience. I was myself the subject of that experience, in order that I might fully comprehend the process.

I was brought into a state of insensibility as to the bodily senses, thus nearly into the state of dying persons; while yet the interior life and the faculty of thought remained entire, so that I could perceive and retain in memory the things which transpired, and which happen to those who are being raised up from the dead. I perceived that the respiration of the body was almost taken away, while the interior respiration, which is that of the spirit, remained conjoined with a gentle and tacit respiration of the body. There was then opened, in the first place, a communication as to the pulse of the heart with the celestial kingdom, since that kingdom corresponds to the heart with man. Angels from that kingdom were also visible; some were at a distance, and two were seated near my head. Thereby all affection proper to myself was taken away, but thought and perception still remained. I was in this state for some hours.

The spirits who were around me then withdrew, supposing that I was dead. There was also perceived an aromatic odor, like that of an embalmed corpse; for when celestial angels are present, the odor from the corpse is perceived as a fragrant perfume. When spirits perceive this, they are unable to approach. By this means, also, evil spirits are prevented from coming near the spirit of man when he is first introduced into eternal life.

The angels who were seated near my head were silent, only communicating their thoughts with mine; and when these are received, they know that the spirit of man is in a state capable of being drawn forth from the body. The communication of their thoughts was effected by looking into my face, for in this way are such communications made in heaven.

Because thought and perception remained with me, in order that I might learn and remember how resuscitation takes place, I perceived that those angels first inquired what my thought was, whether it was similar to that of dying persons, which is usually about eternal life; and that they wished to keep my mind in that thought. It was told me afterward, that the spirit of man is held in the last thought which he has when expiring, until he returns to the thoughts which proceed from the general or ruling affection that belonged to him in the world. It was granted me particularly to perceive, and also to feel, that there was a drawing, and as it were a pulling out, of the interiors of my mind, thus of my spirit, from the body; and I was told that this is from the Lord, and that the resurrection is effected in this way.

The celestial augels who attend upon a resuscitated person, do not leave him, because they love every one. But if the spirit be of such a character that he can no longer continue in the company of celestial angels, he desires to depart from them. When this occurs, angels from the Lord's spiritual kingdom come to him, and give him the use of light; for before he saw nothing, but only thought.

I was also shown how this is done. Those angels seemed, as it were, to roll off the coat of the left eye toward the septum of the nose, that the eye might be opened and sight be given. This is merely an appearance, but the spirit perceives it as a reality. When the coat of the eye seems to have been rolled off, something lucid but indistinct appears, like what is seen through the eyelids on first awaking from sleep. This obscure light seemed to me of a skyblue color; but I was afterward told that the color varies with different persons.

After this, there is a sensation as if something were gently rolled off from the face, and this is succeeded by a state of spiritual thought. This rolling off from the face is also an appearance, whereby is represented the change from a state of natural to one of spiritual thought.

The angels are extremely careful to suppress any idea in the resuscitated person, which does not savor of love. They then tell him that he is a spirit.

After the spiritual angels have given the use of light to the new spirit, they perform for him all the kind offices which he can ever desire in that state, and instruct him concerning the things of another life, so far as he is able to comprehend them. But if he is not willing to receive instruction, then he wishes to be separated from their company. 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 lead to heaven. In this consists their chief delight.

When the spirit thus dissociates himself, he is received by good spirits who also render him all kind offices while he continues with them. But if his life in the world had been such that he could not endure the society of the good, he then wishes to leave them also; and these changes continue until at length he associates himself with spirits who are in perfect agreement with his life in the world. With them he finds his life; and, strange to say, he then leads a similar life to what he had led in the world.

But this commencing state of man's life after death continues only a few days. How he is afterward led from one state to another, and at last either into heaven or hell, will be told in what follows. This, too, I have learned from much experience.

I have conversed with some on the third day after their decease, when the process above described was completed. Three of these had been known to me in the world, and I told them that preparations were now being made for the burial of their bodies. I said "for their burial;" on hearing which, they were struck with a sort of amazement, saying that they were alive, but that only that which had served them in the world was to be buried.

They afterwards wondered exceedingly that, during their life in the body, they did not believe in such a life after death, and especially that the same unbelief prevailed almost universally within the church.

They who, while in the world, did not believe in any life of the soul after the death of the body, are very much ashamed when they find themselves alive. But they who had confirmed themselves in such unbelief, are consociated with their like, and separated from those who had believed in man's immortality. Such sceptics are, for the most part, bound to some infernal society, because they have also denied a Divine, and despised the truths of the church: for so far as any one confirms himself against the everlasting life of his soul, he confirms himself also against the things which belong to heaven and the church. (H. H. 448-452.)