106 HEAVEN and HELL §203
e. There is only one life from which all the people in heaven and on earth live: 1954 , 2021 , 2536 ,
2658 , 2886 – 2889 , 3001 , 3484 , 3742 , 5847 , 6467. That life comes from the Lord alone: 2886 – 2889 ,
3344 , 3484 , 4319 , 4320 , 4524 , 4882 , 5986 , 6325 , 6468 , 6469 , 6470 , 9276 , 10196. It fl ows into angels,
into spirits, and into us in a wondrous way: 2886 – 2889 , 3337 , 3338 , 3484 , 3742. The Lord fl ows in
from his divine love, which by its very nature wants what is its own to be given to others: 3472
[ 3742 ], 4320. Therefore our life seems to be within us and not to be fl owing in: 3742 , 4320. On
the joy of angels that I have perceived—and that has been confi rmed by their testimony to me—
at the fact that they do not live on their own but from the Lord: 6469. Evil people do not want to
be convinced that their life is fl owing in: 3743. Life from the Lord does fl ow in, even for evil
people: 2706 , 3743 , 4417 , 10196. However, they turn good into evil and truth into falsity, because
our quality determines our acceptance; with examples: 4319 , 4320 , 4417.[ 3 ] There was one particular spirit who believed that he thought
independently—that is, without any outreach beyond himself and there-
fore communication with the surrounding communities. So that he
might learn that he was wrong, he was deprived of any communication
with nearby communities. As a result, he not only lost the power of
thinking but actually collapsed lifelessly, just fl ailing his arms like a new-
born baby. In a little while the communication was restored, and bit by
bit, as it was restored, he returned to his usual state of thinking.
[ 4 ] Some other spirits, who saw this, then admitted that all their
thought and affection was fl owing in according to this communication—
and since this was true of all their thought and affection, it was true of
their whole life as well, since all our life consists of our ability to think
and to be affected, or in other words, to understand and intend.e204 We need to realize, though, that intelligence and wisdom vary for
individuals depending on the communication. For people whose intelli-
gence and wisdom are formed from things genuinely good and true,
there is a sharing with communities according to heaven’s form; while
for people whose intelligence and wisdom are not formed from things
genuinely good and true but [only] from things that are in accord with
them, the communication is intermittent and only partially coherent
because it is not with communities in the sequence characteristic of heav-
en’s form. However, because people who are not in intelligence and wis-
dom at all are caught up in false notions that stem from their evils, they
have a sharing with communities in hell. The outreach depends on the
extent to which their attitudes have been internalized.
It should also be known that this sharing with communities is not
something that comes to the overt perception of the people involved in