§413 joy 235
some median level of another. I could also see that when we do reach our
own deepest level we are in our own heavenly joy and that we could not
bear anything deeper because it would become painful for us.
Some spirits who were not evil settled down into a peaceful state, rather 411
like sleep, and in this way were taken into heaven in respect to the deeper
levels of their minds; for before the deeper levels of their minds are opened,
spirits can be taken into heaven and taught about the happiness of the peo-
ple who live there. I saw them rest quietly for half an hour and then return
to the outer consciousness they had been in before, but with a memory of
what they had seen. They said that they had been with angels in heaven
and had seen and perceived stunning things all gleaming like gold and sil-
ver and precious gems, in amazing forms that varied bewilderingly. They
said that the angels took no particular delight in these outward things but
in what they represented—unutterable, divine things of infi nite wisdom;
these were their real joy. There were countless other things that human
language could not describe, not a ten-thousandth part, things that would
not fi t into any concepts that had anything material about them.
Almost all the people who arrive in the other life are ignorant of the 412
nature of heavenly bliss and happiness. This is because they do not know
what inner joy is or what its quality is except on the basis of their grasp of
physical and worldly good cheer and pleasure. Since they do not know
about it they think it is not real, when in fact physical and earthly plea-
sures are nothing in comparison. So in order that they may know and
recognize it, honest people who do not know what heavenly joy is are
fi rst taken to parks that surpass every image of their imagination. Just
when they think that this is a heavenly paradise, they are told that this is
not real heavenly happiness. So they are allowed to recognize deeper
states of joy as these are perceptible to their deepest natures; and then
they are transported into a state of peace that reaches their very inmost
nature. They confess that no part of this can be expressed or even com-
prehended. Then they are taken into a state of innocence, again all the
way to their own deepest feeling. In this way they are enabled to realize
what real spiritual and heavenly goodness are.
To enable me to know what heaven and heavenly joy are and what their 413
quality is, though, the Lord has allowed me to feel the pleasures of heavenly
joy often and at length. Because this was living experience, I may indeed
know about them, but there is no way to describe them. Still, something
should be said in order to provide at least some notion about them. There is
an effect of countless pleasures and joys that unite to present a single some-
thing, a unity or united affection that contains a harmony of countless