§436 inwardly we are spirits 251
People who have convinced themselves of an opposite opinion tend
to think that animals live and sense just the way we do, so that they
too have a spiritual nature like ours; yet this dies along with their bod-
ies. However, the spiritual nature of animals is not the same as ours.
We have an inmost nature that animals do not, a nature into which the
Divine fl ows and which it raises toward itself, in this way uniting us to
itself. So we, unlike animals, can think about God and about divine mat-
ters of heaven and the church. We can love God because of these matters
and by engaging with them; and can so be united to him; and anything
that can be united to the Divine cannot be destroyed. Anything that can-
not be united to the Divine, though, does disintegrate. In § 39 above, I
discussed this inmost that we have and animals do not. The reason for
mentioning it again here is that it is important to dispel the illusions
many people get from [believing that animals are just like humans], peo-
ple who cannot draw rational conclusions about these subjects because
they lack information or because their intellect is not open. What I said
there was as follows:
I should like to disclose a particular secret about the angels of the
three heavens that people have not been aware of until now because
they have not understood the levels discussed in § 38. It is this, that
within every angel—and within every one of us here—there is a central
or highest level, or a central and highest something, where the Lord’s
divine life fl ows in fi rst and most intimately. It is from this center that
the Lord arranges the other, relatively internal aspects within us that
follow in sequence according to the levels of the overall design. This
central or highest level can be called the Lord’s gateway to angels or to
us, his essential dwelling within us.
It is this central or highest level that makes us human and distin-
guishes us from the lower animals, since they do not have it. This is
why we, unlike animals, can be raised up by the Lord toward himself,
as far as all the deeper levels of our mind and character are concerned.
This is why we can believe in him, be moved by love for him, and
therefore see him. It is why we can receive intelligence and wisdom,
and talk rationally. It is also why we live forever.
However, what is arranged and provided by the Lord at this cen-
ter does not fl ow into the open perception of any angel, because it is
higher than angelic thought, and surpasses angelic wisdom.A great deal of experience has taught me that we are spirits inwardly, 436
experience that would fi ll whole volumes, as they say, if I were to include