§47 countless communities 25
c. All freedom is a matter of love and attraction, because whatever we love we do freely: 2870 ,
3158 , 8907 [ 8987 ], 8990 , 9585 , 9591. Since freedom is a matter of love, it is the source of life and
joy for every individual: 2873. Nothing seems to be our own unless it comes from freedom: 2880.
The very essence of freedom is to be led by the Lord, because in this way we are led by a love for
what is good and true: 892 , 905 , 2872 , 2886 , 2890 , 2891 , 2892 , 9096 , 9586 – 9591.
d. In heaven, all matters of proximity, family, kindred, and apparent blood relationship arise
from what is good and depend on its affi nities and differences: 695 [ 685 ], 917 , 1394 , 2739 , 3612 ,
3815 , 4121.
he keeps every individual in the life of her or his own love, faith, intelli-
gence, and wisdom—and therefore in happiness.c
Further, people of similar quality all recognize each other there just 46
the way people in this world recognize their neighbors and relatives and
friends, even though they may never have seen each other before. This
happens because the only relationships and kinships and friendships in
the other life are spiritual ones, and are therefore matters of love and
faith.d
I have often been allowed to see this when I was in the spirit and
therefore out of body and in the company of angels. Then some of them
looked to me as though I had known them from infancy, while others
seemed totally unfamiliar. The ones who looked as though I had known
them from infancy were the ones who were in a state like that of my own
spirit, while the unfamiliar ones were in dissimilar states.
All the individuals who make up a particular angelic community 47
have a general facial resemblance, but differ in detail. I could grasp this
general similarity and particular difference to some extent on the basis of
similar situations in this world. We know that every race has a general
similarity about the face and eyes that enables us to recognize it and dis-
tinguish it from other races, and that the same is even more true from
one family to another. This holds true much more perfectly in the heav-
ens, because there all the deeper feelings are visible and shine forth from
the face, the face there being their outward and graphic form. It is not
possible in heaven to have a face that differs from our feelings.
I have also been shown how this general similarity is varied in detail
in the individuals of a single community. There was a kind of angelic
face that appeared to me, and this was varied according to the qualities of
affections for the good and the true that were characteristic of the indi-
viduals in a particular community. These variations lasted quite a while,
and through it all I noticed that the same general face remained constant