[ 5 ] I could see and hear the two angels and the satans because they
were standing not far from me. To my surprise, around them I saw many
who had been famous scholars when they were in the physical world. I
was amazed to notice that at one moment the scholars would stand
beside the angels and the next moment beside the satans; they agreed
with whomever they were standing beside.
I was told, “The changes in place the scholars make are actually the
changes of state in their mind as they agree first with one side and then
with the next. They are chameleons in their beliefs. What’s more, we’ll
tell you a mystery. We have looked down into the world at famous schol-
ars and have found that six hundred out of a thousand are for nature and
the rest are for God. Furthermore, we found that the only reason there
were even that many for God was that they often made statements based
not on any comprehension but merely on their having heard that nature
comes from God. Repeated statements based on something remembered
give the impression of belief even when there is no thought or under-
standing there.”
[ 6 ] Afterward the satans were granted protection and went up with
the two angels into heaven. They did indeed see magnificent and daz-
zling things. Enlightened in the light of heaven there, they acknowledged
that there is a God, that nature was created to serve the life that comes
from God, and that nature of itself is dead. It activates nothing on its
own; instead it is activated by life.
When they had seen and learned these things they went back down.
As they went down, their love for evil returned. It closed off their intel-
lect at the top and opened it up at the bottom; above it there appeared a
dark shadow flashing with hellfire. The instant they set foot on the
ground it opened up under them and they fell back down to their own
people.78 The third memorable occurrence.The next day an angel from some
community in heaven came to me and said, “In our community we
heard that you were summoned to a community close to ours because
you were meditating on the creation of the universe and that you talked
to them about creation. At the time they agreed with what you told
them; later it also made them very happy. Now I will show you how God
produced animals and plants of every kind.”
The angel took me down to a huge green meadow and said, “Look
around.”