the positions you have taken in favor of nature have more or less killed
you, at least in areas related to God, heaven, and the church, as well as
in the realm of your own souls.
“Nevertheless the intellects of all people, the evil as well as the good,
can rise all the way to the light where the angels of heaven are. There
they can all see that there is a God and a life after death. They can see
that our souls are not ethereal; they are not made out of the nature of
the physical world; they are spiritual and therefore will live forever. Our
intellects are capable of being in that angelic light as long as our physi-
cal loves are removed—loves that belong to the physical world and favor
it and its nature, and loves that belong to the body and favor it and its
sense of self.”
[ 8 ] At that point the Lord instantly removed loves like that from the
philosophers, and they were allowed to talk with angels. From their con-
versation in that state they became aware that there is a God and that they
were living after death in another world. They blushed with complete
embarrassment and cried, “We have been insane! We have been insane!”
This was not, however, their own state, so after a few minutes it
became tiresome and unwelcome to them. They turned their backs on
the priest, not wanting to hear him talking anymore, and returned to
their former loves, which were merely material, worldly, and bodily.
They headed off to the left, wandering from community to community.
Eventually they came to a road where they felt a breeze that brought them
pleasure in things they loved the most, so they said, “Let’s take this road.”
They took it and went downward. Eventually they came to spirits
who felt pleasure in the same kinds of love and worse. Since those
philosophers felt pleasure in doing evil things, and had in fact done evil
things to many along the way, they were imprisoned and became demons.
Then their pleasure turned into torment. Punishments and fear of pun-
ishment restrained them and reined them in from the former pleasure
that constituted their nature.
They asked people who were in the same prison, “Are we going to
live like this forever?”
Some answered, “We’ve been here for a number of centuries, and
we’ll be here forever and ever. The nature we developed in the world can-
not be changed. Not even punishments can drive this nature out of us—
if they do succeed in driving it out, after a little while it comes rushing
back in again.”80 The fifth memorable occurrence.On one occasion a satan was allowed
to come up from hell. A woman came with him. He came to the house