Everything in the spiritual meaning is genuinely true. For this reason,
when we have false ideas and apply the literal meaning to them, then our
reading becomes entangled in false ideas; and when false ideas come in,
true ideas are lost along the way between us and heaven.
For an analogy to this interaction, imagine someone throwing a bal-
loon full of bile toward you, but before it reaches you the balloon bursts in
midair and the bile goes in all directions. Aware that there is bile in the air,
you turn away and shut your mouth so the bile will not touch your tongue.
Or imagine traveling with a jar that is cushioned by boughs of cedar.
Inside the jar there is vinegar that is full of worms. During the journey,
the jar breaks. Another passenger catches a whiff of it and, feeling nau-
seous, immediately grabs something to fan the smell away before it
becomes overwhelming.
Or imagine an almond shell that has a tiny newborn snake inside it
instead of an almond. Someone breaks open the shell and the wind car-
ries the tiny snake right toward your eyes. Clearly, you would try to turn
away before it hit you.
Similar things happen when the Word is read by people who have
false ideas and who apply statements from the Word’s literal meaning to
those false ideas. En route to heaven, their reading is rejected to prevent it
from flowing in and assaulting the angels. When falsity touches truth, it is
like the point of a needle touching a fibril of your nervous system or the
pupil of your eye. Science knows that the fibril of a nerve will immedi-
ately recoil and bunch up. In a similar way, as soon as something touches
your eye, your eyelid closes. Clearly then, truth that has been falsified
breaks and closes the channel of communication with heaven. This is why
it is damning to become adamant about some heretical falsity.
The Word is like a garden—it ought to be called a heavenly paradise. 259
In that garden there are delicacies and pleasures of every kind. There are
delicacies made with the different kinds of fruit and pleasures to be had
from the flowers. In the middle of the garden there are trees of life with
fountains of living water next to them. Surrounding the garden are the
trees of a forest.
People who have divine truths because they have a body of teaching
are in the middle of the garden where the trees of life stand. These people
actively enjoy the garden’s delicacies and pleasures. People who have
truths from the literal meaning but no body of teaching are in the sur-
rounding area; all they see are the things in the forest. People whose body
§259 sacred scripture 325