community of hell if love for ourselves or for the world was primary
among all the things we love.
After we have entered the spiritual world—which happens as a result
of our dying and our physical body being laid to rest in the grave—we
next spend a while being prepared for the community to which we have
been assigned. This preparation is a matter of our rejecting things we love
that do not agree with our primary love. During this same period of
time, people are separated from each other—friends are separated, fol-
lowers are separated from their leaders, parents are separated from their
offspring, and siblings are separated from each other. Then we all become
deeply attached to people similar to ourselves with whom we are going to
live a life that is both shared and is truly our own to eternity.
During the first part of this preparation people meet and talk in a
friendly way as they had in the world. Little by little, however, they are
separated from each other. It happens without their realizing it.448 People who have forged a bond of love with each other in the world,
however, cannot be separated in an orderly way (as other people are) to
become part of a community that relates to their life. People with bonds
of love are spiritually bonded in a deep way. They cannot be pulled apart,
because they are like branches that have been grafted onto other
branches. If one of them is inwardly in heaven but the other is inwardly
in hell, they are stuck together much like a sheep that is tied to a wolf, a
goose that is tied to a fox, or a dove that is tied to a hawk. The one who is
inwardly in hell arouses hellish impulses in the one who is inwardly in
heaven.
One among the many things that are recognized in heaven is that good
people can be influenced to have evil impulses, but evil people cannot be
influenced to have good impulses. (The reason is that we all have evil qual-
ities from birth.) Good people who are stuck to evil people have their
deeper levels closed off as a result, and both are pushed down into hell in
pairs. There the good person suffers hardships. Finally, after a period of
time she or he is released and then starts to prepare for heaven.
I have been allowed to see bonds like this, especially between siblings
and relatives, but also between leaders and followers. Many had bonds of
love with their admirers. The members of these pairings had opposite
feelings and different natures. I saw some of them that looked like goats
with leopards, kissing each other and swearing allegiance to their former
friendship. Then I sensed that the good people were absorbing pleasure
in evils. I saw the pairs holding hands and going into caves together. In