126 HEAVEN and HELL §244
words that yield meaning only the way they do when we on earth talk
with each other.
There is also a language of facial expressions that switch over to a
sound modifi ed by ideas, and a language in which images of heaven are
combined with concepts and the concepts are presented visually. There
is also a language of bodily movements responsive to affections and por-
traying the same things that their verbal expressions do. There is a lan-
guage of shared affections and of shared thoughts; there is a thunderous
language; and there are other languages as well.245 The language of evil and hellish spirits is much the same, because it
too stems from their affections, but it comes from evil affections and their
foul concepts, which are utterly repugnant to angels. This means that the
languages of hell are opposite to the languages of heaven. Evil people can-
not stand angelic speech, and angels cannot stand hellish speech. To
angels, hellish speech is like a rank odor that assaults the nostrils.
The language of hypocrites—people who can imitate angels of
light—is like that of angels as far as its words are concerned, but exactly
opposite in respect to its affections and their individual thoughts. So
when the inner quality of their speech is perceived, as it is by wise angels,
it sounds like a grinding of teeth and strikes horror into them.How Angels Talk with Us
246
A
NGELS who talk with us do not talk in their own language but in
ours, or in other languages in which we may be fl uent—not in lan-
guages of which we have no knowledge. The reason for this is that when
angels talk with us they turn toward us and unite with us; and one con-
sequence of this union is that the two parties have much the same
thought processes. Since our thinking is closely allied with our memory,
and our language fl ows from it, the two parties share the same language.
Further, when angels or spirits come to us and unite with us by turning
toward us, they enter into our whole memory so completely that it seems