§496 our first state 295
Since the life of newly arrived spirits is not unlike their life in the 495
world, and since they do not know anything about life after death,
heaven, or hell except what they have learned from the literal meaning
of the Word and some sermons drawn from it, once they get over their
astonishment at being in a body and enjoying all the senses they had
in the world, seeing familiar things around them, they find themselves
wanting to know what heaven and hell are like and where they are. Con-
sequently, their friends tell them about the state of eternal life and take
them around to various places, into the company of different people.
They go to different cities, to gardens and parks, often to gorgeous ones,
because things like this appeal to the outward concerns they are involved
in. Then from time to time they are led into the thoughts they had dur-
ing their physical lives about the state of the soul after death and about
heaven and hell. This brings them to the point of resentment that they
were so ignorant about such matters, and also that the church was so
ignorant.
Almost all of them want to know whether they will make it into heaven.
Many of them think they will because they led moral and civic lives in the
world, not refl ecting that both evil and good people lead similar outward
lives, being similarly helpful to others, going to church, listening to sermons,
and praying similarly, utterly unaware that outward behavior and outward
worship accomplish nothing whatever; only the inner realities that give rise
to these outward ones are effective. Scarcely one person in thousands even
knows what the inner realities are or that they are the focal point of heaven
and the church for us. Even fewer realize that the quality of our outward
actions is determined by the quality of our intentions and thoughts and the
love and faith within them, from which our actions arise. Even when they
are told this, they do not grasp the fact that thinking and intending are what
make the difference; they believe instead that all that matter are the words
they say and deeds they do. Many of the people who are coming into the
other life from the Christian world are like this nowadays.
Eventually, good spirits examine them to determine their nature. This 496
is done in various ways because in this fi rst state evil people can say true
things and do good things just the way good people do. As I have already
explained, this is because they have lived just as morally in outward form
because they were living under governments and laws, and because this
gained them a reputation for fairness and honesty, won people over to
them, and raised them to high offi ce and wealth. However, one can tell
evil spirits from good ones particularly by the fact that the evil ones pay
close attention when the conversation is about external concerns and little