§514 our third state 307
a. Shattering experiences do happen in the other life—that is, some people who arrive there from
the world are shattered there: 698 , 7122 , 7474 , 9763. Upright people are shattered as regards false
elements, and evil people as to true ones: 7474 , 7541 , 7542. Shattering experiences happen to
upright people so that they can shed the earthly and worldly preoccupations they acquired while
they were living in the world: 7186 , 9763 ; and so that evil and false things may be removed, pro-
viding room for the infl ow of good and true things out of heaven from the Lord, and providing
the ability to accept them: 7122 , 9331 [ 9330 ]. We cannot be raised into heaven before things like
this are removed because they get in the way and do not agree with heavenly values: 6928 , 7122 ,
7136 [ 7186 ], 7541 , 7542 , 9763. This is how people who are to be raised into heaven are prepared:
4728 , 7090. It is dangerous for people to enter heaven before they have been prepared: 537 , 538.
On the state of enlightenment and the joy of people who are emerging from shattering experi-
ences and being raised into heaven, and on how they are accepted there: 2699 , 2701 , 2704. The
area where shattering experiences take place is called “the lower earth”: 4728 , 7090. A description
of this area under the soles of the feet, surrounded by hells: 4940 – 4951 , 7090 ; from experience:
699. The particular hells that attack and shatter more than the others: 7317 , 7502 , 7545. People
who attack and shatter upright souls later fear and fl ee and avoid them: 7768. These attacks and
shattering experiences take different forms depending on the stubbornness of the evil and false
elements and the manner and mode in which they persist: 1106 – 1113. Some people undergo shat-
tering experiences willingly: 1107. Some people are shattered by fears: 4942 ; some by being
assailed by evil things they had done in the world and false things they had thought in the world,
which gives rise to anxiety and pangs of conscience: 1106. Some are shattered by spiritual impris-
onment, which is ignorance and deprivation of truth yoked to a longing to know what is true:
1109 , 2694 ; some during their sleep, and some during states halfway between waking and sleep,
with a description: 1108. People who have claimed credit for their deeds seem to be chopping
wood: 1110. And so on, with a wide range of variety: 699.
have already been prepared for heaven by the Lord and are taken up into
heaven by a different route. For some, this happens immediately after
death. For others, it happens after a short stay with good spirits for the
removal of the cruder elements of their thoughts and affections (acquired
because of concerns for rank and wealth in the world), and their con-
sequent purifi cation. Some people are shattered fi rst, which happens in
sites under the soles of the feet called the lower earth, where they suf-
fer harsh treatment. These are people who have convinced themselves
of false principles but still have lived good lives. False convictions cling
hard, and until they are dispelled, truths cannot be seen and therefore
cannot be accepted. These shattering experiences and the different ways
they happen have been treated in Secrets of Heaven, though, and some
references to that work are appended in the note.a
The people who are at these instructional sites reside apart from one 514
another. As individuals, they are inwardly in touch with the communities
of heaven they are headed for; and since heaven’s communities are arranged
in a heavenly form (see above, §§ 200 – 212 ), so too are the sites where the
teaching takes place. As a result, when you look at these sites from heaven,
they look like a heaven in lesser form. In length they stretch from east to