§583 appearance & location 355
all come from a spiritual source, so they are visible to the eyes of spirits
and angels but not to our eyes because we are in a natural world. Spiritual
people see things that come from a spiritual source, and natural people
see things that come from a natural source. This means that there is no
way for our eyes to see things in the spiritual world unless we are allowed
to be in the spirit, or until we become spirits after death. On the other
hand, angels and spirits are utterly incapable of seeing anything in the
natural world unless they are with some one of us who has been allowed
to talk with them. Our eyes are adapted to receive the light of the natural
world, and the eyes of angels and spirits are adapted to receive the light of
the spiritual world; yet the two kinds of eyes look exactly alike.
Natural people cannot understand that the spiritual world is like this,
and sense-centered people even less so, being people who believe noth-
ing unless they can see it with their physical eyes and touch it with their
hands. This means they believe only what they glean through their sight
and touch and that they think on this basis; so their thought is material
and not spiritual.
Because of this resemblance between the spiritual world and the nat-
ural world, it is hard for people after death to realize that they are not in
the world where they were born, the world they have just left; so they
actually call death nothing but a crossing from one world into another
like it.
On this kind of resemblance between the two worlds, see the discus-
sion above of representations and appearances in heaven (§§ 170 – 176 ).
The heavens there are on the higher ground, the world of spirits there 583
is in the lower areas, and beneath both lie the hells.
The heavens are not visible to spirits in the world of spirits unless
their inner sight has been opened. Sometimes they do appear, looking
like gleaming white clouds. This is because heaven’s angels are in a more
inward state as regards their intelligence and wisdom, so they are beyond
the sight of people in the world of spirits.
The spirits who are in the plains and valleys can see each other,
though when they are being sorted out (which happens when they are
being let into their inner natures), then evil spirits do not see the good
ones. The good ones can still see the evil ones, but they turn away from
them, and spirits who turn away become hard to see.
The hells themselves, though, are not visible, because they are closed.
All one can see are the entrances, called gates, when they open to admit
spirits like the ones already there. All the gates into the hells open from
the world of spirits, none from heaven.