§591 equilibrium 361
a. Traveling in the Word means a process of life, as does going: 3335 , 4375 , 4554 , 4585 , 4882 , 5493 ,
5606 [ 5605 ], 5996 , 5181 [ 8181 ], 8345 , 8397 , 8417 , 8420 , 8557. Going and walking with the Lord is
accepting spiritual life and living with him: 10567. Walking is living: 519 , 1794 , 8417 , 8420.
b. A spiritual aura fl ows out in waves from every human being, spirit, and angel, and surrounds
them: 4464 , 5179 , 7454 , 8630. It fl ows out from the life of our affections and their thoughts: 2489 ,
4464 , 6206 – 6207. The quality of spirits can be discerned from a distance by their auras: 1048 ,
1053 , 1316 , 1504. The auras of evil people clash with those of good people: 1695 , 10187 , 10312.
These auras have a wide outreach in angelic communities, depending on the kind and amount of
their good: 6598 – 6613 [ 6598 – 6612 ], 8063 , 8794 , 8797 ; and in hellish communities depending on
the kind and amount of their evil: 8794 , 8797.
c. Our own self-image is nothing but evil: 210 , 215 , 731 , 874 , 875 , 876 , 987 , 1047 , 2307 , 2318
[ 2308 ], 3518 , 3701 , 3812 , 8480 , 8550 , 10283 , 10284 , 10286 , 10731 [ 10732 ]. Our self-image is hell for
us: 694 , 8480.
there. This allows everyone to be examined there as to quality, since we
keep the same kind of freedom we had in the world. Spiritual equilibrium
is a state of freedom for us and for spirits, as just noted (§ 589 ).
Angels in heaven can tell the kind of freedom people have by a com-
munication of affections and consequent thoughts. It also becomes vis-
ible to angelic spirits from the paths people follow: good spirits follow
paths that lead to heaven, and evil spirits follow paths that lead to hell.
These paths are actually visible in that world, which is why paths in the
Word mean truths that lead to what is good, or in an opposite sense, fal-
sities that lead to what is evil. This is also why going, walking, and travel-
ing in the Word mean processes of life.a I have often been allowed to see
paths like these, with spirits walking along on them freely, in accord with
their own affections and consequent thoughts.
The reason evil is constantly emanating up from hell and good emanat- 591
ing down from heaven is that everyone is surrounded by a spiritual aura,
an aura that fl ows out in waves from the life of our affections and their
thoughts.b Further, since this kind of aura fl ows out from every individual,
it also fl ows out from every heavenly community and every hellish com-
munity, therefore from everyone at once, or from all heaven and all hell.
The reason good fl ows out from heaven is that everyone there is involved
in what is good, and the reason evil fl ows out from hell is that everyone
there is involved in what is evil. All the good that comes from heaven is
from the Lord, since the angels who are in the heavens are all kept out of
their self-image and kept in the Lord’s image, which is goodness itself. On
the other hand, all the spirits who are in the hells are in their own self-
image and everyone’s own self-image is nothing but evil; and since it is
nothing but evil, it is hell.c