§603 freedom & inflow: references 367
knew this, and they kept saying that they knew it because it was true. The
intelligent people were amazed that simple people had this kind of faith
when they themselves did not.
I could see from this that everyone who is united to heaven has an
instinctive notion about life after death. The sole source of this instinc-
tive notion is the infl ow from heaven, that is, through heaven from the
Lord, by means of spirits who are assigned to us from the world of spirits.
This instinctive notion is possessed by people who have not stifl ed their
freedom of thought by assumptions about the human soul that they have
seized on and confi rmed by various means, assumptions that the soul is
either pure thought or some animate principle whose seat they seek in
the body. However, the soul is nothing more nor less than our life, while
the spirit is the actual person, and the body is an earthly thing we carry
around in the world. It is only an agent through which our spirit, the
actual person, acts in a way that is adapted to the natural world.
What I have been saying in this book about heaven, the world of 603
spirits, and hell will be obscure to people who fi nd no delight in know-
ing about spiritual truths; but it will be clear to people who do have this
delight, especially to people involved in an affection for truth for its own
sake—that is, people who love truth because it is true. Anything that is
loved enters into the concepts of our minds with light, especially when
what is loved is true, because all truth is in the light.
References to Passages in Secrets of Heaven
Concerning Our Freedom, Infl ow, and the Spirits
Who Are the Means of Communication
[ 2 ] On Freedom. All freedom is a matter of love or affection, because
whatever we love, we do freely: 2870 , 3158 , 8907 [ 8987 ], 8990 , 9585 , 9591.
Since freedom is a matter of love, it is the life of every individual: 2873.
Nothing seems to be part of us unless it comes from freedom: 2880.
There is a heavenly freedom and a hellish freedom: 2870 , 2873 , 2874 ,
9589 , 9590.