point of view, these people’s goodwill is like bread made out of ashes, a
cake made out of fish scales, or a piece of fruit made out of wax.The Bond of Love between Evil People
Is Actually a Deep Mutual Hatred454 I showed above [§§^401 ,^420 ] that we each have an inner level and an
outer level and that our inner level is called our inner self and our outer
level is called our outer self.
To those points I will add the following: Our inner self is in the spir-
itual world and our outer self is in the physical world. We have been cre-
ated with this nature so that we can be associated with spirits and angels
in their world and be able to think analytically as a result, and also so that
we can be transferred from our world to the other world after we die.
“The spiritual world” means both heaven and hell. Since our inner
self is present with spirits and angels in their world and our outer self is
present with people, clearly we can be associated with spirits from hell
and with angels from heaven. This faculty and ability differentiates us
from animals.
The way we are in our inner self is the way we truly are. We are not
necessarily the way we appear on the outside. Our inner self is our spirit.
It acts through our outer level. The physical body that our spirit wears in
the physical world is something added on so that we can reproduce and
so that our inner self can be formed. Our inner self is formed in our
physical body like a tree in the ground or a seed in a piece of fruit. (For a
number of points about the inner and outer self see § 401 above.)455 a What evil people are like in their inner self and what good people are
like in theirs can be seen from the following brief description of hell and
heaven: Evil people’s inner selves are connected with devils in hell. Good
people’s inner selves are connected with angels in heaven.
Because of the loves it has, hell enjoys the pleasures of all kinds of
evil; that is, the pleasure in hatred, in revenge, in killing; the pleasure in
looting and stealing; the pleasure in verbal abuse and blasphemy; the
pleasure in denying God and desecrating the Word. These pleasures lie
hidden in cravings on which we do not reflect. Evil people burn with
these pleasures like torches on fire. The pleasures just listed are what the
Word means by hellfire.