diffuse themselves into the spiritual world, in every direction, not unlike the rays of light diffused from flame. Inasmuch as the spiritual world consists of heaven and hell; and heaven consists of innumerable societies, and in like manner hell, hence the thoughts of man must needs diffuse themselves into societies; spiritual thoughts, which relate to the Lord, to love and faith in him, and to the truths and goods of heaven and the church, into heavenly societies; but thoughts merely natural, which relate to self and the world, and the love thereof, and not to God at the same time, into infernal societies. That there is such an extension and determination of all the thoughts of man, has hitherto been unknown, because it was unknown what the quality of heaven is, and what the quality of hell, thus that they consist of societies, consequently that there is an extension of the thoughts of man into another world than the natural, into which latter world, also, there is an extension of the sight of his eyes; but it is the spiritual world into which thought extends itself, and it is the natural world into which vision extends itself, since the thought of the mind is spiritual, and the vision of the eye is natural. That there is an extension of all the thoughts of man into the societies of the spirital world, and that no thought can be given without such extension, has been so testified : to myself from the experience of several years, that, with all faith, I can assert it to be true. In a word, man with his head is in the spiritual world, as with his body he is in the natural world by head is here meant his mind, consisting of understanding, thought, will, and love; and by body is here meant his senses, which are seeing, hearing, smelling, taste, and touch and whereas man as to his head, that is, as to his mind, is in the spiritual world, therefore he is either in heaven or in hell, and where the mind is, there the whole man is with head and body, when he becomes a spirit; and man is altogether of a quality agreeable to his conjunction with the societies of the spiritual world, being an angel of a quality agreeable to his conjunction with the societies of heaven, or a devil of a quality agreeable to his conjunction with the societies of hell. 3. From what has been said, it is evident that the thoughts of man are extensions into societies either heavenly or infernal, and that unless they were extensions they would be no thoughts; for the thought of man is as the sight of his eyes, which, unless it had extension out of itself, would either be no sight, or be blindness. But man's love is what determines his thoughts into societies, good love determining them into heavenly societies, and evil love into infernal societies: for the universal heaven is arranged into societies, according to all the varieties of love-affections, in general, in species, and in particular; on the other hand, hell is arranged into societies according to the lusts of the love of evil, opposite to the affections of the love of good. Man's love is comparatively as fire, and his thoughts are as rays of light thence derived; if the love be good, in such case the thoughts, which are as rays, are truths; if the love be evil, the radiant thoughts are falsities. Thoughts derived from good love, which are truths, tend towards heaven, but thoughts derived from evil love, which are falsities, tend towards hell, and conjoin, inapt, and as it were inosculate themselves into homogeneous societies, viz. such as are of like love, so entirely, that the man is altogether one with those societies. Man, by love to the Lord, is an image of him: the Lord is Divine love, and in heaven before the angels he appears as a sun: from that sun proceeds light and heat, light is the Divine truth, and heat is the Divine good; the universal heaven is from both, and so are all the societies of heaven. The Lord's love with man, who is an image of him, is as fire from that sun, from which fire in like manner proceed light and heat: the light so proceeding is the truth of faith, and the heat is the good of love, each from the Lord, and each is inserted into the societies with which the man's love acts in unity. That man from creation is an image and likeness of God, is evident from Genesis i. 26, and the reason why he is an image and likeness of the Lord by love, is, because man by love is in the Lord and the Lord in him, John xiv. 20, 21. In a word, there cannnot exist the smallest portion of thought, but what has reception given it in some society, not with the individuals or angels of the society, but with the affection of love, from which and in which that society is; hence it is, that the angels are not conscious in their turn of any thing respecting the influx, neither does the influx in any manner disturb the society. From these considerations the above truth is evident, that man is in conjunction with heaven whilst he lives in the world, and likewise in consociation with the angels, although both men and angels are ignorant of it the cause of their ignorance is, because the thought of man is natural, and the thought of an angel spiritual, which make one only by correspondence. Inasmuch as man, by the thoughts of his love, is inaugurated into societies either of heaven or hell, therefore, when he comes into the spiritual world, as is the case immediately after death, his quality is known merely by the extensions of his thoughts into societies, and thus every one is explored; he is also reformed by the admissions of his thoughts into the societies of heaven, and he is condemned by the immersions of his thoughts into the societies of hell. 4. Since man, at his birth, is not in any society either heavenly or infernal, inasmuch as he is without thought, and yet is born for eternal life, it follows that, in process of time, he either opens heaven to himself, or opens hell, and enters into societies, and becomes an inhabitant either of heaven or of hell, even during his abode in the world: the reason why man becomes an inhabitant there is, because in the spiritual world is his real habitation, and, as it is called, his country, for he is to live there to eternity, after he has lived a few years in the natural world. From these considerations, it may be concluded, how necessary it is for man to know, what opens heaven with him, and introduces him into its societies; also, what opens hell with him, and introduces him into its societies; this will be shewn in the following articles and suffice it to observe at present, that man lets himself into societies of heaven successively more and more, according to increments of wisdom, and into more and more interior societies successively, according to increments of the love of good; also, in proportion as heaven is opened to him, in the same proportion hell is closed: nevertheless, man himself opens to himself hell, but heaven is opened to man by the Lord. 5. The first and primary thought, which opens heaven to man, is thought concerning God; the reason is, because God is the All of |