165、最后，我与这个星球的灵人谈论我们地球居民对于复活的信仰。我说，他们无法想象人死后立即进入来世，并且脸、身体、手臂、脚，以及一切感觉，无论外在的，还是内在的，看上去和世人的一样。他们更不能相信，那时他们会穿着衣服，有房子和住处。这完全是由于以下事实：地球上绝大多数人基于身体感官印象思考，因而不相信无法看见和摸到的任何事物的存在。他们当中很少有人从外在感官印象退出，然后转向内在印象，从而被提升到能觉察这类内在印象所在的天堂之光。正因如此，他们对于他们的灵魂或灵是一个人没有任何概念，反而认为它就像风，空气或含有某种生命之物的无形气息。这就是为何他们以为他们只有等到世界的末了才能复活的原因；他们将这世界的末了称为最后的审判，并认为，他们的肉体尽管已化为尘土，分散到四风中，但仍能被带回来，与它的灵魂和灵重新联合。
我补充说，他们之所以被允许如此相信，是因为如我所说过的，那些基于外在感官印象思考的人，若不通过重新进入他们在世时所携带的肉体，就无法对他们那以人的形式作为一个人活着的灵魂或灵形成任何概念。因此，除非有人说，这身体会复活，否则，他们会因无法理解而发自内心拒绝复活和永生的教义。不过，关于复活的这种思维有这样一个好处：他们信死后的生命。其结果就是，当他们躺在病床上奄奄一息，不再像以前那样基于世俗和肉体事物，因而基于感官印象进行思考时，就会相信他们死后立即复活。
这时，他们还谈论天堂，以及他们希望死后怎样在那里生活，并把他们有关最后审判的教义抛到一边。我告诉这些灵人，我如何好几次惊讶地发现：当那些有信仰的人谈论死后的生命，以及他们即将死去或已经死去的朋友，同时不去思想最后的审判时，都认为他们的朋友死后立即活着，或像人一样活着。可就在他们开始谈论最后审判的那一刻，这种观念就变成他们肉体的物质观念，他们认为这肉体必与他们的灵魂重新联合。
因为他们没有意识到，每个人就其内层而言，就是一个灵；身体及其所有部位的生命皆来自灵，而非身体本身。他们不知道，灵才是真正的这个人，并具有人的形式，只是不为肉眼所见，但能被灵眼看见。也正因如此，当人之灵的视觉通过移除肉体视觉而被打开时，天使就会作为人被看见。天使就这样向古人显现，如圣言所述。我曾与一些灵人有过几次交谈，这些灵人在世为人时我就认识他们。我问他们想不想再次披上他们的肉体，就像他们以前所想的那样。他们闻听此言，一想到与肉体结合，就远远地跑开了，并为自己在世时因盲目的信仰，未经任何理解就如此思想而感到震惊。
165. Finally, I talked with some spirits of that planet about what people on our planet believe about resurrection [immediately after death], saying that people from our planet cannot conceive of the idea that we come into the other life immediately after death and then look like people, with faces, bodies, arms, legs, and all our outer and inner senses, let alone that we wear clothes and have houses and homes. The sole reason for this is that most people on our planet base their thinking on their physical senses and therefore do not believe anything exists that they are unable to see or touch. Few of them can be lifted up from their outer senses to their inner ones and thus be raised into the light of heaven, in which we become aware of things like this. As a result, they are incapable of having any concept of their soul or spirit as human, only a concept of something like a formless breeze or air or breath that nevertheless has some life in it. This is why they believe they will be resurrected only at the end of the world, which they call the Last Judgment, and that then their bodies-even though they have disintegrated into dust and been scattered to all winds-will be reassembled and united with their souls or spirits. 1
[2] I added that they are allowed to believe this because people who base their thinking on their physical senses (as just noted) inevitably believe that the soul or spirit cannot live as an individual in human form unless it regains the body that it carried around in the world; so unless that body were said to rise again, they would reject from their hearts as incomprehensible any teaching about resurrection or eternal life.
[3] However, this thought about resurrection has one benefit at least, namely, that they do believe in life after death, and it follows from this belief that when they are lying sick in bed and not thinking as usual about worldly and bodily concerns, and therefore not thinking on the basis of their senses, then they believe they are going to continue living immediately after they die. At such times they actually talk about heaven and their hope of a life there as soon as they die, which has nothing to do with what is taught about the Last Judgment.
I went on to tell these spirits that sometimes I have marveled at the fact that when those who are part of the [Christian] faith talk about life and death and about people they know who are dying or have died but are not thinking at that moment about the Last Judgment, they believe their loved ones will live or are living as people immediately after death. But as soon as a thought about the Last Judgment comes into their minds, their view changes into a materialistic concept of the earthly body and its eventual reunion with the soul.
[4] They are unaware that in our inner selves we are all spirits already and that this is what is alive in our bodies and in every detail of them: the body does not live on its own. For all of us, it is the spirit that gives the body its human form. We are primarily our spirit, 2and our spirit has a form similar [to a body]-a form that is invisible to physical eyes, but visible to the eyes of other spirits. That is why when our spiritual sight is opened, a process that involves our physical sight becoming inoperative, the angels we see look like people. To the ancients as well, as is described in the Word, angels looked like people.
I have occasionally talked with spirits I had known when they were living in the world and have asked them whether they would like to put their earthly bodies on again, as they used to think would happen. At the mere mention of the idea they ran far into the distance, stunned with amazement that in the world they had harbored such thinking out of a blind and mindless faith.
Footnotes:
1. The belief that at the end of the world all people will be resurrected in reconstituted physical bodies has been common to many Christians throughout the ages. It is based on various passages of the Bible, including Job 19:25-27; Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 20:13. Compare also 1 Corinthians 15:35-55. It also appears in some form in more than one major Christian creed. For example, the Apostles’ Creed refers to the resurrection of the flesh, or physical body; the Athanasian Creed 41 refers to all people rising again “with their bodies.” The resurrection of physical bodies is forcefully rejected by Swedenborg in many passages of his works; see, for example, Secrets of Heaven 5078:3. He understood the resurrection as pertaining to a spiritual body rather than a physical body (on which see Other Planets 165:4 and note 2 in Other Planets 165 just below) in all cases but that of Jesus (on which exception see Secrets of Heaven 2083:2; The Lord 35[9-10]). For more on resurrection of the flesh in Christian thought, see note 1 in Last Judgment 24; on the topic as it appears in Enlightenment philosophy, see note 2 in Last Judgment 24. [SS, JSR]
2. For further discussion of the concept that human beings are spirits with respect to their inner natures, and that the body takes its form and its life from the spirit, see Secrets of Heaven 447, 4622:2, 4659, 6054; Heaven and Hell 432-444; Divine Love and Wisdom 92. Compare also note 1 in Last Judgment 30. [LSW]
165. Finally I talked with the spirits of that world about the belief of the inhabitants of our world concerning their resurrection. I said they were unable to conceive of people coming into the next life immediately after death, and then looking like people in face, body, arms and feet, having all their outward and inward senses. Even less could they believe that they would then wear clothes and have houses and places to live. This was entirely due to the fact that most people here base their thinking on bodily sense-impressions, so that they do not believe in the existence of what they cannot see and touch. Few of them can be withdrawn from outward sense-impressions towards inward ones, and so be lifted into the light of heaven in which inward impressions can be received. It is for this reason that they cannot have any concept of their soul or spirit as being a person, but think of it as wind, air or some formless breath, which yet contains some vitality. This is the reason that they believe they will only be resurrected at the end of the world, which they call the Last Judgment, thinking that their body, though collapsed into dust and scattered to all the winds, must then be brought back and reunited with their soul or spirit.
[2] I added that they are allowed to hold this belief, because there is no other way that those who, as I said, base their thinking on outward sense-impressions, could think of their soul or spirit living as a person in human form, except by re-entering the body they carried around with them in the world. Unless therefore the body were said to be resurrected, they would at heart reject the teaching on resurrection and everlasting life as incomprehensible.
Yet thinking like this about resurrection has this advantage, that they do believe in a life after death. The consequence of this belief is that, when they lie sick in bed and cease to base their thinking, as previously, on worldly and bodily matters, that is, on sense-impressions, they then believe that they will live again immediately after dying.
[3] At this time they also talk about heaven, and how they hope to live there as soon as they die, putting aside all they have been taught about the Last Judgment. I told them how I have several times been surprised how it is that, when those who have faith talk about life after death and their friends who are dying or have died, without at the same time thinking about the Last Judgment, they believe their friends will live or are living as people immediately after death. The moment they start thinking about the Last Judgment, this idea is changed into a material idea of their earthly body, which has to be reunited with their soul.
[4] For they are unaware that each person is inwardly a spirit, and the life of the body and all its parts comes from the spirit, not from the body by itself. They do not know that it is the spirit which is the real person, sharing its form, but invisible to the body's eyes, being visible only to the eyes of spirits. Hence it is too that, when a person's spirit has its sight opened, which is the result of the withdrawal of the body's sight, angels can be seen as people. So it was that angels appeared to the ancients, as related in the Word.
I have had several conversations with spirits whom I knew when they were people living in the world, and asked whether they wanted to be clothed again with their earthly bodies, as they had previously imagined. On hearing this they ran off to a distance at the mere idea of being reunited, in astonishment at having been led in the world to think so by blind faith without any understanding.
165. At length I spoke with the spirits of that earth about the belief of the inhabitants of our earth concerning the resurrection, that they cannot conceive of men's coming into the other life immediately after death, and then appearing like men as to face, body, arms, feet, and all the senses, both external and internal; and still less of their being then clothed with garments and having mansions and dwellings. And the reason is that most of them there think from the sensual things which are of the body, and therefore believe in the existence of nothing which they do not see and touch. And few of them can be drawn away from external sensual things to what is interior, and so be elevated into the light of heaven in which such interior things are perceived. Hence it is, that in regard to their soul or spirit they cannot have any idea of it as a man, but as of wind, air, or breath, without form, in which there is yet something vital. This is why they do not believe they are to rise until the end of the world, which they call the Last Judgment; when they believe the body, though fallen into dust and dissipated to all the winds, will be brought back and joined to its soul and spirit. I added that they are permitted to believe this, for the reason that those who think from what is external and sensual, as has been said, can form no other idea than that one's soul or spirit can live as a man in the human form, only by regaining the body which it bore about in the world. And therefore, unless it were said that this would rise again, they would reject in heart the doctrine of a resurrection and eternal life, as incomprehensible. But still that thought about the resurrection has this use in it, that they believe in a life after death, from which belief it follows that when they lie sick in bed and do not think as before from what is worldly and corporeal, thus not from things sensual, they then believe that they shall live immediately after death. They also speak then about heaven, and about the hope of living there immediately after death, laying aside their doctrine about the Last Judgment. I told these spirits further, that I sometimes wondered that when those who are in faith speak of the life after death, and of their friends who are dying or who have died, and do not at the same time think of the Last Judgment, they believe that they will live as men immediately after death. But this idea, as soon as the thought of the Last Judgment flows in, is changed into a material idea about their earthly body, that it is to be again joined to its soul. For they do not know that every man is a spirit as to his interiors, and that it is the spirit which lives in the body and in all its parts, and not the body of itself; and that it is from the spirit of every one that the body has its human form, and thus it is the spirit which is chiefly the man, and in a similar form, but invisible to the eyes of the body, yet visible to the eyes of spirits. Hence also when the sight of a man's spirit is opened, which takes place by the removal of the sight of the body, angels appear as men. Thus did the angels appear to the ancients, as related in the Word. I have also spoken sometimes with spirits whom I knew when they lived as men in the world, and have asked them whether they wished to be clothed again with their earthly body, as they had once thought. On hearing which, at the mere idea of conjunction with the body they fled away, being struck with amazement that in the world they should have thus thought from blind faith without any understanding.
165. Demum loquutus sum cum spiritibus illius Telluris de fide incolarum nostrae Telluris de Resurrectione, quod non possint concipere, quod homines statim post mortem in alteram vitam veniant, et tunc appareant ut homines quoad faciem, corpus, brachia, pedes, et quoad omnes sensus externos et internos; et adhuc minus quod vestibus tunc sint induti; et quod mansiones et habitacula illis sint; et hoc solum ex causa, quia plerique ibi ex sensualibus quae sunt corporis cogitant, ac ideo credunt nihil esse quae non vident et tangunt: et quod pauci eorum subduci a sensualibus externis queant ad interiora, et sic elevari in lucem coeli, in qua talia percipiuntur: inde est, quod de Anima seu Spiritu suo non aliquam ideam hominis habere possint, sed ideam sicut de vento, aere aut pneumate nullius formae, in quo tamen aliquid vitale: haec causa est, quod non credant se resurrecturos quam in fine mundi, quem ultimum Judicium vocant, et tunc quod corpus tametsi collapsum in pulverem et dissipatum in omnes ventos, reducendum sit et conjungendum Animae suae seu spiritui suo: addebam, quod hoc permittatur illis credere, quoniam non aliter capere possunt, qui ex sensualibus externis, ut dictum est, cogitant, quam quod anima seu spiritus ejus non possit vivere homo in humana forma, nisi recipiat id corpus quod circumtulit in mundo; quare nisi diceretur id resurgere, Doctrinam de Resurrectione et de Vita aeterna ut incomprehensibilem e corde rejicerent. Sed usque illa cogitatio de Resurrectione secum id utile habet, quod credant vitam post mortem, ex qua fide sequitur, quod cum jacent aegroti in lecto, et non ex mundanis et corporeis, ita non ex sensualibus, ut prius, cogitant, tunc credant se statim post obitum victuros; loquuntur etiam tunc de coelo, ac de spe vitae ibi statim post mortem remotive a Doctrinali de Ultimo Judicio: narrabam porro, quod aliquoties miratus sim, quod quando illi qui in fide sunt loquuntur de vita post mortem, deque suis qui obeunt vel obiverunt, et tunc non simul cogitant de Ultimo Judicio, credant illos victuros aut vivere homines statim post obitum; sed haec idea, ut primum influit cogitatio de ultimo Judicio, mutatur in ideam materialem de terrestri suo corpore, quod iterum conjungendum suae animae sit: nesciunt enim, quod unusquisque homo sit spiritus quoad interiora sua, et quod ille sit qui vivit in corpore et in singulis ejus, et non corpus ex se; et quod spiritus cujusvis sit, ex quo corpus formam suam humanam habet, consequenter qui principaliter homo est, et in simili forma, sed invisibili coram oculis corporis, at visibili coram oculis spirituum: inde etiam, cum aperitur visus spiritus hominis, quod fit per remotionem visus corporis, apparent Angeli ut homines: ita Angeli apparuerunt antiquis, de quibus in Verbo. Loquutus etiam sum aliquoties cum Spiritibus, quos, cum vixerunt homines in mundo, novi, quaerendo num velint reindui terrestri suo corpore, sicut cogitaverunt prius; quo audito ad solam ideam conjunctionis ejus longe aufugerunt, perculsi stupore, quod in mundo ex caeca fide absque omni intellectu ita cogitaverint.