17.多年的日常经历让我可以作证：人的灵从身体释放出来之后，就是一个人，拥有一个相似的形式，因为我曾成千上万次地看见、听见灵人，并与他们交谈；甚至曾与他们谈论这个主题：世人不相信他们的存在，相信的人则被学者视为简单。让灵人心痛的是，这种无知仍在世上，尤其在教会盛行。他们说，这种信念尤其源于基于肉体感觉思想灵魂的学者。在此基础上，他们对灵魂没有别的概念，只是认为它无非是思维；当脱离了它在其中并从其存在的任何主体时，在他们看来，它就像由纯粹的以太构成的某种挥发性物质，当肉体死亡时，必然会蒸发掉。但因教会基于圣言相信灵魂不朽，所以这些思想者不得不将某种生命功能，就像属于思维的那种，归于灵魂；然而，在它再度与身体结合之前，他们否认它是一个人的感觉能力。
关于最后审判到来时的复活的教义，以及那时灵魂与身体结合的信仰，就建立在这种观点的基础上。因为从对灵魂的的这种假设，加上教会对人之永生的信仰，只能得出这个结论。这就是为何当有人从教义和假设一起来思想灵魂时，他根本不明白灵魂是一个灵，一个灵拥有一个人的形式。另一个原因是，如今几乎没有人知道何谓属灵的，更不知道属灵之人，如所有灵人和天使，都拥有人的形式。
这就是为何几乎所有来自世界的人都大为惊讶地发现他们仍活着，和以前一样为人，没有任何区别。平复了对自己状态的惊讶之后，他们又惊讶教会对人死后的这种状态一无所知；而事实上，所有曾活在世上的人都在来世，作为人活着。他们还想知道为何这一切不通过异象向世人显明，于是从天上被告知，这种事是能做到的，主若乐意，再没有比这更容易的事了；但那些确信反对它的虚假之人仍不会相信，即便他们亲自看见。他们还被告知，将天上来的东西清楚展示给那些陷入世俗和肉体事物的人是很危险的，因为在这种情况下，他们先是相信，然后否认，从而亵渎真正的真理本身；相信，然后否认，就是亵渎；亵渎者会被投入最低层、最糟糕的地狱。主的这些话说的就是这种危险：
主叫他们瞎了眼，硬了心，免得他们眼睛看见，心里明白，又转回去，我就医治他们。（约翰福音12:40）
那些陷入对世俗和肉体事物的爱之人的这种不信由这些话来表示：
亚伯拉罕对阴间里的财主说，他们有摩西和先知，让他们听他们吧；他说，先祖亚伯拉罕哪，不是的，若有人从死人中到他们那里去，他们必要悔改；亚伯拉罕对他说，若不听从摩西和先知，就是有一个从死里复活的，他们也是不相信。（路加福音16:29-31）
17. As for human spirits being people and having a similar form after separation from the body, daily experience over many years 1has supplied me with evidence of this, since I have seen them, heard them, 2and talked with them thousands of times. I have even talked with them about the fact that people in this world do not believe that they exist and that the learned dismiss as simpleminded those who do believe. The spirits are heartsick that this kind of ignorance still prevails on our globe and especially within the church. They say that this kind of belief emanates especially from the learned who think about the soul on the basis of what they sense with their physical bodies. 3On this basis, they cannot conceive of the soul as being anything but thought; and this, regarded apart from any subject in which and from which it exists, is to them like some volatile substance made of pure ether, 4which cannot help but evaporate when the body dies. However, since the church (on the basis of the Word) believes in the immortality of the soul, these thinkers have to attribute to the soul some touch of life, just as they do to thought. Still, though, they do not credit it with any human sensitive faculty until it is once again joined to its body. Their teachings about resurrection are founded on this premise; and so is their belief that soul and body will be reunited when the Last Judgment comes. What other conclusion could they come to, given their hypothesis about the soul and the need to combine it with the church's teachings concerning eternal life? That is why when people think about the soul on the basis of both that hypothesis and those teachings, they do not grasp at all that the soul is the spirit and that it is in a human form. The result is that hardly anyone nowadays knows what anything spiritual is, let alone that people who are spiritual-meaning all angels and spirits-have a form that is human.
That is why almost all the people who arrive from the world are absolutely amazed to discover that they are alive and that they are just as human as ever, no different at all. Once they get past their amazement at that, then they are astounded that the church has no idea that this is what happens to people after death, in spite of the fact that all the people who have ever lived in this world are there in the other life, leading human lives. They also wonder why people in this world have not been informed of this by means of visions. They are told by a heavenly source that this could have been done-nothing is easier when the Lord so pleases; but people who have convinced themselves of these misconceptions to the contrary would still not believe, even if they saw the visions for themselves.
These newcomers are also told that it is dangerous to disclose anything from heaven to people who have built their lives around worldly and bodily preoccupations, because they might believe at first but later reject and thereby profane the truth. Profanation is first believing something and then rejecting it. People who commit profanation 5are pushed down into the lowest and harshest of all the hells. This is the danger the Lord meant when he said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so that they would not see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them” (John 12:40). The Lord also indicated that people who have devoted their lives to worldly and bodily loves will not believe no matter what:
Abraham said to the rich man in hell, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” But he said, “No, Father Abraham, but if someone comes to them from the dead they will be converted.” But Abraham said to him, “If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, they will not believe even if someone rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:29, 30, 31)
Footnotes:
1. On the commencement of Swedenborg's visionary period, see note 2 in Last Judgment 15. [Editors]
2. The Latin words here translated “seen” and “heard” are visi and audivi, respectively, which echoes the phrase ex auditis et visis, “from things heard and seen,” in the full Latin titles of Heaven and Hell, Last Judgment, and Other Planets. (The word visa, “seen,” appears in a similar fashion in the full title of Secrets of Heaven, and the word auditis, “heard,” appears likewise in the full title of New Jerusalem.) Swedenborg lived in an age that was increasingly enamored of empirical observation and inductive reasoning from it. Thus he often backs up his claim to have had simultaneous consciousness of the physical world and the spiritual world (see note 2 in Last Judgment 15) by asserting that it rests on the evidence of the senses. For example, on the initial occasion when he makes this claim, in the first of his published theological works, Secrets of Heaven 68, he observes that he is not deterred by the skepticism his claim will arouse, because he has “seen, heard, and felt” (vidi, audivi, et sensi). For all his sensitivity to the skepticism of his times, Swedenborg doubtless also intended these phrases as an allusion to the biblical theme of the symbolic importance of seeing and/or hearing; compare, for example, 2 Kings 6:17; Proverbs 8:32-34; 15:31; Ecclesiastes 5:1; Matthew 5:8; 13:16; Luke 8:15; Romans 10:16-18; and (in an extended, negative sense) Psalms 115:4-6; 135:15-18. See also the possible reference to Isaiah 64:4 (and thus to its quotation in 1 Corinthians 2:9), which includes similar language, in Secrets of Heaven 68, 7381:2; Heaven and Hell 76, 239, 299, 489:5; Last Judgment 27:3; Other Planets 96:3. For a statement of Swedenborg's belief in the importance of ocular testimony in his scientific period, see First Draft of Three Transactions on the Brain (= Swedenborg 1976c) 205. For contrasting references to passages concerning the error of thinking that is based only on the physical senses, see note 3 in Last Judgment 17 just below. [SS, GFD]
3. For an extensive list of references to Secrets of Heaven on sense-based thinking and those who engage in it, see New Jerusalem 50. Other commentaries on the error of purely sense-based thinking occur in Heaven and Hell 353-354; True Christianity 565; Revelation Explained (= Swedenborg 1994-1997a) Revelation Explained 543, 559. [LSW]
4. As an extremely pure substance supposedly composing part of the sky, and thus more refined than other matter, ether was also considered by some to be the stuff of which souls, angels, and spirits are made (for which reason some people called them “ethers”; see Marriage Love 315:11). However, Swedenborg knew of, and does elsewhere (in True Christianity 487:3) refer to, the volatile substance we now know as ethyl ether. Given the disappearance of the soul described in this passage, he may be thinking of that substance here as well. For more on the meaning of the term ether in Swedenborg's works, see True Christianity vol. 1 (= Swedenborg [1771] 2006), pages 696-697 note 116; True Christianity vol. 2 (= Swedenborg [1771] 2012), pages 500-501 note 100. [GMC, JSR, SS]
5. For more on “profanation” as used in Swedenborg's works, see note 1 in New Jerusalem 169. [Editors]
17. Daily experience over many years allows me to bear witness that a person's spirit after being released from the body is a person and looks like one. For I have seen them, heard them and talked to them thousands of times. I have also discussed the fact that people in the world do not share this belief, and those who do are considered by learned people to be simple. The spirits were deeply grieved at the persistence of such ignorance on earth, especially within the church. But they said that this belief had spread particularly from the learned people, whose idea of the soul was based upon bodily sense-impressions. These had made them form an idea of the soul as nothing but mere thought, which taken without some object on which to concentrate or from which to be derived, is like a volatile puff of pure ether, which cannot fail to be dispersed on the death of the body. But because the church has learned from the Word to believe in the immortality of the soul, they were obliged to ascribe to it some vital function, such as that of thought, yet they denied it a person's power of sensation, until it was again united with a body.
This view is the foundation of the teaching about resurrection, and the belief that soul and body will be united on the coming of the Last Judgment. For granting that hypothesis about the soul, this is the inescapable conclusion when combined with the church's belief in man's everlasting life. This is why, if anyone's idea of the soul is based upon the teaching and that hypothesis together, he is quite unable to grasp that the soul is a spirit, and a spirit has a human form. Another reason is the fact that hardly anyone to-day knows what spiritual means, much less that spiritual beings, such as all spirits and angels, have a human form.
This is why almost all who come from the world are extremely surprised to find themselves alive and just as much human beings as before, so that they experience no difference at all. When they get over their surprise at their own state, they go on to be surprised that the church knows nothing about this being the state of people after death, though all the people who have ever lived in the world are in the other life, and alive as human beings. Because they have also wondered that people have not had this made plain to them by visions, they were told from heaven that this might have happened, since nothing is easier if it is the Lord's good pleasure; but they still would not have believed, even if they saw it for themselves, if they had convinced themselves of false counter-arguments. They were also told that it is dangerous for anything from heaven to be plainly displayed to those who are sunk in worldly and bodily concerns; for this would make them believe at first, and later deny it, so profaning that very truth. Profaning is believing and later denying; and those who do this are plunged into the lowest and worst of all hells. This is the danger meant by what the Lord said:
He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, to prevent them seeing with their eyes and understanding with their hearts, so that they might turn themselves and I should heal them. John 12:40.
The disbelief of those sunk in the love of worldly and bodily things is meant by these words:
Abraham said to the rich man in hell, They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them. But he said, No, father Abraham; but if someone comes to them from the dead, they will repent. But Abraham said to him, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they believe if someone rises from the dead. Luke 16:29-31.
17. That the spirit of man, after its release from the body, is a man, and in a similar form, has been attested to me by the daily experience of many years; for I have seen, heard, and spoken with spirits a thousand times; and even on this very subject; that men in the world do not believe them to be such, that they who do believe it, are accounted as simple by the learned. The spirits were grieved in heart, that such ignorance should still prevail in the world, and most of all in the church; but this, they said, proceeded principally from the learned, who thought of the soul from the sensual corporeal; wherefore they have conceived no other idea of it, than as of mere thought; which, when it is regarded without any subject in which and from which it is viewed, is like some volatile form of pure ether, which is necessarily dispersed when the body dies. But since the church from the Word believes in the immortality of the soul, they were obliged to ascribe it to some vital quality, such as belongs to thought, though not the sensation which man has, till it is again conjoined to its body. On this opinion is founded the doctrine of the resurrection at the time of the Last Judgment, and a belief in the conjunction of the soul and the body then; for from this hypothesis about the soul, coupled with the belief of the church in man's eternal life, no other conclusion can be reached: hence it is, that when any one thinks of the soul, from the doctrine and the hypothesis together, he does not at all comprehend that it is a spirit, and that this is in the human form. Add to this, that scarcely any one at this day knows what the spiritual is, and still less that they who are spiritual, as all spirits and angels are, have any human form. Hence it is, that almost all who come from the world are greatly amazed that they are alive, and are equally men as before, with no difference whatever. But when they cease to be amazed at themselves, they then wonder that the church knows nothing of this state of men after death, when yet all who have ever lived in the world, are in the other life, and live as men. And because they have also wondered why this was not manifested to man by visions, it was told them from heaven, that this could be done, for nothing is easier, when the Lord pleases, but that still they who had confirmed themselves in falsities against it, would not believe, even though they themselves were to see it; and moreover that it is perilous to manifest anything from heaven to those who are in worldly and corporeal things, for in this case they would first believe and afterwards deny, and thus profane the very truth itself; for to believe and afterwards to deny, is to profane; and they who profane, are thrust down into the lowest and most grievous of all the hells. It is this danger which is meant by these words of the Lord:
He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with the eyes and understand with the heart; and convert themselves, and I should heal them (John 12:40). Also that they who are in worldly and corporeal loves, still would not believe, is meant by these words:
Abraham said to the rich man in hell, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them; but he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one from the dead come to them, they will be converted; but Abraham said to him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe even if one rose from the dead (Luke 16:29-31).
17. Quod spiritus hominis post solutionem a corpore sit homo et in simili forma, hoc mihi per cottidianam plurium annorum experientiam in testato est; nam illos millies vidi, audivi, et cum illis locutus sum; etiam de eo, quod homines in mundo non tales esse credant, et quod illi qui credunt, ab eruditis reputentur ut simplices. Spiritus doluerunt corde, quod talis ignorantia adhuc perstet in orbe, et maxime intra ecclesiam: sed hanc fidem dicebant emanavisse imprimis ab eruditis, qui ex sensuali corporeo cogitaverunt de anima; ex quo de illa non aliam ideam ceperunt quam sicut de cogitatione sola, quae cum absque aliquo subjecto in quo et ex quo spectatur, est sicut quoddam volatile puri aetheris, quod moriente corpore non potest non dissipari: sed quia ecclesia ex Verbo animae immortalitatem credit, non potuerunt aliter quam aliquod vitale, quale est cogitationis, ei addicere, sed usque non sensitivum quale homini, priusquam iterum conjuncta esset corpori. Super hac opinione fundatur doctrina de resurrectione, ac fides quod conjunctio futura sit, quando ultimum judicium venit; nam ex data illa hypothesi de anima, non aliud concludi potest, cum illa conjungitur fidei ecclesiae de vita hominis aeterna: inde est, cum aliquis de anima ex doctrina et simul ex hypothesi cogitat, quod prorsus non capiat quod illa sit spiritus, et hic in forma humana; accedit, quod vix aliquis hodie sciat quid spirituale est, et minus quod aliqua forma humana sit illis qui spirituales sunt, quales sunt omnes spiritus et angeli. Inde est, quod fere omnes qui e mundo veniunt, mirentur quam maxime quod vivant, et quod sint homines aeque ac prius, et quod prorsus nihil differat: sed cum cessant se mirari, dein mirantur quod ecclesia nihil sciat de tali statu hominum post mortem, cum tamen omnes quotcunque in mundo vixerunt, in altera vita sunt, ac vivunt homines: et quia etiam mirabantur cur hoc non manifestatum fuit homini per visiones, dictum est illis e caelo, quod hoc potuisset fieri, nam nihil facilius est quum Domino beneplacet, sed quod usque non credituri essent, qui se in falsis contra illa confirmaverunt, etiamsi ipsi visuri; tum quod periculosum sit aliquid e caelo manifestare apud illos qui in mundanis et corporeis sunt, quia sic primum credituri essent, et postea negaturi, ac ita ipsum illud verum profanaturi: nam profanare est credere et postea negare; et qui profanant, illi in omnium infernorum infimum et gravissimum detruduntur. Hoc periculum est quod intelligitur per Domini verba,
"Excaecavit oculos eorum, et obduravit corda eorum, ne videant oculis et intelligant corde, et sese convertant, et sanem illos" (Johannes 12:40):
Et quod qui in mundanis et corporeis amoribus sunt, usque non credituri sint, per haec,
Dixit Abraham diviti in inferno, "Habent Mosen et Prophetas, audiant illos: ille vero dixit, Non, pater Abraham, sed si quis ex mortuis veniat ad eos, convertentur; Abraham autem dixit ei, Si Mosen et Prophetas non audiunt, nec etiam si quis ex mortuis resurrexerit, credent" (Lucas 16:29-31).