1742. About the entrance of spirits into the other life
When people die and enter into the other life, their life is like the food received by the lips and then, passing through the mouth, jaws, pharynx, conveyed into the stomach - and sometimes into the intestines, depending on their passions and fantasies.
For at first they are treated most gently, namely, by angels who are standing by them, spoken of earlier [1092-1109, 1115-1120]. This episode is like when the food, unseen, at first gently touched by the lips, is then put into the mouth, tasted by the tongue to find out what it is like-whether it is hard, soft, sour, sweet - and treated accordingly, either to be softened by the purer saliva alone and thence absorbed into the bloodstream, and thus be conveyed down to some organ, or quite directly to the brain, on which journey it is gently chastened.
One's evil qualities, or fantasies, are almost eradicated in various ways, and yet remain, imitating the circular course that the salivary fluid takes during digestion. Some are subdued by harder means, specifically, by teeth, when the mental crustations arising from fantasies are so [persistent] that they have to be broken up, so to speak. Then they are let down as if through the esophagus into the stomach where they undergo various kinds of treatment so they may be of use. Those which are yet harder are thrust down into the intestines, and finally into the rectum, where hell begins, and those which are not subdued are cast out into hell like excrement, and remain in hell until they have been subdued. 1748, 27 March.
1742. CONCERNING THE ENTRANCE OF SPIRITS INTO THE OTHER LIFE.
(When a man dies and passes into the other life, it fares with him like the food which is received by the lips, and then through the mouth, jaws, and throat is conveyed into the stomach, and thence into the intestines - that is to say, the lot of his life is determined according to his cupidities and phantasies, for he is at first treated very gently, namely, by the angels who stand by, of whom we have spoken before, which is similar to the case of food that is not seen, which is first slightly touched by the lips, afterwards committed to the mouth, and its quality tested by the tongue as hard, soft, sweet, etc.; it is treated in this way also, that it may be softened by the purer saliva, and thence be exhaled into the blood, and so conveyed to any particular organ, or immediately to the brain, when it is mildly castigated on the way. Thus with man's evils, his phantasies are thus, as it were, exterminated by various methods, while if any remain, they imitate the course made by the salivary fluid in the process of digestion, in which some articles are subdued with more difficulty, requiring the action of the teeth in breaking the hard crusts, which correspond with the products of the phantasies that have to be violently broken up. Thus there is a letting down, as it were, through the esophagus into the stomach, where a various treatment is undergone by the contents in order that they may be made to perform some kind of use; those of a somewhat harder quality are thrust into the intestines, and at length into the rectum, where is the first hell, and such as are not yet subdued thereby are cast out like dung into hell, and remain in hell till they are effectually reduced to subjection. 1(1748, March 27.)
Footnotes:
1. The hell here spoken of is doubtless but another name for that state of vastation in the world of spirits, of which mention is frequently made elsewhere in the writing of our author. It is unquestionably to such a state that our lord refers when He says, "Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing."
1742. De spirituum ingressu in alteram vitam
Quum homo moritur, et in alteram vitam ingreditur, se habet vita eorum 1
, sicut cibus qui a labiis excipitur, et dein per os, fauces, pharyngem, in ventriculum derivatur, et quandoque in intestina, secundum cupiditates et phantasias, primum enim lenissime tractatur, nempe ab angelis, qui adsistunt, de quibus prius [1092-1109, 1115-1120], quod simile est, ac dum cibus non visus, primum labiis molliter tangitur, postea immissus in os, gustatur a lingua qualis est, durus, mollis, austerus 2
, dulcis, sic tractatur quoque, sive ut mollescat sola puriori saliva, et exhalet inde in sanguinem, et sic eferatur ad aliquod organum, aut immediatius ad cerebrum, ubi in via castigatur leniter; mala ejus, phantasiae sic {a} quasi exterminantur, varie, sic tamen manent, et imitantur circulum, quem salivalis aqua facit, in digerendis: quidam domantur durius, nempe per dentes, quorum crustae a phantasiis oriundae tales sint, ut quasi disrumpi debeant; sic demittuntur quasi per aesophagum in ventriculum, ubi per varios modos tractantur, ut usum praestent; qui adhuc duriores sunt, in intestina detruduntur, et tandem in rectum, ubi primum infernum, et qui sic non domantur, in infernum ut coenum ejiciuntur, inque inferno manent, usque dum domati {b} sunt. 1748, 27 Martius.
Footnotes:
1. sic manuscript; vide praefationem hujus editionis sub capite "Idiosyncrasies"
2. This is how it appears in J.F.I. Tafel's edition; the Manuscript has auster