It is well known in the church that all good is from God, and that
nothing of good is from man, consequently that no one ought to
ascribe any good to himself as his own. It is also well known that
evil is from the devil. Therefore those who speak from the doctrine
of the church say of those who behave well, and of those who speak
and preach piously, that they are led by God; but the opposite of
those who do not behave well and who speak impiously. For this to be
true man must have conjunction with heaven and with hell; and this
conjunction must be with man's will and with his understanding; for
it is from these that the body acts and the mouth speaks. What this
conjunction is shall now be told.
292. With every individual there are good spirits and evil spirits.
Through good spirits man has conjunction with heaven, and through
evil spirits with hell. These spirits are in the world of spirits,
which lies midway between heaven and hell. This world will be
described particularly hereafter. When these spirits come to a man
they enter into his entire memory, and thus into his entire thought,
evil spirits into the evil things of his memory and thought, and good
spirits into the good things of his memory and thought. These spirits
have no knowledge whatever that they are with man; but when they are
with him they believe that all things of his memory and thought are
their own; neither do they see the man, because nothing that is in
our solar world falls into their sight.{1} The Lord exercises the
greatest care that spirits may not know that they are with man; for
if they knew it they would talk with him, and in that case evil
spirits would destroy him; for evil spirits, being joined with hell,
desire nothing so much as to destroy man, not alone his soul, that
is, his faith and love, but also his body. It is otherwise when
spirits do not talk with man, in which case they are not aware that
what they are thinking and also what they are saying among themselves
is from man; for although it is from man that they talk with one
another, they believe that what they are thinking and saying is their
own, and everyone esteems and loves what is their own. In this way
spirits are constrained to love and esteem man, although they do not
know it. That such is the conjunction of spirits with man has become
so well known to me from a continual experience of many years that
nothing is better known to me.
{Footnote 1} There are angels and spirits with every man, and
by means of them man has communication with the spiritual world
(n. 697, 2796, 2886, 2887, 4047, 4048, 5846-5866, 5976-5993).
Man without spirits attending him cannot live (n. 5993). Man is
not seen by spirits, even as spirits are not seen by man (n.
5862). Spirits can see nothing in our solar world pertaining to
any man except the one with whom they are speaking (n. 1880).
293. The reason why spirits that communicate with hell are also
associated with man is that man is born into evils of every kind,
consequently his whole life is wholly from evil; and therefore unless
spirits like himself were associated with him he could not live, nor
indeed could he be withdrawn from his evils and reformed. He is
therefore both held in his own life by means of evil spirits and
withheld from it by means of good spirits; and by the two he is kept
in equilibrium; and being in equilibrium he is in freedom, and can be
drawn away from evils and turned towards good, and thus good can be
implanted in him, which would not be possible at all if he were not
in freedom; and freedom is possible to man only when the spirits from
hell act on one side and spirits from heaven on the other, and man is
between the two. Again, it has been shown that so far as a man's life
is from what he inherits, and thus from self, if he were not
permitted to be in evil he would have no life; also if he were not in
freedom he would have no life; also that he cannot be forced to what
is good, and that what is forced does not abide; also that the good
that man receives in freedom is implanted in his will and becomes as
it were his own.{1} These are the reasons why man has communication
with hell and communication with heaven.
{Footnote 1} All freedom pertains to love and affection, since
what a man loves, that he does freely (n. 2870, 3158, 8987,
8990, 9585, 9591). As freedom belongs to man's love, so it
belongs to man's life (n. 2873). Nothing appears as man's own
except what is from freedom (n. 2880). Man must have freedom
that he may be reformed (n. 1937, 1947, 2876, 2881, 3145, 3146,
3158, 4031, 8700). Otherwise no love of good and truth can be
implanted in man and be appropriated seemingly as his own (n.
2877, 2879, 2880, 2883, 8700). Nothing that comes from
compulsion is conjoined to man (n. 2875, 8700). If man could be
reformed by compulsion everyone would be reformed (n. 2881).
Compulsion in reformation is harmful (n. 4031). What states of
compulsion are (n. 8392).
294. What the communication of heaven is with good spirits, and what
the communication of hell is with evil spirits, and the consequent
conjunction of heaven and hell with man, shall also be told. All
spirits who are in the world of spirits have communication with
heaven or with hell, evil spirits with hell, and good spirits with
heaven. Heaven is divided into societies, and hell also. Every spirit
belongs to some society, and continues to exist by influx from it,
thus acting as one with it. Consequently as man is conjoined with
spirits so is he conjoined with heaven or with hell, even with the
society there to which he is attached by his affection or his love;
for the societies of heaven are all distinguished from each other in
accordance with their affections for good and truth, and the
societies of hell in accordance with their affections for evil and
falsity. (As to the societies of heaven see above, n. 41-45 also
n. 148-151.)
295. The spirits associated with man are such as he himself is in
respect to his affection or love; but the Lord associates good
spirits with him, while evil spirits are invited by the man himself.
The spirits with man, however, are changed in accordance with the
changes of his affections; thus there are some spirits that are with
him in early childhood, others in boyhood, others in youth and
manhood, and others in old age. In early childhood those spirits are
present who are in innocence and who thus communicate with the heaven
of innocence, which is the inmost or third heaven; in boyhood those
spirits are present who are in affection for knowing, and who thus
communicate with the outmost or first heaven; in youth and manhood
spirits are present who are in affection for what is true and good,
and in consequent intelligence, and who thus communicate with the
second or middle heaven; while in old age spirits are present who are
in wisdom and innocence, and who thus communicate with the inmost or
third heaven. But the Lord maintains this association with such as
can be reformed and regenerated. It is otherwise with such as cannot
be reformed or regenerated. While with these also good spirits are
associated, that they may be thereby withheld from evil as much as
possible, they are directly conjoined with evil spirits who
communicate with hell, whereby they have such spirits with them as
are like themselves. If they are lovers of self or lovers of gain, or
lovers of revenge, or lovers of adultery, like spirits are present,
and as it were dwell in their evil affections; and man is incited by
these, except so far as he can be kept from evil by good spirits, and
they cling to him, and do not withdraw, so far as the evil affection
prevails. Thus it is that a bad man is conjoined to hell and a good
man is conjoined to heaven.
296. Man is governed by the Lord through spirits because he is not in
the order of heaven, for he is born into evils which are of hell,
thus into the complete opposite of Divine order; consequently he
needs to be brought back into order, and this can only be done
mediately by means of spirits. It would be otherwise if man were born
into the good that is in accord with the order of heaven; then he
would be governed by the Lord not through spirits, but by means of
the order itself, thus by means of general influx. By means of this
influx man is governed in respect to whatever goes forth from his
thought and will into act, that is, in respect to speech and acts;
for both of these proceed in harmony with natural order, and
therefore with these the spirits associated with man have nothing in
common. Animals also are governed by means of this general influx
from the spiritual world, because they are in the order of their
life, and animals have not been able to pervert and destroy that
order because they have no rational faculty.{1} What the difference
between man and beasts is may be seen above (n. 39).
{Footnote 1} The difference between men and beasts is, that men
are capable of being raised up by the Lord to Himself, of
thinking about the Divine, loving it, and being thereby
conjoined to the Lord, from which they have eternal life; but
it is otherwise with beasts (n. 4525, 6323, 9231). Beasts are
in the order of their life, and are therefore born into things
suitable to their nature, but man is not, and he must therefore
be led into the order of his life by intellectual means (n.
637, 5850, 6323). According to general influx thought with man
falls into speech and will into movements (n. 5862, 5990, 6192,
6211). The general influx of the spiritual world into the lives
of beasts (n. 1633, 3646).
297. As to what further concerns the conjunction of heaven with the
human race, let it be noted that the Lord Himself flows into each
man, in accord with the order of heaven, both into his inmosts and
into his outmosts, and arranges him for receiving heaven, and governs
his outmosts from his inmosts, and at the same time his inmosts from
his outmosts, thus holding in connection each thing and all things in
man. This influx of the Lord is called direct influx; while the other
influx that is effected through spirits is called mediate influx. The
latter is maintained by means of the former. Direct influx, which is
that of the Lord Himself, is from His Divine Human, and is into man's
will and through his will into his understanding, and thus into his
good and through his good into his truth, or what is the same thing,
into his love and through his love into his faith; and not the
reverse, still less is it into faith apart from love or into truth
apart from good or into understanding that is not from will. This
Divine influx is unceasing, and in the good is received in good, but
not in the evil; for in them it is either rejected or suffocated or
perverted; and in consequence they have an evil life which in a
spiritual sense is death.{1}
{Footnote 1} There is direct influx from the Lord, and also
mediate influx through the spiritual world (n. 6063, 6307,
6472, 9682, 9683). The Lord's direct influx is into the least
particulars of all things (n. 6058, 6474-6478, 8717, 8728). The
Lord flows in into firsts and at the same time into lasts-in
what manner (n. 5147, 5150, 6473, 7004, 7007, 7270). The Lord's
influx is into the good in man, and through the good into truth
and not the reverse (n. 5482, 5649, 6027, 8685, 8701, 10153).
The life that flows in from the Lord varies in accordance with
the state of man and in accordance with reception (n. 2069,
5986, 6472, 7343). With the evil the good that flows in from
the Lord is turned into evil and the truth into falsity; from
experience (n. 3642, 4632). The good and the truth therefrom
that continually flow in from the Lord are received just to the
extent that evil and falsity therefrom do not obstruct (n.
2411, 3142, 3147, 5828).
298. The spirits who are with man, both those conjoined with heaven
and those conjoined with hell, never flow into man from their own
memory and its thought, for if they should flow in from their own
thought, whatever belonged to them would seem to man to be his (see
above n. 256). Nevertheless there flows into man through them out of
heaven an affection belonging to the love of good and truth, and out
of hell an affection belonging to the love of evil and falsity.
Therefore as far as man's affection agrees with the affection that
flows in, so far that affection is received by him in his thought,
since man's interior thought is wholly in accord with his affection
or love; but so far as man's affection does not agree with that
affection it is not received. Evidently, then, since thought is not
introduced into man through spirits, but only an affection for good
and an affection for evil, man has choice, because he has freedom;
and is thus able by his thought to receive good and reject evil,
since he knows from the Word what is good and what is evil. Moreover,
whatever he receives by thought from affection is appropriated to
him; but whatever he does not receive by thought from affection is
not appropriated to him. All this makes evident the nature of the
influx of good out of heaven with man, and the nature of the influx
of evil out of hell.
299. I have also been permitted to learn the source of human anxiety,
grief of mind, and interior sadness, which is called melancholy.
There are spirits not as yet in conjunction with hell, because they
are in their first state; these will be described hereafter when
treating of the world of spirits. Such spirits love things undigested
and pernicious, such as pertain to food becoming foul in the stomach;
consequently they are present with man in such things because they
find delight in them; and they talk there with one another from their
own evil affection. The affection that is in their speech flows in
from this source into man; and when this affection is the opposite of
man's affection there arises in him sadness and melancholy anxiety;
but when it agrees with it it becomes in him gladness and
cheerfulness. These spirits appear near to the stomach, some to the
left and some to the right of it, and some beneath and some above,
also nearer and more remote, thus variously in accordance with their
affections. That this is the source of anxiety of mind has been shown
and proved to me by much experience. I have seen these spirits, I
have heard them, I have felt the anxieties arising from them, and I
have talked with them; when they have been driven away the anxiety
ceased; when they returned the anxiety returned; and I have noted the
increase and decrease of it according to their approach and removal.
From this it has been made clear to me why some who do not know what
conscience is, because they have no conscience, ascribe its pangs to
the stomach.{1}
{Footnote 1} Those who have no conscience do not know what
conscience is (n. 7490, 9121). There are some who laugh at
conscience when they hear what it is (n. 7217). Some believe
that conscience is nothing; some that it is something natural
that is sad and mournful, arising either from causes in the
body or from causes in the world; some that it is something
that the common people get from their religion (n. 206, 831,
950; [TCR n. 665]). There is true conscience, spurious
conscience, and false conscience (n. 1033). Pain of conscience
is an anxiety of mind on account of what is unjust, insincere,
or in any respect evil, which man believes to be against God
and against the good of the neighbor (n. 7217). Those have
conscience who are in love to God and in charity towards the
neighbor, but those who are not so have no conscience (n. 831,
965, 2380, 7490).
300. The conjunction of heaven with man is not like the conjunction
of one man with another, but the conjunction is with the interiors of
man's mind, that is, with his spiritual or internal man; although
there is a conjunction with his natural or external man by means of
correspondences, which will be described in the next chapter where
the conjunction of heaven with man by means of the Word will be
treated of.
301. It will also be shown in the next chapter that the conjunction
of heaven with the human race and of the human race with heaven is
such that one has its permanent existence with the other.
302. I have talked with angels about the conjunction of heaven with
the human race, saying that while the man of the church declares that
all good is from God, and that angels are with man, yet few believe
that angels are conjoined to man, still less that they are in his
thought and affection. The angels replied that they knew that such a
belief and such a mode of speaking still exist in the world, and
especially, to their surprise, within the church, where the Word is
present to teach men about heaven and its conjunction with man;
nevertheless, there is such a conjunction that man is unable to think
the least thing unless spirits are associated with him, and on this
his spiritual life depends. They said that the cause of ignorance in
this matter is man's belief that he lives from himself, and that he
has no connection with the First Being [Esse] of life; together with
his not knowing that this connection exists by means of the heavens;
and yet if that connection were broken man would instantly fall dead.
If man only believed, as is really true, that all good is from the
Lord and all evil from hell, he would neither make the good in him a
matter of merit nor would evil be imputed to him; for he would then
look to the Lord in all the good he thinks and does, and all the evil
that flows in would be cast down to hell from which it comes. But
because man does not believe that anything flows into him either from
heaven or from hell, and therefore supposes that all things that he
thinks and wills are in himself and therefore from himself, he
appropriates the evil to himself, and the good that flows in he
defiles with merit.