Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 1

1. FIVE MEMORABLE OCCURRENCES

On the nature of the merely natural man

Once, wishing to know the nature of the mind of the merely natural man, I looked up to heaven and made this request of the Lord. The reason was that I had heard a man who was especially natural saying that he could see, understand, and perceive many matters as rationally as those who are called spiritual, and as the angels of heaven. He added the remark: 'Have not both a similar power of reasoning? What difference is there, but casual opinion?'

Then there suddenly came up from the nether regions a certain Satan; all satans are merely natural, and can reason cleverly, but from the fallacies of the senses; consequently they see falsities as truths, for all falsities take their rise from those fallacies. When he came in sight, he appeared first to have a live, shining face; then, a dead, pale face; and finally a hellish, black face. I asked why his face underwent these changes, and was answered from heaven that such are the successive states of mind of those who are merely natural, for faces are expressions of mental states (typi animorum). The inmost parts of their minds, since they are hellish, are represented in their faces as blackness, the middle parts, owing to their falsification of truth, as the pallor of a corpse; but the outermost parts as living radiance, because when they are in externals, which happens when they are in company, they can think truths, confirm, understand, and teach them. They have this ability because the power of reason is the essence of humanity; this is what makes man and distinguishes him from beasts. Satans, however, have the power of reason solely in externals, and have none in internals, since in their internals there reigns the longing to adulterate the goods and falsify the truths of the Church; and this longing flows into their power of reason and casts a shadow over its light, inducing such thick darkness that they can then see only falsities in place of truths.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 2

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 2

2. After looking at his face, I inspected his eyes, and found his pupils glinting as with rays of light. Later they became opaque, and the irises became definitely green; and finally they were covered as with a coating. As a result of this the whole crystalline lens in the pupil appeared like a white spot. On observing this I asked him whether he could see anything at all; and he replied, 'I can see clearly, more in fact than before.' I asked, 'How can you see when your eyes are guttae serenae?* Perhaps you see something: inside by deceptive light!' He answered, 'What is deceptive light!' So to let him know what deceptive light is, I asked, 'What do you think by your light!' ''I think I see clearly', he said, 'that a beast thinks as rationally as a man; secondly, that God is nature and nature God; then that religion is vanity; further, that good or evil is nothing but what is pleasant and unpleasant'; and more of the same kind.
* Amaurosis, a condition in which the cornea becomes opaque.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 3

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 3

3. When he had made these pronouncements, I brought forward some real truths, which he had previously heard and confirmed while he was in externals. As soon as he heard these, he turned his eyes back, recognised [the truths], and rolled his eyes back, and with a sort of border of the coating which covered the pupil he swallowed those truths and brought them into his own deceptive light; and he then called those truths falsities. But since in my sight this seemed foul and, as it were, murderous, seeing that he was in this way murdering the truths that make man man and an angel an angel, I loathed his presence. So I turned my face from him; and when I looked back, I saw him falling through a whirlpool into hell; and since he had made the place where he had been standing stink, I went quickly home. For Divine Truth, when falsified by satans in the spiritual world, stinks like the filth of the streets.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 4

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 4

4. An occurrence concerning man's first state after death

When a man arrives after death in the spiritual world, which generally happens on the third day after he has breathed his last, he seems to himself to be alive as he was in the world, living in a similar house, room and bedroom, with similar dress and clothes, and with similar companions at home. If he was a king or a prince, in a similar court; if a farm labourer, in a similar cottage; the one in countrified, the other in magnificent surroundings. The reason this happens to every person after death is so that death should not seem like death but a continuation of life, and so that the last act of natural life should become the first of spiritual life; and from this he should advance towards his goal, which may be either in heaven or in hell.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 5

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 5

5. The reason the recently dead find this likeness in everything is that their minds remain exactly as they were in the world; and because the mind is not confined to the head but pervades the whole body, it has a similar body, for the body is an organ of the mind and runs without a break from the head. The mind is therefore the man himself, but he is then not a material but a spiritual man; and because after death he is the same man, he is presented in accordance with the concepts in his mind with things similar to those he possessed at home in the world. But this lasts only a few days. That the mind pervades the whole body, and is the man himself who lives after death, is perfectly plain from the synchronisation of the speech of the mouth and the actions of the body with the mind's wish and thought. For the mouth instantly utters what the mind thinks, and the body instantly executes what the mind wishes. The error of believing that man after death lives as a soul or mind, and that this does not have human shape, but is a kind of vapour as of the breath or a bubble full of air, is due to ignorance that the mind constitutes the interior form of the whole body.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 6

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 6

6. When newcomers to the spiritual world are in this first state, angels come to them to bid them welcome, and at first are much pleased at this conversation with them, since they know that their thoughts are then no different from what they were when still living in the former world. So they ask them what they think about life after death, to which the newcomers reply in keeping with their previous ideas. Some say that they do not know, some that they are spirits or etherial shapes, some that they are diaphanous, airy bodies, some that they are flitting ghosts, some in the air or ether, some in water, some in the middle of the earth; and some say that souls like angels are among the stars; some of the newcomers say that no man lives after death.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 7

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 7

7. On hearing these things the angels say, 'Welcome. We will show you something new, which you have not known or believed before; and this is that every man after death lives in a body just as he did before.' To this the new spirits retort, 'That is impossible; where would he get a body from? Is not his body together with all of him lying dead in the grave?' To this the angels reply with amusement, 'We will give you an ocular demonstration of this', and they say, 'Are you not men in perfect shape! Look at yourselves, feel yourselves; and et you have left the natural world. The reason why you have so far been unaware of this is that the first state of life after death is exactly similar to the last state of life before death.' On hearing this the new arrivals are amazed, and in heartfelt joy exclaim, 'Thanks be to God that we are alive and death has not utterly destroyed us.' I have often heard newcomers taught about their life beyond the grave in this way and delighted at their own resurrection.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 8

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 8

8. An occurrence about the consummation of the age, the destruction of the world, and the end of the Church

I have often heard discussions between angels and new spirits, and on one occasion about the consummation of the age and the destruction of the world. Because these new spirits still knew nothing about heaven and hell, or about man's life after death, or about any but the literal sense of the Word, they made replies that were devoid of reason and full of contradictions, saying that by the consummation of the age they understood the destruction of the world; by the Lord's coming then, His appearance with angels in a cloud; by the Last Judgment, sentences passed of salvation or damnation on all the dead after their resurrection from their graves. On hearing this the angels asked two or three times with a smile whether they had made these assertions from faith of the heart, which is believed to be truth, or from historical faith, which in itself is tradition received from others, or from indulging the imagination. To this the newcomers retorted indignantly, 'What do you mean, by indulging the imagination or by mere tradition! Are not truths revealed in the Word, must they not be from faith of the heart?' To this the angels mildly answered, 'Your believing this does no harm, but you will later on be taught that it is not so.'

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 9

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 9

9. The moment this was said, small flames, looking like tongues, came down from heaven on to the newcomers heads; by these they were inspired with a desire to know from reason the source of their faith. They exclaimed, 'What is faith but truth? Where is truth in its own light, except in the understanding! If the understanding is in darkness, what is faith then but a sleep-walker, and if it receives confirmation from natural light separated from spiritual light, that faith becomes a bat.' Among the newly arrived was a priest. He on hearing these things from his companions said in an angry voice, 'What has faith to do with the understanding!' The angels replied, 'What is faith without understanding but blind faith?' And then suddenly the small flame dropped from the top of his head to his shoe, and shone here for a while.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 10

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 10

10. After this the angels asked the newcomers what more they had thought from faith and still thought about the consummation of the age. They replied that it would be the destruction of the universe, both heaven and earth, since it is written that heaven and earth are to perish, and it is said that they will depart in smoke. The angels asked which heaven and which earth, those of the natural world or those of the spiritual world; for here too there are heavens and earth, heavens where the angels are and lands upon which people live. To this the newcomers replied, 'What is this! Perhaps you are joking! Are not angels spirits, and what is a spirit but a puff of wind! And where is this? Does it not fly in the atmosphere and rise even to the stars!' Then the angels replied, 'You are now in the spiritual world, and still you do not know that you are anywhere but the natural world. Here the heaven where the angels are is overhead, and hell where the devils and satans are is beneath your feet. Is not the ground on which you and we are standing earth! Stamp your foot on it and be convinced.' But because this was foreign to their preconceptions, they were very surprised. Still, because they were enlightened by the flames on their heads, they willingly listened to the angels' talk and understood the truths.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 11

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 11

11. The angels went on to ask, 'How did you believe your world would perish!' 'By fire,' they said, 'about which we have numerous opinions and prophecies.' Some thought that flames would be hurled down upon the earth from heaven in all directions, as upon the sons of Aaron and on the burnt-offering of Elijah; some that the fire of the sun would spread out, break forth, and set fire to its universe; some that the central fire would cast off a crust all round, and be ejected in all directions, as happens with volcanoes, Etna, Vesuvius, and Hekla; some that a great comet would enter the earth's atmosphere, and set fire to it with its fiery tail; some thought that the universe would not perish by fire, but would collapse and fall to pieces like a house through old age; and others had other ideas. The angels on hearing this said to each other, 'What simple-mindedness, coming entirely from complete ignorance about the spiritual world, about angels and their heavens and lands; and also from complete ignorance about the internal or spiritual sense of the Word. Thus everything which has to do with eternal life has become matters of memory alone, without any use of reason; and if reason plays any part, this is not superior to memory, but inferior to it, where confirmations from fallacies counterfeit the light of reason. This was represented by what we saw just now, when the flame dropped from the priest's head to his shoe, and shone there. This seems to us as if someone took his hat off his head, wrapped it round the soles of his feet, and walked like that.'

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 12

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 12

12. Then the angels said, 'We have been chosen from heaven to instruct newcomers from the lands of the natural world, since all who come here from there have foolish beliefs about heaven, and even about salvation. Therefore, unless these foolish ideas are dispersed, which is done by lessons, their rational faculty would be shut off. This faculty is above the memory as the result of the reception of the light of heaven, and makes men wise; if it were shut off, men would turn into animals, the only difference being that they could use their external senses to think, and could speak from that kind of thought alone.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 13

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 13

13. Since therefore this duty of instruction has been assigned to us, we will teach you what is meant in the Word by the consummation of the age'; and they said that the consummation of the Church is meant, and this is also called desolation and devastation; and that this happens when the truths of faith and the goods of charity have none of their essence left, and thus all ways to heaven are blocked. They said that this consummation is hardly anywhere apparent in the world, since matters of faith there are not truths but falsities, and matters of charity are not goods, but only the deeds of self love, which, when they emerge in the breath of the mouth, do not ascend to heaven, but as soon as they rise, falter and fall back to earth, like bath water thrown over one's shoulders, or like rotten fruit falling from a tree in wintertime.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 14

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 14

14. In this consummation or end of the Church, the cry will go up from every pulpit, and the people will shout in every place of worship, 'Here is the habitation of God, here is the temple of God, here is the Church of God, here is salvation, here is the light of the Gospel'; and they are quite unaware that they are in total darkness, and that they are dreaming the dream of the age. The reason is that they believe falsities to be truths, and truths to be falsities, as also evils to be goods, and vice versa. This night and this dream the Lord foretold in Matthew xxiv 37-9 and in Luke xvii 26-end.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 15

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 15

15. You will receive proof that the consummation of the age is the end of the Church not only from reason but also from sight. You must know that the end of the Church will pass quite unrecognised on earth, though it will be fully recognised in the heavens. Heaven and the Church are together like one single house. The Church is the foundation and substructure, heaven is its superstructure and roof, and the inhabitants are associated like related persons with their servants. When therefore the Church as the result of its evils and falsities slips from underneath, that house does not hold together, except for its walls, and inside communication with the angels of heaven is cut off, and the stairs by which one goes up and down are removed. So that the house should not then totally collapse, the Lord returns to the world and inaugurates a new Church, and through that he repairs the house, and props up heaven. But this will appear more clearly to Your sight, if we pray to the Lord, go out from here and walk around.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 16

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 16

16. On the sun of the spiritual world, and on the Lord's coming in a cloud

As they walked, they first turned towards the East, where they saw the sun shining in its strength, and since they were under its direct rays, the new spirits asked the angels about that sun, whether it were the same sun which they had seen in the former world, since it has the same height above us and the same size, is similarly reddish and fiery, and gives forth heat and light in the same way; 'and if it is the same sun', they said, we not in nature! For what origin has nature except its own sun)' But the angels said, 'This sun is not the sun of the natural world; it is the sun of the spiritual world. This is the source of our universe, the angels live by its light and heat, so do the spirits. Both we and they get understanding and wisdom from its light, both we and they get will and love from its heat. This sun's essence is pure love, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the God of heaven and earth, and one with God the Father, is in the midst of it.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 17

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 17

17. The Divine Love most nearly proceeding from Him and surrounding Him appears as a sun; consequently by means of the light and heat which it gives off, He has omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence in both worlds from one end to the other. But the sun which gave rise to nature is pure fire, in the light and heat of which there is no wisdom and love, and so no life; but still it is of use to life, that is, to wisdom and love, for covering and clothing, to give substance to the forms of those lives, and provide them with as it were time and space. They do not, however, have either of these, but love and wisdom merely affect those who are in time and space. This happens in accordance with their power of receiving, and this depends upon their affection for being wise and their life in keeping with wisdom.' On hearing this the newcomers began to leap for joy and say, 'We feel our hearts leap with joy we never felt before. The angels replied, 'You feel this from celestial and spiritual love and its pleasure, which comes from our sun.'

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 18

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 18

18. After this conversation a shining cloud suddenly came beneath the sun, a cloud which did not dull its light but transmitted it, and in that shining cloud appeared angels as it were with trumpets, and around them altars and tables, on which lay heaps of half-open books; and above the cloud the Lord appeared speaking from the sun with the angels. Then dew fell in drops from the cloud, which, as it was scattered around, hardened into manna. The angels picked up some of it and gave it to their companions, who ate it. After a quarter of an hour a shower was seen to fall from the cloud, which the angels called a morning shower; when it fell it dissolved the manna into the dew it had been before. This formed into sweet-tasting droplets, and soon became completely liquefied, ran into the ground and penetrated it. Then there were heard from those that lived beneath that piece of ground joyous cries, 'Look, come out, be quick, drops are falling, blessed water from heaven, we are being sprinkled.' It was the dissolved manna which was dripping down upon them.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 19

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 19

19. After this the angels instructed the newcomers about what they had heard and seen. 'The things you have seen', they said, 'show in brief the Lord's coming and the events that will then take place. God, who appeared from the sun above the cloud, was the Lord our Saviour. 'The shining cloud beneath Him was the angelic heaven, where Divine Truth appeared in its own light. The Lord's speech with the angels there was inspiration. The trumpets seen in their hands and at their lips were not trumpets, but representations of their speech amongst themselves as the result of inspiration. The dew falling from the cloud upon the earth and hardening into manna represented the celestial affections of thoughts in their speech. The rain which dissolved the manna, that celestial food, into the dew it had been before, so that it was absorbed by the earth and dripped through to those who lived below, represented the influx of Divine Truth from the Word with men in the world, who come out and receive it in their spirits and in their hearts. The tables and heaps of books upon them were not tables or books, but representations of mental intentions and deeds caused by them, according to which believers and unbelievers shall be judged. The shining cloud itself, in which the angels were seen, represented the Lord's Divine Truths among them; for spheres of thoughts from truths and affections from goods proceeding from angels everywhere appear as clouds.'

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 20

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 20

20. At this the new spirits asked, 'Why do you say that the things we saw represent, not that they are!' The angels replied, 'Because every single thing which appears visible in this world is a correspondence or representation. These contain truth in themselves and thus stand for them; so spiritual things are here presented in appearances similar to those of natural objects. The spiritual things which belong to our world are also described in the Word as they appear here. For the Word is written by means of correspondences, in order that it should serve at once for both angels and men. These things were first shown to your sight and seen, so that you should know how the Lord's coming is to be understood.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 21

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 21

21. On the abomination of desolation

After this the angels prayed to the Lord, and took the newcomers from the East to the South, and from there to the West; and they said, 'Here you will see the abomination of desolation foretold by the Lord through Daniel' (Matt. xxiv 19); and they showed a black cloud stretching from the limit of the East to the end of the West, and making the South and North on either side very dark. At the sight of the cloud the new spirits were terrified. They asked what was that great, grim cloud and darkness, and where it had come from. The angels replied, 'There are satanic spirits, who have gathered together in bands, and by magic arts, abuses of correspondences and fantasies formed for themselves as it were heavens by occupying hills, and building upon them eminences and towers, like those in the valley of Shinar (Gen. xi 1 following), so as to construct for themselves a way up to the heavens where the angels live, with the intention of casting them down. Because they are high above this earth, they appear as it were in an expanse, and this expanse as a cloud. 'Lift up your eyes', they said, 'and look further.' And they saw a great number of spirits, and heard from there unspeakable cries interspersed with obscenities, and sounds like those of revellers in brothels. The angels said, 'These are those who are meant by the dragon and his two beasts in the Revelation (Chapters xii and xiii), those meant by the harlot sitting upon many waters and on the scarlet beast (Chapter xvii). They are all from the Christian world.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 22

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 22

22. The new spirits asked, 'How can these be called the abomination of desolation?' The angels replied, 'They are all in falsities as regards faith and in evils as regards life. The interiors of their minds are hellish, the exteriors are made to look heavenly by a pretence of morality. For they are sycophants and hypocrites. And because they occupy the middle space between the heavens where the angels are and the earth where men are, no Divine Truth can pass from the Lord through the heavens to men upon earth, without first being received by these people, and as it is received being turned upside down and falsified; just as light falling on a dark cloud, and the sun's heat upon a marsh.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 23

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 23

23. Then suddenly their eyes were opened, and they saw falling from that cloud hail mixed with fire; and they saw it turning to a sticky substance on the ground, and worms in the sticky substance. Further off to the North they saw as it were bruchi* and locusts coming down from the cloud, which ate up the grass of the earth; and there appeared eagles flying out of the desert, and also night birds from the same place, which swallowed the worlds and licked up the sticky substance like water. They were astonished by these sights and pressed the angels for an explanation. They told them it was the abomination of desolation upon earth. The hail stands for falsified truths; the fire mixed with it for evils of life; the sticky substance on the ground for the coherence of [evils]; the worms for life from them; the bruchi and locusts for falsities of belief; the birds stand for the men upon earth who live only on such food which comes down from the spiritual world; and the eagles for reasonings and confirmations.
* bruchi, wingless locusts, formerly regarded as a separate species; the word occurs in LXX and Vulgate at Leviticus xi 22.

5 Mem (Chadwick) n. 24

Five Memorable Relations (Chadwick) n. 24

24. You must know therefore that nothing else is meant by the former heaven and the former earth which John saw to have passed away (Rev. xxi 1) but those grim expanses, where those of the Dragon and of Babel have made their dwellings, and called them heavens. So long as those expanses last, men's communication with the angelic heavens is cut off, and thus too to some extent their communication with the Lord. When that communication is cut off, then all the truth and good of the Word is falsified and adulterated. Such is the appearance of the abomination of desolation amongst us. But with the inhabitants of the earth it is not marked by any signs. Therefore they induce belief in falsities, and by confirmations from the natural man they surround that belief with deceptive light, as a result of which falsities are believed to be true.'