Other Planets in the Universe (Continued)

I have talked with spirits from our earth about this a number of times. We concluded that anyone with a capable mind can see, on the basis of things that are well known, that there must be many planets and they must have people on them. That is, we can determine on rational grounds that bodies as large as the planets—and some of them are significantly larger than our own—are not uninhabited lumps created only to be carried along on a wandering course around the Sun and shed their feeble light for the benefit of just one planet. Their function must be more worthwhile than this. If we believe, as everyone should, that the Divine created the universe for the sole purpose of bringing humankind into being as the source of heaven (because humankind is the seedbed of heaven), then we cannot help but believe that wherever there is a planet there must be people on it.

As for the objects visible to our eyes because they are within our solar system, we can obviously tell that they are planets from the fact that they are bodies of physical matter. They reflect the light of the Sun, and when we look at them through a telescope they do not look like stars, which twinkle because of their fire, but appear earthlike, with darker and lighter patches. There is also the fact that they, like our own planet, travel around the Sun along the path of the zodiac, which must cause years and the seasons of the year called spring, summer, fall, and winter. Similarly, they rotate on their axes as our planet does, which must cause days and the times of day called morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Not only that, some of them have moons called satellites, which have their own periodic orbits around their sphere the way our moon orbits our planet.

The planet Saturn, which is very far from the Sun, has a huge luminous ring around it that gives a great deal of light to that planet, even though it is reflected light. Can any rational individual who knows all this maintain that these bodies are uninhabited?

from Other Planets (New Century Edition), Section 3

Other Planets in the Universe (Continued)

In the other life it is common knowledge that there are many planets with people on them and consequently spirits and angels from them. If a love of truth and therefore some useful reason prompts people there to want to talk with spirits from other worlds, they are all allowed to do so.

This assures them that there is indeed a plurality of worlds and informs them that humankind exists on not just one earth but countless planets. It teaches them also about the character and life of these people, and about their worship of God.

from Other Planets (New Century Edition), Section 2

Other Planets in the Universe

By the Lord’s divine mercy the deeper levels within me, which belong to my spirit, have been opened, enabling me to talk with spirits and angels—not only those near our world, but also those close to other planets. Because I have had a longing to know whether there are other worlds, what they are like, and what their inhabitants are like, the Lord has granted me opportunities to talk and interact with spirits and angels from other planets.

With some of them I spent all day, with others a full week, and with still others months on end. I learned from them about the planets they came from and are close to now, about the life, customs, and worship of the inhabitants of those planets, and various other noteworthy details about them. Since it has been granted to me to know such things in this way, I am in a position to offer descriptions based on things I myself have heard and seen.

It is important to know that all spirits and angels are human and that they remain close to their planet of origin. They know what is happening on that planet; and any people whose deeper levels have been opened to the point where they can talk and interact with spirits and angels can learn such things from those spirits and angels. After all, in our essence we too are spirits; and in our deeper levels we are already among other spirits. So anyone whose deeper levels have been opened by the Lord can talk with spirits and angels the way people talk with each other. For twelve years now, this has been granted to me daily.

from Other Planets (New Century Edition), Section 1

Heaven and Hell Come from Humankind

The Christian world is totally ignorant of the fact that heaven and hell come from humankind. People believe that angels were created at the beginning and that this was the origin of heaven. They believe that the Devil or Satan was an angel of light who was cast out with his gang because he became a rebel, and that that was the origin of hell.

Angels are utterly astounded that this is what the Christian world believes, and even more astounded that people know absolutely nothing about heaven even though this should be central to what the church is teaching. Because this kind of ignorance has become dominant, angels rejoice at heart that it has now pleased the Lord to reveal a great deal about heaven and also about hell and by this means to dispel—as much as possible—the darkness that has been increasing every day because the church has reached its end. So they want me to assure you on their behalf that there is not one angel in all heaven who was created an angel from the beginning and that there is no devil in hell who was created an angel of light and cast down. No, all the people in heaven and all the people in hell have come from humankind. The ones in heaven are the ones who lived lives of heavenly love and faith while in the world, and the ones in hell are the ones who lived lives of hellish love and faith. Further, what is called “the Devil” and “Satan” actually refers to hell as a whole. “The Devil” means the back area of hell, where people called “evil demons” live, and “Satan” means the front area of hell, where people called “evil spirits” live. On the nature of each of these hells, see toward the end of my book Heaven and Hell [Sections 536–588].

Why has the Christian world seized on this belief about the people in heaven and the people in hell? Angels have told me that it comes from a few passages in the Word understood only in their literal meaning and not illuminated and explained by means of a genuine body of teaching drawn from the Word, when in fact if the real body of teaching of the church does not light the way, the literal meaning of the Word leads the mind astray in a variety of directions, causing ignorance, heresies, and errors.

from Last Judgment Supplements, Section 14

Heaven and Hell:

Sections 536-550: Published 12/31/2018-1/10/2019

Sections 551-575: Published 2/4/2019-2/16/2019

Sections 576-588: Published 3/9/2019-3/16/2019

The Lord’s Divine Nature in Heaven Is Love for Him and Thoughtfulness toward One’s Neighbor (Continued)

We can conclude that love for the Lord and love for our neighbor embrace within themselves everything that is true from the Divine because this follows from what the Lord himself said about these two loves: “You shall love your God with all your heart and with all your soul: this is the greatest and first commandment. The second, which is like it, is that you should love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37–40).

The Law and the Prophets are the whole Word, which means all divine truth.

from Heaven and Hell, Section 19

The Lord’s Divine Nature in Heaven Is Love for Him and Thoughtfulness toward One’s Neighbor (Continued)

The reason the Lord’s divine nature in heaven is love is that love is what is receptive of every heavenly quality—that is, of peace, intelligence, wisdom, and happiness. Love is receptive of everything that is in harmony with it. It longs for such things, it seeks them out, it absorbs them spontaneously because it has the constant purpose of uniting itself with them and being enriched by them. People actually recognize this fact, since the love within them surveys memory, so to speak, and draws out from it the items that agree with it. It gathers these together and arranges them within and beneath itself—within itself so that it may possess them and beneath itself so that they may serve it. It discards and eradicates, though, the items that do not agree with it.

I have been able to see very clearly that love has a full, intrinsic ability to accept elements of truth that suit it and has also a desire of uniting them to itself. This has become clear from observing people who have been transported into heaven. Even people who were simple folk in this world have arrived at angelic wisdom and heavenly happiness in the company of angels. This was because they loved what is good and true for the sake of what is good and true. They had grafted these qualities into their lives and had thereby become capable of accepting heaven and all its indescribable riches.

People caught up in love for themselves and for the world, however, have no such receptive ability. They turn away from such things, discard them, and at their first touch or inflow try to escape them. They ally themselves with people in hell who are caught up in loves like their own.

There were some spirits who doubted that love was so full and wanted to know whether this was really true. In order that they might find out, they were let into a state of heavenly love with all obstacles removed and were brought forward a considerable distance to an angelic heaven. They talked with me from there and told me that they felt deeper happiness than words could express, sorrowing that they would have to return to their former state. Other people as well have been raised into heaven, and the deeper or higher they have been taken, the deeper and higher they have penetrated into intelligence and wisdom, becoming able to grasp things that were incomprehensible to them before. We can see from this that the love that emanates from the Lord is open to heaven and all its riches.

from Heave and Hell, Section 18

The Lord’s Divine Nature in Heaven Is Love for Him and Thoughtfulness toward One’s Neighbor (Continued)

All my experience in heaven bears witness to the fact that the divine nature that comes from the Lord, affects angels, and constitutes heaven, is love. In fact, all the people there are forms of love and thoughtfulness. They look indescribably beautiful. Love radiates from their faces, from their speech, from every detail of their behavior.

Further, there are surrounding auras of spiritual life that emanate from every angel and from every spirit and envelop them. By means of these auras one can recognize even from a distance the quality of the affections of their loves, since these auras flow out from the life of their affection and consequent thought—that is, from the life of their love and consequent faith. The auras that emanate from angels are so full of love that they touch the deepest reaches of life of the people they meet. I have been aware of them a number of times, and they have moved me deeply.

I have been able to see that love was the source of angels’ life because all the people in the other life turn in a direction determined by their own love. People engaged in a love for the Lord and a love for their neighbor are constantly turning toward the Lord, while people who are engaged in self-love are constantly turning their backs to the Lord. This holds true no matter which way they turn, since in the other life spatial relationships are determined by people’s inner natures. These also determine geographical regions, whose boundaries are not drawn the way they are in the physical world but depend on which way people are facing. Actually, it is not angels who turn to the Lord but the Lord who turns toward himself the people who love to do whatever has its source in him. But there will be more on this subject below, when we discuss geographical regions in the other life.

From Heaven and Hell, Section 17

The Lord’s Divine Nature in Heaven Is Love for Him and Thoughtfulness toward One’s Neighbor (Continued)

I have talked with angels about this on a number of occasions. They have expressed their astonishment that church people do not know that to love the Lord and to love one’s neighbor is to love what is good and true and to do them intentionally. They should realize, though, that we demonstrate our love by intending and doing what someone else wants. This is how we become loved in return—not by “loving the other” and not doing what that other wants; in essence, that is not loving at all. They should also realize that the good that comes from the Lord is the Lord’s own likeness because he is within it. We become likenesses of him and are united to him when we make what is good and what is true matters of our lives by doing them intentionally, since intending something is loving to do it.

The Lord teaches that this is true when he says, “Those who have my commandments and do them are the ones who love me, and I will love them and make my dwelling with them” (John 14:21, 23); and again, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love” (John 15:10, 12).

from Heaven and Hell, Section 16

The Lord’s Divine Nature in Heaven Is Love for Him and Thoughtfulness toward One’s Neighbor (Continued)

There are two quite distinguishable loves in heaven—love for the Lord and love for our neighbor. Love for the Lord is characteristic of the third or central heaven, while love for our neighbor is characteristic of the second or intermediate heaven. Both come from the Lord, and each one makes a heaven.

In heaven’s light, it is easy to see how these two loves differ and how they unite, but this can be seen only dimly in our world. In heaven, “loving the Lord” does not mean loving him for the image he projects but loving the good that comes from him. Loving the good is intending and doing it from love. Further, “loving one’s neighbor” does not mean loving companions for the images they project but loving the truth that comes from the Word. Loving the truth is intending and doing it. We can therefore see that these two loves differ the way “good” and “true” differ and unite the way these two unite.

All this, though, will not conform to the notions of anyone who does not know what love is, what the good is, and what the neighbor is.

from Heaven and Hell, Section 15

The Lord’s Divine Nature in Heaven Is Love for Him and Thoughtfulness toward One’s Neighbor (Continued)

The reason the Divine in heaven (which in fact makes heaven) is love is that love is spiritual union. It unites angels to the Lord and unites them with each other. It does this so thoroughly that in the Lord’s sight they are like a single being. Further, love is the essential reality of every individual life.

It is therefore the source of the life of angels and the life of people here. Anyone who weighs the matter will discover that love is our vital core. We grow warm because of its presence and cold because of its absence, and when it is completely gone, we die. We do need to realize, though, that it is the quality of our love that determines the quality of this life.

from Heaven and Hell, Section 14