We reproduce a fragment extracted from the work Heaven and Hell by the Swedish theologian and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg, in which he describes the process of dying, the encounter with the angels and the transformation into an entity of the spiritual world.
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"Death" means resurrection and continuation of life
When a person's body can no longer perform its functions in the natural world in response to the thoughts and affections of its spirit (which in turn comes from the spiritual world), then it is said that the individual has died. This happens when breathing stops in the lungs and systolic movement of the heart. Despite this, however, the person does not die. We are only separated from the physical nature that was useful to us on earth . The essence of the person is still alive, and I say that the essence of the person is still alive because each of us is not a person because of his body, but thanks to his spirit. After all, it is the spirit within us that is responsible for thinking, and the combination of thought and affection is what makes us who we are.
We can see, therefore, that, when we die, we simply move from one world to another. This is the reason why in the deep meaning of the word, "death" means resurrection and continuation of life .
The deepest communication of our spirit is established with our breathing and our heartbeat. Thought connects with our breathing, and affection, attribute of love, with our heart . As a consequence, when these two movements cease in the body, an immediate separation occurs. In these two movements (the respiratory movement of the lungs and the systolic movement of the heart), the basic bonds reside. Once those ties are severed, the spirit is left to itself, and the body, now devoid of the life of the spirit, cools and deteriorates.
"Being awakened" means that our spirit is guided outside our body
The reason why the communication of our spirit is deeper with our breathing and our heart is because all our vital processes depend on them, not only in a general way, but also at each specific point.
After this separation, our spirit remains in the body for a short period of time, until the heart stops completely, which varies depending on the cause of death. In some cases, the movement of the heart continues for a while, while in other cases this does not happen. The moment he stops, we are awakened, but this happens only thanks to the Lord. "Being awakened" means that our spirit is guided out of our body into the spiritual world, what is commonly called "resurrection."
The reason why our spirit does not separate from our body until the movement of the heart has stopped is that the heart responds to affection, an attribute of love that is our essential life, since all of us get our vital warmth of love . Therefore, as long as this union lasts there will be receptivity, and therefore the life of the spirit will manifest itself in the body.
Not only have I been referred to how awakening takes place, but I have also experienced it firsthand. The experience occurred to me so that I could have complete knowledge about what happens. I fell into a state in which my physical senses were inoperative, very similar to the state of who is dying . Even so, my deepest life and thought remained intact so that I could perceive and retain what was happening to me and what happens to people who are awakened from death. I noticed that my physical breathing had stopped almost completely, while a deeper breath, a breath of the spirit, remained even with that faith. Physical, it was very light and silent.
The angels wanted me to focus my mind on these thoughts
First a connection was established between the beating of my heart and the kingdom of heaven, because that kingdom corresponds to the human heart . I also saw angels of that kingdom, some were in the distance, while two sat next to me. They sought to take away all my affection and leave me in possession only of thought and perception. He remained in this state for several hours.
Then the spirits that were around me gradually retreated, because they believed I was dead. I felt a sweet smell like that of an embalmed body, since, when angels are present in any situation where there is a corpse, a sweet smell is always perceived. When spirits feel this they cannot approach. This is also how evil spirits stay away from our spirit when we access eternal life .
The angels that were sitting next to me remained silent, and shared their thoughts with mine (when they are captured by the dead, the angels know that the spirit of the person is ready to be guided out of his body ). They managed to share the thoughts looking at my face. This is, in fact, the way thoughts are shared in heaven.
Since they had left me in possession of thought and perception so that I could learn and remember how awakening occurs, I noticed at first that the angels were checking if my thoughts were like those of the dying individuals, who, in general, They think of eternal life. The angels wanted me to focus my mind on these thoughts. Then they told me that while the body exhales its last breath, our spirit maintains the last thought until, in the end, it returns to the thoughts that circulated from our basic and dominant affection in the world.
Above all, they allowed me to perceive and even feel a tug, a kind of traction outside the deepest levels of my mind and, therefore, of my spirit outside my body . And they told me that this was done by the Lord and that it is what causes the resurrection.
When the angels of heaven are with the people who have been awakened, they do not abandon them, since they love the whole world. Some spirits, however, are simply unable to remain in the company of the angels of heaven for a long time and want them to leave. When this happens, the angels of the spiritual kingdom of the Lord arrive through whom the use of light is guaranteed, since without it we could not see anything, we could only think.
They also showed me how this is done. It was as if the angels had pulled a curtain from my left eye towards the center of my nose, so that my eye would open and I could see. For the spirit it is as if this really happened, but this is only appearance. While the curtain seemed to unravel, I could see a dimmer light, endowed with a celestial color, although I was later told that this can change. After that, it seemed to me that they were gently unrolling something in my face and, once this was done, I acceded to spiritual thinking. This unrolling something that covered the face is something apparent, since it represents the fact that we are moving from natural thought to spiritual thought . The angels try to protect the person who wakes up from any concept that does not participate in love. Later [the spirits] inform the individual that he or she is a spirit.
AUTHOR and TRANSLATOR: Érica, editor of the great family of hermandadblanca.org
SOURCE
- https://swedenborg.com/emanuel-swedenborg/writings/short-excerpts-and-downloads/entry-into-eternal-life/
