Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 389
love is then separated and as it were taken away from him.
From one who is good everything discordant or inharmonious
is separated and as it were taken away, and he is thus let into
his own love. It is the same with an evil spirit, with the
difference that from the evil truths are taken away, and from
the good falsities are taken away, and this goes on until each
becomes his own love. This is effected when the man-spirit is
brought into the third state, which will be described hereafter.
When this has been done he turns his face constantly to his
own love, and this he has continually before his eyes, in
whatever direction he turns (see above, n. 123, 124).
[3] All spirits, provided they are kept in their ruling love, can
be led wherever one pleases, and are incapable of resistance,
however clearly they may see that this is being done, and
however much they may think that they will resist. They have
often been permitted to try whether they could do anything
contrary to their ruling love, but in vain. Their love is like a
bond or a rope tied around them, by which they may be led
and from which they cannot loose themselves. It is the same
with men in the world who are also led by their love, or are led
by others by means of their love; but this is more the case when
they have become spirits, because they are not then permitted
to make a display of any other love, or to counterfeit what is
not their own.
[4] All interaction in the other life proves that the spirit of
man is his ruling love, for so far as anyone is acting or speaking
in accord with the love of another, to the same extent is the
other plainly present, with full, joyous, and lively countenance;
but when one is speaking or acting contrary to another’s love,
to that extent the other’s countenance begins to be changed, to
be obscured and indiscernible, until at length he wholly
disappears as if he had not been there. I have often wondered
how this could be, for nothing of the kind can occur in the
world; but I have been told that it is the same with the spirit in
man, which when it turns itself away from another ceases to be
within his view.