Heaven and Hell - Swedenborg Foundation

HEAVEN AND HELL 443
are opened above; while the interiors of one who loves the
world or who loves himself are closed above and are opened
outwardly. From this the conclusion follows that when the
higher regions of the mind are closed above, man can no longer
see the objects pertaining to heaven and the church, but those
objects are in thick darkness to him; and what is in thick
darkness is either denied or not understood. And this is why
those that love themselves and the world above all things, since
the higher regions of their minds are closed, in heart deny
Divine truths; and if from their memory they say anything
about them they nevertheless do not understand them.
Moreover, they regard them in the same way as they regard
worldly and corporeal things. And being such they are able to
direct the mind to those things only that enter through the
senses of the body, and in these alone do they find delight.
Among these are also many things that are filthy, obscene,
profane and wicked; and these cannot be removed, because
into the minds of such no influx from heaven is possible, since
their minds, as just now said, are closed above.
[3] Man’s intention, by which his internal sight or thought is
determined, is his will; for what a man wills he intends, and
what he intends he thinks. Therefore when his intention is
heavenward his thought is determined heavenward, and with it
his whole mind, which is thus in heaven; and from heaven he
beholds the things of the world beneath him like one looking
down from the roof of a house. So the man that has the
interiors of his mind open can see the evils and falsities that are
in him, for these are beneath the spiritual mind. On the other
hand, the man whose interiors are not open is unable to see his
evils and falsities, because he is not above them but in them.
From all this one may conclude whence man has wisdom and
whence insanity, also what a man will be after death when he is
left to will and think and to act and speak in accordance with
his interiors. All this also has been said in order to make clear
what constitutes a man’s interior character, however he may
seem outwardly to resemble others.