Afterlife: A Guided Tour of Heaven and Its Wonders - Swedenborg ...

Hell
can tell what they are like by looking at them. In general,
they are forms of contempt for others, threats against
people who do not revere them; they are forms of various
shadings of hatred, of various forms of vengefulness.
Savagery and cruelty show through from within.
It does need to be known, though, that hellish spirits
look like this in heaven’s light, but that they look human
to each other. This is a gift of the Lord’s mercy, so that they
do not look as repulsive to each other as they do to angels.
However, this appearance is deceiving, since the moment
a ray of light from heaven is let in, these human forms turn
into the monstrous ones that they are essentially, the
forms just described, because in heaven’s light everything
appears as it really is. This is also why they avoid heaven’s
light and dive into their own illumination, an illumi -
nation like that of glowing coals or, in places, like burning
sulfur. This light, though, turns into pure dark ness when
any ray of light from heaven flows in. This is why the hells
are described as being in gloom and darkness, and why the
gloom and darkness mean the kinds of malevolent distor -
tions characteristic of hell.
At first I wondered why love for oneself and love of the
world are so diabolic, why people who are absorbed in
them look so frightful. After all, in the world we scarcely
give love for ourselves a second thought. We focus only on
that outward inflation of spirit called pride, which we
believe is the only self-love because it is so visible. Not
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