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

The World of Spirits
are in freedom and are no longer constrained. As long as
they were living in the world, they were outwardly
sensible, because this was how they imitated rational
people. So when the outer layers are stripped off, their
inner insanity is unveiled.
An evil person who outwardly pretends to be good can
be compared to a brightly polished jar with a cover on,
with all kinds of filth hidden inside, just as the Lord said:
“You are like whitewashed sepulchers that look lovely on
the outside but are inwardly full of the bones of the dead
and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).
When spirits are in this second state, they actually look
exactly the way they were inwardly in the world. The
things they had done and said in secret are made public,
too, because now, since outward factors are not restrain -
ing them, they say the same things openly; and they keep
trying to do the same things without any of the fear for the
reputations that they had in the world. Further, they are
then led into many states of their evils, so that they look
to angels and good spirits like the people they really are.
Since evil spirits plunge into all kinds of evils when they
are in this second state, it is normal for them to be pun -
ished often and severely. There are many kinds of punish -
ments in the world of spirits, and there is no respect for
rank, for whether someone was a king or a servant in the
world. Every evil brings its own punishment with it. They
are united; so whoever is involved in something evil is
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