Arcana Coelestia (Potts) n. 9440

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9440. He who is not acquainted with the arcana of heaven, may believe it to be impossible for a man to see earths which are so remote, and from the evidence of the senses to give any account of them. But he should know that in their first cause and origin, the spaces and distances, and consequently the progressions, which appear in the spiritual world, are changes of state of the interiors, and that they appear with angels and spirits in accordance with these changes; and that by means of such changes angels and spirits can be translated from one place to another, and from one earth to another, even to earths which are at the end of the universe. And so can a man in respect to his spirit, his body still remaining in its own place. So too has it been done with me, for of the Lord's Divine mercy it has been given me to be in company with spirits as a spirit, and at the same time with men as a man. (That in heaven the spaces and distances, and consequently the progressions, are appearances arising from changes of state of the interiors, see n. 5605.) A sensuous man cannot conceive that in respect to his spirit a man can be translated in this manner, because such a man is in space and in time, and measures his progressions according to these.


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