1877. Those souls or spirits - especially evil ones - who are in the world of spirits retain to begin with the things which they had during their lifetime, that is, things that are earthly, bodily, and worldly, and together with these whatever assumptions they have adopted. Among these spirits are those who do not wish to hear anything about the internal sense of the Word, but only about the literal sense. Indeed they go so far as to believe that the twelve apostles are to sit on twelve thrones and to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. They believe too that none but the poor, the wretched, and those who have suffered persecution can enter heaven, when in fact both the wealthy and the powerful who have led lives of charity and faith in the Lord have their place in heaven. Since such spirits claim that heaven is theirs because they deserve it by their merits, I have seen them running this way and that, and whichever way they go they laugh scornfully at the things which belong to the internal sense of the Word, because these things are contrary to their persuasions and desires, in that they wish to merit heaven and to be placed above all others. But they are like the corrupt and harmful things which enter into the bloodstream, pass through the veins and arteries, and contaminate most of the blood.