| |
Message
1
Swedenborg writes on the hells of the spirit world
December 17, 1915
I am here, Swedenborg.
Let me write a few lines as I desire to write you some truths about what
you and your friend were discussing, namely, are there any such hells as
are described in the messages contained in Dr. Peeble’s book,
Immortality, which you have been reading tonight.
You must know that, in the spirit world, hell is a place as well as a
condition, and that as a place it has all the accompaniments that make
it a reality to the spirits who inhabit it. Of course, the conditions of
the spirits who are in these hells are determined by their recollections
worked upon by their consciences. But notwithstanding that these
recollections are the things that cause their sufferings, yet the
appearances of the locations in which they live are due to something
more than these mere recollections. As you have been informed, all these
spirits are in darkness, and the degree of the darkness in which they
live is determined by their recollections. I mean that when the spirit
has recollections of deeds done or not done, which are not as bad as the
recollections of another, the former spirit is in a place where there is
less darkness than the latter.
These places have their own fixed condition of darkness and gloom and
many other attachments that increase the sufferings that spirits have to
endure. There are, of course, no fires and brimstone lakes, and devils
with pitchforks adding to the sufferings of spirits, but yet, there are
certain conditions and appearances that are outside of the spirits
themselves that cause their recollections to become more acute and to
work in a manner to produce a greater degree of suffering.
These hells may be places of caverns and rocks and barren wastes and
dark holes and other such things as has been written about, and mortals
must know that evil spirits do not live in pleasant places and suffer
only from the punishments that their recollections bring to them. While
the hells of the orthodox are in their descriptions greatly exaggerated,
yet there is some truth in the ideas that these descriptions convey as
to the fact that the hells are places in which there is darkness and
many accompanying appearances that add to the tortures of the spirits of
evil. I tell you this because I see you want to know the truth and for
the further reason that you do not believe that there are such
distinctive places as the hells, and that the darkness which the spirits
in their communications speak to you of are, in your opinion, produced
by the conditions of the minds and souls of the spirits who write. But
such opinion is not altogether correct, and it is best for men to know
that the mere recollections do not include all of what the hells are.
You say you have your hells on earth sometimes, and that is true to a
limited extent, and many men suffer very much from their conscience and
remorse. When they come into the spirit world, if they have not gotten
out of the condition that these recollections place them in, they will
find that there is waiting for them that place or location that will add
to their sufferings that arise from the recollections of evil deeds
committed while on earth.
These evil spirits live in communities, for the law of attraction
operates in these dark and lower planes just as it does in the higher
spheres, and it causes spirits of like or similar conditions to
congregate together and find consolation, or what they may think at
times to be consolation, in one another’s company. These hells are in
the planes that are the nearest to the earth, and these spirits are not
confined all the time to any particular hell. They have the privilege of
moving at will along this plane, but wherever they go they find that
they are in hell, and they cannot escape unless they accept the help
from spirits who can instruct them in what they must do.
These spirits, while their habitations are in these hells, have the
privilege of leaving these particular localities and wandering in and
over parts of the earth plane, but this is only for a short time, for
they have to return to the places where they have been placed that the
law of attraction draws them to.
Nevertheless, the great fact is that these evil spirits have a place of
living where they have to remain until, by the operation of the law of
compensation, they are relieved from some of their evil tendencies and
desires. Then they are permitted to progress. My principal reason in
writing you is for you know that there are hells of places as well as of
conditions, and that these places, by reason of what they contain and
their appearances, add to the suffering of the spirits.
As I have written a long time I will stop and say that I am a Christian
and an inhabitant of the celestial spheres, and I am one of the spirit
band that is helping you in your great work of the Master.
So, in leaving you, I will subscribe myself.
Your brother in Christ,
Swedenborg, the Seer
|
|
