Is your body “you”? It sure doesn’t feel that way, does it? Your
body is “yours,” you inhabit it, but the real “you” is inside, thinking and feeling and aware. “You” don’t sense “yourself” as something merely physical.
Think of it this way: If you cut off your arm, are you still you? Sure. Cut off both arms and both legs, and you're still you (and just as complete a being as ever). Keep going and it's plain that if you could somehow not die, you could lose every part of your body and still be you.
This is something that has confounded scientists and philosophers for centuries. That feeling is universal, and it’s awfully hard to say it’s not true, but there’s no way to demonstrate it scientifically or to even define its functions in concrete terms philosophically. If you’re not physical, then what are you made of? How does the “you” that is not physical affect the physical world? How does a non-physical “you” even control your own body?
There are no good answers from the natural world, so people have (since the dawn of humanity, as far as we can tell) jumped to the hazy idea that there is a spiritual reality which parallels and interacts with natural reality, and the real “you” is a spirit, made of spiritual material.
Swedenborg says that not only is this true, but that spiritual reality – what he calls the “spiritual world” – is actually more real than the physical world, and is actually the source of physical reality. In fact, he says that every detail of the natural world is a sort of projection of a detail of the spiritual world, and if we understand those relationships we can see the spiritual reality within natural things, much as we see lines and curves on paper and understand them as words.
Often, then, the word “spiritual” is used in Swedenborg and on this website as a sort of catchall for non-material reality, everything about heaven and hell and our deeper loves and thoughts, when those loves and thoughts extend beyond physical things.
But Swedenborg also divides spiritual reality into three layers, and (somewhat confusingly) uses “spiritual” to describe the middle of those three layers.
The inmost level of spiritual reality is referred to as “celestial,” and is marked by a pure love of the Lord, which flows forth directly as wisdom. This is the highest state humans can reach, and is the state of the highest heavens, where people live in complete innocence and harmony from the Lord’s love.
The outermost layer of spiritual reality is referred to as “natural,” and is marked by a love of doing the Lord’s will and a knowledge of what the Lord teaches. This level exists in all of us, and is where we put what we know and love into action, where everything becomes tangible. Those in the natural heaven live simply, loving to do what’s right and taking joy in understanding what’s right.
Between those two is the midde, or “spiritual,” layer of spiritual reality. It is marked by love of other people, and a love of exploring and understanding the things the Lord teaches, making it in a way the most intellectual of the three. Those in the spiritual heaven love to explore what is true for its own sake, and marry that to a love of those around them, a love of serving and being good to them.
Passages from Swedenborg
Divine Love and Wisdom (Ager) n. 251
(1) What the natural man is, and what the spiritual man. Man is not man from face and body, but from understanding and will; therefore by the natural man and the spiritual man is meant that man's understanding and will are either natural or spiritual. The natural man in respect to his understanding and will is like the natural world, and may be called a world or microcosm; and thespiritual man in respect to his understanding and will is like thespiritual world, and may be called a spiritual world or heaven. From which it is evident that as the natural man is in a kind of image a natural world, so he loves those things which are of the natural world; and that as the spiritual man is in a kind of image a spiritualworld, so he loves those things which are of that world, or of heaven. The spiritual man indeed loves the natural world also but not otherwise than as a master loves his servant through whom he performs uses. Moreover, according to uses the natural man becomes like the spiritual, which is the case when the natural man feels from the spiritual the delight of use; such a natural man may be calledspiritual-natural. The spiritual man loves spiritual truths; he not only loves to know and understand them, but also wills them; while the natural man loves to speak of those truths and also do them. Doing truths is performing uses. This subordination is from the conjunction of the spiritual world and the natural world; for whatever appears and is done in the natural world derives its cause from the spiritualworld. From all this it can be seen that the spiritual man is altogether distinct from the natural, and that there is no other communication between them than such as there is between cause and effect.
Divine Love and Wisdom (Rogers) n. 174
As regards the atmospheres, which are called ethers and airs, these in the two worlds, the spiritual and the natural, are alike, with the difference that those in the spiritual world are spiritual, while those in the natural world are natural.
They are spiritual in the spiritual world because they arise from a sun which is the first emanation of the Lord's Divine love and wisdom, and they receive into them from Him the Divine fire which is love and the Divine light which is wisdom and convey both down to the heavens where angels dwell. They also bring about the presence of that sun in the greatest and least of things there.
Spiritual atmospheres are the discrete substances or most elemental forms arising from the sun. Moreover, because they each receive the sun singly and separately, therefore the sun's fire-being apportioned among so many substances or forms and enveloped, so to speak, by them, and by the envelopments tempered-becomes heat, a heat finally suited to the love of angels in heaven and to that of spirits beneath heaven. It is the same with the sun's light.
Natural atmospheres in this respect are like the spiritualatmospheres. They, too, are discrete substances or elemental forms arising from the sun of the natural world, which likewise receive the sun singly and separately, storing its fire in them and tempering it, and conveying it down to the earth where people dwell. And doing the same with its light.
New Jerusalem and Heavenly Doctrine (Whitehead) n. 48
Of the natural and the spiritual.
How perverse it is that the world at this day attributes so much to nature, and so little to the Divine (n. 3483). Why it is so (n. 5116). When nevertheless each and every particular in nature not only exists, but likewise continually subsists from the Divine, and through the spiritualworld (n. 775, 8211). Divine, celestial, and spiritualthings terminate in nature (n. 4240, 4939). Nature is the ultimate plane whereon they stand (n. 4240, 5651, 6275, 6284, 6299, 9216). Celestial, spiritual, and natural things follow and succeed each other in order; so do Divine things with them, because they are from the Divine (n. 880, 4938, 4939, 9992, 10005, 10017, 10068). Celestial things are the head, spiritualthings the body, and natural things the feet (n. 4938, 4939). They also inflow in an order similar to that wherein they follow and succeed each other (n. 4938, 4939).
The good of the inmost or third heaven is called celestial, the good of the middle or second heaven is called spiritual, and the good of the ultimate or first heaven is called spiritual natural, whence it may be known what is the celestial, spiritual, and natural (n. 4279, 4286, 4938, 4939, 9992, 10005, 10017, 10068); and in the work on Heaven and Hell (n. 20-28, 29-40).
All things of the natural world are from the Divine through thespiritual world (n. 5013). Consequently the spiritual is in every natural thing, just as the efficient cause is in the effect (n. 3562, 5711); or as effort is in motion (n. 5173), and as the internal is in the external (n. 3562, 5326, 5711). And since the cause is the very essential in the effect, as effort is in motion, and the internal in the external; hence it follows, that the spiritual, and consequently the Divine, is the very essential in the natural (n. 2987-3002, 9701-9709). Spiritual things are presented to view in the natural, and the things manifested are representatives and correspondences (n. 1632, 2987-3002). Hence all nature is a theater representative of thespiritual world, that is, of heaven (n. 2758, 2999, 3000, 4939, 8848, 9280). All things in nature are disposed in order and series according to ends (n. 4104). This is from the spiritual world, that is, from heaven, because ends, which are uses, reign there (n. 454, 696, 1103, 3645, 4054, 7038). Man is so created that Divine things descending according to order into nature, may be perceived in him (n. 3702).
With every man, who is in Divine order, there is an internal and an external, his internal is called the spiritual, or the spiritual man, and his external is called the natural, or the natural man (n. 978, 1015, 4459, 6309, 9701-9709). The spiritual man is in the light of heaven, and the natural man in the light of the world (n. 5965). The natural man can discern nothing from himself, but from the spiritual (n. 5286). The natural is like a face in which the interiors see themselves, and thus man thinks (n. 5165). The spiritual man thinks in the natural, consequently naturally, so far as it comes to the sensual perception of the natural (n. 3679, 5165, 6284, 6299). The natural is the plane, in which the spiritual terminates (n. 5651, 6275, 6284, 6299, 9216). The spiritual sees nothing, unless the natural be in correspondence (n. 3493, 3620, 3623). The spiritual or internal man can see what is being done in the natural or external, but not the contrary, because the spiritual flows into the natural, and not the natural into the spiritual (n. 3219, 4667, 5119, 5259, 5427, 5428, 5477, 6322, 9109, 9110). The natural man from his own light, which is called the light [lumen] of nature, knows nothing concerning God, nor concerning heaven, nor concerning the life after death; neither does he believe, if he hears of such things, unless spiritual light, which is light from heaven, flows into that natural light [lumen] (n. 8944).
The natural man of himself, by birth, is opposite to the spiritual man (n. 3913, 3928). Therefore as long as they are opposite to each other, man feels it grievous to think of spiritual and celestial things, but delightful to think of natural and corporeal things (n. 4096). He nauseates the things of heaven, and even the bare mention of anything spiritual, from experience (n. 5006, 9109). Merely natural men regard spiritual good and truth as a servant (n. 5013, 5025). When nevertheless the natural man ought to be subordinate to thespiritual man, and serve him (n. 3019, 5168). The spiritual man is said to serve the natural, when the latter from the intellectual principle seeks confirmations of the objects of his concupiscence, particularly from the Word (n. 3019, 5013, 5025, 5168). How merely natural men appear in another life, and what is the quality of their state and lot there (n. 4630, 4633, 4940-4952, 5032, 5571).
The truths, which are in the natural man, are called scientifics and knowledges (n. 3293). The imagination of the natural man, when viewed in itself, is material, and his affections are like those of beasts (n. 3020). But there is a genuine thinking and imaginative principle from the internal or spiritual man when the natural man sees, acts, and lives therefrom (n. 3493, 5422, 5423, 5427, 5428, 5477, 5510).
The things which are in the natural man, respectively to those which are in the spiritual man, are general (n. 3513, 5707); and consequently obscure (n. 6686).
There is an interior and an exterior natural with man (n. 3293, 3294, 3793, 5118, 5126, 5497, 5649). There is also a medium between them (n. 4570, 9216). The discharges of the spiritual man are made into the natural, and by it (n. 9572).
They who do good merely from a natural disposition, and not from religion, are not received in heaven (n. 8002, 8772).
De Verbo (Rogers) n. 3
The Difference in General between Natural, Spiritual and Celestial Things
There are three heavens: a lowest one, a middle one, and a highest. In the lowest heaven the people are natural, but their natural quality stems either from the spiritual quality that belongs to the middle heaven or from the celestial quality that belongs to the third heaven. In the second heaven the people are spiritual, and in the third heaven celestial. There are also some in between, who are called spiritual- celestial. Many of these are preachers in the highest heaven.
[2] The difference between natural, spiritual and celestial things is such that there is no proportional relation between them. Therefore natural things cannot in any way by any approximation approach in likeness spiritual things, nor spiritual things celestial things. That is why the heavens are distinct. I have been given to know this from much experience. Again and again I have been conveyed into the company of spiritual angels, and I then spoke with them in theirspiritual way of speaking, and what I said I then made a point of remembering. When I returned into my natural state-the state every person in the world is in-I then tried to recall what I had said from my earlier remembrance and write it down, but I could not. It was impossible. No words were to be found and not even any mental concepts by which to express it. The spiritual mental concepts and words were so removed from natural mental concepts and words that there was not the least approximation. Surprisingly, when I was in that heaven and spoke with angels, I then knew no other than that I was speaking in the same way that I speak with people here. But afterward I found out that the thoughts and speech were so dissimilar that the one could not approximate the other, consequently that they have proportional relation.
[3] There is a similar difference between spiritual and celestial things. I have been told that there is a similar difference, and also that the difference is such that no proportional relation or approximation is possible. But I could not be given confirmation of this through personal experience without actually being an angel of the middle heaven. It was therefore granted some angels of the middle heaven to be together with angels of the third heaven, and while there to think and speak with them, and also to make a point of remembering what they thought and what they said, and afterward to return to their own heaven. And they told me then that they could not express any idea or any word from the earlier state, that it was impossible; and they said in conclusion that there is no proportional relation or approximation.
Arcana Coelestia 4286
[2] It is well known that there are three heavens - the inmost heaven, the middle heaven, and the ultimate heaven, or what amounts to the same, the third, second, and first heavens. The inmost or third heaven is celestial, the angels there being called celestial because they are governed by love to the Lord and as a consequence are the ones most closely linked to the Lord. And that being so they excel all other angels in wisdom. They are innocent and are for that reason called embodiments of innocence and wisdom. These angels are divided into internal and external, the internal being more celestial than the external. The middle or second heaven is spiritual, the angels there being called spiritual because they are governed by charity towards the neighbour, that is, by mutual love, the nature of which is such that one angel loves another more than himself. And because their nature is such, intelligence is present within them and for that reason they are called embodiments of intelligence. These angels too are divided into internal and external, the internal being more spiritual than the external. But the ultimate or first heaven is also celestial and spiritual, though not in the same degree as the previous ones; for the natural is closely associated with them, and so for that reason they are called celestial-natural and spiritual-natural. They too are governed by mutual love, but they do not love others more than themselves, only as themselves. What governs them is an affection for good and a knowledge of truth. They also are divided into internal and external.
Doctrine of Life (Dick) n. 86
Man has a natural mind and a spiritualmind: the natural mind is beneath, and the spiritualmind is above. The natural mind is his worldly mind, and the spiritual mind is his heavenly mind. The natural mind may be called the animal mind, and the spiritual mind the human mind. Man is also distinguished from the animal by this circumstance, that he has a spiritual mind, by which he is capable of being in heaven while he is in the world. By virtue of this mind also man lives after death.
Who (or What) is Swedenborg?
The ideas on this site are based on the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, an 18th-century Swedish scientist and theologian. Swedenborg claimed that his religious writings, the sole focus of the last three decades of his life, were done at the behest of the Lord himself, and constituted a revelation for a successor to the Christian Church.
In keeping with Swedenborg’s own statements, modern believers downplay his role as author, attributing the ideas to the Lord instead. For this reason they generally refer to Swedenborg’s theological works as “the Writings,” and some resist the label “Swedenborgian” as placing emphasis on the man rather than the message.
Since “the Writings” would be an unfamiliar term to new readers, we have elected to use the name “Swedenborg” as a label for those theological works, much as we might use “Isaiah” or “Matthew” to refer to books of the Bible. The intent, however, is not to attribute the ideas to Swedenborg, any more than we would attribute the divinity of the Bible to Isaiah the man or Matthew the man.
So when you read “according to Swedenborg” on this site, it’s really shorthand for “according to the theological works from the Lord through Swedenborg.” When you read “Swedenborg says,” it’s really shorthand for “the theological works of Swedenborg say.”