Canberra New Church (ACT)

What happens when I die?

In the preface to his most popular book, Heaven and Hell, Emanuel Swedenborg wrote:

Today's churchman knows almost nothing about heaven, hell, or his own life after death, even though this is all described in the Word. It has gone so far that even many people born in the church deny these things and ask in their hearts, "Has anyone come back and told us,?"
To prevent so negative an attitude (which is particularly prevalent among people with much worldly wisdom) from infecting and corrupting people of simple heart and simple faith, it has been made possible for me to be as one with angels and to talk with them person to person. I have also been allowed to see what heaven is like and then what hell Is like; this has been going on for thirteen years. So now I may describe heaven and hell from what I have seen and heard, hoping for the enlightenment of ignorance and the dispersion of disbelief by this means.

From years of actual experience, Swedenborg asserted that life after death is a reality which every person can look forward to.

... the truth of the matter is that a person rises again immediately after death, at which point he seems to himself to be in his body just the same as when he was in the world, having a face and members, arms, hands, feet, breast, belly, and loins like the ones he had before. Indeed when he sees himself and touches himself he says he is exactly as he was in the world. (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 5078)

But far from being simply more of the same, he also shows that ‘people who die and are buried, do not die, but pass from a dim life to a clear one’ (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 1854). This echoes the words of the Apostle Paul: “But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.” (1 Corinthians 13:10-12)

But what does that change mean in practical terms? How can life after death be better than it is now? Swedenborg fills in the details for us.

The body a person has in the spiritual world is made of a different substance. Actually it is this spiritual part of us which acts through, and brings life to, our present physical bodies.
..., [when a person dies, the body] which he sees and touches is not his external which he carried round in the world but the internal which constituted the real person. That internal is what had life within it, but it had the external surrounding it, or outside every individual part of it, enabling it to exist in the world where it could act in the right way and carry out its functions. [At death] the actual earthly body is of no further use to him. He is in another world where he possesses other functions and other strengths and powers for which the kind of body he has there is suited. (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 5078)

As regards the soul, which - it is said - goes on living after death, it is nothing else than the actual person living in the body. That is, the soul is the person's inner self acting in the world by means of the body and imparting life to the body. (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 6054)

In the new life which follows our physical death, our sensory perception will be greatly improved
... spirits ... possess far keener sensory powers than they did in the life of the body. ... Not only do spirits have the gift of sight, since they are living in light; good spirits, angelic spirits, and angels also live in a light so bright that the light of this world at midday is scarcely comparable to it. The light in which they live and by which they see will in the Lord's Divine mercy be described later on. Spirits also have a sense of hearing so keen that the sense of hearing in their physical body cannot be reckoned its equal. (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 322)

But it is not only our senses which are heightened after death. We enjoy greater clarity of emotional experience and our rational powers are enhanced too.
When his inner self is released from the body the person ... has appetites, longings, desires, affections, and loves that are like those he had in the world yet far superior. He also engages in thought as he did in the world, but in a more perfect way. (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 6054)

[After death, people] have desires and affections, with which those they had in the life of the body cannot be compared. ... They are far more penetrating and discriminating in their thinking than they were during their lifetime. One idea of their thinking embodies more than a thousand ideas did during their lifetime. In what they say to one another they are so direct and to the point, so clear-cut and discriminating, that if man were to catch only a fraction of it he would be dumbfounded. (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 322)

These improvements take place because we are not hampered by the limitations of the physical body any longer.
... each of the senses in that other world is keener and more perfect because it belongs to the internal man released from the physical body. The internal dwells in a greater state of perfection, because it is this that supplies sensory awareness to the external body. But when it acts into the external, as it does in the world, that power is blunted and reduced. (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 5078)

People who are in heaven have far more delicate senses (that is, they see and hear far more precisely) and they think more wisely than when they were in the world. For they see because of heaven’s light, which surpasses earth’s light by many degrees; they hear, too, through a spiritual atmosphere, which also surpasses the earthly one by many degrees. The difference for these outer senses is like the difference between something clear and something veiled by a cloud in the world, or between noonday light and evening shadows. (Heaven and Hell, paragraph 462a)

To sum up, they have lost absolutely nothing; they are as men, yet more perfect, but without material flesh and bones and the imperfections that go with these. (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 322)

Disease and old age are concepts which we leave behind in this world.
Angels have no knowledge at all of death or of sickness, to the point that they cannot picture it in their minds. (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 6221)

Those that are in heaven are continually advancing towards the spring of life, with a greater advance towards a more joyful and happy spring the more thousands of years they live; and this to eternity, with increase according to the growth and degree of their love, charity, and faith. Women who have died old and worn out with age, if they have lived in faith in the Lord, in charity to the neighbour, and in happy marriage love with a husband, advance with the succession of years more and more into the flower of youth and early womanhood, and into a beauty that transcends every conception of any such beauty as is seen on the earth. (Heaven & Hell, paragraph 414)

This is because the angels of heaven appear outwardly just as they are in their hearts and minds, and that is grounded in a spiritual maturity which is ever increasing.
Comparatively little spiritual growth takes place while someone lives in the world, because in the world concerns about food and clothing and about other matters prevent it. But in the next life the increase is vast, and goes on for ever more; for there is no end to wisdom from the Divine. In this way the angels are constantly being made more perfect, and in that same way all entering the next life are made into angels; for every aspect of wisdom is capable of infinite expansion and the aspects of wisdom are infinite in number. (Heavenly Secrets, paragraph 6648)

We have the opportunity to begin that process of growth now. Indeed, we must begin it in this world before we die.
...no one becomes an angel, that is, comes into heaven, unless he carries with him from the world something of the angelic character; and in this there is present a knowledge of the way [to heaven], from walking in it, and a walking in the way through a knowledge of it. Moreover, in the spiritual world there are actual paths which lead to every society of heaven and to every society of hell, and each person, as if from himself, sees his own path. He sees it because every love has its own path; and love opens the way, and leads him to his own people; nor does anyone see other ways than the way of his own love. (Divine Providence, paragraph 60)

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

Download your copy of the short talk, What happens when I die? here.

You may also like to receive a free copy of the booklet, Awaken from Death. If so, contact:

David Moffat
PO Box 934
WODEN ACT 2606
Australia
02 6296 1053
david.moffat@newchurch.org.au

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