It has been pointed out that both people on earth and spirits after death really live in both worlds at the same time. Every one must receive sense-impulses from the world of nature and affections of love from the spiritual world, both of these being necessary to produce consciousness. While we are on earth, although we have all the organs of sensation, and are in constant touch with the objects in our environment from which a stream of sense-impulses pours in upon our mind during every waking moment, nevertheless no conscious realization of our surroundings will result unless we are being stirred at the same time by some affection, some interest, some desire that causes us to focus our attention and so to notice a particular set of sense-impulses. On the other hand, although everyone is surrounded by spirits and angels, they cannot produce any conscious effect upon the mind unless there is a stream of sense-impulses knocking upon the door of consciousness. If one were deaf, blind, and incapable of taste, smell or touch, even if he were alive, he would have no love, no emotion. no desire, and therefore no reflection that could produce consciousness.

It follows from this that people on earth must receive some influx from the spiritual world, and spirits after death must receive some impulse from the world of nature in order to enjoy any conscious life whatever. This must be true in spite of the fact that while on earth people are completely unaware of their spiritual associates, and spirits after death are wholly unconscious of the material world. On earth we feel affections or loves as if they arose in our minds, and have no knowledge of whence they came. So also spirits in the other world are moved by the ideas present in the minds of people on earth, but perceive these as if they originated in themselves, and remain wholly ignorant of their source.

Ideas formed in the imagination are all derived from the physical senses, but they have been so ordered as to clothe, represent, and make tangible some love or affection. They have been separated from the material properties of matter to produce ideals. These ideal forms are what affect and move the minds of spirits and angels, performing for them the same function as the direct touch with nature performs for people on earth. For this reason it is said that the whole spiritual world rests upon mankind as a common basis. It is solely because they are touched and moved by a constant stream of impulses originating in the world of nature, but elevated thence to the plane of the imagination, that spirits are capable of reflection, and therefore of consciousness. Nevertheless, the fact that in the other life no one possesses his own bodily sense organs, produces a profound difference in the kind of reflection that is possible. Concerning this we read:

The state of spirits relatively to the state of people appears similar at first glance, but yet it differs greatly. They think, indeed, similarly, and will similarly, but they are different as to reflections. (Spiritual Diary 4716)

After death, reflection upon inconveniences and punishments is taken away from man; for external bonds are removed and the man is left to his own disposition, thus to the delights of his life, so that he may act according to them. For in the other life a reflection other than prevails during the life of the body is requisite. In this there is reflection upon honours, gains, reputation, dangers to life and the like. These things are taken away, and the spirit is left to his own disposition which he had acquired to himself in the life of the body. (Spiritual Diary 4756)

The difference between the two worlds is caused by the different plane upon which reflection takes place. As long as we live in the body we are aware of the source from which sense-impulses come, but we are not aware of the source whence spiritual influences come. Therefore attention is fixed upon material objects and the mechanical forces in our natural environment. Even when we picture these things in our imagination we notice their material attributes and characteristics such as size, shape, weight, color, texture. We are interested in these things because of the physical needs they fill and the worldly uses they perform. Because of this we are said to live in a natural world which is characterized by these properties and uses. At the same time we feel affection, emotion, desire, and we can perceive in some degree the qualities of these spiritual things, but only as they exist in ourselves, wherefore we call them “human qualities”—thoughts, abstract ideas, and spiritual or moral aspirations.

After death it is altogether otherwise. Then one is no longer affected by material things directly, but only after they have been idealized in the minds of people on earth. Ideals are representative of things immaterial and supernatural. These representations are perceived by spirits in the other world without realizing whence they come. But spirits are conscious of one another, and of their spiritual environment. They are aware of spiritual things as existing outside of themselves, and as constituting a world to be sensed, explored and enjoyed. This is the living world of the Divine Proceeding, the world of Divine Love, and Divine Wisdom accommodated to human reception. Yet these spiritual objects and forces are perceived in forms altogether similar to those found in nature, because they can become visible to us under no other form or aspect than that which has been impressed upon the external senses during life on earth. To create such representative forms is the Divine purpose in providing a material world of objects. Not by any other means can spiritual things become visible and tangible. For this reason no one can be created in the spiritual world, but must first live on earth in a body sensitive to material things.

The difference between reflection on earth and reflection in the spiritual world is further explained, as follows:

Man in the world reflects from his corporeal memory. . . When a man sees another, he reflects upon all that he had heard and has experienced concerning the person; and [he] acknowledges him as [a] friend and companion with whom he has associated and [has] for various reasons, entered into friendship. But not so spirits. They acknowledge as [a] friend him who is like themselves; for an acquaintance, every one who receives their ideas; but this with much variety, and whether they have been acquainted or not. (Spiritual Diary 4716)

From this it is clear that after death every one is brought into association with those who are in similar loves to his own, and he at once feels himself to be among friends. It is as if he had known them always even though he had never met them before. He does not reflect upon who they are, where they have lived, or what they have done during their life on earth. These things would be regarded as of no consequence, because they already perceive the interior quality of the one they meet to be in sympathy with their own. There would be no thought of person from family connection, from social station, from outward appearance, manners or dress. They would have regard only to the quality of love which they present in a representative form. They see each other because an accordant love is roused in the mind of each one, and made visible through the memory of corresponding forms derived originally, either from their own experience on earth or from ideas in the minds of people still living in the natural world. Whence these memories or impulses come is not known, nor is it reflected upon. Only the results of it are consciously enjoyed as if originating in themselves, while the attention is focused solely upon the spiritual things that come into view. Spirits live in a world of human affections and human thoughts made tangible in correspondential forms derived, in the last analysis, from physical sensation. Thus from their own memory of past experience, or from the memory of people still living on earth, spirits derive the forms, the mental pictures through which spiritual things are seen and felt. For this reason, all the appearances in the spiritual world are similar to the forms existing in nature. Houses, garments, trees, plants, fields, rivers, mountains-all of these appear similar to those on earth. Yet to the spirits they are merely the medium whereby they sense and feel loves, or goods, and truths. Spirits pay little attention to the forms, being delighted with the spiritual realities of which the forms are but clothing. Such appearances are not subject to the restriction of space and time; nor are they regarded as to any material properties. The appearances may change suddenly. They may appear and disappear, but the spirits do not reflect upon such changes, and find nothing strange or surprising about them. They seem perfectly natural because the plane of reflection is not upon the forms, but upon the spiritual things they represent. The forms change as the states of the spirits change, not because the spiritual things really change, but only the way the spirits are affected by them, how they look at them, from what point of view they regard them. In explanation, the number quoted from the Spiritual Diary continues:

Man reflects upon the various things wherewith he may array, and with which he does array himself; and this variously. . . [Spirits do not do this.] Garments are given them according to their state. They do not know whence and at what time; nor do they care. Man knows of what sort is his house, his rooms, his halls, and many things, also the furniture. Spirits, indeed, are similarly circumstanced; but when their surroundings are changed, when new things are given them, when they are provided with furniture, they rarely reflect [upon] from whence, or when, these things came. But it is different with one spirit to what it is with another. Likewise, when he comes into another place he does not know where he had been before, [and] thus does not turn back from the former to the latter, as does man. In a word, reflections are circumstanced according to the states in which they are. . . [whether in the other life or] in the world. In respect to reflections, so many things occur that they cannot be described . . . Still [spirits] have a wakefulness and life. . . [which], on account of the difference of reflections. . . differs greatly. . . from the wakefulness and life of man. . . The angels think and act in a far more excellent manner than people [do], although they are not so well acquainted with the state of man as to be able to institute a comparison. The principal cause is that they have no memory of the past as regards such things as are external, but [only] as regards such things as are internal thus which are of faith and eternal life; but. . . whence or how these things are learned, they do not remember. In this they are like infants who learn and know not how.