When a man passes from the natural world into the spiritual, he takes with him everything that belongs to him as a man except his earthly body. (This he leaves when he dies, nor does he ever resume it.[A]) He is in a body as he was in the natural world; and to all appearance there is no difference.  But his body is spiritual, and is therefore separated or purified from things terrestrial.  And when what is spiritual touches and sees what is spiritual, it is just the same as when what is natural touches and sees what is natural....  A human spirit also enjoys every sense, external and internal, which he enjoyed in the world.  He sees as before, hears and speaks as before, smells and tastes as before, and feels when he is touched.  He also longs, desires, craves, thinks, reflects, is stirred, loves, wills, as he did previously....  In a word, when a man passes from the one life into the other, or from the one world into the other, it is as though he had passed from one place to another; and he carries with him all that he possesses in himself as a man.  It cannot, then, be said, that after death a man has lost anything that really belonged to him.  He carries his natural memory with him, too; for he retains all things whatsoever which he has heard, seen, read, learned and thought in the world, from earliest infancy even to the last of life.

—­Heaven and Hell, n. 461

[Footnote A:  Heavenly Doctrine, n. 225.]

THE WORLD OF SPIRITS

Every man at death comes first into the world of spirits, which is midway between heaven and hell; and there he passes through his own states, and is prepared either for heaven or for hell according to his life....  It is to be observed that the world of spirits is one thing, and the spiritual world another.  The spiritual world embraces the world of spirits and heaven and hell.

—­Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 140

THE WAY OF ONE’S OWN LOVE

After death every one goes the way of his love—­he who is in a good love, to heaven, and he who is in a wicked love, to hell.  Nor does he rest until he is in that society where his ruling love is.  What is wonderful, every one knows the way.

Every one’s state after death is spiritual, which is such that he cannot be anywhere but in the delight of his own love, which he has acquired for himself by his life in the natural world.  From this it appears plainly that no one can be let into the delight of heaven who is in the delight of hell....  This may be still more certainly concluded from the fact that no one is forbidden after death to ascend to heaven.  The way is shown him, opportunity is given him, and he is let in.  But when one who is in the delight of evil comes into heaven, and breathes in its delight, he begins to be oppressed, and racked at heart, and to feel in a swoon, in which he writhes like a snake put near a fire; and with his face turned away from heaven and toward hell, he flees headlong, nor does he rest until he is in the society of his own love.