127.  I was led by the Lord by means of angels to a certain earth in the starry heaven, where it was given me to gaze upon the earth itself, yet not to speak with the inhabitants of it, but with spirits who had come from it.  All the inhabitants or men of every earth, on the termination of their life in the world, become spirits, and remain near their own earth.  From them, however, information is obtained concerning their earth and the state of its inhabitants; for men, when they quit the body, carry with them all their former life and all their memory[tt].  Being led to earths in the universe does not mean being led and translated thither as to the body, but as to the spirit; and the spirit is led through variations of the state of the inner life, which appear to it as progressions through spaces[ss].  Approaches, also, are effected according to the agreements or likenesses of the states of life; for agreement or likeness of life conjoins, and disagreement and unlikeness disjoin.  From this it may appear how translation as to the spirit is effected, and how it is made to approach distant regions, while the man, nevertheless, remains in his own place.  But to lead a spirit outside of his own globe through variations of the state of his interiors, and to cause the variations to proceed successively until a state is reached which agrees or coincides with the state of those to whom he is being led, is in the power of the Lord alone; for there is needed a continual direction and foresight from first to last, both on the journey thither, and on the return journey, especially when this is to be effected with a man who is still as to the body in the world of nature, and thereby in space.  That this has actually been effected, those who are in corporeal sensual things, and who think from them, cannot be induced to believe.  The reason is that the corporeal sensual [faculties] cannot conceive of progressions apart from spaces.  But, nevertheless, those who think from the Sensual of their spirit, that has in some degree been removed or withdrawn from the Sensual of the body, thus, who think interiorly in themselves, may be induced to believe and comprehend it, since in the idea of interior thought there is neither space nor time, but instead of them there are those things from which spaces and times proceed.  Those things, therefore, that follow, concerning the earths in the starry heaven, are for the use of the latter, and not for the former, unless they are of such a character as to suffer themselves to be instructed.

[Footnote tt:  Man after death has with him the memory of all his concerns in the world, nos. 2476-2486.]