123. Those who are in heaven are able to speak and converse not only with those angels and spirits who are from the earths in our solar system, but also with those who are from other earths in the universe beyond this system; and not only with the spirits and angels there, but also with the inhabitants themselves, only, however, with those whose interiors have been opened, so that they are able to hear those who speak from heaven. The same thing is possible for a man to whom it has been given by the Lord to speak with spirits and angels, during his life in the world; for a man as to his interiors is a spirit, the body which he carries about in the world being serviceable to him only for performing functions in this natural or terrestrial sphere, which is the ultimate or last sphere. But to no one is it given to speak as a spirit with angels and spirits, unless he be of such a character that he can be consociated with angels as to faith and love. Neither can he be consociated with them, unless his faith and love are directed to the Lord; for man is conjoined to the Lord by means of faith in Him and love to Him, that is, by means of truths of doctrine and goods of life from Him; and when he has been conjoined [with the Lord], he is secure from the assaults of evil spirits from hell. With others the interiors cannot be opened to such an extent, since they are not in the Lord. This is the reason why there are few at this day to whom it is given to speak and converse with angels; a manifest proof of which is, that at the present day it is scarcely believed that spirits and angels exist, and still less that they are present with every man, and that through them man has connection with heaven, and, through heaven, with the Lord; and that it is still less believed that a man, when he dies as to the body, lives a spirit, and in the human form as before.

124. Since, with many in the church at the present day, there is no faith in a life after death, and scarcely any faith concerning heaven, nor concerning the Lord as being the God of heaven and earth, therefore the interiors that are of my spirit have been opened by the Lord, so that, while I am in the body, I might at the same time be with angels in heaven, and not only speak with them, but see the stupendous things there, and describe the same, lest possibly it might hereafter be said, Who has come to us from heaven, and told us of its existence, and of the things that are there? But I know that those who hitherto have at heart denied heaven and hell, and the life after death, will still persist in confirming themselves against them, and in denying them; for it is easier to make a raven white than to make those believe who have once at heart rejected faith; the reason is, that they always think about such matters from a negative, and not from an affirmative, standpoint. Nevertheless, let those facts that have already been stated, and that yet remain to be stated, concerning angels and spirits, be for those few who are in faith. In order that others also may be led to some degree of acknowledgment, it has been granted me to relate such things as delight and allure the man who is desirous of acquiring knowledge: of this character are the things that shall now be related concerning the earths in the starry heaven.

125. He who is not acquainted with the arcana of heaven, cannot believe that a man can see earths that are so far distant, and give any account of them from sensuous experience. But let him know that the spaces and distances, and therefore the progressions, which exist in the natural world, in their origin and first cause are changes of the state of the interiors, and that with angels and spirits they appear according to these changes[ss]; and that through changes of state they may be apparently translated from one place to another, and from one earth to another, even to earths which are at the end of the universe: so likewise may man as to his spirit, his body still remaining in its own place. This has been the case with me, since, by the Lord’s Divine mercy, it has been given to me to speak with spirits as a spirit, and at the same time with men as a man. That a man, as to his spirit, can be translated in this manner, is inconceivable to the sensual man, since he is in space and in time, and measures his progressions according to them.

126. That there are many systems, may appear to every one from the fact that so many stars appear in the universe; and it is known in the learned world that every star is like a sun in its own place, for it remains fixed as the sun of our Earth does in its place; and that it is the distance that makes it appear in so small a form as a star; consequently, that, like the sun of our system, each star has planets around it, which are earths; and that the reason why these do not appear before our eyes is on account of their immense distance, and because only the light from their own star reaches us, which light cannot be again reflected from the planets so far as to reach us. To what other purpose could so great a heaven with so many constellations be intended? For the end of the creation of the universe is man, that from man there may be an angelic heaven; but what would a human race, and from it an angelic heaven, from one single earth, be for an Infinite Creator, for whom a thousand, yea tens of thousands of earths, would not suffice? It has been calculated that, supposing there were in the universe a million earths, and on every earth three hundred million men, and two hundred generations within six thousand years, and that to every man or spirit there were to be allotted a space of three cubic ells, the sum of that great number of men or spirits would not occupy a space equal to a thousandth part of this Earth, consequently hardly the space occupied by one of the satellites of the planet Jupiter or Saturn: which would be a space in the universe so small as to be scarcely discernible; for a satellite [of Jupiter or Saturn] is scarcely visible to the naked eye. What would this be for the Creator of the universe, for whom the whole universe, even if it were completely filled, would not be enough, for He is Infinite. In conversing with the angels on this subject, they have told me that they have a similar idea of the fewness of the human race relatively to the infinity of the Creator; but that, nevertheless, they do not think from spaces, but from states, and that according to their idea, earths numbering as many myriads as could ever be conceived in thought would still be as absolutely nothing to the Lord. The earths in the starry heaven, however, shall now be treated of in what follows from real experience; from which it will likewise be made manifest how the translations to these earths were effected as to my spirit, whilst my body remained in its own place.