trine which he calls heavenly, "because it is from the spiritual sense of the Word, and this is the same as the doctrine which is in heaven."[1] It could never have been understood and set forth except after experience in the spiritual world. And finally, as to the importance of a knowledge of the spiritual world itself to the man of the Church:
"The man of the church at this day knows scarcely anything about heaven and hell, and his life after death, although they stand forth described in the Word. Yea, also, many who were born within the church deny these things, saying, in their heart, Who has come thence and told us? Lest, therefore, this denial, which reigns especially with those who have much of the wisdom of the world, should also infect and corrupt the simple in heart and faith, it has been given me to be together with the angels, and to speak with them as man with man, and also to see the things which are in the heavens, and the things which are in the hells; and thus now to describe them from things seen and heard, hoping that ignorance may be enlightened and incredulity dissipated. Such immediate revelation is made at this day because this is meant by the coming of the Lord."[2]
At the threshold of his inquiry into Swedenborg's doctrine of Correspondence, and consideration of its bearings on psychological problems, the reader is therefore warned of its dependence upon the fact of his seership, and knowledge attained by his intromission into the other world. Looking back
