437. That in respect to his interiors man is a spirit can be seen
from the fact that after his separation from the body, which takes
place when he dies, man goes on living as a man just as before. That
I might be convinced of this I have been permitted to talk with
nearly everyone I had ever known in their life in the body; with some
for hours, with some for weeks and months, and with some for years,
and this chiefly that I might be sure of it and might testify to it.
438. To this may be added that every man in respect to his spirit,
even while he is living in the body, is in some society with spirits,
although he does not know it; if a good man he is by means of spirits
in some angelic society; if an evil man in some infernal society; and
after death he comes into that same society. This has been often told
and shown to those who after death have come among spirits. Man, to
be sure, does not appear in that society as a spirit while he is
living in the world, for the reason that he then thinks naturally;
but when one is thinking abstractly from the body, because he is then
in the spirit, he sometimes appears in his society; and when seen he
is easily distinguished from the spirits there, for he goes about
meditating and in silence, not looking at others, and apparently not
seeing them; and as soon as any spirit speaks to him he vanishes.
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