Mankind was created to be able to speak with spirits and angels, so that earth and heaven may thus be joined together. In the most ancient Church this was so, in the ancient, and in the primitive [Christian] Church likewise they perceived the holy spirit. Such are the inhabitants of other planets, spoken of earlier [539, 1424]. For the human being is a human because of being a spirit, with the only distinction that the spirit of a person on earth is clothed about with a body for the purpose of functioning on earth. That earth and heaven are now separated on this planet is due to the fact that humanity here has passed in the course of time to outer qualities, away from inner ones. 1748, 20 March.