Such as people have developed in their bodily life, and such as they therefore are at the point of death, so they remain. They first of all encounter the circumstances that had existed at the point of death, and during the terminal illness, or final period of life. Next they are introduced into different groups made up of good spirits, whose place it is to discover what their natural inclinations are like. This duty they perform as if it were their own [judgment], scarcely knowing otherwise [628]. So, depending on how they are found to be, they are either received into better circles, or they are received into worse circles, as befits their natural character. So this is done by a method of consent, or of love and aversion, all and the least details of which are arranged by the Lord. These things I have learned through manifold experience, and I have seen, heard and sensed them. They have told what [the souls being examined] are like in this state, what they are like in that. For of course, they are at first carried along largely by opinions and convictions they had adopted [in the world]; but experience teaches [the examiners] whether they are of this nature, or that. Meanwhile they are in their element, and almost their very life, when they can test the spirits coming up to them by their own and diverse methods. The reasons for this are many, in addition to the dominating one among spirits, namely, that they are curious, and eager to know what others are like, and what is what. Enlightened knowledge in general is spiritual food, wherefore these longings and desires [to know] correspond to the bodily appetites for eating and drinking. For this reason, higher knowledge is also called spiritual food, and hence come the deeper meanings of bread, grain, wheat, milk, water, and so on.