From each individual there comes, or rather pours forth, a spiritual sphere due to the affections of his love; this surrounds him and enters into the natural sphere coming from the body, and they are linked together. It is commonly known in the world that there is a natural sphere continuously emanating from the body, not only from human beings, but also from animals, and indeed from trees, fruits, flowers, and also from metals. It is much the same in the spiritual world; but there the spheres which emanate from objects are spiritual. The spheres emanating from spirits and angels are more deeply spiritual, because they possess affections of love, and so inward perceptions and thoughts. This is the origin of every kind of sympathy or antipathy, and it is what links everything or holds it apart. Presence or absence in that world depends upon these spheres, for what is of the same nature and concordant causes presence and linking, but what is of different nature and discordant causes separation and absence. These spheres therefore are what create distance there.

Certain people are also aware of the effects produced by these spiritual spheres in the natural world. The mutual inclination of married couples towards each other are from no other origin. Spheres of unanimity and concord unite, those of opposition and discord separate; for concordant spheres are pleasant and welcome, opposing and discordant ones unpleasant and unwelcome.

[2] I have heard from angels, who are able to perceive the spheres clearly, that there is not a single internal or external part of a person which is not renewing itself. It does this by dissolving and being replaced, and this is the source of the sphere which continually pours forth. They said that this sphere is packed closely around the person to the back and to the front, thinly at the back, but densely at the front. The sphere coming from the chest is linked with respiration. That is why a married couple who differ in disposition and disagree in their affections lie in bed turned away from each other, back to back. Conversely, those who agree in disposition and affections turn towards each other.

[3] They also said that since the spheres come from every part of the person and extend to some distance around him, they not only link or separate the couple from without, but also from within. This, they said, is the origin of all the differences and varieties in conjugial love. They ended by saying that the sphere of love coming from a wife who is tenderly loved is perceived in heaven as a sweet fragrance, notably more pleasant than that perceived in the world by a newly wed bridegroom in the first days after his wedding. These facts make plain the truth of the assertion that a wife is linked to her husband by the sphere of life which comes from her love for him.