Some weeks later* I heard a voice from heaven saying, 'There is to be another meeting on Parnassium; come and we will show you the way.'

I went towards them, and on coming near I saw standing on Heliconeum a man with a trumpet, which he used to announce and summon a meeting. I also saw people from the city of Athenaeum and its neighbourhood going up as before, and among them three newcomers from the world. All three came from the Christians; one was a priest, one a politician, the third a philosopher. On the way they entertained the newcomers with talk on various subjects, especially about the wise men of antiquity, whom they mentioned by name. The newcomers asked whether they would see them. They were told that they would see them, and be able to greet them if they wished, as they were easy to approach.

They asked about Demosthenes, Diogenes and Epicurus.** 'Demosthenes,' they said, 'is not here, but where Plato lives. Diogenes with his school lives under Heliconeum, because he regards worldly matters as of no consequence, and meditates only on heavenly matters. Epicurus lives on the western boundary, and does not visit us, because we make a distinction between good and evil affections; we assert that good affections go along with wisdom, and evil affections are opposed to wisdom.'

[2] When they had climbed the hill of Parnassium, some guards there brought water from the local spring in crystal goblets, saying, 'This is water from the spring which ancient myths describe as having been struck open by the hoof of the horse called Pegasus, and later dedicated to the Nine Maidens.*** But by the winged horse Pegasus they meant the understanding of truth which leads to wisdom. Its hoofs meant the experiences which give rise to natural intelligence. The Nine Maidens meant knowledge and learning of every kind. These stories are nowadays called myths, but they were correspondences, a manner of expression used by the earliest peoples.'

'Don't be surprised,' the three newcomers were told by their companions; 'the guards are taught to explain this. By drinking water from the spring we too understand being taught about truths, and by means of truths about kinds of good, and so being wise.'

[3] After this they went into the Palladium, and the three newcomers from the world, the priest, the politician and the philosopher, went with them. Then those wearing laurels who were sitting at the tables asked, 'What news from earth?'

'This,' they answered, 'is the news. There is someone who claims to talk with angels and have his sight opened to see into the spiritual world, just as well as he does into the natural world. He reports news from there, among which are the following. A person, he says, lives on as a person after death, just as he had lived before in the world. He can see, hear and speak, as he did before in the world. He wears clothes and ornaments just as he did before in the world. He feels hunger and thirst, eats and drinks, just as he did before in the world. He enjoys the delights of marriage, just as he did before in the world. He goes to sleep and wakes up, just as he did before in the world. That world has lands and lakes, mountains and hills, plains and valleys, springs and rivers, parks and woodland. There are also palaces and houses there, towns and villages, as in the natural world. There is writing there and books, official positions and businesses, precious stones, gold and silver. In short every single thing on earth is to be found there, but in the heavens they are infinitely more perfect. The only difference is that everything in the spiritual world is of spiritual origin, and so is spiritual, because it originates from the sun there, which is undiluted love. Everything in the natural world is of natural origin, and so is natural and material, because it originates from the sun there, which is undiluted fire. In short, a person after death is a complete person, in fact, more complete than he was before in the world. For before in the world he had a body made of matter, but in the spiritual world he has a spiritual body.'

[4] After this speech the wise men of antiquity asked what was thought on earth about this. 'We know,' said the three, 'that these reports are true, because we are here and have examined and investigated everything. So we shall say what statements and deductions have been made about those reports on earth.'

The priest was the first to speak. He said that the clergy on first hearing these things called them visions, then inventions, and then claimed that he was seeing ghosts. Finally they were perplexed and said, 'Believe it if you like. We have up to now taught that a person will not have a body after death until the day of the Last Judgment.' 'Are there not any among them,' they asked, 'intelligent enough to be able to prove and convince them of the truth, that a person lives on as a person after death?'

[5] The priest said that there are some who offer proofs, but they do not carry conviction. 'Those who offer proofs assert that it is contrary to sound reason to believe that a person does not go on living as a person, except on the day of the Last Judgment, being meanwhile a disembodied soul. "What," they say, "is a soul, and where is it in the meanwhile? Surely not a breath or a puff of wind flitting about in the air, or something lodged in the centre of the earth, in what is called its Pu.**** Are the souls of Adam and Eve, and all their descendants, still flitting around in space six thousand years, that is, sixty centuries, later?***** Or are they shut up in the bowels of the earth awaiting the Last Judgment? Is there anything more distressing and pitiful than waiting like that? Surely their fate could be compared with that of prisoners in jails chained hand and foot. If that is the fate that awaits people after death, would it not be better to be born a donkey than a human being? "Surely it is unreasonable to believe that a soul can be clothed again in its body, when the body has been eaten by worms, rats or fish. Or that the new body will be wrapped around a bony skeleton, which has been scorched by the sun or reduced to dust. How could such stinking bits of corpses be gathered together and united with souls?"

'But when they hear such arguments, they do not offer any reasonable answer, but cling to their faith and say, "We keep reason obedient to faith." Their reply to the question about all being gathered from the grave on the day of the Last Judgment is: "This is the task of omnipotence, and when one starts talking about omnipotence and faith, reason flies out of the window. I can assure you that then sound reason is treated as nothing, and some regard it as a mirage." They are actually able to tell sound reason it is crazy.'

[6] On hearing this the wise men of Greece said: 'Surely these paradoxes collapse of their own accord as being self-contradictory. Yet in the world today even sound reason cannot refute them. Is there any more paradoxical belief than what is related about the Last Judgment: that then the universe will come to an end, the stars will fall from the sky onto the earth (which is smaller than the stars), and the bodies of human beings, which are corpses or mummies consumed by people****** or reduced to shreds, will be joined to their souls again? When we were in the world, we believed in the immortality of people's souls because of the deductions which reason offered to us; and we found a place for the blessed souls, which we called the Elysian fields, believing them to be images or appearances of human beings, though delicate because they are spiritual.'

[7] After this speech they turned to the second newcomer, who in the world had been a politician. He admitted that he had not believed in life after death, and had thought the stories he had heard about it were imagination and fiction. 'When I thought about it,' he said, 'I said: "How can souls be bodies? Surely everything a person has lies dead in the grave. Has anyone there an eye to see with? Has anyone there an ear to hear with? How can he have a mouth to speak with? If anything of a person lives on after death, could it be anything but a kind of ghost? How can a ghost eat or drink? How can it enjoy the delights of marriage? Where can it get clothes, houses, food and so on? Ghosts are airy images which appear to exist but don't." When I was in the world, my thoughts about people living after death were these and similar. But now that I have seen everything, and touched everything with my hands, I have been convinced by my very senses that I am a person just as I was in the world. So much so, that I am not aware of living any otherwise than I did before, apart from the fact that my reason is now much more sound. I have several times been ashamed of what I used to think.'

[8] The philosopher gave a similar account of himself, but with the difference that he had put down the news he heard about life after death to the opinions and theories which he had gathered from ancient and modern thinkers.

The wise men were astonished to hear this. Those who belonged to the school of Socrates said that this news from earth allowed them to perceive that the inner regions of men's minds had been progressively closed off. In the world now belief in falsity shone like truth and silly cleverness like wisdom. The light of wisdom had since their time sunk from the interior of the brain to the mouth below the nose; there it looked to men's eyes like a gleam on the lips, and the speech of the mouth sounded like wisdom.

On hearing this one of their recruits said, 'How stupid are the minds of those who dwell on earth today! I wish we had here the disciples of Heraclitus and Democritus,******* who find everything a cause for laughter or for tears. We should hear a mighty roar of laughter and a lot of weeping.'

When the meeting was over, they gave the three newcomers from earth mementoes of their country, copper plates inscribed with some hieroglyphic characters. These they took away with them. * This probably means following the experiences related in 132 and 155bis. ** Demosthenes was an Athenian orator and statesman of the 4th century B.C. There were several Greeks called Diogenes; the one meant is probably the founder of the Cynic sect in the 4th century B.C., who regarded worldly matters as unworthy of notice. Epicurus (4th-3rd century B.C.) sought to achieve happiness by discussion and reasoning. *** Otherwise known as the Muses. **** Literally, 'in some Pu or where.' Pu is the Greek word for 'where'. See 29 above. ***** By Archbishop Ussher's Biblical chronology. ****** Parts of mummies were sometimes used as medicine; see TCR 160:5. ******* Greek philosophers of the 5th century B.C. Heraclitus took a gloomy view of human affairs; Democritus found them ridiculous.