I heard a spirit, newly arrived from the world while still young, boasting of his affairs and fishing for compliments on being more of a man than others. He went so far as to include among his insolent boasts the following: 'Is there anything more depressing than keeping one's love imprisoned, and living by oneself with one woman? Is there anything more pleasant than letting one's love go free? Surely everyone gets tired of one woman, and is reinvigorated by several? Is there anything sweeter than sexual freedom, a variety of partners, the deflowering of virgins, the cheating of husbands and hypocrisy about promiscuity? Do not the prizes of cunning, deception and theft give the most intimate mental delight?'

[2] On hearing this the bystanders began to tell him, 'Don't speak like that. You don't know where you are and with whom. You have only recently arrived here. Beneath your feet is hell, above your head is heaven. You are now in the world midway between these two, what is called the world of spirits. All who depart from the world come and are assembled here, to be tested for their natures and prepared for hell, if wicked, for heaven, if good. You may perhaps still retain what you heard from priests in the world, that promiscuous men and women are cast down into hell, and chaste married people are taken up to heaven.'

The newcomer laughed at this and said, 'What are heaven and hell? Isn't heaven where one is free, and isn't being free being allowed to have as many lovers as one wants? Isn't hell where one is a slave, and isn't being a slave being obliged to stick to one woman?'

[3] But an angel who was looking down from heaven heard this, and put a stop to the conversation, to prevent him going on to make profane remarks about marriage. 'Come up here,' he told him, 'and I will give you a practical demonstration of what heaven and hell are, and what sort of hell awaits those who are confirmed in their practice of promiscuity.' And he showed him the way to go up.

When he reached heaven, he was first taken to a paradise of a garden, full of fruit-trees and flowers, the beauty, pleasantness and fragrance of which made one think how delightful it was to be alive. When he saw these sights he was greatly surprised; but he was then using his outward sight, such as he had had in the world, when he saw similar sights. In this condition he was rational. But when he used his inward sight, in which promiscuity played the leading role and dominated every moment of his thinking, he was not rational. His outward sight was therefore shut off and his inward sight opened up. When this happened, he said, 'What is this I see now? Straw and dry wood? And what do I perceive now? A nasty smell? Where has that paradise gone?'

'It is close by and present,' said the angel, 'but invisible to your inward sight, which is promiscuous, since this turns what is heavenly into what is hellish, and can see only the opposites. Everyone has an inward and an outward mind, and so inward and outward sight. In the case of the wicked the inward mind is foolish and the outward mind is wise, but in the case of the good the inward mind is wise and this makes the outward mind wise too. In the spiritual world the way a person sees things depends upon how his mind is.'

[4] After this the angel used the power he had been given to shut off the spirit's inward sight and open his outward sight. He then led him through doorways towards the centre of their dwellings, and he saw magnificent palaces built of alabaster, marble and precious stones; and nearby a colonnade with columns around it encrusted and surrounded with an astounding display of badges and decorations. On seeing these he was amazed and said, 'What is this I see? It is the very height of magnificence and an example of architecture at its best.' But the angel shut off his outward sight again, and opened his inward sight, which being full of foul promiscuity was wicked. When this happened, he cried, 'What is this I see now? Where am I? Where have the palaces and magnificent sights gone? All I see are piles of stones, rubble and rocky caves.'

[5] A little later he was returned to his outward sight and taken into one of the palaces. There he saw the way the doors, windows, walls and ceilings were decorated, and above all the decorations of the furniture, on and around which were heavenly shapes made of gold and precious stones; there are no words to describe them, nor any art which can depict them, since they are beyond expression and beyond the ideas art can convey. On seeing these he cried out again, 'These are really magnificent sights, such as the eye has never before seen.' But then his inward sight was opened, and the outward one shut off as before, and when asked what he then saw, he replied, 'Nothing but walls, some made of reeds, some of straw and some of faggots.'

[6] But he was brought back again to his outward mental state, and some girls were brought to him, who were models of beauty, because they pictured heavenly affections. They spoke to him in the sweet tones of their affections. Then what he saw and heard made his face change, and of his own accord he returned to his inward state, which was promiscuous. Since this cannot abide any hint of heavenly love, and on the other hand neither can heavenly love abide that, they lost sight of each other, the girls vanishing from the man's view and the man from the girls'.

[7] After this the angel taught him what was the cause of the changes in how he saw things. 'I perceive,' he said, 'that in the world from which you come you were two-faced, one person inwardly, another outwardly. Outwardly you were a civil, moral and rational person, but none of these inwardly, because you were promiscuous and an adulterer. Such people, when allowed to come up into heaven and kept there in their outward state, can see the heavenly sights there. But when their inward state is opened up, hellish sights take the place of heavenly ones.

[8] 'But you should know that each individual has his outward levels shut off one after the other, and his inward levels opened, so that he is prepared either for heaven or for hell. Since the evil of promiscuity pollutes the inward levels of the mind more than any other, your mind cannot help gravitating towards the foulness of your love, and this is to be found in the hells, where there are caverns stinking of dung. Can anyone fail to know by the light of reason that unchastity and wantonness are in the spiritual world impure and unclean, so that there is nothing which befouls and pollutes a person more, bringing a hellish condition upon him? Take care then not to go on boasting about your affairs as showing yourself to be more of a man than others. I can foretell that you are going to be so weak that you will hardly know where your masculinity is. That is the fate that awaits those who boast of their promiscuous virility.'

After hearing this the young man came down and returned to the world of spirits, and rejoined his previous companions, speaking modestly and chastely with them, but not for long.