3224. It is amazing that man does not yet know that his intellectual powers dwell in a certain light that is altogether different from the light of the world. But the human condition is such that to those who dwell in the light of the world the light of heaven is as though it were darkness, and to those who dwell in the light of heaven the light of the world is as though it were darkness. This difference is due primarily to differing loves, which are different types of heat accompanying light. Those who are steeped in self-love and love of the world, and so who feel no warmth apart from that accompanying the light of the world, are influenced solely by evils and falsities; and these are such as obliterate truths which belong to the light of heaven. But those who are suffused with love to the Lord and love towards the neighbour, and so who feel the spiritual warmth which belongs to the light of heaven, are influenced by goods and truths which obliterate falsities. But with the latter a correspondence nevertheless exists.
[2] Spirits who are interested only in the things that belong to the light of the world, and who are consequently under the influence of falsities derived from evils, do indeed in the next life have light from heaven, but it is like a feeble light shed by that of an ignis fatuus, and like that emitted from a burning coal or a firebrand. This light however, as the light of heaven draws near, is instantly extinguished and turns into thick darkness. Those who see in that light are subject to delusions, and the things they see in their delusions they believe to be truths; and to them none else are truths. Their delusions are also tied up with filthy and disgusting objects in which they take very great delight, so that in their thinking they are like those who are crazy and insane. Where falsities are concerned they do not stop and reason whether these are accurate or not, but instantly affirm that they are so; but where goods and truths are concerned they engage all the time in reasoning, which ends in denial of them.
[3] For truths and goods received from the light of heaven flow into the interior mind which with those people is closed, and therefore that light flows around outside that mind, and becomes such that it is modified only by the falsities which appear to them as truths. Truths and goods cannot be acknowledged except with those whose interior mind has been opened. Into that mind light from the Lord flows in, and to the extent it has been opened those things are acknowledged. That mind has been opened only with those in whom innocence, love to the Lord, and charity towards the neighbour are present. It is not opened with those in whom truths of faith are present unless goodness of life is present at the same time.
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