5694. Those, however, who are to be raised up into heaven, are continuously vastated as to evils and falsities, so that at length they are in their own goods and the truths thereof. They cannot be raised up into heaven before; for their evils and falsities weigh them down. And they are also vastated as to the gross externals, which are corporeal, and the grosser worldly things, which are merely bodily pleasures, and thus are reformed. They then become as it were light, so that they can he elevated into heaven: it cannot take place before. This, too, lasts for one to fifty* years. Meanwhile, they also undergo various temptations, which promote the separation of their external evils for, then, the will of resisting evils is interiorly borne in; and, as far as this is received, so far heaven is within, and this drives away hell, which dwells in the externals. * This was written in 1757, the year of the Last Judgment - see n. 5699, below. Since that event, the period of vastation never exceeds twenty years (AR 866). -TR.