I

PRELIMINARIES

THE JOYS OF HEAVEN AND WEDDINGS THERE

I foresee that many of the readers of what follows here, and of the experiences recorded at the end of chapters, will believe them to be imaginative fiction. But I solemnly declare that they are not fictions, but things I have truly done and seen. Nor were they seen in some state of somnolence, but while fully awake. For the Lord has been pleased to show Himself to me, and to send me to teach the doctrines of the New Church meant by the NEW JERUSALEM in the Book of Revelation. For this purpose He has opened up the inner levels of my mind and spirit. This has allowed me to associate with angels in the spiritual world and at the same time with human beings in the natural world, something I have now experienced for twenty-five years.