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When someone's body can no longer perform its functions in the natural world in response to the thoughts and affections of its spirit (which it derives from the spiritual world), then we say that the individual has died. This happens when the lungs' breathing and the heart's systolic motion have ceased. The person, though, has not died at all. We are only separated from the physical nature that was useful to us in the world. The essential person is actually still alive. I say that the essential person is still alive because we are not people because of our bodies but because of our spirits. After all, it is the spirit within us that thinks, and thought and affection together make us the people we are. We can see, then, that when we die we simply move from one world into another. This is why in the inner meaning of the Bible, 'death' means resurrection and a continuation of life.

Emanuel Swedenborg#9

LifeAfterlifeDeathRealitySpirit

About this quote

What does it mean?
Death is the separation of spirit from body, not the end of the person.
In plain terms
Dying is just leaving the body; the person keeps living.
What can you take from it?
View death as a transition to continue life.

Where it applies

  • grief
  • spiritual study
  • personal reflection

Putting it to work

  • reflect on life
  • accept change
  • find comfort

Questions to consider

  • What happens after death?
  • How do you define a person?

Another view

Physical cessation of life functions is the only evidence for most people.

More from Emanuel Swedenborg

  1. Some people believe it is hard to lead the heaven-bound life that is called 'spiritual' because they have heard that we need to renounce the world and give up …

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  2. Angels from the Lord lead and protect us every moment and every moment of every moment. #5992

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  3. Since the Bible is a divine revelation, every single part of it is divine. Anything that comes from the divine could be no other way. Everything that comes fro…

    Permalink to quote #7

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