it is the nature of
those loves not to share but to take away, except so far as the
delights of others have some relation to self. That the loves of self
and of the world, when they rule, are such I have often been
permitted to perceive by living experience. Whenever the spirits that
were in these loves during their life as men in the world drew near,
my delight receded and vanished; and I was told that at the mere
approach of such to any heavenly society the delight of those in the
society diminished just in the degree of their proximity; and what is
wonderful, the evil spirits are then in their delight. All this
indicates the state of the spirit of such a man while he is in the
body, since it is the same as it is after it is separated from the
body, namely, that it longs for or lusts after the delights or goods
of another, and finds delight so far as it secures them. All this
makes clear that the loves of self and of the world tend to destroy
the joys of heaven, and are thus direct opposites of heavenly loves,
which desire to share.

400. But it must be understood that the delight of those who are in
the loves of self and of the world, when they draw near to any
heavenly society, is the delight of their lust, and thus is directly
opposite to the delight of heaven. And such enter into this delight
of their lust in consequence of their taking away and dispelling
heavenly delight in those that are in such delight. When the heavenly
delight is not taken away or dispelled it is different, for they are
then unable to draw near; for so far as they draw near they bring
upon themselves anguish and pain; and for this reason they do not
often venture to come near. This also I have been permitted to learn
by repeated experience, something of which I would like to add. [2]
Spirits who go from this world into the other life desire more than
any thing else to get into heaven. Nearly all seek to enter,
supposing that heaven consists solely in being admitted and received.
Because of this desire they are brought to some society of the lowest
heaven. But as soon as those who are in the love of self and of the
world draw near the first threshold of that heaven they begin to be
distressed and so tortured inwardly as to feel hell rather than
heaven to be in them; and in consequence they cast themselves down
headlong therefrom, and do not rest until they come into the hells
among their like. [3] It has also frequently occurred that such