spirits have wished to know what heavenly joy is, and having heard
that it is in the interiors of angels, they have wished to share in
it. This therefore was granted; for whatever a spirit who is not yet
in heaven or hell wishes is granted if it will benefit him. But as
soon as that joy was communicated they began to be so tortured as not
to know how to twist or turn because of the pain. I saw them thrust
their heads down to their feet and cast themselves upon the ground,
and there writhe into coils like serpents, and this in consequence of
their interior agony. Such was the effect produced by heavenly
delight upon those who are in the delights of the love of self and of
the world; and for the reason that these loves are directly opposite
to heavenly loves, and when opposite acts against opposite such pain
results. And since heavenly delight enters by an inward way and flows
into the contrary delight, the interiors which are in the contrary
delight are twisted backwards, thus into the opposite direction, and
the result is such tortures. [4] They are opposite for the reason
given above, that love to the Lord and love to the neighbor wish to
share with others all that is their own, for this is their delight,
while the loves of self and of the world wish to take away from
others what they have, and take it to themselves; and just to the
extent that they are able to do this they are in their delight. From
this, too, one can see what it is that separates hell from heaven;
for all that are in hell were, while they were living in the world,
in the mere delights of the body and of the flesh from the love of
self and of the world; while all that are in the heavens were, while
they lived in the world, in the delights of the soul and spirit from
love to the Lord and love to the neighbor; and as these are opposite
loves, so the hells and the heavens are entirely separated, and
indeed so separated that a spirit in hell does not venture even to
put forth a finger from it or raise the crown of his head, for if he
does this in the least he is racked with pain and tormented. This,
too, I have frequently seen.

401. One who is in the love of self and love of the world perceives
while he lives in the body a sense of delight from these loves and
also in the particular pleasures derived from these loves. But one
who is in love to God and in love towards the neighbor does not
perceive while he lives in the body any distinct sense of delig