heaven and
hell and also an intermediate state of the man after death. It has
been shown to me not only that it is an intermediate place, having
the hells below it and the heavens above it, but also that it is in
an intermediate state, since so long as man is in it he is not yet
either in heaven or in hell. The state of heaven in man is the
conjunction of good and truth in him; and the state of hell is the
conjunction of evil and falsity in him. Whenever good in a man-spirit
is conjoined to truth he comes into heaven, because that conjunction,
as just said, is heaven in him; but whenever evil in a man-spirit is
conjoined with falsity he comes into hell, because that conjunction
is hell in him. That conjunction is effected in the world of spirits,
man then being in an intermediate state. It is the same thing whether
you say the conjunction of the understanding and the will, or the
conjunction of good and truth.

423. Let something first be said about the conjunction of the
understanding and the will, and its being the same thing as the
conjunction of good and truth, that being the conjunction that is
effected in the world of spirits. Man has an understanding and a
will. The understanding receives truths and is formed out of them,
and the will receives goods and is formed out of them; therefore
whatever a man understands and thinks from his understanding he calls
true, and whatever a man wills and thinks from his will he calls
good. From his understanding man can think and thus perceive both
what is true and what is good; and yet he thinks what is true and
good from the will only when he wills it and does it. When he wills
it and from willing does it, it is both in his understanding and in
his will, consequently in the man. For neither the understanding
alone nor the will alone makes the man, but the understanding and
will together; therefore whatever is in both is in the man, and is
appropriated to him. That which is in the understanding alone is in
man, and yet not really in him; it is only a thing of his memory, or
a matter of knowledge in his memory about which he can think when in
company with others and outside of himself, but not in himself; that
is, about which he can speak and reason, and can simulate affections
and gestures that are in accord with it.

424. This ability to think from the understanding and not at the same
time from the will is provided that man may be capable of being
reformed; for reforma