hurch derived from
the Word must be the starting-point, and these must first be
acknowledged, and afterwards it is permissible to consult
knowledges (n. 6047). Thus it is permissible for those that are
in an affirmative state towards the truths of faith to confirm
them rationally by knowledges, but it is not permissible for
those who are in a negative state (n. 2568, 2588, 4760, 6047).
It is in accordance with Divine order to enter rationally from
spiritual truths into knowledges, which are natural truths, but
not to enter from the latter into the former, because spiritual
influx into natural things is possible, but not natural or
physical influx into spiritual things (n. 3219, 5119, 5259,
5427, 5428, 5478, 6322, 9109, 9110).

456. That the spirit of man, when it has been loosed from the body,
is still a man and in a like form, has been proved to me by the daily
experience of many years; for I have seen such and have listened to
them a thousand times, and have talked with them about this fact,
that men in the world do not believe them to be men, and that those
that do believe this are regarded by the learned as simple. Spirits
are grieved at heart that such ignorance still continues in the
world, and above all within the church. [2] But this belief they said
had emanated chiefly from the learned, who had thought about the soul
from ideas derived from bodily sense; and from such ideas the only
conception they formed of the soul was as being mere thought; and
when this is regarded apart from any subject as its containant and
source it is merely a fleeting breath of pure ether that must needs
be dissipated when the body dies. But as the church believes from the
Word in the immortality of the soul they are compelled to ascribe to
it something vital, such as pertains to thought, but they deny to it
any thing of sense, such as man possesses, until it has again been
joined to the body. On this opinion the doctrine in regard to the
resurrection is based, with the belief that the soul and body will be
joined again at the time of the final judgment. For this reason when
any one thinks about the soul in accordance with this doctrine and
these conjectures, he has no conception that it is a spirit, and in a
human form. And still further, scarcely any one at this day knows
what the spiritual is, and still less that spiritual beings, as all
spirits and angels are, have any human form. [3] Consequently, nearl