keep him from transgressing the limits of decorum
and good manners. It is evident also from the fact that when a man
thinks within himself, he thinks how he must speak and act in order
to please and to secure friendship, good will, and favor, and this in
extraneous ways, that is, otherwise than he would do if he acted in
accordance with his own will. All this shows that the state of the
interiors that the spirit is let into is his own state, and was his
own state when he was living in the world as a man.

505. When the spirit is in the state of his interiors it becomes
clearly evident what the man was in himself when he was in the world,
for at such times he acts from what is his own. He that had been in
the world interiorly in good then acts rationally and wisely, and
even more wisely than in the world, because he is released from
connection with the body, and thus from those earthly things that
caused obscurity and interposed as it were a cloud. But he that was
in evil in the world then acts foolishly and insanely, and even more
insanely than in the world, because he is free and under no
restraint. For while he lived in the world he was sane in outward
appearance, since by means of externals he made himself appear to be
a rational man; but when he has been stripped of his externals his
insanities are revealed. An evil man who in externals takes on the
semblance of a good man may be likened to a vessel shining and
polished on the outside and covered with a lid, within which filth of
all kinds is hidden, in accordance with the Lord's saying:

Ye are like whited sepulchers, which outwardly appear
beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones and
of all uncleanness (Matt. 23:27).

506. All that have lived a good life in the world and have acted from
conscience, who are such as have acknowledged the Divine and have
loved Divine truths, especially such as have applied those truths to
life, seem to themselves, when let into the state of their interiors,
like one aroused from sleep into full wakefulness, or like one
passing from darkness into light. They then think from the light of
heaven, thus from an interior wisdom, and they act from good, thus
from an interior affection. Heaven flows into their thoughts and
affections with an interior blessedness and delight that they had
previously had no knowledge of; for they have communication with the
angels of heaven. They then acknowledge the Lord and