to think about their body, or even about anything corporeal and material; hence it was that they were unwilling to approach; yet, after the removal of some of the spirits of our Earth, they drew nearer, and spoke with me.  But then there was a sense of anxiety arising from the collision of the spheres; for spiritual spheres surround all spirits and societies of spirits[cc]; and since they emanate from the life of the affections and the consequent thoughts, therefore where the affections are contrary collision takes place, and hence arises anxiety.  The spirits of our Earth related, that they dare not even approach them; since, on their approach, they are not only seized with anxiety, but also appear to themselves as if they were bound hand and foot with serpents, from which they cannot be freed till they have departed.  This appearance takes its origin from correspondence; for the spirits of our Earth, in the Grand Man, have relation to external sense, consequently to the corporeal Sensual, and this Sensual is represented in the other life by serpents[xx].

[Footnote xx:  The external Sensual of man in the spiritual world is represented by serpents, because it is in the lowest [parts], and relatively to the more interior things in man, lies on the ground, and as it were creeps; and on this ground they were called serpents who reasoned from that Sensual, nos. 195-197, 6398, 6949.]

149.  As the spirits of that earth are such, they appear in the eyes of other spirits, not in a distinct human form, as others do, but as clouds, in most cases like a dusky cloud, with the fair human colour interspersed; but they said, that within they are fair, and that when they become angels, this duskiness is changed into a beautiful blue; which was also shown me.  I asked whether, during their life as men in the world, they had entertained such an idea respecting their bodies.  They replied that the men of their earth make no account of their bodies, but only of the spirit in the body, because they know that the spirit will live for ever, but that the body must perish.  They said also, that many on their earth believe that the spirit of the body has existed from eternity, and that it was infused into the body when they were conceived; but they added, that now they know that it is not so, and that they repent of having ever been in so false an opinion.

150.  When I asked them whether they would like to see any objects on our Earth, informing them that it was possible to do so through my eyes (see above, no. 135), they answered first, that they could not, and afterwards, that they would not, because the things that they would see would be only earthly and material things, from which they remove their thoughts as much as possible.  But nevertheless, there were represented before them magnificent palaces, resembling those on our Earth possessed by kings and princes; for such things can be represented before spirits, and, when they are represented, they appear exactly as if they