What do you think?
Rate this book
Afterlife: A Guided Tour to Heaven and Its Wonders
What happens to us after we die?In his classic work Heaven and Hell, Swedish visionary Emanuel Swedenborg gives readers a detailed road map to the afterlife, describing the process that our soul goes through after death, the nature of heaven and hell, angels and demons, all in meticulous detail. Afterlife is an abridged version of Heaven and Hell, with passages specially chosen to highlight the essence of Swedenborg's work.
214 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2006
199 people are currently reading
357 people want to read
About the author
Emanuel Swedenborg
1,622 books299 followersEmanuel Swedenborg (born Emanuel Swedberg; February 8, 1688–March 29, 1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic, and theologian. Swedenborg had a prolific career as an inventor and scientist. At the age of fifty-six he entered into a spiritual phase in which he experienced dreams and visions. This culminated in a spiritual awakening, where he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. He claimed that the Lord had opened his eyes, so that from then on he could freely visit heaven and hell, and talk with angels, demons, and other spirits. For the remaining 28 years of his life, he wrote and published 18 theological works, of which the best known was Heaven and Hell (1758), and several unpublished theological works.
Swedenborg explicitly rejected the common explanation of the Trinity as a Trinity of Persons, which he said was not taught in the early Christian Church. Instead he explained in his theological writings how the Divine Trinity exists in One Person, in One God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Swedenborg also rejected the doctrine of salvation through faith alone, since he considered both faith and charity necessary for salvation, not one without the other. The purpose of faith, according to Swedenborg, is to lead a person to a life according to the truths of faith, which is charity.
Swedenborg's theological writings have elicited a range of responses. Toward the end of Swedenborg's life, small reading groups formed in England and Sweden to study the truth they saw in his teachings and several writers were influenced by him, including William Blake (though he ended up renouncing him), Elizabeth Barrett Browning, August Strindberg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, William Butler Yeats, Sheridan Le Fanu, Jorge Luis Borges and Carl Jung. The theologian Henry James Sr. was also a follower of his teachings, as were Johnny Appleseed and Helen Keller.
In contrast, one of the most prominent Swedish authors of Swedenborg's day, Johan Henrik Kellgren, called Swedenborg "nothing but a fool". A heresy trial was initiated in Sweden in 1768 against Swedenborg's writings and two men who promoted these ideas.
In the two centuries since Swedenborg's death, various interpretations of Swedenborg's theology have been made (see: Swedenborgian Church), and he has also been scrutinized in biographies and psychological studies.
Swedenborg explicitly rejected the common explanation of the Trinity as a Trinity of Persons, which he said was not taught in the early Christian Church. Instead he explained in his theological writings how the Divine Trinity exists in One Person, in One God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Swedenborg also rejected the doctrine of salvation through faith alone, since he considered both faith and charity necessary for salvation, not one without the other. The purpose of faith, according to Swedenborg, is to lead a person to a life according to the truths of faith, which is charity.
Swedenborg's theological writings have elicited a range of responses. Toward the end of Swedenborg's life, small reading groups formed in England and Sweden to study the truth they saw in his teachings and several writers were influenced by him, including William Blake (though he ended up renouncing him), Elizabeth Barrett Browning, August Strindberg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, William Butler Yeats, Sheridan Le Fanu, Jorge Luis Borges and Carl Jung. The theologian Henry James Sr. was also a follower of his teachings, as were Johnny Appleseed and Helen Keller.
In contrast, one of the most prominent Swedish authors of Swedenborg's day, Johan Henrik Kellgren, called Swedenborg "nothing but a fool". A heresy trial was initiated in Sweden in 1768 against Swedenborg's writings and two men who promoted these ideas.
In the two centuries since Swedenborg's death, various interpretations of Swedenborg's theology have been made (see: Swedenborgian Church), and he has also been scrutinized in biographies and psychological studies.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 19, 2009
Edited works of Swedenborg in a purse-sized volume that is significant but not easy reading. I am reading it because I have found that Swedenborg's work makes the most sense to me of any other religious teachings, though sometimes I get bogged down in detail.
Emanuel Swedenborg (from Wikipedia) (1688-1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic, and theologian. At the age of 56 he entered into a spiritual phase in which he experienced dreams and visions which culminated in a spiritual awakening, where he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. He claimed that the Lord had opened his eyes, so that from then (1745) on he could freely visit heaven and hell,
and talk with angels, demons, and other spirits. The Lord told Swedengorg he had appointed him to reveal the spiritual meaning of the Bible and that He would guide Swedenborg in what to write. For the remaining 28 years of his life, he wrote and published 18 theological works. Arcana Cœlestia ("Heavenly Secrets"), was to become his magnum opus and the basis of his further theological works. Swedenborg considered his theology a revelation of the true Christian religion that had become obfuscated through centuries of theology. In a significant portion of that work, he interprets Biblical passages. Most of all, he was convinced of how the Bible described a human's transformation from a materialistic to a spiritual being.
Though there were detractors who felt that Swedenborg had experienced a schizophrenic breakdown, the system of thought in his theological writings is remarkably coherent. Some biographers propose that he did not in fact have a revelation at all, but rather developed his theological ideas from sources ranging from his father to earlier figures in the history of thought, notably Plotinus.
http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon...
An interesting side to this is that Joseph Smith, founder of the LDS Church (Mormons) is accused of copying his ideas of Heaven from Swedenborg and that Smith acknowledged reading Swedenborg's book(s).
Emanuel Swedenborg (from Wikipedia) (1688-1772) was a Swedish scientist, philosopher, Christian mystic, and theologian. At the age of 56 he entered into a spiritual phase in which he experienced dreams and visions which culminated in a spiritual awakening, where he claimed he was appointed by the Lord to write a heavenly doctrine to reform Christianity. He claimed that the Lord had opened his eyes, so that from then (1745) on he could freely visit heaven and hell,
and talk with angels, demons, and other spirits. The Lord told Swedengorg he had appointed him to reveal the spiritual meaning of the Bible and that He would guide Swedenborg in what to write. For the remaining 28 years of his life, he wrote and published 18 theological works. Arcana Cœlestia ("Heavenly Secrets"), was to become his magnum opus and the basis of his further theological works. Swedenborg considered his theology a revelation of the true Christian religion that had become obfuscated through centuries of theology. In a significant portion of that work, he interprets Biblical passages. Most of all, he was convinced of how the Bible described a human's transformation from a materialistic to a spiritual being.
Though there were detractors who felt that Swedenborg had experienced a schizophrenic breakdown, the system of thought in his theological writings is remarkably coherent. Some biographers propose that he did not in fact have a revelation at all, but rather developed his theological ideas from sources ranging from his father to earlier figures in the history of thought, notably Plotinus.
http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon...
An interesting side to this is that Joseph Smith, founder of the LDS Church (Mormons) is accused of copying his ideas of Heaven from Swedenborg and that Smith acknowledged reading Swedenborg's book(s).
July 16, 2015
Spiritual
This is s a great spiritual read. The descriptions of Heaven were awesome. Heaven sounds very beautiful. I highly recommend this book.
This is s a great spiritual read. The descriptions of Heaven were awesome. Heaven sounds very beautiful. I highly recommend this book.
March 16, 2014
Incredible book
from beginning to end,I felt the power of God establishing the way things are
I prefer to follow the grace of Jesus Christ.
from beginning to end,I felt the power of God establishing the way things are
I prefer to follow the grace of Jesus Christ.
May 31, 2023
I was raised Christian, became agnostic at 14, but I started this book with an open mind. However, I felt like everything the author was saying sounded more like wishful thinking than a report of real visions, so I skimmed the rest of it. I found it annoying how the author says things like “Anyone who thinks things through carefully can see that. . .” Like you’re an idiot if you don’t believe everything he’s saying and agree with it (4).
My notes:
Heaven is divided into two kingdoms: The first is a kingdom of love composed of heavenly angels; the second is a kingdom of thoughtfulness composed of spiritual angels (xiii).
What separates humans and angels from animals is that we have a central/high level where God dwells (xiii).
After death, people enter the world of spirits before they go to heaven or hell. People stay there for different lengths of time, ranging from a few weeks to 30 years. “The variations in length of stay occur because of the correspondence or lack of correspondence between our deeper and our more outward natures” (3). Some people meet their dead earthly family in the world of spirits, but if they were not of similar character, they don’t stay together (3). People don’t recognize each other if they’re of different characters (4). God doesn’t put people into hell; people cast themselves in (126).
Non-Christians can enter heaven. God provides everyone with some religion, and as long as a person focusses on the divine and not worldly things, they are worthy of heaven (99).
It is the soul that thinks, not the body (4).
“The heavens are made up of countless communities” (41). “Each community is a heaven in smaller form and each angel a heaven in smallest form” (43). “There is a correspondence of everything in heaven with everything in the human being” (52) and everything earthly (54).
There is marriage in heaven, between one man and one woman (105). “Few people do experience true marriage love, and if people are not intent on this, they have absolutely no knowledge of the inner delight that dwells within that love. They are aware only of the delight of lust, a delight that turns disagreeable after people have lived together for a little while. The delight of real marriage love, though, not only lasts into old age on earth but even becomes heavenly delight after death. . . . Any love of control of one over the other utterly destroys marriage love and its heavenly pleasure, for as already noted, marriage love and its pleasure consist of the intent of one belonging to the other, and of this being mutual and reciprocal” (106).
Thoughts are shared in heaven by looking into the other person’s face (7).
After death, we are in complete human form (9). (I found this unrealistic. Why would we be when the body is useless out of a material world?) People keep the body at the age they were at death, babies included (101).
“We get our physical face from our parents and our spiritual face from our affection, which it images” (10). Level of beauty in the afterlife is based on level of moral perfection (11). “We accept a spiritual life by means of our moral and civic life; and there is no other way a spiritual life can be formed within us, no other way our spirits can be prepared for heaven” (31). (Gives a motive to people to behave morally while on earth.) “Every angel is in perfect human form” (47).
All the people in heaven and hell were human. Angels were not created in the beginning, and Satan was not an angel of light who became rebellious and was cast into hell (97). (What then are the angels?)
More unrealistic things:
“After death, we enjoy every sense, memory, thought, and affection we had in the world” (12).
Heaven has a sun, and it is God. But that sun is not the same as the sun we see on earth (60).
Angels have clothes, homes, but everything they have is more perfect than what we have (67). (What would they need clothes and homes for? God wanted Adam and Eve to remain naked.)
All people in heaven speak the same language (76). Why would they need language when thoughts can be conveyed by looking into someone’s face (7)?
Heaven has written materials too (81).
Angels have jobs (109).
Heaven has government! Not only that, but it sounds communist (71)! “Each individual receives benefit in proportion to his or her love of the whole” (72). Hell has government too, but theirs are based on selfishness (72), so I guess it’s capitalism?
My notes:
Heaven is divided into two kingdoms: The first is a kingdom of love composed of heavenly angels; the second is a kingdom of thoughtfulness composed of spiritual angels (xiii).
What separates humans and angels from animals is that we have a central/high level where God dwells (xiii).
After death, people enter the world of spirits before they go to heaven or hell. People stay there for different lengths of time, ranging from a few weeks to 30 years. “The variations in length of stay occur because of the correspondence or lack of correspondence between our deeper and our more outward natures” (3). Some people meet their dead earthly family in the world of spirits, but if they were not of similar character, they don’t stay together (3). People don’t recognize each other if they’re of different characters (4). God doesn’t put people into hell; people cast themselves in (126).
Non-Christians can enter heaven. God provides everyone with some religion, and as long as a person focusses on the divine and not worldly things, they are worthy of heaven (99).
It is the soul that thinks, not the body (4).
“The heavens are made up of countless communities” (41). “Each community is a heaven in smaller form and each angel a heaven in smallest form” (43). “There is a correspondence of everything in heaven with everything in the human being” (52) and everything earthly (54).
There is marriage in heaven, between one man and one woman (105). “Few people do experience true marriage love, and if people are not intent on this, they have absolutely no knowledge of the inner delight that dwells within that love. They are aware only of the delight of lust, a delight that turns disagreeable after people have lived together for a little while. The delight of real marriage love, though, not only lasts into old age on earth but even becomes heavenly delight after death. . . . Any love of control of one over the other utterly destroys marriage love and its heavenly pleasure, for as already noted, marriage love and its pleasure consist of the intent of one belonging to the other, and of this being mutual and reciprocal” (106).
Thoughts are shared in heaven by looking into the other person’s face (7).
After death, we are in complete human form (9). (I found this unrealistic. Why would we be when the body is useless out of a material world?) People keep the body at the age they were at death, babies included (101).
“We get our physical face from our parents and our spiritual face from our affection, which it images” (10). Level of beauty in the afterlife is based on level of moral perfection (11). “We accept a spiritual life by means of our moral and civic life; and there is no other way a spiritual life can be formed within us, no other way our spirits can be prepared for heaven” (31). (Gives a motive to people to behave morally while on earth.) “Every angel is in perfect human form” (47).
All the people in heaven and hell were human. Angels were not created in the beginning, and Satan was not an angel of light who became rebellious and was cast into hell (97). (What then are the angels?)
More unrealistic things:
“After death, we enjoy every sense, memory, thought, and affection we had in the world” (12).
Heaven has a sun, and it is God. But that sun is not the same as the sun we see on earth (60).
Angels have clothes, homes, but everything they have is more perfect than what we have (67). (What would they need clothes and homes for? God wanted Adam and Eve to remain naked.)
All people in heaven speak the same language (76). Why would they need language when thoughts can be conveyed by looking into someone’s face (7)?
Heaven has written materials too (81).
Angels have jobs (109).
Heaven has government! Not only that, but it sounds communist (71)! “Each individual receives benefit in proportion to his or her love of the whole” (72). Hell has government too, but theirs are based on selfishness (72), so I guess it’s capitalism?
September 23, 2025
The author claims to have visited the Afterlife, and in this book he summirizes some of his lessons and wisdom gained from his travels. As such, this book is only for the open-minded, or those who have experienced some aspects of the heavenly realms.
Key lessons are that the heavenly dimensions are far, far greater than we can ever imagine, inhabited by infinite angels and demons. In these realms, the like live with the like, but all are supported by the Lord.
The reason our faces change is that in the other life no one is allowed to pretend to affections they do not really have, so we cannot put on a face that is contrary to the love we are engaged in. We are all refined down to a state in which we say what we think and manifest in expression and act what we intend.
All heaven is differentiated into communities on the basis of differences in the quality of love, and every spirit who is raised up into heaven and becomes an angel is taken to the community where her or his love is. When we arrive there we feel as though we are in our own element, at home, back to our birth-place, so to speak.
We come into heaven if our love is heavenly and spiritual and into hell if our love is carnal and worldly without any heavenly and spiritual dimension.
For no evil can be banished until it has been seen.
They have mortified their souls while constantly thinking about themselves, how they are worthier and more estimable than others and will be regarded as saints after their death. They are not in heaven in the other life because they have done all this with themselves first in mind. Since they have polluted divine truths by the self-love they immersed them in, some of them are so deranged that they think they are gods.
For heaven is not outside angels but within them. Their deeper levels, the levels of their minds, are arranged in the form of heaven and therefore are arranged to accept all the elements of heaven that are outside them. These elements they accept according to the quality of the goodness that is within them from the Lord. As a result, an angel is also a heaven.
This is why angels take absolutely no credit to themselves and turn down any praise or admiration for anything they have done, but attribute it all to the Lord.
The reason love for the Lord is like this is that because the Lord’s love is a love of sharing everything it has with everyone, it intends the happiness of everyone.
This is why people who become angels after death have access to indescribable intelligence and wisdom relative to the intelligence and wisdom they had while they were living in the world.
What I have been saying in this book about heaven, the world of spirits, and hell will be obscure to people who find no delight in knowing about spiritual truths; but it will be clear to people who do have this delight, especially to people involved in an affection for truth for its own sake – that is, people who love truth because it is true. Anything that is loved enters into the concepts of our minds with light, especially when what is loved is true, because all truth is in the light.
Key lessons are that the heavenly dimensions are far, far greater than we can ever imagine, inhabited by infinite angels and demons. In these realms, the like live with the like, but all are supported by the Lord.
The reason our faces change is that in the other life no one is allowed to pretend to affections they do not really have, so we cannot put on a face that is contrary to the love we are engaged in. We are all refined down to a state in which we say what we think and manifest in expression and act what we intend.
All heaven is differentiated into communities on the basis of differences in the quality of love, and every spirit who is raised up into heaven and becomes an angel is taken to the community where her or his love is. When we arrive there we feel as though we are in our own element, at home, back to our birth-place, so to speak.
We come into heaven if our love is heavenly and spiritual and into hell if our love is carnal and worldly without any heavenly and spiritual dimension.
For no evil can be banished until it has been seen.
They have mortified their souls while constantly thinking about themselves, how they are worthier and more estimable than others and will be regarded as saints after their death. They are not in heaven in the other life because they have done all this with themselves first in mind. Since they have polluted divine truths by the self-love they immersed them in, some of them are so deranged that they think they are gods.
For heaven is not outside angels but within them. Their deeper levels, the levels of their minds, are arranged in the form of heaven and therefore are arranged to accept all the elements of heaven that are outside them. These elements they accept according to the quality of the goodness that is within them from the Lord. As a result, an angel is also a heaven.
This is why angels take absolutely no credit to themselves and turn down any praise or admiration for anything they have done, but attribute it all to the Lord.
The reason love for the Lord is like this is that because the Lord’s love is a love of sharing everything it has with everyone, it intends the happiness of everyone.
This is why people who become angels after death have access to indescribable intelligence and wisdom relative to the intelligence and wisdom they had while they were living in the world.
What I have been saying in this book about heaven, the world of spirits, and hell will be obscure to people who find no delight in knowing about spiritual truths; but it will be clear to people who do have this delight, especially to people involved in an affection for truth for its own sake – that is, people who love truth because it is true. Anything that is loved enters into the concepts of our minds with light, especially when what is loved is true, because all truth is in the light.
May 22, 2023
Awareness of reality beyond the physical
Not only does it give the information about the after life but it also teaches us to aknowledge and love the Divine because He loves us so
Not only does it give the information about the after life but it also teaches us to aknowledge and love the Divine because He loves us so
October 6, 2018
An old fashioned view
Not open minded enough and reflecting very closed views. Perhaps reflecting the old arrogant beliefs that man is everything while nothing else has value.
Not open minded enough and reflecting very closed views. Perhaps reflecting the old arrogant beliefs that man is everything while nothing else has value.
September 12, 2020
This is a refreshing look at the afterlife. Positive, affirming; it takes the mystery out deat-at least for me.
January 5, 2023
Very good
January 5, 2024
Great Read
If you’re really into spiritual life and post mortem mystery’s you’ll love this book. Read it in a flash! Recommended
If you’re really into spiritual life and post mortem mystery’s you’ll love this book. Read it in a flash! Recommended
June 4, 2014
Swedenborg's insistence on universal salvation and Unitarian theology was regarded as heterodox in the 18th century, but his work has had extensive and durable impact. Many renowned authors including Emerson, Jung, Yeats, Balzac, and Borges report his influence. Swedenborg professed that he was led to experience the three states of the afterlife (post mortem, heaven, and hell) without dying and report back so that all might know the truth. For him, these were not metaphors but concrete states of being. In a blatant rejection of sola fide, he found that one's final destination is determined by all that he or she has done, willed, and thought in life. The examination of one's conscience is paramount here, as the deepest motivations are what matter: piety rooted in self-interest leads to hell as surely as savagery and narcissistic self-gratification. Uncomplicated language and concepts, as well as a dependence upon personal revelation over scriptural citations make this resemble an engaging travelogue more than a theological treatise. The notes at the beginning of the book are helpful, but this journey ends too abruptly and would have benefitted from scholarly endnotes. Indispensable for theological libraries, highly recommended for bookstores where spiritual themes are popular
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews