[Xavier Perez-Pons]

Emmanuel Swedenborg identifies several stages in the crossing over to the Other World after one's death. The first one, Blanca, is that the Other World is not external to the individuals but within him or her. It’s a spiritual world too, since, for Swedenborg (as for our sages in general), the physical and material world is nothing but the outer appearance of true reality, which is spiritual and internal. The departure of the physical world through death supposes, then, the full immersion into the inner and true dimension of existence, a dimension within the individual himself. During the stage immediately after physical death, the individual keeps the same personality he had in life. By submerging deep inside himself, he enters the world of spirits, where his deceased friends and family welcome him. If his mate on Earth has passed away before him, he reunites with her and they resume their life together. Then, on the second stage, Swedenborg reveals what he calls the individual's “state of interiors”. This is where the individual sheds his worldly personality, which is an external, adopted personality, and assumes his own -inner- personality, that is to say, he becomes his true self. By uncovering his “state of interiors”, or his true self, it’s revealed whether the people with whom he had a relationship in life are truly like him, and whether his mate in life is his true spouse, what to Swedenborg means: if the other soul is absolutely alike the individual's own. If it is, they stay together and enjoy true conjugal love, which is Heavenly love. If it’s not, then they part ways, and, if their true spouses have already left the physical world too, they will reunite with them. (Quoted from my book)