heaven, admits nothing but goods, and truths that are from good; these
are homogeneous to it; but evils, and falsities that are from evil, are
heterogeneous to it. This degree is contracted, and by contraction closed,
especially in those who in the world are in love of ruling from love of
self, because this love is opposed to love to the Lord. It is also closed,
but not so much, in those who from love of the world are in the insane
greed of possessing the goods of others. These loves shut the spiritual
degree, because they are the origins of evils. The contraction or closing
of this degree is like the twisting back of a spiral in the opposite
direction; for which reason, that degree after it is closed, turns back
the light of heaven; consequently there is thick darkness there instead
of heavenly light, and truth which is in the light of heaven, becomes
nauseous. In such persons, not only does the spiritual degree itself
become closed, but also the higher region of the natural degree which
is called the rational, until at last the lowest region of the natural
degree, which is called the sensual, alone stands open; this being
nearest to the world and to the outward senses of the body, from which
such a man afterwards thinks, speaks, and reasons. The natural man who
has become sensual through evils and their falsities, in the spiritual
world in the light of heaven does not appear as a man but as a monster,
even with nose drawn back (the nose is drawn in because the nose
corresponds to the perception of truth); moreover, he cannot bear a ray
of heavenly light. Such have in their caverns no other light than what
resembles the light from live coals or from burning charcoal. From all
this it is evident who and of what character are those in whom the
spiritual degree is closed.

255. (5) The nature of the difference between the life of a natural man
and the life of a beast. This difference will be particularly discussed
in what follows, where Life will be treated of. Here it may be said only