body are in the natural world. Like sees like from being like.
Moreover, as the bodily organ of sight, which is the eye, is too
gross, as everyone knows, to see even the smaller things of nature
except through magnifying glasses, still less can it see what is
above the sphere of nature, as all things in the spiritual world are.
Nevertheless these things can be seen by man when he has been
withdrawn from the sight of the body, and the sight of his spirit has
been opened; and this can be effected instantly whenever it is the
pleasure of the Lord that man should see these things; and in that
case man does not know but what he is seeing them with his bodily
eyes. Thus were angels seen by Abraham, Lot, Manoah, and the
prophets; and thus, too, the Lord was seen by the disciples after the
resurrection; and in the same way angels have been seen by me.
Because the prophets saw in this way they were called "seers," and
were said "to have their eyes opened" (1 Sam. 9:8; Num. 24:3); and
enabling them to see thus was called "opening their eyes," as with
Elisha's servant, of whom we read:

Elisha prayed and said, Jehovah, I pray Thee open his eyes
that he may see; and Jehovah opened the eyes of the young
man and he saw, and behold the mountain was full of horses
and chariots of fire round about Elisha (2 Kings 6:17).

{Footnote 1} In respect to his interiors man is a spirit (n.
1594). And that spirit is the man himself, and it is from that
spirit that the body lived (n. 447, 4622, 6054).


77. Good spirits, with whom I have spoken about this matter, have
been deeply grieved at such ignorance in the church about the