A Beautiful, Clear Teaching About Life After Death

When the body is no longer able to perform its functions in the natural world corresponding to the thoughts and affections of his spirit which he has from the spiritual world, then a person is said to die. This takes place when the respiration of the lungs and the beatings of the heart cease. But yet the person does not die; he is merely separated from the corporeal part that was of use to him in the world, for the person himself lives: It is said that the person himself lives, since a person is not a person because of his body but because of his spirit, for it is the spirit in a person that thinks, and thought with affection makes a person. Hence it is clear that the person, when he dies, merely passes from one world into another. And this is why in the Word in its internal sense “death” signifies resurrection and continuation of life. (Heaven and Hell 445)