As with all spiritual material, the work Heaven and Hell deals with mental structures and processes that we experience as states of mind i.e., states of thinking and feeling. The term “spirit,” when used by Swedenborg in his writing, means the mind. So, by extension the term “spiritual world” refers to the world of the mind, specifically, to the collective world of the human mind. What Swedenborg wrote is a descriptive account of his direct experience of mental realities as he perceived them through his spiritual senses. We find that the content of these descriptions is not too dissimilar to what we experience through our physical senses in the natural world. The difference between a description of the spiritual or mental world and that of the physical world, is that all things in the Spiritual World are spiritual or mental while those of the physical world are material. To the spiritual senses, the spiritual objects display qualities that are as tangible and real as the material qualities of material objects are to the physical senses.

This is such an important concept to grasp to set the frame for working with the Heaven and Hell text using the Logopraxis approach. Our starting point, from a Logopraxis perspective, is that the world being described in Heaven and Hell is the inner world of our mind. The work we do in Logopraxis is a work that looks to affirm the truth of this through experiencing directly what’s described in the Text for ourselves.

Swedenborg entered the inner landscape of the collective human mind through having his spiritual eyes opened. His entry was by way of changes in his own states of consciousness affirming the truth that everyone, as to their spirit or mind, is in the spiritual world while, as to the body, they are in the natural world. In recounting the “things heard and seen” Swedenborg offers us a psycho-spiritual map that can guide us on our own inner journey. Using the Logopraxis approach we can come to appreciate the Heaven and Hell text in a way that opens up profound insights into the evolution of human consciousness and the laws that govern its organisation and development.

Spiritual work, Logopraxis work, is psychological work in the true sense of the word. It invites us to enter the spiritual world, the world of the psyche or soul and to examine the quality of what passes for our mental life. It is reflective work that involves making what is largely unconscious for us, in our normal everyday functioning, conscious. This requires a new way of looking at things. It requires spiritual sight, or in-sight. This kind of sight isn’t something mystical but is something highly practical. It is the capacity given to all by the Lord to reflect on the quality of their states of mind with a view to shunning evils as sins against Him.

A key aspect for Swedenborg in having his spiritual eyes opened was that this occurred as he read and studied the Word. When he talks about his spiritual eyes being opened, he’s talking about his understanding and its ability to conceptually grasp spiritual realities. The basis for that kind of in-sight is found in being able to think from spiritual principles offered through the Texts of Divine revelation. When these principles are integrated into the mind, they provide the kind of in-sight that penetrates beyond the natural objects, people and scenes found in a literal reading of the text into what these things represent spiritually within us.

Through the practice of spiritual principles or truths we gain an understanding of spiritual concepts. These re-orientate the mind to seeing natural objects as symbolic representations of spiritual or mental realities. But what do we mean by spiritual or mental realities? These are things like: the structures of our thinking, the beliefs we live from, what we hold to be true and false, what we judge to be good and evil, what we believe ‘love’ to be, what we love, where our affections direct our attention etc.

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