Pre-existence
'And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground... and man became a living soul.' -Genesis 2:7 King James Version (KJV)
We all existed in the Inner Worlds as souls before clothing our souls or spirits with physical bodies thus becoming living souls. Adam and Eve represent all of mankind. The majority of mankind today lived on this earth more than 4 million years ago as Celestial Beings. During the first 2 Golden Ages on this earth there was no imperfection. In America during the Golden Ages the Archangel Michael reigned more than 3 million years ago.
Heaven and Hell, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1758], tr. by John C. Ager [1900] at sacred-texts.com
432.
XLV. IN RESPECT TO HIS INTERIORS EVERY MAN IS A SPIRIT. Whoever duly considers the subject can see that as the body is material it is not the body that thinks, but the soul, which is spiritual. The soul of man, upon the immortality of which many have written, is his spirit, for this as to everything belonging to it is immortal. This also is what thinks in the body, for it is spiritual, and what is spiritual receives what is spiritual and lives spiritually, which is to think and to will. Therefore, all rational life that appears in the body belongs to the soul, and nothing of it to the body; for the body, as just said, is material, and the material, which is the property of the body, is added to and apparently almost joined to the spirit, in order that the spirit of man may be able to live and perform uses in the natural world... And as it is the spiritual only that lives and not the material, it can be seen that whatever lives in man is his spirit, and that the body merely serves it, just as what is instrumental serves a moving living force. An instrument is said indeed to act, to move, or to strike; but to believe that these are acts of the instrument, and not of him who acts, moves, or strikes by means of the instrument, is a fallacy.
433.
As everything in the body that lives, and that acts and feels from that life, belongs exclusively to the spirit, and nothing of it to the body, it follows that the spirit is the man himself; or what is the same thing, that a man viewed in himself is a spirit possessing a like form; for whatever lives and feels in man belongs to his spirit and everything in man, from his head to the sole of his foot, lives and feels; and in consequence when the body is separated from its spirit, which is what is called dying, man continues to be a man and to live. I have heard from heaven that some who die, while they are lying upon the bier [a movable frame on which a coffin or a corpse is placed before burial or cremation or on which it is carried to the grave,] before they are resuscitated [in the Spirit World,] continue to think even in their cold body, and do not know that they are not still alive, except that they are unable to move a particle of matter belonging to the body.
Heaven and Hell, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1758], tr. by John C. Ager [1900] at sacred-texts.com
432.
XLV. IN RESPECT TO HIS INTERIORS EVERY MAN IS A SPIRIT. Whoever duly considers the subject can see that as the body is material it is not the body that thinks, but the soul, which is spiritual. The soul of man, upon the immortality of which many have written, is his spirit, for this as to everything belonging to it is immortal. This also is what thinks in the body, for it is spiritual, and what is spiritual receives what is spiritual and lives spiritually, which is to think and to will. Therefore, all rational life that appears in the body belongs to the soul, and nothing of it to the body; for the body, as just said, is material, and the material, which is the property of the body, is added to and apparently almost joined to the spirit, in order that the spirit of man may be able to live and perform uses in the natural world... And as it is the spiritual only that lives and not the material, it can be seen that whatever lives in man is his spirit, and that the body merely serves it, just as what is instrumental serves a moving living force. An instrument is said indeed to act, to move, or to strike; but to believe that these are acts of the instrument, and not of him who acts, moves, or strikes by means of the instrument, is a fallacy.
433.
As everything in the body that lives, and that acts and feels from that life, belongs exclusively to the spirit, and nothing of it to the body, it follows that the spirit is the man himself; or what is the same thing, that a man viewed in himself is a spirit possessing a like form; for whatever lives and feels in man belongs to his spirit and everything in man, from his head to the sole of his foot, lives and feels; and in consequence when the body is separated from its spirit, which is what is called dying, man continues to be a man and to live. I have heard from heaven that some who die, while they are lying upon the bier [a movable frame on which a coffin or a corpse is placed before burial or cremation or on which it is carried to the grave,] before they are resuscitated [in the Spirit World,] continue to think even in their cold body, and do not know that they are not still alive, except that they are unable to move a particle of matter belonging to the body.
Arcana Coelestia, by Emanuel Swedenborg, [1749-56], tr. by John F. Potts [1905-10], at sacred-texts.com
Verse 7. And Jehovah God formed man, dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lives, and man became a living soul. To "form man, dust from the ground" is to form his external man, which before was not man; for it is said (verse 5) that there was "no man to till the ground." To "breathe into his nostrils the breath of lives" is to give him the life of faith and love; and by "man became a living soul" is signified that his external man also was made alive...
As to its being said that "Jehovah God breathed into his nostrils" the case is this: In ancient times, and in the Word, by "nostrils" was understood whatever was grateful in consequence of its odor, which signifies perception... Hence the anointed of Jehovah, that is, of the Lord, is called the "breath of the nostrils" (Lam. 4:20). And the Lord Himself signified the same by "breathing on His disciples" as written in John: He breathed on them and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit (John 20:22).
The reason why life is described by "breathing" and by "breath" is also that the men of the Most Ancient Church perceived states of love and of faith by states of respiration... The most ancient people were well acquainted with it, and so are those who are in the other life, but no longer anyone on this earth, and this was the reason why they likened spirit or life to "wind." The Lord also does this when speaking of the regeneration of man, in John: The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, and knowest not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth so is everyone that is born of the spirit (John 3:8). So in David: By the word of Jehovah were the heavens made, and all the army of them by the breath of His mouth (Ps. 33:6). And again: Thou gatherest their breath, they expire, and return to their dust; Thou sendest forth Thy spirit, they are created, and Thou renewest the faces of the ground (Ps. 104:29-30).That the "breath" is used for the life of faith and of love, appears from Job: He is the spirit in man, and the breath of Shaddai giveth them understanding (Job 32:8). Again in the same: The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of Shaddai hath given me life (Job 33:4).
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