Social Persona
The face we show to others. Politeness, conformity, the performance of acceptability.
EPISODE 9 OF 10
VASTATION
The Stripping Away — What Remains When Masks Fall
After death, Swedenborg tells us, there is a process. It is not instant judgment, not immediate assignment to heaven or hell. There is a transition, during which the personas we wore in life are systematically stripped away. This process is called vastation — from the Latin vastare, to lay waste, to empty.
Vastation reveals what is real by removing what is not. The masks fall. The performances end. What remains is the essential self — the ruling love that was hidden during life under layers of social persona, self-deception, and protective covering.
The Three States After Death
Swedenborg describes three distinct states through which newly deceased persons pass. Each state strips away another layer:
FIRST STATE: Exteriors
Duration: Variable (days to years) | Mode: P = 27.57% visible
In the first state, the person appears much as they did in life. They have their memories, their personality, their habitual thoughts and feelings. They interact with others as they did on earth. Angels observe but do not intervene much — they allow the person to be as they were.
This state corresponds to the 27.57% that was visible during physical life. The person still projects their public self, their persona, their "presented" identity. Nothing has been stripped yet.
SECOND STATE: Interiors
Duration: Variable | Mode: 72.43% shadow emerging
In the second state, the inner life begins to surface. Thoughts that were hidden become visible. Desires that were suppressed emerge. The gap between public presentation and private reality closes — what was inside comes outside.
This is the beginning of vastation proper. The 72.43% shadow fraction, hidden during life, now manifests. People discover what they actually wanted, actually thought, actually were — often surprised by what they find.
THIRD STATE: Preparation
Duration: Until complete | Mode: Ruling love isolated
In the third state, only the essential remains. Everything that does not belong to the ruling love falls away. The person becomes simplified, purified, distilled to their core. They are now ready to enter their final state — heaven or hell — based on what they have become.
For those heading to heaven, this is instruction and elevation. For those heading to hell, this is the final stripping of any goods or truths they had appropriated without making their own.
The Layers That Fall
What specifically gets stripped away? Swedenborg describes several categories of covering:
🎭
📝
Acquired Knowledge
Facts learned but not internalized. Information held in memory without being part of character.
🙏
External Religion
Religious practice performed without internal transformation. The appearance of piety.
🔍
Self-Deception
The lies we tell ourselves. The rationalizations. The refusal to see what is true.
🛡️
Fear-Based Behavior
Actions motivated by fear of punishment rather than love of good. Compliance without consent.
IMAGE: Onion-like layers being peeled
Outer: Social Persona | Middle: Acquired Knowledge | Inner: Self-Deception
Core: The Ruling Love — what actually motivates
Outer: Social Persona | Middle: Acquired Knowledge | Inner: Self-Deception
Core: The Ruling Love — what actually motivates
The Framework Translation
The κ-framework provides precise terms for vastation:
27.57% Visible
|
72.43% Shadow
In life: Only 27.57% projects outward. The rest remains hidden.
During life, the projection factor P = 27.57% determines how much of our inner reality becomes visible. We show less than a third of what we are. The rest — the shadow fraction — remains internal, hidden from others and often from ourselves.
Vastation reverses this. The shadow becomes manifest. The 72.43% that was hidden now surfaces. This is not punishment — it is revelation. What you actually are becomes what you appear to be.
DURING LIFE:
Inner reality = 100%
Projected (visible) = 27.57% (P fraction)
Hidden (shadow) = 72.43% (1-P fraction)
VASTATION PHASE 1:
Persona still intact
Visible ≈ 27.57%
Shadow still suppressed
VASTATION PHASE 2:
Shadow emerging
Visible approaching 50%
Hidden approaching 50%
Gap between appearance and reality closing
VASTATION PHASE 3:
Complete revelation
Visible = 100%
Hidden = 0%
Person IS what they appear to be
RESULT:
The ruling love, previously hidden,
now completely manifest.
What was τ₄ (silent witness) becomes τ₁ (direct facing).
The Ruling Love Revealed
At the core of vastation is the revelation of the ruling love — the central orientation of the will that motivated all action during life. This ruling love is what actually determines final state.
"Everyone after death is his own love and his own will. What remains with a person after death is his ruling love."— Heaven and Hell
The ruling love is not what we thought we loved, or what we said we loved, or what we believed we should love. It is what we actually loved — revealed by what we actually did, especially when no one was watching.
- → If the ruling love was love of the neighbor (genuine concern for others), the person gravitates toward heaven.
- → If the ruling love was love of self above all (using others as means), the person gravitates toward hell.
- → If the ruling love was love of the world (material acquisition as end), direction depends on subordination.
This is not judgment from outside. It is self-selection. The person goes where their ruling love leads them, because after vastation, they cannot be other than what they are.
Why Vastation is Necessary
Without vastation, false placements would occur. People would be in heaven or hell based on appearance rather than reality. This would cause suffering for all:
- 1. A hypocrite in heaven would find heavenly love painful — it would expose and aggravate their hidden hatred.
- 2. A good person in hell would suffer the company of those whose loves are contrary to their own.
- 3. Mixed communities would be unstable — internal conflicts would destroy the society.
Vastation ensures that each person ends where they belong — not by external decree but by internal consistency. After vastation, the outer matches the inner. The person is whole, unified, what they appear to be.
"After death the interior of a person is laid open. This is done by removing the exterior successively."— Heaven and Hell
Vastation in Life
Though Swedenborg describes vastation as an after-death process, the same stripping can occur during life. Crisis, illness, loss, or deliberate spiritual practice can initiate vastation while still embodied.
- → Voluntary vastation: Meditation, self-examination, confession — deliberately looking at the shadow.
- → Involuntary vastation: Illness, breakdown, failure — life stripping away what is not essential.
- → Relational vastation: Intimacy with another who sees through your persona.
Those who undergo vastation while alive have the opportunity to reform — to change the ruling love before death fixes it permanently. This is one of the purposes of suffering: it strips away illusion and reveals what is actually there, while there is still time to change it.
IMAGE: Fire refining gold — impurities burning away
The gold (essential self) remains; dross (false self) is consumed
Vastation as spiritual alchemy
The gold (essential self) remains; dross (false self) is consumed
Vastation as spiritual alchemy
The Liberation of Vastation
Though vastation sounds severe, Swedenborg presents it as ultimately liberating. The masks are heavy. The performances are exhausting. The self-deception is suffocating. To have all that fall away — to simply BE what you are — is relief.
For those whose ruling love is good, vastation reveals what they have always been at core. The external contradictions dissolve. They become fully themselves for the first time.
For those whose ruling love is evil, vastation at least removes the hypocrisy. They can pursue their loves openly. This is not happiness — but it is consistency. Even hell has integrity: everyone there is what they appear to be.
"After the first state, which is the state of the exteriors, the person passes into the state of the interiors, in which nothing is hidden."— Heaven and Hell
Nothing is hidden. This is the end of vastation. Complete transparency. Complete consistency. The 72.43% shadow has joined the 27.57% manifest. The person is 100% visible — to themselves, to others, to all.
[1 = -1]