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What are the things that we possess that are held in common with spirits and angels?

Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 70. VII. THE WORD IS IN ALL THE HEAVENS, AND IS THE SOURCE OF ANGELIC WISDOM. Hitherto it has not been known that the Word is in the heavens, nor could it be made known so long as the church was ignorant that angels and spirits are men like the men in this world, and that they possess in every respect like things to those possessed by men, with the sole difference that they themselves are spiritual, and that all things they possess are from a spiritual origin; while men in this world are natural, and all things they possess are from a natural origin. So long as this fact was hidden it could not be known that the Word exists in the heavens also, and is read by angels there, and also by spirits who are beneath the heavens. But that this might not be forever hidden, it has been granted me to be in company with angels and spirits, to converse with them, see what exists with them, and afterwards relate many things that I have heard and seen. This has been done in Heaven and Hell, published in London in 1758; in which work it may be seen that angels and spirits are men, and that they possess in abundance all things that men possess in this world. That angels and spirits are men, may be seen in that work (n. 73-77, and 453-456). That they possess like things to those possessed by men in this world (n. 170-190); also that they have Divine worship, and preachings in places of worship (n. 221-227); that they have writings and also books (n. 258-264); and that they have the Word (n. 259).
 

The natural mind thinks in space and time, the spiritual mind does not

Heaven and Hell 57 … It may be mentioned what a man has in common with an angel and what he has in addition to what angels have. A man has this in common with an angel, that his interiors are equally conformed to the image of heaven and that he, too, in so far as he is in the good of love and faith, may become an image of heaven. In addition to what angels have, a man has these things, that his exteriors have been formed according to the image of the world, that so far as he is in good, the world with him is subordinated to heaven and serves heaven, ⁴ and that then the Lord is present with him in both worlds, just as if he were in his heaven. For the Lord is in His Divine order in both worlds, since God is order.

Conjugial Love 328. We then withdrew, and speaking further on this subject, I said: “These distinctions exist solely because you, being in the spiritual world and therefore being yourselves spiritual, are in things substantial and not in things material, and things substantial are the beginnings of things material. You are in principles and thus in simples, while we are in principiates and compounds. You are in particulars, we in generals; and just as generals cannot enter into particulars, so neither can things natural, which are material, enter into things spiritual, which are substantial, exactly as a ship’s cable cannot enter or be drawn through the eye of a needle, or a nerve enter or be drawn into one of the fiber of which it consists, or a fiber into one of the fibrils of which it consists. This, moreover, is known in the world, it being the consensus of the learned, that there is no influx of the natural into the spiritual but only of the spiritual into the natural. This then is the reason why the natural man cannot think the thoughts which the spiritual man thinks, and therefore cannot speak them. Therefore Paul says that the words which he heard out of the third heaven were unutterable.

[2] Add to this, that to think spiritually is to think apart from time and space, and to think naturally is to think with time and space; for something of time and space adheres to every idea of natural thought, but not to any spiritual idea. The reason is, because the spiritual world is not in space and time like the natural world, but in the appearance of space and time. In the same way also do thoughts and affections differ [in the two worlds]. Therefore, you can think of the essence and omnipresence of God from eternity, that is, of God before the creation of the world, because you think of the essence of God from eternity apart from time, and of His omnipresence apart from space. Thus you can comprehend things which transcend the ideas of the natural man.”

[3] I then told him that once I had thought of the essence and omnipresence of God from eternity, that is, of God before the creation of the world. Being unable as yet to remove spaces and times from the ideas of my thought, I became troubled; for instead of God, the idea of nature entered in. But it was told me, “Remove the ideas of space and time and you will see.” It was then given me to remove them, and I did see. From that time on, I could think of God from eternity and not at all of nature from eternity; for God is in all time without time, and in all space without space, while nature is in all time in time, and in all space in space; and nature with her time and space must needs have a beginning and origin, but not God who is without time and space. Therefore, nature is from God–not from eternity but in time; that is to say, she is from God together with her time, and with her space.

Apocalypse Explained 739 [2] That all who are in evils of life become sensual, and that those who thus become sensual pervert all things of the church, can be seen from this, that there are with men three degrees of life, an inmost, a middle, and an ultimate, and that these degrees with man are opened successively as he becomes wise. Every man at his birth is altogether sensual, so that even the five senses of his body must be opened by use; he next becomes sensual in thought, since he thinks from the objects that have entered through his bodily senses; afterwards he becomes more interiorly sensual; but so far as by visual experiences, by knowledges [scientiae], and especially by the practices of moral life, he acquires for himself natural light [lumen], he becomes interiorly natural. This is the first or ultimate degree of man’s life.

[3] And as at this time from parents, masters, and preachers, and from reading the Word and books thence, he imbibes knowledges of spiritual truth and good, and stores them up in his memory like other knowledges [scientifica], he lays the foundations of the church with himself; and yet if he goes no further he continues natural. But if he goes on further, namely if he lives according to these knowledges from the Word, the interior degree is opened in him and he becomes spiritual, but only so far as he is affected by truths, understands them, wills them, and does them; and for the reason that evils and the falsities thence which by heredity have their seat in the natural and sensual man, are removed and as it were scattered in this and in no other way. For the spiritual man is in heaven and the natural in the world, and so far as heaven, that is, the Lord through heaven, can flow in through the spiritual man into the natural, so far evils and the falsities thence, which, as was said, have their seat in the natural man, are removed; for the Lord removes them, as he removes hell from heaven. The interior degree with man can be opened in no other way, because the evils and falsities that are in the natural man keep it closed up; for the spiritual degree, that is, the spiritual mind, contracts itself against evil and the falsity of evil of every kind as a fibril of the body does at the touch of a sharp point; for like as the fibers of the body contract themselves at every harsh touch, so does man’s interior mind, which is called the spiritual mind, at the touch or breath of evil or the falsity thence. But on the other hand, when things homogeneous, which are Divine truths from the Word that derive their essence from good, approach that mind, it opens itself; yet the opening is effected not otherwise than by the reception of the good of love flowing in through heaven from the Lord, and by its conjunction with the truths that man has stored up in his memory, and this conjunction is only effected by a life according to Divine truths in the Word, for when these truths come to be of the life they are called goods. Thence it may be clear how the second or middle degree is opened.

[4] The third or inmost degree is opened with those who apply Divine truths at once to life, and do not reason about them from the memory, and thus bring them into doubt. This is called the celestial degree. As there are these three degrees of life with every man, which yet are opened in diverse ways, thence there are three heavens. In the third or inmost heaven are those with whom the third degree is opened; in the second or middle heaven those with whom the second degree only is opened; and in the first or lowest heaven those with whom the interior natural man, which is also called the rational man, is opened; for this man, if truly rational, receives influx from the Lord through heaven. All these come into heaven. But those who have received Divine truths in the memory only, and not at the same time in the life, continue natural and even become sensual; and for the reason that the evils into which man is born have their seat, as was said above, in the natural and sensual man; and in such these evils have not been removed and as it were dispersed by the influx of good from the Lord and its reception by man; consequently with such the loves of the body rule, which in general are the love of self and the love of the world, and the consequent love and pride of self-intelligence. These loves, and the evils and their falsities that flow from them, fill the interiors of their natural mind, although these are covered without by things respectable and becoming which pertain to moral life, that are put on for the sake of the world and the laws enacted for the external man. Such although they may have filled their memory with knowledges from the Word, from the dogmas of their several religions and from the sciences, are yet natural and even sensual; for the interiors of their natural mind, which are nearest to the spiritual mind, are closed up by confirmations, even from the Word, against the spiritual life, which is a life according to Divine truths and is called charity towards the neighbor.

 
The Text offers to every level of thinking

DSS 71. As regards the Word in heaven, it is written in a spiritual style, which differs entirely from a natural style. .. there are no names of persons and places in their Word such as there are in ours, but instead of the names there are the things which they signify.

AC 926. The simple in heart may be instructed from the appearances with man, for they scarcely go beyond the knowledges that are derived from things of sense, and therefore the language of the Word is adapted to their apprehension

AE 632 … the external of the Word, called the sense of its letter, is for children and the simple minded, and therefore is written according to appearances, thus for those who are sensual and natural; for children are first sensual, afterwards natural, and when they advance in age they become spiritual.
 

Angels see the objects in their externals as states of mind 

HH 156… Together with the state of the angels’ interiors which pertain to their love and wisdom, the states of various things that are outside of them and that they see with their eyes are changed; for the things outside of them take on an appearance that is in accord with the things within them.

Divine Wisdom 7[5] 5. (or On the Divine Love On the Divine Wisdom 104). A natural man is wholly different from a spiritual man, and a spiritual man from a natural man; the difference is so great that they cannot be given together. One who does not know what the spiritual is in its essence may believe that the spiritual is only a purer natural, which in man is called the rational; but the spiritual is above the natural, and as distinct from it as the light of midday from the evening shadow in the time of autumn. The distinction and the difference can be known only to one who is in both worlds, the natural and the spiritual, and who can change alternately from one to the other, and be in one and then in the other, and by reflection can look at one from the other. From this privilege, which has been granted to me, I have learned what the natural man is and what the spiritual man is who is a spirit. That this may be known it shall be described briefly. In all things of his thought and speech, and in all things of his will and action, the natural man has as his subject matter, space, time and quantity; with him these are fixed and permanent, and without them he can have no idea of thought and speech from it, and no affection of the will and action from it. The spiritual man or the spirit does not have these as subjects, but only as objects.

[2] The reason is that in the spiritual world the objects are altogether similar to those in the natural world; there are lands, plains, fields, gardens and forests, houses containing rooms, and in them all useful things; moreover, there are garments for women and for men, such as are in the world; there are tables, food, and drinks, such as are in the world; there are also animals both gentle and destructive; there are spaces and times, and numbers and measures. All these things have such a resemblance to the things that are in the world that to the eye they cannot be distinguished, and yet all these are appearances of the wisdom belonging to the understanding of angels, and perceptions of loves belonging to their wills; for these objects are created in a moment by the Lord, and in a moment are dissipated. They are permanent or not permanent according to the constancy or inconstancy of the spirits or angels in the things of which they are the appearances. This is why these things are merely objects of their thoughts and affections, while their subjects are those things of which these are the appearances, which, as has been said, are such things as relate to wisdom and love, thus spiritual things. For example, when they see spaces they do not think of them from space; when they see gardens containing trees, fruits, shrubs, flowers, and seeds, they do not think of these from their appearance but according to the things from which these appearances spring; and so in all other cases.

[3] In consequence of this the thoughts of the spiritual, and their affections also, are wholly different from the thoughts and affections of the natural, and so different that they transcend natural ideas and do not fall into them except in some measure into the interior rational sight, and this in no other way than by withdrawals or removals of quantities from qualities.
 

All their wisdom is from the Word

Doctrine of Sacred Scripture 73. The angels acknowledge that all their wisdom comes through the Word, for they are in light in proportion to their understanding of the Word. The light of heaven is Divine wisdom, which to their eyes is light. In the sanctuary where the copy of the Word is kept, there is a flaming and bright light that surpasses every degree of light in heaven that is outside of it. The cause is the same as above mentioned; it is that the Lord is in the Word.