Spiritual Experiences (Odhner) n. 1752

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1752. About visions that are illusions

Visions occur on earth with some who say and try to sell the notion that they have seen all kinds of things, and they are even called seers. This kind of visions occurs when some object is seen, whatever it may be, and certain spirits induce on it a shape, by way of fantasies. It is as when a cloud is seen, or something at night [in] moonlight, and certain spirits hold the person's mind, and thus imagination, in the portrayal of some real thing, whether it be an animal, or a little child, or something monstrous. And as long as one's imagination is kept by spirits in this kind of vision, one is quite convinced of having seen those things. Consequently a great many visions are peddled that are nothing but illusions such as come over those who indulge much in fantasizing and are therefore mentally unstable, and have become gullible.


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