2538. Spirits are guided by the Lord into this inward state in a lapse of time as if through a sleep or kind of unconsciousness, yet as if the spirits were awake. Then at first those dim images occur to them, as they do to little children, because there is only a general awareness. At length the image clarifies more and more, or the mental imagery becomes clearer. Then they are brought into that state where they seem to themselves to awaken entirely, even though this state also, compared to the wakefulness of the inward heaven, is still like sleep. 1748, 5 July.