2646. An earthly human and a spirit can do nothing of good from themselves, yet seem to themselves entirely able to do so
Last night from time to time, while in a state midway between waking and sleeping, now and then in a kind of wakeful state, I saw that certain upright spirits at the region of the heel of the left foot were very zealously trying to fashion for themselves a candlestick with its stems and lamps in honor of the Lord, and I watched for one or two hours how they labored and were indeed convinced that they were doing this from themselves, and thus devising one stem after the other and creating a wonderful candlestick. I myself in the vision plainly observed that they could devise absolutely nothing from themselves, while they were convinced that they did so entirely on their own, for what was theirs I plainly observed to be nothing, and this they did not realize.