2808. If in the world the aura of thoughts of self-love and self-profit were absent, all would be insanities
I saw an insane woman on the street, and was inspired to think, and to say to spirits, then also to realize, that if that outer restraint were absent from mankind that is built in by the love of self and of profit, and the consequent sense of shame in looking to those ends, then all would be like her, each with a variety of insanity agreeing with their acquired character. The thoughts are just like those of this insane woman, which with her were not held in, because she was poor and clothed in rags. This shows what spirits in the other life are like, where that outer restraint has been taken away and the thought reigns by itself, namely, sheer insanities, if they were not governed by the Lord Alone, therefore by Wisdom and Intelligence Itself.