For many weeks I was in conversation with the Apostles, with Abraham, with Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Sarah the wife of Abraham, Leah, Rachel. At the time, I could believe no differently than that I had been speaking with them; but afterwards, being taught by experience, I was able to deduce that they were spirits who impersonated them in the inward heaven, and even believed they must be the same people. For the angels in the very inward heaven can speak with people on earth through spirits of the inward heaven - thus this is done indirectly - but these spirits impersonate them, and are able in so doing to show what those [angels] had been like in the first period after the death of the body. It is different when they appear to a person in the very inward heaven,* [thus directly,] which is done by a lofty portrayal. 1747, the 1st day of December.** These things came today into my thought, but whether this is the way these matters really stand, I am unable to find out as yet for certain. * See 262, footnote 3. ** The manuscript has "die 31 Nov."