When a spirit is deprived of rationality, so that he acts from mere instinct, then he is pardoned for whatever he does since he is acting as if in sleep; also because no one can help pitying their condition, seeing that they act in this manner. However, when the same spirits are rational while so acting, the rationality does nothing other than strive to hide their instinct. Thus a habitual pretense is usually present, from fear and from other causes, because the rationality in bodily life had hardly been anything other than a means of hiding their natural instincts and distorted loves. This I was able to gather today from actual experience. 1748, 10 February. These points spirits were able to understand as well as if the subject were exposed to the senses, but I am doubtful whether people living in the body can understand them.