Spiritual Experiences (Odhner) n. 910

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910. I heard a heavy rumbling, like that of a huge mill. It was nearly at my left side, above me, but I did not know what it was. Presently, someone was lying near me at the left side, around the same region, who, as if in sleep, said nothing but "I am nothing, I am no one, I am no one, jag ar ingenting."* I supposed that this was the kind of purging, or desperation, that occurs before they are raised up from the lower earth; it must also be another way of expressing that he ought to be pitied. When he sensed that I was near him, I began to speak with him, and I was able to find out that he was from that crowd that pile up riches, keeping their mind on them and deriving their deepest thrills from them, especially if there is silver and gold in their strongboxes - without having done anything deceptive or unlawful in acquiring them. I further realized that such spirits speak this way from a kind of anxiety, namely, because there are in the vicinity those who covet what belongs to others and want to acquire it deceitfully, or by trickery, and are able to justify this on various pretexts by which they cover themselves, not at all fearful for eternal life. These [covetous spirits] being in the vicinity, trouble them, and for this reason they thus lie on their strongboxes or riches, wondering whether such are present, for they are very often molested by them. Therefore they cry out amongst themselves loudly enough that the robber will hear them, that they are nothing, that they are pitiable, and will refrain from plundering them. Such are the miserable lives of those who get their deepest joy from silver, gold and riches. That mill, or sound like the grinding of a mill, consisted of the murmurings, each in his own way, of many such spirits, fearing that their riches might be seized. * Swedish for "I am nothing."


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