1636. How difficult it is for people to be brought to believe that spirits and angels exist, let alone that anyone can speak to them, was made clear to me by the following example: There were certain spirits who during their lifetime had belonged among the more learned and whom I had known at the time (for I have spoken to almost all the people with whom I was acquainted during their lifetime, to some for several weeks, to others for a year, just as if they were still living in the body). They were at one point brought into a state of thought similar to that which had been theirs when they lived in the world, a step that is easily taken in the next life. While they were in this state the question was subtly raised in their minds whether they believed it possible for anyone on earth to talk to spirits. They said, while in this state, that it was a delusion to believe any such thing; and this they asserted most persistently. From this I was led to realize how difficult it is for anyone to be brought to believe that any speaking to spirits is possible to man, the reason being that men do not believe in the existence of spirits, still less that after death they themselves will come among spirits. These particular spirits were utterly amazed at this; and yet they belonged among the more learned who have spoken a lot in public about the next life and about heaven and angels, from which one might have been led to think that they knew about it fully as a fact, especially from the Word where such speaking to spirits is mentioned frequently.