7745. While I was talking to this spirit some other spirits brought themselves to the front of my head, where that spirit was, and pressed in on him. He therefore moved to one side and let them take his place. The newly-arrived spirits were talking to one another, but neither the spirits around me nor I myself could understand what they were saying. Angels informed me that they were spirits from the planet Mars, who knew how to talk to one another in such a way that the other spirits present would not understand or perceive anything of what they were saying. I was amazed that such a way of speaking could exist, since all spirits use a single way of speaking. I was amazed because all speech flows from thought, which is composed of individual ideas. and these ideas take the place of words in the spiritual world. Such idea-words, together with the thought behind them before it is expressed, are perceived plainly in the next life. I was told that those spirits know a certain way of moving their lips and face to form ideas that are unintelligible to others, and that at the moment they are using this way of speaking to one another they are artfully withholding their thoughts from others. They take particular care not to allow any of their affection to reveal itself, the reason why they do so being that if any of their affection is recognized their thought is evident since thought flows from affection. I was further informed that the inhabitants of Mars who suppose that heavenly life lies solely in knowledge and not in a life of love have devised this way of speaking, yet not all; and that they retain this when they become spirits. These are the ones who were meant specifically by the bird of stone; for to produce speech by means of facial expressions and movements of the lips when their affections are isolated and their thoughts withheld from others is to deprive their speech of life and make it like a statue. And by degrees they also make themselves like lifeless statues.