1532. Spiritual ideas, concerning which see above [nos. 1487, 1498], can make it known that the men of this earth will judge variously concerning these matters, namely, that there are such planets, which, however, can by no means be denied, and that [their inhabitants] are of such a nature, and especially, that it could be possible for men to converse with them; since men judge from the external sense and from each one's phantasy and love. But this is of no consequence, for these things have been seen and heard as sensibly as in human society, therefore I care nothing for their judgments. I am persuaded that when they become spirits, and still more in the case of those who become angels, they will clearly see the truth, as perhaps also will some of the human race, if it is well pleasing to the Lord. Let them only consider that in the spiritual world, as they call it, the distance of a place matters so little that what is remote appears near by; so that the souls who spoke with me and were heard near me, yea close to my ear, might yet have been hundreds of miles distant from me, as I sometimes told them. Since the distance between places appears so small to the eye when looking at the sun and stars, how much less must it appear to the internal sight. It is the fallacies of the senses which mislead the inhabitants of this earth, who are of the corporeal sense, and who extend their ideas scarcely beyond the senses of the body. 1748, Mar. 18.