1581. THAT FALSITIES HYPOTHETICALLY ASSUMED ARE SOMETIMES CONFIRMED TO SUCH A DEGREE THAT THOSE WHO DO IT DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE TRUTH IS, AND THUS ARE UNWILLING TO KNOW. Let one fact be taken for an example. Spirits partly erring and partly malignant assumed a hypothetical position, viz. the falsity that a spirit could enter into the body of a man, and thus live corporeally. This they were prompted to affirm solely from the fact that a spirit with man thinks that he is the man. But when I asserted that such was not the case they were unwilling to pay any attention to the reasons [which I adduced], for having once assumed in theory the falsity, they were intent upon confirming it; when the fact is, that as the spirit then thinks, apprehends, and wills in like manner with the man, and the appropriate acts follow, the spirit therefore supposes that he is the man. But this does not last long; it only holds in those states [of the parties] which are analogous.