Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 1682

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1682. ((I inquired of them how it was as to those among them who were evil, for they, as it was said, are an upright class of spirits. They replied that it is not permitted to anyone to be bad; and that if anyone does think or speak badly, he is first rebuked by a certain spirit, who says to him that if he repeats the offence he will die, and he does die in a fainting fit if he is again guilty of that which is thus prohibited. In this manner the people are preserved from the contagion of evils. A certain spirit of this class was present, speaking with me as with those to whom he then administered rebuke, and addressed me in a similar manner, [and I observed that] he induced upon a part of the abdomen)) (some degree of pain, as was usually the case with them, to each one of whom the rebuker is accustomed to relate whatever of evil he had thought or done, and to punish him with pain in the bowels, saying to him that if he does thus again he will die, (:which with us corresponds to remorse of conscience, for with those who speak with spirits there are manifest pains:) and one said that they die in a fainting or swooning fit [per deliquium], and that they became such spirits as torture, chide, and admonish men. He was at the back of my head, and thus spoke in a kind of undulatory way. - 1748, March 25.)


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