Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 1761

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1761. CONCERNING SORES, AND FOUL TUBERCLES WHICH ARE NATURALLY PRODUCED UPON THE PLEURA AND PERICARDIUM, OR WHAT KIND OF SPIRITS CONSTITUTE THEM. ((There are some in the world who pass their lives in a course of mere artifices and lies; that is to say, that in order to attain the objects at which they aim they make use of falsehoods, from which originate evil; consequently they seek their ends through evil means. Thus it was shown to me by a living experience that they employ the services of the innocent for the purpose of persuading concerning those things which they intend and desire to obtain; as also that by lying in various modes they induce persons who are ignorant of their ends to say so and so, from whence arise enmities and aversions, for they act covertly and take various precautionary measures that those who serve them as tools should not understand their scope. This was shown to me by a living experience. They took for a subject a certain one who was of a genius unlike their own, in order that they might thus effect persuasion through an innocent medium; they then by means of mental induction and imitation brought into play things that are familiar in the world of spirits, but which this is not the place to describe; and all this in order that I might be persuaded concerning the objects at which they aimed. In order that there might be no suspicion as to the true source [of their machinations], I may say, in a word, that they make use of evil means that they may attain to whatever ends they propose. These means are deceits, falsehoods, and artifices, from which very many evils spring forth. Self-love or pride are the prompting causes of these machinations, and those of this quality exercise similar arts in every single thing which they intend.


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