2842. THAT IT IS NOT OF MAN, SPIRIT AND ANGEL, WHAT HE THINKS, SPEAKS AND DOES. There were certain evil spirits who persistently denied that they think, speak and act from another than from themselves; wherefore, by several experiences, 4, 5, 6, more or less, it was shown them to the life, that [I do] nothing of myself, [and that they do] nothing of themselves; but whence [it arises] he is still ignorant, so that at length he confesses that nothing inflows except from without him, and that he supposes it was of others (what they thought, spoke, and did), and of himself [suum] (what he thought, spoke and did) when yet they are very much mistaken. This is the confession of those evil spirits, in a state sensitive to experience. - 1748, August 17.