Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 377

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377. THAT VARIOUS PHANTASIES FOLLOW SOULS FROM THE LIFE OF THE BODY The phantasies such as men have in the life of the body do not follow souls, but they are turned into others which are unknown. Thus certain phantasies corresponding to the life are derived, such as the hewers of wood, and the drawers of water, mentioned before [nos. 271, 273, 330, 363]. Those who on earth have been in any way violent and unmerciful are turned to a cruelty incredible, namely, they want to slay, hack to pieces with axes, torment and torture in most diverse ways their companions and whomsoever they meet; and so greatly are they delighted with these cruelties that they are their supreme delights. (1) Those who are bloodthirsty, of whom blood is predicated, are delighted to torture man even to blood, at the sight of which they are most highly delighted. Thus the life of unmercifulness is turned into such phantasies, which souls cannot [but] acknowledge. (2) From avarice burst forth the phantasies of horrible and filthy little animals, such as the dormice, the mice, and innumerable other creatures which have never been seen on earth, also phantasies of filthy lice; for they are formed according to the quality of the avarice, and according to the disposition on account of which they are avaricious. (3) It is a phantasy of the diabolic crew to want to be in privies. When they look at a privy they suppose that their home is there, with which they are greatly delighted, and there they suppose their heaven to be, which has been made known to me by much experience. 1747, Dec. 22.


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