Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 3857

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3857. THAT SPIRITS SUPPOSE THINGS TO BE JUST AS MAN THINKS. While I have been thinking concerning persons, and also concerning places, and that without any distinct reflection that I was anywhere else, and was in thought alone, as when thought is abstracted from the body, then spirits, especially those that are quite remote, know no otherwise than that the very persons are present of whom one thinks and with whom he speaks. So neither do they know otherwise than that they are in the place concerning which one thinks as has been often observed and said to them, and which they cannot deny, as they have more than once confessed that the fact was so; for they are then without reflection of place, and the like, from which they might know that it is mere thought. This is more especially the case the more distant they are. Those that are nearer, are subjects, have reflection like man, as the reflection of place, persons, and other things, without which reflection man could not be in society. Wherefore those who talk to themselves and think abstractly or who speak by thought with all such, spirits do not know otherwise than that the fact is so [or that they really speak]; hence also such persons become indignant, enraged, envious, persecuting, and hostile, solely from the effect of thought, being thus excited by spirits who know do otherwise than that such persons are [actually] present. - 1748, November 4.


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