3963. OF THE QUALITY OF THOSE WHO WERE WITH ME. Unlike what happens in regard to other men, spirits have been with me as they were in the world, for with me they have been not only as men as to their mind and memory, but also as to sense, so that they would even suppose themselves to be, as it were, in the world, or to have returned into the world. They were able to lead me, to see through my eyes, to hear, through my ears, others speaking, yea, [they could have heard] others speaking with themselves if it had been lawful for them to speak with them in their own speech, or to write to them in their own style but these things were not permitted, neither to touch others through my hands. With other persons the case is different, for my state is so ordered by the Lord, that I can be possessed by spirits, and yet without injury, in which my case is altogether different from that of others when possessed, inasmuch as they are rendered thereby non compos, while I remain altogether in my right mind. Indeed, from the very first of my enjoying this interaction [with spirits] onward through the space of several years, I have been as I was before without the slightest observable difference. This privilege, therefore, can pertain [safely] to him only who is in faith; by no means to any others, as they would immediately perish. Such is the state of the world at this day, that whoever is possessed incurs the peril of his life, so intense is the internal hatred that now reigns. - 1748, November 13.