4711. CONCERNING ONE GOD, AND NATURE. THAT STATES PRODUCE DISTANCE - NEGATION ABSENCE; AND, SO, CONFIRMATION PRESENCE. THAT FAITH CONJOINS. In such a state as that in which spirits are, and then wholly like them with a human body and human senses, I was in an apartment; and there were many in another apartment; and there also appeared books. I looked at one book, which was written with letters like the ancient Hebrew; but I immediately closed it and looked at another. Then I spoke with one of those at the table. The rest lay down by the walls. I said that I am in the world, and, yet, at the same time, in the other life. I touched him, and he felt it; I also said that the man that lives after death is within the man [that lives in the world.] Because he believed this, he appeared entirely present; but the rest, who lay down by the walls, banished as to their heads; so that there was no appearance, at last, except like a shadow in their place. I afterwards heard that they did not believe what I said, and that therefore they appeared as though they had vanished, or were absent; for the idea of one man enters fully into [the mind] of another, where it is affirmatively received; and thus they appear present according to agreement and affirmation: so that the ideas of thought which are not received produce absence; that is, negation does.