Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 593

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593. At first, when they enter the other life, they seem to themselves to be with others like themselves, and thus to act in the same manner as during their life in the world. But this scene is changed into a cruel one, in which those same women knock each other about, and bruise and tear each other in a miserable manner; they pull each other by the hair, tear off the scalp, and this so shamefully that one cannot bear to look at them. They also hang them up naked like swine, cut off their feet, and tear them in a thousand ways, one after another; indeed the blood flowed so copiously that I was horrified, and it is horrible to describe such scenes. But still such is their punishment. The spirits around me were terrified, and wanted to flee away. What such women are like you may see above [n. 592]. Those that I saw are in front, towards the left, in a certain higher place, by which is signified the phantasy of pride. 1748, Jan. 28.


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