There are still some people who retain and preserve much of the ancient Church, having also the ability more than others to see whether something is good. For this reason they are also rejected by others, who consider them not unlike those who are more or less fanatical, when yet this insight as to what is good, thus what one should do, was a feature of the ancient Church. They acknowledge the operation of spirits, but [receive] into themselves only that of the Lord's spirit, rejecting the rest. But because such people are [mostly] of lower a condition, not readily taking educated persons [into their midst], they think in simple terms and do not much expand their thinking. These in the other life are blessed, and they appeared to me in front, toward the upper part of the forehead at some distance. They were able to read my thoughts more completely and more deeply than other spirits, so I did not speak with them in the same way, but by a greater abundance of thought, which the others said they had not understood. So they are not far from heaven.

1987 1/2. I was shown how they pray in the other life, as is usually done, while saying the Lord's prayer, during which their understanding was communicated to me. It was simple, hardly beyond the bare meaning of the words. Yet it was not closed up, as with others, but still soft, able to be opened up, and therefore understandable to the angels, as though each mental image, albeit in the bare meaning of the words, could serve as a container. 1748, 18 May.