1988. I conversed with them concerning perception, [from which it appeared] that to those who are in true faith it is such that they not only acknowledge that they neither do nor can think of themselves, nor are disposed to: consequently neither to act [from themselves]; for action follows entirely the will, but also they perceive that each single thing is from the Lord, for they are continually held in that thought, wherefore according to the Lord's good pleasure they perceive what is in any thought, whence it is, from what spirits, of what quality they are when it is suggested, what are their cogitations, what they speak or think with each other, what are their affections with their varieties, what the influxes of the angels, besides innumerable other things; for they are altogether like spirits in the other life, which the spirits often confessed concerning me, not knowing that I was in the body. - 1748, May 18.