2021. THAT THE LORD CAN ENABLE ANYONE, BY A SPIRITUAL IDEA, TO PERCEIVE INTERIOR THINGS. Certain spirits supposed that I only was in such a state as to be capable, by a spiritual idea, of perceiving interior things, and of being as a spirit, from whence, as usual, they drew some kind of sinister inference; but it was said to them that all could be such if the Lord pleased, even the most stupid, and I was then reminded of a certain stupid individual whom I had known many years before. This man was accustomed at certain times to make public addresses, and he could then recollect a multitude of things which he could not possibly at any other time recall to mind. It was then, moreover, shown to me by experience that upon the withdrawal of such a spiritual idea, I was altogether like any other person in thought, which was a matter of wonder to spirits, and that, according to the Lord's good pleasure, not only was this faculty opened with me, but also with all spirits, to whom the Lord should see fit to grant it. By experience, moreover, I had previously learned that spirits, when reduced into a similar state, would communicate to me such things as pertained to them, that I knew no otherwise than that I myself had once known them, and thus recollected them, when yet, afterwards, I knew that it was owing to the operation of spirits upon me, similar to the operation of man upon spirits, who suppose that they know what the man knows, the effect being thus reciprocal. From these and many other facts, it may be concluded that, with whomsoever the Lord pleases the mind may be opened, so that by a spiritual idea things may be intuitively perceived - in an orderly manner with those who are in faith, and in an extraordinary and miraculous manner with those who are not in faith.