2043. WHAT IS SIGNIFIED BY BEING NOTHING. Spirits who did not understand what is implied in its being said that we are to undergo a process of annihilation, or becoming nothing, inasmuch as they supposed that by losing those things which were most peculiarly their own, they would be left so entirely destitute that neither man nor spirit would be intelligently master of himself, but be like a machine, devoid of all sense and reflection - such spirits often said to me that I should be nothing, should become nothing, but in a jesting way, as they did not understand what was implied in being nothing. But it was given me to reply to them that this was what I desired, to wit, to be nothing, yea, absolutely nothing, for then I should first begin to be something.