2053. CONCERNING A CERTAIN ONE WHO WAS RAPT AND BORNE AWAY TO HEAVEN. ((((There was a certain spirit with me, and that not long after his departure from the body, as might be concluded from the fact that he did not know that he was in the other life; for no one can know that without being gifted with reflection, as anyone may be satisfied from various considerations. This person seemed to me to have been devoted, during his life in the body, to studies; but farther than this I could not speak particularly of him, notwithstanding I conversed with him for some time; but he was suddenly caught up on high above me, which led me to suppose that he was one of that class who in their lifetime had cherished lofty aspirations; and then when he came to speak with spirits as a spirit, being in this aspiring state of mind, he was suddenly caught away, so that he could speak with them no more: whereupon they wondered whither he would go, for he went into a society of celestial spirits, and consequently out of the sight of mundane spirits. I felt therefore authorized to conjecture that he was thus rapt on high, for the reason that in his lifetime he had supposed that heaven itself was supremely elevated, and not among the lowly or near the earth, and that being led by this opinion, he appeared to be borne upwards, for everyone's opinion follows and controls him. From the society of the celestials he spoke with me, and said that he saw things high and sublime, and so magnificent as to surpass the utmost power of the human mind to conceive. - 1748, May 23.