with others for years; and this chiefly in order that I might be sure of it, and bear testimony to its truth.
I may add to what has already been said, that every man as to his spirit is in society with spirits even while he lives in the body, although he does not know it. By them as mediums a good man is in some angelic society, and an evil man in some infernal society; and after death he comes into the same society. This has been often told and shown to those who, after death, have come among spirits. The man does not, indeed, appear as a spirit in that society while he lives in the world, because he then thinks naturally; but those who think abstractedly from the body sometimes appear in their own society, because they are then in the spirit.
To elucidate the truth that man is a spirit as to his interiors, I will relate from experience what it is to be withdrawn from the body, and what it is to be carried of the spirit to another place.
In regard to the first, that is, being withdrawn from the body, it occurs thus: The man is brought into a certain state, midway between sleeping and waking; and when in this state, he cannot know but that he is perfectly awake. All his senses are as thoroughly awake as in the highest state of bodily wakefulness, the sight as well as the hearing, and what is wonderful, the touch, which is then more exquisite than it ever can be when the body is awake.
