1406. As long as people imagine that they lead themselves, and that they understand things by their own power, they cannot possess that inner sight and conviction, and so long they regard that inner sight and those convictions as fairy tales. And perhaps they prejudge those who possess them as being fanatics, believing that what they themselves cannot know, does not exist. However, some who had been teachers in life were still unable to believe this in the other life, but they finally believe, only mentally, what has been proven to them by an experience that can be given to souls in the other life. Yet whether it can be given to people in the body, I do not yet know. 1748, 15 March.
1406. So long as any man supposes that he leads himself, and that he understands from himself, he cannot have such perceptions and persuasions, and he then considers them to be fables, and perhaps he prejudges them as enthusiasms, for such men suppose that anything they cannot understand has no existence. Moreover, those who have been learned in their lifetime could not believe this in the other life. However, now at last they do believe it, but only intellectually, and because it has been demonstrated to them by experience. Such experience can be granted to souls in the other life, but whether to men in the body in the same way, I do not as yet know. 1748, Mar. 15.
1406. Quamdiu aliquis putat, homo, quod semet ducat, quodque ex se intelligat, non potest habere illam perceptionem et persuasionem, et tamdiu perceptiones et persuasiones istas putant fabulas esse; et forte praejudicant de illis, sicut de enthusiastis, nam quod non scire possunt, non dari, putant. Usque tamen ii qui fuerunt in vita doctores, in altera vita, nec id potuerunt credere, at tandem idem intellectualiter modo nunc credunt, quod iis demonstratum est experientia, quae dari potest animabus in altera vita, sed an ita hominibus in corpore, adhuc non scio. 1748, 15 Martius.