1745. How this takes place was also shown to me. A certain spirit from their gang, one of the worst, clings to the person from behind, below the back of the head, and that gang operates through him or her, holding the person's inclination back from good and devout [activities], creating an annoyance with them. At the same time, they inspire reviling thoughts.
I became aware and clearly felt [the presence] of such a spirit, and I spoke with him, saying that he was being held there by that gang so that through him, as a shared medium, they could carry out the operation just described. I was not only being held back, as I could feel, by the neck, but also away from the thinking and understanding of the words I was writing, as well as from being affected by them; and the thought was slipped into my mind, among others, that I should stop.
So that I could see how this takes place, it was displayed to me in the case of a certain spirit, to whom the kind of spirit above-mentioned came up in the form of a dark cloud and threw himself at that spirit's back, clinging to him at the back of the head, whereupon that spirit at once confessed to a most irritating annoyance.
1745. How the true state of the case is [in these instances] was also shown me. There is a certain one among the worst of their crew who adheres to a man from behind under the occiput, and through him as a medium that crew acts, drawing back the very nature of the man from things good and pious, making them a source of annoyance to him, and at the same time infusing blasphemies. Such an one was perceived by me by a most manifest sensation, and I spoke with him, saying that he was held there by that crew, in order that through him, as a common subject, they might perpetrate things like those above described. I was retracted not only sensibly by the neck, but withheld from the thought and understanding of what I was writing, and even from the affection thereof, and it was insinuated that I should desist besides, among other things. In order that I might perceive how the case is, it was represented to me in the person of a certain spirit, to whom such an one applied himself like a dark cloud, throwing himself upon his back, and adhering thereto under the occiput, causing a confession to be made of most grievous molestation.
1745. Quomodo se res habet, mihi quoque ostensum est, est quidam ex eorum turba, inter pejores, is adhaeret homini a tergo, sub occiput, et per eum agit turba ista, retrahendo hominis naturam, a bonis et piis, creando molestiam in iis, et simul blasphemias infundunt; talis a me perceptus, manifeste sentitus, et cum eo loquutus sum, dicens quod a turba ista ibi detineatur, ut per eum, ut per subjectum commune, similia patrentur; retrahebar non modo cervice ad sensum, sed etiam a cogitatione et intellectu eorum, quae scriberem, tum ab affectione eorum 1
, insinuabaturque, quod desisterem, praeter plura. Ut perciperem quomodo se habeat res, hoc mihi repraesentatum in quodam spiritu, ad quem talis, instar nubis obscurae, appulit, seque conjecit in tergum ejus, cui ab occipitio adhaesit, qui statim fassus molestiam molestissimam.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has ejus