2251. What other method there is of speaking with spirits
I have also spoken with spirits by mental images alone, without words, and they understood just as well as when I spoke with words. I only portrayed things by inner sight, such as when I portrayed the things I was eating by inner sight, without words, and they well understood. If I pictured them together, whatever people have on the table, or whatever clothing one puts on, or just whatever is in sight, spirits at once understand, and see them.
Some understand and take in the language of mental images better than speech by means of words, for they live in such imagery. Sometimes [I have spoken] by nothing but subtle thoughts, and they grasped them better than if I had spoken with words. Some do not like to speak, but are so discerning that they grasp the meaning at once, together with the feeling, and in fact instantly. For it is not memory that is working in them, but natural character. They do not like to admit this, thinking they have a memory such as they did in bodily life, but because they put on the memory of a person on earth, they have this opinion due to fallacy of the senses. 1748, 8 June.
2251. WHAT SORT OF SPEAKING WITH SPIRITS IS ALSO GIVEN.
I also spoke with spirits by ideas alone, without words, and they understood as well as with words, by [my] merely representing from internal sight, as was the case when [I told them] what I ate: I represented merely from the internal sight what I ate, without words, and they clearly [bene] comprehended; and if also at the same time [were represented] these things, viz. whatever a man has on his table, or whatever is worn on the same occasion, or whatsoever it might be which was displayed to the sight, they were immediately understood and seen by the spirits by the discourse [loquela] of ideas without words. Some better understand and perceive [this discourse] than that which is carried on by words, for they are in the like. Sometimes [the discourse is not carried on] save by subtle thoughts, and these are better perceived than if [one] spoke in words. Some do not love to speak, but they are so shrewd that they immediately perceive the sense, together with the affection, and indeed in an instant, for it is not memory which operates with them, but it is the natural disposition, which they are unwilling to acknowledge, but suppose that they have such (a memory) as in the life of the body, but because they put on the memory of man they so imagine from a fallacy of sense. - 1748, June 8.
2251. Qualis etiam datur loquendi modus cum spiritibus
Loquutus quoque sum cum spiritibus per solas ideas, absque vocibus, et intellexerunt tam bene ac cum vocibus, repraesentando solum ea visu interno, sicut dum ea quae comedi, repraesentabam solum visu interno , absque vocibus, et bene intellexerunt; si quoque simul [repraesentarem] ea, ut si quicquid homo habet super mensa, simul, vel quicquid induitur, seu quicquid patuit visui, hoc illico a spiritibus intelligitur, et videtur; idearum loquelam absque vocibus, quidam melius intelligunt et percipiunt, quam quae fit per voces, nam in similibus sunt, quandoque non nisi per subtiles cogitationes, et perceptae sunt melius, quam si loquutus verbis; quidam non amant loqui, sed ita perspicaces sunt, ut illico percipiant sensum, simul cum affectione, et quidem in instanti, nam non est memoria, quae operatur penes eos, sed est naturalis indoles, quam nolunt agnoscere, sed putant se habere memoriam qualem in vita corporis, sed quia induunt hominis memoriam, ex fallacia sensus ita opinantur. 1748, 8 Junius.