3511. Furthermore, that they were scarcely visible arises from a cause natural to them, namely that they do not wish people to know what they are thinking. They keep silent and conceal their plans, and ponder about the character of others, anyone they see, as to whether they can use them to attain their goals. By keeping silent and trying to keep their purposes hidden from others, they acquire this invisibility - even though their nature is earthly - causing other spirits not to know where they are nor by what route they come into heaven.
Another reason, namely, the spiritual one, that they are scarcely visible, is that they do not think so crudely about spiritual things or the other life, but rather in their own way, i.e. that there is a supreme being that they acknowledge, nor do they scatter [their thoughts] - so neither do they tolerate in their places of worship, statues, images, and pictures, for fear of acquiring from them grosser mental imagery.
[2] It was shown that when an image of the crucified Lord such as one finds in other localities was displayed to them, then at once they fled away and seemed to vanish. I heard and saw that it was their nature not to want such things to fixate their mental imagery, but to remain in invisible notions, as that they do not understand and see the higher and inward parts of nature.
For this reason they do not reason about them, and if they hear anyone reasoning about them, they think that person insane. Therefore they openly ridicule such people, unless they are rich ones whom they do not want to offend, for their own purposes. So they leave it to others to think, and to confuse themselves, thinking that in the inward regions it may [all] open up. Their quality was portrayed by some clear shallow water, between [the observer and] a looming object touching the other side, by which their earthly nature was depicted.
3511. That they are thus invisible arises with them from a natural cause, viz. their unwillingness that men should know their thoughts. Hence they are silent, and conceal their designs, and ponder upon the characters of others, and how they may be made useful to their ends. From this taciturnity, and the desire to veil their ends from others, they contract this character of invisibility, notwithstanding they are natural, and thus it is that other spirits know not where they are, nor in what way they enter heaven. There is another spiritual cause of the same fact, and that is, that they think so grossly of spiritual things and of the other life, believing, in their own fashion, simply in a Supreme Being, whom they acknowledge, but not diffusing their thoughts over a wider field. Hence they tolerate in their temples neither statues, images, nor pictures, lest their ideas should be rendered gross. This was evinced by their immediately flying away and vanishing when an image of the Lord on the cross, which is common in other places, was shown to them. I heard and perceived that they were of such a quality that things of this nature could not fix their ideas, but that they chose rather to abide in things obscure [and indefinite], so that they understand and perceive nothing that is superior or interior to nature, nor do they reason concerning them. On the other hand if they hear anyone reasoning on these subjects they think him insane, and openly make light of all but the rich, whom, from a view to private ends, they shrink from offending, leaving it to others to think and bewilder themselves [as they please], still cherishing the idea that their interior thoughts may be [at length] laid open. What their quality is was represented by a thin watery fluid contained between substances transparent on either side, which is the appropriate representation of the natural.
3511. Porro quod inconspicui ex causa naturali apud eos venit, quod nolint ut sciant homines quod cogitant, tacent et occultant sua consilia, et cogitant de aliis, de quocunque quem vident, qualis sit, num iis utilis ad fines eorum; ex eo quod tacent, sic quod aliis occultos esse velint eorum nes, trahunt id quod inconspicui sunt, quamvis naturales, et quod alii spiritus non sciant ubinam sunt, et per quam viam veniant in coelum: altera causa nempe spiritualis, quod inconspicui sunt, est quia non ita crasse cogitant de spiritualibus seu de altera vita, sed quod suo modo, quod ens supremum sit, quod agnoscunt, nec se diffundunt, quare nec tolerant in templis suis statuas, imagines, et picturas, ne ab iis capiant ideas crassiores; ostensum est, quod Domini crucifixi imago, ut in aliis locis, eis ostensa, tunc illico aufugerunt, et quasi evanescebant; audivi et percepi, quod tales essent, ut nollent talia figere eorum ideas, sed in inconspicuis manere, ut quod non intelligant et percipiant ea quae superiora vel interiora naturae sunt; quare nec ratiocinantur de iis, et si quem ratiocinantem de iis audiunt, eum ut insanum cogitant, quare etiam aperte eos subsannant, nisi sint divites, quos laedere nolunt, propter suos nes, relinquentes sic aliis cogitare, et se confundere, cogitant quod usque in interioribus queat patere: quales essent repraesentatum per tenuem aquam quae inter aliquid ab altera parte contiguum conspicuum, quo repraesentabatur naturale.