3716. Sirens desire most of all to obsess people, but to obsess their inward parts by means of outward, as I have experienced for two or more days past. They labored especially to come into the sense, indeed, into the taste, and those who desire to come into the taste are of that kind, for they try in this way to enter the inward regions of a person. Adulterers and the cruel, spoken of earlier, desire to obsess a person's outward regions, but these sirens the inward regions, as I have experienced for several days in that they were trying to enter the taste, and seized for themselves whatever I might eat that corresponds to inward qualities. My bodily memory, thus whatever relates to science and to spiritual knowledge, they wanted to appropriate, and thus to obsess me and return into the world through another. These are inward obsessions. Whether many people today are obsessed in this way it seems possible to infer from this: let people examine themselves as to whether they have any inner bond causing them to shudder at and turn away from their thoughts, to abstain in some way from most abominable, wicked and obscene things within, in their thoughts - or whether it is only outer bonds that hold them back, and at the removal of which he would desire and perpetrate without fear of the law.
3716. Sirens desire above all things to obsess man; but still [to do this upon] his interiors through the exteriors, which I experienced during two or three days. They labored especially to come into the senses, yea, into the taste, and those who have this desire in regard to the taste, are evidently of this quality, for thus they aim to penetrate into man's interiors. The adulterous and the cruel, concerning whom [I have spoken] before, desire to obsess man's exteriors, but these the interiors, which I learned from several days experience, by their wishing to enter into the taste, and seizing for themselves whatever [articles of food] I might eat, which are the correspondences of the interiors The corporeal memory also, thus whatever is of science and of knowledge, they wished to appropriate to themselves, [and] thus to obsess, and to return into the world through another; which obsessions are interior. Whether many persons are at this day thus obsessed may hence, it seems, be inferred: let a man examine himself [and see] whether he is in any internal bond, so that his thoughts shall abhor and turn away with loathing [from evil]; let him prevail upon himself to abstain in some way from the most wicked, abominable, and obscene practices, inwardly or as to his thoughts, and let him then consider whether they are merely external bonds that restrain him, which, if they were removed, he would desire, without the fear of the law, to perpetrate them, and would perpetrate them - if he is such a man, then he is inwardly obsessed by such sirens, which obsession prevails at this day, whereas with the Jews, and in the time of the Lord, obsession was external.
3716. Sirenes imprimis obsidere homines cupiunt: sed ejus interiora per exteriora, quod apud me per binos, et plures dies prius, expertum est, prorsus allaborarunt in sensus, imo in gustum venire, et qui in gustum cupiunt, ii sunt tales, nam sic cupiunt in interiora hominis; adulteri et crudeles, de quibus prius, obsidere hominis exteriora cupiunt, sed hi interiora; quod per aliquot dies expertus per id quod etiam gustum intrare vellent, et quicquid ederem sibi arriperent, quae sunt correspondentiae eorum; quod corpoream memoriam, sic quicquid est scientiae, et cognitionis, vellent sibi adpropriare, sic obsidere, et redire in mundum per alium; quae obsessiones sunt interiores: num hodie homines plures ita obsessi sint, inde videtur concludi posse; homo semet examinet, num in aliquo vinculo interno sit, ut cogitationes ejus abhorreant, aversentur, se abstinere aliquo modo patiatur a scelestissimis, nefandissimis, obscoenissimis, intus seu quoad cogitationes, vel quod solum vincula externa sint quae detinent, quae si removerentur, absque timore legis patrare