3858. About a kind of sirens
There are those who desire especially to be in a body, who wanted to eat when I was eating, indeed not only trying to grasp the food as it were with the lips, but also to raise my hands to my mouth - thus to possess the sense of taste. By these I was annoyed for several days. In order to obtain the things I ate, such as almond cakes, pears, and even pigeons, they then portrayed before angelic spirits the things that they symbolize - they themselves knowing no differently than that they were those foods - as that they symbolize inward qualities, in which, being thus held, they acquiesced, whereas their trick consisted in the fact that they portrayed them in this way in order to be able to possess my body, when yet it is strictly forbidden that the function of eating and of taste should be occupied by any spirit. 1748, 4 Nov.
3858. CONCERNING A CLASS OF SIRENS.
These are those who wish above all things to be in the body, who when I eat, wish to eat, yea, not only to seize [the food], as it were, with the lips, but to carry their hands to their mouth. By these I have been for several days infested, so that in order to obtain the things which I ate, as almond-cakes, pears, and also pigeons, they represented before angelic spirits the things which they signified, wherefore they knew no otherwise than that these things were such as they seemed, as, for instance, that they corresponded with their proper interiors, in which, being thus held, they acquiesced, when yet their craft consisted in this, that they thus represented them in order to possess my body, when at the same time it is utterly forbidden that the function of eating or taste should be exercised by any spirit. - 1748, November 4.
3858. De genere sirenum
Sunt quae cupiunt imprimis in corpore esse, quae cum ederem, vellent edere, imo non solum labiis quasi suis arripere, sed etiam manus ad os ducere, et sic gustum possidere; iis per aliquot dies infestatus, quod ut consequerentur, ea quae comedi, sicut amygdalinas placentas, pyra, tum columbas, tunc repraesentabant ea coram angelicis spiritibus, quae significantur, inde ii non aliter scientes ac quod talia essent, sicut quod interiora, in quibus sic detenti acquiescebant, cum tamen earum dolus in eo consistebat, quod sic repraesentarent, ex causa, ut possent corpus meum possidere; cum tamen vetitum prorsus sit, ut functio edendi, et gustus a quodam spiritu occuparetur. 1748, 4 Nov.