4033. It was noteworthy that when I recounted to those who were above in the caverns of the nostrils what I had seen in a dream, and this in a long series, and on two occasions - how I had walked, with which persons, how they were dressed, and that I had played with (boll 1), throwing it at the wall and getting it back, as well as a good many other things - then they said that all this coincided exactly, and was the same with, what they had been speaking about among themselves, without the slightest difference, but that it did not portray the same thing as I saw in my dream, but that these occurrences were the mental imagery of their speech being thus portrayed. So all and the least things they spoke of among themselves were thus pictured in my dream. And they were also told what I had realized, namely that these same conversation of theirs could also come down and be presented in different portrayals, thus in countless others than these, depending on the state of the spirits around me, and thence on my own state. Thus an infinite number of entirely different dreams could result from the same conversation or from the same imagery of speech. For human memories are receiving vessels for mental imagery according to its varieties of form and according to its states.
Footnotes:
1. Swedish for "a ball."
4033. It was worthy of note, that when I related to those who were above in the cavities of the nostrils, what I had seen in a dream and in a long series, and twice in succession - how I had walked; with what person; how they were clothed; and that I had played ball (:boll:), throwing it against a wall and catching it, beside a multitude of other things - they said that all this coincided exactly, and was the same with what they were speaking of among themselves, so that there was not the slightest difference. They said, however, that the representative which I had seen in my dream, was not the reality with them, but that their ideas were utterances [loquelae], which could be thus presented, so that all and singular the things they had spoken, among themselves, were thus representatively shadowed out to me in the dream. What was further said by them was also perceived, to wit, that these same discourses of theirs could also be molded into and exhibited in indefinite other representations than such as were witnessed, according to the states of spirits around me, and thence according to my own state, so that infinitely various dreams might occur from the same discourse, or from the same ideas of speech, for the memories of men are recipient vessels, into which flow ideas according to the variations of form and according to states. 1
Footnotes:
1. Compare AC 1980, 1981.
4033. Dignum observatu erat, cum referebam iis, qui supra in cavernis narium, quid videram in somnio, et quidem longa serie, et bis, quomodo ambulaveram, cum quibus personis, quomodo amicti, tum quod luserim cum (boll conjiciendo in parietem, et recipiendo, praeter alia satis plura, tunc ii dicebant, quod ea prorsus coinciderent et eadem essent cum iis quae inter se loquutae, sic ut ne hilum differret; sed quod non esset repraesentativum tale, quale in somnio viderem, sed essent ideae earum loquelae, quae ita repraesentarentur, sic ut omnia et singula quae loquutae inter se, repraesentata sic apud me erant in somnio; et dicta eis sunt quoque percepta, quod eadem earum loquela potuisset in alias repraesentationes, ita in indefinite alias delabi et sisti, quam per tales, secundum statum spirituum circum me, et inde secundum statum meum, sic ut alia prorsus infinita somnia existerent ab eadem loquela seu ab iisdem loquelae ideis, nam memoriae hominis sunt vasa recipientia, quae recipiunt ideas secundum formae earum variationes, et secundum status.