953. Angels see people's pretenses, even those which seem to them most hidden
When a soul or person on earth tries to pretend, to think one thing and say another, it can become as obvious before the angels as a large black cloud before the eyes. There are indeed some who can pretend with their thought, as if they had a double thinking, as I do, and they imagine they can simulate so well as to deceive even angels, as one of them said. But I was enabled to learn that such [deception] is also seen - by myself and by spirits as a thin vapor, but by angels as a cloud, or as smelly smoke.
Thus things which are very hidden to man, are this visible to angels of only the inward heaven. 1By angels of the very inward heaven, they cannot even be noticed, due to their grossness - only if there is something more deeply hidden that does not agree with them, or like circumstances. 1748, 23 February.
Footnotes:
1. See 262 and footnote 3.
953. THAT ANGELS PERCEIVE THE SIMULATIONS OF MAN, EVEN THOSE WHICH TO HIM SEEM MOST SECRET
When a soul or a man wants to simulate - to think one thing and say another - it can become as manifest before the angels as does a great black cloud before the eyes. There are also some who in their thought can so simulate that they have as it were a double thought, as I have. They suppose, as a certain spirit said, that thus they can dissemble so as to deceive even the angels. But it was given me to see that this also is perceived - by myself and spirits as a thin vapor, and by angels as a mist, or as smoke with a stench. The things which to the man are most secret are laid open to this extent only before angels of the interior heaven; before those of the more interior heaven there can be no sensation of them on account of their grossness, unless, indeed, there is something more deeply hidden therein, or the like, which does not cohere with them. 1748, Feb. 23.
953. Dum anima, vel homo simulare vult, aliud cogitare et aliud loqui, tam exstans coram angelis esse potest, sicut nubes atra grandis coram oculis, dantur etiam quidam, qui sua cogitatione simulare possunt, sic ut sit iis quasi duplex cogitatio, sicut mihi, ii putant ita simulare posse, ut decipere se putent etiam angelos, sicut quidam dixit, sed mihi percipere dabatur, quod tale quoque percipiatur sicut tenuis vapor-hoc 1
mihi et spiritibus, angelis vero ut nimbus, vel sicut fumus cum nidore, ita quae arcanissima homini sunt, tantum patent coram angelis solum interioris coeli, coram angelis intimioris coeli ea nec sentiri possunt 2
, ob crassitiem, sed modo si quid altius ibi latet, quod non cohaeret cum iis, aut similia. 1748, 23 Febr.
Footnotes:
1. The Manuscript has vapor, hoc
2. The Manuscript has posunt