adjoined to him. But this
subject will be specially considered in what follows when the
conjunction of heaven with man is treated of.

248. The speech of an angel or spirit with man is heard by him as
audibly as the speech of man with man, yet by himself only, and not
by others who stand near; and for the reason that the speech of an
angel or spirit flows first into a man's thought, and by an inner way
into his organ of hearing, and thus moves it from within; while the
speech of man with man flows first into the air and by an outward way
into his organ of hearing, and moves it from without. Evidently,
then, the speech of an angel or spirit with man is heard within him;
but as the organs of hearing are thus equally moved, the speech is
equally audible. That the speech of an angel or a spirit flows down
from within even into the ear has been made clear to me by the fact
that it flows also into the tongue, causing a slight vibration, but
without any such motion as when the man himself by means of the
tongue forms the sound of speech into words.

249. But at the present day to talk with spirits is rarely granted
because it is dangerous;{1} for then the spirits know, what otherwise
they do not know, that they are with man; and evil spirits are such
that they hold man in deadly hatred, and desire nothing so much as to
destroy him both soul and body, and this they do in the case of those
who have so indulged themselves in fantasies as to have separated
from themselves the enjoyments proper to the natural man. Some also
who lead a solitary life sometimes hear spirits talking with them,
and without danger; but that the spirits with them may not know that
they are with man they are at intervals removed by the Lord; for most
spirits are not aware that there is any other world than that in
which they live, and therefore are unaware that there are men
anywhere else; and this is why man is not permitted to speak with
them in return. If he did they would know. Again, those who meditate
much on religious subjects, and are so intent upon them as to see
them as it were inwardly within themselves, begin to hear spirits
speaking with them; for religious persuasions, whatever they are,
when man dwells upon them by himself and does not adapt them to the
various things of use in the world, penetrate to the interiors and
rest there, and occupy the whole spirit of the man, and even enter
into the spiritual world and act upon the spirits