71.  It is common on that earth for spirits to speak with the inhabitants, and to instruct them, and also to chastise them if they have done evil.  As many particulars on this subject have been related to me by their angels, I will recount them in their order.  The reason that spirits there speak with men is, that they think much about heaven and the life after death, and are comparatively little solicitous about the life of the world; for they know that they shall live after their decease, and in a happy state according to the state of their internal man that has been formed in the world.  Speaking with spirits and angels was common on our Earth also in ancient times, and for the same reason, namely, that they thought [much] of heaven and little of the world.  But in course of time that living communication with heaven was closed, in proportion as man, from being internal, became external, or, what is the same, as he began to think much about the world and little about heaven, and especially when he ceased to believe in the existence of heaven and hell, or in the existence in himself of a spirit-man that lives after death.  For at this day it is believed that the body lives from itself and not from its spirit; wherefore unless man now cherished the belief that he is to rise again with his body, he would have no belief in the resurrection.

72.  With reference specially to the presence of spirits with the inhabitants of the earth Jupiter, there are spirits who chastise, spirits who instruct, and spirits who govern them.  The spirits who chastise apply themselves to the left side, and incline themselves towards the back; and when there, they draw out of the man’s memory all the things that he has done or thought:  this is easy for spirits to do, for when they come to a man they enter into all his memory[j].  If they find he has done evil, or has thought evil, they reprove him, and also chastise him with pain in the joints of his feet or hands, or with pain about the region of the belly; this, too, spirits can do skilfully when it is permitted.  When such spirits come to a man, they inspire him with a horror accompanied by fear, by which the man is made aware of their coming.  Fear may be excited in any person by evil spirits on their approach, especially by those who, during their life in the world, had been robbers.  In order that I might know how these spirits act when they come to a man of their own earth, it was permitted that such a spirit should approach me.  When he was near, horror accompanied by fear manifestly seized hold of me; yet it was not inwardly that I shuddered, but outwardly, because I knew it was a spirit of such a character.  He also came in sight, and he appeared as a dark cloud, in which were wandering stars; wandering stars signify falsities, but fixed stars signify truths.  He applied himself to my left side towards the back; and he also began to reprove me for deeds and thoughts which he drew out of my memory, and on which he put