They examined souls, but in such a way that I could not find out what they had thought and what they had done in life. But I was told by angels, through spirits, that the souls of [departed] people can be explored as to what they had thought and done in life, equally as people on earth can, by a process I have spoken of here and there. The method is almost the same, but the reason it is not allowable thus [to examine people on earth] is that they are then among spirits who like both to judge and to punish, without regard to circumstances, and thus indiscriminately; so it is not permitted. 1748, 7 March.