6214. How difficult it is for man to believe that spirits know his thoughts, was made evident to me by the following circumstance. Before I spoke with spirits it happened that a certain spirit said a few words to me about that of which I was thinking. It amazed me that a spirit should know this; because I supposed that such things were hidden, and known only to God. Afterward, when I began to speak with spirits, I was indignant that I could not think anything that they did not know, and because this would be troublesome to me. But after I had been accustomed to it for a few days it became familiar to me. At last I found that spirits not only perceive all things of man's thought and will, but also many more things than the man himself perceives; and that the angels perceive still more, namely the intentions and ends, from the first through the middle to the last; and that the Lord knows not only the quality of the whole man, but also what his quality will be to eternity. From this it is evident that nothing whatever is hidden; but that what a man inwardly thinks and plots is in the other life made manifest as in clear day.