332. [324.] Wonders. Spirits and angels do not know but that they speak the same language that they did in the world, that they write just as they did in the world, and that they think just as they did in the world. But in fact they speak a spiritual language, which contains not a single expression like any in the world. Moreover, although they write by forming letters and characters, their writing so differs from writing in the world that it possesses no similarity at all except in its letters and in some of its punctuation marks. Indeed, they think in a manner altogether different from that in the world, so different that not any of their thinking is equivalent. But still they do not know but that all of these are the same. I have quite often experienced the reality of this by the following experiment. When spirits and angels are with me, they are in my natural state, and I have told them to speak words or a phrase in their spiritual state, and to remember the words when with me in a natural state; and not a single word then was the same, nor did they understand any of their words. They also wrote a phrase in their spiritual state, and when their writing was shown them in a natural state, nothing was the same, other than the letters and punctuation. Similarly, after they entertained some thought in a spiritual state, they could not present any idea of the thought in a natural state. So for example, they say scapuleja and wita vella. Scapuleja in spiritual language means to cast out, and wita vella means to be at a distance. When they remember these words in a natural state, they themselves do not understand them, nor do they understand any word said in a natural state when they enter into their spiritual state. When they write scapuleja, they write [blank space], and when they write wita vella, they write [blank space], and they think they have written them in complete form. They write phrases using alphabetic letters, each one of which has some meaning. They also write in such a way, using a number of symbols, that the wiser an angel is, the more he understands of its wisdom. Thus has the Word been written.