1677. (The spirits in question wondered when I said that the things [seen and heard by me] were written, and could thus be published to the world, so that by the writing alone they could be made known to many thousands. They remarked that such an art was not permitted, supposing it might prove magical. But when I replied to them that such an art existed in our earth, familiar to every one, and therefore lawful; and moreover that there was a necessity for it, inasmuch as there is no one, to my knowledge, on this earth with whom spirits converse, as they do in other earths, and therefore men could not be reformed through this medium; [and when I further remarked] that though the inhabitants of our earth know from revelation that there is a heaven, that there are spirits and angels, and that there is a life after death, yet that very few believe these truths, because they have not the privilege of conversing with those in the other life, - then they were satisfied and o* persuaded that for those in this earth such communication was necessary, but not for them in their earths, as they are instructed in various ways by angels. These things from the o* above are their words, written down from their own mouth or thought.) * This symbol is a circle with a dot in the center of it.