3571. Certain persons, who believed that they live from themselves, were let into the state of persuasion in which those are, who believe that they do not live from themselves, but that life flows into them from other spirits, thus, from the community [communi]. When they had come into this state, they said they could not thus live; and I perceived they were tormented with a certain anxiety. From which fact it may be concluded, that if a man, who believes that he lives from himself, and that his life does not flow into him, were to come into such a state, as to be persuaded that he does not live from himself, but from the Lord's life; and that the Lord's life flows into him through angels, and, at the same time, believed that he is governed by spirits, he could scarcely live, although he was scientifically or experimentally persuaded that it is so, as was the case with certain spirits; -in a word, his life would, in the highest degree, be anxious; wherefore, it is permitted that a man should think that his life is his own [inherent in himself] although it is a mere fallacy of the senses. - 1748, October 14.