When such in the other life enter into the state
of their interiors, and are heard speaking and seen acting, they
appear foolish; for from their evil lusts they burst forth into all
sorts of abominations, into contempt of others, ridicule and
blasphemy, hatred and revenge; they plot intrigues, some with a
cunning and malice that can scarcely be believed to be possible in
any man. For they are then in a state of freedom to act in harmony
with the thoughts of their will, since they are separated from the
outward conditions that restrained and checked them in the world. In
a word, they are deprived of their rationality, because their reason
while they were in the world did not have its seat in their
interiors, but in their exteriors; and yet they seemed to themselves
to be wiser than others. [3] This being their character, while in the
second state they are let down by short intervals into the state of
their exteriors, and into a recollection of their actions when they
were in the state of their interiors; and some of them then feel
ashamed, and confess that they have been insane; some do not feel
ashamed; and some are angry because they are not permitted to remain
permanently in the state of their exteriors.
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