Page:Swedenborg's Doctrine of Correspondence.djvu/71

Rh susceptible mediums. Such communication is fraught with danger to the soul, because "when spirits thus speak with man they are in the same principles as the man with whom they speak, whether they are true or false; and further, they call them into activity, and by means of their own affection conjoined to that of the man strongly confirm them." Hence it is evident that the spirits who speak with man, or operate manifestly upon him, are similar to himself; in similar affection, and thus in similar thought; and as when "the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch," they can only confirm each other in their common principles.

Mesmerism belongs to the same class of phenomena, only in this case the control is limited to the will and knowledge of the mesmerizer, who can only impress his own thoughts and determinations on the subject, but can not enter into his memory unless he be at the same time a mind-reader.

Mind-reading and thought transference is often the result of undeveloped mediumship, and is accomplished by means of spirits who take from one and give to the other. It is possible, however, for one mind in full possession of itself and utterly free from trance