DP 134 [1, 4]
(2) No one is reformed by visions
or by communications with the
dead,
because they compel.
Visions are of two kinds: Divine and
diabolic.
Divine visions are produced by
representative appearances in
heaven,
while diabolic visions
are produced by magical arts in hell.
There are in addition hallucinatory visions,
which are the delusions of a
distraught mind.
Divine visions - those produced, as we said,
by representative
appearances in heaven -
are the kind the prophets had,
who, when having
them,
were not conscious in the body but in the spirit.
For visions
cannot appear to any person
in his body's conscious state.
Consequently
when the prophets saw visions,
they also said that they were then in the
spirit . . ..
On the other hand,
diabolic visions do sometimes occur,
induced by
fanatic and visionary spirits,
who, owing to the madness that grips
them,
call themselves the Holy Spirit.
But these spirits
have now been
gathered by the Lord
and cast down into a hell
set apart from the hells
of others.
It is apparent from this
that no one can be reformed by any visions
other than those in the Word.
DP 135
Still, communication with spirits is possible,
though rarely with angels
of heaven,
and it has been granted to many for centuries.
But when it
is granted,
the spirits speak with the person
in his native language,
and only a few words.
Those who speak with the Lord's permission,
however, never say anything
that takes away the freedom of a person's
reason,
nor do they instruct him.
For the Lord alone teaches a person,
but indirectly through the Word
when the person is in a state of
enlightenment . ...
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