5836. 'It will be, when he sees that the boy is not there, that he will die' means that spiritual good will perish, that is, if the truth which is 'Benjamin' were to depart. This is clear from the representation of 'Israel' as spiritual good, dealt with previously, and from the meaning of 'dying' as ceasing to be what it once was, 494, and so perishing. As regards the perishing of good if its truth were to depart, see above in 5830, 5832, 5837.

5853. The spirits who come to a person enter into his whole memory and all the knowledge he has in his memory. By doing this they take on his whole personality, so completely that they are unaware it is not their own. This is the great advantage spirits have over man. As a result, everything a person thinks they think, and everything he wills they will; and conversely, everything the spirits think the person thinks, and everything they will he wills. For by being linked together the two act as one. Yet the spirits on one hand and men on the other suppose that whatever they think or will is something inside themselves and has its origin there. That is what spirits suppose, and it is what men suppose; but they are mistaken.