1731. For it was once again portrayed to me what their thought was like, apparent also from other things, namely, that they receive in simplicity what is being said, not particularly in an outer meaning, nor in an inner one, but still in a way that enables the angels to extract inward mental images from it. This is how the spirits were whose thought was shown to me at the time when I prayed the Lord's prayer. For the nature of any number of spirits and angels can be found out by the saying of the Lord's prayer, that is, what kind of mental images they have at that time. These have been portrayed to me now and then at such a time. The meaning these spirits perceived, therefore, was such that the angels were able to draw from it very rich mental imagery-quite gentle, and not closed up, as can be seen by a spiritual mental image, thus more or less halfway between the outward and the inward meaning of the words.