The Literal Meaning of Genesis
while remain alert even in the bodily senses. In this case images of bodies are seen appearing in the spirit, and real bodies are perceived through the eyes. The result is that at the same time one man who is present will be seen with the eyes and another who is absent will be seen in the spirit as if with the eyes. I have known people affected thus, who conversed not only with those truly present but also with others who were absent, addressing them as if they were present. Returning to their normal state, some related what they saw but others were unable to do so. In the same way also some people forget their dreams while others remember theirs.
But when the attention of the mind is completely carried off and turned away from the senses of the body, then there is rather the state called ecstasy. Then any bodies that are present are not seen at all, though the eyes may be wide open; and no sounds at all are heard. The whole soul is intent upon images of bodies present to spiritual vision or upon incorporeal realities present to intellectual vision without benefit of bodily images.
26. But when the mind is completely drawn away from the senses of the body, and the spiritual vision is occupied with the images of bodily things (whether it be in sleep or in ecstasy), if the objects seen have no special meaning, they are the imaginings of the soul itself. In such a way, even people who possess normal mental health and are unmoved by any extraordinary state of mind contemplate in thought during their waking hours the images of many bodies that are not present to the bodily senses.
But these people differ from those in an abnormal state, in that they distinguish with a sure instinct these images from bodies that are really present. Now it may be that images have some special meaning, whether they come to people who are asleep, or to those who are awake and see with their eyes bodies present before them and behold in the spirit images of bodies absent as if present before the eyes, or to those whose minds are withdrawn from the senses of the body in the state called ecstasy.
But it is a remarkable thing if another spirit can so mingle with the spirit of a man as to manifest its knowledge through images presented to the mind with which it mingles, whether this mind