1883. In the case of the first of these - described by 'being withdrawn from the body' - the person is brought into a certain state which comes halfway between sleep and wakefulness. While in this state he is not aware of being anything else than completely awake. All his senses are awake as much as they would be when the body is fully awake - both sight and hearing, and, it being a marvel, touch as well, which sense exists in a more excellent manner than it can ever do during wakefulness of the body. In this state also spirits and angels have been seen in complete reality; they have also been heard, and, wonderful to tell, have been touched, though at such times the body played scarcely any part at all. This is the state that is meant when it is said that people are 'withdrawn from the body', and that they do not know 'whether they are in the body or out of it'. Into this state I have been admitted on only three or four occasions, solely in order that I might know what that state is like and that spirits and angels are endowed with every sense, including touch, which surpasses, and is more excellent than, the sense of touch belonging to the body.