… "Here, friend, as I was coming down from Mount Vulture Peak, I saw a probationary nun … a novice monk … a novice nun moving through the air. Her outer robe, bowl, waistband, and body were burning, blazing, and flaming while she uttered cries of pain. It occurred to me: ‘It is wonderful, indeed! It is amazing, indeed! That there could be such a being, that there could be such a spirit, that there could be such a form of individual existence!’"

Then the Blessed One addressed the bhikkhus thus: "Bhikkhus, there are disciples who dwell having become vision, having become knowledge, in that a disciple can know, see, and witness such a sight. sn.ii.262 In the past, bhikkhus, I too saw that novice nun, but I did not speak about it. For if I had spoken about it, others would not have believed me, and if they had not believed me that would have led to their harm and suffering for a long time.

"That novice nun had been an evil novice nun in the Buddha Kassapa's Dispensation. Having been tormented in hell for many years, for many hundreds of years, for many thousands of years, for many hundreds of thousands of years as a result of that kamma, as a residual result of that same kamma she is experiencing such a form of individual existence."