from evils by means of the delights of his love and through fear of the loss or deprivation of those delights; but he cannot be led thereby into spiritual goods.  For as soon as such a man is led into these he begins to give his thought to pretenses and devices by simulating or counterfeiting what is good, honest, and just, for the purpose of persuading and thus deceiving.  Such cunning adjoins itself to the evil of his spirit and gives form to it, causing his evil to be of the same nature as itself.

578.  Those are the worst of all who have been in evils from love of self and at the same time inwardly in themselves have acted from deceit; for deceit penetrates more deeply into the thoughts and intentions than other evils, and infects them with poison and thus wholly destroys the spiritual life of man.  Most of these spirits are in the hells behind the back, and are called genii; and there they delight to make themselves invisible, and to flutter about others like phantoms secretly infusing evil into them, which they spread around like the poison of a viper.  These are more direfully tormented than others.  But those who are not deceitful, and who have not been so filled with malignant craftiness, and yet are in the evils derived from the love of self, are also in the hells behind, but in those less deep.  On the other hand, those that have been in evils from the love of the world are in the hells in front, and are called spirits.  These spirits are not such forms of evil, that is, of hatred and revenge, as those are who are in evils from the love of self; and therefore do not have such malice and cunning; and in consequence their hells are milder.

579.  I have been permitted to learn by experience what kind of malice those possess who are called genii.  Genii act upon and flow into the affections, and not the thoughts.  They perceive and smell out the affections as dogs do wild beasts in the forest.  Good affections, when they perceive them in another, they turn instantly into evil affections, leading and bending them in a wonderful manner by means of the other’s delights; and this so secretly and with such malignant skill that the other knows nothing of it, for they most carefully guard against anything entering into the thought, as thereby they would be manifested.  The seat of these in man is beneath the back part of the head.  In the world they were such as deceitfully captivated the minds of others, leading and persuading them by the delights of their affections or lusts.  But such spirits are not permitted by the Lord to come near to any man of whose reformation there is any hope; for they have the ability not only to destroy the conscience, but also to stir up in man his inherited evils, which otherwise lie hidden.  Therefore to prevent man’s being led into these evils, these hells, by the Lord’s provision, are entirely closed up; and when any man of such a character comes after death into the other life, he is at once cast into their hell.  When the deceit and craftiness of these spirits are clearly seen they appear as vipers.