5993. From all that has now been said it may be seen that to be in touch with the spiritual world a person must have two spirits from hell and two angels from heaven linked to him, and that without them he would not have any life at all. For the human being cannot by any means receive his life from general influx, like living creatures devoid of reason, which are dealt with in 5850, because his entire life is contrary to order. That being his state, if he were moved by general influx alone he would be moved inevitably by hell, not by heaven. And if not moved by heaven he would not have any interior life, nor thus any thought or will at all such as a human being possesses, not even any such as an animal possesses. For the human being is born without any use of reason and cannot be led into it except through influx from heaven.

[2] From what has been brought forward here it is also clear that a person cannot live without communication with the hells through spirits from there, for his entire life which he derives by heredity from his parents, and all that he adds of what is his own, consists of self-love and love of the world, not of love of the neighbour, still less of love of God. And because a person's entire life from what is properly his own consists of self-love and love of the world, it accordingly consists of contempt for others in comparison with self and of hatred felt for and revenge taken on all who do not show him favour. It therefore consists too of cruelty, for anyone harbouring hatred of others wishes to kill them, and is supremely delighted by the ruination of them. Unless spirits like this, who cannot come from anywhere but hell, were attached to those evils, and unless a person were led by those spirits in ways that accord with the delights of his life, he could not possibly be diverted towards heaven, for initially those actual delights of his are used to divert him. They are also used to place him in a state of freedom, thus finally to give him the power of choice.