35. Man has two inherent powers of will and understanding. When the understanding is governed by the will they then constitute one mind and so one life; for what a person in that case wills and does he also thinks and intends. But when the understanding is at variance with the will, as it is with people who claim to have faith and yet live otherwise, then a mind previously one is split in two. One half seeks to transport itself into heaven, while the other inclines towards hell. And because the will is what accomplishes everything, the whole man would rush straight into hell unless the Lord took pity on him.

6205. I have often noticed that evil spirits invest themselves in particular with a person's false notions and evil desires, and that when they do they control him in a despotic way. For one who gets inside a person's evil desires and false notions makes him subject to himself and turns him into his slave. But an influx coming through angels adjusts itself to the person's affections, which they guide gently, turning those affections towards what is good without breaking them. The actual influx of them is silent, barely perceptible, for it is an influx into the person's interiors, always operating through his freedom.