1385. There are spirits belonging to the region of the skin (particularly the squamous layer) who want to argue everything. ¹ They do not perceive what is good or true, and in fact the more they argue, the less they perceive it. They identify wisdom with sophistry, which they count on to make them seem wise. ² I told them that the role of angelic wisdom is to perceive whether a thing is good or true without sophistic reasoning, but they cannot grasp the possibility that this kind of perception exists. They are the same people that used the academic and philosophical disciplines during bodily life to cast confusion over truth and goodness and as a result seemed to themselves to be more knowledgeable than others. (They had not started with any valid assumptions taken from the Word.) Consequently, they do not have much common sense.

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947. Genesis 9

The Hells (Continued): A Different Set Than Those Already Mentioned ¹

THERE are some dishonest people who think they can get anything they want by trickery and schemes, and whose success at this kind of fraud during bodily life has confirmed them in their belief. They see themselves as living in a kind of vat called Hell's Cask, off to the left. ² The vat has a lid, and outside it on a pyramid-shaped stand is a globe that they believe to be the universe, which they watch and control, or so it seems to them.

The ones who preyed on the innocent stay there for centuries. I was told that some have remained there for twenty centuries now.

When they are released, their hallucinations cause them to imagine that the universe is a globe, which they walk around and trample underfoot, believing themselves gods of the universe.

I have seen them several times and talked with them about their fantasy, but since they thought the same way in the world, they cannot be weaned from it.

I have also perceived on occasion how subtly, how craftily they can twist another's thinking, instantly redirect that person's thoughts, and substitute other ideas. They are so sly about it that it was hard to tell they were the ones doing it — and the way they do it is quite incredible. As this is their nature, they are barred from all contact with people on earth, for they inject quantities of venom so secretly and stealthily that no one can tell they have done it.

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