5998. How in the case of the good, evils and falsities are removed and goods and truths instilled, and the converse

It was quite often observed that spirits are led along various routes and into various places before they come to their corresponding place, and through actual experience I was subsequently instructed that the evil are led to good societies with which they had communication in the world by truths of the Word they possessed and that they cannot exist there and they leave with aversion. As a result their connection with them is broken, and after this they are brought to evil societies with which they are delighted and unite themselves. In consequence, true and good things are taken away and evil and false things are seized on until at length they come into their dominant love. Conversely good [spirits] are brought to societies that are not good, in the case of which, since they do not fit, they withdraw and so are separated from them. Then they are brought to various good societies and are joined to them. When they go away from these they are in association with them until they come into their own dominant affection. This was shown to me in the case of a certain woman who was in a house where there were good women of various kinds with whom she did not remain but in spite of this acquired a way of communicating with them.