§574 hellfire & gnashing 349
that come from rage, people are driven to attack others viciously. When
this impulse is inherent in everyone in a community where there are no
external restraints, no fears of the law or of loss of reputation or position
or profi t or life, everyone attacks everyone else out of sheer malice. The
strong conquer and subject the rest to their tyranny, cheerfully torturing
any who do not surrender. This latter delight is integral to the delight
in tyranny to the point that they are of equal intensity. This is because
sadism is inherent in hostility, envy, hatred, and vengefulness, which as
already noted are the evils of a love of cruelty.
All the hells are communities like this, so everyone there cherishes
hatred toward others in her or his heart and bursts out in savagery when-
ever there is the strength to do so.
These acts of savagery and torture are what are meant by hellfi re,
because they are the results of their obsessions.
I explained above (§ 548 ) that evil spirits voluntarily throw themselves 574
into hell, so I need to state briefl y why this happens when there is such
torment in hell.
From each hell there breathes forth an aura of the cravings that obsess
its inhabitants. When this aura is sensed by people who are obsessed
with a similar craving, it touches their hearts and fi lls them with delight
because the craving and the delight are inseparable—whatever we crave is
delightful to us. This is why spirits turn in that direction and are impelled
there by their hearts’ delight. They do not yet realize what kind of tor-
ment there is in hell, and the ones who do know still feel the craving. In
the spiritual world we are all incapable of resisting our impulses because
the impulses come from our love and the love comes from our intent and
the intent comes from our nature, and we all act from our nature there.
[ 2 ] So when spirits voluntarily or freely arrive at their hell and go in,
they are accepted cordially at fi rst and think they have arrived among
friends. This lasts only a few hours, though. All the while they are being
probed to fi nd out how crafty they are, and therefore how powerful.
Once this probing is complete the attacks begin in various ways, getting
more and more severe and intense. The intensifi cation is effected by their
being taken farther and deeper into hell, since the farther and deeper
you go there, the more malevolent are the spirits. After these attacks, the
malevolent spirits begin to torment the newcomers with punishments
until fi nally they are reduced to slavery.
[ 3 ] However, since rebellious movements are always arising (everyone
there wants to be greatest and burns with hatred against everyone else,
which keeps generating new attacks), the scene is constantly changing.