84 HEAVEN and HELL §151
obsessed with falsifi cations for the sake of evil are along the south-north
axis. There will be more about them later, though, where we discuss the
hells.152 When an evil spirit comes into the company of good ones, it usually
results in such a confusion of directions that the good spirits hardly know
where their east is. This is an event I have often noticed, and I have heard
about it from spirits who complained about it.153 Evil spirits sometimes seem to be oriented to heaven’s directions, at
which time they have intelligence and a grasp of what is true, but no
affection for what is good; so as soon as they turn back toward their own
directions, they are without intelligence or any grasp of what is true.
They then say that the true things they had heard and understood are
not true but false, and even want false things to be true. I have been told
about this kind of turning, specifi cally that for evil people the intellectual
faculty can be turned in this way, but not the voluntary faculty. I have
also been told that this is provided by the Lord to the end that everyone
may have the ability to see and acknowledge what is true, but that no
one will accept it except people who are focused on what is good, since
the good—never the evil—is what accepts truths. Further, it is similar
with us, so that we can be corrected by means of truths, though the
extent to which we are corrected depends on our focus on what is good.
This is why we can be turned toward the Lord in much the same way.
However, if we are engaged in evil in the conduct of our lives, we imme-
diately turn back again and justify within ourselves the false rationaliza-
tions of our evil over against the truths that we have understood and
seen. This happens when we think within ourselves, on the basis of our
deeper inclinations.How the States of Angels in Heaven Change
154
B
Y “the changes of angels’ states,” we mean their changes in regard to
love and faith and therefore in regard to wisdom and intelligence—
to the state of their life, that is. States are attributes of life and of matters