268. (iii) Confirmed evils and falsities with man are permanent, and come to be of his love, and consequently of his life. Confirmations of evil and falsity are nothing else than removals of good and truth, and if they increase, they are rejections, for evil removes and rejects good as falsity does truth. Hence indeed it is that confirmations of evil and falsity are closures of heaven, for every good and truth flows in from the Lord through heaven, and when heaven is closed, then man is in hell, and in a society there in which a like evil and falsity reigns, from which hell he cannot afterwards be released. It has been granted me to speak with some who, ages ago, had confirmed themselves in the falsities of their religion, and I saw that they remain in the same falsities, in the same way as they were in them in the world. The reason is that all things in which a man confirms himself come to be of his love and life. They come to be of his love because they come to be of his will and understanding, and the will and understanding form the life of everyone, and when they come to be of man's life they come to be not only of his whole mind but also of his whole body. And so it is clear that a man who has confirmed himself in evils and falsities, is such from head to foot, and when he is wholly such, by no turning or twisting back can he be led back to an opposite state and thus be withdrawn from hell. From these considerations and from what precedes in this section, it can be seen whence the origin of evil comes.