579. I have been permitted to learn by experience what kind of malice those possess who are called genii. Genii do not act upon and flow into the thoughts, but into the affections. They perceive and smell out the affections as dogs do wild beasts in the forest. Where they perceive good affections, they instantly turn them into evil ones, leading and bending them in a wonderful manner by means of the other's delights; and this so secretly and with such malignant skill that the other knows nothing of it, for they most carefully guard against anything entering into the thought, as thereby they would be manifested. The seat of these with man is beneath the back part of the head. In the world these were the men who deceitfully captivated the minds of others, leading and persuading them by the delights of their affections or lusts. But these genii are held by the Lord at a distance from every man of whose reformation there is any hope; for they have the ability not only to destroy the conscience, but also to stir up in man his inherited evils, which otherwise lie hidden. Therefore, to prevent man's being led into these evils, these hells, by the Lord's provision, are entirely closed up; and when any man of such a genius comes after death into the other life, he is at once cast into their hell. When the deceit and craftiness of these genii are clearly seen they appear as vipers.