[2] In the next life spirits like these speak as they did in the world, that is to say, with authority and great influence, and seemingly from an awareness of what is just, as a consequence of which many think that people should trust what they say more than what others say. But they are very wicked spirits. When they come into contact with a person they introduce intense pain through a feeling of fatigue which they instill and increase all the time to a point when it is totally unbearable, a fatigue which renders the mind and consequently the body so weak that the person can hardly get out of bed. This has been demonstrated to me by the experience that when those spirits were present weakness like that overcame me; yet the weakness left me to the extent they were moved away from me.

[3] They employ many a device to infuse that feeling of fatigue and consequent weakness; in particular they introduce the general sphere that is a product of insults and slanders they hurl at one another and at family and friends. When they engage within their own chambers in reasoning about Divine worship, faith, and eternal life, they sweep these completely aside, doing so, it seems, with a wisdom that is greater than anyone else's. In the next life they are quite prepared to be called devils provided that they are allowed to reign over hells, and by reigning over these, so they believe, to act in opposition to the Divine. Inwardly they are foul, for they surpass all others in self-love, consequently in hatred and revenge, and in cruelty to all who do not pay them any respect.