Spiritual Experiences (Buss) n. 3835

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3835. Evil spirits do not tolerate those [above spoken of] because they cannot apply anything to themselves. They understand their interiors, for which reason the evil spirits complained of them, especially when they said that they [the evil spirits] were good, because they understand that they may perform a use even to the good, [whether] by averting evil, by chastising the insolent, or by tempting. Neither do they tolerate that they should be said to be evil, and on this account they are exceedingly hostile to them. They applied themselves to my left ear and said that they were good spirits, and that it was their custom to speak in this manner. It was said concerning them that they [usually] come congregated in this manner together, though they know not whence; and I perceive that evil spirits are infested by them, and the evils spirits on the other hand infest them also in a variety of ways, because they cannot bear anything of this kind. The sphere of evil spirits I perceived to be extremely repugnant to them, and because they thus act against the evil, they cannot but have them as it were for companions, for the evil are subjects which they vex in this way, but there is still perpetual enmity; wherefore the evil serve them for objects of vexation. Their society, which is a wandering one, was represented by a man or a woman in a chamber in front [clad] in a vestment, which, being changed into a gown of a sky-blue color, [the representation] became a gross kind of man.* * Compare AC 5189, where the same class of spirits is described.


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