4686. About the hells around a person
I was shown how evil spirits and demons are around a person depending on the person's life. An encircling form appeared then. It consisted of an inflow of heaven and its operation in the spirits and demons around a person. This form was active, like a vortex, and as it were swirled around. It was a form consisting of an inflow of such spirits or of communities from hell (a person's life attracts such spirits as are of the same nature as his life). It is the general or universally ruling life with its variations. A person who has not yet actually become evil appears above the ground there (this was seen towards the front) but almost veiled from view as by a quite thick, opaque membrane. He appears veiled in this manner above; below he appears like a dim, inanimate something. This, however, is the appearance to angels, not to the spirits who are there. They see nothing such as that.
But when a person acquires an evil life for himself, he then sinks more and more below the surface of the earth there - now to the feet, next to the limbs, then to the chest, and lastly to the head. At that point he is in hell and cannot be raised out of it because then he is full-grown and elderly and can no longer receive new truths. Nor can those who are with him be turned, because they have hardened. He then appears there and at the end still further below. And I realized that [in similar fashion] when a person is not far from his life's end, his head nods, and at the end his body slumps, and so on.
4686. CONCERNING THE HELLS AROUND MAN.
I saw how evil spirits and genii are around man according to his life. Thus, there appeared an encircling form, which existed from the influx of heaven; and, from this, there was an operation into the spirits and genii around man. That form was active, like a vortex, as if it revolved; and it existed from the influx of such spirits, or societies, from hell. As is the quality of a man's life, such is the quality of the spirits his life attracts. Life is general, or universally reigning, with its varieties. The man who has not yet become actually evil, appears above the earth there (this was seen towards the front), but as it were veiled, as if by an exceedingly dense, opaque membrane. He appears veiled in this manner, when he is above; below, he appears like some obscure, inanimate thing. This appears to the angels, but not to the spirits who are there, who see no such thing. When, however, man acquires to himself a life of evil, then is he more and more plunged down there below the plane of the earth, and, presently, up to the feet; afterwards, up to the loins; next, up to the breast; and: lastly, up to the head; and, then, he is in hell, and he cannot be elevated thence, because he is then in adult and old age, and no longer receives new truths, nor can those which are with him be bended, because they have grown hard. He then appears there, and at last much lower; and it was perceived, that, when man is not far from the end of his life, he droops as to the head, and, at length, becomes bent as to the body, and so forth.
4686. De infernis circum hominem
Visum mihi quomodo mali spiritus et genii circum hominem sunt, secundum vitam ejus, apparuit sic forma circumiens quae constabat ex influxu coeli, et inde operatione in spiritus et genios circum hominem, erat forma illa activa sicut vortex et quasi circumlata, constans ab influxu talium spirituum seu societatum ab inferno, qualis vita ejus est, vita ejus attrahit tales, est vita communis seu universaliter regnans cum suis varietatibus; homo qui nondum malus actualiter factus, apparet supra terram ibi, (visum hoc fuit antrorsum) sed obvelatus quasi sicut membrana admodum densa opaca, sic obvelatus supra, infra apparet ille sicut quoddam obscurum non animatum, hoc apparet angelis, non autem spiritibus qui ibi, qui nihil tale vident; cum autem vitam mali sibi acquirit, tunc magis et magis infra planum terrae ibi demergitur, et tunc ad pedes, postea ad lumbos, dein ad pectus, et demum ad caput, et tunc in inferno est, et non potest inde elevari, quia tunc aetate adulta ac senili est, nec amplius recipit nova vera, nec illa quae apud eum flecti possunt, quia induruerunt; ibi tunc apparet, et tandem magis inferius; et perceptum cum homo non procul a fine vitae suae est, quod nutet quoad caput, et tandem procumbat quoad corpus, et sic porro.