�������� ��� ��V�������� �� ��� ��� ������
• Spirits now begin acting from their inner loves , free from fear of reproof and punishment . External bonds relating to such things as the fear of the loss of honor , reputation and gain are removed .
• With evil spirits , their inner evils begin to burst out into the open . They have no shame .
• But they are not content just to indulge themselves in evil . As indicated in the final passage of Divine Providence and elsewhere , the evil cannot leave others alone , especially the good . They use every clever means and strategy to appeal to the baser instincts in others in an effort to seduce them into the same or worse evils . Flattery is said to be one of the most common means employed to turn people away from the Lord and to themselves .
• All pretenses of civility and morality are gone . The only valid standard for the evil is the one that each fashions to suit his or her evil lusts and whims . And at least in the world of spirits , for the sake of the full exposure of the real character of the evil person ’ s interiors , the Lord permits this .
• With good spirits , they are now able to enter fully and freely into a life according to their conscience . They no longer act from constraints imposed on them by others .
• Their state is compared to that of a person waking out of sleep for the first time .
• With most good spirits the entrance into the full potential of their interiors is gradual . In the extreme , with the most stubborn , perhaps over the course of 30 earth years . This is due to the fact that many people suffer under various confirmed false ideas and have formed bad habits of ife of which they will need to be vastated before they can enter heaven .
• These false ideas and bad habits leave them vulnerable to the evil , who thence manipulate them and lead them astray . This brings them into states of torment and eventual despair , that is , until they see the insanity of their false ideas and the folly of their bad habits and reject them forever .
Final or third state with the good :
• After suitable vastations the good come into intensely humble states , states in which they are hungry for instruction in what is genuinely good and true . However , the truth they most long for is that truth which will enable them to enter as soon as possible into a life of use in heaven . ( The evil , on the other hand , having served the good as bad examples ,
203