He has already been described, I think [487, 501-8, 526, 538, 634], as being able to convert himself into various forms, that is, to appear as a good angel, weeping as if he repented, which then seems to be the case. He can even speak with other spirits, as he also did with me, showing no difference while at the same moment scheming together with other spirits. However, one hears this from the indifference in his speaking, which had an absent quality, as well as other similar characteristics.

2017 1/2. But the reason he is not driven off-which could be done in an instant, and very often has been-is that those who worship him in the world remain as they were after their bodily life or after the death of the body, not knowing differently than that they are living in the body, so they are astounded if anyone tells them otherwise. They now keep in their hearts the veneration for him as their idol, and are therefore permitted at first to approach him. For the condition of newly arrived souls is one of passions and falsities, and these are not removed in a moment-if they were, they would be broken-but it happens successively. So this condition is tolerated, and permitted, and gradually they are at last led out of it, to other places. It is no different in the case of the gentiles, who likewise go to their own idols, but they are called away from them, insofar as their states of life in the world make it possible, as soon as that bodily condition wears off. 1748, 20 May.