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.