5989. Very deceitful spirits who dwell overhead once chose for themselves certain subordinates and sent them to me so that they could enter me with their deceits; but they had made a big mistake. One, having been made their subordinate, bent back and pulled himself in, making himself like a roll, so as to repel their entry into him; and by doing this he extricated himself from their control. Then they chose another, but they could not force him to speak either. He was more deceitful than they, a fact he demonstrated when he appeared to roll himself up into a spiral shape. In this way he deceived them. Furthermore evil spirits do not always send out subordinates from their own number; instead they take note of exactly who the spirits are whom they see among others, and also where the simple and compliant ones are located, whom they then make their subordinates. They do this by channeling their own thoughts into the one they choose and by instilling their own affections and false convictions, as a result of which he is no longer in control of himself but serves them as their subordinate, sometimes without his being aware of it.