5719. There are spirits who despise and ridicule what appears in the letter of the Word, and more so what is contained in the higher sense there, and also consequently the religious teachings that are drawn from the Word. When at the same time such spirits do not have any love towards their neighbour, only self-love, they correlate with corruptions of the blood which pass into all the veins and arteries and contaminate the whole of the blood. To prevent by their presence the introduction of anything like this into a person, those spirits are kept apart from others, in their own hell, where they communicate with none but others like themselves; for such spirits cast themselves into the whole sphere emanating from that hell.