Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 27

What then? First, the irrational, idol-like movements of the soul concerning its opinions shift from one image to another: some it draws from matter, others it forms and conceives for itself. The soul suffers this most especially when it has taken on and been compounded with the material spirit, looking not toward the heavenly things and their Maker but downward toward the earthly things, universally toward the earth, as if it were only blood and flesh, no longer becoming pure spirit. These irrational, idol-like movements of the soul give birth to idolatrous fancies.

But when a tender and easily led soul—deaf to and unskilled in strong words, unobserved by the Truth, and failing to perceive the Father and Maker of all—is sealed with false opinions about itself, the demons who hover around matter (like lamps around the altars and the blood of sacrifices) and who deceive men, take up these false-opinion-driven movements of the soul; they produce fancies for them as if coming from idols and statues, and by stepping upon their thoughts they provide an entrance. And whatever the soul, as immortal, moves rationally within itself—whether foretelling the future or serving present needs—the demons reap the glory of these things.