Which Devil Is Better?

This is a puzzled man, and old Mr Scratch has got its finger on the problem.

I am Mr Scratch.

And one of my earthly guises is currently the mind a well-educated middle-aged man who is stopping up his nose with balls of cotton wool, and in addition is sleeping with a linen night-cap, which he never used to do, and who prays with his head in a crock pot, and I wonder. Why does he so protect his head, and he says, “It is to prevent the intrusion of the pleasures.” And what might be these pleasures be. And he gravely says, “You know my seminal fluid are filled with vital seeds, which, after pleasurably injected them into a woman, I may impregnate her, which over time will form as a foetus of flesh and blood, to be born a child! But this fluid has other properties, for it is capable, by itself of scheming, and these test-tube scientists have devised a method of using my fluid for devious purposes, to the detriment of humanity. These scientists, who are in league with dictators and globalists, have extracted a portion of my semen each time I made love with myself, which they conserve in alcohol: the liquor having the power of invigorate for a considerable time the seminal fluid, to make god-like its vitality. And very soon they will come after me. They will cunningly introduce themselves to me, lull me to sleep by artificial means, and during my slumbers, infuse a portion of my seminal fluid into my nose. Then they will perform their devilish experiments on me.”

He continues. “My nose is the most convenient cave for breeding the vital particles of my semen into the means of ecstatic control. The effects, while these pleasures incubate, will be very disagreeable; they will cause my blood to build up in my head, and I’ll be giddy and my thoughts will scramble uncontrollably. I fear that in a short time, the pleasures will form atoms which will become the constitution and size of a pinhead; and then they will perforate my nasal passages, then they will get into my brain, and stimulate the hidden fantasies stored up from childhood. When the pleasures acquaint themselves with my fantasies, they will enlarge into tuberous growths; they then will take wing, and become visible beings inside my head, and, taking control of me, assisted by the attraction of opposites, they will make me do things I, a moral and principled person cannot possibly do, unless I were a god.”

This particular earthly vessel of mine is an active man who loves diving and snorkelling. And one day as he was diving for abalone off the coast of a small island called Tasmania he was stung by a bluebottle, causing intense pain, and he panicked, and he went into shock. He was put into the diving boat and it steamed toward shore. The moor was in a small fishing village and they managed to get him into hospital though still in a state of shock. His face was pallid, his skin was clammy, his breathing fast and shallow, and he was very confused and delirious.

Intravenous fluids were given to bolster his weak constitution, and intravenous drugs were used to steady his blood pressure and to stimulate a stronger heartbeat. He was still not responding and the medics treated him with oxygen by the application of nasal tubes, and a face mask. And he became comatose.

He was in a very dark place, and it didn’t look like he was going to recover. And I came to him and I breathed my sweet hot breath over his face, and I became his mind. My friend then began to sense that he was in a physical tomb. And I perceived that he sensed an eerie presence of something else, and the presence was somehow looking into him. I took hold of his being and I communicated thus:

“My friend, do not be afraid to seek wholesome pleasure even now that you are getting on in years, and be not weary in search of it. For no age is too early or too late for the health of your mind. And do not say you have no time for sensuality or that it is past and gone, because it is like saying that the season for happiness is not yet come or that you missed it. Therefore, stay young and seek your pleasures, and as old age comes over you, you may still be young in good things because of who you are, and while you are old, you may at the same time be young, because you should not fear the things which are yet to come. You must exercise yourself in the things which bring you pleasure, and when it is present, you have everything, and, when it is absent, you will seek to attain it”.

His body was yet to show a sign of life, but his working mind was gathering pace.

I continue. “These things which I have declared to you, you should do, and exercise yourself in them and hold them as vital to a right life. First believe that you are a living god, sensual and happy, a thing normal to the idea of perfection as indicated by the organic sense of humankind; and therefore, remove barriers which may thwart your happiness. For truly there are no gods which can be put before you, and knowledge of any others is unnecessary; for they are not as the multitude believe, seeing that they cannot maintain their respecting of them. The greatest evils happen to the wicked and the greatest blessings happen to the good, which is their fate. And seeing that you are always favourable to good qualities and take pleasure in people like yourself, you should easily reject as alien whatever is not of your kind.”

“Death will be nothing to you, for your sensuality implies its awareness; therefore, a right understanding that death is nothing to you makes your life even more pleasurable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after it. For pleasure should have no terror. Death, therefore, is the most awful of evils to all who are numb, but not you, since ungrateful deadness won’t come for you, even when, like you are now, non compos mentis. You will be wise to appreciate your life when it returns to you. The thought of life should not offend you and you would be wise to enjoy pleasurable times due to you as a god. You must remember that the future is wholly yours, that it is certain to continue and for a very long time”.

There was no sign of movement but his mind is racing much faster.

I say. “You must know that your desires are natural, and none should be spare of your attention; and that all are necessary for you. And your necessary desires are necessary because you are a god, ridding yourself of uneasiness, so that you will have a virile body and a sensual mind, for this is the sum and end of your future happy life. Your end is to be free from pain and fear, and, when you have attained this, the tempest of your failings is laid bare; and that you need not search out companions, for another experience is waiting which is much better.”

“When you are deeply pained for pleasure, then, and then only, will you feel the need of pleasure. For this reason, let us call pleasure the alpha and omega of a fulfilled life. Pleasure is your first and kindred spirit. It is the starting-point of every choice and of every aversion, and to it you will come back, for it is the rule by which to judge the prospects of a good thing. And since pleasure is your first and native good, for that reason you do not choose every pleasure, but wisely pass over the many pleasures that might annoy. And consider too that some pain is superior to pleasures when the pleasure of pain can bring even greater pleasure. Eating and drinking for example may not bring you as much pleasure as perhaps a good self-flagellation. Thus, not all pleasure is worthy of your esteemed choice, just as all pain is too much and yet not enough pain is not to be ignored.”

“It is, however, by measuring one pain against another, and by looking at the consequences will you test them out and be the judge of them. But I will leave it to you which you decide upon. I will merely show you what is possible. You may at times treat the good of pleasure as an evil, and the evil, on the contrary, as a good. By acquainting yourself with De Sade’s writings you might begin to appreciate the complexities pleasure brings to the moral mind. Plain desire should give as much pleasure as a gourmet feast, if the pain of want was removed, but then, orthodoxy of desire may not confer the greatest pleasure when it is brought to the pangs of hunger. For you to enjoy a simple desire you will have all that is required to satisfy it, and all that is not”.

I sense my vessel is becoming ready to return to the here and now.

“But let me be clear when I say, then, that your pleasure is the end and aim, I do not mean the pleasures of the mundane but the pleasures of sensuality, and willingly done without ignorance, prejudice, or under false pretences. By pleasure I mean the presence and absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the heart. It is not an unbroken succession of watching and socialising, not the enjoyment of fish and chips, and other delicacies of the takeaway, which produce a pleasant life; it is the sober reasoning of pleasure and pain, searching out the means of choice and abundance, and banishing those beliefs which disturb a rational mind.”

“Only you will hold the belief which concerns the god in you, for you are altogether free from the fear of judgement. You shall consider the end as fixed by your nature, and understand how easily there is no limit of the pleasurable things that can be reached and attained, and how either the duration or the intensity of doubt is ever slight. It is your destiny that pleasurable things are to happen out of necessity, by natural providence, and through your own efforts. You will see that it will question your sense of responsibility and that a change of fortune will be constant; your own actions are unconditionally free, and it is to freedom that you will attach both praise and woe. It will be better, indeed, to accept the nascent legend of you than to bow to this hospital table which the nature of shock imposes. Do not hold out the hope that you will escape your worshipping yourself as a god. Eventually you may not be able to fight off your fear of prying people, but consider your fear to be a pleasure of paranoia. Nor should you hold out for death, as the medical world would in the case of a refusal have you revived, for in the act of refusal there is every disorder; it is not good or evil which is given to make something of a life, but instead life itself brings the beginnings of circumstance and choice. I can tell by the activity in your brain you easily recognize your dilemma. The misfortune of the wise is better than the prosperity of the fool. At my instigation your better judgement will owe everything to the aid of natural providence”.

Then a luminous beam of light radiated through the darkness and it started to lift him upward. He found himself being transferred into it. I went with him as his mind. He entered an opening and found himself inside a long narrow tunnel. At the far end of the tunnel he saw the source of the light. Then he watched as a wave of the light broke away from the source and moved up the tunnel towards him. This light passed through and he felt a wave of power and energy overwhelm him.

Coming out of the end of this tunnel, he stood in the presence of this awesome light and power. He wondered if this was just an energy source in the universe or if there was someone standing in the midst of this light. A kind voice in a white coat responded to his thought and asked him, "My friend, do you wish to return?" and he responded, "I don't know where I am, but if I am out of my physical body, I wish to return."

And he awoke with a start on the hospital table. Soon he was discharged and he went home. And a week later strangely compelled, he went to the hospital where men make anonymous sperm donations. And when he donated, he enjoyed it although the experience troubled him. Still, he went back and donated, over and over again. The whole time wondering if his role was that of biological father to children, or as an unwitting puppet of something very sinister.