Study of Beelzebub's Tales

Summary

Beelzebub continued his tale telling Hassein that he visited Earth for the fifth time after the third catastrophe which was the cause of the destruction of their ‘centers of culture.’ This third catastrophe occurred as a result of ‘great winds,’ which lasted for several years and had as a result what was later called the ‘great migration of races.’

According to Beelzebub, as he observed the three-brained beings of the planet Earth, with the help of his teskooano on the planet Mars, trying to find out the exact cause of the chief particularity of their psyche, namely, their ‘periodic need to destroy the existence of beings like themselves,’ it flashed upon him that the length of their existence was, century by century, and even year by year, becoming shorter, at a very definite and uniform rate. So, he decided to go in person to the planet Earth, in order to clear up for himself on the spot the causes of this phenomenon. This time their ship Occasion alighted on what is now called the ‘Persian Gulf,’ which was convenient for his further travels because the large river on whose banks stood the city of Babylon flowed into it. Babylon was a ‘center of culture’ not only for the beings dwelling on the continent of Ashhark but also for the beings of all the other land masses. He tells Hassein as fully as possible what occurred during that period in Babylon, as all this information may serve him as a valuable material for helping to elucidate and transmute in his Reason all the causes that taken together have finally given rise to that psyche, so strange for three-centered beings, which his contemporary favorites now have. When they reached the city of Babylon, it was literally overflowing with ‘learned’ beings, who were gathered there from almost everywhere on the planet and they were all occupied with a question that would cause many of them to loose their Reason over it. Beelzebub recounts all the Babylonian events which had as a result for both the ‘sorry scientists’ and the ordinary beings of the city to be exceedingly anxious to know more about a ‘burning question;’ they wished to know whether or not they had a ‘soul.’

All sorts of fantastic theories about this question existed, and in spite of the number and variety of these theories, they were all based upon two quite opposite assumptions. One of these was called the ‘atheistic’ and the other the ‘idealistic,’ or ‘dualistic.’ In short, there was then taking place what is called the ‘building of the tower of Babel. He says that when he arrived in Babylon he began mingling with various beings and making corresponding observations in order to clear up the question that had interested him, that is, the shortening of their existence. Among the learned beings whom he often met for the sake of his aim was a certain Hamolinadir.

Hamolinadir was descended from the race of beings called ‘Assyrian,’ and his arising and preparation for becoming a responsible being had taken place in that very city of Babylon, his knowledge had been acquired in Egypt, in the highest school of all those existing on the Earth at that time, called the ‘School for Materializing Thought.’

Seven months after their arrival in the city of Babylon, Beelzebub went one day with his friend Hamolinadir to what is called a general scientific ‘conference.’ Hamolinadir had chosen to speak about the ‘instability of human Reason’ and after drawing a lot, it fell to him to speak fifth. After that speech which made such a deep impression upon the beings there, he left the city of Babylon for ever, and went to ‘Nineveh’ and existed somewhere there to a ripe old age. He never again occupied himself with ‘sciences’ and spent the rest of his existence in growing ‘choongary,’ which in contemporary language is called ‘maize.’ Certain of Hamolinadir’s expressions became ‘household sayings’ and some of them have even reached contemporary beings of the planet Earth-although misinterpreted. Among these is the ‘building of the Tower of Babel.’

As he explains to Hassein, the two teachings concerning the ‘question of the beyond,’ that had a large number of adherents were dispersed by the learned beings in their own countries. These two teachings passing from generation to generation began to confuse their ‘sane being-mentation.’ These notions finally and utterly destroyed the last remnants and even the traces of the results of the holly labors of the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash. In the name of justice he adds that the prime initiative for the destruction of the holy labors of Ashiata Shiemash did not spring from those learned terrestrial beings then assembled in the city of Babylon, but rather from the invention of a well-known ‘learned’ being that had existed in the continent of Asia several centuries before these Babylonian events. His name was Lentrohamsanin, and this being became one of those 313 Eternal Hasnamuss Individuals who now exist on the small planet bearing the name of ‘Retribution.’ He promises Hassein to tell him more about this man only after he has told him all about the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash and his activities in relation to this planet.

24.315

Beelzebub continued to relate as follows:

24.315

“After my fourth sojourn on the surface of the planet Earth many years again passed.

24.315

“During these years I of course, as before, sometimes attentively observed through my Teskooano the being-existence of these favorites of yours.

24.315

“During this time their number considerably increased and they had already populated almost all the large and small terra firma parts of the surface of this planet of yours; and of course there also continued to proceed among them their chief particularity, namely, from time to time they destroyed each other’s existence.

24.315

“During this time, that is to say, between my fourth and fifth visits, great changes occurred to the surface of your planet; many changes also occurred there in the concentrations of the places of settlement of these favorites of yours. For example, all those centers-of-culture of theirs on the continent Ashhark where I had been in person during my previous descents upon the Earth, namely, the countries of Tikliamish and Maralpleicie, had by the time of my fifth arrival there entirely ceased to exist.

24.315

“The cause of the destruction of these centers-of-culture of theirs and of the changes on the surface of this planet in general, was again a misfortune, the third for this ill-fated planet.

24.315-6

“This third misfortune was entirely of a local character and occurred because during several years there had proceeded in its atmosphere unprecedented what are called ‘accelerated-displacements-of-the-parts-of-the-atmosphere’; or, as your favorites there would say, ‘great winds.’

24.316

“The cause of these abnormal displacements or great winds at that time was once again those two fragments which had been separated from this planet of yours during the first great calamity, and which afterwards became independent small planets of this solar system, and are now called Moon and Anulios.

24.316

“Strictly speaking, the main cause of this terrestrial misfortune was only the larger of these separated parts, namely, the Moon; the smaller fragment, Anulios, played no part in it whatsoever.

24.316

“The accelerated-displacements in the Earth’s atmosphere resulted from the following:

24.316

“When the atmosphere on the small, accidentally arisen planet Moon had been finally formed, and the Moon, according to the already mentioned law of ‘Catching-up,’ continued to fall back upon its fundamental mass by the path already then established, and this newly arisen definite presence on the Moon had not yet acquired its own harmony within the common-system-harmony-of-movement, then the what is called ‘Osmooalnian-friction’ which was, so to say, not harmonized with the whole, evoked in the atmosphere of the Earth the mentioned accelerated-displacements or great winds.

24.316

“These unprecedented great winds then began, by the force of their currents, as it is said, to wear down the elevated ‘terra-firma-parts’ and to fill up the corresponding ‘depressions.’

24.316

“Such depressions were also the two countries of the continent Ashhark upon which the process of existence was chiefly concentrated of the second and third groups of beings of contemporary Asia, that is to say, the main parts of the countries Tikliamish and Maralpleicie.

24.316-7

“At the same time sands also filled up certain parts of the country, Pearl-land, as well as that country in the middle of the continent Grabontzi, where, as I have already told you, there was formed, after the loss of Atlantis, what they called the leading ‘Center-of-Culture’ for all the three-brained beings there, a country which at that time was the most flourishing part of the surface of this planet of yours, and which is now the desert called ‘Sahara.’

24.317

“Bear in mind also, that during the abnormal winds of that time, besides the countries mentioned, several other smallish terra firma spaces of the surface of that hapless planet were also covered by sands.

24.317

“It is interesting to note here that your contemporary favorites have also by some means or other learned about the changes that then occurred in the places of the permanent existence of the three-centered beings, and having made a label for this as well, this time the ‘Great-transmigration-of-races,’ they stuck it onto what they call their ‘knowledge.’

24.317

“A number of the ‘learned’ there now puff and blow with all their might to find out why and how it all occurred, so that they can tell everybody else about it.

24.317

“Just now there are several theories about the matter there, which although they have nothing in common with each other and are each in an objective sense more absurd than the other, are nevertheless accepted there by what is called ‘official-knowledge.’

24.317

“But in fact, the real cause of the transmigration of the three-centered beings there was that as soon as the said abrasion began, the beings living on the continent Ashhark, fearing to be buried by the sands, began moving to other, more or less secure places. And these migrations of the three-brained beings there proceeded in the following order:

24.317-8

“Most of the three-brained beings populating Tikliamish moved to the south of the same continent Ashhark, to the country which was later called ‘Persia,’ and the rest moved north, and settled in those regions which were afterwards called ‘Kirkistcheri.’

24.318

“As for the beings populating the country Maralpleicie, one part wandered eastwards, while the rest, the major part, went towards the west.

24.318

“Having crossed the eastern heights, those who went east settled down on the shores of the large Saliakooriapnian spaces, and this country was later called ‘China.’

24.318

“And that part of the beings of Maralpleicie who sought safety by moving to the west, after wandering from place to place, ultimately reached the neighboring continent, later called ‘Europe,’ and the three-brained beings who then still existed in the middle of the continent Grabontzi dispersed over the whole of the surface.

24.318

“And so, my boy, this fifth descent of mine in person to your planet belongs to the period of the time after this said redistribution of the groups of the communities of these favorites of yours.

24.318

“And the causes of my descent there in person were the following events:

24.318

“I must first tell you that the chief peculiarity of the psyche of your favorites, namely, the ‘periodic-need-to-destroy-the-existence-of-others-like-oneself,’ interested me more and more with every succeeding century of theirs, and side by side with it the irresistible desire increased in me to find out the exact causes of a particularity so phenomenal for three-brained beings.

24.318

“And so, my boy, in order to have more material for elucidating this question which interested me so intensely, I, in the interval between my fourth and fifth sojourn on the planet Earth, organized my observations through the Teskooano from the planet Mars of the existence of those peculiar three-brained beings in the following way:

24.318-9

“I deliberately kept under observation quite a number of their beings from among your favorites and during many of their years either I personally or somebody whom I commissioned observed them attentively, trying as much as possible not to miss anything, and to clear up from every aspect all the particularities in their manifestations during the processes of their ordinary existence.

24.319

“And I must confess, my boy, that when I happened to be quite free, I sometimes during whole ‘Sinonoums’ or, as your favorites there approximately define the corresponding flow of time, ‘hours,’ followed with great interest the movements of the said three-brained beings there under observation, and tried to explain to myself logically their what are called ‘psychic-experiencings.’

24.319

“And so, during these observations of mine from the planet Mars through my Teskooano, it once flashed upon me that the length of their existence was, century by century and even year by year, becoming shorter and shorter at a very definite and equally uniform rate, and this served as the beginning of my further quite serious study of the psyche of these three-brained beings who have taken your fancy.

24.319

“Of course when I first noticed this, I at once took into account not only the chief particularity of their psyche, that is their periodic reciprocal destruction, but also the innumerable what are called ‘illnesses’ which exist exclusively only on that planet, the majority of which, by the way, arose and continue to arise owing to the same abnormal external conditions of the ordinary being-existence established by them, which help to make it impossible for them to exist normally up to the sacred Rascooarno.

24.319-20

“When I first noticed this and began to recall my previous impression about it, each of the separate independent spiritualized parts of my whole presence became filled with the conviction, and my essence perceived the mentioned ‘flash,’ that in truth these three-brained beings of your planet had in the beginning existed according to their time calculation for about twelve centuries, and some of them, even, for about fifteen centuries.

24.320

“To be able more or less clearly to represent to yourself the rate at which the length of their existence declined during this time, it is enough for you to know that when I left this solar system for ever, the maximum length of their existence was already from seventy to ninety of their years.

24.320

“And latterly, if anybody should exist even as long as this, all the rest of the beings of that peculiar planet would already consider that he had existed quite ‘a good long time.’

24.320

“And if anybody happened to exist a little over a century he would be exhibited in their museums, and of course all the rest of the beings there would know about him because his photograph, and descriptions of the manner of his existence even to the enumeration of each of his movements, would continually be found in all their what are called ‘newspapers.’

24.320

“And so, my boy, since, at the time when I suddenly constated such a fact there, I had no special business on the planet Mars and it was quite impossible to try to probe this novel peculiarity by means of the Teskooano, I therefore decided to go there myself in order perhaps to clear up for myself there on the spot the causes of this also.

24.320

“Several Martian days after my decision, I again ascended there on the ship Occasion.

24.320-1

“At the time of this fifth descent of mine in person to your planet, their ‘center-for-the-incoming-and-the-outgoing-results-of-the-perfecting-of-being-rumination’ or, as they themselves call it, their ‘Center-of-Culture’ was already the city of Babylon; so it was just there that I decided to go.

24.321

“This time our ship Occasion alighted on what is called the ‘Persian Gulf’ because we had ascertained through the Teskooano before our flight that for our further traveling, that is, to reach the town of Babylon and also for the mooring of our ship Occasion itself, the most convenient place would be that same Saliakooriapnian space of the surface of your planet now existing there under the name of the Persian Gulf.

24.321

“This water space was convenient for my further traveling because the large river, on the banks of which the city of Babylon stood, flowed into it, and we proposed to sail up the stream of this river to get there.

24.321

“During that period of the flow of time this ‘incomparably majestic’ Babylon was flourishing in every respect. It was a Center-of-Culture not only for the beings dwelling on the continent Ashhark, but also for all the beings of all those other large and small terra firmas which were adapted to the needs of ordinary being-existence on that planet.

24.321

“At the time of my first arrival there in this Center-of-Culture of theirs, they were just preparing that which was afterwards the principal cause of the acceleration of the rate of the degeneration of their ‘psychic-organization,’ especially in the sense of the atrophy in them of the instinctive functioning of those three fundamental factors which ought to exist in the presence of every three-brained being—namely, those factors which give rise to the being-impulses existing under the names of ‘Faith,’ ‘Hope,’ and ‘Love.’

24.321-2

“These being-factors degenerating by heredity from generation to generation has brought it about that instead of a real being-psyche, such as should exist in the presence of every kind of three-brained being, there now already exists in the presences of your contemporary favorites, although a ‘real-psyche’ also, nevertheless one that can be very well defined by one of the wise sayings of our dear Mullah Nassr Eddin, which consists of the following words: ‘There is everything in it except the core or even the kernel.’

24.322

“It is absolutely necessary to relate to you in as great detail as possible what occurred during that period in Babylon, as all this information may be valuable material for you for a better elucidation and transubstantiation in your Reason of all the causes which together have finally given rise to that strange psyche of the three-centered beings which your contemporary favorites already have.

24.322

“I must first of all tell you that I obtained the information concerning the events of that time which I am about to relate chiefly from those three-centered beings there whom the other beings called ‘learned.’

24.322

“Before going any further, I must here dwell a little on just what kind of beings there on your planet the other beings call learned.

24.322-3

“The point is that, even before this fifth sojourn of mine there, that is to say before that period when Babylon, as I have told you, flourished in every respect, those beings who became learned and were regarded by others as learned were not such beings as become and are regarded as learned everywhere in the Universe, nor such as first became learned even on your planet, namely, such beings as acquire by their conscious labors and intentional sufferings the ability to contemplate the details of all that exists from the point of view of World-arising and World-existence, owing chiefly to which, they perfect their highest body to the corresponding gradation of the sacred measure of Objective Reason in order that they might later sense as much about cosmic truths as their higher being-body is perfected.

“But from the time of what is called the Tikliamishian civilization until now, those beings, especially the contemporary ones, chiefly became learned who ‘learned-by-rote’ as much as possible about every kind of vacuous information, such as old women love to relate about what was presumably said in olden times.

24.323

“Note, by the way, that for the definition of the importance of the learned there, our venerated Mullah Nassr Eddin also has a sentence expressed in the following words:

“‘Everybody talks as if our learned know that half a hundred is fifty.’

24.323

“There on your planet, the more of such information one of your favorites mechanically learns by rote, information he himself has never verified, and which moreover, he has never sensed, the more learned he is considered to be.

24.323

“And so, my boy, we reached the city of Babylon; there were indeed a great many learned beings there gathered from almost the whole of that planet of yours.

24.323

“As the causes of the gathering of these beings in the city of Babylon at that time are extremely interesting, I will tell you also about this a little more in detail.

24.323

“The point is, that most of the learned beings of the Earth had been then assembled there under compulsion by a most peculiar Persian king, under whose dominion at that period was also the city of Babylon.

24.323

“In order to understand thoroughly which fundamental aspect ensuing from the total results of the abnormally established conditions of ordinary being-existence there gave rise to the said peculiarity of this Persian king, I must first enlighten you in respect of two facts which had become fixed long before.

24.323-4

“The first fact is that almost from the time of the loss of the continent Atlantis, there gradually began to be crystallized, and during later centuries became completely crystallized in the presence of every one of your favorites there, a particular ‘inherency’ thanks to which that being-sensation which is called ‘happiness-for-one’s-being’—which is experienced from time to time by every three-brained being from the satisfaction of his inner self-evaluation—appears in the presences of your favorites exclusively only when they acquire for their own possession a great deal of that popular metal there called ‘gold.’

24.324

“A greater misfortune for them arising from this particular ‘inherency’ in their common presences is that the mentioned sensation due to the possession of the said metal is strengthened by the beings around the possessor and also by beings who learn about it only by what is called ‘hearsay’ and have not themselves been convinced by personal corresponding perceptions; and it is, moreover, the established custom there never to consider through which kind of being-manifestations he becomes the possessor of a great quantity of this metal, and such a being there becomes for all those around him one who evokes in their presences the functioning of that crystallized consequence of the property of the organ Kundabuffer called ‘envy.’

24.324-5

“And the second fact is this, that when in the presences of your favorites their chief particularity functions ‘crescendently’ and, according to the established custom among their different communities, the process of the reciprocal destruction of each other’s existence proceeds, then afterwards, when this property, only maleficent for them themselves, has run its course, and they temporarily cease these processes of theirs, then the king of that community in which a greater number of subjects survive, receiving the title of conqueror, usually takes for himself everything belonging to the beings of the conquered community.

24.325

“Such a ‘king-conqueror’ there usually orders his subjects to take from the conquered all their lands, all the young beings of female sex present in the conquered community, and all the what is called ‘riches’ accumulated by them during centuries.

24.325

“And so, my boy, when the subjects of that said peculiar Persian king conquered the beings of another community, he ordered them not to take and even not to touch any of these, but to take with them as what are called ‘captives’ only the learned beings of this conquered community.

24.325

“Clearly to represent and to substantiate in yourself the understanding just why such a peculiar craze arose in the individuality of that Persian king and became proper only to him, you must know that at the period of the Tikliamish civilization, in the town called ‘Chiklaral’ a three-brained learned being by name Harnahoom—whose essence later became crystallized into what is called an ‘Eternal-Hasnamussian-individual’—invented that any old metal you like, abundant on the surface of that planet, could easily be turned into the rare metal ‘gold’ and all it was necessary to know for this was just one very small ‘secret.’

24.325-6

“This maleficent fiction of his became widely spread there, and having become crystallized in the presences of the beings of that time, and being transmitted by inheritance from generation to generation, began to pass to the beings of subsequent generations as a gradually formed definite maleficent fantastic science there, under the name of ‘alchemy,’ under the name, that is, of that great science which had indeed existed there during those epochs long past, when in the presences of their ancestors the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer had not yet been quite crystallized, and which branch of genuine knowledge might be useful and indeed necessary for the three-brained beings there even of contemporary times.

24.326

“And as at that period to which my tale relates, this Persian king needed for some or other of his undoubtedly Hasnamussian aims, a great deal of this metal, rare on the surface of the Earth, called ‘gold,’ and as the notion concerning this method that had been invented by the then existing ‘Hasnamussian-individual,’ Harnahoom, had also reached his presence, he was eager to get gold by so easy a means.

24.326

“When this Persian king had finally decided to get gold by ‘alchemy,’ he then and there for the first time cognized with the whole of his being that he did not as yet know that ‘little secret’ without which it was absolutely impossible to fulfill this desire of his. So he then pondered how to find out that ‘little secret.’

24.326

“The result of this pondering was that he became aware of the following:

“As the learned already have knowledge of every other kind of ‘mystery,’ then this mystery must also be known to one of them.

24.326

“Having finally arrived at such a conclusion, he, with an intensified functioning of ‘being-astonishment’ at why such a simple idea had never entered his head before, called several of his attendant subjects and ordered them to find out which of the learned beings of his capital knew this mystery.

24.326-7

“When it was reported to him the following day that not a single one of the learned beings of the capital knew this mystery, he ordered inquiries to be made also of all the learned present among the beings of the whole of his subject-community, and when after several days he again received the same negative reply, he once more began to ponder, and this time very seriously.

24.327

“His serious thinking first led his Reason to the understanding that, without any doubt, one or other of the learned beings of his community was aware of this ‘secret’ also, but since among beings of that clan, this strict keeping of a ‘professional’ mystery was very strongly developed, nobody, of course, was willing to reveal it.

24.327

“The result of his serious thinking was that he became aware that it was necessary not merely to question, but to examine the learned beings about this mystery.

24.327

“The same day, he gave appropriate instructions to his nearest corresponding assistants, and the latter already began to ‘examine,’ after the manner that had already long before been the way of power-possessing beings to examine ordinary beings.

24.327

“And when this peculiar Persian king became finally convinced that the learned beings of this community indeed knew nothing about this mystery, he began to look for learned beings in other communities to whom this mystery might be known.

24.327

“As the kings of the other communities were unwilling to offer their learned beings for ‘examination,’ he decided forcibly to compel these unconquered kings to do so. And from that time on, at the head of numerous hordes in subjection to him, he began with their help to make what are called ‘military excursions.’

24.327-8

“This Persian king had many hordes in subjection to him because at that period, from the region of the surface of this planet of yours where that community was situated and over which he happened to be king, there had been intensified in the presences of the beings, even before this time, according to what is called the ‘foreseeing-adaptation’ of Great Nature, the what is called ‘birth rate’; and at the given period, there was being actualized that which was demanded for the common-cosmic Trogoautoegocratic process, that is to say, from this region of the surface of your planet there had to issue more of those vibrations arising from the destruction of being-existence.”

24.328

During this last explanation Hassein interrupted Beelzebub with the following words:

24.328

“Dear Grandfather, I do not understand why the issuing of the required vibrations for the purpose of the actualization of this most great cosmic process should depend on a definite region of the surface of the planet.”

24.328

To this question of his grandson, Beelzebub replied as follows:

24.328

“As before long I intend to make the special question of those terrifying processes of reciprocal destruction which they call ‘wars’ the theme of my tales concerning the three-brained beings of the planet Earth, it is better to defer this question of yours also until this special tale, because then, I think, you will understand it well.”

24.328

Having said this, Beelzebub again continued to relate about the Babylonian events.

24.328

“When the peculiar Persian king I mentioned began, thanks to the hordes in subjection to him, to conquer beings of other communities and to seize by force the learned among them, he assigned as a place for their congregation and existence the said city of Babylon, to which they were taken in order that this lord of half the then continent of Asia could thereafter freely examine them in the hope that one of them might perhaps happen to know the secret of turning cheap metal into the metal gold.

24.328

“With the same aim he even made at that time a special what is called ‘campaign’ into the country Egypt.

24.328-9

“He then made this special campaign there because the learned beings of all the continents of the planet were assembled there at that period, the opinion being widely spread there that more information for their various ‘sciences’ was to be obtained in this Egypt than anywhere else on their planet.

24.329

“This Persian king-conqueror then took from Egypt all the learned beings present there, both the native and those who had come from other communities; and among their number were then also several called ‘Egyptian priests,’ descendants of just those learned members of the society Akhaldan who had chanced to escape, and who had been the first to populate that country.

24.329

“When a little later a fresh craze arose in the presence of this peculiar Persian king, the craze for the process itself of the destruction of the existence of other beings similar to himself, and which supplanted the former craze, he forgot about the learned beings and they began to exist there freely in the city of Babylon awaiting his further directions.

24.329

“The learned beings collected in this way there in the city of Babylon from almost the whole of the planet used often to meet together and of course to discuss among themselves, as it is proper to the learned beings of the planet Earth, questions which were either immeasurably beyond their comprehension, or about which they could never elucidate anything useful whatsoever, either for themselves or for ordinary beings there.

24.329

“Well, it was just during these meetings and discussions that there arose among them, as it is in general proper to arise among learned beings there, what is called ‘a-burning-question-of-the-day,’ a question which in some way or other indeed interested them at that time to, as they say, ‘their very marrow.’

24.329-30

“The question which chanced to become the-burning-question-of-the-day so vitally touched the whole being of every one of them, that they even ‘climbed down’ from their what are called ‘pedestals’ and began discussing it not only with the learned like themselves, but also here, there and everywhere with anyone they chanced to come across.

24.330

“The consequence was that an interest in this question gradually spread among all the ordinary three-brained beings then existing in Babylon, and by about the time we reached this city it had become the question-of-the-day for all the beings there.

24.330

“Not only did these learned themselves talk about and discuss this question, but similar conversations and fierce discussions proceeded like fury among the ordinary beings there also.

24.330

“It was talked about and discussed by the young and old, by men and women, and even by the Babylonian butchers. Exceedingly anxious were they, particularly the learned, to know about this question.

24.330

“Before our arrival there, many of the beings existing in Babylon had ultimately even lost their reason on account of this question, and many were already candidates for losing theirs.

24.330

“This burning-question-of-the-day was that both the ‘sorry-learned’ and also the ordinary beings of the city of Babylon were very anxious to know whether they had a ‘soul.’

24.330

“Every possible kind of fantastic theory existed in Babylon upon this question; and more and more theories were being freshly cooked up; and every, as it is said there, ‘catchy theory’ had, of course, its followers.

24.330

“Although whole hosts of these various theories existed there, nevertheless they were one and all based upon only two, but two quite opposite assumptions.

“One of these was called the ‘atheistic’ and the other the ‘idealistic’ or ‘dualistic.’

24.330-1

“All the dualistic theories maintained the existence of the soul, and of course its ‘immortality,’ and every possible kind of ‘perturbation’ to it after the death of the being ‘man.’

24.331

“And all the atheistic theories maintained just the opposite.

24.331

“In short, my boy, when we arrived in the city of Babylon there was then proceeding what is called the ‘Building-of-the-Tower-of-Babel.’”

24.331

Having uttered these latter words, Beelzebub became a little thoughtful and then continued as follows:

24.331

“Now I wish to explain to you about the expression I just used, namely, the ‘Building-of-the-Tower-of-Babel.’ This expression is very often used on your planet by the contemporary three-brained beings there also.

24.331

“I wish to touch upon this expression frequently used there and to elucidate it to you chiefly because firstly I chanced to be a witness at that time of all the events which gave rise to it, and secondly because the history of the arising of this expression and its transubstantiation in the understanding of your contemporary favorites can very clearly and instructively elucidate to you that, thanks as always to the same abnormally established conditions of ordinary being-existence, no precise information of events there which have indeed occurred to beings of former epochs ever reaches beings of later generations. And if, by chance, something like this expression does reach them, then the fantastic Reason of your favorites constructs a whole theory on the basis of just one expression such as this, with the result that those illusory ‘being-egoplastikoori,’ or what they call ‘psychic-picturings’ increase and multiply in their presences owing to which there has arisen in the Universe the strange ‘unique-psyche’ of three-brained beings which every one of your favorites has.

24.331-2

“Well then, when we arrived in the city of Babylon, and I began mixing with various beings there and making my corresponding observations in order to elucidate the question which had interested me, then, because almost everywhere I ran across the said learned beings who had gathered and met there in great numbers, it so fell out that I began associating with them alone, and made my observations through them, and also through their individualities.

24.332

“Among the number of the learned beings whom I met for my mentioned aim, was also one named Hamolinadir who had also been brought there by compulsion from Egypt.

24.332

“Well, during these meetings of ours, almost the same relations were established between this terrestrial three-brained being Hamolinadir and myself as in general are established everywhere between three-brained beings who frequently meet.

24.332

“This Hamolinadir was one of those learned there in the common presence of whom the factors for the impulses of a three-brained being which had passed to him by heredity were not quite atrophied, and moreover it turned out that during his preparatory age the responsible beings around him had prepared him to be also more or less normally responsible.

24.332

“It is necessary to notice that many learned beings of this kind were then in the city of Babylon.

24.332

“Although this learned Hamolinadir had his arising and preparation for becoming a responsible being just there in the city of Babylon and descended from the race of beings there called ‘Assyrian,’ yet he became learned in Egypt where the highest school existing on Earth at that time was found, and which was called the ‘School of Materializing-Thought.’

24.332-3

“At the age he was when I first met him he already had his ‘I‘—in respect of rationally directing what is called the ‘automatic-psychic-functioning’ of his common presence—at the maximum stability for three-centered beings of the planet Earth at that time, in consequence of which during what is called his ‘waking-passive-state’ he had very definitely expressed being-manifestations, as, for instance, those called ‘self-consciousness,’ ‘impartiality,’ ‘sincerity,’ ‘sensibility of perception,’ ‘alertness,’ and so forth.

24.333

“Soon after our arrival in Babylon, I began going with this Hamolinadir to various what are called ‘meetings’ of the mentioned learned beings, and listened to every kind of what they called ‘reports’ upon the very question which was then ‘the-question-of-the-day,’ and which was the cause of the ‘agitation-of-the-minds-of-the-whole-of-Babylon.’

24.333

“This friend of mine, Hamolinadir, was also very much excited about the said ‘burning question.’

24.333

“He was agitated and perplexed by the fact that both the already existing and the many newly appearing theories upon this question were all, in spite of their entirely contradictory proofs, equally convincing and equally plausible.

24.333

“He said that those theories in which it was proved that we have a soul were very logically and convincingly expounded; and, likewise, those theories in which quite the contrary was proved were expounded no less logically and convincingly.

24.333-4

“So that you may be able to put yourself in the place of that sympathetic Assyrian, I shall also explain to you that in general on your planet, then in the city of Babylon as well as at the present time, all the theories on such a question as they call it of ‘the beyond,’ or any other ‘elucidation-of-details’ of any definite ‘fact,’ are invented by those three-brained beings there in whom most of the consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer are completely crystallized, in consequence of which there actively functions in their presence that being-property which they themselves call ‘cunning.’ Owing to this, they consciously—of course consciously only with the sort of reason which it has already become long ago proper for them alone to possess—and moreover, merely automatically, gradually acquire in their common presence the capacity for ‘spotting’ the weakness of the psyche of the surrounding beings like themselves; and this capacity gradually forms in them data which enable them at times to sense and even to understand the peculiar logic of the beings around them, and according to these data, they invent and propound one of their ‘theories’ concerning this or that question; and because, as I have already told you, in most of the three-brained beings there, owing to the abnormal conditions of ordinary being-existence established there by them themselves, the being-function called ‘instinctively-to-sense-cosmic-truths’ gradually atrophies, then, if any one of them happens to devote himself to the detailed study of any one of these ‘theories,’ he is bound, whether he wishes or not, to be persuaded by it with the whole of his presence.

24.334

“Well, my boy, already seven of their months after our arrival in the city of Babylon I once went with this friend of mine there, Hamolinadir, to what is called a ‘general-learned-conference.’

24.334

“This ‘general-learned-conference’ had already been convened at that time by the learned beings previously brought there by force; and thus there were at this conference not only the learned forcibly assembled there by the mentioned Persian king who in the meantime had already got over his craze about the science of ‘alchemy,’ and forgotten all about it, but many other learned also from other communities who had voluntarily gathered as they then said ‘for-the-sake-of-science.’

24.334

“At this ‘general-learned-conference’ that day, the reporters spoke by lot.

24.335

“My friend, Hamolinadir, also had to report about some topic and therefore drew a lot; and it fell to him to speak fifth.

24.335

“The reporters who preceded him either reported upon new ‘theories’ they had invented or they criticized theories already existing and known to everybody.

24.335

“At last came the turn of this sympathetic Assyrian.

24.335

“He ascended what is called the ‘rostrum,’ and as he did so some attendants hung up a notice above it indicating on which subject the given reporter would speak.

“It was the custom at that time to do so.

24.335

“The notice announced that the reporter had taken as the theme of his report the ‘Instability-of-Human-Reason.’

24.335

“Thereupon, this terrestrial friend of mine first expatiated on the kind of structure which, in his opinion, the human ‘head-brain’ has, and in which cases and in what manner various impressions are perceived by the other brains of man, and how only after definite what is called ‘agreement’ between all the brains are the total results impressed on this head-brain.

24.335

“He spoke calmly at first, but the longer he spoke, the more agitated he became, until his voice rose to a shout, and shouting he began to criticize the Reason in man.

24.335

“And at the same time, he mercilessly criticized his own Reason.

24.335

“Still continuing to shout, he very logically and convincingly demonstrated the instability and fickleness of man’s Reason, and showed, in detail, how easy it is to prove and convince this Reason of anything you like.

24.335

“Although in the midst of the shouting of this terrestrial friend of mine, Hamolinadir, his sobbing could be heard, nevertheless, even while sobbing, he continued to shout. Further he said:

24.335-6

“‘To every man, and also of course to me, it’s quite easy to prove anything; all that is necessary to know is which shocks and which associations to arouse in the other human brains while one or other “truth” is being proved. It is very easily possible even to prove to man that our whole World and of course the people in it, are nothing but an illusion, and that the authenticity and reality of the World are only a “corn” and moreover the corn growing on the big toe of our left foot. Besides this corn, absolutely nothing exists in the World; everything only seems, and even then only to “psychopaths-squared.”’

24.336

“At this point in the speech of this sympathetic terrestrial three-brained being, an attendant offered him a bowl of water, and after he had eagerly drunk the water, he continued to speak, but now more calmly.

24.336

“He said further:

24.336

“‘Take myself as an example: I am not an ordinary learned man. I am known by all Babylon and by people of many other towns as an exceedingly learned and wise man.

24.336

“‘I finished the course of study higher than which has never yet existed on the Earth, and which it is almost impossible will ever exist again.

24.336

“‘But what then has this highest development given to my Reason in respect of that question which, already during one or two years, is driving all Babylonians insane?

24.336

“‘This Reason of mine which has received the highest development, has given me during this general dementia concerning the question of the soul nothing else but “five-Fridays-a-week.”

24.336

“‘During this time, I have very attentively and seriously followed all the old and new theories about the “soul” and there is not a single theory with the author of which I do not inwardly agree, since all of them are very logically and plausibly expounded, and such Reason as I have cannot but agree with their logic and plausibility.

24.336-7

“‘During this time I have even myself written a very lengthy work on this “question-of-the-beyond”; and many of those present here have surely become acquainted with my logical mentation and most probably there is not one of you here who does not envy this logical mentation of mine.

24.337

“‘Yet at the same time I now honestly declare to you all, that concerning this “question-of-the-beyond” I myself, with the whole of the knowledge that has been accumulated in me, am neither more nor less than just an “idiotcubed.”

24.337

“‘There is now proceeding among us in the city of Babylon the general public “building-of-a-tower” by means of which to ascend to “Heaven” and there to see with our own eyes what goes on there.

24.337

“‘This tower is being built of bricks which outwardly all look alike, but which are made of quite different materials.

24.337

“‘Among these bricks are bricks of iron and wood and also of “dough” and even of “eider down.”

24.337

“‘Well then, at the present time, a stupendously enormous tower is being built of such bricks right in the center of Babylon, and every more or less conscious person must bear in mind that sooner or later this tower will certainly fall and crush not only all the people of Babylon, but also everything else that is there.

24.337

“‘As I personally still wish to live and have no desire to be crushed by this Babylonian tower, I shall therefore now immediately go away from here, and all of you, do as you please.’

24.337

“He uttered these last words while leaving, and ran off and since that time, I never saw that sympathetic Assyrian again.

24.337-8

“As I later learned, he left the city of Babylon the same day forever, and went to Nineveh and existed somewhere there to a ripe old age. I also ascertained that this Hamolinadir was never again occupied with ‘sciences’ and that he spent his existence only in planting ‘choongary’ which in contemporary language is called ‘maize.’

24.338

“Well, my boy, the speech of this Hamolinadir at first made such a deep impression upon the beings there that for almost a month they went about, as it is said there, ‘down-in-the-mouth.’

24.338

“And when they met each other, they could speak of nothing else but only of the various passages from this speech which they remembered and repeated.

24.338

“They repeated them so often that several of Hamolinadir’s phrases spread among the ordinary beings of Babylon and became sayings for ordinary daily existence.

24.338

“Some of his phrases reached even contemporary beings of the planet Earth, and among them there is also the phrase ‘The-Building-of-the-Tower-of-Babel.’

24.338

“Contemporary beings now already quite clearly picture to themselves that once upon a time a certain tower was built in this said city of Babylon to enable beings to ascend in their planetary bodies to ‘God Himself.’

24.338

“And the contemporary beings of the planet Earth also say and are quite persuaded that during the building of this ‘Babylonian tower’ a number of tongues were confused.

24.338

“In general there reached the contemporary beings of the planet Earth a great many of such isolated expressions, uttered or fixed by various sensible beings of former epochs concerning certain details of a complete understanding from the epoch when the Center-of-Culture was Babylon as well as from the other epochs; and your favorites of recent centuries, simply on the basis of these ‘scraps,’ have with their already quite ‘nonsensical’ Reason concocted such ‘cock-and-bull’ stories as our Arch-cunning Lucifer himself might envy.

24.338-9

“Among the many teachings then current in Babylon concerning the ‘question-of-the-beyond,’ two had a large number of adherents though these teachings had nothing in common.

24.339

“And it was precisely these two teachings which began to pass from generation to generation, and to confuse their ‘being-sane-mentation’ which had already been confused enough without them.

24.339

“Although in the course of their transmission from generation to generation the details of both these teachings underwent change, nevertheless the fundamental ideas contained in them remained unchanged and have even reached down to contemporary times.

24.339

“One of these two teachings which then had many adherents in Babylon was just the ‘dualistic’ and the other, the ‘atheistic’; so that in one of them it was proved that in beings there is the soul, and in the other, quite the opposite, namely, that they have nothing of the kind.

24.339

“In the dualist or idealist teaching, it was said that within the coarse body of the being-man, there is a fine and invisible body, which is just the soul.

24.339

“This ‘fine body’ of man is immortal, that is to say, it is never destroyed.

24.339

“This fine body or soul, it was said further, must make a corresponding payment for every action of the physical body’ whether voluntary or involuntary, and every man, already at birth, consists of these two bodies, namely, the physical body and the soul.

24.339

“Further it was said that as soon as a man is born, two invisible spirits immediately perch upon his shoulders.

24.339

“On his right shoulder sits a ‘spirit-of-good’ called an ‘angel,’ and on his left, a second spirit, a ‘spirit-of-evil’ called a ‘devil.’

24.339-40

“From the very first day these spirits—the spirit-of-good and the spirit-of-evil—record in their ‘notebooks’ all the manifestations of the man, the spirit sitting on his right shoulder recording all those called his ‘good manifestations’ or ‘good deeds,’ and the spirit sitting on his left shoulder, the ‘evil.’

24.340

“Among the duties of these two spirits is that of suggesting to and compelling a man to do more of those manifestations which are in their respective domains.

24.340

“The spirit on the right constantly strives to make the man refrain from doing those actions which are in the domain of the opposite spirit, and, perforce, more of those in his own domain.

24.340

“And the spirit on the left does the same, but vice versa.

24.340

“In this strange teaching it was further said that these two ‘spirit-rivals’ are always combating each other, and that each strives with might and main that the man should do more of those actions which are in his domain.

24.340

“When the man dies, these spirits leave his physical body on the Earth and take his soul to God who exists somewhere ‘up-in-Heaven.’

24.340

“There up-in-Heaven this God sits surrounded by his devoted archangels and angels, and suspended in front of him is a pair of scales.

24.340

“On each side of the scales, ‘spirits’ stand on duty. On the right, stand the spirits who are called ‘servants of Paradise’ and these are the angels; and on the left stand the ‘servants of Hell’ and these are the devils.

24.340

“The spirits which have sat on the man’s shoulder all his life bring his soul after death to God, and God then takes from their hands the notebooks in which the notes have been recorded of all the man’s actions; and He places them on the ‘pans of the scales.’

24.340

“On the right pan He puts the notebook of the angel; and on the left pan the notebook of the devil, and, according to the pan which falls, God commands the spirits on duty standing on the given side to take this soul into their charge.

24.341

“In the charge of the spirits standing on duty on the right is just that place called Paradise.

24.341

“It is a place of indescribable beauty and splendiferousness. In that Paradise are magnificent fruits in abundance and endless quantities of fragrant flowers, and enchanting sounds of cherubic songs and seraphic music constantly echo in the air; and many other things were also enumerated whose outer reactions according to the perceptions and cognitions abnormally inherent in the three-brained beings of that strange planet are likely to evoke in them, as they say, ‘great-satisfaction,’ that is to say, the satisfaction of those needs formed in their common presences, which are criminal for three-centered beings to possess, and the totality of which have driven out from their presences everything, without exception, that was put into them by our COMMON FATHER and which it is imperative for every three-brained being to possess.

24.341

“In the charge of the spirits standing on duty on the left of the scales, who, according to this Babylonian teaching, are the devils, there is what is called Hell.

24.341

“Concerning Hell it was said that it is a place without vegetation, always unimaginably hot, and without a single drop of water.

24.341

“In that Hell sounds constantly echo of fearful ‘cacophony’ and infuriated offensive ‘abuse.’

24.341

“Everywhere there are instruments of every conceivable torture from the ‘rack’ and the ‘wheel’ to instruments for lacerating bodies and mechanically rubbing them with salt, and so on of the same kind.

24.341-2

“In the Babylonian idealistic teaching, it was minutely explained that in order that his soul should enter this Paradise, the man must constantly strive while on Earth to provide more material for the notebook of the spirit angel sitting on his right shoulder, otherwise there would be more material for the records of the spirit sitting on the left shoulder, in which case, such a man’s soul would inevitably go to this most awful Hell.”

24.342

Here Hassein could not restrain himself, and suddenly interrupted with the following words:

24.342

“And which of their manifestations do they consider good, and which bad?”

24.342

Beelzebub looked at his grandson with a very strange look and, shaking his head, said as follows:

24.342

“Concerning this, which being-manifestations are there on your planet considered good and which bad—two independent understandings, having nothing in common with each other, have existed from the most ancient times up to the present period, having passed from generation to generation.

24.342

“The first of these understandings exists there and passes from one generation to another among such three-brained beings there as were those members of the society Akhaldan on the continent Atlantis, and such as those who, although of another kind, several centuries later after the Transapalnian perturbation acquired almost the same in the foundations of their common presences and who were called ‘initiates.’

24.342

“The first of these understandings exists there under the following formulation:

24.342

“Every action of man is good in the objective sense, if it is done according to his conscience, and every action is bad, if from it he later experiences ‘remorse.’

24.342

“And the second understanding arose there soon after the wise ‘invention’ of the Great King Konuzion, which invention, passing from generation to generation through ordinary beings there, gradually spread over almost the whole planet under the name of ‘morality.’

24.342-3

“Here it will be very interesting to notice a particularity of this morality which was grafted upon it at the very beginning of its arising and which ultimately became part and parcel of it.

24.343

“What this said particularity of terrestrial morality is, you can easily represent to yourself and understand if I tell you that, both inwardly and outwardly, it acquired exactly that ‘unique property’ which belongs to the being bearing the name ‘chameleon.’

24.343

“And the oddity and peculiarity of this said particularity of the morality there, especially of contemporary morality, is that its functioning automatically depends entirely on the moods of the local authorities, which moods in their turn depend also automatically on the state of the four sources of action existing there under the names of ‘mother-in-law,’ ‘digestion,’ ‘John Thomas,’ and ‘cash.’

24.343

“The second Babylonian teaching which then had many followers, and which, passing from generation to generation, also reached your contemporary favorites, was on the contrary one of the atheistic teachings of that period.

24.343

“In this teaching by the terrestrial Hasnamussian candidates of that time, it was stated that there is no God in the world, and moreover no soul in man, and hence that all those talks and discussions about the soul are nothing more than the deliriums of sick visionaries.

24.343

“It was further maintained that there exists in the World only one special law of mechanics, according to which everything that exists passes from one form into another; that is to say, the results which arise from certain preceding causes are gradually transformed and become causes for subsequent results.

24.343

“Man also is therefore only a consequence of some preceding cause and in his turn must, as a result, be a cause of certain consequences.

24.343-4

“Further, it was said that even what are called ‘supernatural phenomena’ really perceptible to most people, are all nothing but these same results ensuing from the mentioned special law of mechanics.

24.344

“The full comprehension of this law by the pure Reason depends on the gradual impartial, all-round acquaintance with its numerous details which can be revealed to a pure Reason in proportion to its development.

24.344

“But as regards the Reason of man, this is only the sum of all the impressions perceived by him, from which there gradually arise in him data for comparisons, deductions, and conclusions.

24.344

“As a result of all this, he obtains more information concerning all kinds of similarly repeated facts around him, which in the general organization of man are in their turn material for the formation of definite convictions in him. Thus, from all this there is formed in man—Reason, that is to say, his own subjective psyche.

24.344

“Whatever may have been said in these two teachings about the soul, and whatever maleficent means had been prepared by those learned beings assembled there from almost the whole planet for the gradual transformation of the Reason of their descendants into a veritable mill of nonsense, it would not have been, in the objective sense, totally calamitous; but the whole objective terror is concealed in the fact that there later resulted from these teachings a great evil, not only for their descendants alone, but maybe even for everything existing.

24.344-5

“The point is, that during the mentioned ‘agitation-of-minds’ of that time in the city of Babylon, these learned beings, owing to their collective wiseacrings acquired in their presences, in addition to all they already had, a further mass of new data for Hasnamussian manifestations, and when they dispersed and went home to their own countries, they began everywhere, of course unconsciously, to propagate like contagious bacilli all these notions which all together, ultimately, totally destroyed the last remnants and even the traces of all the results of the holy labors of the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash.

“The remnants, that is to say, of those holy ‘consciously-suffering-labors’ which he intentionally actualized for the purpose of creating, just for three-centered beings, such special external conditions of ordinary being-existence in which alone the maleficent consequences of the properties of the organ Kundabuffer could gradually disappear from their presences, so that in their place there could be gradually acquired those properties proper to the presence of every kind of three-brained being, whose whole presence is an exact similitude of everything in the Universe.

24.345

“Another result of the diverse wiseacrings by those learned beings of the Earth then in the city of Babylon concerning the question of the soul, was that soon after my fifth appearance in person on the surface of that planet of yours this, in its turn, Center-of-Culture of theirs, the incomparable and indeed magnificent Babylon, was also, as it is said there, swept away from the face of the Earth to its very foundations.

24.345

“Not only was the city of Babylon itself destroyed but everything also that had been acquired and accomplished by the beings who had, during many of their centuries, formerly existed there.

24.345-6

“In the name of Justice, I must now say that the prime initiative for the destruction of the holy labors of Ashiata Shiemash did not spring, however, from these learned of the Earth who were then assembled in the city of Babylon, but from the invention of a learned being very well known there, who also existed there on the continent Asia several centuries before these Babylonian events, namely, from the invention of a being named ‘Lentrohamsanin’ who, having coated his higher-being-part into a definite unit, and having perfected himself by Reason up to the required gradation of Objective Reason, also became one of those three hundred and thirteen Hasnamussian-Eternal-individuals who now exist on the small planet bearing the name of Retribution.

24.346

“About this Lentrohamsanin I shall also tell you, since the information concerning him will serve to elucidate for your understanding the strange psyche of those three-brained beings who exist on that peculiar remote planet.

24.346

“But I shall tell you about this Lentrohamsanin only when I have finished speaking about the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash, as the information relating to this now already Most Very Saintly Individual Ashiata Shiemash and his activities in connection with this planet of yours is most important and of the utmost value for your understanding of the peculiarities of the psyche of these three-brained beings who have taken your fancy and who breed on the planet Earth.”