Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

14.106

I must tell you first that the three-brained beings on that planet also had in the beginning presences similar to those possessed in general by all what are called ‘Keschapmartnian’ three-centered beings arising on all the corresponding planets of the whole of our great Universe; and they also had the same, as it is called, ‘duration of existence’ as all the other three-brained beings.

14.106

“All the various changes in their presences began for the most part after the second misfortune occurred to this planet, during which misfortune the chief continent of that ill-fated planet, then existing under the name ‘Atlantis,’ entered within the planet.

14.106

“And from that time on, as little by little they created for themselves all sorts of conditions of external being-existence thanks to which the quality of their radiations went steadily from bad to worse, Great Nature was compelled gradually to transform their common presences by means of various compromises and changes, in order to regulate the quality of the vibrations which they radiated and which were required chiefly for the preservation of the well-being of the former parts of that planet.

14.106

“For the same reason, Great Nature gradually so increased the numbers of the beings there that at the present time they are now breeding on all the lands formed on that planet.

14.106-7

“The exterior forms of their planetary bodies are all made alike, and of course in respect of size and in their other subjective particularities, they are each coated, just as we are, in accordance with the reflection of heredity, with the conditions at the moment of conception and with the other factors that serve in general as the causes for the arising and formation of every being.

14.107

“They also differ among themselves in the color of their skin and in the conformation of their hair, and these latter particularities are determined in their presences, just as they are everywhere else, by the effects of that part of the planetary surface where the given beings arise and where they are formed until they reach the age of responsible beings, or as they say, until they become ‘adult.’

14.107

“As regards their general’ psyche itself and its fundamental traits, no matter upon what part of the surface of their planet they arise, these traits in all of them have precisely the same particularities, among them being also that property of the three-brained beings there, thanks to which on that strange planet alone in the whole of the Universe does that horrible process occur among three-brained beings which is called the ‘process of the destruction of each other’s existence,’ or, as it is called on that ill-fated planet, ‘war.’

14.107

“Besides this chief particularity of their common psyche, there are completely crystallized in them and there unfailingly become a part of their common presences—regardless of where they may arise and exist—functions which exist under the names ‘egoism,’ ‘self-love,’ ‘vanity,’ ‘pride,’ ‘self-conceit,’ ‘credulity,’ ‘suggestibility,’ and many other properties quite abnormal and quite unbecoming to the essence of any three-brained beings whatsoever.

14.107

“Of these abnormal being-particularities, the particularity of their psyche the most terrible for them personally is that which is called ‘suggestibility.’

14.107

“About this extremely strange and singular psychic particularity I shall specially explain to you sometime.”

14.107-8

Having said this, Beelzebub was thoughtful, and this time longer than usual, and then, turning again to his grandson, he said:

14.108

“I see that the three-brained beings arising and existing on the peculiar planet called Earth interest you very much, and as during our voyage on the ship Karnak we shall have willy-nilly to talk about many things just to pass away the time, I will tell you all I can just about these three-brained beings.

14.108

“I think it will be best for your clear understanding of the strangeness of the psyche of the three-brained beings arising on the planet Earth if I relate to you my personal descents to that planet in their order, and the events which occurred there during these descents of mine, of which I myself was a witness.

14.108

“I personally visited the surface of the planet Earth six times in all, and each of these personal visits of mine was brought about by a different set of circumstances.

14.108

“I shall begin with my first descent.”