My Dear Mogslopper,

This absence of communication from you indicates you are working feverishly at compiling a list of all your patient's main identifying characteristics. I expect no less. In the interlude, let me remind you of a quite effective modus operandi practiced by the most successful tempters. Humans are, let us be blunt, angelic animals. They are the most degraded form of hybrid--at once both spiritual and corporeal. Once, even our Enemy took the form of one of these half-beasts. Of course the humans immediately misunderstood Him and hacked him up in the most delightful way then known. That's not to say that He has a distinct leg up in interactions with the bipedal rodents. But his Incarnation is nevertheless a troubling feature of the past, a persistent tale kept alive by His most devoted and gullible disciples: the Church. It is this tale, along with the peculiar way He was able to stay Alive even during Death that we must distract the humans from coming to terms with. As I said earlier, there are plenty of distractions to keep them from even being introduced to this Incarnation of the Enemy. However, should your patient (Hell forbid) somehow begin to comprehend this mystery of mysteries we have this particular m. o., which I shall describe presently. Humans are, on the whole, uncomplicated. Like a certain vegetable they eat called on-yeon, they are comprised of layers--the outer ones thin but tough and brittle, the inner ones supple and thick. They are, much like their on-yeons tasty when added to soup...especially with a little salty broth, some oyster crackers for substance, and a bit of Shi-Rhcaa sauce (it is Hell's Ketchup, after all). Their outermost layers are the ones of fantasy and imagination. These are the things they see in the world and in themselves and in others. These items may or may not be accurate but are especially useful for us because they are only in existence in their minds. Even Virtues are stripped of damaging qualities if they are kept in these outer layers. Somewhere deeper inside are the layers of Emotion and Intellect. Each age and even geographic range of humans has a tendency to emphasize either Intellect or Emotion to the neglect of the other. As a byproduct in your tempting, you should strive to widen the gap between these two layers. If you are successful, you may find you have a man who runs hot or cold emotionally but for no reason at all. He is essentially a sentimentalist or a voyeur, irrationally running from one emotional surge to another. And he disdains dwelling on one moment or event or thought for too long. Here, of course, your tactic would be to continue the distraction, continue to show your patient the obvious injustice in the world--but not so he will actually do anything about it. Rather the Enemy's sheer neglect of his own little world will become more and more apparent to him. He will quickly become master of his own universe. Yet his real goal--a single, persistent, feeling of substance--will elude him like a carrot tied to the end of a stick. Likewise, you could steer your man toward the Intellect. In ages past, we steered some of the most daunting followers of the Enemy down this road to luscious result. If the greatest proclaimer of the Enemy's message could become more concerned with his delivery of the message, the particular nuance of tone, the most historically faithful turn-of-phrase than with the message itself, we would have ourselves another--or at least this beast would be de-fanged. Thankfully, your man being an American, you probably need not worry too much about building his intellectual idols--he probably considers himself much more intellectually sound than he truly is. Near the very core of your man lies his Will. It is this chewy center that we are directly aiming at with all our most devious schemes. A man's Will directs what he does. It is his Will that the Enemy demands when he commands love with the "Heart, Soul, and Mind." It is the Will that the Enemy will be after, not to consume or dominate (tactics that frankly make more sense, as our Father Below was quick to point out at the Beginning) but to alternately discipline and lovingly coax into a sickening parent-child relationship, wherein the human becomes More Human--retaining his personality but not his self-interest. To that end, our Enemy will endeavor to forge the human into an integrated whole. In a whole human, the Will, the Intellect and Emotions, the creative layer, even the outer husk of Imagination will be aligned. And that is quite unappetizing, let me assure you. You should take the opposite course. Your m. o. should be to drive the useful parts of the man, his lusts, his greed, his secret Pride down toward his Will. There they can become entrenched habits, unbreakable and destructive at every turn, tearing huge holes in his relations with other humans. Yet his virtues, such as they are, should be pushed further and further out until they are in the imaginary portion of his personage. There they will not affect him, accept to reaffirm to himself that he is the agreeable chap that everyone loves as soon as they meet him. If you play your patient right, the extent to which this is not the case--people see him instead as quite disagreeable, irritating, rude, bad mannered, etc.--can be mirrored in his sense of self-righteous injury at mistreatment by his neighbors. In effect, you have made your patient chronically off-course: e.g., he is in reality a habitual liar but he believes he is a great truth-teller. When he is caught in a lie, he believes it is the injustice of the observer rather than the fault of himself. So, Mogslopper, you will find the patient ever more yours though he believes himself to be quite spiritually advanced, even religious. He will be locked in a masterfully crafted, unresolvable struggle that will eventually launch him into the outer Darkness where he will find only us. The look on their faces when they finally do see us...well, Mogslopper, it makes the tedium of tempting worth it. Begin to rend your patient by pushing him in both directions at once. In his imagination, he is holy. In his behavior, he is anything but. With Affection, Your Uncle