Lucifer thinks of himself as the 'Shepherd of Man' (and other stuff nobody told me)

The Gate of the Dead

She sits at the Gate of the Dead, and she guards it so the unready will not slip through. She meets lost souls needing confirmation they have passed. They stand in line to greet her at her desk, where she hands out a special letter in an envelope. This letter has the ghost’s name on it. When they have taken the letter, they step out of the line and the next ghost arrives. They do not open the letter until they are ready to learn that they are dead, whereupon they must cease their wanderings in the land of the living.

She writes the letters for each soul herself, owing each the consideration once shown to her long long ago, when she had become a lost soul. Inside the envelope , magic words are written on the page, words that trigger memories, causing the lost soul to remember the moment of death. It is a visceral reality they must undergo to enter the realm of peace, a delicate and emotional trial. That is why, she advises each - they must be careful not to push themselves too soon - and to mark this suggestion, she wraps each envelope in a red ribbon, so it cannot be opened without determination.

Get out of my head. She is chained to that desk. She is mother of all souls and has great weight in deciding where they go next. The ribbons are different colors depending ...

Oh? That sounds even more right. Good to know. I saw this stuff in a dream this morning and had to write it down before it escaped me. I kept saying it in my head.

The wise are rarely happy, and the happy are often ignorant. Sometimes it's okay to be ignorant for a little while though, so we can be happy for a little while, I think.

That statement holds no truth. False wisdom is rarely happy and the false happy are often ignorant is closer to the truth.

The gate of the dead.
Red ribbon is pain wrapped around the memory to remember as pain causes remembrance.
It can also cause lies to become truth as shown to fool lie detectors.

Well at what point do lies become the truth? I think it's when we start to believe them, and start building our lives around them. And then of course one wonders what happens when the weak foundation crumbles, do entire empires fall?

That statement holds no truth. False wisdom is rarely happy and the false happy are often ignorant is closer to the truth.

I don't think there is such a thing as 'false' happiness. Who is to say an emotion isn't real? You think that, because it is ignorant, the happiness of say a child is not real? But who declares when an emotion is real or pretend? An emotion is a qualia, it's something that is its own end - you can't say one person's experience of happiness is more meaningful and real then somebody else's.

Rather perhaps we can say that attaining happiness is not the highest virtue of the human condition, for wisdom has its own rewards. Happiness is pleasant, but I don't think that it's what makes humanity worth salvaging.

Depends on the lie? Is the earth still flat? Is man still alone in the cosmos?

Seems both are up to the roman papal office to decide imo.

I don't think there is such a thing as 'false' happiness. Who is to say an emotion isn't real? You think that, because it is ignorant, the happiness of say a child is not real? But who declares when an emotion is real or pretend? An emotion is a qualia, it's something that is its own end - you can't say one person's experience of happiness is more meaningful and real then somebody else's.

Rather perhaps we can say that attaining happiness is not the highest virtue of the human condition, for wisdom has its own rewards. Happiness is pleasant, but I don't think that it's what makes humanity worth salvaging.