In Trouble in a Diving Suit
In the chapter, The Arch-preposterous, (p158), we read the following account of how Beelzebub almost died while assisting Gornahoor Harharkh in one of his experiments. It is notable, for many reasons, not least of which for the description it contains of death.
“This extremely strange state began in me shortly after Gornahoor Harharkh had spoken in a half-sarcastic tone about our imminent situation.
“In all my three ‘being-centers’—namely, in the three centers localized in the presence of every three-centered being, and which exist under the names of ‘Thinking,’ ‘Feeling,’ and ‘Moving’ centers—there began to be perceived separately and independently in each of them in a very strange and unusual way very definite impressions that there was taking place in the separate parts of my whole planetary body an independent process of the sacred ‘Rascooarno,’ and that the cosmic crystallizations which composed the presences of these parts were flowing ‘in vain.’
“At first, what is called my ‘initiative-of-constatation’ proceeded in the usual way, that is, according to what is called the ‘center-of-gravity-of-associative-experiencing,’ but later, when this initiative-of-constatation of everything proceeding in me gradually and almost imperceptibly became the function of my essence alone, the latter not only became the unique all-embracing initiator of the constating of everything proceeding in me, but also everything, without exception, of that which newly proceeded began to be perceived by and fixed in this essence of mine.
“From the moment that my essence began to perceive impressions directly and to constate independently that, from what was proceeding, there was being entirely destroyed, as it were, in my common presence, firstly, the parts of my planetary body, and then, little by little, also the localizations of the ‘second’ and ‘third’ being-centers. At the same time, a constatation was definitely made that the functioning of these latter centers passed gradually to my ‘thinking-center’ and became proper to it, with the consequence that the ‘thinking-center,’ with the increasing intensity of its functioning, became the ‘unique-powerful-perceiver’ of everything actualized outside of itself and the autonomous initiator of the constating of everything proceeding in the whole of my presence as well as outside of it.
“While this strange, and to my Reason then, still incomprehensible being-experiencing was proceeding in me, Gornahoor Harharkh himself was occupied in pulling some ‘levers’ and ‘switches,’ of which there were very many at the edges of the table where we were placed.
“An incident which happened to Gornahoor Harharkh himself changed all this being-experiencing of mine, and in my common presence the usual ‘inner-being-experiencing’ was resumed.
“The following is what happened:
“Gornahoor Harharkh, with all those unusual heavy appliances which had been put on him as well, suddenly found himself at a certain height above the chair and began to flounder, as our dear Mullah Nassr Eddin says, ‘like-a-puppy-who-has-fallen-into-a-deep-pond.’
“As it afterwards proved, my friend Gornahoor Harharkh had made a mistake while pulling the mentioned levers and switches and had made certain parts of his planetary body more tense than was necessary. In consequence, his presence together with everything on him had received a shock and also the momentum given by the shock, and, owing to the ‘tempo’ proceeding in his presence from taking in the ‘second-being-food’ and to the absence of any resistance in that absolutely empty space, he began to drift, or, as I have already said, to flounder like a ‘puppy-who-has-fallen-into-a-deep-pond.’ ”
Having said this with a smile, Beelzebub became silent; a little later he made a very strange gesture with his left hand, and with an intonation not proper to his own voice, he continued:
“While I am gradually recalling and telling you about all this concerning the events of a period of my existence now long since past, the wish arises in me to make a sincere confession to you—just to you, one of my direct heirs who must inevitably represent the sum of all my deeds during the periods of the process of my past being-existence—and namely, I wish sincerely to confess to you that when my essence, with the participation of the parts of my presence, subject to it alone, had independently decided to take a personal part in those scientific elucidatory experiments with the demonstrating part of the new invention of Gornahoor Harharkh, and I had entered into this demonstrating part without the least compulsion from outside, yet, in spite of it all, my essence allowed to creep into my being and to be developed, side by side with the said strange experiencings, a criminally egoistic anxiety for the safety of my personal existence.
“However, my boy, in order that you may not at this moment be too distressed, it is not superfluous to add that this happened in me then for the first and also for the last time during all the periods of my being-existence.