Selling Your Soul: A Thread

You may’ve heard of the idea of making a deal with the devil or selling your soul. But what does this mean? Is it merely a metaphor, or is it something someone can literally do? And who is the devil? Is he a real entity with horns, or a symbolic representation of something else?

The idea of selling your soul was popularized by the tragedy Doctor Faustus. In the play, a man who is dissatisfied with life offers his soul to Lucifer in exchange for magical powers. Some say actual demons once appeared on stage during a performance, driving spectators mad.

Some scholars claim Doctor Faustus was based on the real life mathematician and inventor John Dee. While he was undoubtedly a genius, he ruined his reputation among the scientific community when he claimed he figured out how to contact spirits.

John Dee’s magical research would later inspire Jack Parsons, a rocket scientist and co-founder of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, to attempt contact with spirits as well. So while the idea of magic and demons may sound like fiction, many intelligent people take it seriously.

Philosopher Manly P. Hall once wrote “It is possible to make contracts with spirits whereby the magician becomes the master of an elemental being. True black magic is performed with the aid of a demonic spirit, who serves the magician for the length of his earthly life.”

Is it possible then that some illusionists are actually using black magic? While many of them are unquestionably very talented, some tricks certain illusionists perform seem impossible to do without supernatural aid.

Some illusionists even admit to having help. For example, you might remember Mike Super the Mystifier from America’s Got Talent. He claimed he was only able to perform such amazing tricks because of his spirit companion Desmond.

But could a spirit help you with other abilities? Some musicians claim that when they start performing, something else takes them over. Many of them also make claims of having made a deal with the devil in exchange for fortune and fame.

One of the first musicians to say they sold their soul was Giuseppe Tartini who wrote the famous Devil's Trill Sonata after having a dream about the devil. Later, Niccolò Paganini, arguably one of the best violinists to ever play, would be accused o the same thing.

Eventually, the deal with the devil motif made its way into blues music. Robert Johnson, one of the most prolific artists of the genre, sang about selling his soul at a crossroads right before midnight. Before this supposed event, he was notoriously terrible at playing guitar.

Jazz singers like Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra were also known members of the Church of Satan. Even Elvis Presley, once a gospel singing church goer, was said to be obsessed with strange spiritual teachings towards the end of his life.

Elvis helped pave the way for Rock ‘n’ Roll which soon became known as the devil’s music. Is it possible all these artists were really getting help from demonic spirits? Bob Dylan has been quoted saying he only got where he is today because of a bargain he made a long time ago.

Led Zeppelin claimed their famous song Stairway to Heaven was a product of automatic writing, the supposed telepathic ability of producing words without consciously writing. Jimmy Page, the guitarist, was a follower of Aleister Crowley, another man inspired by John Dee.

The Beatles were also inspired by Crowley, who was said to be the wickedest man in the world. There are many strange conspiracies surrounding The Beatles, one of them being that Paul was used as a satanic sacrifice and replaced with a look-alike.

Many musicians today make similar claims and are the subject of similar conspiracy theories. Katy Perry has said during an interview that she sold her soul to the devil and like Paul, many musicians are also rumored to have been replaced by look-alikes, or even clones.

Are these musicians being helped by demons or is something more sinister going on? What exactly does a deal with the devil entail? When an artist signs a contract that gives a label the right to a person’s image, does that give them the right to recreate it even if they are dead?

What happens if an artist no longer wants to comply? Are they simply sacrificed and replaced? Perhaps this is a last resort and there are other ways to keep them under control. We know some artists are heavily medicated to keep them docile because of the #FreeBritney movement.

But what if medication is not enough? Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Beyoncé, and countless others claim they have alter egos that take over whenever they perform. Perhaps these are not spirits, but symptoms of MK Ultra programming. Perhaps these two things are one and the same.

MKUltra was a program carried out by the CIA in order to develop methods of mind control using psychoactive drugs, electroshock, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, isolation, sexual abuse, and even torture. Some say black magic and witchcraft were also methods they explored.

Perhaps when a person’s psyche is shattered, spirits can more easily control an individual. There are many instances of celebrities “glitching out” where their alters take over or their programming seems to fail. These same celebrities heavily promote MKUltra symbolism.

MKUltra symbolism includes covering one eye, flashing the pyramid hand sign, and even butterflies. The symbols serve to show who their puppet masters are. The butterfly represents Project Monarch, an offshoot of MKUltra, and the metamorphosis one undergoes during mind control.

However, it seems some celebrities are too strong willed to succumb to heavy medication and mind control. People like Micheal Jackson and Prince were calling out the evil of the music industry and even the world right before their untimely deaths.

At one point, Prince went to war with Warner and wrote “Slave” on his face. Then at the age of 57, he died in an elevator on his estate. Ironically, he released a song about living it up called Let’s Go Crazy. In the song, he mentions how he won’t let the elevator bring him down.

Kanye West, another artist who claims to have sold his soul, seems to be another case of someone who feels cheated and is no longer willing to keep up their end of the deal. It seems his meltdowns are symptoms of failed programming.

Kim Kardashian is rumored to be Kanye’s handler. Even more strange is the fact that Kanye is attempting to turn his life over to God while most of the Kardashian family claims to practice witchcraft. Is the devil using them to keep Kanye under a spell?

Another oddity is the fact that Kanye seemed to predict his current situation in the song Gold Digger. In the song, he says “My psychic told me she have an ass like Serena [...] She got one of your kids, got you for 18 years [...] She went to the doctor got lipo with your money.”

So are all these people going to hell? Is there hope for these lost souls? If their hearts are in the right place, I honestly believe so. In fact, I think all of Kanye’s efforts to get right with God make him comparable to Doctor Faustus, and truly, Faustus represents all of us.

In Goethe’s version of Doctor Faustus, the story begins with the devil making a bet with God, saying he can win over the soul of God’s favorite human, which is ofcourse Doctor Faustus. As you already know, the devil succeeds in convincing him to sign a contract with him.

Once Faustus signs the contract, he is granted the power to do basically whatever he wants and lives his life questing for love, wealth, and power. He achieves these things, but soon realizes his worldly pursuits only bring him exhaustion and despair.

At the end of the story, just as Faustus is about to be dragged to hell, God acknowledges that Faustus was only trying to find his place in the universe and gives him mercy. In that moment, angels arrive declaring “He who strives on and lives to strive can earn redemption still.”

Like I said before, I personally believe we are all like Doctor Faustus. We‘ve all comprised our own morals at times. To a certain extent, we all “sell out.” We all have demons to conquer, some are just bigger than others.

The word demon actually comes from the word daemon, and originally, daemons were not a bad thing. Socrates claimed his personal daemon was a gift from the gods and it was what made him different from others. He also considered it the guiding force in his life.

Much later, Carl Jung the Swiss psychoanalyst expanded on this idea, saying that our personal daemon was actually a symptom of the dark unconscious mind. He claimed it was this part of us, if tapped into correctly, that allowed creative genius to arise in an individual.

I believe in this life it should be our goal to become balanced, fully realized individuals. It is only once we are whole that we can offer what gifts we have to the world, which in turn, make the world a better place.

With nothing to fear, we would have nothing to chase us forward. With no hell, there would be no heaven to reach for. Without death, there could be no rebirth, no redemption, no transformation. And it is transformation and the challenges it brings us that make life worth living.

Thanks for reading.