unconscious, or it could never be sustained. Real sin, and real deformity of consciousness, are faults of which a person is largely, if not entirely, unaware. They are “secret faults”, as the psalmist said. A perfectly relaxed consciousness may be the ideal, but it is not a suitable practical yardstick.
Indeed even theoretically it is inappropriate. Since the whole argument of the book is that a theory of consciousness can be constructed, it follows that consciousness can be analysed. It cannot therefore be a fundamental quantity; and it is fundamental quantities which are most useful as yardsticks for measuring or defining other things. Now one conclusion we have reached is that personality is real and beyond analysis; and if this is right, it may conveniently be used as a yardstick for reinterpreting ideas. In particular, the idea that someone with a corrupted consciousness will interpret what is seen in a different way from the normal, becomes as follows: the person with a corrupted consciousness interprets things as though he were surrounded by, and saw things through, a matrix or presence of evil. This matrix, being distinctive to the person, would be a function of his personality, as well as of his corruption of consciousness. Pursuing a physical analogy, one might say that the refractive index of an evil matrix differs from the refractive index of the perfectly relaxed consciousness; hence things appear different when viewed through it.
Indeed it is common experience that the art of temptation is to induce a certain state of consciousness in another person by the creation of a common evil matrix between the two of you. Your object in tempting is to induce a state of mind in the victim which cannot say “No” to the temptation. This is achieved not by creating a common consciousness, which would frequently bring the victim to his or her senses with a jerk; but by soothing suspicions momentarily…