If you can read this… then you certainly belong to the human species … You are a social creature, with many other similar beings surrounding you. you have your own circle of people… you love some… and some of them may love you… and yet you notice that sometimes the relations are not just as simple or cozy.

Unlike creatures of lower strata, humans have an uncanny ability for metamorphosis. I guess that is why we have theatre and movies and acting schools. did you ever think if it were at all possible for antelopes, chimps, dogs or dolphins to have acting schools? Only human beings have such a fascinating skill… to change their appearance and even their character in an instant… usually, at will. When chameleons, and octopi change their appearance instinctively for self protection, we find ourselves mesmerized by this miraculous transformation. but these animals even when they change their appearance, their nature stays the same. you never hear of a chameleon that starts changing its appearance in order to help its fellow chameleons to forage for food, sacrificing itself in the process to remain hungry and thirsty, and suddenly it turns around and devours the same members of its clan just because one of them stepped out of line ? an octopus will turn its body to look like a rock, only to ensnare a fish or protect itself from a marauding hunter.

Human beings have it in a different capacity. you can easily find someone, pretending to be your best friend, in order to defraud you of your life savings. if you forgive the same person and say, “it was a mistake… he had learned his lesson” He may come back and do it all over again.

You see, human beings have something called consciousness… which lower animals do not have. It is amazing… right? it functions like a light switch. you flip it on, and voila… your outside appearance matches exactly what your character looks like. when you flip it off, suddenly, your external appearance begins to change… it acts as a mask of different shapes and colors to hide what you really are. Often, unfortunately, this switch malfunctions…permanently. when humans lose this peculiar trait, they automatically join the lower animal strata… they cannot help it. But, that is not the worst of it. you see, regrettably, consciousness can also be trained, manipulated and deformed, an astounding ability of that superior being called man. A young child can grow up to be an Amazon tribesman whose consciousness is very comfortable when he kills another adversarial tribesman, cut his body and eat it.. !! and how about that human who sanctions and practices the “inhuman” concept of slavery ?? even lizards and pigs are incapable of grasping that “strictly human” concept…the examples are too numerous to list .. (we are talking here about simple human standards, and not high and noble Christian standards)

Nevertheless, all these are glaring illustrations of the varying degrees of the degradation of the human consciousness. Unfortunately, there are other forms of that degradation that are much worse and much more prevalent, if only because they are subtle and almost undetectable. Folklore and legend are littered with stories about such travesty. We need not go through the details about that, it had already been illustrated and explained by numerous writers, philosophers and historians. In fact, what is actually needed is the means to identify the degeneracy, avoid it or deal with it.

So… How can you make sure that the person you thought to be completely trust worthy… does not in fact have a malfunctioning consciousness switch. Fact is, you cannot. Only time can expose such a person and reveal the truth. The important thing is when you discover the truth, how shall you deal with it? More often than not, people live in denial because they do not want to believe that they were deceived, or sometimes they are so enamored by the deceiver that they feel they cannot part with him or her.

However, excuse me for saying this… because I must also ask, do you know if you have a well… I mean… you know… a good, well functioning such switch yourself? and if you do… how often… um… do you switch it off? you realize that whatever will apply to those around, will naturally apply to you… just keep that in mind… BTW do you know who is  Ahithophel or the Iscariot ??

Based on reflection on the Biblical characters mentioned above.