Wake Up

Evil: The Dark Side of Human Nature

• Douglas James Cottrell PhD • Season 1 • Episode 72

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Why would someone deliberately turn toward darkness? What drives a soul to abandon divine love for the temporary thrills of evil? These profound questions stand at the heart of our spiritual exploration in this thought-provoking episode.

When we examine the nature of prayer itself, we discover an illuminating truth – all prayer, whether directed toward light or darkness, stems from the desire to receive something in return. While many petition higher powers for healing and protection, others turn to shadowy entities seeking power, control, and immediate gratification.

The cosmic landscape Dr. Douglas reveals is one of souls in migration – some ascending toward unconditional love, others descending toward material obsession and dominance. Those embracing darkness create what he calls "little hells" where they maintain control over lost souls, finding perverse pleasure in causing suffering. Yet this path carries a fundamental flaw: evil consumes itself. Any empire built on darkness eventually implodes, as those who hate eventually turn that hatred inward when they run out of external targets.

Most fascinating is the concept of our "original sin" as simply the act of separation – souls given free will who chose individual experience over divine harmony. Like teenagers leaving home only to discover the challenges of independence, we now find ourselves collectively asking: "How do we get back?" The answer lies not in seeking more thrills or power, but in service, self-discipline, and constructive action that elevates others rather than exploits them.

For those wondering about cosmic justice, Dr. Douglas offers this sobering insight: every perpetrator of suffering must eventually experience the same pain they've inflicted. This isn't punishment but spiritual balance – the natural consequence of our choices echoing through eternity. The question becomes clear: why trade eternal harmony for temporary excitement when the path of service leads to lasting fulfillment?

Ready to wake up to your highest potential? Subscribe now and share your thoughts on this provocative exploration of humanity's darkest and brightest spiritual possibilities.

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Announcer:

Welcome to Wake Up with Dr Douglas James Cottrell, your source for helpful information, advice and tips to live your life in a mindful way in this increasingly chaotic world. For over four decades, dr Douglas has been teaching people how to develop their intuition and live their lives in a conscious way. His news and views of the world tomorrow, today, are always informative and revealing. To learn more about Dr Douglas, be sure to visit his website, douglasjamescottrellcom, where you can download self-help exercises you can do right in the comfort of your own home. And now here's your host, dr Douglas James Cottrell.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Hi, you're in the wake up. I'm your host, douglas James Cottrell, and I'm here with my good friend and co-host, les Hubert. We're here to help you wake up and give you the answers to those hard questions. We depend on your input. Send us your questions or suggest topics for the wake up and we'll try to get right back on top of them and give them back to you as soon as we get your email info at the douglas james cotrell. Hey, les, what's up for tonight? What's on the menu?

Les Hubert:

hi, doug. Tonight it's about the subject of evil, and why do people some people choose to openly worship it? This is a perplexing question that many people have addressed and they want an answer. So they're saying you got to ask, doug, this one.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, you know why do people pray? They get something, they expect something. They're praying to a higher deity, asking for relief, asking for health protection, and they're looking for something in the invisible, in the divine heavens above, to intercede in their life. Perhaps they're looking for the outcome of an operation or somebody's very sick and they want God to intervene and save them from death. Well, there are people on the other side who pray to the dark side, because if you're praying to the good side, that means there's something else on the other side, which I'll refer to as the dark side. If you look through the Christian Bible, you will find that there are entities, demons, and they have names. If you look in the other religions of the world, there is different names for these collection of shadowy figures. We shouldn't be afraid of them. We should be mindful of them, and there are those people who are in between the lower heavens and the higher heavens. You know, somewhere out there there's purgatory, as people would believe it to be, a waiting place between heaven and hell.

Les Hubert:

Okay.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Sort of a judgment place. We could call it a plane, an astral plane, we call it an earth plane. We can give it a plane, an astral plane, we call it an earth plane. We can give it names. But let's just say, you know, we don't need to have a distinguished name, a designation. We can understand that there are angels, archangels and higher angels or beings, saints and avatars above, and of course there's God Almighty, god Almighty's prophets and saints and way showers and angels, all there to help us as we emerge from this duality that we call the world, the world of good and evil, evil, of creative and destruction forces, and as we migrate from this world by our goodness, by our faith, by our ambition to come closer and closer to god, in other words, to be a decent person, to start, then an enlightened person, then a self-realized person and then a fully realized person as a spiritual being in a physical body.

Douglas James Cottrell:

And thereby experiencing the greatest human experience we can possibly have while we're in a physical form or physical life. That's the path we're taking. The other path is descending into carnal knowledge, sensation, hedonism, into pleasures of the self and separating ourselves as spiritual beings, away from ourselves, as spiritual beings, away from the collective, who are ascending to go back to heaven, which is a huge you know, they call it the crystals a huge place where all souls want to return, which is a place of unconditional love. Instead, those darker forces are migrating downward, attempting to be in control of their environment and get other souls who are lost to join with them, and some of them are very mean and nasty because they're not loving. And that's what the interpretation of evil is Without love, evil is the absence of love.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So the material gratification and the material world and all the aspects that go along with somebody trying to create a little empire, a little heaven well, let's not call it heaven a little hell in their own, in their own right, where they have complete dominance over those, uh, lost souls that come to them, they're willing to do, they're willing to do things, they're willing to intercede in somebody's life and help somebody do bad things, you know, like when people go to war, both sides are praying to.

Douglas James Cottrell:

God for preservation.

Les Hubert:

Right, yeah.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Please help me and let's kill our enemies. Well, both sides belong to God, if you will. Both sides are people and the souls are from God and of God. So why would God pick a favorite team when the favorite team is both sides? It doesn't make sense. Their favorite team is both sides. It doesn't make sense.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So those forces that are mischievous and evil and they enjoy fear, they enjoy people suffering, they enjoy aggrandizement of the self. You know they're narcissists. They're people who are mental diseased, that want to be bigger than they are. They want to be emperors and kings of the dark forces. But people who are in those areas where they have this in their mind that they are the end all, they're the emperor, if you will. They want to create their own little heaven. The end all, they're the emperor, if you will, they want to create your own little heaven.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Those are the people, the souls, that will make deals with, those who are reaching out from this world that we live in and saying please help me, I want to have all the money in the world. They amplify the greed, the lust for power and dominance and all those things that we would say belong to nasty people, you know, like the worst gangs in the world coming together. What do they want to do? They want to dominate ordinary citizens, rob them, intimidate them and they use them, and they also want to fight with the other gangs for territory and dominance.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, that's what's going on in the lower realms and heavens in a similar way, yikes. So why not call out to those demons for assistance to help you rob and steal and thieve, commit murders and atrocities which feed that sensation, that evil, which is temporary, by the way, any evil empire never lasts. It implodes, it self-destructs because it's built on evil, which is temporary, by the way, any evil empire never lasts. It implodes, it self-destructs because it's built on nothing but darkness, hate and, of course, people who hate. When they run out of people to hate in the neighborhood, they start to turn in on each other and hate each other.

Les Hubert:

That's true. I remember before you touched upon I'm sorry you touched upon before how when somebody turned towards somebody turns towards violence, they immediately set on the course of losing. So why would somebody turn their back on some, an entity who loves them unconditionally, to pursue evil? I mean, that is very perplexing to me pursue evil.

Douglas James Cottrell:

I mean, that is very perplexing to me. Well, somebody that has it all, and then they go away from everything and they go down a path of destruction and evil. Well, it's exciting.

Douglas James Cottrell:

To be good to have everything. Peaceful, is pretty dull, you know, to be at ease or at peace, it's just kind of boring. Nothing ever changes. Everything's okay. Now, to most people who are emotionally mature, that's the way we want it. When we get on an airplane, we want the airplane to fly through the air no bumps, no arguments. Riviere no bumps, no arguments, no delays. We want to get to where we want to go to, as we expect, and you know, yawn, yawn. It was boring, we got there and we're happy.

Douglas James Cottrell:

However, some people want to take the airplane and make it do a nosedive and do circles and bank it and all of this thrill, get a moment of thrill.

Douglas James Cottrell:

So in in a, in a sort of singular looking way, it's that when people leave goodness and and perfection and they go out for these other cheap thrills, temporary, uh, aggrandizements, dominance over everybody, you know being the center of attention, getting everything, not sharing, but getting everything. This is the path that separated us in the beginning, the original sin, the sin of separation, where that we, all of us who are in the world today, were given free will and free choice, because obviously there was some malcontent in heaven and God said okay, you all have the gift of free will and free choice, because obviously there was some malcontent in heaven and god said okay, you all have the gift of free will and free choice. So a bunch of us who apparently were lower iq mode, immediately we said thanks, dad, give us the keys to the car we're out of here and we don't know how to get back, because we went up and down, left and right through different dimensions and we lost our way. It's kind of like you know, you go for one of those rides in the country and you just yeah, I know, you're just all over the place, and then, finally, how do we get home? So I don't know, I thought you knew.

Douglas James Cottrell:

so we're all we're all sitting around here in the earth saying how do we get home? So I don't know. I thought you knew. So we're all sitting around here in the earth saying how do we get home? So I don't know. What do you know? Which way is that? So that's exciting while it's happening, while it's commencing. It's terrifying when you want to get back. However, god, in its infinite wisdom, has given a signpost. They've given us way, showers, angels and prophets, and also, when you get to a certain point, you realize that you had it all and you left.

Douglas James Cottrell:

It's kind of like when you get out in the world and you got your own family and you start thinking, geez, when I was at home I had a pretty good yeah, breakfast was on the table.

Douglas James Cottrell:

I magically got done and folded up and put back in the in the dresser. I didn't have any worries about bills to pay. Heck, if I just wanted to sleep in in the morning, nobody was going to yell at me. I didn't have to go to work and have somebody tell me what to do all day. I could do anything I want, no problem.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Well, that's what it was in the Christos. We left, we had it all, we were in harmony, but we wanted to know what it was like to be individual and so we left. And so, as we come down to this point here with, there are souls who are in the darkness. They are still exploring matter. They love the feel. They think they're going to exist forever. I think they're going to exist forever. They'll go through perhaps a thousand years living in a tree or a rock or something like that to experience what it's like to be a matter. You know, carnal knowledge and activity gets us in trouble. So does drinking and overeating and anything to excess gets us in trouble. So part of the way, practicing a life of service is how you earn your way back to heaven, but part of the way is putting limits on desires, self-discipline and regulation that allows you to ascend, and when you have discipline, well, you can see where we're going.

Douglas James Cottrell:

You don't need to have thrills, you don't need to abuse others or you don't need to ungrantize yourself at the expense of someone else. So why do people you know worship evil? Because it's exciting and it's instant gratification.

Les Hubert:

It's a slippery slope.

Douglas James Cottrell:

That's right, because it doesn't last. And the thing about, you know, evil is that evil consumes itself. It consumes anyone coming in who wants to be more evil than the next person, because is that force that is, you know, consuming itself? It is, it's one that you know it's a cancer it digests itself.

Douglas James Cottrell:

It eats its young, so to speak, because it can. It's like the con man conning the con man. There's a certain enjoyment with that. So worshiping evil is for short gratification, you know. You know I want to be the king of the gang or the king of the neighborhood, or I want to. You know, I want to get as much money as I can and I'm going to pray to satan that to give me all the ways that I can possibly make money by stealing it, by fraudulently taking it and conning people out, causing harm, because there are people who really, really enjoy causing other people pain and suffering. As a matter of fact, some people think that they're better businessmen because they can go in and take somebody's business away from them, or that they can ruin somebody's business or somebody's career oh, I know, I know people like that.

Les Hubert:

Yeah, I've actually met people like that, you know, you make me think of a. He was a former best friend and he was a wild kid and he somebody once said well, you know what evil is spelled backwards? It's live. And this is what my my childhood friend wanted. He was, he was embracing life and he went down a dark road and it was like he had to up the ante because that was now boring. So he had to up it one and he ended up finally, by mistake, self-destructing.

Les Hubert:

And when I saw him the first time, I saw him in a dream state. It was a hemagogic or out-of-body experience and I was on a very dark plane and there he was, and he was in this very dark plane and there he was and he was. He wasn't. He was in this very dark place and he was laughing his head off. And I'm going. You haven't changed a bit. It was good to see him, but I thought he's just so. You think some of these people are just trying to experience life, as it were, and all the different venues that it offers no, it's.

Douglas James Cottrell:

It's more that when they're praying for the inter intervention of demonic influences, they're there to cause pain. Oh, I see.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Pain for others, pleasure for self, and they get a feeling of superiority. They enjoy that superiority. I often say why would somebody want to be emperor? Why would they want to be emperor? Why would they want to be, you know, president or king? You know what is it that? That thing that they think they can rule over everyone? You know pharaoh and and, uh, you know caesar and things like that. Why? What makes that? What goes on in their mind? Well, a certain point, when they get to be emperor, or Caesar or king, back in the old days, when the king could do no wrong and there wasn't Magna Carta and things like that, well, that power used wisely, the society was productive and thrived. Used unwisely, and the society suffered. You know, it's just, and the person at the top may be mentally deranged. You know, in Transylvania, count Dracula, the real one impaled people on spikes.

Les Hubert:

Yeah.

Douglas James Cottrell:

Because he could, and I think there was a story about invaders were coming to the land. So he got all the prisoners and the poor people and he impaled them out in front of the palace, and when the invaders come up and they saw all this massive carnage, they turn around and left.

Douglas James Cottrell:

What kind of people is here? So? What kind of person wants to do that? Maybe somebody who is mentally imbalanced? Because anybody who wants to do that. Maybe somebody who is mentally imbalanced Because anybody who wants to rule the world wants to be the servant of all and becomes the greatest servant of all, and you don't do that by force.

Les Hubert:

So, in other words, absolute power does corrupt absolutely.

Douglas James Cottrell:

That's right, and so corruption, lack of love, evil that takes you further and further away, and anybody who has been a dictator, Hitler for instance, has to suffer every way, every means that they have caused death to somebody. Peterson was once asked about what was going to happen to Hitler as he would come back into the world and the answer was he's going to die a thousand deaths, the same ways or means or measures that he caused people to die. So there's a consequence. There's benefit to being constructive and praying for opportunities and building a big business and a community and helping all those families. You get rewards and service and you go to heaven.

Douglas James Cottrell:

If you go into building an organization that is based on evil, carnage, destruction, death, murder you're going to end up being murdered yourself. Think of it. Every country in the world that has built themselves on evil has failed. The ones that succeed are the ones who are decent, and those leaders in their country have been true servants to their people and they last the country and the leaders of the country, the monarchs or whatever they last for for decades and centuries.

Douglas James Cottrell:

That's how you tell the difference. Why pray for the short-term gratification when you can pray for the long-term salvation? Wake up, everybody. See you next time.

Announcer:

Thank you very much for listening to Wake Up. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you'll be notified when a new episode is posted, and we'd greatly appreciate your review of our show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts to let others know about the great content we're producing. For more about Dr Douglas' self-development classes, books and other related products, please visit his website douglasjamescartrellcom. Until next time, we wish you all of God's blessings health, wealth and peace of mind.