Selling one’s soul conjures up an image of the devil popping into existence in front of you, and making an offer that you are tempted to take. The devil which appears is that red beastly goat like figure with horns and teeth and hooves and tail; the works! It is clear that one stands before evil itself and that it is your own greed that makes you do business with this horrific trickster.
This Christian scenario seems fantastical and unbelievable to modern man, free from the constraints of a Christian doctrine, but save for the appearance of evil it does still happen to people today in the 21st century. Only the difference is that in reality the devil is more like the Twilight Zone episode “A Nice Place to Visit”, than the Bible.
Selling one’s soul in the 2022 is as binding as it ever was and is still a trap, but one does not meet a devil that looks like the evil it is. Maybe one meets the devil in their dreams/nightmares, but they are not visible in the daily world like in the fairy tale. Rather selling ones soul is a slow process of conformity with others around you doing the same thing, there is no monstrous red presence persuading you and the rewards are not specified in a contract.
Instead selling one’s soul is a slippery slope from where one is free to make their own decisions and live as they see fit, to becoming a slave of the group in which one belongs and having to go along with the actions, thoughts, and beliefs of the crowd so much that one loses their own identity and will. The reward is acceptance and kinship, it is favors and a helping hand when one needs it. The trap is that you can never have an original thought or express a differing opinion such that you are constrained and molded into this creature who will simply do as they are told and defend the group in any situation, be it personal, professional, medical, or legal.
These slaves are safe in their pack and reap the rewards of membership, but they are trapped and may go as far in their Stockholm syndrome to kill themselves or others, at the bequest of their culture and for the sake of the group.
The devil in this soul harvesting is not an entity, but rather a spirit which can be imagined as a fake smile on a business manager’s face. You know it is a mask that they wear, and they know your grinning and nodding agreement in return is a forced pleasantry that hides shame, guilt, and perhaps a choking back of the tears of your acquiescence.
The herd then know they are bound together and as such they are keen to recruit others to join them, to prevent comparisons being made to the free. Like some sort of cancerous growth in healthy tissue, they consume unsuspecting outsiders, and for those that do not join a sting in the tail awaits. They will try nicely to gain apprentices to their particular trade but if they fail then that individual is put through increasingly difficult trials of ostracizing and shunning, until they are openly attacked for not joining, and maybe physically abused once all verbal, written, and economic avenues are exhausted.