Satan As Father Confessor

Due to recent conversations, I've come to a conscious realisation of a thing about myself, by which I mean to say it is something I knew was true, but which I didn't really have as a top-level apprehension, so much as an univestigated fact. That thing, which will probably come as no surprise to many of you, is "If you want to learn anything you want to know about me, talk to me on any instant messenger client, at 2am." I mean, there are other ways to learn what you want to know, but when I'm in that state it's damn near guaranteed.

And I was talking to unknownbinaries about it, last night, and I came to understand what might be the mechanism of this and something else: Confessional. The lateness of the hour produces and altered mindset, a rarified mental space, wherein more of that which is open and-- yeah, I'll say it-- sacred can be shared and interconnected. This is accentuated by the lack of face-to-face contact because the removal of the body language vector of communication affects us in a profound way.

At first blush, we might think that this is due to not having to look the people we know in the eye as we tell them the deepest darkest parts of ourselves, but it's not just that. It's also the fact that, with the lack of this communication vector, we feel the deeper need to share more, to give an increased level of detail and openness, in order to compensate for that which is missing. The confessional booth utilises this, as well, and the trust of a Priest or other confessor is accentuated by the Need For Them To Understand What We're Really Trying To Say.

It makes me wonder if therapy sessions might not benefit from some appropriation of the form.