Suffering in the Lower Spheres

QUESTION: The souls in the lower spheres are supposed to suffer much pain. How is it then that Lucifer, who is the worst of all evil spirits, does not seem to suffer? Is this just?

ANSWER: You human beings always think that there is nothing worse than pain. Yet there is something worse, namely the stage before a soul is able to feel pain. When you feel pain, you are already a step closer to God. I should like to explain this to you, so that you can sense the magnificence of creation, and see how the dark forces must ultimately play into God’s hands.

I will give you this example: Lucifer has his henchmen; in his realm too there is a hierarchy of very powerful and less powerful beings. If such a powerful henchman fails to fulfill a task that has been assigned to him—possibly to deter a human being from following his path to God, because the human being used his free will to resist temptation—he will lose more and more of his power, until he himself will be tortured by his fellow evil spirits. And he who finds himself in extreme pain must come closer to God, since it is then that his need for God is greatest. Thus, the “lower” he sinks in the dark spheres, the “higher” he actually rises. The farther removed he is from pain, the greater the inner disharmony; and Lucifer is in the greatest disharmony. The greater the disharmony, the more strongly the inner currents will need to harmonize. This continues until such beings reach the point where they can increase their inner harmony even without pain. Later, the overcoming of various resistances will replace the pain, until eventually not even the struggle against resistance will be necessary. All of you can get an inkling of this process when you remember how much closer to inner harmony you are when you experience clean pain than when you are not really in pain but feel upset, rebellious, and torn in many directions, possessed by very disharmonious feelings. Therefore, the more the laws of God extend their influence, the fewer henchmen will Lucifer eventually have.

- Quote taken from Pathwork Guide Lecture #2 Decisions and Tests