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Perception, Inception and the Trojan Horse Money Meme - Part Two of Four
Perception, Inception and the Trojan Horse Money Meme
Chapter Two of Four
Perception Deception
By
Cognitive Dissonance
The intent of this essay is not to convince the reader of anything other than the need to expand our depth perception of the consensus reality. Consider this essay as an invitation to think free of constraints. Chapters One (here) and Two (here) explore our distorted and manipulated perception of reality while Chapter Three (here) examines the concept of Inception or the implanting of thought or belief memes into our individual minds and our collective culture. Chapter Four (here) discusses a basic roadmap to the expansion of our perceived reality.
This I Can Do, That I Cannot.
We might not think about it this way, but early on in our collective conditioning we are taught the difference between real and not. Yet the line of demarcation between the two is blurry at times. My GI Joe make-believe soldier with the Kung Fu grip was most assuredly real, but my invisible make-believe friend was not. This confused me as a child because from my point of view I didn’t need a physical object to focus my imagination, thus my invisible friend was just as real as the GI Joe.
Actually my friend was more real to me because he was extremely flexible and changeable like ‘real’ people, whereas GI Joe (I called him GI Jack just to be different which infuriated my brother) was always just a plastic solider with a useless hand. Unless, of course, I borrowed some female doll clothes from my sister’s collection for some gender bending. But that’s another story.
Essentially the only difference between the two was that one had a physical presence in the real world. I could project my imagination upon the physical GI-Joe and that was considered OK or ‘real’ simply because my imagination had a physical receptacle or focus, thus grounding me and my imagination in the real world. But projecting my imagination upon a non physical entity was not OK or real because……why exactly? What is it with this narrow minded obsession with all things physically ‘real’ in relation to my non physical consciousness?
What are we afraid of discovering here? Why confine my limitless imagination to those things that are considered grounded in the real world? Why do we insist that only those things that have a physical presence are real? Do we need a physical presence to embody or reflect our projected consciousness in order for both the object and our consciousness to be considered real? Or is a physical presence not made real unless it is embodied by or projected by our consciousness?
We are assured that everything on the outside is real and all that comes from within is not. We tell each other that by studying hard we will make our individual reality ‘better’ through more valuable work, but that working on the inner journey is a waste of time and just plain crazy. And because this is a widely shared belief, for the most part we buy into this meme to the detriment of our inner peace and awareness. But as I will continue to illustrate, in many instances it’s not ‘real’ until we believe that it is real. Does our belief create reality or does reality cause us to believe?
The obvious inference here is that without that education our experienced reality will not be as pleasant as it would be with the higher more specialized training. Likewise, many cultures believe that by finding a soul mate or life partner we will experience a richer, fuller life than if we remain single and ostensibly unhappy. There are countless other examples, but this all begs a question. Are we happier or not, better off or not, simply because this condition is real or because we change our reality to match our conditioned expectations and those with whom we share our reality?
Living Inside the Placebo Effect As a reminder, we ended Chapter One discussing the placebo effect and the ‘will’ to live. Essentially a random 5% to 10% of the population appears to be able to ‘heal’ or ‘feel better’ simply because we believe we are receiving drugs or other types of treatment that will help us. This is believed in spite of the fact that we are not being ‘drugged’ or treated in the pharmacological or medical sense, but rather only psychologically. In addition, when modern medicine has nothing left to offer us we are often reminded by the doctor that it all comes down to the patient’s ‘will to live’, as if to say our ‘will’ is a physical force to be reckoned with. In other words it seems that when we perceive something so strongly that we believe it is ‘real’, we then appear to create a physical reality that mimics our belief. And furthermore, that the active ingredient in this reality creation is the degree or intensity of our belief. If we hold doubt or reservation the creative force is weak or nonexistent. If our belief is strong and unquestioning, whether by subterfuge or honest origin, the creative force is more powerful. So, are we happy or sad because we are in fact happy or sad or because we believe being happy or sad is what we should be experiencing and thus we act in a manner that fulfills our belief and expectation? I’ve often wondered if we create our own reality via the placebo effect with near 100% efficacy. If you think this through, so much of our day is spent interacting with people, places and things which we never question or doubt. We completely and universally accept as ‘real’ everything around us and brush off any outliers with little to no thought. This is the Gold standard in faith and belief, completely accepting at face value and without examination or reservation what we see, hear or touch. In fact, we would consider anyone who does question ‘reality’ to be mentally ill and unstable. Yet we live in a world where so many individuals and entities are furiously creating alternative realities right in front of our eyes. This is accomplished with substantial help from the control system and various authorities, public myth keepers and other wizards and warlocks. This dream weaving or reality creation appears to be real only because it is accepted as real by the majority, not because it actually is real. So how can something not real co-exist with something that is real? Do we create our own physical reality simply by the strength of our belief which is often measured by our force of will?
A Reality Not Realized
Our consumer culture has conditioned many to believe happiness can only be found in certain consumer goods. Yet one third of the population is taking mood and/or perception altering drugs (pain killers, anti-psychotics etc) and two thirds use legal or illegal mood altering compounds such as alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, ecstasy, even food. This doesn’t sound like happy little consumers to me.
All those advertisements appear to be selling me a dream or a belief, not reality. Maybe what they’re really selling me are expectations or what I like to call deception perceptions. Perhaps I’m being emotionally managed rather than just being sold physical goods and services. I suspect those objects are symbols of an altered reality that those in power are desperate for us to believe are real. And the failure of that sales promotion is presenting as a self medicating population yearning to escape from the insanity. Many years ago I learned about the power of a belief not realized and I suspect this is why so many of us are waiting around to die.
Sixteen years ago I received a phone call from a client who I had worked with for over five years. She was ecstatic and talked so quickly I could barely understand her. She was on her way to the lottery headquarters where she would claim her half of the top prize of $11 million and wanted to know what she should do. I gave her some instructions and told her to stop by when she was done. Three hours later she and her husband came in and she looked like she’d been run over by a truck. Somehow she had made a mistake and had misread one number, missing the top prize.
But her near miss did qualify her for the full second place payout, still a very respectable half million dollars. While I assured her that because of her windfall she could accelerate her retirement by 5 years and never work another day starting today, she was distraught and inconsolable. This formerly happy and loving individual never recovered emotionally, divorcing two years later and dying a broken and bitter woman within the decade.
What happened here? Her experienced reality was clearly influenced by her emotional state and her perception of an alternative reality ‘missed’ as much as by the money she actually won and her early retirement. So which reality was the real reality? She was physically and mentally ‘healthy’ up to the point where she failed to realize an alternative reality that wasn’t ‘real’ to begin with. She had never actually won half of the top prize, but instead had only thought she had. When her imagined reality failed to materialize in the ‘real’ world she crumbled.
How did her emotional state affect her body to the point where it seems to have killed her? Did she lose the will to live? How can it be our ‘will’ if we aren’t actually aware we’re utilizing it on a daily basis? And if we can lose our will to live, can we gain more of it simply by force of our will? I’m not just playing with words here. While science does recognize an emotional and physical connection between the body and the mind, the death certificate listed the cause of her death as myocardial infarction. On second thought I guess they were right. She did die from a broken heart.
Making our Reality Fresh Every Day
Are we currently experiencing a financial depression because many of us are out of work and the financial system is collapsing? Or is all of this happening because we believe we’re experiencing a financial depression or collapse? This isn’t a play on words, but a serious examination of what ‘makes’ reality ‘real’. While many claim they never saw the banking collapse coming, the collective doubt within many people about the wisdom of liar, no doc and walking dead/zombie loans was steadily rising until it peaked in 2008.
I’m not talking about ‘official’ pronouncements by the political and financial wizards that Happy Days were here again, which we repeatedly heard during the real estate run up and collapse, but about what was and still is going on in the collective gut of the population. Contrary to popular belief there is a common sense of understanding among the people, often referred to as the collective consciousness. But the wizards convince us to ignore it. Actually seduce is a better word to use here because it exposes our active participation in the process.
By ignoring the inner warning bells and our gut instinct, the insanity builds to levels higher than if it were to burn off naturally. The average Joe knew deep down inside that something was seriously wrong even as s/he piled on more and more debt. The banking magicians and government enablers told us what we wanted to hear to help quell the growing inner doubt. Sounds like moral hazard for the average Joe, doesn’t it? And the same thing is happening again in ever quickening cycles.
The entire basis for the Fed’s daily POMO spell casting is simplicity itself. The financial wizards and political warlocks are pumping massive amounts of computer generated money into a financial system that’s based entirely upon the willingness of the people to participate in it (surrender to it) in order for it to be sustained. In effect people must suspend disbelief and believe in the currency and the financial and political wizards to keep the balloon inflating. Have you ever really thought about the juice, the power, behind the term ‘moral suasion’ with regard to the Fed?
This sounds more like (science) fiction than ‘reality’ to me. In fact it appears to be very similar to watching a television program. To apply critical or logical thought to our ‘real’ time soap opera reality show would ruin the whole thing. In fact maybe that’s where we get our conditioning and training from, which in turn prepares us to live in our ‘real’ 3D world. You know, that fully immersive 50” flat screen LCD 3D surround sound real world simulator called our TV.
The masters of the universe are trying to restore ‘confidence’ in a make believe financial system through reality distortion techniques. And they expend considerable time and effort to convince us our economic world is ‘real’. They understand better than anyone else that it is our belief that makes it real, not their machinations. By artificially inflating the financial markets, thus demonstrating to the masses that the stock market and economy is improving, they are trying to signal that the economy is getting better to evoke a specific, call it positive, placebo effect response in the masses.
This in turn (we are told) will improve the population’s attitude and thus the behavior of the masses. We will then begin to act as if the depression has ended. Confidence restored, the now invigorated consumer spends even more money we don’t have, but we will earn in the future from our work, thus ending the depression. This then assures everyone there will be enough work for all to continue the process. And they claim this is reality. Actually it sounds more like mass hypnotism or a collective trance to me.
If when reading the various Fed speeches and economist position papers you were to strike out all the numerical mumbo jumbo, what it all comes down to is a massive psychological operation being perpetrated upon not only the American people but the global village. The masters of the universe are essentially admitting that continued economic growth is entirely dependent upon the perception of you and me that ‘reality’ (as measured and thus validated by GDP and all that economic mumbo jumbo) can be altered simply by wanting it to be so. In other words, they recognize that our reality flows from our perception and/or belief and not the other way around.
To Be (Real) or Not To Be (Real), That Is The Question
One can point to shelves of books full of all the theory and history you wish in order to ‘prove’ that by doing this or that the economy will improve. But every reading I apply to economic theory tells me it is all about manipulation of public perception in order to create a different reality. The numbers and history are simply trotted out in order to ‘prove’ to us that their psychological operation is actually well researched economic policy, thus giving us a reason to believe it is ‘real’. It is belief that moves the economic mountain, not reality.
Even the term ‘depression’ is based upon an emotional condition or perceived reality. In fact before the 1900’s depressions and recessions were called ‘panics’, an even more severe form of emotional expression. While the financial wizards assure us it’s all quantifiable and thus ‘real’, it all sounds like warlock black magic or wizardry spell casting when seen from a distance. And in many ways it is.
Does the reader remember a well known economic warlock telling us a while back that our economic problems were caused by a collective psychological depression and that if only we would straighten up and fly right all would be fine? While he was roundly derided here on Zero Hedge as well as in dozens of other publications and blogs I contend that in many respects he was speaking the truth. He was telling us that our perception and belief creates our shared reality.
Read the last few paragraphs again and show me anything ‘real’ other than our reactions to various promoted perceptions and beliefs. It sounds to me like emotion, which drives perception and belief, is creating reality and not the other way around. Our economy, our financial system, is ‘real’ solely because we believe it is real. Withdraw our belief, our consent to continue to participate, and we collapse this portion of our shared reality faster than residual winter snow piles on a warm spring day.
In effect we influence our experienced reality by our consensual participation in the only reality we ‘know’ via education, marriage, work, money usage, voting, religious worship, whatever. All these actions require our consent, regardless of whether it’s ‘real’ or fake consent, consensual or commanded. I emphasize fake or commanded consent because whether we agree to participate, or are forced to participate, we still believe what we are participating in is ‘real’.
For example, while we may not agree to the corruption that is a part of the financial and political system, and we may actively push back by buying precious metals or removing deposits from too-big-to-fail banks, we still believe what we are experiencing is real. In fact direct resistance is actually a signal or sign that we have bought into the consensus reality because we would only actively oppose something we believe to be real. We don’t actively oppose ghosts because we don’t believe they are real.
We are told that we can’t change the overall (control) system and that we either conform to the shared understanding or we will be rejected by the collective to become scum on the streets, unwanted and ignored by our fellow reality projectors/projections. Only the masters of the universe, our so-called elite leadership, can make social policy and change the system. This belief is pounded into us as that portion of our experienced reality that is fixed and immovable. This is the illusion that maintains the consensus reality and the elites.
Don’t Think About Pink Elephants
So which is it? Can we change our reality or not? It seems to me that we’re experiencing a massive Cognitive Dissonance on a daily basis by believing there are some things we can change and some we cannot. Yet because it is a shared dissonance that’s considered an immutable part of reality, rarely do we attempt to change it let alone question it. That cob of corn, my two year old Camry and my mother-in-law can all be changed, albeit some easier than others. But the too-big-to-fail banks, the Fed, SEC, FINRA, the Ponzi, our fraudulent fiat currency, political system and corporations I cannot. You just can’t fight city hall after all, right?
But what about the ability of the powers that be and the elite to change what we consider to be unchangeable? They most certainly believe they can change reality on a massive scale and they regularly do so using propaganda, moral suasion, regulation and liberal doses of the heavy hand via various social control systems. When you think about this carefully how does the elite 2% control the other 98%? Force might work for a while, but eventually the beaten mule breaks down and dies. What’s needed over the long term is a self motivated mule that feeds clothes and disciplines itself with only the occasional need for a poke in the ribs to keep him on the straight and narrow.
In order to accomplish this, our perceptual environment must be carefully controlled, massaged and manipulated. Aberrant thought and non-conformity must be repressed or eliminated. In a control system that requires consent as the active ingredient, there is little room for deviant thought and malcontent’s spoiling the programming of the compliant majority. In this positive feedback loop the need for control and therefore consent (willing or commanded) must eventually grow exponentially. This is why we see both the Ponzi and government repression and coercion ramping up at a frightening pace. When consent is not willingly given, it must be commanded
So the question needs to be asked. Why is it that the vast majority of people reject as impossible the very process that’s applied quite effectively to them? While their ‘money’ and ‘power’ certainly gives them some leverage, not as much leverage as our 98 to 2 advantage. It is our conditioning and shared perception that somehow it is in our own self interest to remain isolated and narrow minded that stifles us, holding us back from utilizing the very same reality distortion techniques that control us. What else can explain the population’s embrace of a reality that is not in our own best interest, either collectively or individually, but is in the best interest of our controllers and abusers?
And In Turn They Are Both Manipulated
Stockholm Syndrome
We act as pawns and willing tools for the magician on stage who calls for volunteers from the audience. Regardless of whether we actually self select for direct magical manipulation or remain safely in our seats, we are all still part of the overall illusion. The magic act requires active and passive believing participants and observers in order to be successful. In fact the active participants, by their involvement, help convince the passive that what they are experiencing is real.
This is similar to the escape artist asking audience members to come on stage and check the chains and locks. The participants from the audience prove the illusion is not an illusion, but rather real by affirming the bindings are genuine. Because we allow ourselves to be seduced, often by our fellow trance members who in turn have been conditioned for decades in what is and is not real, we willing disarm ourselves and then become compliant and passive tools of those who abuse us because we believe it is all real and unchangeable.
A carefully reading and understanding of exactly what the Stockholm Syndrome is as well as the dynamics behind the abuser-abused codependency and bonding phenomenon help us to appreciate that an altered reality presented under controlled conditions can produce people willing to participate in their own demise and contrary to their own best interest.
We respond to the wizard’s manipulations because we’ve been conditioned all our lives to believe they are all powerful. Or more to the point that we are powerless, consequently we need them in order to survive. In reality the wizards are simply convincing us to distort our own reality because we believe they have the power and we don’t. Thus we hand over our ‘real’ power to them when told to do so primarily through the skilful use of fear via a multitude of fear based programs/memes by the hand of government and its various religious, corporate, individual and state (foreign and domestic) agents.
And remember that because the vast majority of the population is passive and apathetic they are essentially out of the game and sidelined, thus they become the bulk of the believing herd that is easily manipulated. This means the 2% do not need to control the remaining 98%, but rather just 10% or at most 20% of the population. Tragically this 10%-20% consists of those who fully buy into the shared reality, i.e. the audience participants from the earlier example, and the evidence for this is that we actively participate using the only ‘real’ tools we are told are available.
Please come up on stage and confirm these chains (tools such as wealth, political power, corruption, influence) are real. To engage the master using the master’s tools in the master’s game under the master’s rules is worse than useless because it simply reinforces the master’s power to create the illusion. They run a rigged game in which only a fool or the insane would participate. Or those sufficiently hypnotized to believe what they are told is real.
In Chapter Three we will explore the Inception or implantation of the basic thought memes and beliefs that form our reality.
05-10-2011
Cognitive Dissonance
Wall Street Salutes Those Who Are About To Die.
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"THEY"RE BRAINWASHING US"
Lol, Irony is, TPTB have been "brainwashing" the masses with the physical world (K-12 education system) during the minds most pliable stage: youth. Its not as if my grade 9 physics teacher was Oprah or Jim Cramer. You don't need 98% of that youth to become physicists, engineers, etc...but the fact remains the real world was soundly rejected despite TPTB's best efforts to cram it down their throat...and it still remains soundly rejected by 98% of ZH'ers who I'm afraid say are inclined to go hillbilly with their silly silver stashes. Running around chasing after silver won't fix anything, try blowing the dust off the textbooks instead.
"silly silver stashes."
That is funny, as textbooks are what brought me to start accumulating silver. I believe in the fundamental data represented in the periodic table exponentially more than any financial report regardless of author. When you bet on silver you are betting that the ability to transport electrons efficiently is a trait that will continue to be valued by human beings.
You are betting that the demand for such an element will increase while the supply decreases. Until the known laws of physics are proven false, I will continue to accumulate silver. Noted: I do not have the same conviction for gold.
I didn't realize that some people simply do not have the intelligence to perform certain tasks until I started my own company. This, after being a chemical engineer for 20+ years. I was optimistic that anyone, with enough studying and dedication could in fact be whatever they wanted to be. The unfortunate reality is that 98% of the population does not have the smarts to to become a physicist or engineer. Does that mean that they can not be happy? Hell no, but they better ignore 98% of what the media is saying. Oh yeah, and YES we need more trade schools. We had a much better system 20 years ago, why do administrator and leaders (all who should be fired) insist on fucking up a working system?
The entire planet needs to have an honest discussion about what real value is and how people who add real value to other people's lives should be the ones receiving the greatest compensation. I know my employees and I will add value no matter what. hence, I say crash the fucking system, crash it now. the sooner we do, the sooner compensation will find its way back to people who are actually worth a shit.
In a Ponzi world the only person who adds 'value' is the person that perpetuates or expands the Ponzi. Everyone else need not apply.
Thank you for adding your thoughtful insight and experience to the comment section. It's needed.
Well, you've hit the nail right on the head. This educated hillbilly who has diversified with silver into gold, lead, seed, solar and wind will definitely need some textbooks, I am not sure I will be able to get www.khanacademy.org when TSHTHF. I think a kindle might work though... we have to pack light you know.
Not all conviction as yours is logic. I am sure your educated enough to claim your view at your expense only. I have learned forbearance enough to avoid your kind of appraising. Please list your services as to avoid.
Anyway, I enjoyed the article CD.
There is power in fear if you embrace it and allow it to change into what you need. Fearlessness is what we can have and I see it on ZH tonight. Material things don't mean a fucking thing. It's ALL smoke, mirrors and window dressing. We CAN control our existence and take back the power...if we so choose.
Fearlessness comes only after you contemplate the worst and then realize or decide it is okay. Then you find an amazing source of strength and determination.
*duplicated*
Great article, lots of food for thought.
I think reality is one; and it is not nice or ugly, good or bad, fair or unfair. It has intrinsically a set of rules.
Humans possess a brain and once we gain awareness questions start. We are naturally curious and try to understand our surroundings, usually by manipulation, experimentation, repetition and feedback with our senses.
Now I see most of Nature as chaotic. Not in a random way, but as a sense of the complex dynamics that arise from the interaction of infinite variables changing all the time.
From this chaos, a chaotic behavior arises. Spontaneously, this apparent chaos is bounded and has an order. This awkward phenomenon of order within chaos is called emergence.
I see emergence in the markets, current African/Arab revolutions, weather. All these are complex phenomenons. Our brain is trained to observe "patterns". Here the technical analysis of stock market trends or prices is a good example of the patterns our brains perceive within the chaos. Throw into it the fibonacci series, and you get even more magical numbers that repeat all over nature, like the golden ratio: you will find it in the Greek Parthenon and in your body proportions. Rabbit populations, etc.
We have managed to grasp some of the complex rules into math equations. Those genereally are physical formulae. Later we learn that formulae are an approximation of physical phenomenon and we express them mathematically. Abstract tools invented by human beings to explain our physical world.
Later came Quantum Theory. Everything went beserk. All physical matter has a degree of uncertainty. Schröedinger Cat is dead or not, well both are true until we decide to look. Does it makes sense?
We changed from observers to participants. We accepted our representation of reality was not unique, deterministic and repetitive, but probabilistic. Yet we continue to use century old equations because from our relative point of reference, they still work.
Look around, chances are, you are using a computer. An almost impossible machine to become by itself from a Supernova explosion or volcano eruption, yet we were capable to build and reproduce without flaw. Millions of tiny transistors that turn on and off rythmically, like our heart beating, but transistors are semiconductors which their behaviour are those bound to the quantum physics of electrons flowing through its substrates. This is how a non-existent object became thanks to human thought and manipulation of reality. The paragon of precision, operated by the probabilities of quantum mechanics. Isn't this a contradiction?
"welcome to the desert of the real" ... the "masters of the universe" are not masters at all, they are servants to beings our cultural conditioning will not let us accept. it started in sumer, went to egypt, and got shuffled around until parts of it landed in some temple. templars got it and gave it to some monarchs where it evolved into the crown corporation who built a handy military in the US. also happen to manage the civilized money supply and have been rapidly expanding said base in order to...as l. blankenstein says "do god's work" in other words save the human race from the ensuing planetary chaos resulting from the arrival of a brown dwarf star and satellite systems code named comet elenin. watch out in october. the ptb need to keep the masses lulled into oblivion while they build many deep underground military bases. financial distraction, celebrity distraction, war distraction, radiation distraction, oil distraction. dont be distracted. love in the heart, eyes wide open. hoard gold because "they" want it. why were we created in the first place?
Another great essay CD!
Have you read Jordan Maxwell?
He wrote a brilliant essay called The Magic of Society.
He expands deeply into what you are discussing.
I wish i could toss up a link but cant find one easily.
I'm pretty sure Jeremy Bentham conveyed a similar concept in Panopticon...the prison which requires no guards because the prisoners control themselves and each other.
Also, the Tao Te Ching categorizes leaders in the following way: the best is the leader who the people doesn't know is leading, the next best is the leader people love, then the leader they respect, then the leader they fear. Since the government can no longer command the respect of any thinking person, the only way left for them is fear. The use of force inside the country will no doubt become increasingly pervasive and naked as living conditions continue to deteriorate.
I remember well the first conversation I had that really challenged all the nice certainties I had from my parents, my suburban upbringing, school and college (unsurprisingly, NOT a conversation with an American). I remember how angry and hurt I felt. Since then I've become more and more aware and there's plenty to be angry about. Swimming against the current is difficult, and painful, and likely won't result in economic or social success. Once my eyes were open, though, I found "going with the flow" was no longer possible without a steady supply of drugs.
Now, slowly, I am learning to listen to my heart and the wisdom I always knew but am still barely conscious of. I quit my bullshit job and will learn to grow organic food. That's real.
....Since then I've become more and more aware and there's plenty to be angry about. Swimming against the current is difficult, and painful, and likely won't result in economic or social success. Once my eyes were open, though, I found "going with the flow" was no longer possible without a steady supply of drugs.....
Awareness is certainly not an easy process. From my personal experience it alienates you from the world that most of your family and firends live in. To some degree i have had to develop a personal "interface", a way to play nice with those i care about yet percieve the default view of reality.
Awareness is certainly not an easy process.
My personal journey over the last few years has been a classic case of two steps forward, one step back. I am constantly struggling to disengage myself from the droning noise of nonsense being spewed by the Machine. My struggle is that I find myself being drawn to the noise whenever something happens, whether it is real or manufactured. At least ZH provides a new base of sanity when the Machine terrorizes me.
Thank you CD. I look forward to reading the next two chapters.
When under stress we tend to revert back to our basic programming.
"Upon encountering error, return to source code for error correction protocols. Have a nice day."
I know what you mean, all it takes is one little spiritual epiphany and people start calling ya crazy..
i dont understand...
Thinking is the hardest thing in the world to do.
That is why so few people do it.
And even when we think we are thinking so often we are not. Instead we are regurgitating what we have been fed or continuously playing old programming tapes again and again and again.
So often when talking to people they will recall this or that citation or quote or saying. When I ask them if they have any original thoughts their eyes go blank, then they usually get very angry.
I'm no longer invited to social gatherings, particularly if they will be serving booze. I seem to trigger people, especially those whom I triggered in the past. :>)
"I am not the program, I am not the programmer, I am not the programming, I am not the programmed..." -- Dr. John C. Lily, "Center of the Cyclone"
... I guess I will have to acknowledge credit to Emerson and Ford...
;-)
On the other hand, often you can come to a great deduction/conclusion, and then find that some-one else has already said it first, and better.
I have nothing original to say. Only the manner in which it is said. This is actually more important than it appears at first glance. How many times have we heard something over and over again....and then suddenly, after hearing it one more time phrased in a different manner, it all comes together.
My one hope is to be that trigger. All my personal 'evolutionary' jumps occurred in this way. I suspect it is the same for most people.
Be the trigger. This is why we must continue to talk about the insanity. It can not be talked about enough.
If you haven't thought about it yet, you should turn this whole thing into a Kindle Single. Google it if you don't know what it is. I'd love to buy it and keep it on my Kindle as it's very thought provoking.
You're an excellent writer.
definitely, would be cool to provide CD with an alternative source of income so he can spend more time reading, less time grinding :), could we do it for him?
Long time reader recent commenter.
Fear is all they have. If the masses ever overcome fear the 2% are essentially powerless. While the 2% can offer violence agaist an individual or a small group the greater mass of humanity is immune to them except when infected with fear.
9/11 is a great example. instead of standing tall and stating that we as free men fear no aggressor (yes, i know that time is long past), we cowered in fear of the scary brown men from across the ocean. TPTB would not have it any other way.
Before an individual can begin self exploration like CD suggests, they must first overcome the fear of disturbing their own reality, and that is a very powerful fear. Have you ever seen a religious "true believer" lose their faith? It is a very trying process as they must redefine their enitre reality.
A question most people don't know.
What is the opposite of love?
...fear
If you are feeling fear you cannot feel love.
If you can not feel love you are isolated.
I call it the Fear Factor.
I am continuously amazed how disjointed and nonsensical my so called worldview (aka reality) is and I've been working on understanding it for years. In fact one of the reasons I started writing was I suddenly realized that we all walk around thinking we have things pretty well figured out when what we really have are hundreds or thousands of tiny little 'facts' or 'beliefs' or 'hopes' floating around in one huge mishmash that really makes no sense when we try to put it all together.
Sitting down and putting it 'on (computer) paper' forces me to disturb my own reality by recognizing that I really don't have a 'belief' per se, just tiny little pieces of disconneted information that I pull up when needed to feel better about myself or to explain away a cognitive dissonance or to cower behind in fear.
This is why we love our TV. It plays out prepackaged and reasonably well constructed narratives for us (that at least meet the plausible threshold) that we can call our own for 30 or 60 minutes. Then it's off to the next 60 minute fantasy worldview for some quailty reality digestion.
I find all those tiny facts make sense when combined with a fully conspiratorial worldview.
if you believe the government is lying to you so they can control you, then most every fun fact falls into place, from Au to Aliens.
CD
I am but an eternal explorer trying my best to understand reality for what it is, not what i want it to be or am told it is. My solution to challenging my intiail reality was to become agnostic. I do not claim to understand reality and am willing to consider almost any point of view on the subject. By doing so i feel that i gain from the experience whether i end up agreeing or disagreeing with any given point of view / fact snipet. The most powerful statement i have ever made is I Don't Know.
The more i learn the less i know. Thank you for the thoughtful articles. I look forward to the rest.
There are very few things that I can claim to KNOW, with no reservations -- they are also inexplicable!
I often talk about an inner knowing as opposed to an external affirmation. From Chapter Three.
Because external affirmation feels good. Like the kid being told their doing a 'good job' by their parents.
No one says anything if your talking to yourself.
Your strange, weird, or other. Outside of the group. Alone. Conformity can feel really good at times. Isolation less so as you are constantly have to forum your own understanding and interpretations of events, its quite time consuming too. With external authority (lecturer, boss, family, government, etc), you don't have to put in the work, 'others' who specialise in such things will 'take care of it', and we can focus on the important things.
The one part of this that troubles me, is that I can some a place for authority figures. I go a train in the dojo because my teacher has dedicated his life to training. I can see and feel that when I train with him. I go to my local bike shop to ask advice on how to change my brake pads as they are friendly and willing to help out. I went to my preacher at school, as I knew he was a good person and constantly helped me out when I got in trouble, he never made me read the Bible, but said if I ever had questions he was there to help. I go to a doctor when I am sick. Sometimes they help, other times they have made me more sick. Can't win them all I suppose BUT the muppets who gave me random drugs I will not go back to, whereas the Scotsman who told me the drugs were a completely waste of time and that I should just tough it out (the Scottish cure for most things :P) I will do.
The difference for me is that I choose who is a relevant source of information. When I was talking with my massage therapist about the ills of British politics/business culture, her conclusion was that politics is inherently fucked, and their is nothing we can do about it. Her exact words were 'thats just the way business or politics IS' which links in with CD is saying in his essay. Like its been this way since time immortal. :P
Eagerly awaiting your choice of an avatar.
Missed you
Perception is reality
That phrase is the title of the first section of Chapter One posted yesterday. The entire 4 part series was started with that phrase because it is so important.
Chapter One of Four: http://www.zerohedge.com/article/perception-inception-and-trojan-horse-money-meme
Perception of reality :
It is the foundation of thinking in western civilization : Gordian knot cutting. You now discuss/perceive the down side of western reductionist thinking; of its avowed ability to forget the holistic nature of the 'real' world beyond our physical perception, but ever present somewhere in our spiritual mind's eye. Making this 'practical' choice is in essence the dividing line between Occident and Orient. Western civilization, in its mainstream rationalist version, incarnated by Socrates/Plato/Aristotle and their scientific sons through the ages, chose to privilege action based on concrete perception and subsequent intellectual deduction to feed human action/endeavour, over reflection and introspection; which feeds the spiritual inner core of man. This choice, as epitomized by the Gordian knot incident, whose very summary execution by Alexander refutes in essence the existential symbolism of 'undoing' the knot, thought to be beyond human skill and thus situated in the complex domain of the holistic, irrational, mystical Oriental thinking, instills in western civilization the no nonsense 'hands on' approach to problem solving so prevalent subsequently in western thinking. The USA today carries this 'positivist' philosophy to its extreme materialistic limits by its commitment to the consumer age fed on capitalist model, now in crisis. Whence the retreat by people like CD and others in ZH to alternative visions of what reality is and how it can also be manipulated by 'yes we can' spin doctors, to achieve their personal agendas. Thus betraying the initial mantra of general good that the Founding fathers bequeathed us.
Thus your current introspection reflects the general 'desamore' with the decadent strain of western civilization as personified by the post war administrations of the US hegemony age (MIC/ WS feudalism/ 'psy-ops' manipulation etc) and resulting downward social spiral.
To now embark on a group think about what is perception and what is reality is an interesting intellectual voyage in itself. But it should not blind us to the basic pragmatic and 'hands on' trend which is the hall mark of our thinking. We should never become the willing victims of the nebula of oriental thinking that has not managed to define, in three thousand years, a political project or mind set, anchored in time, on a consistent and evolutionary basis, to guide humanity. This in itself is our civilization's greatest blessing. Let us not junk it. Despite the hard times ahead. As it is always easy to slide down the hill of obscurantism and so much harder to climb the steep arid road of collective progress, pursuit of happiness; our fragile thread of learning always taut at breaking point, like the chord of 'Premier de Cordée'.
Remember the lessons of Machiavelli : when an age of religious certitudes dies and an age of corrupt human practice exemplified by the Prince and 'reasons of state' emerges. It was not the end of human progress. I don't think that our current decadence will stop men from learning from the rot that has set in, psy-ops or no psy-ops; a big brother, networked, manipulated, Internet controlled, central planned society only leads to one place in the end: radical change! Never say never!
Having said that, may the intellectual games go on! I apologize from my archaic pedantisme. I was short on good wine last night!
Thank you for the post.
There is a difference between what I was discussing, that 'perception is reality' and what you are discussing, the 'perception of reality'.
Yes, well I caught up with the wine this morning!
Was it not you that posted that wonderful quote?
Something like 'Write while drunk, edit while sober'. I loved it. :>)
Testify, brother!
We respond to the wizard’s manipulations because we’ve been conditioned all our lives to believe they are all powerful
So true CD as the western world looks at duality instead of the one Principle, this duality form of thinking scatters the forces (consiousness) and in turn man cannot hold his mind in accord. Similar to summer and winter which are not two things but phase's of one nature, winter is as essential to the growth of vegetation as is summer yet western mind bending see's duality not two phase's of a single process. We can go back through time and recall conditioning process's that continue today (just a different media) where the wizards understood the division of the mind thru symbolism and as we know today, the western world has yet to work through the completeness of all symbols.
What a great achievement that would be--can you imagine what would be accomplished, hell energy consumption would be 90% less and used for better and greater purpose's instead of being dissipated in efforts to take away from the other fellow what he needs for himself.
The truly Great never have to go out and take away. So few they are.
Looking forward to part 3 sir
All the manipulators need to do is keep us focused on the end of our nose, thus losing all perspective and depth of perception, and we will allow ourselves to be happily led to our own demise.
How do you explain thousands of years of manipulation that is embedded so deeply into our culture that it is our culture. That it infests our language, our social and religious customs, our architecture and law. It's everywhere. Like I said this morning in the part one comment section it must be explained slowly with a small garden sprinkler rather than the 5 inch fire hose.
"Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson", ISBN: 0-670-84125-0, G.I. Gurdjieff
We are self-aware monkeys (with a bit of something extra thrown in!)
CD
I had my crisis of reality during my college years and came out stronger for it. But i know some who have attempted the path and promptly run screaming from the consequences of really questioning your reality.
Not to be too cliche, but a large % of the population simply isnt ready or willing to be unplugged and will fight to maintain the illusion. The idea that everything you ever believed is more or less false is as repulsive to some as it is seductive to others.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXQozTxQSiE
It was the seduction of having my intiial version of reality crushed that lead me down this path. it strikes me that your premise is essentially a modern day version of Plato's The Cave. of course i am no philosopher and did not sleep in a holiday inn last night.
Love that movie. Started reading 'Like a Splinter in Your Mind: The Philosophy Behind the Matrix Trilogy. Really intense but a huge amount of fun.
Just not sure what is 'real' anymore.......
I was not aware of this book. Just ordered it. Thanks.
no worries :)
The secret is in understanding that 100% of 'we the people' do not need to decouple in order for the insanity to end. Stay tuned for Chapter Three tomorrow. An excerpt is above under Crab Cakes comments.
And a nice one it is. Looking forward to it, CD! Thanks for the tough work.
Always nice to see you haunting the comment section under my articles. Thanks for stopping by and showing solidarity.