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The Churches that represent "legitimate" religions are in large part guilty of training people to conform to social norms in order to be a successful religionist rather than seeking Truth and genuine Spiritual understanding.
The Church often raises up their children to be followers, disappoints those followers, and then complains when they start to follow someone or something else and blasts a parallel institution by calling it "cultic".
Lots of problems with that article....
Cults.. Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hindu
are the main forces for socio-religious cultic thinking patterns
They make sure you remain a good sheep
while setting themselves up as the shepard..
Cult-ivating Terror:
A brief analysis of the origins and effects of the cult phenomena in modern society
Joe Quinn
The Oxford English dictionary entry for 'cult'states: 1.a system of religious worship, esp. as expressed in ritual. 2.A devotion or homage to a person or thing. 2b. A popular fashion esp. followed by a specific section of society 3. denoting a person or thing popularised in this way.
It is clear that the above description could easily apply to any of the organised religions prevalent today. Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism (and others) are replete and indeed founded on ritual and "devotion to a person or thing." However, they are not generally referred to as 'cults'. It seems that the term cult, in its modern and widely understood form, is reserved for any group formed under a hierarchical structure, where some form of coercion or manipulation of the group members exists. Generally there is also some focus of worship, be it the group leader(s) or some other outside personage or thing. The justification for worship or allegiance is usually tied to the perceived or stated benefits or potential benefits to be derived from same. (I know, sounds rather like accepted mainstream religions - go figure.)
It seems at a practical level however, that the key element in distinguishing a 'cult' from a mainstream religion is the existence of overt identifiable coercion (physical or mental) or manipulation of members.
Having said that, physical coercion or "attacks on the physical integrity of members" in such groups or 'cults', while not without precedent, is less common, (physical coercion being a more obvious violation of free will and therefore more easily identified). A much more subtle, and for this reason effective form of coercion is intellectual, or more commonly emotional, manipulation. This is generally achieved through the aforementioned worship principle where members are encouraged to give of their time, energy, financial resources etc. in the hope, or with the promise of achieving the stated goal and/or benefits for the individual or group.
Very often the allegation that 'mind control' is used on cult members is made. Proving such a claim is problematic however, since the definition of mind control is broad to say the least. There can be many forms of 'mind control' varying in subtlety, although they are not called by that name (see the mass media coverage of the Gulf war for one example).
In relation to alleged 'cults' it is usually via the observation of the results of 'mind control' that assertions are most often made as to whether it is in use or not in any given group. These results include a, by now, widely known list of supposed 'indicators'. For example: members joining 'communes' giving up possessions, extreme devotion and allegiance to a leader, and in a few cases giving up their lives by way of apparent suicide.
In line with this more practical understanding, Wikipedia.com gives the following definition of Cult:
"Since the 1960s, in English-speaking countries, especially in North America, most English speakers have adopted the term in a pejorative sense to denote groups, many of them with religious themes, that exploit their members psychologically and financially using group-based persuasion techniques (sometimes called "mind control"). Unlike legitimate religious movements, cults are characterized by high levels of dependency, exploitation, and compliance with demands of leadership that are unrelated to religion. 90% or more of cult members ultimately leave the group."
Using the above definition then, we can deduce that 'cults' are groups characterised by "high levels of dependency, exploitation, and compliance with demands of leadership that are unrelated to religion", while legitimate religious movements can supposedly use the same "high levels of dependency, exploitation, and compliance with demands of leadership", as long as they are related to religion.
The problem then is, what defines religion? One commentator suggests the following:
"...religion always begins in an experience that some individual has or that some small group of people shares. The response that this person or group makes to the original experience is what begins the process of interaction between the religion and the community. In extreme cases we can imagine a religion which lived and died unknown to all but the original experiencers, because their response turned inward and never created an interaction with others in the community; or a religion in which the response to the original experience so quickly and completely assimilated it to the traditions of the community that the germinal religion never acquired an independent identity. Most recognizable religions fall somewhere between these extremes, and thus acquire the identity by which we can recognize them.
Religion originates in an attempt to represent and order beliefs, feelings, imaginings and actions that arise in response to direct experience of the sacred and the spiritual. As this attempt expands in its formulation and elaboration, it becomes a process that creates meaning for itself on a sustaining basis, in terms of both its originating experiences and its own continuing responses."
If the true definition of religion is based on "belief that is a direct experience of the sacred and spiritual", then most of today's mainstream religions that are founded on the experience or hearsay of another cannot constitute a valid 'religion' and therefore are in fact not religions at all. They continue nevertheless to retain "high levels of dependency, exploitation, and compliance with demands of leadership", essentially (under the above definition) making them 'cults'.
In spite of this, many groups today define themselves as 'religious' in one way or another and the term certainly has many different meanings for many different people.
For example the watchman fellowship who claim they are "an independent Christian research and apologetics ministry focusing on new religious movements, cults, the occult and the New Age" state that:
"There are many groups operating which engage in the use of deception, fraud, manipulation, coercion, control, and exploitation. The constitutionally protected right of free speech serves as a check and balance against these abuses. When deception, control, and fraud are present, a person's freedom of choice is undermined. It is always right to publicly and privately expose these practices. The one exposing error or abuse has the responsibility to be accurate."
Yet they see no "deception, control, and fraud" when they unilaterally decide to "witness" to unwitting members of the public, presenting a subjective interpretation of a religious text as fact. It is not however our intention here to weigh up the pros and cons of various competing religious organisations.
Essentially there would seem to be two approaches that can be taken when attempting to assess the cult status of a group: One can approach it from a theological point of view or from a sociological point of view.
One religious professor in 1994 well summarized the popular perspectives concerning the identification of "cults" in an online posting, shortly after the tragedy at Waco, that deserves some consideration:
"As a professor of religious studies who specializes in research, writing, and teaching about America's alternative religions, I can tell all of you that the word "cult" has become an essentially contested concept. That is, like many other words, there is no universally agreed-upon meaning.
"Before one can know what the term means one must know the user and his or her context religiously and socially. I tell my students there are four major approaches to using the term: journalistic (tends to be sensational), theological (defines "cult" by some standard of orthodox truth), sociological (uses "cult" to describe groups that self-consciously oppose the mainstream of culture), and psychological (uses a standard of psychological manipulation and coercion).
"What counts as a cult differs by these varying definitions. All three may agree on a certain group being a "cult" such as Jim Jones' "Peoples' Temple." But a theologian might label the LDS church a "cult" simply because it diverges considerably from standard orthodox Christianity, while a sociologist would say it isn't a cult due to its size and influence."
The theological argument seems to hinge upon interpretation of religious texts, with various groups attempting to define the boundaries of what it means to be truly Christian. The argument is unlikely to be resolved any time soon given that none of the warring factors actually possess any conclusive proof.
For example, the theological approach is taken by the Christian countercult movement. It considers the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) a cult because the church rejects the traditional doctrine of the Trinity, has scriptures in addition to the Bible, and has various other unorthodox beliefs and practices.
In the end, size and influence seem to play a major part in deciding which religious group gets awarded 'cult' status. The Catholic Church, for example, has approximately a 2000 year history, 600 million followers around the world, and vast financial resources at its disposal. It seems that this provides all the protection needed from the threat of 'cult headquarters' ever replacing the term 'Vatican' or 'cult leader' the title of 'Pope.'
Rightly or wrongly then, smaller and newly formed religious groups are much more likely to find themselves the object of scrutiny than larger established mainstream religions, regardless of the evidence or lack thereof for provable 'cultic' behavior (if such a thing even exists from the theological point of view). Of course, given the monotheistic nature and monopoly on belief held by the major organised religions, it is certainly plausible that this situation is most acceptable to them, and that they may even contribute to its perpetuation.
In a recent article for the long established Egypt weekly paper 'AL-AHRAM', Jonathan Cook, a British writer living in Nazareth, makes an interesting point about the similarity of the 'mind programming' effects attributed to 'cults' and the effects of mainstream religion (in this case Judaism). He suggests that the reason the persecution of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli military continues unquestioned by the Jewish people is not due to ignorance of the situation but is instead dependent upon various factors, not least of which are the dictates of Judaism, he comments:
"[It depends upon [Jews] passing through an education system that transmits historical and moral values of exclusiveness to the religious and the secular alike: premised for the former on a biblical mission to be realised by God's chosen people; and for the latter on the overriding need to provide a sanctuary for a people blighted by centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust.
It also depends on a military rite of passage to adulthood that cements Israelis to their society, itself perceived as their only protection from a hatred, anti-Semitism, to which -- if they are to believe their teachers, media and government -- every gentile in the world is susceptible. This is their unique fate as Jews -- and Israel is their one and only insurance policy.
Israelis who believe this -- and almost all do -- feel that they have no choice but to submit to the collective good. Not a universal good, one of values shared by all mankind, but a collective good reserved only for Jews.
Talk to Jewish anti-Zionists in Israel -- a tiny number of people, barely reaching four figures out of a total Jewish population of five million -- and most will tell you how hard they struggled to overcome the Zionist training they were given from birth. Many say they are still fighting to defeat their own racist assumptions to this day.
Jeff Halper, an academic and leading Israeli activist against army abuses in the occupied territories, recently described to me the decades-long process of "unlearning" his Zionist responses. Deprogramming is what he called it. The kind of thing we read about in the papers when vulnerable youngsters need to be revived from the dangerous ideas implanted by a cult. But how do you loosen the grip of a cult when a whole nation is under its spell?"
The other approach available to 'cult assessors' is the sociological approach. This is the approach taken by most ' and forms the basis of the most serious allegations, as it precludes the theological argument which is fraught with difficulty and in the end coming down to a matter of belief rather than verifiable facts.
The sociological argument is essentially the 'cultural' argument wherein it is alleged that certain groups self-consciously oppose the mainstream of culture with all its inherent accepted 'norms'. Implicit in this argument is that mind 'control' or 'manipulation' that is alleged to form a part of the make up of many cults does not form a part of the make up of modern civilised society and culture. This argument, as we discuss a little later, is also subjective.
The aforementioned wikipedia.com definition is interesting in that it states that the term cult in the "pejorative sense" was first adopted en masse in the 1960's. Indeed it seems that prior to this time the term cult did not have negative connotations at all, being generally used (if used at all) to denote any belief system. As noted above the Oxford English dictionary gives the additional definitions of 'cult' as: 2a. a popular fashion esp. followed by a specific section of society 3. denoting a person or thing popularised in this way.
The definition of what is and what is not a cult is not officially defined by any government agency in the US. The term remains open to interpretation and, as is discussed further below, it perhaps better serves the essential goals of government for it to remain that way. As a result the prosecution of 'cults' or 'cult leaders' has generally been carried out under more mundane infractions of the law, for example, kidnapping or extortion, or, in the case of the Waco incident, 'gun control'.
(Note: From here on the term 'cult' is discussed from the above mentioned sociological point of view)
Nevertheless, there exist several different conflicting definitions of what a "cult" is, in widespread use. But even if a definition were to be agreed upon, there still remains the problem of agreement as to what entities fit under that definition.
As stated, the main requirement for 'cult' status would seem to be what can be broadly termed 'violation of free will'. For this to be present it seems logical that at the outset there must be some level of deceit in the presentation of what the 'member benefits' will be. No prospective cult would attract many devotees if among the benefits of membership it included: subtle mind control, physical beatings, incarceration, daily insult sessions, etc. In short, 'cults' as they are popularly defined, are definitely not 'what you see is what you get' type organisations.
At present there are estimated to be somewhere between 3000 and 5000 purported 'cults' in the US nominated by the various parties who find reason or need to do so. For example, Amway is a company which aggressively recruits people to recruit other people to sell its products (cosmetics, vitamins etc.). It has been accused of using 'cult-like' tactics in the treatment of its employees.
The Church of Scientology, founded by L. Ron Hubbard, uses a form of psychotherapy called Dianetics that some people claim is designed to hypnotize members into a more weak-minded and paranoid state. The church is said to persuade some members to become slaves. A sub-organization of the church -- known as the Sea Organization -- has paramilitary trappings, but is not armed. Critics also say the church seems to function as a for-profit organization, as it requires fixed-price donations for many of its services, which are required to advance in orders.
On its Web site, Scientology says it is not a cult but, "a religion in the fullest sense of the word."
Sahaja Yoga has also been accused. This is a form of Yoga unlike any that most people (at least in the west) are familiar with. It involves mainly meditation and what they term, "tying up your kundalini" [1]. This is done in order to achieve "self realisation" (connection with your Self). Members are invited to "feel a cool breeze" emanating from the top of their heads as proof that their Kundalini is indeed being activated. Self realisation is also available over the Internet. Just stare into the eyes of the picture of the leader 'Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi' while listening to her instructions.
In the run up to the year 2000 the term 'millennium cult' became widely known. These were groups that believed that, as the year 2000 approached, unfortunately, so too did the end of the world. As the year 2000 came and went with no end in sight, many were forced to recalculate their dates, most extending the 'millennium' to anywhere between now and 2012.
While there are apparently few major 'millennium cults' extolling the virtues of the 'end of the world', there are various self-styled 'experts' who organise group expeditions to various 'sacred sites' and who allegedly draw on 'ancient sources of wisdom' to prepare us for the upcoming 'shift' as they call it.
One such source of 'wisdom' is that of ancient Egypt and the various 'cults' that existed at that time. Many of these 'experts' AKA 'Enochian magicians' 'archaic futurists' etc., apparently see themselves as tasked in some way with triggering the end of the world or 'cosmos regeneration' as they call it. This is to be achieved through 'magickal workings' using various 'ancient' and 'sacred' techniques. Among the more colorful are:
'Calling down the cube of space', aligning the celestial poles', 'opening the portals', 'celestial mechanics', 'sacred science,' 'sacred geometry' and 'the raising of the djed'.
Disturbingly, however, there exist strong links between 'Enochian Magick' and 'Satanism', which the reader can confirm by doing an internet search using the two terms.
Many of these 'experts' organise trips for believers to 'sacred sites', often in Egypt. On a more humorous note (depending on how you look at it), in regard to the above mentioned 'raising the djed' - it seems that anyone involved in this activity immediately becomes a 'djedi' and from various sources we find that the time when these 'djedi' perform their 'magickal working' will be the time of the 'return of the djedi'. Thus, we could consider the Star Wars movies as 'cultic' in nature.[2]
As is common with many alleged 'cults' the benefits on offer to believers are grandiose. However, due to the nature of these 'millennial cults' their leaders probably do not envision having to make good on their promises, at least not in this lifetime. 'Djedis' then can expect to reap seemingly fantastic benefits from their efforts, for example:
"When we experience our own connection between the two (matter and spirit) a resounding "Yessss!" will synaptically ricochet throughout the global brain, the morphogenetic field of the planet, (and the Internet.) Our conscious reconnection with the wisdom of our own origins, and the rediscovery of the archaic celestial/terrestrial technologies, initiates us into "whole" consciousness." [3]
Each of us holds the keys, as they are but elements of our own true nature: basic human kindness, an open heart and mind, and the desire to build a loving world society. As you likely know, it is a special time on Earth, a time of global shift. [4]
Or better still:
"Attune yourself to the blissful energetic current of the joyous goddesses as you enter their abundant world of passion, ecstasy and enchantment. Learn how to open yourself to the magical world of the senses, awaken your Kundalini energy, experience the sacred nature of your sexuality and fill yourself with the fertile, life-enhancing nectar of the Sensuous Goddess." [5]
One notable exponent of this type of 'earth grid engineering' as it is often called, is Dan Winter. After many years of lectures and workshops around the US, Mr. Winter was eventually convicted by several courts in the USA, including the US Federal Court and the US Bankruptcy Court of North Carolina, for representing, as his own work, the work of various scholars, and in addition, for adulterating the contents of the other scholars' work. Moreover, Winter published under his own name and sold for profit the works of these scholars in the form of books, CD-ROM and videos. He was forced to publicly admit his lies and deceit in a sworn statement and urged his publishers and associates to do likewise. He then fled the country without paying any of the court fees that were assessed against him. At present Mr. Winter is a fugitive, and continues to conduct seminars and workshops in Europe and Australia.
There seems to be a distinct susceptibility (and therefore vulnerability), in many people to unquestioningly accept the word of others, particularly when these 'others' present themselves as an authority on a subject. The vulnerability is further pronounced when the subject being presented is tied to the emotional needs of the listener. It seems that this weakness is understood and used to ensure devotion, be it to an organisation, a concept, another person, or a law.
In the words of the plaintiff in the case against Mr. Winter:
"Dishonest people, and people who enjoy hurting others -- like Mr. Winter -- count on the fact that the vast majority of healthy, caring, well-intended people are not suspicious by nature, and accept what they are told at face value. This is good. Decent, caring people should not have to be suspicious, and should not need to double-check every claim that is made. But unfortunately, this means that decent, caring people, young and old, students and professionals, are easily deceived by people like Mr. Winter, who go to so much trouble to deceive them." [6]
We can perhaps say then that the potential for a group or organisation to actually BE a 'cult' is related to the extent to which the group or organisation presents itself as having the answer(s) to people's problems, promising a better life, happiness, financial success, spiritual enlightenment or essentially anything that plays upon the passive emotional needs that are common to many, but, it seems, not to all of us.
As Mr. Tenen says in the above quote, it is unfortunate that people are forced to be suspicious and double-check everything they are told, however, based on the nature of the world we live in, to NOT do so is to place oneself at the mercy of those who make deception a way of life; and their number is legion.
What can be observed in our society at present, is that in the mind of the average citizen, the concept of a 'cult' is understood as more of a vague threat than anything clearly defined and understood. From the generally ill-informed position of the "man in the street" it can perhaps be likened to the now ever present threat of "terrorists" and "terrorism"; he understands it as something bad, or threatening but would be hard pressed to give any clear examples of where it is and exactly what level of threat it poses to him, personally. This limited and distorted perception of the common person may be indicative of a certain way in which information is disseminated in our society and about the possible agenda of those that disseminate it.
What seems to be true is that the 'cult' label is so powerful, and carries so much stigma, and can be used in a directed way to damage and destroy groups and individuals exactly because of the very things that it labels as 'cultic manipulation,' i.e. the susceptibility of the human psyche to programming and subtle suggestive techniques of one sort or another. Governments must employ the force of public opinion in order to take public action. In our modern society in which people of a predatory nature seem to thrive, any accusation can, and often is, made to stick when stated and stated often enough by those in apparent positions of power and influence.
Dozens if not hundreds of incidents in our recent history can be cited where the public was (and continues to be) led to believe something as truth when in fact it was not. The recent WMD debacle involving various western governments is but one large-scale example. Human history is indeed replete with "urban myths"- many of them forming some of our most accepted and sacred foundational cows. From science to history to religion to politics, no field of study is exempt.
Information is, and probably always has been, a highly valued commodity. "Knowledge is power," as the saying goes. While originally the stated role of governments was to carry out the will of the people, it is clear today that is no longer the case. The job of governments now, it seems, is purely the control of resources, with the most important 'resource' being the citizenry. The information that society is 'allowed' to receive, shapes the perception of the members of that society. Therefore, control of information is key to control of perception, and control of perception is key to the control of the population. Read any of Noam Chomsky's articles or interviews on the media and control of information here for a more in-depth analysis of the control of information and how it is used to manipulate and coerce the masses of people to serve the elite in governments.
Today we have terms like 'Total Information Awareness' (closely tied to, and since 9/11, synonymous with the US government project 'Terrorism Information Awareness'), which is in itself a 'cult of information', or 'cult of awareness'. This philosophy and it's importance is promoted and implemented from the 'top level' in our society. We have people like John Ashcroft, presently on a whirlwind tour of the US, attempting to promote, or perhaps instill this concept into the minds of the populace, the goal being to create an environment or atmosphere wherein the masses of people will be convinced that it is in the interest of their own protection or that of the country (and thus their 'patriotic duty') to funnel information about their fellow citizens upwards to their 'leaders.' Neighbours are encouraged to keep a watch on each other and report "suspicious behavior", with the list of just what defines "suspicious behavior" being supplied by the office of Mr. Ashcroft. We are told that mere disgruntled citizens may well constitute the 'enemy in our midst'.
The masses are told that the benefits of compliance with the requirements of the cult of information lie in the fact that we will be safer; more secure in our beds at night. In short, the cult of information is essentially a cult of fear. Fear must first be instilled in the minds of the masses to inspire them to feed this upward flowing stream of information to their leaders - designed to facilitate the extirpation of any contrary source of information - and fear is a principle that humans seem somehow pre-designed and preprogrammed to wholeheartedly embrace.
What this boils down to is: if you control the knowledge that people have, you control the people. As such, it is not hard to see that if governments understand knowledge as power, and they seek to retain power, they must seek to control the flow of information the aim of which MUST be to LIMIT knowledge.
If you control the spread of information you can control what people think. If you control what people think, you are, effectively, controlling their minds. And we come around in a circle to what is truly CULTIC.
From this point of view, logically, any group that threatens the government monopoly on information and power, and therefore their control of the people, is a THREAT and must be dealt with.
As Richard Dolan has written:
"Anyone who has lived in a repressive society knows that official manipulation of the truth occurs daily. But societies have their many and their few. In all times and all places, it is the few who rule, and the few who exert dominant influence over what we may call official culture. - All elites take care to manipulate public information to maintain existing structures of power. It's an old game." [7]
As noted above, the allegation that 'mind control' is used on cult members is often made when labeling any group as a "cult." However, there can be many forms of 'mind control' - including the mass media coverage of the Gulf war - although they are not called by that name. And if we are to rely on the criteria on which assertions of 'cult' are based, that is observation of the results of 'mind control', i.e. members joining 'communes' giving up possessions, extreme devotion and allegiance to a leader, and in a few cases giving up their lives by way of apparent suicide, we certainly find reasonable justification for labeling the current US administration as a CULT for persuading hundreds of thousands of Americans to give up their possessions and join the commune of the US military out of extreme devotion to a proven liar, George W. Bush, resulting in what could be termed apparent suicide in Iraq.
As discussed above, it seems that there exists a certain type of mentality that is predisposed to wholeheartedly and unquestioningly accepting this type of establishment fear-based programming. Such individuals are easily controlled within the contexts of standard religions which, as can be noted, are also generally all fear based. However, in the 1960s, there was a popular upsurge in the awareness of the masses at large due to outrage at the Viet Nam war. The US government set out to eradicate radical protests against government policies, and what is now popularly known as COINTELPRO - Counter Intelligence Program - was created.
Of course, COINTELPRO in one form or another has always existed, and was described in some detail by Machiavelli. Now, keeping in mind that the elite controllers of the masses seek most definitely to control perception via the control of information, we can deduce that this must require that any sources of information that lead to knowledge - knowledge being power - must be marginalized or even eliminated entirely in order for control to be maintained. This leads to the next logical step which is to realize that COINTELPRO must also be used to vector "ideological" trends - beliefs, etc.
COINTELPRO methods included sending anonymous or fictitious letters designed to cast those individuals or groups they wished to contain or destroy in a bad light, publishing false defamatory or threatening information, forging signatures on fake documents to make their targets look bad in some way, introducing disruptive and subversive members into organizations to destroy them from within, and so on. Blackmailing insiders in any group to force them to spread false rumors, or to foment factionalism was also common. COINTELPRO also concentrated on creating bogus organizations.
These bogus groups could serve many functions which might include attacking and/or disrupting bona fide groups, or even just simply creating a diversion with clever propaganda in order to attract members away in order to involve them with time-wasting activity so as to prevent them from doing anything useful. COINTELPRO was also famous for instigation of hostile actions through third parties. It is in this sense that we can best understand many of the groups that have willingly and enthusiastically taken on the role of self-appointed 'cult busters, going about their 'work' in a frenzy of slandering and finger-pointing, evoking the image of the Spanish inquisition with it's motto of "kill them all, god will know his own". Apparently irony is wasted on them and the adage: "people in glass houses should not throw stones" means nothing to them.
It is in the context of COINTELPRO that we can better understand many curious things about this issue of 'cults.' For many years the 'Cult Awareness Network' [8] worked closely with US government officials to tackle the threat of purported 'cults'. It actively urged the press, Congress and law enforcement to act against any non-mainstream religious, psychological or even political movement, which it described as a "cult." After interviewing CAN's executive director at the time Cynthia Kisser, a reporter wrote:
"No one knows how many destructive cults and sects exist in the United States. Kisser's binder holds 1,500 names gleaned from newspaper clippings, court documents and thousands of calls to the network's hotline. Some of the groups have legitimate purposes, Kisser says. But her group's efforts show that most, despite wildly diverse beliefs, share stunningly similar patterns of mind control, group domination, exploitation and physical and mental abuse."
CAN critics pointed out that so-called "mind control" techniques are not much different than the techniques used in education and socialization efforts used by all schools, churches, ideologies and philosophies. CAN's other successful approach was to refer relatives of group members to "deprogrammers" who charge thousands of dollars for their services and, according to a former national director of CAN's predecessor, the Citizens Freedom Foundation, "kicked back" some of the money to CAN.
'Deprogramming' often includes kidnapping individuals, subjecting them to sleep and food deprivation, ridicule and humiliation, and even physical abuse and restraint until they promise to leave the alleged cult - doing the very things they accuse the 'cult' of doing! Because deprogrammers usually involve family members in these kidnappings and deprogrammings, victims rarely press charges. However, in the last few years 5 deprogrammers have been prosecuted for kidnapping or "unlawful imprisonment." One such deprogrammer is Rick Ross, a convicted jewel thief, who has boasted of more than 200 "deprogrammings." CAN executive director at the time Cynthia Kisser praised him as being "among the half dozen best deprogrammers in the country." In the summer of 1993 Rick Ross was indicted in Washington state for unlawful imprisonment. See here for more info on 'deprogrammers'
The fear principle is perhaps the most prized weapon in the government's armory of population management and control tools. The apparent human predisposition for fear of the unknown, strange or the 'weird' is undoubtedly exploited by government agencies in garnering public support for its condemnation of groups that it perceives as threatening to its monopoly on control. It understands that it can find fertile ground in the mass mind for the dissemination of negative fear based propaganda about "cults" or 'terrorists' etc. This in turn feeds the growth of 'cult busters' and 'cult busting' mentality and essentially allows for any group it chooses to be tarred with the 'cult' or the 'terrorist' brush. [See here for an article by Paul Joseph Watson on fear based propaganda]
It is indeed fortunate for the government that the existence and availability of the term 'cult' with its by now well-established and immediate negative connotations can be so easily used as a weapon with which to attack and defame. Any group that the government may deem a threat to its monopoly on truth can be quickly and easily dealt with simply by assigning it the 'cult' label. It is a remarkably effective means with which to control and, if needed, effectively neutralise any such group. For such a group the evidence, or lack thereof, of any "cultic" behavior becomes irrelevant.
Without doubt real cults practicing some form of mind programming have existed and continue to exist, yet due to the aforementioned human nature and nature of governments and those that govern, it is almost inevitable that many have been and will be wrongly accused, and deliberately so.
One such contemporary case is that of "The Sniff Art Collective" ("dedicated to freedom of expression in the great outdoors") recently accused of being a 'satanic cult' (and murder), essentially for simply displaying their paintings in public. The case is ongoing at the minute. The full story can be read here.
It appears that, as a result of the high profile sensationalist news coverage on the various 'cults' over the past half century, the term has become widely known and at the same time assumed its negative connotations. It was through these few, well publicised events involving alleged 'mind control' that the popular understanding of the word "cult" has been firmly imprinted on the minds of the populace. The most shocking cases were those where alleged physical and mental coercion took place and the deaths of a number of the members resulted.
The "Jonestown massacre" in the forests of Guyana in 1978 was one such case. At the time there were suggestions that the CIA and even Israeli intelligence agencies were in some way involved, that the leader Jim Jones was a CIA asset, and that the members of the US embassy in Guyana who were closely involved with the members of 'Jonestown' were CIA agents.
The allegations included suggestions that the CIA's mind-control program, code-named MK-ULTRA, was not stopped in 1973, as the CIA had told Congress. Instead, it is suggested, it had merely been transferred out of public hospitals and prisons into the more secure confines of religious "cults", Jonestown being one of those "MK-ULTRA experimental cults". The implication here is that the fact that 'mind programming' nowadays goes hand in hand with the term cult, may be due more to "outside influences" than due to any intrinsic or automatic part of an alleged group's makeup or function. There were also conflicting reports as to whether the 913 people that died actually committed suicide, with the Guyanese coroner at the time saying that as many as 700 members showed signs of having been murdered.
What is verifiably true about the "Jonestown massacre" is that a US congressman Leo J. Ryan had been to the Jonestown with various reporters and a delegation of concerned relatives of Jonestown members on the day of the "suicides" and was killed in the events that followed. This was, of course, blamed on the Jonestown cult - that they wanted to suppress Congressman Ryan's report. But the possibility exists that Congressman Ryan's report needed to be suppressed for exactly the opposite reasons - that it would be unfavorable to those labeling the Jonestown group as a "cult." In the end, the question can be asked about this event: who benefits? And the answer is that it put a powerful sociological tool into the hands of the government - the idea that a "cult" was, indeed, a very dangerous thing. The "fear of cults" was literally created with this event.
Another example of a much publicised 'cult' confrontation, where the destruction of the group and the deaths of its members in a horrific fire was the ultimate outcome, occurred at Waco Texas in 1993.
In April 1993 eighty nine 'Branch Davidians' lead by 'David Koresh' died when BAFT (Bureau of Alcohol Firearms and Tobacco) agents stormed their compound at Mount Carmel in Waco Texas. While the general impression among the public was - and still is - that the deaths were the result of 'cultic activities', at the time there were well founded allegations that government agents acted in a disproportionate way to the threat and that the deaths were unnecessary.
Nancy Ammerman, a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University's Center for the Study of American Religion, was one of the outside experts assigned by the Justice Department to evaluate BATF and FBI's handling of the Branch Davidians. She was particularly critical of Rick Ross and the 'Cult Awareness Network'.
"Although these people often call themselves 'cult experts,' they are certainly not recognized as such by the academic community. The activities of the CAN are seen by the National Council of Churches (among others) as a danger to religious liberty, and deprogramming tactics have been increasingly found to be outside the law... Mr. Rick Ross, who often works in conjunction with the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), has been quoted as saying he was 'consulted' by the BATF. . . The Network and Mr. Ross have a direct ideological (and financial) interest in arousing suspicion and antagonism against what they call `cults'. . . It seem clear that people within the `anti-cult' community had targeted the Branch Davidians for attention." [9]
We note with chagrin that this "arousing of suspicion and antagonism" led to the deaths of undoubtedly innocent people - including many small children - in a particularly gruesome manner.
It would seem that financial gain is a significant motivating factor in the activities of so called cult busters such as Ross. In 'Inside the Cult' there appears the Jan. 16, 1993 diary entry of a former branch Davidian, Marc Breault (also the co- author of the book) where he describes a conversation he had with Branch Davidian Steve Schneider's sister:
"Rick (Ross) told Sue that something was about to happen real soon. He urged her to hire him to deprogram Steve. Rick has Sue all scared now. The Schneider family doesn't know what to do. Rick didn't tell them what was about to happen, but he said they should get Steve out as soon as possible. I know that Rick has talked to the ATF." [10]
We should note carefully that Rick Ross was primarily interested in being "hired to deprogram," and that whatever he knew, he withheld for financial gain.
After the April 19th fire Methodist Minister Joseph Bettis wrote Attorney General Reno,
"...from the beginning, members of the Cult Awareness Network have been involved in this tragedy. This organization is widely known for its use of fear to foster religious bigotry. The reliance of federal agents on information supplied by these people, as well as the whole record of federal activity deserves your careful investigation and public disclosure. . . Cult bashing must end, and you must take the lead."
Representative Harold Volkmer charged that the initial attack on the Branch Davidians was part of a pattern of "Gestapo-like tactics" at the bureau.
"I fail to see the crimes committed by those in the Davidian compound that called for the extreme action of BATF on Feb. 28 and the tragic final assault." [11]
Representative John Conyers branded the April 19th gas and tank attack a "military operation" and called it a "profound disgrace to law enforcement in the United States." He told Janet Reno, "you did the right thing by offering to resign. I'd like you to know that there is at least one member of Congress who is not going to rationalize the innocent deaths of two dozen children."
Reno, however, apparently recovered quickly from her attack of conscience.
Los Angeles journalist Cletus Nelson writes:
"From the very outset, the public was falsely led to believe a multiracial spiritual community was largely comprised of gunrunning "rednecks" steeped in violent apocalypse theology and martial rhetoric.
As if to further darken the picture, thinly veiled allegations of child abuse and cultic phenomenon were widely circulated on television and in the mainstream press. This egregious use of what media analysts refer to as "negative framing" would seal the fate of the controversial 7th Day Adventist sect when it was deemed politically expendable by Washington officials." [12]
Whatever the truth behind the events at Waco and Jonestown (and it is undoubtedly not as black and white as the media would have us believe), the result was to imprint on the mind of the global population the idea that small groups with alternative views were synonymous with cults, and cults were the equivalent of dangerous, fanatical religious beliefs, manipulative mind control and a host of other antisocial activities. The reader can make the 'logical' connections between Rick Ross and his ilk and the government COINTELPRO idea on their own. "Birds of a feather..."
As stated, there is no definitive definition or established criteria for what constitutes a cult in the USA. However in France there has been considerable research done by government agencies into the subject. The French National Assembly has produced a general outline of what may constitute a "cult" in modern parlance:
Report of the French Assembly Inquiry Commission on Cults Dec. 20 1995 [13]
Section I: 2:(d) The concept retained by the Commission.
Any movement presenting itself as religious with the following criteria:
Mental destabilization
Exorbitant demands of a financial nature
A breaking off of contact with one's original environment
Attacks on the physical integrity of members
The recruitment of children
Having a discourse more or less antisocial
Involved in troubles of a public order nature
Involved in serious judicial problems
Misappropriation of traditional economic circuits
Attempts to infiltrate the public powers.
The Commission insists on the fact that as the definition of cults is in many ways difficult.
In conducting its work it attempted to ensure that it did not simply accept the definition of cults proposed by those who are engaged, in one way or another, in the promotion of new religions or those engaged in the struggle against the real or supposed excesses of purported cults.
In its work the Commission was conscious that neither newness nor the small number of members, nor even eccentricity could be retained as criteria permitting to label as a cult a so-called religious movement: the largest contemporary religions were often at their start little more than cults with small numbers of members; many established and socially recognised rites today, in their beginning gave rise to reservations and oppositions."
The very fact that that the French government has publicly sought to investigate the cult phenomena and outline criteria defining one suggests that they take the issue seriously. At the same time however, from the above definition, we see also that they approach the subject in a reasoned and logical way. First of all, rejecting what we might call the COINTELPRO standard of tarring and feathering. As the French Assembly pointed out rather succinctly, The largest contemporary religions today started as little more than cults.
And so we come to another essential point of this brief dissertation. The reader may or may not be aware that we, the Quantum Future School, also have our detractors. Given the nature of the world - where knowledge IS power - and the nature of the research we do - helping people to think, to acquire knowledge - it is hardly surprising that we would be targeted with the kind of libel and defamation for which COINTELPRO is famous.
What HAS surprised us, however, has been the nature and the level of attacks that have come from one or two specific areas. Given what we have outlined above and what we know of the nature of the moral character of our detractors, it is unsurprising also that the 'cult' label would be the first to be pulled out and used by them against us, without any qualms whatsoever. Suffice to say that we have been subjected to the most vicious libel and slander imaginable, most specifically directed at our personal integrity and work. These slanderous accusations include but are by no means limited to the accusation of 'cult'.
Readers that have perused the reports we have published on the activities of these "petty tyrants" will be aware of the insidious and menacing aura they seem to exude as they go about their business of attacking us and our work. Many times we have certainly felt physically threatened - 'stalked' - by these people:
"Although there is no universally accepted definition of cyberstalking, the term is generally used to refer to the use of the Internet, e-mail, or other telecommunication technologies to harass or stalk another person. It is not the mere annoyance of unsolicited e-mail. It is methodical, deliberate, and persistent. The communications, whether from someone known or unknown, do not stop even after the recipient has asked the sender to cease all contacts, and are often filled with inappropriate, and sometimes disturbing, content. Essentially, cyberstalking is an extension of the physical form of stalking.
Cyberstalking victims who call the National Center for Victims of Crime often complain of not being taken seriously or of not even being recognized as victims by law enforcement agencies they have contacted. Responding to a victim's complaint by saying "you can't be hurt on the Internet--it's just words" or "just turn off your computer" is not acceptable or responsible. It's unreasonable to expect cyberstalking victims to walk away from their on-line activities, which may comprise their professional career, in order to avoid this kind of problem. On-line harassment and threats are just as frightening and distressing as off-line harassment and threats.
A recent incident described in the Cyberstalking Report from the U.S. Attorney General is typical of the lack of law enforcement training and expertise that can be so frustrating for victims. [14]
A woman complained to a local police agency that a man had been posting information on the Internet claiming that her nine-year-old daughter was available for sex, and including their home phone number with instructions to call 24 hours a day. Numerous calls were received. Although every call was reported to local police by the family, the police officer simply advised them to change their phone number.
Cyberstalkers use a variety of techniques. They may initially use the Internet to identify and track their victims. They may then send unsolicited e-mail, including hate, obscene, or threatening mail. Live chat harassment abuses the victim directly or through electronic sabotage (for example, flooding the Internet chat channel to disrupt the victim's conversation).
With newsgroups, the cyberstalker can create postings about the victim or start rumors that spread through the bulletin board system. Cyberstalkers may also set up a web page on the victim with personal or fictitious information or solicitations to readers.
Another technique is to assume the victim's persona on-line, such as in chat rooms, for the purpose of sullying the victim's reputation, posting details about the victim, or soliciting unwanted contacts from others.
More complex forms of harassment include mailbombs (mass messages that virtually shutdown the victim's e-mail system by clogging it), sending the victim computer virii, or sending electronic junk mail (spamming).
There is a clear difference between the annoyance of unsolicited e-mail and on-line harassment. Unsolicited e-mail is to be expected from time to time. However, cyberstalking is a course of conduct that takes place over a period of time and involves repeated, deliberate attempts to cause distress to the victim. [...]
The fact that cyberstalking does not involve physical contact may create the misperception that it is less threatening or dangerous than physical stalking. Cyberstalking is just as frightening and potentially dangerous as a stalker at the victim's front door." [10]
One of the most remarkable things about this however, is that anyone is free to look objectively at our work and stated intentions and quickly and clearly see that we fail miserably in terms of "cult qualifications;" in fact we fall at the very first "test."
Every definition of cult requires that the group in question have some form of religious aspect or worship as a fundamental basis or their 'raison d'être'. As is clearly evident for anyone who cares to take a look at our published material, we do not. In fact, in articles posted on our website and every day as part of our "Signs of the Times" news page, we report on the many inconsistencies and hypocrisies that are evident in the major organised religions and their New Age offshoots and the controlling influences they obviously exert upon many millions of people. However, this is merely our opinion.
Above all we value free will and the right for each person to decide and choose for him/herself. At the same time we are not so naive to fail to realise that to some this concept is detestable - so detestable, in fact, that they want very much to shut us down, drive us off the internet, and - no doubt - if possible, destroy us completely.
Time and again our obsessed detractors have leveled the accusation of "cult" at the work and research we do, (and therefore at us), an allegation that is so obviously ridiculous given the EVIDENCE that stands against such an allegation, that initially we reacted to it in the only logical way - humour.
In light of the above analysis of the status of cults in our society and just what qualifies any group for "cult" status, it is clear from our perspective - and surely from anyone who has taken even a cursory glance at our work and research - that our detractors and those that would seek to slander and defame us, must find another pigeon hole in which to stuff us - or another allegation to level at us - for we simply do not qualify for the cult label in the modern definition with all it's accompanying negative connotations.
Alternatively, for those that prefer to ignore reason and objective evidence, they may continue to label us a cult as they wish. However in such a case, in the interest of logical consistency, they should also assign the cult moniker to every other research body and organisation which honestly pursues its goals, openly seeks to network with other researchers with the necessary skills, and freely offers the results of its work in a public forum for the scrutiny of all - for that is what we do.
We have no hierarchy, we have no leaders, we have no defined goal other than to better understand the nature of the world in which we live. We do not practice any forms of coercion or manipulation; they are anathema to the common morals we share as human beings. We simply attempt to offer an opportunity to those that feel they may understand the application of the theories that we have developed, and wish to add their efforts to the furthering of the research we are involved in.
Our broad research goals are clearly defined, nothing other than an honest desire to pursue these goals as part of a network of like-minded individuals is asked or required of any potential group members. Our online school is still FREE to any applicant who is qualified by virtue of being as free as possible of cultic thinking and beliefs. No one is required to pay anything at all, and we ask only for donations that are commensurate with the perceived value of our work by the receiver/reader/participant. No one has ever been excluded for financial reasons from FULL participation in EVERY aspect of our work. As an innate function of the research we do and the networking principles which guide it, any benefits are shared equally by all.
We believe in enabling people to think and decide freely to the extent such freedom is at all possible in this world. We believe a broad informational base is a prerequisite for exercising what freedom of mind may be humanly attainable and working as a network to gather and provide such information and analysis to the interested. This is what we consider our service.
We are not in the business of converting people and do not believe in a one-size-fits-all solution to the concerning challenges of our time. We are of the opinion that spiritual evolution of man may only proceed individual by individual and do so at the individual's choosing. And the choice to advance entails a great deal of work and dedication to gathering KNOWLEDGE - the very thing that the powers that be seek to limit to humanity.
That is the full extent of what we think and do and believe.
It is indeed a lamentable state of affairs that we feel obliged to address the question of "cults" at all. However the explosion in recent years of groups of all shapes and forms has given rise to many charlatans and disinformation artists. From the evidence available it appears that many of them have less than honourable intentions towards their prospective audience and potential members. In fact, we have investigated many of these "disinformation" groups and artists in our research and the results are published on our web site.
In this respect we are happy to be able to contribute to the efforts of all those that seek objective and verifiable truth in the face of lies and deceit, whatever their origin.
We hope that, as a result of this brief analysis, we may have provided the reader with a slightly deeper understanding of the 'cult' label and phenomena. As with all our research, our goal was to provide as balanced and objective analysis as possible and as a result help to shed further light on this rather complicated subject.
In particular we hope we have drawn attention to the various factors that have lead to the current climate in which the 'cult' label can so easily be used to unfairly discredit and malign a group or organisation which may nevertheless possess genuinely honest intentions and information.
We seek only to be allowed to continue to pursue our research in the open and honest way in which we have always done. The evidence of the truth of this statement is clear and available for all those who wish to see it.
References:
[1] personal experience of author
[2] http://www.portalmarket.com/history.html
[3] http://www.portalmarket.com/history.html
[4] Time of Global Shift.com
[5] Sacred Mysteries.com
[6] Dan winter
[7] UFOs and the national Security state; Dolan 2002
[8] The group is defunct, having been forced into liquidation on June 20, 1996, after unsuccessfully seeking refuge in bankruptcy in the face of a $4.8 million damages verdict handed down in September 1995 by a U.S. District Court in Seattle.
[9] Justice Department Report:Ammerman:1
[10] Inside the Cult: by Marc Breault, Martin King p. 317
[11] Associated Press wire story, April 26, 1993, 01:26 EDT. 5/ Michael Isikoff, "Reno Strongly Defends Raid on Cult," Washington Post, April 29, 1993.
[12] http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/nelson2.html
[13] Original document here English translation here
[14] The Cyber stalking resource center here
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/cult-ivating_terror.htm
One of my favorite songs is more of a chant or a meditation...
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity may some day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our Love by our Love,
And they'll know we are Christians by our Love.
Of course you know that churches broke into political factions over the proper method of dunking.
I was raised Nazarene, they didn't dunk, they sprinkled, but they believed in two works of grace, you got saved and then you got "sanctified". After you were sanctified you weren't supposed to sin any more because it was a special dispensation of grace.
It was a beautiful song, but I don't believe the practices were that spiritually beneficial. They were a public "shaming" and a denial of the fact that we all "come short of the glory of God".
No one of us is more special than the other in the eyes of Got. He/She accepts us as we are and if we are alive in Spirit we move forward, sometimes a few steps back too, but those are just learning experiences *grin*.
yes, as a political and cultural phenomenon, it does
understanding the human condition
will lead to understanding its vulnerabilities
spiritual and psychological..
Since the subject of this board is "religion and politics" I want to ask - does religion (as a political and cultural phenomenon) precondition people to be victims of the psycopath?
Would a focus on Spirtual reality rather than religious dogma make one less vulnerable to these types - or would it make them more vulnerable as they would be more focused on the Spiritual potential of the individual as opposed to the damning psychology?
Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes
by Andrew M. Lobaczewski
with commentary and additional quoted material
by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
This article is a two-parter. I should notify the reader that the really good stuff is in the second part, so don't skip it!
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/political_ponerology_lobaczewski.htm
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Andrew M. Lobaczewski, Nov. 2005
Pathocracy is a disease of great social movements followed by entire societies, nations, and empires. In the course of human history, it has affected social, political, and religious movements as well as the accompanying ideologies? and turned them into caricatures of themselves?. This occurred as a result of the ? participation of pathological agents in a pathodynamically similar process. That explains why all the pathocracies of the world are, and have been, so similar in their essential properties.
?Identifying these phenomena through history and properly qualifying them according to their true nature and contents - not according to the ideology in question, which succumbed to the process of caricaturization - is a job for historians. [?]
The actions of [pathocracy] affect an entire society, starting with the leaders and infiltrating every town, business, and institution. The pathological social structure gradually covers the entire country creating a ?new class? within that nation. This privileged class [of pathocrats] feels permanently threatened by the ?others?, i.e. by the majority of normal people. Neither do the pathocrats entertain any illusions about their personal fate should there be a return to the system of normal man. [Andrew M. Lobaczewski Political Ponerology: A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes]
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The word ?psychopath? generally evokes images of the barely restrained - yet surprisingly urbane - Dr. Hannibal Lecter of ?Silence of the Lambs? fame. I will admit that this was the image that came to my mind whenever I heard the word. But I was wrong, and I was to learn this lesson quite painfully by direct experience. The exact details are chronicled elsewhere; what is important is that this experience was probably one of the most painful and instructive episodes of my life and it enabled me to overcome a block in my awareness of the world around me and those who inhabit it.
Regarding blocks to awareness, I need to state for the record that I have spent 30 years studying psychology, history, culture, religion, myth and the so-called paranormal. I also have worked for many years with hypnotherapy - which gave me a very good mechanical knowledge of how the mind/brain of the human being operates at very deep levels. But even so, I was still operating with certain beliefs firmly in place that were shattered by my research into psychopathy. I realized that there was a certain set of ideas that I held about human beings that were sacrosanct. I even wrote about this once in the following way:
??? ?my work has shown me that the vast majority of people want to do good, to experience good things, think good thoughts, and make decisions with good results. And they try with all their might to do so! With the majority of people having this internal desire, why the Hell isn't it happening?
I was na?ve, I admit. There were many things I did not know that I have learned since I penned those words. But even at that time I was aware of how our own minds can be used to deceive us.
Now, what beliefs did I hold that made me a victim of a psychopath? The first and most obvious one is that I truly believed that deep inside, all people are basically ?good? and that they ?want to do good, to experience good things, think good thoughts, and make decisions with good results. And they try with all their might to do so??
As it happens, this is not true as I - and everyone involved in our working group - learned to our sorrow, as they say. But we also learned to our edification. In order to come to some understanding of exactly what kind of human being could do the things that were done to me (and others close to me), and why they might be motivated - even driven - to behave this way, we began to research the psychology literature for clues because we needed to understand for our own peace of mind.
If there is a psychological theory that can explain vicious and harmful behavior, it helps very much for the victim of such acts to have this information so that they do not have to spend all their time feeling hurt or angry. And certainly, if there is a psychological theory that helps a person to find what kind of words or deeds can bridge the chasm between people, to heal misunderstandings, that is also a worthy goal. It was from such a perspective that we began our extensive work on the subjects of narcissism which then led to the study of psychopathy.
Of course, we didn?t start out with such a ?diagnosis? or label for what we were witnessing. We started out with observations and searched the literature for clues, for profiles, for anything that would help us to understand the inner world of a human being - actually a group of human beings - who seemed to be utterly depraved and unlike anything we had ever encountered before.
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Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.
And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.
Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.
You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition.
In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.
You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered.
How will you live your life?
What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)?
The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people - whether they have a conscience or not - favor the ease of inertia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions. Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhere in between. There are violent people and nonviolent ones, individuals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have no such appetites. [...]
Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all.
If you are born at the right time, with some access to family fortune, and you have a special talent for whipping up other people's hatred and sense of deprivation, you can arrange to kill large numbers of unsuspecting people. With enough money, you can accomplish this from far away, and you can sit back safely and watch in satisfaction. [...]
Crazy and frightening - and real, in about 4 percent of the population....
The prevalence rate for anorexic eating disorders is estimated a 3.43 percent, deemed to be nearly epidemic, and yet this figure is a fraction lower than the rate for antisocial personality. The high-profile disorders classed as schizophrenia occur in only about 1 percent of [the population] - a mere quarter of the rate of antisocial personality - and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that the rate of colon cancer in the United States, considered "alarmingly high," is about 40 per 100,000 - one hundred times lower than the rate of antisocial personality.
The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 4 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth.
Yet surprisingly, many people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psychopathy - murderers, serial killers, mass murderers - people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system.
We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.
Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one's boss about a coworker. But the psychological correspondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and profound, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish.
Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of cake in the kitchen, let alone what we would feel if we intentionally and methodically set about to hurt another person.
Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruthless social snipers.
The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or even gender.
What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron - or what makes the difference betwen an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer - is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity.
What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions. [Martha StoutThe Sociopath Next Door] (highly recommended)
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We did not have the advantage of Dr. Stout's book at the beginning of our research project. We did, of course, have Hare and Cleckley and Guggenbuhl-Craig and others. There are still more that have appeared in the past couple of years in response to the questions being formulated by many psychologists and psychiatrists about the state of our world and the possibility that there is some essential difference between such individuals as George W. Bush and many so-called Neocons, and the rest of us.
Dr. Stout's book has one of the longest explanations as to why none of her examples resemble any actual persons that I have ever read. And then, in a very early chapter, she describes a "composite" case where the subject spent his childhood blowing up frogs with fire-crackers. It is widely known that George W. Bush did this, so one naturally wonders...
In any event, even without Dr. Stout's work, at the time we were studying the matter, we realized that what we were learning was very important to everyone because as the data was assembled, we saw that the clues, the profiles, revealed that the issues we were facing were faced by everyone at one time or another, to one extent or another. We also began to realize that the profiles that emerged also describe rather accurately many individuals who seek positions of power in fields of authority, most particularly politics and commerce. That?s really not so surprising an idea, but it honestly hadn?t occurred to us until we saw the patterns and recognized them in the behaviors of numerous historical figures, and lately including George W. Bush and members of his administration.
Current day statistics tell us that there are more psychologically sick people than healthy ones. If you take a sampling of individuals in any given field, you are likely to find that a significant number of them display pathological symptoms to one extent or another. Politics is no exception, and by its very nature, would tend to attract more of the pathological ?dominator types? than other fields. That is only logical, and we began to realize that it was not only logical, it was horrifyingly accurate; horrifying because pathology among people in power can have disastrous effects on all of the people under the control of such pathological individuals. And so, we decided to write about this subject and publish it on the Internet.
As the material went up, letters from our readers began to come in thanking us for putting a name to what was happening to them in their personal lives as well as helping them to understand what was happening in a world that seems to have gone completely mad. We began to think that it was an epidemic and in a certain sense, we were right; just not in the way we thought. If an individual with a highly contagious illness works in a job that puts them in contact with the public, an epidemic is the result. In the same way, if an individual in a position of political power is a psychopath, he or she can create an epidemic of psychopathology in people who are not, essentially, psychopathic. Our ideas along this line were soon to receive confirmation from an unexpected source. I received an email from a Polish psychologist who wrote as follows:
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??? Dear Ladies and Gentlemen.
??? I have got your Special Research Project on psychopathy by my computer.?? You are doing a most important and valuable work for the future of nations.[?]
??? I am a very aged clinical psychologist. Forty years ago I took part in a secret investigation of the real nature and psychopathology of the macro-social phenomenon called ?Communism?. The other researchers were the scientists of the previous generation who are now passed away.
??? The profound study of the nature psychopathy, which played the essential and inspirational part in this macro-social psychopathologic phenomenon, and distinguishing it from other mental anomalies, appeared to be the necessary preparation for understanding the entire nature of the phenomenon.
??? The large part of the work, you are doing now, was done in those times. ?
??? I am able to provide you with a most valuable scientific document, useful for your purposes. It is my book ?POLITICAL PONEROLOGY ? A science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes?. You may also find copy of this book in the Library of Congress and in some university and public libraries in the USA.
??? Be so kind and contact me so that I may mail a copy to you.
??? Very truly yours!
??? Andrew M. ?obaczewski
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I promptly wrote a reply. A couple of weeks later the manuscript arrived in the mail.
As I read, I realized that what I was holding in my hand was essentially a chronicle of a descent into hell, transformation, and triumphant return to the world with knowledge of that hell that was priceless for the rest of us, particularly in this day and time when it seems evident that a similar hell is enveloping the planet. The risks that were taken by the group of scientists that did the research on which this book is based are beyond the comprehension of most of us. Many of them were young, just starting in their careers when the Nazis began to stride in their hundred league jackboots across Europe. These researchers lived through that, and then when the Nazis were driven out and replaced by the Communists under the heel of Stalin, they faced years of oppression the likes of which those of us today who are choosing to take a stand against the Bush Reich cannot even imagine. And so, since they were there, and they lived through it and brought back information to the rest of us, it may well save our lives to have a map to guide us in the falling darkness. It is in this context that I would like to bring up how Dr. Lobczewski discusses the value of the close and clinical study of evil in his book before we actually turn to the subject of Ponerology:
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??? This new science is incalculably rich in casuist detail... It contains knowledge and a description of the phenomenon in the categories of the natural world-view, correspondingly modified in accordance with the need to understand [many] matters...
??? The development of this familiarity with the phenomenon is accompanied by development of communicative language, by means of which society can stay informed and issue warnings of danger. A third language thus appears alongside the ideological doubletalk ... in part, it borrows names used by the official ideology in their transformed modified meanings. In part, this language operates with words borrowed from still more lively circulating jokes. In spite of its strangeness, this language becomes a useful means of communication and plays a part in regenerating societal links. ... However, in spite of efforts on the part of literati and journalists, this language remains only communicative inside; it becomes hermetic outside the scope of the phenomenon, incomprehensible to people lacking the appropriate personal experience. [...]
??? This new science, expressed in language derived from a deviant reality, is something foreign to people who wish to understand this macro-social phenomenon but think in the categories of the countries of normal man. Attempts to understand this language produce a certain feeling of helplessness which gives rise to the tendency of creating ones own doctrines, built from concepts of one's own world and a certain amount of appropriately co-opted pathocratic propaganda material. Such a doctrine - an example would be the American anti-Communist doctrine - makes it even more difficult to understand that other reality. May the objective description adduced herein enable them to overcome the impasse thus engendered.[...]
??? The specific role of certain individuals during such times is worth pointing out; they participated in the discovery of the nature of this new reality and helped others find the right path. They had a normal nature but an unfortunate childhood, being subjected very early to the domination of individuals with various psychological deviations, including pathological egotism and methods of terrorizing others. The new rulership system struck such people as a large-scale societal multiplication of what they knew from individual experience. From the very outset, they therefore saw this reality much more prosaically, immediately treating the ideology in accordance with the paralogistic stories well known to them, whose purpose was to cloak bitter reality of their youth experiences. They soon reached the truth, since the genesis and nature of evil are analogous irrespective of the social scale in which it appears.
??? Such people are rarely understood in happy societies, but there they became useful; their explanations and advice proved accurate and were transmitted to others joining the network of this apperceptive heritage. However, their own suffering was doubled, since this was too much of a similar kind of abuse for one life to handle. ...
??? Finally, society sees the appearance of individuals who have collected exceptional intuitive perception and practical knowledge in the area of how pathocrats think and such a system of rule operates.
??? Some of them become so proficient in the deviant psychopath language and its idiomatics that they are able to use it, much like a foreign language they have learned well. Since they are to decipher the rulership's intentions, such people thereupon offer advice to people who are having trouble with the authorities. These usually disinterested advocates of the society of normal people play a irreplaceable role in the life of society. The pathocrats, however, can never learn to think in normal human categories. At the same time, the ability to predict the ways of reaction of such an authority also leads to the conclusion that the system is rigidly causative and lacking in the natural freedom of choice. [...]
??? I was once referred a patient who had been an inmate in a Nazi concentration camp. She came back from that hell in such exceptionally good condition that she was still able to marry and bear three children. However, her child-rearing methods were so extremely iron-fisted as to be much too reminiscent of the concentration camp life so stubbornly per-severing in former prisoners. The children's reaction was neurotic protest and aggressiveness against other children.
??? During the mother's psychotherapy, we recalled the figures of male and female SS officers to her mind, pointing out their psychopathic characteristics (such people were primary recruits). In order to help her eliminate their pathological material from her person, I furnished her with approximate statistical data regarding the appearance of such individuals within the population as whole. This helped her reach a more objective view of that reality and reestablish trust in the society of normal people. ...
??? Parallel to the development of practical knowledge and a language of insider communication, other psychological phenomena take form; they are truly significant in the transformation of social life under pathocratic rule, and discerning them is essential if one wishes to understand individuals and nations fated to live under such conditions and to evaluate the situation in the political sphere. They include people's psychological immunization and their adaptation to life under such deviant conditions.
??? The methods of psychological terror (that specific pathocratic art), the techniques of pathological arrogance, and the striding roughshod into other people's souls initially have such traumatic effects that people are deprived of their capacity for purposeful reaction; I have already adduced the psychophysiological aspects of such states. Ten or twenty years later, analogous behavior can be recognized as well-known buffoonery and does not deprive the victim of his ability to think and react purposefully. His answers are usually well-thought-out strategies, issued from the position of a normal person's superiority and often laced with ridicule. Man can look suffering and even death in the eye with the required calm. A dangerous weapon falls out of ruler's hands.
??? We have to understand that this process of immunization is not merely a result of the above described increase in practical knowledge of the macro-social phenomenon. It is the effect of a many-layered, gradual process of growth in knowledge, familiarization with the phenomenon, creation of the appropriate reactive habits, and self-control, with an overall conception and moral principles being worked out in the meantime. After several years, the same stimuli which formerly caused chilly spiritual impotence or mental paralysis now provoke the desire to gargle with something strong so as to get rid of this filth.
??? It was a time, when many people dreamed of finding some pill which would make it easier to endure dealing with the authorities or attending the forced indoctrination sessions generally chaired by a psychopathic character. Some antidepressants did in fact prove to have the desired effect. Twenty years later, this had been forgotten entirely.
? ??When I was arrested for the first time in 1951, force, arrogance, and psychopathic methods of forcible confession deprived me almost entirely of my self-defense capabilities. My brain stopped functioning after only a few days' arrest without water, to such a point that I couldn't even properly remember the incident which resulted in my sudden arrest. I was not even aware that it had been purposely provoked and that conditions permitting self-defense did in fact exist. They did almost any-thing they wanted to me.
??? When I was arrested for the last time in 1968, I was interrogated by five fierce-looking security functionaries. At one particular moment, after thinking through their predicted reactions, I let my gaze take in each face sequentially with great attentiveness. The most important one asked me, "What's on your mind, buster, staring at us like that?" I answered without any fear of consequences: "I'm just wondering why so many of you gentleman's careers end up in a psychiatric hospital." They were taken aback for a while, whereupon the same man exclaimed, "Because it's such damned horrible work!" "I am of the opinion that it's the other way round", I calmly responded. Then I was taken back to my cell.
??? Three days later, I had the opportunity to talk to him again, but this time he was much more respectful. Then he ordered me to be taken away - outside, as it turned out. I rode the streetcar home past a large park, still unable to believe my eyes. Once in my room, I lay down on the bed; the world was not quite real yet, but exhausted people fall asleep quickly. When I awoke, I spoke out loud: Dear God, aren't you supposed to be in charge here in this world!"
??? At that time, I knew not only that up to 1/4 of all secret police officials wind up in psychiatric hospitals. I also knew that their "occupational disease" is the congestive dementia formerly encountered only among old prostitutes. Man cannot violate the natural human feelings inside him with impunity, no matter what kind of profession he performs. From that view-point, Comrade Captain was partially right. At the same time, however, my reactions had become resistant, a far cry from what they had been seventeen years earlier.
??? All these transformations of human consciousness and unconsciousness result in individual and collective adaptations to living under such systems. Under altered conditions of both material and moral limitations, an existential resourcefulness emerges which is prepared to overcome many difficulties. A new network of the society of normal people is also created for self-help and mutual assistance.
??? This society acts in concert and is aware of the true state of affairs; it begins to develop ways of influencing various elements of authority and achieving goals which are socially useful. ...The opinion that society is totally deprived of any influence upon government in such a country is thus inaccurate. In reality, society does co-govern to a certain extent, sometimes succeeding and sometimes failing in its attempt to create more tolerable living conditions. This, however, occurs in a manner totally different from what happens in democratic countries.
??? These processes: cognitive, psychological immunization, and adaptation permit the creation of new interpersonal and societal links, which operate within the scope of the large majority we have already called the "society of normal people." These links extend discretely into the world of the regime's middle class, among people who can be trusted to a certain extent. ...
??? Exchange of information, warnings, and assistance encompasses the entire society. Whoever is able to do so offers aid to anyone who finds himself in trouble, often in such a way that the person helped does not know who rendered the assistance. However, if he caused his misfortune by his own lack of circumspect caution with regard to the authorities, he meets with reproach, but not the withholding of assistance.
??? It is possible to create such links because this new division of society gives only limited consideration to factors such as the level of talent or education or traditions attached to the former social layers. Neither do reduced prosperity differences dissolve these links. One side of this division contains those of the highest mental culture, simple ordinary people, intellectuals, headwork specialists, factory workers, and peasants joined by the common protest of their human nature against the domination of a Para human experience and governmental methods. These links engender interpersonal understanding and fellow-feeling among people and social groups formerly divided by economic differences and social traditions. The thought processes serving these links are of more psychological character, able to comprehend someone else's motivations. At the same time, the ordinary folk retain respect for people who have been educated and represent intellectual values. Certain social and moral values also appear, and may prove to be permanent.
??? The genesis, however, of this great interpersonal solidarity only becomes comprehensible once we already know the nature of the pathological macro-social phenomenon which brought about the liberation of such attitudes, complete with recognition of one's own humanity and that of others. Another reflection suggests itself, namely how very different these great links are from America's "competitive society...
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This work is so important that I believe that every normal human being ought to read it for their own safety and mental hygiene. I am going to present here some important excerpts from the book soon to be made available in its entirety.
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From the Author?s Foreword:
??? In presenting my honored readers with this volume, which I generally worked on during the early hours before leaving to make a difficult living, I would first like to apologize for the defects which are the result of anomalous circumstances such as the absence of a proper laboratory. I readily admit that these lacunae should be filled, time-consuming as that may be, because the facts on which this book are based are urgently needed. Through no fault of the author?s, these data have come too late.
??? The reader is entitled to an explanation of the long history and circumstances under which this work was compiled. This is the third time I have treated the same subject. I threw the first manuscript into a central-heating furnace, having been warned just in time about an official search, which took place minutes later. I sent the second draft to a Church dignitary at the Vatican by means of an American tourist and was absolutely unable to obtain any kind of information about the fate of the parcel once it left with him.
??? This ? history ? made work on the third version even more laborious. Prior paragraphs and former phrases from one or both first drafts haunt the writer?s mind and make proper planning of the content more difficult.
??? The two first drafts were written in very convoluted language for the benefit of specialists with the necessary background, particularly in the field of psychopathology. The irretrievable disappearance of the second version also included the overwhelming majority of statistical data and facts which would have been so valuable and conclusive for specialists. Several analyses of individual cases were also lost.
??? The present version contains only such statistical data which had been memorized due to frequent use, or which could be reconstructed with satisfactory precision. [?] I also nurse the hope that this work may reach a wider audience and make available some useful scientific data which may serve as a basis for comprehension of the contemporary world and its history. It may also make it easier for readers to understand themselves, their neighbors, and other nations.
??? Who produced the knowledge and performed the work summarized within the pages of this book? It is a joint endeavor containing not only my efforts, but also representing the work of many researchers?
??? The author worked in Poland far away from active political and cultural centers for many years. That is where I undertook a series of detailed tests and observations which were to be combined within the resulting generalisations in order to produce an overall introduction for an understanding of the macro-social phenomenon surrounding us. The name of the person expected to effect this synthesis was a secret, as was understandable and necessary given the time and the situation. I would very occasionally receive anonymous summaries of the results of tests from Poland and Hungary. A few data were published, as it raised no suspicions that a specialized work was being compiled, and these data could still be located today.
??? The expected synthesis of this work did not occur. All my contacts became inoperative as a result of the secret arrests of researchers in the early sixties. The remaining scientific data in my possession were very incomplete, albeit priceless in value. It took many years of lonely work to weld these fragments into a coherent whole, filling the lacunae with my own experience and research.
??? My research on essential psychopathy and its exceptional role in the macro-social phenomenon was conducted concurrently with or shortly after that of others. Their conclusions reached me later and confirmed my own. The most characteristic item in my work is the general concept for a new scientific discipline named ?ponerology.?[?]
??? As the author of the final work, I hereby express my deep respect for all those who initiated the research and continued to conduct it at the risk of their careers, health and lives. I pay homage to those who paid the price through suffering or death. May this work constitute some compensation for their sacrifices?
??? New York, N.Y. August 1984
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Dr. Lobaczewski escaped to the United States where he reassembled and wrote down his research before Solidarity brought the downfall of communism in Poland. Lobaczewski added a few words to his introduction:
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??? Fifteen years passed, fraught with political occurrences. The world changed essentially due to the natural laws of the phenomenon described in this book, and due to the efforts of people of good will. Nonetheless, the world as yet is not restored to good health; and the remainders of the great disease are still very active and threatening a reoccurrence of the illness. Such is the result of a great effort completed without the support of the objective knowledge about the very nature of the phenomenon. [?]
??? The author was recognised as the bearer of this ?dangerous? science only in Austria, by a ?friendly? physician who turned out to be a ?red? agent. The communist groups in New York were then set up to organize a ?counter action.? It was terrible to learn how the system of conscious and unconscious pawns worked. Worst were the people who credulously trusted their conscious ?friends? and performed the insinuated activities with patriotic zeal. The author was refused assistance and had to save his life by working as a welder. My health collapsed, and two years were lost. It appeared that I was not the first who came to America bringing similar knowledge and, once there, treated in a similar way.
??? In spite of all these circumstances, the book was written on time, but no one would publish it. The work was described as ?very informative? but for psychological editors, it contained too much politics and for political editors, it contained too much psychology, or simply ?the editorial deadline has just closed.? Gradually, it became clear that the book did not pass the insider?s inspection.[?]
??? The scientific value which may serve the future remains, and further investigations may yield a new understanding of human problems with progress toward universal peace. This was the reason I labored to retype, on my computer, the whole already fading manuscript. It is here presented as it was written in 1983-84 in New York, USA. So let it be a document of good science and dangerous labor. The author?s desire is to hand this work into the hands of scholars in the hope they will take his burden over and progress with the theoretical research in ponerology - and put it in praxis for the good of people and nations.
??? Poland - June, 1998
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Dr. Lobaczewski left the United States and returned to Poland before September 11, 2001. But his remarks were prophetic:
??? Nonetheless, the world as yet is not restored to good health; and the remainders of the great disease are still very active and threatening a reoccurrence of the illness.
What ?dangerous science was Dr. Lobaczewski carrying with him when he escaped from communist Poland?
He calls it ?Ponerology? which the dictionary defines: n. division of theology dealing with evil; theological doctrine of wickedness or evil; from the Greek: poneros -> evil'.
But Dr. Lobaczewski was not proposing a ?theological? study, but rather a scientific study of what we can plainly call Evil. The problem is, our materialist scientific culture does not readily admit that evil actually exists, per se. Yes, ?evil? plays a part in religious discourse, but even there it is given short shrift as an ?error? or a ?rebellion? that will be corrected at some point in the future, which is discussed in another theological division: eschatology, which is concerned with the final events in history of the world, the ultimate fate of humanity.
There are quite a number of modern psychologists who are actually beginning to move in the direction of what Dr. Lobaczewski said had already been done behind the Iron Curtain many years ago. I have a stack of their books on my desk. Some of them seem to be falling back into the religious perspective simply because they have no other scientific ground on which to stand. I think that is counterproductive. As George K. Simon, Jr., writes in his book ?In Sheep?s Clothing?: (HIGHLY recommended)
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??? ?[W]e?ve been pre-programmed to believe that people only exhibit problem behaviors when they?re ?troubled? inside or anxious about something. We?ve also been taught that people aggress only when they?re attacked in some way. So, even when our gut tells us that somebody is attacking us and for no good reason, we don?t readily accept the notion. We usually start to wonder what?s bothering the person so badly ?underneath it all? that?s making them act in such a disturbing way. We may even wonder what we may have said or done that ?threatened? them. We almost never think that they might be fighting simply to get something, have their way, or gain the upper hand. So, instead of seeing them as merely fighting, we view them as primarily hurting in some way.
??? Not only do we often have trouble recognizing the ways people aggress us, but we also have difficulty discerning the distinctly aggressive character of some personalities. The legacy of Sigmund Freud?s work has a lot to do with this. Freud?s theories (and the theories of others who built upon his work) heavily influenced the psychology of personality for a long time. Elements of the classical theories of personality found their way into many disciplines other than psychology as well as into many of our social institutions and enterprises. The basic tenets of these theories and their hallmark construct, neurosis, have become fairly well etched in the public consciousness.
??? Psychodynamic theories of personality tend to view everyone, at least to some degree, as neurotic. Neurotic individuals are overly inhibited people who suffer unreasonable fear (anxiety), guilt and shame when it comes to securing their basic wants and needs. The malignant impact of overgeneralizing Freud?s observations about a small group of overly inhibited individuals into a broad set of assumptions about the causes of psychological ill-health in everyone cannot be overstated.[?]
??? Therapists whose training overly indoctrinated them in the theory of neurosis, may ?frame? problems presented them incorrectly. They may, for example, assume that a person, who all their life has aggressively pursued independence and demonstrated little affinity for others, must necessarily be ?compensating? for a ?fear? of intimacy. In other words, they will view a hardened fighter as a terrified runner, thus misperceiving the core reality of the situation.[?]
??? We need a completely different theoretical framework if we are to truly understand, deal with, and treat the kinds of people who fight too much as opposed to those who cower or ?run? too much.
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The problem is, of course, that when you read all the books about such people as Dr. Simon is describing, you discover that ?treatment? really means treating the victims because such aggressors almost never seek help.
Getting back to Dr. Lobaczewski: I wrote to ask for more details as to why this important work was generally unknown. What was the meaning of his remark: "It appeared that I was not the first who came to America bringing similar knowledge and, once there, treated in a similar way." He replied by mail:
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??? [?] Years ago the publication of the book in the US was killed by Mr. Zbigniew Brzezinski in a very cunning way. What was his motivation, I may only guess. Was it his own private strategy, or did he act as an insider of the ?great system? as he surely is? How many billions of dollars and how many human lives the lack of this science has cost the world. [?]
As for who else was involved in this work: in those times, such work could only be done in full secrecy. During the German occupation, we learned to never ask for names though it was well known among us that this was an international communication among some scientists. I can tell you that one Hungarian scientist was killed because of his work on this project, and in Poland, professor Stephan Blachowski died mysteriously while working on these investigations. It is a certainty that professor Kasimir Dabrowski was active in the study, being an expert on psychopathy. He escaped to the US and in New York, became an object of harassment as I had been. He went to Canada and worked at the university in Edmonton.
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After reading Lobaczewski's work, it is easy to understand why Brzezinski suppressed it. It exposes the Neocons and Pathocrats so completely that they could not allow it to be propagated! It also may be that they used it as a handbook to better "pull the wool" over the eyes of the masses.
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??? Continuing with Lobaczewski's book:
Pathocracy
??? As a youth, I read a book about a naturalist wandering through the Amazon-basin wilderness. At some moment a small animal fell from a tree onto the nape of his neck, clawing his skin painfully and sucking his blood. The biologist cautiously removed it - without anger, since that was its form of feeding - and proceeded to study it carefully. This story stubbornly stuck in my mind during those very difficult times when a vampire fell onto our necks, sucking the blood of an unhappy nation.
??? The attitude of a naturalist - who attempts to track the nature of macro-social phenomena in spite of all adversity - insured a certain intellectual distance and better psychological hygiene, also slightly increasing the feeling of safety and furnishing a premonition that this very method may help find a certain creative solution. This required controlling the natural, moralizing reflexes of revulsion and other painful emotions this phenomenon provokes in any normal person when it deprives him of his joy of life and personal safety, ruining his own future and that of his nation. Scientific curiosity becomes a loyal ally during such times.
??? May the reader please imagine a very large hall in some old Gothic university building. Many of us gathered there early in our studies in order to listen to the lectures of outstanding philosophers. We were herded back there the year before graduation in order to listen to the indoctrination lectures which recently have been introduced. Someone nobody knew appeared behind the lectern and informed us that he would now be the professor. His speech was fluent, but there was nothing scientific about it: he failed to distinguish between scientific and everyday concepts and treated borderline imaginings as though it were wisdom that could not be doubted. For ninety minutes each week, he flooded us with na?ve, presumptuous paralogistics and a pathological view of human reality. We were treated with contempt and poorly controlled hatred. Since fun poking could entail dreadful consequences, we had to listen attentively and with the utmost gravity.
?? ?The grapevine soon discovered this person?s origins. He had come from a Cracow suburb and attended high school, although no one knew if he graduated. Anyway, this was the first time he had crossed university portals - as a professor, at that! [?]
??? After such mind-torture, it took a long time for someone to break the silence. We studied ourselves, since we felt something strange had taken over our minds and something valuable was leaking away irretrievably. The world of psychological reality and moral values seemed suspended like in a chilly fog. Our human feeling and student solidarity lost their meaning, as did patriotism and our old established criteria. So we asked each other: ?Are you going through this too?? Each of us experienced this worry about his own personality and future in his own way. Some of us answered the questions with silence. The depth of these experiences turned out to be different for each individual.
??? We thus wondered how to protect ourselves from the results of this ?indoctrination.? Teresa D. made the first suggestion: Let?s spend a weekend in the mountains. It worked. Pleasant company, a bit of joking, then exhaustion followed by deep sleep in a shelter, and our human personalities returned, albeit with a certain remnant. Time also proved to create a kind of psychological immunity, although not with everyone. Analysing the psychopathic characteristics of the ?professor?s? personality proved another excellent way of protecting one?s own psychological hygiene.
??? You can just imagine our worry, disappointment, and surprise when some colleagues we knew well suddenly began to change their world-view; their thought-patterns furthermore reminded us of the ?professor?s? chatter. Their feelings, which had just recently been friendly, became noticeably cooler, although not yet hostile. Benevolent or critical student arguments bounced right off of them. They gave the impression of possessing some secret knowledge; we were only their former colleagues, still believing what those professors of old had taught us. We had to be careful of what we said to them.
??? Our former colleagues soon joined the Party. Who were they? What social groups did they come from? What kind of students and people were they? How and why did they change so much in less than a year? Why did neither I nor a majority of my fellow students succumb to this phenomenon and process? Many such questions fluttered through our heads then. Those times, questions, and attitudes gave rise to the idea that this phenomenon could be objectively understood, an idea whose greater meaning crystallized with time. Many of us participated in the initial observations and reflections, but most crumbled away in the face of material or academic problems. Only a few remained; so the author of this book may be the last of the Mohicans.
??? It was relatively easy to determine the environments and origin of the people who succumbed to this process, which I then called ?transpersonification?. They came from all social groups, including aristocratic and fervently religious families, and caused a break in our student solidarity in the order of some 6 %. The remaining majority suffered varying degrees of personality disintegration which gave rise to individual efforts in searching for the values necessary to find ourselves again; the results were varied and sometimes creative.
??? Even then, we had no doubts as to the pathological nature of this ?transpersonification? process, which ran similar but not identical in all cases. The duration of the results of this phenomenon also varied. Some of these people later became zealots. Others later took advantage of various circumstances to withdraw and reestablish their lost links to the society of normal people. They were replaced. The only constant value of the new social system was the magic number of 6 %.
??? We tried to evaluate the talent level of those colleagues who had succumbed to this personality-transformation process, and reached the conclusion that on average, it was slightly lower than the average of the student population. Their lesser resistance obviously resided in other bio-psychological features which were most probably qualitatively heterogeneous.
??? I had to study subjects bordering on psychology and psychopathology in order to answer the questions arising from our observations; scientific neglect in these areas proved an obstacle difficult to overcome. At the same time, someone guided by special knowledge apparently vacated the libraries of anything we could have found on the topic.
Is it any wonder why, nowadays, any group seeking to provide this very knowledge to others would be labeled a "cult?"
??? Analysing these occurrences now in hindsight, we could say that the ?professor? was dangling bait over our heads, based on psychopaths? specific psychological knowledge. He knew in advance that he would fish out amenable individuals, but the limited numbers disappointed him. The transpersonification process generally took hold whenever an individual?s instinctive substratum was marked by pallor or some deficits. To a lesser extent, it also worked among people who manifested other deficiencies, also the state provoked within them was partially impermanent, being largely the result of psychopathological induction.
??? This knowledge about the existence of susceptible individuals and how to work on them will continue being a tool for world conquest as long as it remains the secret of such ?professors.? When it becomes skillfully popularized science, it will help nations develop immunity. But none of us knew this at the time.
??? Nevertheless, we must admit that in demonstrating the properties of pathocracy in such a way as to force us into in-depth experience, the professor helped us understand the nature of the phenomenon in a larger scope than many a true scientific researcher participating in this work in one way or another. [?]
??? The natural psychological, societal, and moral world-view is a product of man?s developmental process within a society, under the constant influence of his innate traits. No person can develop without being influenced by other people and their personalities, or by the values imbued by his civilization and his moral and religious traditions. That is why his world-view can be neither universal nor true.
??? It is thus significant that the main values of this human world-view of nature indicate basic similarities in spite of great spans of time, race, and civilization. It is thus suggested that the ?human world view? derives from the nature of our species and the natural experience of human societies which have achieved a certain necessary level of civilization. Refinements based on literary values or philosophical and moral reflections do indicate some differences, but generally speaking, they tend to bring together the natural conceptual language of various civilizations and eras.
??? People with a ?humanistic? education may have the impression that they have achieved wisdom, but here we approach a problem; we must ask the following question: Even if the natural world-view has been refined, does it mirror reality with sufficient reliability? Or does it only mirror our species? perception? To what extent can we depend upon it as a basis for decision making in the individual, societal, and political spheres of life?
??? Experience teaches us, first of all, that this natural world-view has permanent and characteristic tendencies toward deformation dictated by our instinctive and emotional features. Secondly, our work exposes us to many phenomena that cannot be understood and described by natural language alone.
??? Considering the most important reality deforming tendency, we notice that those emotional features which are a natural component of the human personality are never completely appropriate to the reality being experienced. This results both from our instinct and from our conditioning of upbringing. This is why the best traditions of philosophical and religious thought have counseled subduing the emotions in order to achieve a more accurate view of reality.
? ??Another problem is the fact that our natural world-view is generally characterized by a tendency to endow our opinions with moral judgments, often so negative as to represent outrage. This appeals to tendencies which are deeply rooted in human nature and social customs.
??? We often meet with sensible people endowed with a well-developed natural world-view as regards psychological, societal, and moral aspects, frequently refined via literary influences, religious deliberations, and philosophical reflections. Such persons have a pronounced tendency to overrate the values of their world-view. They do not take into account the fact that their system can be also erroneous since it is insufficiently objective.
??? Let us call such an attitude the egotism of the natural world-view. To date, it has been the least pernicious type of egotism, being merely an overestimation of that method of comprehension containing the eternal values of human experience.
??? Today, however, the world is being jeopardized by a phenomenon that cannot be understood and described by means of such a natural conceptual language; this kind of egotism thus becomes a dangerous factor stifling the possibility of some counteractive measures. Developing and popularizing the objective psychological world-view could thus significantly expand the scope of dealing with evil via sensible action and pinpointed countermeasures.
??? Ever since ancient times, philosophers and religious thinkers representing various attitudes in different cultures have been searching for the truth as regards moral values, attempting to find criteria for what is right, what constitutes good advice. They described the virtues of human character and suggested these be acquired. They created a heritage ? which contains centuries of experience and reflections. In spite of the obvious differences among attitudes, the similarity or complementarity of the conclusions reached by famous ancients are striking, even though they worked in widely divergent times and places. After all, whatever is valuable is conditioned and caused by the laws of nature acting upon the personalities of both individual human beings and collective societies.
??? It is equally thought-provoking, however, to see how relatively little has been said about the opposite side of the coin; the nature, causes, and genesis of evil. These matters are usually cloaked behind the above generalized conclusions with a certain amount of secrecy. Such a state of affairs can be partially ascribed to the social conditions and historical circumstances under which these thinkers worked. Their modus operandi may have been dictated at least in part by personal fate, inherited traditions, or even prudishness. After all, justice and virtue are the opposites of force and perversity, the same applies to truthfulness vs. lies, similarly like health is the opposite of an illness.
??? The character and genesis of evil thus remained hidden in discreet shadows, leaving it to playwrights to deal with the subject in their highly expressive language, but that did not reach the primeval source of the phenomena. A certain cognitive space thus remains uninvestigated, a thicket of moral questions which resists understanding and philosophical generalizations. [?]
??? From time immemorial, man has dreamed of a life in which his efforts to accumulate benefits can be punctuated by rest during which time he enjoys those benefits. He learned how to domesticate animals in order to accumulate more benefits, and when that no longer met his needs, he learned to enslave other human beings simply because he was more powerful and could do it.
??? Dreams of a happy life of ?more accumulated benefits? to be enjoyed, and more leisure time in which to enjoy them, thus gave rise to force over others, a force which depraves the mind of its user. That is why man?s dreams of happiness have not come true throughout history: the hedonistic view of ?happiness? contains the seeds of misery. Hedonism, the pursuit of the accumulation of benefits for the sole purpose of self-enjoyment, feeds the eternal cycle where good times lead to bad times.
??? During good times, people lose sight of the need for thinking, introspection, knowledge of others, and an understanding of life. When things are ?good,? people ask themselves whether it is worth it to ponder human nature and flaws in the personality (one?s own, or that of another). In good times, entire generations can grow up with no understanding of the creative meaning of suffering since they have never experienced it themselves. When all the joys of life are there for the taking, mental effort to understand science and the laws of nature - to acquire knowledge that may not be directly related to accumulating stuff - seems like pointless labor. Being ?healthy minded,? and positive - a good sport with never a discouraging word - is seen as a good thing, and anyone who predicts dire consequences as the result of such insouciance is labeled a wet-blanket or a killjoy.
??? Perception of the truth about reality, especially a real understanding of human nature in all it?s ranges and permutations, ceases to be a virtue to be acquired. Thoughtful doubters are ?meddlers? who can?t leave well enough alone. ?Don?t fix it if it ain?t broke.? This attitude leads to an impoverishment of psychological knowledge including the capacity to differentiate the properties of human nature and personality, and the ability to mold healthy minds creatively.
??? The cult of power thus supplants the mental and moral values so essential for maintaining peace by peaceful means. A nation?s enrichment or involution as regards its psychological world-view could be considered an indicator of whether its future be good or bad.
??? During good times, the search for the meaning of life, the truth of our reality, becomes uncomfortable because it reveals inconvenient factors. Unconscious elimination of data which are, or appear to be, inexpedient, begins to be habitual, a custom accepted by entire societies. The result is that any thought processes based on such truncated information cannot bring correct conclusions. This then leads to substitution of convenient lies to the self to replace uncomfortable truths thereby approaching the boundaries of phenomena which should be viewed as psychopathological.
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The facts are that ?good times? for one group of people have been historically rooted in some injustice to other groups of people. In such a society, where all the hidden truths lurk below the surface like an iceberg, disaster is just around the corner.
It is clear that America has experienced a long period of ?good times? for most of its existence, (no matter how many people they had to oppress or kill to do so), but particularly so during the 50 years preceding September 11, 2001. During that 50 years, several generations of children were born, and the ones that were born at the beginning of that time, who have never known ?bad times,? are now at an age where they want to ?enjoy? the benefits they have accumulated. Unfortunately, it doesn?t look like that is going to happen; 9/11 has changed everything so profoundly that it looks like there will be no enjoyment by anyone for a very, very long time.
How could this happen?
The answer is that a few generation?s worth of ?good times? results in the above described societal deficits regarding psychological skills and moral criticism. Long periods of preoccupation with the self and ?accumulating benefits? for the self, diminish the ability to accurately read the environment and other people. But the situation is more serious than just a generalized weakness of a society that could be ?toughened up? with a little ?hard times?.
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Lobaczewski writes:
??? The psychological features of each such crisis are unique to the culture and the time, but one common denominator that exists at the beginning of all such ?bad times? is an exacerbation of society?s hysterical condition. The emotionalism dominating in individual, collective, and political life, combined with the subconscious selection and substitution of data in reasoning, lead to individual and national egotism. The mania for taking offense at the drop of a hat provokes constant retaliation, taking advantage of hyperirritability and hypocriticality on the part of others. It is this feature, this hystericization of society, that enables pathological plotters, snake charmers, and other primitive deviants to act as essential factors in the processes of the origination of evil on a macro-social scale.
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Who, exactly, are the ?pathological plotters,? and what can motivate such individuals during times that are generally understood by others as ?good?? If times are ?good,? why does anyone want to plot and generate evil?
Well, certainly, the current US administration has come up with an answer: ?They hate us because of our freedoms.? This is a prime example of ?selection and substitution of data in reasoning? which is willingly and gladly accepted as an explanation by the public because of their deficits of psychological skills and moral criticism.
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??? Lobaczewski: Present-day philosophers developing meta-ethics are trying to press forward in their understanding, and as they slip and slide along the elastic space leading to an analysis of the language of ethics, they contribute toward eliminating some imperfections and habits of natural conceptual language. Penetrating this ever-mysterious nucleus, however, is highly tempting to a scientist.[?]
??? If physicians behaved like ethicists and failed to study diseases because they were only interested in studying questions of health, there would be no such thing as modern medicine. [?] Physicians were correct in their emphasis on studying disease above all in order to discover the causes and biological properties of illnesses, and then to understand the pathodynamics of their courses. A comprehension of the nature of a disease, and the course it runs, after all, enables the proper curative means to be elaborated and employed.[?]
??? The question thus arises: could some analogous modus operandi not be used to study the causes and genesis of other kinds of evil scourging human individuals, families, societies? Experience has taught the author that evil is similar to disease in nature, although possibly more complex and elusive to our understanding. [?]
??? Parallel to the traditional approach, problems commonly perceived to be moral may also be treated on the basis of data provided by biology, medicine, and psychology, as the factors of this kind are simultaneously present in the question as a whole. Experience teaches us that a comprehension of the essence and genesis of evil generally make use of data from these areas. [?]
??? Philosophical thought may have engendered all the scientific disciplines, but the latter did not mature until they became independent, based on detailed data and a relationship to other disciplines supplying such data.
??? Encouraged by the often ?coincidental? discovery of these naturalistic aspects of evil, the author initiated the methodology of medicine; a clinical psychologist and medical co-worker by profession, he had such tendencies anyway. As is the case with physicians and disease, he took the risks of close contact with evil and suffered the consequences. His purpose was to ascertain the possibilities of understanding the nature of evil, its etiological factors and to track its pathodynamics.[?]
??? A new discipline thus arose: Ponerology. The process of the genesis of evil was called, correspondingly, ?ponerogenesis.? [?]
??? Considerable moral, intellectual, and practical advantages can be gleaned from an understanding of the genesis of Evil thanks to the objectivity required to study it dispassionately. The human heritage of ethics is not destroyed by taking such an approach: it is actually strengthened because the scientific method can be utilized to confirm the basic values of moral teachings.
??? Understanding the nature of macro-social pathology helps us to find a healthy attitude and thus protects our minds from being controlled or poisoned by the diseased contents and influence of their propaganda.
??? We can only conquer this huge, contagious social cancer if we comprehend its essence and its etiological causes.
??? Such an understanding of the nature of the phenomena leads to the logical conclusion that the measures for healing and reordering the world today should be completely different from the ones heretofore used for solving international conflicts. It is also true that, merely having the knowledge and awareness of the phenomena of the genesis of macro-social Evil can begin healing individual humans and help their minds regain harmony. [?]
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Lobaczewski discusses the fact that ?bad times,? seem to have a historical ?purpose.? It seems that suffering during times of crisis lead to mental activity aimed at solving or ending the suffering. The bitterness of loss invariably leads to a regeneration of values and empathy.
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Lobaczewski: When bad times arrive and people are overwhelmed by an excess of evil, they must gather all their physical and mental strength to fight for existence and protect human reason. The search for some way out of difficulties and dangers rekindles long-buried powers or discretion. Such people have the initial tendency to rely on force in order to counteract the threat; they may, for instance, become ?trigger happy? or dependent upon armies. Slowly and laboriously, however, they discover the advantages conferred by mental effort; improved understanding of psychological situations in particular, better differentiation of human characters and personalities, and finally, comprehension of one?s adversaries. During such times, virtues which former generations relegated to literary motifs regain their real and useful substance and become prized for their value. A wise person capable of furnishing sound advice is highly respected.
??? It seems that there have been many such ?bad times? in the course of human history, and it was during such times that the great systems of ethics were developed. Unfortunately, during ?good times,? nobody wants to hear about it. They want to ?enjoy? things, to have pleasure and pleasant experiences, and so any literature that relates to such times is lost, forgotten, suppressed, or otherwise ignored. This leads to further debasing of the intellectual currency and opens the gap for bad times to come once again.
??? If a collection were to be made of all the books that describe the horrors of wars, the cruelties of revolutions, and the bloody deeds of political leaders and systems, most people would avoid such a library. In such a library, ancient works would be found alongside books by contemporary historians and reporters. The documentary evidence on German extermination and concentration camps, complete with dry statistical data, describing the well-organized ?labor? of the destruction of human life, would be seen to use a properly calm language, and would provide the basis for acknowledging the nature of Evil.
??? The autobiography of Rudolf Hess, the commander of camps in Osweicim (Auschwitz) and Brzezinka, (Birkenau) is a classic example of how an intelligent psychopath thinks and feels.
??? Our library of death would include works on philosophy discussing the social and moral aspects of the genesis of Evil, while using history to partially justify the blood-drenched ?solutions?.
??? The library would show to the alert reader a sort of evolution from primitive attitudes, that it is alright to enslave and murder vanquished peoples, to the present day moralizing which declares that such behavior is barbaric and worthy of condemnation.
??? However, such a library would be missing one crucial tome: there would not be a single work offering a sufficient explanation of the causes and processes whereby such historical dramas originate, of how and why human beings periodically degenerate into bloodthirsty madness.
??? The old questions would remain unanswered: what made this happen? Does everyone carry the seeds of crime within, or only some of us? No matter how faithful to the events, nor how psychologically accurate the books that are available may be, they cannot answer those questions nor can they fully explain the origin of Evil.
??? Thus, humanity is at a great disadvantage because without a fully scientific explanation of the origins of Evil, there is no possibility of the development of sufficiently effective principles for counteracting Evil.
??? The best literary description of a disease cannot produce an understanding of its essential etiology, and can thus furnish no principles for treatment. In the same way, descriptions of historical tragedies are incapable of elaborating effective measures for counteracting the genesis, existence, or spread of Evil.
??? In using natural language to discuss psychological, social and moral concepts, we find that we can only produce an approximation, which leads to a nagging suspicion of helplessness.
??? Our ordinary system of concepts are not invested with the necessary factual content - scientific observations about Evil - which would permit comprehension of the quality of the many factors (particularly the psychological ones) which are active before and during the birth of inhumanly cruel times.
??? Nevertheless, the authors of some of the books that we would find in our Library of Evil took great care to infuse their words with the proper precision as though they were hoping that someone, at some time, would use their records to explain what they, themselves, could not explain even in the best literary language.
??? Most human beings are horrified by such literature. Hedonistic societies have the strong tendency to encourage escape into ignorance or naive doctrines. Some people even feel contempt for the suffering of others.
??? It is true that, in tracking the behavioral mechanisms of the genesis of Evil, one must keep both abhorrence and fear under control, submit to a passion for science, and develop the calm outlook needed in natural history.
??? This book aims to take the reader by the hand into a world beyond the concepts and imaginings he has trusted and used since childhood. This is necessary due to the problems our world presently faces, things we can no longer ignore, or ignore only at the peril of all humanity. We must realize that we cannot possibly distinguish the path to nuclear catastrophe from the path to creative dedication unless we step beyond the subjective world of well-known concepts, and we must also realize that this subjective world was chosen for us by powerful forces against which our nostalgia for homey, human ideas about warmth and safety is no match.
??? Moral evil and psychobiological evil are interlinked via so many causal relationships and mutual influences that they can only be separated by means of abstraction. However, the ability to distinguish them qualitatively protects us from moralizing interpretations that so easily can poison the human mind in an insidious way.
??? Macro-social phenomena of Evil, which constitute the most important object of this book, appear to be subjected to the same laws of nature operating within human beings on individual or small-group levels. The role of persons with various psychological defects and anomalies of a clinically low level appear to be a perennial characteristic of such phenomena.
??? In the macro-social phenomenon where Evil runs rampant, ?Pathocracy,? a certain hereditary anomaly isolated as ?essential psychopathy? is catalytically and causatively essential for the genesis and survival of such a State.[?]
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This last remark is the key to ?grand conspiracies? that many are convinced cannot exist. Dr. Lobaczewski discusses the kinds of individuals that form a ?Pathocracy,? or ?psychopathic government,? and further, he elaborates details about psychopaths based on his studies and the studies of those with whom he was associated, that have never been openly discussed as far as I can tell after reading many thousands of pages of material on the subject generated in the West. Dr. Lobaczewski, on the other hand, undertook his studies ?in the belly of the beast,? so to say, with live ?specimens?. The value of such a study cannot be overstated.
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??? Lobaczewski: Pathological processes have historically had a profound influence upon human society at large due to the fact that many individuals with deformed characters have played outstanding roles in the formation of social constructs. It is helpful to have some background on this. Dr. Lobaczewski writes:
??? Brain tissue is very limited in its regenerative ability. If it is damaged and the change subsequently heals, a process of rehabilitation takes place thanks to which the neighboring healthy tissue takes over the function of the damaged portion. This substitution is never quite perfect thus some deficits as regards skill and proper psychological processes can be detected, even in cases of very small damage, by using the appropriate tests. [?]
??? As regards pathological factors of ponerogenic processes, perinatal or early-infant damages have more active results than damages which occur later.
??? In societies with highly developed medical care, we find among the lower grades of elementary schools that 5 to 7 percent of the children have suffered brain tissue lesions which cause certain academic or behavioral difficulties.[?]15
??? This is actually a frightening figure. If we realize that an even higher percentage of the previous generations have suffered brain tissue lesions during a time when there was no highly developed perinatal and neonatal medical care, not to mention the damage that may be suffered among those populations today where such care is still primitive, we can understand that much of our own culture has been shaped by people with brain damage and we are faced with dealing with a world in which brain damaged individuals have an important influence on the social constructs! Keep in mind that if your grandfather suffered perinatal or neonatal brain damage, it affected how he raised one of your parents, which affects how that parent raised you!
??? Epilepsy constitutes the oldest known results of such lesions; it is observed in relatively small numbers of persons suffering such damage. Researchers in these matters are more or less unanimous in believing that Julius Caesar and then later Napoleon Bonaparte had epileptic seizures. The extent to which these ailments had a negative effect upon their characters and historical decision making, or played a ponerogenic role, can be the subject of a separate study. In most cases, however, epilepsy is an evident ailment, which limits its role as a ponerogenic factor.16
??? In a much larger part of the bearers of brain tissue damage, the negative deformation of their characters grows in the course of time. It takes on various mental pictures depending on the properties and localizations of the damage, their time of origin, and also the life conditions of the individual after their occurrence. We will call character disorders resulting from such pathology ?Characteropathies.?
??? Some characteropathies play an outstanding role as pathological agents in the processes of the genesis of evil on a large social scale. [?]
??? A relatively well-documented example of such an influence of a characteropathic personality on a macro-social scale is the last German emperor, Wilhelm II. He was subjected to brain trauma at birth. During and after his entire reign, his physical and psychological handicap was hidden from public knowledge. The motor abilities of the upper left portion of his body were handicapped. As a boy, he had difficulty learning grammar, geometry, and drawing, which constitutes the typical triad of academic difficulties caused by minor brain lesions. He developed a personality with infantilistic features and insufficient control over his emotions, and also a somewhat paranoid way of thinking which easily sidestepped the heart of some important issues in the process of dodging problems.
??? Militaristic poses and a general?s uniform overcompensated for his feelings of inferiority and effectively cloaked his shortcomings. Politically, his insufficient control of emotions and factors of personal rancor came into view. The old Iron Chancellor had to go, that cunning and ruthless politician who had been loyal to the monarchy and built up Prussian power. After all, he was too knowledgeable about the prince?s defects and had worked against his coronation. A similar fate met other overly critical people, who were replaced by persons with lesser brains, more subservience, and sometimes, discreet psychological deviations. Negative selection took place.
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Notice this last term: ?negative selection took place.? That is to say, a defective head of state selected his staff, his government, based on his own pathologically damaged worldview. I?m sure the reader can perceive how dangerous such a situation can be to the people governed by such a ?negatively selected? cabal. The important thing to consider here is what effect this had on the social constructs under the rule of such individuals.
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Lobaczewski explains: The experience of people with such anomalies grows out of the normal human world to which they belong by nature. Thus, their different way of thinking, their emotional violence, and their egotism find relatively easy entry into other people?s minds and are perceived within the categories of the natural world-view. Such behavior on the part of persons with such character disorders traumatizes the minds and feelings of normal people, gradually diminishing their ability to use their common sense. In spite of their resistance, people become used to the rigid habits of pathological thinking and experiencing. In young people, as a result, the personality suffers abnormal development leading to its malformation. They thus represent pathological ponerogenic factors which, by their covert activity, easily engenders new phases in the eternal genesis of evil, opening the door to a later activation of other factors which thereupon take over the main role. [?]
??? [In the case of the effect of Wilhelm II], many Germans were progressively deprived of their ability to use their common sense because of the impingement of psychological material of the characteropathic type, as the common people are prone to identify with the emperor?
??? A new generation grew up with deformities as regards feeling and understanding moral, psychological, social and political realities. It is extremely typical that in many German families containing a member who was psychologically not quite normal, it became a matter of honor (even excusing nefarious conduct) to hide this fact from public opinion - and even the awareness of close friends and relatives. Large portions of society ingested psychopathological material, together with that unrealistic way of thinking wherein slogans take on the power of arguments and real data are subjected to subconscious selection.
??? This occurred during a time when a wave of hysteria was growing throughout Europe, including a tendency for emotions to dominate and for human behavior to contain an element of histrionics. [?] This progressively took over three empires and other countries on the mainland.
??? To what extent did Wilhelm II contribute to this, along with two other emperors whose minds also did not take in the actual facts of history and government? To what extent were they themselves influenced by an intensification of hysteria during their reigns? That would make an interesting topic of discussion among historians and ponerologists.
??? International tensions increased; Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. However, neither the Kaiser nor any other governmental authority in his country possessed reason. (Due to the aforementioned negative selection process.) What came into play was Wilhelm?s emotional attitude and the stereotypes of thought and action inherited from the past. War broke out. General war plans prepared earlier, which had lost their topicality under the new conditions, unfolded more like military maneuvers. Even those historians familiar with the genesis and character of the Prussian state, including its ideological tradition of bloody expansionism, intuit that these situations contained some activity of an uncomprehended fatality which eludes an analysis in terms of historical causality.
??? Many thoughtful persons keep asking the same anxious question: how could the German nation have chosen for a Fuehrer a clownish psychopath who made no bones about his pathological vision of superman rule? Under his leadership, Germany then unleashed a second war, criminal and politically absurd. During the second half of this war, highly trained army officers honorably performed the inhuman orders, senseless from the political and military point of view, issued by a man whose psychological state corresponded to the routine criteria for being forcibly committed to psychiatric hospitalization.
??? Any attempt to explain the things that occurred during the first half of our century by means of categories generally accepted in historical thought leaves behind a nagging feeling of inadequacy. Only a ponerological approach can compensate for this deficit in our comprehension, as it does justice to the role of various pathological factors in the genesis of evil at every social level.
??? Fed for generations on pathologically altered psychological material, the German nation fell into a state comparable to what we see in certain individuals raised by persons who are both characteropathic and hysterical. Psychologists know from experience how often such people then let themselves commit acts which seriously hurt others. [?]
??? The Germans inflicted and suffered enormous pain during the first World War; they thus felt no substantial guilt and even thought they had been wronged, as they were behaving in accordance with their customary habit without being aware of its pathological causes. The need for this state to be clothed in heroic garb after a war in order to avoid bitter disintegration became all too common. A mysterious craving arose, as if the social organism had ? become addicted to some drug. That was the hunger of pathologically modified psychological material, a phenomenon known to psychotherapeutic experience. This hunger could only be satisfied by another personality and system of government, both similarly pathological.
??? A characteropathic personality opened the door for leadership by a psychopathic individual.
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What is interesting at this point in Lobaczewski?s discourse is his indication that this pattern repeats itself again and again in history: a pathologically brain-damaged individual creates circumstances that condition the public in a certain way, and this, then, opens the door for the psychopath to come to power. As I read this, I thought back to the last 45 or 50 years of history in America and realized that the ?cold war,? the nuclear threat, the assassination of JFK, the antics of Nixon, Johnson, Reagan, Clinton, the manipulation of Americans via the media, were just such characteropathic conditionings that opened the door for the Neocons and their nominal puppet, George W. Bush, who can certainly be described as ?a clownish psychopath who makes no bones about his pathological vision of super-American rule.? We can even see in the cabal that is assembled around George W. Bush, the same ?negative selection? of advisors and cabinet officials as Lobaczewski described were assembled around Kaiser Wilhelm.
So, we begin to understand just how important this ?science of evil adjusted for political purposes? may be and how much understanding we, as a society, lack. In order to understand exactly how an entire society, even an entire nation, can become a Pathocracy, we need to understand a little bit about the types of individuals that make up the core of such a ?conspiracy.? Lobaczewski discusses the most frequent characteropathies and their relation to brain lesions giving examples.
??? Continue...
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/political_ponerology_lobaczewski_2.htm
November 28, 2005
Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes II
by Andrew M. Lobaczewski
with commentary and additional quoted material
by Laura Knight-Jadczyk
http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/political_ponerology_lobaczewski_2.htm
Did Rothschild Write The Protocols Of Zion?
RePortersNotebook memo: Makow is a professor of philosophy. He is Jewish. Teaches in Canada. He really believes "The Protocols Of Zion" is to be taken seriously. What do you think?
Did Rothschild Write The Protocols Of Zion?
Lucifer Triumphant, Mankind Enslaved
by Henry Makow
9-21-03
Many people think "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" is anti Semitic "hate literature" and a fraud. Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote that the book exhibits "the mind of genius." This is pretty unusual for a fraud. Solzhenitsyn said it exhibits "great strength of thought and insight...Its design...(increasing freedom and liberalism, which is terminated in social cataclysm)...is well above the abilities of an ordinary mind...It is more complicated than a nuclear bomb."
I'm afraid Protocols may be genuine
They are lectures addressed to Jewish Luciferians (Illuminati, Freemasons) detailing an incredible plan to overthrow western civilization, subjugate mankind, and concentrate "all the wealth of the world...in our hands." The book, typical of similar Illuminati documents, was leaked to the Czarist Secret police and published in Russia in 1905. The issue of anti Semitism diverts attention from this plot which has been unfolding for over 200 years and is behind world government, September 11, Iraq, Homeland Security and the bogus "War on Terror." FAIT ACCOMPLI The plotters control the world's wealth. Their multinational corporations have Freemason symbols for logos. Shell and Citibank have the rising sun; Exxon the double cross, CBS and Time Warner the eye of Horus; Alcan and AOL, the circle in the triangle. The mass media, education and politics all create an illusion of democracy in order to control and defraud humanity. The Great Seal of the United States reflects the unhappy truth. It is also a Freemason symbol and bears the inscription "We have achieved New World Order." Almost all American Presidents including George W. Bush are freemasons or Illuminati.
Israel's Star of David (interlaced triangles) is the Masonic symbol for the double divinity, Adonai and Lucifer. The issue of anti Semitism is irrelevant because Jewish and non-Jewish Luciferians have intermarried. (See Milan Martin, Lucifer's Children p.74) The elite now consists of humanity-haters of all stripes. No wonder corruption is endemic. As the Greeks say, the fish rots from the head. ROTHSCHILD Meyer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812) played a key role in advancing this monstrous conspiracy. He was a follower of the occult Cabbalism (or Lucifer worship) that is the basis of Illuminism and Freemasonry. (See Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. http://freemasonwatch.freepress-freespeech.com/moralsanddogma.html )
Researchers have speculated that Adam Weishaupt or Asher Ginzberg penned Protocols. I think it may have been Rothschild himself. I came to this conclusion after reading Protocols 20-23, the "financial programme... the crowning and the decisive point of our plans." These lectures require considerable knowledge of banking and finance. Moreover the author states that all power ultimately will reside in the "King of the Jews," which is how Rothschild was known.
THE SOURCE OF POWER
The author makes clear that whoever creates money is sovereign. He ridicules the goyim kings for forfeiting this power and says he doesn't intend to repeat this mistake." When we come into our Kingdom," the government will change from being "a payer of tribute by loan operations...into a lender at a profit." "This measure will stop the stagnation of money, parasitic profits, and idleness which were useful for us among the goyim so long as they were independent but are not desirable under our rule." The Protocols is full of Talmudic contempt for non-Jews. "How clear is the undeveloped power of thought of the purely brute brains of the goyim...What could have been simpler than to take the money they wanted from their own people? "...We "will put an end to those abuses to which we owe our mastery over the goyim, but which cannot be allowed in our Kingdom." (178) (I am using the L. Fry edition of The Protocols, entitled Waters Flowing Eastward, available from gsgbooks@mindspring.com)
COMMUNISM, SOCIALISM, LIBERALISM, FEMINISM
Similarly the bankers have financed intellectuals and politicians to promote a mania for "senseless utopian principles" like "collectivism," "freedom of conscience, equality and the like." (182) They are designed to bring down the Old Order but will have no place in the New. "We have set them on the hobbyhorse of an idea about the absorption of individuality by ...collectivism...They have never yet and they never will reflect that this hobbyhorse is a manifest violation of the most important law of nature, which has established from the very creation of the world one unit unlike another and precisely for the purpose of instituting individuality..." (159) "The purely brute mind of the goyim is incapable of analysis and observation...Their eyes are open but see nothing before them..." (160) "Everything in this world is in a state of submission... to what is stronger. And so shall we be this something stronger for the sake of good." (163)
THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION
Estonian journalist Juri Lina has examined the recently opened Soviet archives and documented the connection between the Bolshevik Revolution and Jewish Illuminism in his book "Under the Sign of the Scorpion." (1994) I will probably devote a separate column to this book. Suffice to say here that Communism was the outcome of the plan outlined in Protocols. No wonder this book was banned in the USSR on pain of death! Its informal ban in America is a measure of our condition. Karl Marx, Lenin and Trotsky, were all Jewish Freemasons, dysfunctional losers who were employed by the Illuminist bankers to hoodwink the masses. Lenin for example had been an unsuccessful lawyer who had only six cases in which he defended shoplifters. He lost all six cases. A week later he gave up the law to become a highly paid revolutionary. Lenin declared: "Peace means quite simply the domination of Communism over the entire world." His reign of terror caused nine million deaths but you never see him compared with Hitler. The secret police, the Cheka, dominated by Jews, published the names of 1.7 million people they murdered in 1918-1919, including 300,000 priests.
"A river of blood flowed through Russia," Lina writes. "According to official Soviet Reports, 1,695,904 people were executed from January 1921 to April 1922. Among these victims were bishops, professors, doctors, officers, policemen, lawyers, civil servants, writers...Their crime was 'anti social thinking' " (90)
CONCLUSION
Jews will never understand anti Semitism until they realize it is not always based on irrational prejudice. In 1920, Winston Churchill made a distinction between national and "International Jews." He said the latter have been behind "a worldwide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality... It played ... a part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band... have gripped the Russian people by the hair and have become practically the undisputed masters of that enormous empire." http://www.fpp.co.uk/bookchapters/WSC/WSCwrote1920.html
Our culture, not The Protocols, is a fraud. Communist Jews set an example for the Nazis. Luciferians like Rothschild, Lenin and Hitler still control the planet and are determined to enslave humanity. I'm afraid that this will become increasingly evident. I pray I am wrong.
By Henry Makow PhD
henry@savethemales.ca
9-21-3
http://www.rense.com/general41/prot.htm
The World of Illuminati "Make Believe"
By Henry Makow Ph.D.
November 24, 2007
http://www.savethemales.ca/aaabaphomet.jpg
If you asked Genghis Khan for his formula for world conquest, you'd expect to hear "overwhelming force" or "terror."
You would NOT expect to hear, "'Make-believe.'"
"Make-believe?" Who is this, a diabolical Disney?
Yet in the First Protocol of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," the author says 3 times, Our Countersign is "Force and Make-believe."
By "Make-believe" I assume he means Mass Deception.
I finally noticed this because of something I read in "The Truth About the Slump" (1931) by A.N. Field. It appears that Illuminati Jewish bankers financed the Bolshevik Revolution in exchange for ownership of Russian industry. (pp.62-72)
German Secret Service documents instructed the Bolsheviks to "destroy the Russian capitalists as far as you please, but it would by no means be possible to permit the destruction of Russian enterprises."
The German Imperial Bank sent the Bolsheviks in excess of 60 Million rubles. In this context, Field cites Documents 10 and 11 between the bankers and the Bolsheviks:
"They give a complete synopsis of the terms on which the German Banks after the war were to control Russian industry." (p. 69)
Of course German Secret Service Chief Max Warburg, the brother of US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Warburg, was behind this.
We're talking about international bankers and their confederates here. I was taught Communism was about equality and "public ownership," and the workers rose up to overthrow capitalist tyranny. I was not taught that Communism was a clever scheme by which certain capitalists paid Lenin and Trotsky to steal the wealth of other capitalists while pretending to promote the cause of workers.
The international bankers used US Treasury money to finance both the Bolshevik Revolution and the USSR. (Collective Speeches of Congressman Louis T. McFadden, Chairman, House Banking Committee, p 397.)
The Third Baron Rothschild was a Soviet agent and Half the British Establishment were Soviet assets.
What a triumph of "Make-believe" Communism was!
Think of the millions of idealists who devoted their lives to this farce? Think of the millions who died in World War Two when the same bankers financed Hitler to keep Stalin in line? Think of the trillions of dollars spent in the Cold War?
"Make-believe!"
Think of how little we in the West hear of Stalin's or Mao's atrocities compared to Hitler's. (See my "The Other Side of Holocaust Denial") If Communism was a ruse, we can assume that every major historical event and cultural trend in modern Western History, including the religion of "secular humanism and modernism", are also the product of "Make-believe."
If they could pull off the Communist fraud, the 9-11 attacks and the "War on Terror" are small potatoes.
How do they do it? They control the instruments of "Make believe": the mass media and "education" system.
ZIONISM
Some people think the central bankers are instituting their world dictatorship on behalf of the Jewish people. This is understandable since the same bankers (Rothschild, Schiff, Warburgs etc.) have been the official leaders of the Jewish community.
They finance most Jewish organizations and political movements where Jews are prominent. Conversely they deny funding and publicity to competing Jewish groups. The same principle applies to culture and politics in society as a whole.
If Communism was a ruse, certainly the others, Feminism, Liberalism, Socialism, Neo Conservatism and Zionism, are also fraudulent. As much as anyone, Jews are the target and victims of Illuminati banker "Make-believe."
Louis B. Marshall, (1856-1929) the Counsel to bankers Kuhn Loeb, which represented the Rothschilds said in a letter Sept. 26 1918,
"Zionism is but an incident of a far-reaching plan: it is Merely a Convenient Peg on which to hang a Powerful Weapon."
Gee, how would Jews who dedicated their lives to a "national homeland" react to this news?
Or to the information that the new Israeli Supreme Court is filled with Masonic symbolism http://www.abidemiracles.com/555701.htm designed to serve the New World Order? (Barry Chamish - a Zionist Kachist [settler supporter] can confirm this) http://www.barrychamish.com/
Recalling that "force" is the other half of the formula, Marshall's letter ended with a threat to non-Zionist Jews:
"All the protests they may make would be futile. It would subject them individually to hateful and concrete examples of a most impressive nature. - Even if I were disposed to combat Zionism, I would shrink from the possibilities that might result."
This letter was addressed to Max Senior, a businessman and philanthropist, who had asked Marshall to speak against Zionism at a rally (because Marshall posed as an anti-Zionist.) The threat is indicative of the gangster tactics Zionists used against the Jewish community. Senior was quick to react.
He replied to Marshall Sept. 30 1918:
"I repudiate any connection on national, religious, racial or cultural grounds, with 'national home-land for the Jews in Palestine.' We have seen how demoralizing a divided allegiance was to the Germans in this country. I do not pretend to know the inside political history and intricacies of policy at which you hint... I am not to be intimated into silence by either of the threats you mention...I regard the real danger to the Jew to lie in the silent acquiescence to the Zionist claims." (L. Fry, Waters Flowing Eastward, p.55)
CONCLUSION
J. Edgar Hoover famously said:
"The individual is handicapped by coming face-to-face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists."
Communism and Zionism are just
"Incidents in a Far Reaching Plan" to create a "World Government" Dictatorship run by the central bankers dedicated to Lucifer.
The "powerful weapon" is the energy of organized Jewry in helping to overthrow the Christian basis of Western Civilization and ushering in the "New Age."
If necessary, Jews again can be sacrificed in the bankers' twisted megalomaniacal game.
Communism is satanic
Its emblem, the five-pointed star, is Satanic.
The Communist Manifesto calls for the destruction of the family, culture, science and religion (atheism), the confiscation of property and inheritance, control of communication and dictatorship.
It also called for private central banks and income tax.
It troubles me that the central bankers behind Communism are also behind 9-11 and the War on Terror. It troubles me that Zionists (i.e. Neo-Cons) figure largely in fostering the next stage of the "Far reaching plan", which is the "Clash of Civilizations."
I don’t believe Jews could have accomplished this without the cooperation of non-Jewish elites organized in corporate cartels and secret societies like Freemasonry, the Pilgrim Society, Skull and Bones, Mormons, Fabians, Jesuits, Theosophists and the Bilderbergs.
Essentially the New World Order is the extension of British American imperialism, which always was the expression of a small Jewish-Gentile plutocracy. It troubles me that, thanks to "Make-believe,"
the masses (Jewish and non-Jewish alike) live in a fool's paradise unaware of the darkness descending on them.
And those who pierce the "Make-believe" to alert the masses are accused of "hate"
=============== Comments for "The World of Illuminati "Make Believe" (Encore)" Phil said (November 26, 2007):
One feature I would also have you include in your 'Make believe' list
is the Global Warming/Climate Change scam
being rammed down our collective throats.
Here in Australia our new 'Christian' Prime Minister, Mr Rudd,
has stated that signing the Kyoto Accords is it at the top of his
'To Do' list.
=======
Charles said (November 26, 2007):
Henry,
Often in trying to talk to people I ask them for a capsule distillation
of what they think the world is like with its various problems.
They then give their version, colored by their personal experience,
thinking that there are great differences between rich and poor,
right and left, etc. I then reply: “That world does not exist.”
Even the greatest cynic in this country wears rose colored glasses.
Ironically, we can ‘learn’ from the fairy tales
{old propaganda derived from the same spiritual forces} :
When the spell is broken, much of the power of evil is lost.
There is the human tendency to capitulation such as in 1930s
Germany, but there is the real possibility of change for the better.
I,too, wear rose colored glasses and thank you for your efforts.
===========
Robert said (November 26, 2007):
t's funny that you should mention the world of make-believe
we live in; the "History Channel" has 6 hours of Monsterquest
planned for us tonight, right after the UFO Files spends an hour
trying to convince us that the US government has made contact
with aliens but is keeping it a "top" secret.
This fits nicely with the show a couple days ago that tried
to settle all of these conspiracy theories about the Freemasons
(presumably around the internet) wherein a particularly effeminate
and evil looking 33rd degree mason (I sure I'm not the only person
who saw that and thought the guy just looked evil;
what were they thinking?) told the world that it was all "hogwash"
and that the same people who believe that stuff are the crazy people
scanning the skies for UFOs and out looking for monsters!!
Not that they really addressed any historical facts or theories,
as you would expect the "History Channel" to do, but instead
just beat the hell out of a bunch of poor straw-men
they had dressed up real nicely....
They have been running a lot of conspiracy oriented shows lately
though (like the one where Lee Harvey Oswald was just a lonely boy
who wanted to be famous) and it makes you wonder how much of it
is supposed to be damage control trying to counter
what's going around the internet because the people on there
look into the camera and tell you so adamantly
that they're telling you the truth.
The lady doth protest too much, methinks?
But I think that sometimes they must run out of ideas of crap
to put on the "History Channel" (like Ice Road Truckers) because
the other day I turned it on just to see what they were up to that day
(I don't really watch much tv but it's sort of a running joke
at my house to peak at the news and the History Channel
every now and then and see what they're selling)
and they were playing Forest Gump.
Forest Gump on the History Channel!!
That was the funniest thing I had seen all day :)
One could almost think that the "History Channel"
isn't really supposed to be about history :)
=================
Bruno said (November 25, 2007):
think you finally nailed it right down to where it counts.
And it even makes sense. Because if these people are Luciferians
then lying and being liars is the most 'natural' thing they will do.
Deception has been Lucifer's tradmark from the beginning.
Even jesus described him in these terms 'father of lies'.
It's a perfect fit.
Therefore there is a high probability that it is also quite true.
But there is a seond point I want to make which is even more
interesting and also biblical. You can read in the book
of Revelations in the first chapters about seven churches.
In Smyrna and Philadelphia both are mentioned
"Jews are not Jews but are of the synagogue of Satan".
Do you see deception here? I warned a Jewish convert
to Catholicism just a few weeks ago about this passage
and that they are using the Jews again and setting them up
like they did the Germans with the intent of pitting the world
this time against the whole Jewish people for utter destruction.
That efforts is well under way because there are lots of voices
on the internet that blame the Jews in Israel for all the trouble
in the world right now. Set up! They were put into an impossible
position in 1948 under emotional permises none of which made sense.
Once they were there they had to defend themselves which ever way.
In any case I immensely appreciate your posts and reasonings.
This New World order thing is much bigger than anybody can believe
and it is run on so many tracks and paths of deception
to confuse all people. That was its purpose. Typical for Lucifer.
===================
Guy said (November 7, 2006):
'Make Believe' indeed - there is no end to it!
In my country the huge Vodafone network have launched
an advertising campaign inciting the millions to
'Create your own world' (an illusory virtual world of course)
- it is announced by Reuters today that the the 'Second Life' website
which it describes as 'a three-dimensional virtual world
with more than 1 million registered users and its own economy
and currency ' has gone into partnership with 'Big Brother'
TV production company Endemol to create a virtual 'Big Brother.'
Meanwhile the number one film with a bullet in the US is 'Borat'
- I would love to know the power behind the hype for that.
It is carefully edited to present a stereotypical
cross section of 'Middle America' (Pentecostal Christians,
patriotic Rodeo ?rednecks? etc) in the worst possible light.
That amount of MTV type ubiquity for an obscure project is
unprecedented in my life experience. This is an overground attack,
not some daring act of underground subversion.
To complete the last 48 hours of virtual madness,
Britain's Communist Mayor of London - Ken Livingstone
- is on an all expenses trip to Cuba, where completely true to form
he describes the Leftist coup that saw thousands executed
and many others incarcerated as 'one of the highpoints
of the 20th Century.'
So there we have it - Ken, with the deeply symbolic position of
Lord Mayor of London- a man with an entirely cartoon vision of
historical reality which (believe me, I've followed his career for decades)
has in no way been modified to the slightest degree by any tiny
measure of knowledge received or life experience gained whatsoever.
All those tens of millions of lives wiped out in China and the
Soviet Union in the Communist decades have absolutely
no tangible influence on the World being created now,
where Hollywood films exonerating Communism get major awards
and the EU is the USSR back once more - which leads me
to the conclusion that Virtual Reality will become the other side
of the coin to Literal Genocide.
And unlike so many of you, I don't even have the comfort
of Christian belief to alleviate the utter despair that living
in this world at this time induces!
=======
E.R. said (November 5, 2006):
Have ever read "The Creature from Jekyl Island"? Great book.
We are losing our sovergnty at record rates, almost as fast
as we are losing our Liberties.
Sock Manufacturer Closes, 220 Terminated
http://www.times-journal.com/report.lasso?wcd=6346
============
Steve said (November 5, 2006):
History shows that nations or peoples prosper when they worship
the one true God, and destroy themselves when they worship
the devices of Satan.
The Bible speaks of things to come that will not be pleasant -
- prior to a new heaven and earth being established where
there is no more sin, sickness or death. We see the governments
of the world planning many terrible things, even now.
For the born again (Romans 10:9, 10) believer, he will be gathered
together (some call it the rapture) prior to the all-out misery
that will exist here on earth.
II Thessalonians says that this will not happen until there is a "falling
away" first; this is more accurately translated "a departure first".
Whose departure? The believers'. God's love is so big that those
who will to believe will not need to endure the wrath here on earth.
A nation is blessed by the faithful remnant of believers.
Until Christ's return we have the joy of personal fellowship with Him,
the promise of the more than abundant life, and the privilege
of sharing this with others.
--------------------
Darleen said (November 5, 2006):
re. Pastor Haggart [below]
There are many "sexually deviant" men within the
churches, government, military, etc.- In most cases,
victims of pedophile priests have filed charges against them.
The fact that Haggard was caught so red-handed, would indicate
to me that it was a set-up.
When the Illuminati have an agenda, they always have fall-guys,
disposables, useful idiots at their fingertips.
Their goal is to give religion a bad name! To strip us spiritually
and hence, enters LUCIFER, Satan, the Devil.
One in the same to them.
Welcome to the New World Order!
=======================
Skye said (November 5, 2006):
I read a quote once, I do not remember the person that stated this but,
"The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor
is the minds of the oppressed."How true is that?
You can enslave the masses through force in chains
and threaten them with abuse but at some point
the slaves are going to realize that they have nothing to lose
by killing their 'masters.'
Was it Gramsci that wrote 'the people must learn to love their servtitude?'
Complete control must begin and end in the mind, through make-believe.
People cannot even think because of the complete control of information
in their lives (TV news, magazines, radio, cable TV...)
which is why the last form of freedom of information is the internet.
We've been trained from birth to be like the NORM(al) and very rarely
are we encuraged to be unique, unless someone else can benefit from it.
One simple rule that helps me remain free: NEVER CONFORM!
==========
Tony said (November 5, 2006):
Interesting that you point out that the five-pointed star is satanic.
Yes it is. And of course, each state of the United States -
masonic creations - is represented in the American flag
by a flamboyant (five pointed) star.
In appendix three of Occult Theocrasy (page 717) you will note
that there are symbolic occult differences according to how the star
is displayed. One point up it is called the Blazing Star
and represents Microcosm or Solomon's Seal and/or the
Emblem of Generation, all masonic interests.
Pointing up represents "good" according to occultists.
With two points up (or pointing downward) the star is called
Star of the Morning and is the Emblem of Lucifer.
It further represents "evil" and/or black magic.
These occult definitions come from Eliphas Levi and D. Margiotta,
two of the world's top occultists in their times.
Kind of puts a dent in the popular reference to America
as a Christian nation, doesn't it? Nations which were Christian
at the time of their flag designs generally have crosses
of some type on their flags. Of course, not all the founders knew
what was going on in the minds of some of those framers
but the nation was definitely set up on a masonic basis
as far as it could be pushed at the time.
The major masonic symbols are found on the cornerstone of the
U.S. Capitol building, along with mason George Washington's name.
The city of Washington, DC is laid out in giant masonic symbols,
making for some of the weirdest street intersections
anywhere in the world.
From the direction the nation has traveled it becomes pretty obvious
that the behind the scenes occultists have been able to bring
their plots to fruition with hardly any gullible Americans
catching on to their agenda.
But the phrase "home of the brave and land of the free" rings phonier
and phonier every day causing more and more citizens
to question just what is going on in their nation.
==============
Dan said (November 4, 2006):
Without 'make-believe', mind control wouldn't be possible.
All that would be left would be brute physical control.
A system which can only exploit labor from resentful slaves
who will only work with a gun at their head, like the old plantations
or concentation camps, is notorioulsy inefficient.
Remember the simple illustrative story by Samuel Clemens
(Mark Twain)? Tom Sawyer, (a 'widow's son'), was given
the dull chore of white-washing a long picket fence by his aunt.
But young Tom was shrewd. As boys passed by seeing him working,
he made a great show of whisting happily
as if he was having a wonderful time.
As boys don't like chores adults give them, the boys were curious
why Tom seemed to be having such a good time and asked him
why he looked so happy.
Tom of course told them that painting a fence is the most fun
you can have with your clothes on, and soon the target would say,
"hey, let me try it!" Tom would resist at first, till the boys
were insisting or begging to to get to paint a while.
Before long he had many boys happily working away at his chore,
while he wasn't working at all.
In 'corporate culture' Tom's technique is called 'motivational training'.
Taken a notch up it's called 'teamwork', which adds the feature
of competition to 'get' to do the task 'better' than the other slaves.
(for which you get a gold 'star').
But taken to the tribal--national or race level, by adult 'widows sons',
it's called Ideology.
ALL Ideologies are based on make believe. Individuals don't need
an ideology to be individuals, because we already have intrinsic
human instinct for self-preservation and survival.
Ideology invariably introduces an artificial 'universal' for the masses,
and always there's a heirarchy present--with their own Tom Sawyer's
sitting in the capstone, usually unseen.
Communism, Fascism, Corporate Capitalism, and Zionism
are all the stuff of make-believe. Individuals join the group
at the bottom believing the new ideology will give them the power
of strength in numbers, and pretty soon they're allegience
is to the imaginary 'tribe' instead of the individual and family.
The reality of all the above 'ism' ideologies,
it's the same bankers sitting above in the capstone.
===================
JD said (November 4, 2006):
Recent news headlines regarding Ted Haggard of the Evangelical
Association and New Life Church, phone buddy with GW,
have caught my attention. The hypocrisy of this individual is staggering
- the leader of the evangelical Christian movement - 30 million strong
- for a constitutional amendment against same sex marriage
admitting to paying for sex with a man and using meth.
My jaw hit the floor! This is either a deliberately planned scandal
against Christianity, or certainly plays to the elitists purposes.
Everything coming from the elitist media attacks the credibility
of Christianity. Have any other readers sent information regardig this,
or do you know more about this?
---
Dear JD,
I haven't heard from others but I totally agree that all these attacks
seem orchestrated, at least in the sense of these movements
are set up or infiltrated by 'compromised' people whom
the Illuminati can control. The whole issue of gay marriage
is "divide and conquer" as few people would object if gays
had a different but equal marital option.
Henry
========
Jean from Hungary said (November 4, 2006):
Thanks for this new connecting-the-dots article. For those who are
still not convinced that communists and neo-liberals (aka neo-cons)
are serving the same masters, read this:
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/865
Here in Hungary, thanks to our "socialist" government which is
in fact a gang of neocon ex-communists, the police is now used
to beat people in the streets for the only reason they dare
to peacefully commemorate the 1956 Hungarian uprising
against communism: a few days ago, on Oktober 23th,
women, children, elders and priests were tear gased, beaten,
gunned with rubber bullets and even cavalry charged (!)
by an army of masked brutes wearing police uniforms with
- no identification numbers on them.
For memory, Hungary is part of the European Union...
Those terrorists who absolutely needed to be cavalry charged:
http://www.fidesz.hu/pics/galeria/nagy/1161628958nOEs0.jpg
=======================
Steven said (November 4, 2006):
Henry you did it again .Speaking the truth about a topic few
would wish to think about let alone do something about.
This November 11 th those nations that fought in the great wars
will remember the sacrifice for freedom and democracy...
Freedom, Faith,Morality ,Property, King ,Country and Family
were likely the things the troops were trying to defend .
No doubt also their lives as well.
Western Society and system does not deserve their sacrifice
and your articles prove it.
The troops didn't go to war for perverts and feminists,
nor for gun control or confiscation of property.
They didn't fight for abortion or drugs and rock and roll.
They fought for freedom and everything they were brought up
to believe was right.
Although we can thank them for their efforts, a job was left undone
even to this very day.That being the overthrough of SATAN
and the destruction of the Illuminati and its minions.
Then may be we can have a better chance of freedom and peace.
====================
Richard said (November 4, 2006):
This is probably your most succinct and clear cut statement
of the nature of the tyranny that confronts the world today.
Bravo for honing it down to size. Now, what is the solution?
Here, though it may be just "spritzing" in the wind as it were,
is what I think comprises one necessary part of any solution
to the problem:
All of us must recognize the essential truth that we are undeniably
God's children. Among Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike
we are even brethren, all being literally children of Abraham.
We cannot afford the concept of a "chosen people."
Besides, that covenant was broken. More than once.
Just ask the orthodox rabbis of Neturei Karta
about that at www.nkusa.org
We have all been chosen by God to receive the gift of life and a soul.
None of us are the "cattle" derisively referred to by the illuminati.
We constitute one human family.
The clash of civilizations that the luciferian bankers long for
can never occur if We the People, we brothers and sisters,
sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles,
grandmothers and grandfathers, refuse to hate
and refuse to exploit and kill one another.
It is really that simple. We each need to recognize the spurious
and insubstantial grounds on which these false divisions between
people, and false dichotomies of ideology and religion are based.
We need to recognize them, and we must each act decisively
in recognition of the truth of our oneness, now and always.
Muslims recognize Jews and Christians alike as "People of the Book."
That is to say, people of the primordial, eternal and transcendant
book of Truth, of which the Torah, the Bible, and the Qur'an
are each but fragmentary reflections brought as revelations
for their respective peoples.
Sufi muslims also recognize Hindus and Zoroastrians as people
of the book. Forgive me for presuming to say that I am certain
that there is also room in God's heart for Buddhists and Taoists.
As surely there is also room in God's infinitely merciful heart
for indigenous peoples like American Indians, who have faith
in the one great spirit, and are but one example
of an indigenous people of deep, profound, and abiding faith.
This is not to warm the seat for some false "messiah"
propagated by the NWO imagineers of make believe.
For such a person can be nothing other than the antichrist.
Rather, it is to clear the air for unity in diversity, to make room
for each tradition to hold true to its roots, while recognizing
the human and divine ties which bind us all to this earth,
this universe, and the One and Only God, known by so many
beautiful names, in so many different languages,
to so many different peoples, each in their own way.
These are the ties which bind us,
and which ought to, and must, unite us.
We must not allow ourselves to be ridden by these
mad horsemen of an illuminati-driven apocalypse.
We must each look into our heart, and each use the gift of our
free will to choose correctly each and every time an opportunity
comes to act decisively, whether in large ways or small.
Every act matters.
Rather than allow ourselves to fall apart, we can
and we must stand together. We do have that power.
We must exericise it with all of our humanly acquired and God given wisdom.
===============
Jack said (November 4, 2006):
Hello Henry,
You wrote: "Excuse me but I was taught that Communism
was all about equality and"public ownership," and that
the workers rose up to overthrow tyranny. I was not taught
that Communism was a clever scheme by which certain
capitalists paid Lenin and Trotsky to steal the wealth
of other capitalists while pretending to promote equality."
============================
And obviously the workers did no such thing... not in Russia,
or China or anywhere else. They were merely used to substitute
one tyranny for another even worse.
==========================================
"A man always has two reasons for doing anything...
a good reason and the real reason." - J.P. Morgan
==========================================
The capitalist sponsorship of "communism" has been so well
established as to be beyond reasonable doubt. Scores of books,
videos and other materials have been available for many years.
My own introduction came by way of Gary Allen's
(with Larry Abraham) book "None Dare Call it Conspiracy"
which, although written more than thirty years ago,
is still a good introduction to the subject.
W. Cleon Skousen's "The Naked Capitalist"
is also excellent, as are
Ralph Epperson's "The Hidden Hand,"
Des Griffin's "The Fourth Reich of the Rich,"
and William Guy Carr's "Pawns in the Game."
There are many others.
~ Carroll Quigley ~ of Georgetown University and Bill Clinton's mentor wrote a massive tome entitled "Tragedy and Hope" which confirms the capitalist-communist connection..
There is no justifiable reason for doubt as to its reality..
Discusting American Government we have.
I will live FREE or DIE Fighting to remain FREE!!!!!!
In fact, it looks like it's time to go buy more Guns!
White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release February 16, 2012 President Obama Announces Presidential Delegation to the Holy See to Attend a Ceremony Elevating Two American Archbishops to Cardinals
President Barack Obama today announced the designation of a Presidential Delegation to the Holy See to attend the consistory at which two American Archbishops will be elevated to Cardinals. On February 18, Pope Benedict XVI will elevate Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien of Baltimore to the College of Cardinals.
The Honorable Miguel H. Díaz, U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, will lead the delegation.
Member of the Presidential Delegation:
Mr. Kenneth F. Hackett, President Emeritus, Catholic Relief Services
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/02/16/president-obama-announces-presidential-delegation-holy-see-attend-ceremo
Jonathan Cahn: The Harbinger
Pastor and Rabbi Jonathan Cahn will discuss the ancient mysteries that ties the secret of America’s future to Israel’s eight century as revealed in the events of 9/11
http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/mp4/SUB109_JonathanCahn_010312_WS
Short Story
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God..
There are none righteous no not one
You are the church and the Holy Temple
The whole story is in the Garden of Eden,If Adam and Eve when confronted, said yes we did it there was no sin.
There is the tree of life,and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.Its plain and simple of you don't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil blaming others which condemns us.Then we can eat from the tree of life..And say thank you in all things..
God speaks in a still small voice. be still and listen,
Rule By Secrecy
Belief Systems and Social Perception Structures
There is nothing men more readily give themselves to than
pushing their own beliefs
When ordinary means fail
they add commandment, violence, fire and sword..
~ Michael Eyquem De Montaigne ~ (1533-1592)
French Philosopher
belief: Whatever an individual is willing to accept without direct verification by experience or without the support of evidence, resulting in assumption which is taken as a basis for action or non-action..
Beliefs are tools for social conditioning
rather than expressions of inner realization or universal truth..
ideology
Vague term for the embodiment of beliefs in abstract ideas that can drive human behavior to pathological extremes..
Do you believe in ___________?
The Vatican’s darkest secret – no Apostolic Succession.
The Vatican is considered a castle by some, a temple by most. The Pope does not live, walk, sleep, sit, worship and breath the air of Holy Land but instead lives in a temple where he sits as the head of a state within a state – that state is the Vatican City. The Pope (from Latin: “papa” or “father” from Greek: “papa”, Papa in Italian) is the Bishop of Rome and as such is the leader of the Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic faith was created not by the teachings and followings of Jesus Christ but by the Roman Emperor Constantine (a pagan sun worshipper), 300 years after the Romans put Jesus Christ to death. There is no Apostolic Succession (succession of bishops, in uninterrupted lines, that is historically traceable back to the original twelve Apostles.) as claimed by the Vatican (it is one of four elements which define their false claim to be the true Church of Jesus Christ”) because of the fact that the Roman Catholic religion was not created by any of the original twelve Apostles, for they had all died some 300 years prior to the creation of the Roman Catholic faith.
For 300 years the Romans set out to destroy Christianity first by destroying all Christian Scriptures (as a result scholars do not know the exact year or date of Jesus’ birth or death), then slaughtering millions of Christians, and finally by decree by Roman Emperor Constantine. Constantine did not declare that Christianity was the new state religion he declared that Roman Catholicism was the new state religion.
It was Roman Emperor Constantine who issued the now famous “Edict of Milan”, in 313, permitting Christianity in the Empire. With the “Edict of Milan” Constantine declared himself to be the first “Bishop of Rome” and as such the leader of his newly created Roman Catholic religion. Constantine soon after sent his mother Helena to Christianity’s birth place, Jerusalem, to try to find the cross on which Christ was crucified. Constantine needed it to establish the Roman authority and domination over all true Christians. When she arrived, she bade all the Jewish Rabbis of the whole land gather to meet her. Great was their fear. They suspected that she sought the wood of the cross, a secret which they had promised not to reveal even under torture, because it would mean the end of Jewish supremacy. When they met her, sure enough, she asked for the place of the crucifixion. When they would not tell, she ordered them all to be burned. Frightened, they delivered up a man named Judas (not Iscariot), saying that he would tell. Judas sent her to the temple of Venus, which the queen quickly had destroyed and built the Roman Church of the Resurrection over it.
Rome, Italy claims to be home to a large number of the Apostles and Evangelists of Jesus. Many were put to death in Rome while others were brought to Italy centuries after the original apostles’ deaths. Several of these holy bodies found their way to Italy by less-than-holy means, usually by theft. There is also the fact that unscrupulous merchants, priests and crusaders helped fuel a trade in holy relics during the Middle Ages that left Europe with an enormous surplus of bones supposedly from the Apostles. Today the relics of the Apostles found in Italy may have more to do with tradition than fact; however the intercessory powers of these objects are just as powerful to the faithful. It is said that the Tomb of Peter is empty as the remains of Peter were incinerated. Other say it actually contains the remains of Roman Emperor Constantine as he was the true first Bishop of Rome. The latter is validated by the fact that the Roman Catholic Church was created by Roman Emperor Constantine in 313 AD, long after all of the Christian Apostles had died and their remains scattered so that surviving Christians could not find them. In the days of Christian persecution the bones of saints were often transferred to various locations for the safety of the Roman state. However once Christianity became legal in Ancient Rome, whatever relics survived were placed in the first basilicas. Today the city of Rome claims to be the final resting place of at least seven Apostles, although portions of these relics have been divided up among other churches worldwide. Even with today’s technological advances it is impossible to verify the identity of any of the remains. Roman Emperor Nero was so obsessed with destroying Christianity that he ordered all Christians to be slaughtered or ritually scarified and their remains dumped in mass graves or incinerated.
The current location of St. Peter’s Basilica was originally the site of the Circus of Nero in the first century AD. The circus of Nero was the site of the first organized, state-sponsored martyrdoms (the torturing to death on account of adherence to a cause and especially to one’s religious faith) of Christians in 65AD. It is said that two years later, Peter and many other Christians were captured and brought there by the Romans where they were tortured to death in an effort for the Romans to wipe out Christianity.
Crucifixion was an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross (of various shapes) and left to hang until dead. Crucifixion was in use particularly among the Persians, Seleucids, Carthaginians, and Romans from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD. Jesus Christ was the most famous victim of the Roman crucifixion. True Christians see the cross as an anti-Christ idol, not because Christ was tortured to death on one but because God forbids us from bowing down to them or from worshipping such idols.
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Emperor Constantine adopted the cross as the symbol (”Veneration of the Cross”) of his newly created religion – the Roman Catholic Church. Veneration is often shown outwardly by respectfully bowing or making the sign of the cross. Since the adoption of the cross to represent the Roman Catholic Church the cross has been used as a symbol or banner of war – war involves the painful inhumane execution of innocent people. The Crusades were a Roman military campaign to take control of the Holy Land resulting in millions being murdered under the cross banner. The Spanish Inquisition was an ecclesiastical tribunal started in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms. An inquisition was created through papal bull Ad Abolendam, issued at the end of the 12th century by Pope Lucius III as a way to combat the Albigensian heresy in southern France. There were a huge number of tribunals of the Papal Inquisition in various European kingdoms during the Middle Ages. Millions were beheads or burned at the stakes for not converting to the Roman Catholic religion and not venerating the cross. In addition to the Napoleonic Wars, an Iron Cross was adopted and was awarded during the Franco-Prussian War, the First World War, and the Second World War. The Iron Cross was awarded for bravery in battle as well as other military contributions in a battlefield environment by Adolf Hitler. The Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross recognized extreme battlefield bravery or successful leadership. The Grand Cross of the Iron Cross was a decoration intended for victorious generals of the Prussian Army and its allies. It was the highest class of the Iron Cross.
After Emperor Constantine officially declared by decree the formation of the Roman Catholic Church he started construction (in 324) of a great basilica on the exact spot where the Circus of Nero once stood. St. Peter’s Basilica (Basilica is an oblong building ending in a semicircular apse used in ancient Rome especially for a court of justice and place of public assembly) was built at the place where the apostle Peter was supposedly crucified by the Romans and buried; his tomb is said to be under the main altar. Popes (the majority being Romans) are also buried in and below the basilica. Contrary to what one might reasonably assume, St. Peter’s is not a cathedral – the pope’s cathedral is St. John Lateran. The Basilica of St. John Lateran is the cathedral of the Church of Rome and the official ecclesiastical seat (chair of authority) of the Bishop of Rome, who is the Pope.
The cathedral of the Bishop of Rome (The Basilica of St. John Lateran), containing the papal throne (Cathedra Romana), it ranks above all other churches in the Roman Catholic Church, even above St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. This is evidence of the Roman authority and domination over Christians. This is further proof that the Roman Catholic Church is anti-Christian.
The Roman Vatican’s darkest secret is that there is no Apostolic Succession. The first Bishop of Rome was not Peter but Emperor Constantine. To this day the Romans arrogantly assume their authority over Christians. To mock all Christians they built St Peter’s Basilica upon the unholy site where the blood of countless Christians, perhaps even that of Apostle Peter was shed.
The Roman transition from Emperor to Pope
The Pope has always had the official title of Pontifex Maximus. Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the Ancient Roman College of Pontiffs long before Christ was born. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion.
The Collegium Pontificum (College of Pontiffs) was the most important priesthood of ancient Rome. The foundation of this sacred college is attributed to the second king of Rome, Numa Pompilius. It is safe to say that the collegium was tasked to act as advisers of the rex (king) in all matters of religion. The collegium was headed by the pontifex maximus and all the pontifices held their office for life. Prior to its institution, all religious and administrative functions and powers were naturally exercised by the king. Very little is known about this period of Roman history regarding the pontiffs as the main historical sources are lost and some of the events from this period are regarded as semi-legendary or mythical. Most of the records of ancient Rome were destroyed when it was sacked by the Gauls in 390 BC.
In the Roman Republic, the Pontifex Maximus was the highest office in the polytheistic ancient Roman religion, which was very much a state cult. He was the most important of the Pontifices (plural of Pontifex), in the main sacred college (Collegium Pontificum) which he directed.
Unless the pontifex maximus was also a magistrate at the same time, he was not allowed to wear the toga praetexta, i.e. toga with the purple border. However, he could be recognized by the iron knife (secespita) or the patera and the distinctive robes or toga with part of the mantle covering the head.
The Pontifex was not simply a priest. He had both political and religious authority. Julius Caesar became pontifex in 73 BC and pontifex maximus in 63 BC. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, his ally Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was selected as Pontifex Maximus. From this point on, Pontifex Maximus was one of the many titles of the Emperor, slowly losing its specific and historical powers and becoming simply a referent for the sacral aspect of imperial duties and powers of the modern day Roman Catholic Pope.
Short URL: http://presscore.ca/2011/?p=121
hey, VERITAS77 .. howdy, hope all is well ..
chuckle .. VER .. was just wondering who was the first to ask .. looks now like it was you ..
how do you feel about the worst of the TeaBaggers these days?
BS Want You To Pay For - THE LOOTING OF AMERICA.
Vote for RON PAUL and end this system run by criminals!
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/the-looting-of-america-the-federal-reserve-made-16-trillion-in-secret-loans-to-their-bankster-friends-and-the-media-is-ignoring-the-eye-popping-corruption-that-has-been-uncovered
Quote:
Basically, an unaccountable private monopoly creates our money, sets our interest rates, regulates our banking system and makes secret loans to whoever they want.
The Federal Reserve has more power over our economy than any other institution and nobody can overrule any decisions that they make.
Does that sound very "American" to you?
Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, it has been systematically destroying the wealth of America through constant and never ending inflation.
The U.S. dollar loses more value every single year.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, what you could buy for $1.00 in 1965 will cost you $7.17 today.
Sadly, the devaluation of our money is actually accelerating. That is one reason why we are seeing precious metals soar right now.
Not only that, but the Federal Reserve was also designed to be a perpetual government debt creation machine.
Do you know how money is created in this country?
Normally, more money is only created when more debt is created.
What this sets up is a never end spiral where the amount of money and the amount of debt are continually increasing.
Most Americans believe that we could solve the government debt problem if we could just control spending.
But that is not the case.
The Federal Reserve system was designed to get the U.S. government into constantly increasing amounts of debt and this is exactly what has happened....
by Montanore more info....
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=9201
God Bless
I'm a very tolerant person. About the only thing I can't tolerate is malice or intolerance.
Goodbye.
You: Your Bible was codified by a Pagan Roman Emperor and a council of Roman Bishops trying to preserve the empire and their political control.
Me: MY BIBLE? lol, and which Bible do you presume I use?
You: The 2000 year history of the church has been more about political control than it has been about Truth.
Me: You are confusing God with man in your statement. People run to this argument when they don't have anything else to support their position.
You: Truth is eternal, it does not change, it does not stand on any dogma or doctrine. Truth transcends all temporal boundaries; time, culture, and distance. To be born in Spirit all you have to do is look within and follow the Truth and the One who is the source of that Truth.
Me: Jeremiah 17:9 says, "the heart is deceitful above all, and being incurable, who can understand him?" Accordingly, we cannot look within to find truth as our hearts are deceitful.
Checking out - going to watch TV.
Elijah laughed. It was funny. Sorry.
Your Bible was codified by a Pagan Roman Emperor and a council of Roman Bishops trying to preserve the empire and their political control.
The 2000 year history of the church has been more about political control than it has been about Truth.
Truth is eternal, it does not change, it does not stand on any dogma or doctrine. Truth transcends all temporal boundaries; time, culture, and distance. To be born in Spirit all you have to do is look within and follow the Truth and the One who is the source of that Truth.
I would never laugh at the sincere expression of anyone' understanding of Spirit. I don't believe Yeshua would either. Read the passage about the Samaritan woman at the well, he never told her her religion was wrong, he only told her:
"But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him." John 4:23
Don’t really care about the orthodox mindset. Rely on the codified Word of God.
I’ve heard these tales of Zoroastrianism before. Zoroastrianism is just another religion that spun off from the original religion given of Adam, reaffirmed to Moshe, etc. Tales akin to citing brown water as the source of crystal clear water [after brown dye was added].
As for pre-exile Judaism having a more tolerant perspective, follow the thread of Ha Satan through and see what his determined end will be. Notice, he [Satan] was not included in the group of “ben ha-elohim” (sons of God) in Job 1:6, but instead he [Satan] came in among them. Accordingly, he [Satan] was already an outsider BEFORE he [Satan] incited God to ruin Job without reason (Job 2:3). Also, he was so named (Ha Satan = accuser) BEFORE inciting God to ruin Job without reason.
A word study on Hell and related words through from Tenach through Brit Chadasha is telling. Yahshua spoke of Hell more than any other individual in the Bible. You can’t pick and choose which of His saying’s you’ll follow. Doing so destroys credibility. It’s all or nothing.
But Zoroastrianism polarized and personified good and evil. Pre-exile Judaism had a more tolerant perspective. Again, it is in the history books if you care to study it, but you have to go outside the orthodox mindset and look at it as pure history in order to understand.
lol, Paula, your arguments are laughable at best.
The accuser or adversary relates to Satan's relationship with man, not God. Read the book aloud (it was an early morality play and it makes more sense when you do this) and ask a Rabbi.
I have studied the Bible since before I could read (Sunday School). I studied anthropology and ancient civilizations in college. I took a course in the Bible as Literature in Translation from a Rabbi. I have prayed for understanding and I have Peace.
I simply can not logically accept that the Infinite One can be stuffed into a religious doctrine that every man in the world is has to follow or go to hell. If that were true then God wouldn't be the Loving Father that Yeshua taught about.
The doctrine of Orthodox Christianity was codified by Romans trying to achieve political dominion over others. Roman "Christians" killed more followers of Christ than were killed in the arena. This is all historical fact if you care to study with an open mind.
"He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."
"Evil" is not defined as the human condition. The human condition can be evil, but evil is not the human condition.
Genesis 2:9 is the first occurrence of the word “evil” (Hebrew, ra, Strongs 7451) -- bad or (as noun) evil (nat. or mor.).
Ra is from prime root Ra’a (Strongs 7489) – prop. to make (or be) good for nothing, i.e. bad (phys., soc. or mor.).
Satan didn’t work with God to test man in the life of Job. Satan accused Job. God permitted Job to be tested. To state Satan worked with God is a huge unsupported leap.
Ha Satan had fallen as a cherub long before the Babylonian exile (586 – 538 BC). See Genesis 3:1, Ezekiel 38:1-3, Revelation 12:9. Moreover, he is mentioned in the book of Job, which is believed to be the oldest book in the Bible, predating the Torah. In Job, he is called “ha satan,” which literally means “the accuser” or “the adversary,” evidencing the status he had already attained, again, long before the Babylonian exile.
Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or a body of teaching or instruction. The Bible is the codified Word of God. In view of scriptures like, “For I am the Lord, I change not …” (Deuteronomy 4:2, Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 1:12), we must conclude the doctrine of Judaism and Christianity does not change. The body of teaching or instructions of varying sects, however, does change depending on how the members pick and choose scriptures to believe and not to believe in from the Bible. Man’s decision to pick and choose from the Bible does not affect the standing of the codified Word. Accordingly, since God does not change, we have a problem with the churches.
The story of the Garden of Eden is a historical fact supported more by science than the theories of Evolution and the Big Bang.
The common literary threads of spiritual understanding you speak of are nothing more than people diverging from an original common religion; of course, they’re going to have many similarities. As for similarities of Yahshua, the Bible is replete with times where Satan attempted to replicate and substitute God and His plan with half-baked lies of his own devising in order to deceive and steal glory away from God. Heck, Ha Satan even attempts to take Moshiyach’s place in the end times demanding worship. The fake often comes before the real.
We cannot transcend our evil condition. We are born of inequity (Psalm 51:5), and the only thing that removes that from us is the blood of Moshiyach. We are, however, instructed to be perfect (Matthew 5:48). This doesn’t mean we can attain perfection on our own, or even in this world through Moshiyach (THE Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, is not yet upon us). Rather, Matthew 5:48 is likened to David who is said to have had a perfect heart (1 Kings 11:4, 15:3). How is that as David sinned? The condition of David’s heart toward God was perfect. He asked God to judge him, even of his unknown sins (Psalm 51:6). A perfect heart toward God is a broken spirit and contrite heart for our sins, which leads us to repentance (Psalms 51:16-17).
BS warns of market meltdown if US debt talks fail? -
BS and top Congressional leaders are scrambling to agree
a deal to raise America's $14.3 trillion (£8.8trillion) debt
ceiling before financial markets open on Monday -
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8657016/Barack-Obama-warns-of-market-meltdown-if-US-debt-talks-fail.html
...market meltdown would give the banksters another fiat$16 trillion ? -
$16,000,000,000,000.- + + + behind feds iron super red curtains -
...and it worked 1st time and NO ONE TO JAIL -
...so banditos will often try it a 2nd time -
history often repeat itself -
...didn't thee get the PEOPLE to take over liabilities for the
600-700 trillion derivative fraud schemes also baked into -
bailout tarps etc. etc.? -
For more than 2000 yrs the 666 has killed the 888? -
white against white etc. etc.?
Catholic against Protestant etc. etc.?...
...and its all negative for the Western nations PEOPLE -
fiat currencies etc. etc. -
but it making china, india, arabia, russia etc. very happy
to pick up all the GOLD sales from the western nations PEOPLE -
made by bilderburgs central banksters cults -
for fiats fraud papers schemes?
how just how could this override congressional approval?
the buyers of the GOLD - China, India and the muslim must be
laughing, dancing in happiness to get so much GOLD for so little papers -
Fed Provided $16 Trillion To Foreign Banks, Financial House
http://www.dailypaul.com/171487/fed-gives-16-trillion-to-foreign-banks
The Monster In The Closet: Derivatives Will Create The Next ...
31 May 2011 –
The total value of derivatives in the world exceeds total global
gross domestic product by a factor of 10, said Mobius,
who oversees more ...
http://www.dailypaul.com/166349/the-monster-in-the-closet-derivatives-will-create-the-next-financial-crisis
5 Financial Companies Hold 99.7% of all Derivative Contracts
| Ron ...28 Jul 2009 –
Ben Bernanke told everyone at the town hall meeting how it
pained him to bailout AIG due to its derivative position. ...
http://www.dailypaul.com/101125/5-financial-companies-hold-997-of-all-derivative-contracts
$600 TRILLION DOLLARS in Derivative (FRAUD) Debt
| Ron Paul 2012 ...1 Oct 2008 –
This means that Paulsen will have to intervene 857.14 times
with $700 billion dollars each time, in order to clear
the derivative debt from ...
http://www.dailypaul.com/65834/600-trillion-dollars-in-derivative-fraud-debt
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65471298
who would have ever believed this is possible. we did see $1500 ppo. now to the futures...
e.g., fiat$ going down -
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65452825
Ron Paul to Congress: If Debt Is the Problem, Why Do You Want More of It?
http://www.ronpaul.com/2011-07-19/ron-paul-to-congress-if-debt-is-the-problem-why-do-you-want-more-of-it/
Ron Paul 2012 WELCOME
http://www.ronpaul2012.com/
http://www.ronpaul2012.com/2011/07/20/ames-money-bomb-a-success/
http://www.facebook.com/ronpaul12?sk=wall&filter=2
http://www.ronpaul.com/
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=9201
You heard right! and yes BS six morons - 666 imo,
Three realistic Gold targets: $6,000 – $7,000 – $10,000:
http://goldswitzerland.com/index.php/gold-entering-a-virtuous-circle-egonvongreyerz/
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65449755
Heavy duty musings on both religion and politics....
http://indistinctunion.wordpress.com/page/217/?archives-list&archives-type=tags
interesting thankx
It was pre-council of Nicea. It was also before the doctrine of the "trinity" became "orthodox". In other words, the Biblical canon and most modern day Christian doctrine is derived from Roman political dominance.
I would interpret that as Roman Catholic. Do you agree?
Egypt might have a Christian majority today if the Coptic Christians had not been persecuted by Roman Christians about 2000 years ago.
Christian Church Burnings Are Happening All Over The World And The U.S. Media Is Deadly Silent About It
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/christian-church-burnings-are-happening-all-over-the-world-and-the-u-s-media-is-deadly-silent-about-it
Did you know that hundreds of church burnings have taken place all over the globe so far in 2011? For a large percentage of those of you that are reading this article, this is the first that you have heard of it. And do you want to know why? News stories about church burnings and the persecution of Christians around the world are not "politically correct" enough to get into the mainstream media most of the time. Have you ever noticed that an overwhelming percentage of news stories about Christianity in the mainstream media are negative? There seems to be an unspoken rule that you should never report on anything that would portray the Christian faith in a positive light - even if it is reporting on how churches are being mercilessly burned to the ground. Others fear that reporting on church burnings would somehow justify the endless wars in the Middle East. But the truth is that many of the regimes that the U.S. government has put in place or is propping up are actively involved in the persecution of Christians. Whatever religion you belong to, and whatever your political philosophy is, we should all be able to agree that church burnings are evil. If you cannot agree that there is something wrong with burning churches to the ground then something is wrong.
In the United States, our founding fathers established "freedom of religion" as one of our fundamental rights. Many of our founding fathers had escaped horrific religious persecution in Europe and many of them knew firsthand how insidious it can be.
Today, hundreds of churches around the world are being torched. I am a Christian and I am not going to be ashamed to shed light on these great crimes. If you don't like that, then maybe you should ask yourself why that is the case.
The following are just a few examples of the widespread church burnings that we have seen so far this year....
Egypt
In the aftermath of the U.S.-backed "Egyptian revolution", church burnings have become a regular thing all over Egypt. The recent burning of a Coptic church right in the middle of Cairo has plunged the provisional government in Egypt into crisis mode as a recent article in The Telegraph noted....
Egypt's caretaker government has held crisis talks after attacks by Muslim mobs on Coptic Christian churches in Cairo left at least 12 people dead and drove the country's growing religious tensions to the brink.
The following is the kind of video footage that is very rare to see on U.S. news programs. This footage is of Saint Mary Church in Cairo burning wildly after it was firebombed by Egyptian radicals on Saturday....
this is how the shoe fits
The great discovery is that the Bible is a message system: it’s not simply 66 books penned by 40 authors over thousands of years, the Bible is an integrated whole which bears evidence of supernatural engineering in every detail!
Only the Holy Spirit of the living God can unlock it's true meaning.
Read the book of Job closely. Satan worked with God to test men. It wasn't until the exile and the influence of Zoroastrianism that he became the bad guy. Judaism changed with the times just as Christianity did. All religious doctrines do. This is why we need to listen to Spirit, not doctrine. The word doctrine means teaching. Yeshua taught that God was to be experienced directly, not through other men or religion. This is why he was such a threat to the establishment.
Any answer about God should be "vague or indirect". I wouldn't presume to define God for another person. The concepts I have given you are just as grounded in the Bible as yours. The Bible is a compilation of works written over more than a millenium, reaching back into oral history. This is historical fact.
Everything about God is Spiritual, and in that we are children of God everything that we do in this life has a Spiritual impact on ourselves and others.
The story of the Garden of Eden is not historical fact, it is oral tradition committed to writing hundreds of years after it originated. There are creation myths in all religions, there are a great many similarities found in the Biblical creation story and other creation stories. There are similarities between ancient myths and the supposed biographical details of the life of Yeshua as they are told in the Bible.
These common literary threads show a unity of Spiritual understanding. They are evidence for God, not against.
"Doesn't the Bible say that all of creation was good? "Evil" is just the human condition, the result of ego and our confinement to a temporal and material reality. If we transcend those things we achieve the Kingdom that Yeshua taught about."
That answere seems vague or indirect. you talk in terms of concepts. I like more direct conversation. The Bible isin't
vague or inderct. Sin is completely an individual issue. The question is, was evil part of Gods creation for humans? It sounds to me like God did not create evil but satan did in his heart and we know the rest of the story. The Bible in Gensis 1:31 does not say any thing about evil or the spiritual. so I conclude God was only reffering to his created night and day, earth, vegetation, fish, birds, all the beast, and man.
Man had no evil when the Lord God had made him it was aquired later on.
There is only one "I AM".
Humans just use different words and myths to define the One and wrap our minds around the concept.
"Sin" is that which separates us from God, no more and no less.
The temporal and physical state also separates us from God and "evil" is a cultural or group manifestation of "sin".
The battle against evil must be won on an individual level, by overcoming our own separation from God and encouraging those around us in their own Spiritual strivings.
was God reffering to the spritual realm also?
Doesn't the Bible say that all of creation was good?
what scripture are you reffering to?
Doesn't the Bible say that all of creation was good? "Evil" is just the human condition, the result of ego and our confinement to a temporal and material reality. If we transcend those things we achieve the Kingdom that Yeshua taught about.
imo God is not the creative force behind evil
God is infinite wisdom and love. yes
God is the creative force behind everything. God is infinite wisdom and love.
I believe there is a reason that the Hebrews did not believe that God should be named because the Infinite One can not be confined to any human perception.
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Do all religions exist solely to control the actions of people, by controlling their thoughts?
Are all religions designed to erode the follower's connection to reality?
Does the encoding of various belief structures make it easier to control that group?
Can all religions be considered practicing sociocognitive warfare?
Men are disturbed not by things that happen
but by their opinions of the things that happen..
~ Epictetus ~
Very few established institutions, governments and constitutions
are ever destroyed by their enemies
until they have been corrupted and weakened
by their friends..
~ Walter Lippmann ~ (1889-1974)
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it is also noted..
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post away!!
Ordo Ab Chao..
Religious beliefs of the Founding Fathers
http://jeromekahn123.tripod.com/thinkersonreligion/id9.html
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