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A Psychological Perspective on Civilisation

This is an excerpt from the e-book The Gaian-Ego Hypothesis. As background to this essay see the related essays on Psychological Manipulation and the The Man Machine - Organisms to Organisation.

The process of constructing energised thought forms is the creation of conditioned stimuli or symbols that arouse an inner response. It is a cultural memetic technology that is the core technology with which civilisation has been built. A system of coordinated symbols, in the old language, is called an egregore and in the new language, it may be called a paradigm. Once conditioning has been imprinted in a population it provides hooks in people's minds by which influence can be exerted, either by the people themselves or by external power structures. It unleashes and harnesses the power of the subconscious mind, thus it is a very powerful technology.

Once these hooks are in place they can be subtly manipulated and turned to different purposes. For example, the rhetoric of "freedom and liberty" may have been imprinted to encourage people toward personal freedom and liberty but once this becomes a conditioned stimulus and it becomes a strong egregore/paradigm it can be gradually distorted. This may take place within the context of an authoritarian discourse so that it implies collective freedom and liberty through greater strength, 'security' and authority for the governmental system, which in turn promises to provide personal freedom and liberty, but in order to do so it must impose measures that ultimately destroy people's freedom and liberty.

This process of creating and wielding symbols is now called psychological manipulation. It is a technology that is as old as civilisation itself but a great deal of research has gone into it in the last century. Whilst its techniques are now well understood its broader implications are not. The danger inherent in this technology is that eventually it always backfires. We are all human beings and as such are vulnerable to distortions in our minds and commonsense realism leads us to confuse that distorted impression of the world for being the world as it is. Hence some people manipulate and distort but eventually they or their descendents succumb to those distortions too and take that distorted reality as being reality. They continue their strategy of distortion, which is no longer considered to be distortion but just "common practice" and the distortions build on top of each other. This eventually results in a complete disconnection from reality that brings us into conflict with reality and thereby the breakdown of whatever system was being built out of those distortions.

"It’s hard to imagine the level of paranoia that the federal government must be experiencing. Between the insanity of badly orchestrated lies, which precipitated our involvement in all the wars in the Mid-East... and now the “storm” induced military-turned-policed-nation... one senses that as lies continue to build upon lies, danger ensues as dangerous people continue to fall flat on their platforms of deceptive leadership and pathological propaganda." [FR]

When the man machine first arose the original role of the priesthood was as the root of the man machine, they were the custodians of reality. Those who retained their connection to the original mystic paradigm which was subverted and used to manipulate the population. To effectively manipulate one must know the base level reality and then distort from that, otherwise the whole process loses its way and becomes lost amidst countless delusions. This is exactly what has happened. The priesthood gradually became entangled within the web of deceit and the whole system came adrift. Then we overthrew the priesthood and seized self-determination but were still lost in the web of deceit and disconnected from reality. Empirical science has overcome most of the obvious delusions but it is fundamentally unable to overcome the commonsense realist distortions that disconnect us from reality because it enshrines those distortions within its empiricist foundations. Once it overcomes these it merges with mystic science and transforms into a holistic science.

Within some cultures certain mystic traditions have retained their connection and have quietly persisted amidst the centuries of delusion and mayhem, these provide a vital storehouse of original wisdom that can help us to realign the entire system with reality. Furthermore, due to the growing delusion of the priesthood and its church hierarchy many small groups broke away and returned to their roots, which any of us can do and thereby reconnect with reality. Such groups, although they still use similar symbols, they are no longer representatives of the corrupt web of deceit but are real, although somewhat immature connections to reality and as such they can play a vital role in helping others to reconnect.

The technology of symbols or psychological manipulation is the mainstay of civilisation. Its tendency to backfire is a serious danger when deception and delusion are promulgated for personal or elitist agendas, which leads to growing delusion and dysfunction. However when truth and justice are promulgated by it this tendency to backfire creates a positive feedback loop that results in ever growing truth and justice. This technology must no longer be left in the hands of priesthoods such as governments and corporations, if we as a civilisation are to regain and maintain sanity this technology must be reclaimed by humanity and its use must be transparent, accountable and directed toward holistic wellbeing and greater harmony and vitality for all. The dangers of its abuse are clear and the potential of its effective use has yet to be explored on a large scale.

Through abuse of this technology we integrate to form a monstrosity, i.e. the ego of the planet, that seizes control of "its body" and seeks only to pursue its agendas and satisfy its cravings. Through effective use of this technology we can integrate to form the higher Self of the planet which flourishes and grows in beauty and complexity, bringing abundance, vitality and life to all its many beings.

Best wishes : )
John Ringland

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