“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7)
With the world in a state of flux, there are anchor points we can grasp, and with ourselves stabilized, we can enlighten the way of hope for others.
Just as I was final editing my article, Combatting Mass Hypnosis, a new acronym popped up, PPSD, Post Pandemic Stress Disorder, which I take as a sign of great hope, believing more people are waking up from the mass hypnosis perpetrated on the world’s population.
Mass Hypnosis
The term, Mass Hypnosis, is being used to describes the world in which we are living; a large portion of society losing touch with reality, descending into delusions, with no concrete infection point responsible for the contagion. This is not a new phenomenon, having been observed multiple times in past history. Much research has gone into theorizing how a large population becomes deluded, how to combat mass hypnosis, and how to wake people up.
A Word About Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a trance-like state in which a person is led to experience heightened focus and concentration. Using verbal repetition and mental images, the person experiences reduced general awareness with increased susceptibility to responses and suggestions.
In this trance state, people become extreme suggestible and imaginations are heightened. Most often compared to daydreaming or the feeling of ‘losing oneself’ in a movie or book, the person is alert the whole time, fully conscious, focused on something narrow, to the near exclusion of any other thought.
For example, it is well known a person can have surgery with no anesthesia or pain medication by becoming hypnotized, focusing all attention on one small point, and becoming insensitive to pain.
The concept of hypnosis applied to a whole group of people becomes very alarming. At this time, we have a large portion of the population focused and obsessing on one thing, not acting according to their character and values, seeming to have lost the ability to have rational thoughts and judgement.
Conditions Creating Mass Hypnosis
With the bombardment of media illusion we’ve been subjected to, it can feel like the world has gone mad, making it difficult to see reality, leading to free floating anxiety and psychological discontent. Add in social isolation and limited connection, sense making is difficult, and we have a hypnotized world.
Four conditions prerequisite to mass hypnosis:
First, and most importantly, Free Floating Anxiety becomes common in the population. Described as a general sense of uneasiness, the people cannot connect their anxiety to any particular object or specific situation, reporting feelings of discomfort, nervousness, worry and anxiety. It is very painful and can result in panic attacks
Second, people experience lack of Sense Making. Unable to come to sensible conclusions as to what they are seeing and experiencing, with no focal point to connect their anxiety to, the person can’t identify causes, reasons, or ways to deal with turbulent emotions.
Thirdly, Free Floating Psychological Discontent, in which daily life lacks purpose or meaning. As many as 40 to 70% of people report their jobs are senseless, this discontent leading to the huge over use of drugs, self-medicated or prescribed.
Lastly, people must be socially isolated. Lacking social bonds, the population becomes fragmented, causing people to narrow their field of attention, only seeing the narrative they are being fed.
As you can readily see, our society fits all four conditions and is ripe for mass hypnosis, even though the sufferers are unaware of what is occurring. Keep in mind, approximately 30% of the people will not be able to come out of this, while a similar amount are not infected by mass hypnosis. More on than later.
Historically
Mass Hypnosis, Mass Formation Psychosis or Crowd Psychosis is not a new phenomenon; rather a subject that has been studied and well documented, as seen multiple times throughout human history.
Examples include the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries in which thousands, mostly women were killed, not for crimes they committed, but because they became scapegoats for societies. Here we have a phenomenon which could not be understood, i.e., bad crops, activities of groups of women together. Leaders place blame, and the people, wanting to ease their anxiety and make sense of what they can’t understand, ban together in unthinkable ways.
Or, consider the example of the German people during the holocaust. It is hard to understand how behaving in unthinkable ways could happen to highly educated, liberal in the classic sense, western thinking people. The population fell victim to a globalist leader’s propaganda, and those who saw the truth were unable to reason with those who had come under his spell.
We also have the examples of Lenin, Mao Zedong, Mussolini, Genghis Khan, South Africa apartheid and others to try and make sense regarding how regular people are led into following deluded leaders.
Some Current Information
Here is a sample of what we know. With the world obsessing over the virus, many call themselves experts on molecular virology and epidemiology, their credentials not being properly verified.
We are not given complete sets of information to work with. Information being spread is not tethered to evidence and conclusions are often anti-scientific. The statistics given are clearly wrong, yet people, even highly intelligent people are believing the absurd numbers.
The unvaccinated story doesn’t add up. The data clearly shows the vaccine will not stop the threat of the virus. Deaths compared to last year is not borne out by evidence. It makes no sense to require other people to get a vaccination in order for it to work. At the least, it is not a high quality vaccine.
We might ask who is responsible, and find multiple factors are involved. For one, there is a huge problem in the academic world. Scientists are required to mention the funding they receive, funding which should be closely checked as this has a great impact on results. Since at least 2004 science is in crisis, being funded by people whom it should not be funded by, leading to corrupted results, wrong conclusions, mistakes, sloppiness or fraud. The government became integrated with science, giving money to get results they want with no corrective measures, money for independent science rejected.
Infecting an Entire Population
Unfortunately, the masses have never thirsted for truth. Instead, usually based on emotions, what people do not like, they reject, making them ripe for accepting a falsehood. Anybody who attempts to show truth will become a victim.
Using a false narrative, start by driving fear into the people 24/7, making the population feel anxious and discontent. Flooding negative emotions drives the population into a state of panic and most will not question the veracity of the propaganda. People cannot exist in this hyper emotional state and they will have to seek relief.
With the hazard exaggerated, next provide the invented solution. With continual media support, people are willing to follow any strategy without fully vetting the information or the sources. It doesn’t matter if the narrative constantly streaming is incorrect or blatantly wrong, people can’t face going back to the painful state of anxiety.
Have central leaders lie to the population continually with false or inconsistent data. With coordinated media, show videos of the leaders lying because by now it doesn’t matter, the masses can’t hear data and truth, nor do they care.
Use waves of terror. Stagger periods of promoting fear with periods of calm. This makes manufactured fear come to higher and higher levels as the public doesn’t have time to pause and think rationally.
This is propaganda at its best: spread false information and promote confusion which breaks down the minds of the masses. The government and the media act as partners giving contradicting reports, information and blatant lies. As the population becomes more and more confused, they are less capable to cope with the crisis.
Now we have a population of weak and vulnerable people driven into a state of panic by threats real or imagined. The individual cannot step out of his or her mind to observe the error of their ways. As a collective, people have no point of reality to observe and inform their understanding because facts and fictions are mixed.
Along the way, silence and destroy all dissenters. Anybody who says something contrary to the narrative must be attacked and targeted as the common enemy. If you don’t agree with the story line, you are de-personed, othered (individual or groups not fitting within defined norms of a social group are promulgated with negative characteristics). The masses follow, focused only on the collateral damage of the lockdowns; looking for scapegoats, they no longer see victims as real individuals.
Unfortunately, the exaggeration and false information regarding this virus continues to be actively promoted, through propaganda and censorship of alternative opinions. In a panic, frightened, confused, not able to explain strange things that are happening, the masses can be led to a pathological way of seeing reality, and we have a mass hypnosis.
Whether this occurs intentionally or for financial gain by selling clicks, we have ended up being actively managed psychologically by some authority group that has financial benefit or power to gain from doing this. And this we call global totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
Look past socialism, communism, fascism, dictatorship, and wake up to the totalitarianism we are experiencing. Characterized by extreme political repression, widespread personality cultism around the person or the group which is in power, absolute control over the economy, and large-scale censorship with our laws circumvented due to an exaggerated crisis. Instead of laws, we now have “rules” with total centralized power and obliteration of individual human rights; pandemic rules which keep changing, erasing other established laws.
Enforcing dictates on the lives of all the people is greatly enhanced by modern technology. Never before have the means existed to manipulate a society: smart phones, social media, TV, internet, all with algorithms to quickly sensor the flow of information. With these addictive technologies, senses overloaded with stimuli, people stop taking time to reflect, stop conversing with others and questioning the world they are experiencing.
Succeeding classical dictatorship, totalitarianism rose in the beginning of 20th century, with a radically mutated ideology. Once a dictator was in power, with the opposition subdued, realizing he needed the people on his side, the dictator began to get milder. Totalitarian regimes on the other hand, deeply convinced of their ideologically right to create an artificial paradise, continue mass hypnosis, instituting their vision by force.
The purity of race sought by previous regimes has morphed into transhumanism (socio-political and intellectual movement that advocates the use of technology in order to transform the human organism radically; the ultimate goal becoming “posthuman”). Fully convinced they can change society, and that transhumanism will lead to man-made paradise, those in power rationalize control and domination of all; in their minds justifying all sacrifices, up to a large part of the population.
Attempts to transform human nature are extremely ominous, being precursors to doing away with whole segments of the population. When leaders feel they are entitled to de-person groups of people, the dissenters are portrayed as not fully human, causing disease; each representing a walking force of death, they become dispensable.
With political victims isolated, the masses fed a never ending stream of propaganda, chaos swirling, people become more vulnerable. As fear pervades, reason and common human decency recede and minds once capable of rational thought become filled with irrational fears.
Prodded by ruling authorities who enforce strict conformity and blind obedience by all citizens, society descends into pathology. People become radically intolerant for dissenting voices, but, believing it is done for their good, they accept despotic leaders and mainstream propaganda. The population deluded, now become submissive and obedient subjects.
The masses begin to crave return to a more orderly world, and leaders can now take decisive steps, offering return to a world appearing to be more sane. But this comes at a huge price. The population must give up freedom and cede all control of all aspects of life to ruling elite, losing the ability to be self-reliant and responsible for their own lives.
Eventually, absolute power results in leaders becoming morally and spiritually inferior, unreasonable, unresponsible emotionally, sinking to lower cognitive levels. The regime fails; the leaders without excuse, each responsible for their unconscious (S. Freud).
Waking People Up
Not everyone is lulled into mass hypnosis, and those who remain awake can help free others. Some believe our culture is too far entrenched, others extend hope with some suggestions as to how we can move forward.
We have to understand that about 30% of the people are so deeply entrenched they may never wake up. However, there is a group of 30-40% of people who are questioning what is happening in their world, but due to differing circumstances, they cannot speak up or join the public discourse. About 20-30% openly talk about the situation we are in.
A multi-pronged counter attack has been suggested to inspire and be a beacon of hope for our fellow citizens. The initial focus centers on restraining the phenomena from getting deeper.
First and foremost, continue to keep multiple relationships open, listening and responding in thoughtful ways, trying to understand what the person’s beliefs are. Keep in mind that people who support mainstream, even experts, are often not aware of truths and need space to share with people who will listen.
There is a concept known as “Intentional Communities,” people finding each other and connecting to support each other; promoting healing, not division. These start through work, church, telephone lists, other organizations.
Another model, labeled “Parallel Structures,” describes groups within a larger closed society, morally independent in thought, actively pursuing organization of business, technology and education. A second culture or parallel society forms spontaneously and functions as a free enclave, giving power to the powerless. As more are created, these groups are more effective change agents than political activism.
It is critical to keep open streams of information challenging the mainstream mantra. Share accurate, truthful facts that counter the propaganda on multiple platforms. Support those who are risking their reputation and careers speaking in public spaces so they don’t feel alone and other dissenters are motivated to keep disagreement continuing to be seen and heard in public.
Creativity drives society forward. Use of the arts, including music, memes and refined humor can be very effective when done in an amusing and restrained way. We are seeing this spread and need to support these courageous people. Using humor and ridicule delegitimizes the ruling elite who, thinking of themselves as demigods, are incapable of humor.
The intolerant system is always destructive, never constructive. Going along with unreasonable rules means you have less fun. Show people they are missing out on many of life’s joys. Living your family life with daily activities and celebrations demonstrates an alternative view of how life can be more attractive.
Another suggestion is to expose people to an even greater concern than the virus; loss of freedom for themselves, their children, their future. Loss of ability to find dissenting information, speak their own minds, make decisions for themselves. You are trying to break the fusion in their minds.
Understand waking up is a long term process, the masses will not wake up quickly. We have to be patient to get people beyond the hypnotic spell. Keep kindly presenting facts until the truth becomes so clear and people can see the damage that has been done, they will begin to wake up. Then we must be there to help people make connections leading to a healthier life.
In the words of Thomas Paine, “Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
The Real Solution
First, we need to ask, “How did we get in this state in which a large portion of society feels anxious, depressed, lack of sense, and socially isolated?” Large societal and psychological crises have been brewing for a long time, and unless we find solutions for the real problems, if people wake up, they will fall prey, vulnerable to being hypnotized again.
For multiple decades, the masses have been led to view human beings as machines, and that by definition makes life senseless, for what meaning is there in life if we are reduced to a little mechanism of the huge universe. You would rightly conclude life is meaningless, there is no reason to invest in real social relationships and why follow real ethical principles. There is no dignity in being an individual if you are just a forlorn part of a machine.
Seminal scientists and mathematicians have come to the conclusion that we cannot rationally see man in mechanistic terms. What then is the alternative? How do we develop morals and values? Does God exist? Are we here by design or just by chance with no agency whatsoever? How can this be a moral universe unless it was created by God?
“Personhood has no intrinsic worth apart from the personhood of God being the first cause. The intelligibility in this universe and the immense capacity of the moral law point us to a transcendent order set in place by God….The truth we seek is revealed in the personhood of Jesus Christ. In knowing Him you find truth and life.” (R. Zacharias)
So, let us live, shining lights of truth and hope. Your impact on the culture is much greater than you can imagine!
[This article results from consulting videos and information from multiple professionals including: psychologists, biologists, epidemiologists, molecular virologists and attorneys representing different nationalities, along with my understanding and thoughts, and with thanks to J. Credence’s Mother for suggesting some links piquing my interest.]
References:
https://youtu.be/09maaUaRT4M
https://youtu.be/oN8-8IxcaWo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyKYEBpQpJs
https://odysee.com/@Corona-Ausschuss:3/Mattias-Desmet—sitzung_63_converted_720p:4?fbclid=IwAR2fiHJlLc76YsYTgQD3MpAEkRpTOfTGet6_VOKcLZkhM79HLO_BIbus7ck
“Is it Worth It?” The Logic of God, (Ravi Zacharias, 2019)
[In her retirement, CJ Austin continues to read, write, publish and share insights from her professional background (marriage and family therapy) with others. Contact: cjaustinauthor@gmail.com]
Life Thoughts Today 